Smoke and Mirrors
Mood:  cheeky
Loose Ends

Alexes commissions are not yet ready and she set of to try to fix that

We found out why Mladich is not trusted
Apparently a Vampire lord on Earth use time magic to pull a load of people form the past
To fight for him in war
When the lord died most just disappeared Mladich was one who did not
No one quite trusts why and he was on the other side in this war

The Potion the Elves on earth were drinking turned out just to be Water
Apparently it loses its charge 10 times slower than people do
120 hours worth so the eleves had to drink it after 12 hours

Leigion has started killing Rangers he claims it is in self defence
But it will not go down well with Ebon when she gets back
She has already demanded rangers be involved in the smoke order operation
And she personally will be involved
Sirus is not going to allow that

Gen has asked Prince Assad to ask if any of the Liskillian Nobles have any Draconic books
The Liskillians Burned Utopia to the ground (the dragon city not the earth one)
Gen is hoping some Ilthan care books survived the sacking
Assad said that this was a far bigger favour than Gen realized
But he would go and have a look




Titan Festival

Having helped Saviks apprentice with a few jobs allowing him to finish the crystal sword
That was needed for the festival
An old traitor general tried to destroy the gates of titan with a crystal sword
Every year they re-enact this
However Savicks apprentice got it a bit wrong
He thought the sword had to cut the gates
So instead of making a sword that could cut titans gates
He made a set of gates that a Glass sword could cut

Shocked everyone
And gave Savik an idea in his bet to be able to re-forge endurite

He basically tricked her into thinking he could by using snowsell shells instead of endurite
With a fake “glove of ultimate power”
Knowing that Anna was working with Ms Doomfist and that neither would rest till they managed to make this glove in reality

The friend of Anna who witnessed this turned up later asking how we had managed to trick her
Leon freaked out .. calling her all sorts of names
Apparently she was a tube job. An artificially creation that Anna makes
They are not well thought of on Earth
We told her we do not know how Anna did not realise she had been tricked


The smoke order

After our trip to earth we decided to finish the job by tracking down the smoke order
We started at the monastery outside of titan
And discovered that they are the only cell still holding to their mission of helping the guided ones
The other cells have become nothing more than Tolwyn Grayhawkes pawns

The visit was an education
We discovered that they have helped the guided ones countless times
But they usually do not even know they have done it
The prophecy book is very sketchy about actual identities
But they have records of a few
Priotus, Cass and Steph Doomfist
Apparently some of their knights stopped an assassination attempt on Ms Keogh

They also have a book detailing the history of the hands (fortunes saboteurs)
The shock came as it appears Greive and Reich Killed the first hundred or so of these hands
Using the sword of war
Untill he was killed by Rochon and Reich was freed from his control
The book also says that he has returned
But it is not Magnus apparently Greive was just an automaton of Cerys, Magnus still has some choice

We realised that fortune tipped Asmodai off to Alex and Gens birth
So he came for us before Magnus even knew we existed
We still do not know what triggered the Sword of war to become human yet

We asked who else had read this book
The monk said a man with a cleaver read it shortly before the order of light split off
And a red haired girl was always popping in to read it

We realised that the redhead was Jessie but who the man is is worth investigating

The monk also gave us the locations of the other monasteries
Cawdor Falkin and one in the mountains
The Davos branch is apparently Tolwyns base of operations

He also told us Tolwyn has the second book detailing the war of the divines
1 more reason to hunt him down

We thanked them and headed back to Titan to investigate the attack on Ms Keogh
And discovered the record of it had been doctored
Quite common in Titan when the Vassilies are involved
Seems it was a Vassily retainer trying to get rid of her

We are going to have to talk to the mayor

Plans come together
Mood:  energetic
Helping Earth and Ground Zero

It was decided we would head to Earth to talk to tizzy and maybe to help find the commission
Mare and Jessie were heading back to use Heavens 7 recourses
And Jessie was taking Ebon back (Ebon refuses to be farcasted)

Gen also put an order in for 10 units of starlight mithril
Has a plan for armour with endurite lacing

Jessie gave them a job to retrieve the items that the commission have taken and hidden
She says we will be rewarded, and she has always paid well for the stuff we bring her

Before we could leave however Imperialles capital had a visitor
It was an Ilthan, the race that the dragons bred down to make the Elves
None has been seen for thousands of years
It was lost and scared but after facing Priotus it settled down
Then we realised it was a she and she had taken a fancy to Priotus
Not good for a married man but luckily the Xidus prince was fascinated by her
And he said he would train her
We may have a new city defence

Earth

We found Utopia in chaos
And Tizzies shop burning with no sign of him anywhere
Bugger
A passing policeman told us however that the commission were housed in old military district
In the old ranger HQ no less
With nothing else to do we decided to help with that problem as maybe someone there knew where tizzy had been taken

Took out the lookouts with little problem and was shocked to find 1 was eleven
Seems the smoke order is well and truly involved
And the eleves need a special drink to survive on earth after the 12 hours, I took a sample

We rescued a mercenary who had been imprisoned by his former employer
Who had then went on to kill all of the smoke order in the building so we went carefully
Tizzy had been held here and was being taken to Antarctica by the smoke order

Before we could act though Mladtich’s employer found us
A big and impressive looking Tengu
Mladitch called him Styker and said he was an ex-ranger

Luckily for us Ebon vouched for us when he contacted her and he offered to take us to Antarctica

While he was getting his plane and Leon was releasing a huge scorpion to kill the commission
We found the store Jessie asked us to find

It was HUGE but luckily Mladitch had dealt with Jessie before and offered to contact her

We took the plane to Antarctica and rescued Tizzie from the Smoke order
We pitched our plan to him and he said he would think about it

Ground Zero

We got back to old ranger HQ to find Jessie setting Fabians machine and watching the archive footage
She seemed very upset but we did not want to ask
Jean Paul Chance was kicking butt on the compound and looked like he was Enjoying it
Jessie said as soon as they found him a target to hit he was happy
And Ebon managed to retake control of the Rangers in the city

So we waited for Tizzies decision
He came and agreed to help

Jessie performed the ritual and then tizzie had to die for it to work
Alex killed him and we all held our breath
Then 3 identical guys walked in sharp suits and shades
They called themselves Tyrion and tried to merge

Ground Zero was reborn
His first act was to enforce a peace in the city
He destroyed an entire commission Fleet as an example of his capabilities
My he is very powerful, glad he is thinking kindly towards us
He said he will head to Imperialles as soon as he was finished on Earth

Zaphielle and Heavens 7
Mood:  cool

Zaphielle arrives

Pauls brother arrives having worked out what is wrong with paul
The enemy has pauls sister Estelle hostage
The one thing in the world he would turn on Ebon for

The psychic on the planet is in fact a network of lots of clones of Price
Our errant prince and one of ebons rangers

Zaphielle has a plan but it will involve provoking price
We have to make sure that prices partner does not kill zaphielle before price clicks
Off to the forest but an unexpected ally appears

Mare

Mare along with most of the rest of Heavens 7 have begun to shake off the control
Now that legion is taking back himself
Mare offers to help and was setting off to find Pain
He says we may have trouble with Sho when he gets back as we beat him and that does not sit well with him

He also has been investigating the commission and says they are part of an order here
The smoke order of all people
And they are trying to rewrite human history taking out all the gory bits
It makes sense as someone her rewrote our history a little while ago
Seems earth and here share a strong connection anyway

And he said that Ebon really needs to get home

He also gave Jessie some good news
Fabian used a process of splitting his soul into 2 bodies to achieve immortality
When earths change occurred it did not effect him
He is mortal and can be killed (if they can get around the original immortality)
Jessie says they can and seemed very happy and very glad to see Mare

We discovered she is in fact a member of Heavens 7
But had they tried to control her they would have had a shock
Apparently deacon is back, he got sick of waiting for hell to judge him
But messing with Jessie would have been the 1 thing guaranteed to make him come back
He has an interest in her for some reason

Ground Zero

We got to thinking if fabian split his soul into 2 bodies
Could we use the same process to split tizzies back into the 3 bodies?
And resurrect Ground Zero that way?
We decided to head to earth after getting the psychics on the planet sorted out

Zaphielle and Price

Zaphielles plan was to fight Price, this would apparently act as a beacon
Luring all the clones to the area where he could kill them
Apparently the one desire of a clone is to be the original
They will come and try to get to be the one if the original is in trouble

Spectre was good but we kept her off Zaphielle long enough for the plan to work
And price and Zaphielle dealt with the clones and repaired the massive damage to the forest that it caused
We discovered who was behind this
The younger thraxians under the command of Lassiter
He has formed an alliance with the Imperialist Xidus to destablise both Earth and here
They are holding Estelle on XID
Getting her back is going to be difficult and Paul will not help until he can be assured Estelle will not come to harm

and it seems earths problems are closer to our problems that we had thought

Of blacksmiths and Slimeballs
Mood:  bright


Savik has asked us to keep an eye out for interesting materials
Seems starlight mithril can take on the properties of whatever it is forged with
He is most interested in Endurite .. the hardest substance known on leons world

But where to get some it is restricted and very expensive
Leon suggested Anna Gates as she would likely sell for the right price
As it turns out she sold for a very small price .. she has an ulterior motive methinks
But she would not trust leon with it so she came to Titan to watch

Savick crafted it into a starlight mithril blade and the results were amazing
The appearance of the blade changed as well as the strength

He and Anna had a bet as Savik said he could reforge it
And Anna said that was impossible
He has until the full moon

The Commission

Some odd people from Earth appeared claiming to be the true authority of earth
They are staying in the palace but no one trusts them
We realised that battle group perseus is on the jump point
Effectively preventing Admiral Hawke from reaching Earth
Whatever the commission is up to they do not want her at home
We may have to try and help with that

Next shadow mission

Sirrius has located the temple of the mind
And we are to be part of a team sent to clear it out before civilian archaeologists are sent
Before that we are to chose our codenames
I chose codex and Alex chose Razor

Alex joined the combat team and I was on dispel duty
As it turned out I kept their mage team busy with an illusionary force
We cleared out the Black lotus operatives and entered the temple

It was a huge galactic map with some systems glowing
And broken glass where the system magnus wiped out was supposed to be
So it was reactive
It seems the prison of the mind was a prison of minds in all creation

A small shiney blue shard caught my attention
Had never seen that colour before
After some thought I took it
It was one of the Event shards Christian had told us about
It showed me an event that had recently happened
Fabian cortez has figured out that collecting 1 colour shard can bring back the divine
He has decided to collect purple ones in order to forcibly resurrect his “boss”
Who will supposedly give him the power to kill an immortal
(he was playing with a heart)
This will mean mass murder as he can not see the colour before death
Jessie says he is more likely to want to resurrect the returned
A part of deacon less powerful but easier to control

Alex has a thory
Mood:  quizzical
General news

Zapielle is on his way but Loen says he is cautious
He will investigate and think before comming here

Clavel and savik both want to see us
Liams purge of the Cult of Krakken is going well
As is the work of the Earth Red Cross on the world

Wade Halloran is doing less well
He is a blantant Xenophobe and human supremacist
Which is not going down well in Imperiallis

Also the Earth organisation NAXO is filling the gaps left by the cult of Krakken

Shadow mission


Sirus Clavel wanted to see us about an odd assault
A man was assaulted by a youth who stabbed him with an invisible dagger
(1 guard saw a black shard being used)
The victim started to show signs of an imperfect control
As a lot of the other shard control victims are showing signs of breaking it

Alex came up with a theory that collecting large numbers of the shards of a single colour
Would wake some sort of consciousness of the divine it belonged too
If this is true it could be worrying as Tolan was not nice

We were to escort the man to Cawdor as he had a ticket and an inn booked there
We realised he was familiar with knife use on the train

The innkeeper named him as Lance Tyler
A little digging showed him to be VERY rich and influential
But surprisingly unknown
He owns a little bit of EVERYTHING
Including some armour being displayed at the Museum in Cawdor for the exhibition

We went and found him drawn to an exhibit of Tyrial Steelsongs sword and armour

In a private viewing along with Priotus, Lance began to use the sword in an elven fashion
Priotus said it looked like a Legion possession
He recognised that name and began to remember himself

Legion is an entity that was once an elven Prince .. the son of an elf lord and the goddess Shiva
Imortal and unkillable but cursed never to have a body of his own
He body hops and generally causes trouble

He left Lance Tylers body intact and unharmed and we helped him up
May be of use to be known to a man that powerful and secrative

Legion

Everyone though Legion was dead (including him)
Priotus said all they found were black shards in his cell
(the shards we thought were those of tolan)
In using these shards the cult of Krakken resurrected Legoin
And my is he pissed off with them for that

He left to find himself, to catch up with some old friends
and start settling the score

He did not hang around.
A mansion exploded in the distance and when we got there we “rescued” a cultist from death
In space he did the same on Ebons ship but with 1 surprising thing he killed a Terran
She came down to find out what was happening

He purged the Elven council of cultists and also the Royal council

Talking to Vermithrax we discovered that Legion is very powerful
He could destroy the universe but then he would be alone
And he does not want to be alone. He can not die so it would be dull

We may have found an enemy of our enemy

Jessie was granted access to the Shadow guild library
and after that and a visit to the Exhibition with Juan Cortez she headed off to find Legion
The chance to cronicle the life of such a creature was to good

Why Magnus Is Here
Mood:  sharp
Under the Order Of light

We dug down into an organic looking chamber
Sticky and with what sounded like a heartbeat
A dark and oppressive atmosphere

Atlantean technology
But we got down into the chamber

4 exits so we headed south

South

Into another hall of heroes
But one with no divines we recognised
(Jessie explained it later on)

Krakken was the armoured child and he was in the important position
With offerings of blood in his bowl

Rochon a rough statue

A bulky knight with offerings of meteoric iron
(Jessie said it was Odin)

A woman with an bird who was offered food
(unified fate )

And a Mage type that no one knows who he is just yet who was offered paper

West

Much better atmosphere
Seemed to be a dormitory for monks of some description
Very ornate lockers but simple beds

East

An amazing garden still growing and tended by a golem of some sort
A locked shed contained a 6 armed corpse and a diary
The diary was filled in quite recently

Whoever these people were they were fighting against a “him” who had come back first
And they were losing badly

North

This room was half collapsed with a big set of double doors that were welded shut

We opened them and heard sounds of combat and running water

The “water” turned out to be blood and it looked like our heartbeat was a pump
This whole place was an organic creature
A warped corruption of the stuff the shards are made form

The combat was a 6 armed creature fighting constantly respawning Balors
Alex jumped in while Leon closed the portals
Before the figure collapsed it called us “lords” and said they had failed

The last room here led to an statue of the woman who we had seen before
Gurading Alex
At the Keogh house And she bears a remarkable similarity to Gens features

We also found cocoons and a trapped injured 6 armed figure who showed us what had happened
Mordane had come and they, against their oaths, had decided to fight the dark one
They lost and Mordane freed the trapped entity
It was Cerrys

A brief fight ensued and she lost
Mordane was disappointed and promised her a champion to make it interesting
(That champion was young Sam now called Magnus)
She also started the creation of a new master race, that’s what was in the cocoons


We rescued the 2 sentinels (as they called themselves)
And made preparations to leave
When Magnus showed up

He said he could not allow us to leave
One of the sentinels hurt him though and my teleport ritual completed
We went to the palace hoping he would not follow

He did not but Garrin decided the time of the order of light was up
He sent us to help scout out the monastery

While we were doing that Magnus destroyed it and killed everyone in it
He said he had wanted to do it for a while
And was now being “allowed”
It seems the relationship between him and Cerrys is more complex than master/slave
We decided it was best not to push Magnus as he seemed to have some free will
But still follows her orders
And we are not sure what she or he want from us yet

The sentinels

They told us a little of the story
They were created by the “lords” to guard the bits of Cerrys

She was imprisoned in 3 bits and a divine dies to create each prison

Solvoun imprisoned her body and that was what Mordane freed
Rochon imprisoned her soul and that is what was freed at the house of Magnus

1 prison remains, that of her mind, the Lady sacrificed herself to make that one
We do not know who this lady is
But the prison is in the East

The sentinels were created to protect these prisons until the lords returned
They were created using the lanris
They debated for millennia and decided they would fight if it was Krakken who returned first
Which of course he did
And they tried and failed to stop him
But we did learn that all of Cerry’s creations have a back door this may be exploitable

In the flashback one of Mordanes daughters showed up and distracted him
May be worth finding out which one as that could be helpful
But it is a touchy subject with his daughters

In Space

The other Terran battle fleet has arrived
But is not doing anything
It is receiving powerful psychic communications from the planet though
Annas space station decloaked and gave Ebon access to the psychic monitoring system
Under the authority of no one knows who

Ebon also asked her brother Esteban to “talk” to Jean Paul to make him listen
As Earths defence fleet is missing

And Anna is almost finished the rites of fire on the basilisk isles
So Petra can retake her ship

Planet bound help


Alex and Gen decided to help the Fleet by tracking down the psychic on the planet
Leon mentioned a psychic he knew could help
But this psychic was imprisoned on Earth, good job the defence fleet is missing

We talked to the mayor who contacted Savage

Zaphialle is on his way, an Atlantean, powerful and Pauls brother too boot
In their last skirmish Zaph came out on top so he could help us greatly

Smoke And Posion
Mood:  a-ok
Next Shadow Mission

It seems the smoke order had an operative making a play for the child at the same time
He worked out a little of the plan

He had to be prevented from telling the order what he knew
As protection he hit a black legion guard and was in Titan jail

Hard to break into
But with a distraction from Leon and some memory loss poison from general Kass
We wiped the last week from the memories of Titan jail
Priotus was suspicious but the bacteria used was a natural one so he can not trace it

He is more interested in the “distraction”
Leon summoned a lot of balors and had them march on Titan

They then did a dance to a song called YMCA
Which the council now believes is a demon worshiping cult
(it was an earth organisation for helping young men apparently)

Leon made his demands of beer and peanuts

Smoke Order

We asked for a little info on the smoke order
They were a cult who believed in guiding hands
Entities behind some of the world’s greatest heroes who come time and time again
(Sounds like our little saboteurs)

The order was to watch for them and help them
The offshoot of the order of light believed they had to stop these guides
And managed to kill a few before they could influence events

Nowadays the order is just Tolywyn Grayhawkes rogue’s gallery
They have lost the mission

Talking to Ms Keogh it seems though that they never had it anyway
She says they have constantly failed to spot these “hands” even when they were right under their noses
But she did warn us to stay away from them as they could still endanger us
She would not say anymore (although I know she knows more)

Problems in Space

It seems the admiral has possibly 2 mutinies
One from her crew who do not understand why she has not invaded
And one from her government who want her replaced
Battle group Persaus has arrived under the command of their missing officer Paul

It has taken up position outside the system
Petra and Anna are on the planet but unavailable

Priotus offered to help the admiral .. better the devil you know

Dorothy

Jessie met a very odd person called Dorothy
Younger than she looks and came to Jessie for some “fun”
After a run in with fabian she decides not to come back
Intriguing

Magnus

Alex came up with a good point
Why is Magnus outside of imperiallis
Is there another temple under the monastery?
We should check it out

The histories say there were once ruins on the site
We shall start digging there

Fights and Illusions
Mood:  don't ask
Fight

It seems Priotus and Ms Doomfist had a fight
Priotus must have won as Ms Doomfist was very badly injured apparently
Then a riot broke out in Imperiallis between 2 sets of rival fans arguing over who won
Most of the military high command are now in the brig for taking part
This does mean however the League of heroes is heading for the capital
(Good as we have invited all of them to the function anyway)
Along with Vermithrax who everyone says would guarantee the King accepting

Second Shadow Mission

Was a clean up of mess caused by Gage Ohlsfords lack of discretion
He was meant to kill a shapeshifting alien without the townsfolk knowing that it was an alien
He failed and the CSA did an info drop proving that it was an alien

We had to clean up the mess .. find the documents and make them believe they saw something else

Enter the illusionist
We set up a fight with another of these creatures
Alex played the hero
And we played up the Demon angle

We substituted the documents for Demon ones
And leon played a learned Scholar who confirmed it was a Demon
And basically blames Gage for it all
That should amuse the queen at least

The Function

Our official entry into society

Leon arranged it all
Even getting us a mansion to hold it in

The function went well apart from an attack by Stan of all people
Seems the collected league of heroes was too much of a temptation
He trashed the mansion a but leon said Lord Fargo would not mind

Had some time with lanris
And Alex and Garrin seem to be getting on quite nicely too

Lady Swift made an appearance without her husband
But let early
Probably to go and kill someone
Not sure if I can reconcile this with what is “good” for Imperiallis

Surprise Visit

I had a visit from Ms Halloran last night
She came with some advice and info

Her bandit tally almost equals Raptors
She says she does this wherever she settles to make the area safer for her
She knows it also helps the ordinary people but that’s not here primary reason

Raptor choosing only bandits is a conscious choice and the only reasonable one for her
The urge to kill and maim is something she can’t change
So only bandits and only 200 is a minor miracle apparently

Jessie says that does not make it any more right
But it is the least wrong she has ever known raptor to do
And her value as an ally against Fabian is worth a little sacrifice
She also said that her worth as a person was also worth this but I did not understand that

She said Leon was right
But he could have put it better
She said everyone deserves 1 shot at redemption
Even Leon (and I am beginning to realise that Leon may have a lot to redeem himself for )

Made me feel a little better that someone else fells like this
Knowing it is wrong but having to let it go for the greater good

Strife
Mood:  blue
More Visitors

An earth general called Mcallister visited the court and made a huge show of supporting us against the commonwealth .. but according to Leon the Vanguard are their worlds Thraxians so what he is up to no-one knows

Ms Doomfist is up to something and it involves space hopefully it is not selling weapons to the aliens up there

Shadow guild

It seems the incident with the bandits and Sirius Clavel was a test
To see if we were capable of joining the Royal arm of the Shadow Guild
Sirius is the head spymaster and an Illusionist of great skill
The setup was an illusion

We passed the test and were asked to join
We did for the good of Imperiallis

Our first mission was a biggie

Imperiallis’s throne has to have a successor to remain valid
Problem being the Queen can not stand men (understandable)
Further complicating matters is the fact that the king DOES like men

Making the rumours of the Queens pregnancy just that

They had a plan to take the last Scion of the 5 kingdoms
A northern state who greatly influenced King Fenix 1 when he was forming Imperiallis

The plan was to take this orphan and have it raised as the heir to the throne
But for this to happen it had to be gotten quietly

Our part was bringing the child to Imperiallis from Titan
And we succeded in that
There were complications but they were nothing to do with us and were settled quickly


Harpies

Reports had been coming in about harpy activity
And a strange clampdown from the palace led us to believe the harpy was “lady Swift” known on her world as Raptor who eats flesh in a similar way

We had to find out
Wish we had not

She has killed and mutilated over 200 people since arriving here
Leon says that is a drop in the ocean to what she used to do
And that they were all just bandits who deserved it

But they were people
And she ate them

The queen fully knows and condones this slaughter too
Its hard to take

And we had already planned out first function
In order to get closer too her to help in our battles with Fabian
How much help can a monster like that be ?

Clean mission and the Party
Cleanse

A simple cleanse mission from the king
A band of bandits had taken over the steel foundry on the outskirts of Imperiallis .. a major embarasment for the Military

So we were called in to clean it out before the military strike team

Mission acomplished
Alex really seemed to enjoy it
she has been itching for a good fight

Killed the fire mage and got our reward

The Party

We made the introductions to Lady Swift
Her and the queen seem to be very close (yes in that way)

We also met Garrins father .. turns out Garrins mother was Elven
and it did not end well but she is still alive
living in the forrest
He seemed quite taken with Alex luckily

Alex and Garrin spent the night together :)
Hope everything went well