Adventure 6

**Previous: Adventure 5**

The party travels to Ber in effort to find and recruit Hoya's wayward ex-guardian Tinker Oddcog. Gatria faces a lot of people she wishes she didn't have to see again.

## Welcome to Ber!

### Session 0

Post-adventure 5 wrap-up: Cleone takes in Alexander’s remaining children and tells Delft that the Obscurati wants to recruit her again to her extreme dread. She also takes a vacation back home to Danor, homesick after the king’s ultimatum, but can’t escape talk of the Colossus. Mona questions Catherine and her familiar Kelland, but doesn’t get much out of her. Gatria questions both Gideon and Hoya about his appearance at the Kell fight, pursues Pemberton’s trail only to find he’s left for Ber, and discovers that information about Harkover is extremely classified. Hoya visits Vihan in prison to yell at him for making Mona upset.

Mona asks the stars when the world will end, as per Vihan’s request, and sees that an eternal winter is coming. She visits him again.

> **Mona:** Now tell me where Leo is.
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> **Vihan:** Choose your words wisely, because our time together is short. Leo is with our leader, Grandis Komanov. He has become her right-hand man since his inception into the eschatologist cult.
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> **Mona:** My time is shorter than *that*, so I am going to spend it better than *that*.
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> **Vihan:** Then I guess you should live your life to the fullest. Don’t hold anything back.
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> **Mona:** I PLAN ON IT! *(slams the door and leaves)*
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Hoya is shocked to see the article about Tinker. He’s not really a warmongering type, but he WOULD make stuff while war happened so…uh-oh. Thankfully our job is to retrieve Tinker and not to kill him.

### Session 1

We brief with Price-Hill and Harkover, the latter of whom got trolled by Tinker when he attempted contact via Sending. They advise us to get to Tinker through Bruse Shantus and to talk to Melissa Amarie, the article’s author, and have arranged for us to meet Brakken of Heffanita upon arrival in Ber. DO NOT START ANY WARS.

Upon said arrival…lots of protestors, but Brakken’s not here. Hoya befriends a protestor, who tells us Brakken got dragged off. Turns out he’s on trial for abuse of power because of accusations from protestors, with presiding judge Glaucia Evora. Gatria knows this lady: Glaucia was the one who oversaw her case when she got out of the cult and sentenced her to study at the martial science academy. Since Gatria ditched said academy, she’d be in huge trouble if not for the diplomatic immunity knighthood affords.

Glaucia calls us to trial to serve as character witnesses for Brakken. Two drunk protestors have accused him of mind control due to his empathy powers, but something is HIGHLY suspicious.

> **Gatria:** I met Ambassador Brakken at the peace summit and he was to play the role of mediator. For those of you not aware, there’s four wars’ worth of history so mediating isn’t exactly an easy job. He always levelled out the conversation, VERBALLY, whenever things started to get out of hand. If you ask me, he’s just good at the job.
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> **Glaucia:** Witness, is it your opinion that he is good at his job independent of his magic abilities?
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> **Gatria:** I have yet to see anyone else handle a table full of two different countries’ military officials, leaders, and nobility  and keep them peaceful throughout several courses.
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Glaucia also fishes for information about the visiting Danoran contingent when questioning Cleone, though she’s too baffled to volunteer information. We vouch for Brakken and point out several flaws in the story, but never quite clear him completely and he gets a light beating. “Welcome to Ber!” says Gatria.

### Session 2

The two drunk guys are pretty sus, so Hoya asks her protestor friend to check out their trial in exchange for buying them some chips. They were put up to getting Brakken in trouble, as it turns out, and Glaucia punishes them appropriately.

Glaucia asks to accompany us to the Summer Court to see the Bruse, which is maybe slightly awkward given Brakken is coming too. She also pulls Mona aside to ask about skyseer prophecies, and asks her for a prophecy about whether Glaucia will get her revenge against the Steel Lord.

We visit the journalist Melissa Amarie, who agrees to answer questions about Tinker in exchange for our own answers about ourselves. She proceeds to informally interview everyone, and wants to recruit us to speak at a panoplist rally.

> **Melissa:** Does your empathy for the common people extend beyond the people of Risur or Danor?
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> **Cleone:** Are you asking for our help in Ber?
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> **Melissa:** Yes, that’s the point of this entire conversation. I know many of the panoplists organizing these protests and they’d be interested in foreign speakers talking about their own countries.
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> **Hoya:** You really think WE would be good speakers??
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> *(Gatria points to Mona, cowering in her seat)*
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> **Gatria:** Look Melissa, up until two months ago we *were* the common people. This isn’t exactly the field we trained for.
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Melissa genuinely wants to speak out against corruption, and the Bruse is not a good king. Petitioner rate is so slow the line extends to other towns, and he has people entertain him via the Rites of Adulthood to fast-track their way up. We’re going to end up doing this, huh.

Cue sounds of people mobilizing. Seems like there’s a hit squad, and we move to protect Melissa.

### Session 3

The hit squad isn’t a very good one, led by a guy named Rush Munchausen who did not do his research well. Players proceed to roast Rush OOC. (“They put elf ears on Superboy.”) Our efforts do manage to impress Melissa and convince her we mean well, so she trusts us with more information about the Danorans’ pursuit of Tinker and asks us if she can report on us. We agree.

We head on our way to the Summer Court. Gatria brings up Pardo to Glaucia, and Glaucia mentions that he’s the current Minister of Rebellion. They talk about Pemberton and his role in everything. Glaucia asks Mona about a skyseer vision again, because she wants to see if fate can be defied: if she gets her revenge then cool, if not then she has proof that free will exists.

> **Mona:** What do you mean by proving the prophecies wrong?
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> **Glaucia:** I will do whatever I possibly can to be sure that the vision you receive does not come true.
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> **Mona:** Depending on how the vision goes and how you defy it, who would you tell? Who would hear about it?
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> **Glaucia:** Well, I must admit that whether or not free will exists because prophecies happen is not really a pressing issue of the revolution. If it’s between my secrecy and not receiving the vision, I will keep that vision to myself. It pleases ME to know.
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Our carriage ride is interrupted by several things happening at once. There’s a pit trap ahead, some T-rexes show up amidst a stampede of fleeing goats, and there’s a dude with a tuning fork who probably isn’t gonna be our friend.

Mona’s vision for Glaucia, forward-dated: A young girl with two prosthetic steel limbs is hanging out and reading a book in a classroom. Glaucia approaches from behind and slits her throat.

### Session 4

We get control of our panicking horses and run the hell away from the action, reaching the Summer Court that night. The next morning Mona tells Glaucia about her skyseer vision. Lya is here, accompanied by Rush and tuning fork guy (Merton).

The king agrees to see us if we do the first trial of the day, so it’s time for a maze. Mona, Cleone, and Marcel fumble around and fall into water pits while Gatria and Hoya complete the maze in record time - turning left at every opportunity always works, and Gatria uses the Icon of Apet to teleport past a familiar-looking mechanical bear across the exit. Woohoo!

## How Many Levels of Subquest Can We Achieve?

### Session 5

We meet Bruse Shantus, encountering Pardo in the process. Hoya can see something is wrong with Pardo’s soul, smearing towards the south, and she Does Not Like It. The Bruse, seeing two different groups who want access to Tinker, decides to pit them together in a game. It’ll involve completing two challenges - completion of half a railway and some way of bringing Cavallo de Guerra under the Bruse’s control, through favor or by manipulation - and winning the favor of him and his two advisors, Kenna Vigilante and Zarkava Ssa'litt. Neither the party nor the Danorans like this, but the Bruse won’t be swayed. Hey, does Tinker get any say in where he goes? Hoya gets no response.

We proceed to mingle. Lya is familiar with Marcel and Mona from Adventure 1, and actually created the exchange program that got Cleone into the RHC. Kenna is jazzed to popcorn this game, while Zarkava thinks it makes the entire country look like a joke. Pardo is rude to Hoya and threatens Gatria. Mona talks planes with the Bruse. We also hang with Brakken, who mentions that he can’t read Pardo’s mind anymore. Ominous!

### Session 5.5

Lya comes to see us, and requests a private talk without Brakken. She wants to speak frankly with us, as the Obscurati’s secrecy and subterfuge supposedly aren’t her preferred style. We discuss Borne and his purpose, as well as what Lya knows about the Ob’s goals. She genuinely believes that the Obscurati’s goals will bring “absolute peace” and are for the betterment of Danor, and that their methods will reduce long-term casualties compared to war.

Lya asks Cleone in particular about her values. Cleone found a place to belong in Danor that she didn’t in Crisillyir, and wants to improve life for all of Danor as her way of giving back.

> **Lya:** Are you motivated by altruism?
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> **Cleone:** You could say that.
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> **Lya:** Is every sentient creature in Lanjyir capable of altruism, or are you unique?
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> **Cleone:** I think they’re capable, whether they choose to act on it or not.
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> **Lya:** I agree. What if you woke up tomorrow and the world was just as altruistic as you?
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Lya mentions that the current state of our world isn’t how it always was, and that the Obscurati is simply making its own decisions on how the world ought to be. She’ll offer to arrange us a meeting with Nicodemus to talk more if we forfeit the game and let her have Tinker, but she refuses any outcome that doesn’t end in her getting Tinker. Frustrated, the party declines, and Hoya rants about people not allowing Tinker to make his own decisions.

### Session 6

The game begins. Gatria goes jogging with Kenna, who asks her what Risur can offer compared to Danor’s offer of warships. (We have access to a lot less than Lya does…) Gatria suggests ways of boosting the economy, which benefits Ber in other ways. Kenna also shows her how to dodge bullets! “It’s so much easier learning from someone with a tail.”

The first challenge we tackle is the railways. Our half is headed by Surtan Liss, who’s a well-hated cheapskate. Cleone, who has experience with the Danoran railroads, is offended by the poor quality/safety of the work so far and ruffles his feathers mightily. Gatria smoothes them over, Beran to Beran and business owner to business owner, and convinces him to start investing more in both his workers and his product.

There’s also a bunch of golems in town, fitted to look like they run on steam power but actually running on witch oil. Turns out they’re Pemberton’s, and he’s here to try and sell them to Liss for an exorbitant price. Liss can either afford our plan or Pemberton’s but not both, and Gatria convinces him to pick ours. Pemberton considers going to the Grientos, who are coincidentally the railroad company for the Danoran side, for his next pitch; Hoya tries to sway him elsewhere. Gatria makes an allusion to the Cult of the Steel Lord as a test, and gets a reaction out of Pemberton. Very promising!

### Session 7

With a plan for the railroad in progress, we head to Citadel de Cavallo. We struggle a bit with orc etiquette before Gatria and Hoya cotton on, and Cavallo’s adviser Alonsa Frolian gives us tips on how to go about diplomacy with Cavallo.

There’s word of an epidemic at the citadel, Cavallo’s grandson among the sick, and Hoya’s brought her healer friend Louisa from Flint to help - but it’s not good to open with that, because it’ll make Cavallo look weak and that’s the opposite of good diplomacy. Instead Mona wildshapes into a (feathery!!!) dinosaur to fight a dire bear to make an impression. With that Cavallo is willing to hear us out, and will declare allegiance to the Bruse if we do several tasks for him. (How many levels of subquests can we fit in one adventure? So many.)

There’s also a letter from a doctor kidnapped by goblins to take care of an epidemic, which could be another matter to take care of…

### Session 8

Mona hangs out with Lya, ensuring she can’t interfere with the party while they go investigate the epidemic. We follow the trail through people who have fallen sick and their families, and suspect that it has something to do with some hot springs. Thanks to Louisa we start getting people treated and drinking medieval Gatorade to help speed recovery, and eventually figure out the source - Cavallo digging for dragon hoards in the wrong places brought fantasy cholera to the hot springs. Gatria weaponizes Cavallo’s pride and gets him to close it, and things start to turn around.

Gatria spies something hidden in Lya’s clothes, and files that information away for later.

Marcel babysits Lya the next day as the party heads down a valley to deal with an insect plague sent by a local goblin tribe, who want the land Cavallo stole from them. Also, the doctor they’ve kidnapped is none other than Wolfgang von Recklinghausen!

### Session 9

The goblins are willing to let us take Wolfgang down to help cure the epidemic at the citadel with a vaccine and work something out with Cavallo, Cleone staying behind both as collateral and to help them figure out how to design tools to help utilize the local giant insects for farming. Wolfgang is not taking questions about Andrei von Recklinghausen, despite several attempts.

Hoya asks him about the vaccine and Wolfgang starts to explain the theory, and they talk medical science/philosophy for a while. Gatria brings up necromancy, and Wolfgang mentions that NECROMANCY IS NOT SCIENCE AND HE IS DEFINITELY NOT A NECROMANCER, BRAIN DEATH IS A THING AND DEAD IS DEAD. Odds Wolfgang is a necromancer are shooting up.

We get back and Lya is like YES, PLEASE, TAKE MARCEL AWAY. Oh, this is Wolfgang von Recklinghausen? I know an Andrei von Recklinghausen… :) :) :) We team up with Lya to make Wolfgang uncomfortable re: Andrei and then Marcel goes invisible while Gatria and Hoya distract Lya to pickpocket her. (Sure is good Cleone is back with the goblins, because she would extremely object to all of this!) It’s a metal syringe with a golden liquid inside, which smells like Nem...uh. Upon her later return, Cleone will remember this as something Alastor once used: he could inject random people with it to report to his higher-ups…possibly Nicodemus?

We warn Wolfgang away from Lya and her people, given that they’re part of the people responsible for Nilassa’s murder. Wolfgang says fine, he’ll listen if we stop asking about Andrei. We point out why that’s a stupid idea and OKAY, ANDREI IS AN ABOMINATION FROM THE MALICE LANDS OKAY, HE SET FIRE TO MY HOUSE AND KILLED MY WIFE. So…definitely necromancy, definitely Frankenstein.

After one more task (arranging things so that She Who Writhes will allow ships with Cavallo’s crest) Cavallo is willing to hear us out, pay his dues to the Bruse, and declare loyalty. This completes our goal for this challenge in the game.

We return to the railroad, where things are progressing smoothly until one night Mona sees Rush Munchausen riding on horseback…

### Session 10

So it turns out Rush killed the leader of a tribe of undead lizardfolk who worship the dragon Cheshimox, and they’re gearing up to attack the nearest living settlement (ours). We point them in Rush’s direction instead…and in the process unleash them on the opposing Griento camp. Oops.

The workers’ rally Melissa told us about happens while the railroad work continues. Gatria and Marcel both give speeches, and Gatria’s speech (“blood is worth more than copper”) impresses the people so much they start painting a mural of her.

Thanks to Cleone’s expertise, Liss’ investments, and the accidental sabotage of the Griento camp via undead lizardfolk, our side of the railroad finishes first. The game concludes after the Griento side finishes, and the next day will see the final votes. The day of, Gatria wakes up with a brand new dream familiar!

> **Gatria:** WHAT?
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> **Hoya:** Maybe she wants a name?
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> **Cat:** *You know my name, I’m waiting for you to call me by it.*
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> **Gatria:** I don’t know your name.
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> **Cat:** *You’ve known my name since the day you were born.*
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> (Gatria starts ignoring her and going about her business. The cat follows, maintaining eye contact.)
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> **Cat, following:** *My name is Lucita.*
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> **Gatria:** Was that so hard?
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Because Risur won both challenges, we win the game if any of the Bruse, Kenna, and Zarkava vote for us. Kenna, who’s been acting uncharacteristically all day, votes Danor; Zarkava gives her vote to Glaucia, who votes Risur after giving a Concerned Mom look to a stressed-out Hoya. That means Risur wins, and we exchange polite formalities with Lya before going to see Tinker.
Tinker, unfortunately, is acting strangely. His soul is also smeared southward, like Pardo!

> **Tinker, to Hoya:** Oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. A-are you coming to take me away, then?
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> **Hoya:** We were going to ask if you want to come with us.
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> **Tinker:** *(Looking distressed)* Oh dear. It wasn’t supposed to be your team. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to go with Fijit.
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> **Mona:** What was supposed to happen?
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Tinker continues to be distressed but evasive, and eventually begins to cry witch oil. “I’m sorry, Fijit. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t think it would be you.” His demeanor shifts suddenly, and someone else begins talking through Tinker’s body…

## Isla dola Focas, As Threatened

### Session 11

Tinker, or whoever’s controlling him, pulls out a bomb but Gatria manages to cut the wick and neutralize it. Cleone identifies Tinker as something part-gnome, part-machine now. Xambria forcibly takes over Hoya after an extended heated mental argument.

On the balcony outside we find Kenna trying to kill Bruse Shantus and the guards advance to attack us. Lya and her crew arrive as our reinforcements, and a fight begins. Pardo arrives, trying to block our exit with his own reinforcements from the Cult of the Steel Lord.

> **Gatria:** Pardo, you rust-eating son of a bitch!
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> **Pardo:** This is what happens to traitors.
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Thankfully Lya is a terrifying ally and Cleone’s in her element fighting mechanical constructs; Lya crits and tears a hole in Kenna’s mechanical body, and Cleone does her best Luke-firing-on-the-Death-Star impression to strike a direct hit on the core inside. Kenna’s image disappears, leaving behind a featureless doll.

We get the Bruse to safety and strike a truce with Lya until all of this is taken care of. Next step is to mobilize at the capital.

### Session 12

Tinker is unresponsive at this point, so Cleone investigates his mechanical body and finds a chamber containing a witch oil battery and (as Hoya verifies) a tiny piece of Tinker’s soul - this is what gives the body a shape like the person it’s imitating. The piece of Tinker’s soul is limited, essentially mischievous thoughts about pulling a prank on an Ob leader that will coincidentally kill them in the process. Danor was supposed to have won the challenge, and Tinker would have bombed Lya and her team.

In the following week, the party and Lya socialize to feel each other out. Lya spars with Marcel while Gatria observes, in a sort of mutual martial scientist intel-gathering dance. Cleone, still fearful of her existence getting out to Nicodemus, tries to give Lya a strictly business report on her findings from Tinker’s body, and unfortunately gets invited to a lunch she’s too polite to refuse. Mona argues with Lya about the Obscurati and ideology, trying and failing to convince her to switch sides. Lya trolls various people on the syringe she knows they stole.

> **Lya:** Well, my cousin would say that visions are what skyseers are able to see on the arc of Reida….if we were really to live in a free world, wouldn’t we want to get rid of that ability? Would you prefer having a predetermined future and never knowing what’s coming?
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> **Mona:** Never knowing.
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> **Lya:** Me too. I really believe that if you join the Obscurati you might find what you are looking for.
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> **Mona:** And what if I don’t like what I see? Can I leave?
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> **Lya:** Both of us know the answer to that. I will mention to you that we are not a tyrannical organization where dissenting thoughts are not approved of. The only thing we dislike is if members disappear without a trace.
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> **Mona:** So you understand Lya why we are in a difficult place, why it’s difficult to trust in such a cloak and dagger organization.
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> **Lya:** I suppose it’s understandable.
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Eventually a briefing occurs regarding the plan to move against the cult. Both the Risuri and Danoran groups will be sent in to the volcano at Isla dola Focas to free the hostages there. Gatria, who has been left out of the planning tables for unwise reasons, points out that they’re working on old intel and the cult will have changed in comparison. She is promptly ignored.

Mona gets a vision about Avilona and the fall of Draco.

Once we arrive at Isla dola Focas: surprise! Gatria was right, this is more modern than expected…

### Session 13

We fight our welcoming party. Gatria and Lucita intercept the messenger sent before anyone can still kill hostages. Mad Monkeys steal a dude’s bow and beat him up with it. Everyone without darkvision has a bad time when someone shuts off the lights. Lya continues to be terrifying and crits twice in one round. Cleone has archery duels with the dozen archers positioned in the room, probably foretelling early Splatoon 3 lobbies. There was a lever/room operation puzzle we were probably supposed to do in the middle of the combat, but we just did the combat first and the puzzle later.

### Session 14

More combat! After taking down some gnoll civilians trying to kill us (unfortunately, yikes) we run into Gatria’s old “buddy” Rayasco with bonus hidden Pardo. We take down Rayasco, who threatens Gatria: “I will turn you into a duplicant and make you kill everyone you love.” Pardo too, but he’s another of said duplicants. Rayasco turns out to be guarding the hostages, and we free them.

Gatria will ask Kenna if she felt pain while we attacked her, and yes she did. Gatria gets An Idea and prepares to light Pardo’s witch-oil battery on fire and throw it down a hatch, but in the process encounters…Tinker, melded with a minecart. UHHHHH. Please get in, he says, and don’t ask questions or else my employer will mind-control me.

Eventually we all get into the Tinker-minecart, Lya and her people included. Gatria throws the Molotov Pardo into a giant meat grinder on the way.

### Session 15

Tinker-cart takes us through the worst amusement park ride ever. Benedict Pemberton is the Steel Lord Gradiax, and he’s got a whole army of duplicants. He knows Gatria and the Family have been digging around and wants to offer us a deal: kill Lya and ally with him against the Ob, and/or he’ll give us Tinker in exchange for killing Bruse Shantus. We not-so-respectfully decline.

> **Gatria:** You think little fleas would do the reasonable thing and align with the Steel Lord? Eat rust, you son of a bitch.
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The ride comes to a stop further inside the volcano, in an area full of lava with occasional platforms/scaffolding. There’s a baby red dragon here with two mechanical limbs. Tinker-cart deactivates because of course he was another duplicant, but another Tinker is here in a giant steamsuit. (Cleone: “I have GOT to get me one of those.”)

Hoya Shatters the scaffolding steamsuit-Tinker is on causing him to fall, and the party manages to take down the baby dragon. Pemberton comes out then, holding a knife to the real Tinker’s throat. Let his daughter go, or else.

Ah.

> **Gatria:** What makes you think you have the RIGHT to tell someone to get away from your child?
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> **Pemberton:** This isn’t about right or wrong, this is about I have a fucking knife to Oddcog’s throat.
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> **Gatria:** Yeah, well, so do I!
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Gatria throws a dagger at the baby dragon, and watches as she dies. Pemberton goes cold: “My revenge will not be swift, but it will be absolute.” He slits Tinker’s throat, but thankfully Hoya is able to reach him in time to save his life.

We thought this was the end? Nope: Lya is here to kill Tinker, actually, and now that the terms of our truce are complete she won’t leave until the gnome is dead. We will fight like men.

### Session 16

TIME TO FIGHT, LYA AND COMPANY EDITION. Mona wildshapes and flies Tinker up to a safe hiding spot. Cleone freezes up, fearing the consequences of attacking one of her own country’s leaders, and settles for playing support as best as she can. Hoya, Gatria, and Marcel do the work of taking Lya down, though Gatria is in poor condition by the end.

Gatria alone in the party is in favor of killing Lya up until Lya asks for death, because she’s failed and there is no escape from the Obscurati. Gatria then takes Lya’s chainsaw-rapier and cuts off her ring hand to make a point. The party offers to help Lya hide from the Obscurati, but she won’t have it.

Tinker’s fate is also up in the air. The Ob clearly wants him dead; there’s supposed to be a safe place in Risur, as per Harkover, but can we really trust that the leadership won’t change their minds? The option of letting Tinker go free is also dubious, given that his track record includes Borne and Gradiax’s duplicants. Focusing on inventions and not the greater world is, in fact, a flaw!

> **Tinker:** I’d never lie to you, and you’d never lie to me!
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> **Hoya:** They said you’ll be totally free in Risur, but what if what THEY told me was a lie?
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> **Tinker:** Oh, that’s not a lie! That’s a mistake, that’s okay! Everyone makes mistakes. :) You can’t make good science without making mistakes!
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> *(Hoya only cries harder)*
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After a little while Hoya notices that Tinker keeps putting his hand in his pocket when talking about how good he is at technology. What do you have there, Tinker? Tinker almost lies, but realizes he can’t/shouldn’t lie to Hoya - but also, she might get mad? It’s an orb called the Godmind Urn and it makes him a god of technology so he never has bad days when creating things.

Well, the party argues, maybe you need bad days to think and consider the ramifications of what you’re doing. And besides, if you’re good shouldn’t you be able to produce results without a magic urn? Tinker eventually agrees to let us throw it into the lava, though he can’t bear to do it himself. Hoya’s the one to throw it in: “Sorry urn, sometimes you need an off day.” And Tinker sighs, because finally he has quiet.

### Session 17

Aftermath. Tinker’s got blueprints and concepts for various inventions we can ask him to work on later, and he really wants to work on a flying machine. We find the Tyrant’s Eye in the volcano and chuck that into the lava too. Then we take Lya into custody and fashion a makeshift cart to carry Terakalir’s corpse out. (Gatria also steals some scales to make into a trophy.)

We get some more information from Tinker about Borne, including the exact specifications he needed to be able to perform for unknown goals. Tinker also mentions that Alexander (Sasha) contacted him via Sending from…Drakr? What?

Back in Seobriga things are real tense once we cart back a freshly dead, recently living dragon. Bruse Shantus mentions he can use this to unite the country, and Gatria goes off on him. Things might be 200 years too late, given Gradiax, and by the way did we mention Gradiax actively wanted to assassinate him? “Also, SEE YOUR PETITIONERS, HOLY SHIT. GOD, YOU ARE SUCH A SHITTY KING.” The Bruse does eventually name Corta Nariz, Cavallo’s daughter, as his heir and prepares for other business.

We return to Risur with Tinker and Lya in tow. That’s Big, but also Lya did try to kill us and she admits to initiating the conflict. Lya’s engagement to the king is officially canceled, but Danor and Risur have other ways of working towards peace (to the relief of Cleone, who was willing to beg for said peace).

We fill in Price-Hill and Harkover on the Gradiax situation, and Harkover reacts subtly. Suspicious, dude. Gatria also tells Morgan, particularly the part where Gradiax has a death curse on her and everyone she loves. Morgan figures that this situation calls for backup from international support (read: we now have favor with the Clergy through the Family).

**Next: Adventure 7**