[Playtest Campaign] 5th, FebRuary-

"Be flexible."
--That was my outlook for this session on my drive up to the store.

Devlyn MqKullyn (not MqKlellyn, as I had previously thought) was asked by cousin Ylnel to finally get something to eat before trying to re-claim her baggage, now that they had Tyb's authorisation. Encounter Qwyl and his 'low sorts' friends, and sits with them. Meets a silvery, salt-and-pepper haired fellow in nice clothes who first sends over a black bottle from the Black Crown (AKA, The Marnharnnan Yirinn Empire of Bereme Oykh, MYE/BO), then chills it with a grasp, and aids in dispensing the very cooled liquid that turns to vapour as it heats up at room temperature. Drinking it does 'funny' things to those imbibing. Devlyn decides to introduce Llellyn Thorp (WI) to the governor, and Ylnel is left behind, drunk, without a second thought.

During this time, Tyb had been kept informed of the stiff losses the joint Human-Humanoid anti-Pirate tunnel force was suffering, and of the reports by them, and captives of some sort of 'monster' in the tunnels, very near to the tesseract, as well as the ship's projections as to where the Planar Generator was that had poisoned Ahnni with unknown radiation. He learns from Ylliya (his youngest daughter) that one of the captive pirates is still suffering un-ease regarding the monster. During her Telepathy (as in the spell) she is afflicted by some sort of feedback loop that makes her see herself from the monster's psychic perspective, as there is no mind for her to read, save her own. A Pro from Elementals (Um, ...huh? Okay, I roll with it for a bit of her relief, given the Elemental nature of the setting), Darius' Forcefield Generation (another third of relief), but Tyb's perplexed. He decides to visit the Merry Tea-Time group's leader at her home. As the carriage arrives to take him and Darius, Devlyn and Llellyn show up and come along for the ride.

The guards at her gate refuse even the Governor from entering, but Ahnni blips in and kills a two-headed dog and blips back with it. The guards acquiesce, but now the servants at the front door refuse access. Tyb senses the pitch of the Aether is very odd, in a powerful way, and he uses a fancy command spell of some sort to make the most trusted senior staff member flee. They gain entry only to have all spells and powers cease immediately, as if the energy was siphoned out of them. They meet with the lady of the house, clad in a voluminous black robe who explains that they cannot disturb her at present. Sounds of oddness resound from behind the closed double doors. Tyb goes to open them, is shouted at not to by the lady, and then they hear what sounds like one thousand goats laughing in unison.

The thing dominates the round, bull-rushing Tyb, and then a bounce into the wall for 20 points after armour reduction, and with its second action, curses Darius (still carrying Ylliya) with some word that knocks him through the front door to land harshly on the grass (Ylliya takes 24 points). I think that was preceded by Tyb using his nifty new shadow rope/whip/awesome-thing to disarm the beast's scimitar still in the scabbard. The angry critter, very large, goat-like (its hoofs covered in molten gold that boils away after damaging surfaces?), runs after the lady of the house who fled into her underground passageway that leads (among other places) to House Ahzinbakh. The house burns down, but not before I describe the rest of the Merry Tea-Time decapitated, splortched, and generally deadified (fingers broken at strange angles, faces contorted into horrified visages, etc.), and Tyb rescues the summoning tome.

A runner is dispatched to reach Ashta, who arrives in the sphere and helps localise the weird brimstone-like fire, with the aid the rain. Attempts to encapsulate the scimitar in TK fail, even powerful effects, so it is instead buried. The digging by the TK reveals very old skeletons in the walls of the cellar. Clearly the MT-T group had a dark past Tyb had no idea of.

Tyb skims the book, learns that the 172 named creatures listed therein are more like circumstantially-personified abstract forces made material when summoned. This one was related to fear of things wild and chaotic, and specifically of rapine lusts. He makes the connection with the great fear both sides of the tunnel fighters were facing, and he ponders the true nature of the threat. There had been a goat-festival at House Ahzinbakh when the PCs first became the Governors of Doran, but I don't think anyone remembered that.

Both players had to leave around 8/8.5, but stayed later, apparently enjoying themselves.