Session 105: Kill 'Em All, Let Koehnta Sort It Out

The Celestial Forge is supposed to be a place of worship, of celebration, or at least a safe space to do a lot of drugs with weird names sold by someone who is definitely on their third or fourth alias. It is not supposed to be the site of a hostage situation with religious zealots taking over the building and keeping Moonfire Faire-goers prisoner.
At least these people have a hero to rescue them. Not our brave adventurers, mind, who are currently clobbering strangely-named cultists with little to no bedside manners, but an elegantly-dressed masked warrior of mysterious origin who has already gained access the Forge. At least they might be a hero. They might have more nefarious goals in mind.
First, though, one tackles the problem in front of them, especially when one of them is a sword-wielding tonberry.
We join our brave adventurers at the top of round two...

**

Best Practice has long since fought to live up to their sobriquet, and as the Flamekeepers' defender, the best defense is a really, really good defense. She raises her blade, blessing her and her partner with a Shield Oath, so that they may weather the Forge's flames and emerge victorious with the fires of retribution.
Bast throws some sort of toggle on the handle of his crossbow and lets the welcoming committee have another round. A blue trail veers off the bolts and into Isa's upraised sword, and the impacts flash an odd orange color with a sound almost like hitting metal - but judging by the pained winces, enough of the force gets through to make a point.
Isa gives Bast a nod and a bit of a smirk. "Cap'n," she says with exaggerated gratefulness. She points her sword, now glowing forge-bright, ahead at their foes. The glow swells into a globe of light that condenses onto the Starfallers, invigorating them.
Linnet studies the tonberry and recognizes some of Isa's paladin moves, shifting from "my sword eats all your magic" to "just don't hit me." She flings a couple of ice balls at Best Practice; the first one gets through, but the second bursts harmlessly against the shield.
Core Value takes in the assembled squad of invading nonbelievers, weighs them, measures them, and elects to do unto the one with all of the heretical piercings, bringing both hand crossbow and flashing blade to bear.
Orrey marks down on his notebook exactly where in the fight he is, timing wise, and flashes out a dark grey-green sphere of chains that wraps around Core Value, locking down their ability to attack.
Orrey raises the Armageddon and fires at Best Practice, while simultaneously the Orb he summoned blasts a beam of light at Core Value. Best Practice rocks back from the bullet, and the Orb's Holy Light fries Core Value to a crisp.

"Hey! Ow! That is not an aesthetic place for new stitching!" Yves objects as he's lightly stabbed through his cool adventuring coat. "Seriously, you all really need some downers or--fine. Never mind." He flicks a cascade of lightning off his fingers, almost dismissively. "I'm trying to be a better person and go for the non-violent de-escalation techniques and stuff like I was reading about but you're making it really challenging today." With roaring gouts of lightning and thunder smiting the two cultists into the increasingly untidy floor of this place, Yves turns his attention back to frowning seriously at the new hole in his coat. "Maybe if I add stitching to the same place on the other side to make them match... Ugh. I don't know."
"We can fix your coat later, Yves. I'll help," promises Linnet.
Neither Flamekeeper rises.
No commotion rises, either; inexplicably, you have alerted no one on this level, or there is no one on this level to alert.

Isa lowers her sword, the glow slowly fading until it is gross matter once more. "Any idea who those were?"
"I read this whole article about ethical non-violence," Yves says woefully. "Maybe I didn't apply its flowchart properly? Anyway, we should go find, who is it, our engineer? Right. The engineer we want to have be ours. I hope she's just kidnapped by weird cultists and not one herself. It's gonna be hard to get gratitude for saving her if we have to beat her up first."
"Right." Bast stows the crossbow - for now - and looks for a clue on where the Mysterious Figure might have run off to.
Orrey shakes his head. "They seem to have a differing religious viewpoint..."

The hallway runs in a circle around the center of the Celestial Forge, dotted with empty kiosks for peddlers of ceremonial memorabilia and overpriced alcohol. Open stairwells in the ordinal corners lead up to the second level, while doors throughout the hallway lead to rooms on the outer edges.
The closest stairwell to the second floor has been blocked with an iron gate, and the lock on the gate has been thoroughly sabotaged and rendered a useless hunk of metal that still assists in barring that path.

"I guess that makes them heretics." Orrey says, not quite as a pronouncement.
"Ethical non-violence is hard to apply when they come at you with bladed things. I appreciate your efforts, Yves, but there's a time and a place to apply such theories." Linnet pats Yves' shoulder as they proceed down the hallway.
Yves nods woefully, and follows the captain wherever he shall go.
"Kind of whoever that is to leave a trail of busted locks for us to fol-" The end is cut off as Bast activates his silence field, in case of unfriendly ears near enough to make a difference, and gets to drilling.
Yves wanders away from the interesting drilling to begin speaking, in a very serious low tone, to a potted tree nearby. No one has seen him take any drugs since he left the ship, but it's enough to make someone wonder.
No further guards happen by during the breaking and conversating happening here, which is probably fortunate, though it would have given Isa something to do.
For her part, Isa seems more than happy to let other people exercise their skills in lock-drilling and tree-communing.

Orrey waits patiently near Isa and asks her, "Why didn't they run? They were outnumbered and outsworded."
Isa thinks about this. "They were committed. Fanatics, maybe. Do or die."
"When you believe that passionately that you're right and that your deity will smite all who oppose you, it's easy to run hell-bent into the face of death." Linnet shrugs. "Never understood it myself, but the stories are everywhere."
Yves is making thoughtful listening noises at the plant.

"What's the thing that would make you stand and fight against all odds?" Orrey asks the group while watching Bast do his drill work.
"Orders," Isa answers without hesitation.
"You're asking your healer?" Linnet confirms dryly. "Hard to say, because if I'm standing and fighting against all odds, that means I've failed at keeping the rest of you doing so. So let's not think about that too hard."
"I think for me it's family. Both the Alyons and my new extended family." Orrey says quietly, staring straight ahead, slightly embarrassed for admitting it.

Eighteen minutes ago, two guards completed a circuit of the Celestial Forge, talking quietly amongst themselves.
Fourteen minutes ago, a rat climbed out of one trash can to go climb in another one just like it.
Nine minutes ago, two guards completed a circuit of the Celestial Forge, singing along with a song heard further away.
Three minutes ago, the wall to the Hall of Honor flexed outward from someone hitting the other side of it very, very hard.
Two minutes ago, a masked, lightly armored figure emerged from the door, carrying a rapier and crystal in their left hand. They lock the door behind them, jam the tip of the rapier into the lock, and then strike the crystal against the side of the sword as flint against steel. The rapier fires white-hot, then melts, destroying the lock.
Two minutes ago, the masked figure dropped the rapier into a trash can, startling a rat.
One minute ago, the masked figure pulled the gate to the stairs shut behind them after they climbed, striking the crystal against the lock to melt and seal the path shut behind them once again.
The leaves rustle.

"I'm not sure if that masked figure is some sort of hero, or with the cultists, or just really determined to keep other people out of the area of danger," Yves says, looking up from the plant. "But they went through that gate, so I expect we should--oh, the captain is on it, good."
As the plant runs out of things to say, the lock runs out of ways to oppose.
"But yeah they've been melting locks," Yves adds, in case that wasn't clear. "Masked person with the sword and all. Using some sort of crystal. Maybe we can ask them about it when we catch up."
Bast waits until he's swung the gate open - who knows if they take care of the hinges here - before dropping the silence and glancing back at the rest of the party, one foot already on the stairs.  "Let's see what's behind door number two."
As the rest of the party hurries to catch up, Linnet drops behind to check on Yves. "You okay there, bud? That was some very intense staring at that plant."
Isa positions herself near the front of the pack, sword in hand.
"Yeah, I've been realizing that all my attention has gone to Diabolos lately, and I really ought to spend more time with the others, like Golem and--wow, I think it's been ages since I called on Cinnabar," Yves says to Linnet, hurrying along with the others. "Diverse portfolio and maintaining friendships, you know?"
(On those points, Linnet can nod agreement, even if she has no idea what Yves is talking about and what it had to do with wigging out staring at a plant.)

The second floor hallway looks a great deal like the first, though there are fewer doors on the outer rim; just one on the west and one on the east for two long rooms that run the length of the Forge, both barred and locked. There are a great many more doors leading into the center, into the heart of the Forge itself. Eight doors, equally spaced around the center. All closed... all but one locked. The south door, the one that would take the faithful in to gaze directly on the tower of flame itself to the north, is closed, but noticeably unlocked.
Stairs to the north and south lead up to the third floor. Neither set is barred.
No guards patrol.

Bast pads quietly over to the south door and leans an ear against it. A few seconds later, he frowns and steps back, motioning everyone closer to whisper "Some sort of prayer service. Quite a few people. Let's get a better look." He motions up the south stairs.
(Linnet follows, glancing nervously at the door.)
Isa nods, and does her best stealthy tread.
Yves follows along, frowning periodically at the new rip in his coat. So rude.

The third floor is an open-air floor plan, and it is a maker space. There are plenty of anvils, hammers, tongs, and other smithing materials, but there are also pottery wheels, there are looms, there are racks of yarn, there are woodcarving stations... there are no easels, no cookware, no chemical experimentation sets, just tools for making things by hand, functional things, tactile things.
The doors leading into the center on the third floor are all open, so Koehnta's fire can burn brightly and illuminate all of the works being done in Their name. There are also four people here; one clearly unwilling, the other three keeping a close eye on them. One human and two sylphs -- both fire -- with the sylphs wearing bandanas with designs of twisted steel, and the human wearing one with crossed hammers. The hostage, a middle-aged human man with a beret and a mustache, sits in a chair, scowling at them.

Bast suddenly freezes at the top of the stairs, throwing up a hand to stop the company below. He retreats a couple of steps and raises one finger, then crosses his hands at the wrists - hostage. Three fingers, hands clutching invisible weapons.
Yves visibly searches his memory for what the signals mean, then nods. Right, those things. There was the training session, and then the review session, and then the second review session, and maybe he should make some printed reference guides? Later. In any case, he is clear on it now.
Orrey marks in his notebook to make flash cards for the signals.

Apparently satisfied that the message has been conveyed, Bast grabs something off his belt and starts counting down with his free hand. Three...two...one...
There is a clattering noise as the thing rolls into the middle of the enemy tableau, just long enough for them to look down.
And then the noise hits.
The terrible noise is followed by a whole lot more, as the three attempt to bring weapons to bear.

Linnet attempts to freeze them in their tracks with the biggest blizzard she can conjure. A snownado whips around the edges of the flame and scours the faces of the captors - and, unfortunately, the hostage.  "...oops."
Full Attention stares at the professor's body, and shouts something at Linnet, something swallowed up by the Silence. He then charged, readying a very large hammer, swinging it at a very small moogle.
The look Bast gives Linnet is slightly worried. Doesn't stop him from trying to finish what she started with his crossbow.
The hammer totally missing might make his job easier, too.
The hammer cultist is still standing after he barrels past Bast, though the bolt through his leg looks like it's making that rather unpleasant. The others are not so lucky.
Isa steps into the gap behind Bast, meeting the hammer cultist halfway. Something's off about her sword strike though, as if she were expecting it to be a few inches longer. And not a sword, but a spear. The net result is a miss by a hair's breadth, and a sharp obscenity.
(It blends nicely with the obscenities coming from Linnet in a whispered, panicked stream. This wasn't the plan.)