2025-10-03 The Hole in the Shrike's Heart
General Summary
Scene: Autocthonia > Shrike > bridge
With Varakleion's escape complicated, Stelsor tells - Varakleion that his ally, The Lover, can’t be trusted.
Dreamflower tries to get Varakleion to see reason.
Fortifier tells Varakleion his fear that enacting a Deathlord’s plans in Autochthonia may cause a similar fracture to the rightful cycle of souls that Creation saw when the Exalted inadvertently caused The Underworld.
Fortifier: "If you call off this attack, we can turn out focus to combatting the Lover."
Varakleion says he doesn’t know if he can resist the Lover, but he agrees to stop raising a hadn against us.
Stelsor asks where Varakleion got this ship.
As he prepared to do this mission for the Deathlord, Varakleion was simply told by the Lover where to find it in Creation.
Varakleion shows us a rhomboid object that the Lover told him could affect the ship.
She also told him that if anyone else touched this, the Lover would know he had failed and she would destroy the Shrike.
We’re told that there are important bodies buried beneath the cathedral, which is itself inside the Shrike.
Scene: Shrike > cathedral to the Unconquered Sun
The cathedral is gigantic aboard the huge airship.
Down a dark and spooky staircase we find a huge portal at the end of a room lined with Soulsteel and 8 columns of Orichalcum.
Varakleion explains this portal was supposed to be for escape and to lead directly to the Lover.
Dreamflower is fascinated by the metaphysics and magitek running through this room.
She realizes this room is both the escape portal and the essence blaster that was being used to attack Harmegis.
We scrutinize the space.
Stelsor's memories as Kratofil the wise tell him this isn’t how things would’ve been built, even in the First Age. This room may be a later addition.
Dreamflower discerns the juxtaposition of soulsteel and orichalcum is a metaphysically strange combination.
Fortifier is skeptical that the Lover ever intended this portal to be used for Varakleion to escape safely.
Fortifier proposes sending one of the elementals we summoned recently to pass through the portal and report back.
Dreamflower agrees and asks the steam elemental to cross the portal and come back.
The elemental is gone for about a minute, but something else returns.
The being’s eyes are turned red, it’s flesh is pink and purple and blue. As soon as it steps back through the portal, it screams in some ancient language.
Combat
Dreamflower plans to capture the being and possibly cleanse it.
It unleashes a gout of tainted steam at Fortifier, who absorbs much of the energy to power up.
Wielding a Sun-blessed esoteric technique, Dreamflower separates the air elemental from the corruption, leaving the corruption as a body of evil that still must be defeated.
Fortifier tries to defend Dreamflower and Stelsor by grappling the creature.
Fortifier is greatly harmed by wrestling directly with the monstrosity, though Dreamflower is able to transfer some of these wounds to herself.
Only with the circle’s combined might do they successfully discorporate the corrupt being.
Post-combat
The air elemental reports seeing ghosts slaying mortals by the gross. The spirits rising and proclaiming their love for the Deathlord.
The description of the events confirms some rumors Repatriator had related to Stelsor.
Dreamflower asks Varakleion if he’s used this portal himself before.
Varakleion used it once when he visited as an invited guest of the Lover.
He explains that her fortress has strange effects on those who aren’t explicit guests, likely what happened to the air elemental.
Fortifier points out the portal is dangerous if more things come through, but it is also a powerful tool if/when we are ready to launch an attack.
Dreamflower proposes we bar the portal from intrusion for now.
The Shrike is made of many Magical Materials we might use for this purpose, but is also a masterwork of ancient engineers that we should think twice before scavenging.
Fortifier sends an Infallible Messenger to Perfected Censor of Heretical Works hoping that the soulsteel-caste Alchemical will understand how to reshape the soulsteel in the room and block the shield.
In response we see a vision of Perfected Censor fighting an uprising of Populat and Lumpen in the Harmegis’s outermost ring.
We place some of Stelsor’s ghost-harming lanterns around the portal to hopefully discorporate or pain any undead that try to cross over.
Dreamflower channels her Iconic Anima to summon a metal elemental.
We ask Varakleion to fly the Shrike close to the conflict in Harmegis.
Scene: Harmegis > Maker’s Anvil
As we fly in, the mortals stop fighting as they gaze up in awe of the Shrike.
When we rejoin Perfected Censor, the soulsteel Alchemical is on guard at the sight of Varakleion, but Fortifier assures him the apostate is being cooperative at the moment.
Fortifier asks Perfected Censor what seemed to spark the uprising.
Censor isn’t sure. He was meeting up with some contacts when suddenly someone blew their cover. The timing seems to coincide with the moment when Fortifier purged the Blight from the jade colossus.
He suspects someone betrayed him and his contacts.
Stelsor asks Seline if she had heard from the Green Lady.
We know Seline’s boss chairs the Special Convention on the Undead, so perhaps we just give them access to the portal and they handle it.
Potential scenes for next time
Stelsor wants to make some trade deals
Fortifier wants to report to Runel, who may have plans for the portal, either to better control it or use it to launch a counter-attack.
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