Last session Isabelle and Jericho went into deep shadow to investigate messing with people's minds. (Irredeemable criminals only, of course.) Trump + psyche + steampunk? Oooh what a lovely contraption the grad students have built in Erewhon! Sure, this may not be what happened to Rinaldo, but it sure is cool…
(Andrew, I missed your background story for last session.)
Bree created a living talisman that's an extension of herself. It's a sort of Chibi Bree! Its purpose is to bring her back if she gets "stuck" in a transformation. She entrusts it to Gerhardt and then transform into Osric. The two head to the resonance chamber. The castle AI graciously offered assistance.
Silas goes to Serpent Island and seeks to make a bargain to get a spy network through the plants. They mention in passing that the Unicorn visited, but they couldn’t touch her. They agree in exchange for a child. Like… right now. Silas thinks that’s a high price, so he asks them to sweeten the deal. They offer to take over a new land. He seems interested. Then he brings up Isabelle, and they say they could incorporate her if she wanted. Caine came by and got nicked on a thorn and left some blood. They are delighted! The plant is definitely learning very quickly and becoming more clever in the ways of the world.
Time to make the deal. “There’s a place called the Void,” Silas starts. “So there is stuff in nothing?” they say. It’s all very confusing to them. Silas explains that the only reason the Dwimmerlaik haven’t taken over everything is because somehow they got stuck out in the Void. Silas trumps Isabelle to ask for help in the negotiations. She and Jericho come through. As Isabelle approaches the plant, she drops a seed from the Green. The plant seems to have a personality change and is suddenly more agreeable. The trio returns to Serendipity Ranch and debrief. Jericho and Silas receive a notice of a disruption.
“My lord, the chamber is ready,” the AI says to Osric-Bree. She enters a bulbous chamber with an organ-type device. There are fluids and lightning coming in and out. The room resonates with sound like bagpipes x 50; it is almost painful, but not quite. The goal is to find and extract Brigid. In the back of her/Osric’s mind, she remembers that the core of this is the larynx of an ancient. Osric’s mind keeps insisting that Gerhardt should not be here. Bree has to struggle to quiet those thoughts.
Gerhardt studies the room and contraptions while Bree begins the endeavor. The two start to feel a little trippy. Gerhardt definitely sees ways to improve this. Osric-Bree will definitely cut his hand off if he touches anything. She musters the control to ask Gerhardt’s opinion for improvements. She implements the tweaks herself to ensure he doesn’t touch anything. Now operating at peak efficiency, the sound increases just a small amount — enough that their ears are only bleeding just a little.
She’s still unable to quite reach Brigid, but Osric recalls a sword that can cut through any barrier. That would be very useful. Now, what story to tell to convince Natasha to help. Something about saving Brigid, blah blah. That should do it. She explains to Gerhardt that upgrades are needed in the facilities and they need to gain access to Natasha’s pattern sword.
They get Natasha to come through, which sets off an alarm. Osric (Uncle Cirso) promptly turns off the alarm and explains that she and her sword are necessary. Gerhardt briefs Natasha on the situation. She agrees to help and lends them her sword. They embark on take 2.
Silas trumps Lowen, who spends most of his time in fairy and should be up on the happenings there. The invading plants are now more easily being pushed back now in both Winter and Summer, the latter being more weakened at the moment. Winter is taking advantage of that fact. Lowen helps the Summer by fighting back the plants more. Isabelle makes contact with the Green(?). It explains that it is fighting the “Upstart” and in response it is pulling back from Fairy to engage with it.
Brigid comes through and immediately sets off the alarm again. Panicked, she trumps Jericho to escape. He pulls her through as lasers pierce her lung and leg. Osric-Bree-Cirso decides it’s time to get rid of Gerhardt. He reaches for her with the chibi and touches her just in time to avoid certain doom. The alarms go off again because of Bree this time. She and Gerhardt explain they were just leaving and make a quick exit with laser sights following them the whole way.
Now with Silas, Jericho, and Isabelle, Brigid relays the details of her amazing adventure. While she’s telling the story she receives a trump call. She apologizes to Gerhardt for the quick exit and leaving him, Bree, and Natasha. She pulls them through and the gang is reunited at long last in the Summer Court. Gerhardt asks if it is okay to contact Brigid’s mom, Fiona. In an unseen and unbelievable gesture of warmth and love, Fiona hugs her returned child.
Silas and Jericho go to the Queen of the Summer Court and strike a deal. She gives them a bell so call on the Hunt for a single target in exchange for solving the plant problem. Separately she asks Lowen to track the source of the way and stop the plant incursion. She sends a few high ups to escort him on the quest. Silas, Jericho, and Isabelle find Lowen and the Hunt and chit chat. The trio surges ahead to cover their tracks. While Lowen doesn’t know any of them is guilty, is probably not coincidence that they’re here right now.
Bree reaches into Silas’ mind and …
The first pod fails. Second pod is loaded in Jericho’s perfect weapon. As the pod is launched into the soil it pierces multiple leaves. Very quickly it regains connection to the Ancient Elder Tree. Lowen notices his work becomes much easier all of a sudden. Still, he continues his work to fight the plant. The group can’t reach him, so they decide to collapse the way. When Lowen’s group finds the way is gone, they celebrate their victory. Huzzah!