Session 8

General Summary

The party was dead asleep, but Feng, Mrek, and Slint awoke to a frantic pounding on the door of their room at the Ruddy Fishwife. Princess Chesten of Midmare entered in a near-panic, flanked by a group of her men. She needed help and had heard of the group's reputation as problem solvers.   Two men brought in the slumping, insensate body of Jory Hammett, a Midmarean captain of a Helwyr squadron, and dumped him on the bed. Princess Chesten explained: at the Battle of Forked Crossings, Captain Hammett's squad had been detailed to enter the city itself and fight their way to the mayoral residence, where the Aniaran agent Aquila had been sighted. Their mission was to ignore the battle raging around them and kill Aquila at all costs. Hammett reached Aquila alone, where he dueled with the elf, but his memory of the duel was missing. All Chesten knew is that Aquila escaped, but not before planting a psychic bomb in Hammett's memories. Set to go off whenever it seemed that peace between the Empire and the rest of Midavel was be assured, the psychic bomb would destroy Hammett's mind and create a shockwave of uncertain size that would endanger all those around him.   Unwilling to simply dump her soldier in the wilderness and wait for him to die, Princess Chesten learned of another option. Using the quills of the Blackmerean laikazait, or psychic porcupine, a small group could enter Hammett's memory of the battle. If, within his memory, they could defeat Aquila, Hammett would no longer remember having the bomb implanted and it would thus be neutralized. The party swiftly agreed to help, though not before extracting a promise of "anything" in return from the panicked royal, so long as they saved her friend.   They entered Hammett's mind, tumbling nauseatingly through emptiness before suddenly being awakened by the boom of a cannon. They stood in the town square of Forked Crossings on the day of the gargantuan's arrival, but there was no time to ponder, because Captain Hammett was yelling for them to get a move on. Apparently his mind, unable to deal with the intrusion of three monstrous humanoids, had rationalized them as members of his Helwyrs.   The party played along, following Hammett's orders as the squad raced down the street toward the mayoral residence where Aquila had been sighted. House-to-house fighting raged around them, but the Helwyrs stayed focused on their goal. The party was ordered to clear out a pair of flamethrowing science-captains from a nearby house, tangled with a flamesword, and took down a drug-enhanced warrior flanked by two musketeers wearing winged jetpacks, but there was still a long stretch of dangerous street between them and Aquila...   Meanwhile, outside the city walls, the armies of Aniara and Midavel battled for control of Forked Crossings. The levy of farmers raised from the surrounding countryside of Aequia was slaughtered by Imperator Cruthen's Imperial Guard, but fought bravely and to the end. Meanwhile, bold cavalry actions by the Gakhai Tsereg from The Orkhon and smart use of the elite Blackheart sharpshooters of Midmare toppled the elves' powerful 1st Shadow Horse, but the rest of the Aniaran army seemed almost untouchable...