Darkness in the Mines

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I swear it was dawn, but as we headed back up to the castle, it grew dark once more. There is chaos in the courtyard. The prisoners that didn’t go to town came here, and took a dozen more down into the mines. Nat takes charge and sets an elder of the town to manage the citizenry. She gets the men to building tents in the continued storm and the women and children inside to the banquet hall for shelter. After checking to be sure Nat’s family is alright, we all try to get a little rest. We have to go to the mines, but not in the exhausted state we’re currently in.

After our rest, and a bit of orange juice (Remy is still obsessed with the juice’s existence), we talk about what to do. It’s decided that we’ll go to the mines through a secret entrance from the castle, instead of the front gate. We head down carefully, because the crazed crossbolter has set bear traps all down the path. Fortunately, we don’t run into him or the strange bat-man. We find a phantom hound, like Dalish’s upstairs. Gerhardt dispells it so we can get by.

We get down to the mine level, but the chamber between us and it is full of the inactive undead, stacked like cordwood. Remy starts freaking out again. You’d think he’d seen enough undead by now, but I guess some people just can’t handle the creep factor after they’ve tried to kill you repeatedly. Remy starts flying and the rest of us start climbing our way through. One twitches, Remy shoots, and then all heck breaks loose.

I grab Marybeth beside me and dimesion door us out of the room to the far side. Dalish and Gerhardt join us after only a moment. There’s a huge explosion on the other side of the door, and Remy yells at us to get Nat. It takes some doing to get the door open after he exploded all the zombies in front of it, but we managed to pull her out and get her healed back to consciousness. Just in time for Remy to get himself out before we slam the door back shut.

Back awake now, and with all of us gasping for breath, wondering what we’re doing down here, Nat shares a vision from the night before. The guy we’re after is deep in the earth. He’s been here a long time and to stop the current disaster we have to break his body. But to finish him, we have to break his mind. Oh good, riddles to go with the creepy shadow monster.

The group has a bit of a fluff up with Remy about zombies again, until said creepy shadow calls out to him, saying it can work with a fear of zombies. We call out to it in turn, asking why it’s doing this. It says it got a gift and now must destroy the Bones, as they kept him trapped here. We try to figure out who he is and how he got free, but it’s no use.

We head on, and come across a group of people, beaten and tied. We call out to them quietly, and they say that the miners check on them every half hour or so. Deciding to set a trap, we cut their ropes and send them back to wait outside the zombie room. Marybeth and I sit where they were while everyone else hides. They show up on schedule, and though the fight is rough, we put them down.

The shadow starts talking again. He asks about the mage revolution, and we tell him the mages won. He was put down here before it started. When we mention Rictus, he seems interested. We try to make a deal, don’t go after the Bones and we’ll help him get Rictus. He won’t be disuaded, though.

We head onward, freeing captives as we go, sending them back along the paths we’ve cleared , and hoping for the best. Then we come across a group of miners that are still working. Some are badly mutated, but some are only slightly affected. Nat recognizes one as Philomena’s butler, Ulysses. She approaches him carefully.

Asking what happened, he slowly, painfully replies punishment. Then asks after the family. She assures him they are safe. She asks what happpened. Bad things go bad, but not him. Remy steps up to take a look at him. The mana exposure has caused severe damage. It seems the mana has weakened them, made them easier to control for the shadow. Nat delves a little into his mind, with his permission, to try and understand. The shadow takes the weak, but he doesn’t know where they go. He keeps working so he can keep control. He says he’s been here in this mine for a year now.

We try to get him to stop working and go wait with the others, but he won’t. He doesn’t want his family to know what became of him, begs us not to tell Philomena. Remy thinks maybe Triplehorn or Klyce can figure out a way to fix the damage. Nat says it’s too late, he wants it to end. While the boys argue, Nat steps forward, and stabs him through the heart.

I… I can’t look. I… we knew him. He was innocent… Not a monster… not bad. He… I… what… No…

Prison Break

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Nat tells the strange man that there are no Tepish folk here. He insists his son is Stephen Tepish. Oh… oh dear. But Nat persists in saying that no such person exists. The man asks for the real masters of the house, and cows a servant into going to get them. I send to Stephen telling him that someone has arrived looking for him.

Then the window above the door shatters and a wild man carrying crossbows jumps through, shooting Lord Tepish repeatedly in the chest. He shouts You’ll die tonight, Demon! Lord Tepish disintigrates into a cloud of bats, most of which take off into the keep. Oh dear! We shout at the man, but he just kills Tepish’s servant dead and runs off after the bats.

Marybeth and Gerhardt give chase to the intruders. There’s noise outside, and when Klyce looks, he sees prisoners streaming out of the mines. Nat hears something upstairs and tears off to check on her family, with Dalish and Remy in tow. Klyce and I take off outside, to head off the mob from reaching the town.

The prisoners are strangely deformed. Large limbs or strange faces. Klyce rushes to the front, dodging lightning strikes from the storm. When I get close, I try controling the winds to slow them down. Forgetting, that this ends my fly spell. Dropping down among them, I go unnoticed at first. When they do see me, they swarm and attack. I managed to get to Klyce’s side as he turns into a giant screaming ape. Unfortunately, neither of us can deter many of them from the village, and there’s a mage in the crowd. He orders them to attack Klyce and they knock him unconscious. I dimension door us back towards the keep, keeping him alive, though barely. We hide for a time, until I can get us the rest of the way back.

When we get back, everyone is gathering up in Nat’s parents’ room. Some of the prisoners had snuck in and attacked Nat’s family in their bedrooms. Her father does not look well at all. Dalish puts up a protective barrier and summons a watchdog while we wait for Marybeth and Gerhardt to get back.

When they arrive, they say they chased the intruders to a dead end. We explain the prison break from the mines. Then, we explain Lord Tepish’s arrival and his pursuer to Nat’s parents. They know Tepish from the old world, but insist he is not Stephen’s father. Nat gets very angry at his mom for withholding information that has now put them all, and their village, in danger. Marybeth tries scrying on Stephen, but sees only darkness. Nat storms off and we all follow. Dalish has to transfer his protection spells to Mummy Dalish before he can leave, but it works.

Klyce convinces Nat that the village is in more danger than Stephen is, and we head down to deal with the mob of prisoners. We explain about the mage, and Nat wonders if it’s the master the prisoners they killed spoke of. Down in the village, it is total chaos. Fire, looting, violence on every corner. We start picking off small groups as we head for the center of town. Klyce deems their deformities as already lost, and therefore killable.

In the center of town, four big mutated men walk out of the townhall as we arrive. We engage, and I start calling down lightning of my own from the storm. A well-aimed firey explosion takes me down. And all the hair I had finally managed to regrow properly!

The group manages to take the four men and the shadowy thing down, or so it seems when they wake me up in the aftermath. We spend the rest of the night clearing the town of mutated prisoners and putting out fires. By dawn, the town is safe again, if ruined. I idly wonder if the seamstress survived as we head back up to the keep.

Harvest Time is Here Again

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I met up with Dalish on my way north. We headed up to Nat’s house together, on a much more peaceful journey that the first time. Dalish, however, is looking like a dead husk, almost as bad as his mummy counterpart. He says he’s nearly finished with his plan. I’m just happy to be out of Atlantic City for a few weeks.

When we arrive, Nat greets us with skull-tattoo-covered arms. She explains that they are for battles she has fought and that she has marks on her back for deaths she has caused by the thousands. She seems both proud and depressed by all of this, and has marked herself in their memory.

We head inside for some dinner, and Dalish strikes up conversation about the mines. They cannot control the undead without Skull Grandpa, so they’ve had to resort to prison labor. Nat’s dad is not happy with this situation, and hopes that between Stephen, Nat, and Dalish, something can be done.

Gerhardt and Klyce arrive the next day. Klyce in the form of an eagle, and in a great big coat when he transforms back. They’ve both seen a lot of battle out west, but Gerhardt seems even more quiet than usual. Remy, Philomena, and Marybeth all ride up together from New Gnosis and they all look quite well. Marybeth has an ease to her that I’ve never seen, and Remy has filled out into his body a bit more naturally.

His eye, however, is glowing a dull orange. He fashioned himself a new eye and wanted to add some magic to it. It seems that some of the power he siphoned of Balor seeped into it. It beats ever so slightly. I warn him against it trying to grow a new god in his head, but he seems unworried.

We all have a conversation about how to keep Rictus from using me, but none of the solutions seem workable. Marybeth wants to put a geas on me, but that doesn’t last long enough, and it’s not my will doing the killing. We have to change the laws to stop him. And that’s going to take a while.

At dinner, conversation returns to the mines and the horrible conditions and resources required to keep prisoners alive an working. Dalish, Stephen, and Nat promise to start work immediately after dinner.

Talk turns to Dalish’s ‘solution’ for his crippling depression, and Remy pleads with him to find another way. Nat and Marybeth chat about Nat’s tattoos and Marybeth’s found peace and happiness. Marybeth found out west that she is fully capable of handling herself and staying alive without others looking after her.

Someone mentions Xin Yue towards the end of the night, and on my way to bed, I send her a message, asking how things are going. She tells me her clan has been destroyed, and there is no stopping the golden horde. This is awful, and lends itself to some pretty horrific nightmares.

The next day, after a morning run with the boys, I fill everyone in on what Xin Yue said. There’s nothing to be done about it from here, but I did offer her a place to stay when our military service is over. Marybeth, Remy, and I go find a seamstress in the village. Marybeth has some beautiful dresses, and I’m still stuck with military wear. With her help, we design a couple new dresses for me to wear to the Harvest Festival.

That night, a storm comes in with dinner. I so badly want to go out and stand in the rain and wind and lightning. The unbridled power of it calls to me. But, I stay at the table and eat and drink with my friends. Until a crash of thunder turns into knocking at the front door. A servant comes to get Nat because her parents have already gone to bed, so she’s in charge.

I follow Nat down to see who it is, and the others trail behind. Two figures are standing in the doorway. A hunched over figure with a hideous face, dripping water all over the floor, and a finely dressed older man who is completely dry.

“Good evening. I am Vlad Tepish, and I am here to see my son.”

Hard Times and Assassination

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Hardin Klein explains that his mission is to figure out how to use mana without having to dig it up and refine it. The cost of doing so is growing too great. He asked them to find someone like Xin Yue for him to study, and the picked me. I’m furious, but there’s nothing to be done about it. He’s not planning any of the ridiculous experiments his underlings had been doing.

I try to explain my magic to him, but since most of it suddenly appeared one day, I don’t think it will help any.

Some comes from the earth, like Xin Yue. Some comes from the old goddess, the Dawnmother. Some may come from the evil eye of the dead fae god, Balor, but I haven’t tested that yet. The rest… Well, a hag in the woods said it came from murder, but I didn’t kill anyone when I got my magic. Honestly. I think she was referring to the Old War.

Poor Mr. Klein spent hours asking me questions and I spent hours explaining that I had no clue how I did it. I showed him what I could do, and talked about how I made the elements do what I wanted. I told him all about the Dawnmother and my prayers to her. I even explained Balor and the horrible, awesome power as we destroyed his eye. This went on for months.

Then, one morning, I woke up and something was wrong. Mr Klein hadn’t seen me for several days, and I had no memory of that time. He looked into my head and noticed my memory had been modified. I begged him to fix it and he did, though it took some doing.

Rictus had taken me away from the facility. He made me do things. But it wasn’t me! I didn’t have control! I can see in my memory, watching my body kill people. It’s foggy, but I think there were six of them over those days. Then he wiped my memory!

I think I had a bit of a screaming fit after I realized what happened. Some of it in Sendings to Dalish, some to my other friends. I’m not sure I was coherent at all, but they all agreed it was horrible. Klyce, as usual, was the most reasonable of the group.

He suggested I tell people about what was happening. Put pressure on Rictus to get him to stop wiping my mind at least. I wouldn’t be able to stop being his instrument of death, but at maybe he would stop messing with my head.

Mr. Klein looked terrified at the idea of going against Rictus. Aleria replied to my plea saying that Primes are above the law, and short of a Certimum, there’s nothing to be done. I asked Dalish to ask Rictus if he would meet with me, and if not, would he at least stop wiping my mind, I’d do what he wanted. Dalish passed the message along, then told me Rictus said it was better if I didn’t know what my body was being used for! That just made it ten times worse!

Next, Klyce suggested I try and gather political power to put pressure on Rictus. I asked Dalish if his party could do anything, and he apparently caused a scene at a meeting. One of the members did come talk to me, though. He said that I needed to get more political allies, and change the law which put Primes out of legal danger. He also talked to people on my behalf so I wasn’t stuck inside the facility all day every day. I got to go into the city on weekends.

It happened again. I lost a few days again. Mr. Klein wouldn’t help this time. He didn’t seem to understand what I was asking. I think Rictus might have broken his mind a little bit, too. I sent to Remy, asking if his party could help. They want to limit magical use and abuse. He got a representative to come talk to me. He insisted I join their party if I wanted their support, it would help with lobbying the other parties if I was a member and not just an independant. So, I agreed and the following weekend, I signed up with the Magical Regulation League.

But nothing happened. No one could figure out who it was I had killed even. I was still stuck trying to explain my magic to Mr. Klein. He continued to grow more and more despondant as it lead him nowhere. I didn’t lose any more days, though, before it was time for our Harvest Festival shore leave. I was so grateful when the day finally arrived.

Mr. Klein

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My first full day in Atlantic City didn’t go terribly well. They had brought me to a small room in the basement, for my bedroom when I arrived. The next morning they took me to meet with Dr. Hardin Klein!

“Young miss, I am sorry that we have been reunited under such awkward circumstances.  I have been here, paying penance for my sins. The Primes have chosen to punish me by keeping me confined here, but in truth this is where I belong.  I must do whatever I can to make up for what I and my team did.

“All this war, murdering innocents by the thousands… All for mana.  If I can prove my theories are correct, and find a way to access mana without refining or moving it, then all this territory grabbing will be unnecessary.  We’ll have all the power we need, already in our grasp.

“Will you help me, Tristia?  Will you help me save this country from itself?”

I’m ashamed to admit, I kind of lost it then. I stared at him for a long time. Emotions raging through my brain and across my face. Fear, anger, relief, hope among the top ones vying for control. It took longer than I liked to find my voice. Everything was still spinning, but I had to try.

“You… Wha…?” I tried again. “You want me to help you? After everything that happened?” I know it wasn’t his fault, but it was his lab! I press on. “T..tell me what you’ve been doing down here. I want to stop the war, stop the genocide of Fae and Natives. We agree on that. Did you help make those Machines?  Was that you? Now you want something safer? Because people died?” I couldn’t stop. It probably wasn’t him, that’s not what he said. “What are you doing here? Why am I here? Why did they take my friends away?” I stop, I’m shaking again, like a child. Close my eyes and shut down for a moment, breathing. “What do you want from me?” I barely manage to whisper. 

“Yes, I know what happened.  The machine, it was designed based on some other mage’s work, a man named Garion.  I wasn’t involved in that, though that project seemed miraculous.  Recovering mana from summoned creations, that was rather ingenious, I still don’t know why that project was recently shuttered.  But no, my research is a different animal.  I don’t know what’s happened to you and your friends, but I want to help.  I know I have sins to atone for, that’s why I’m asking for your help, so that I have a better chance.  I am sorry for all that I’ve done, wittingly or not.”

“I don’t know why you’ve been sent here, Tristia.  Please understand that I did not request you to be sent here, not specifically.” He seems genuinely sorry, but I can’t believe it.

“Those machines were awful! Those creatures being murdered inside them were Sentient Beings! By the Hundreds if not Thousands. Summoned from their homes and slaughtered for their Mana. Garion was a horrible monster who tried to do the same thing to me!” I’m yelling now, furious, and he’s the only person to yell at. I shouldn’t yell at people, it’s not proper. It wasn’t his fault, but I was still scared.

Breathing. Calm. 

“They stopped using them because they all exploded at once, killing hundreds of soldiers who were near them.” I looked at him to see how he’s receiving all of this. “They sent me here because I don’t drink Mana like everyone else does. Like Xin Yue.” 

Calm, I have to stay calm. Angering him will not help my chances, but I wanted him to understand. 

“What are you working on, Mr. Klein? How do you want to use Mana? How can I help?” 

So, he told me, and I tried to listen with an open mind.