Episode 1

***NOTE SCENE: Applies to Thorn, Maeriks, Kray***

Maeriks runs towards the Dark Throne to aid the faltering Rutcranna.

***NOTE SCENE: Applies to Bryn***

Bryn unleashes his full fury against the Interloper, attacking the cloaked figure with strike after strike from his kukri blades in both hands. The shadow-covered adversary tries to defend, but cannot stand his ground against the onslaught. He is driven back, further and further away from Rutcranna.

"Yes, my love," Rutcranna calls out, from her wheeled chair, "Drive him away. Do not let him threaten me!"

***NOTE SCENE: Applies to Ivor***

Rutcranna glares at Ivor. She is frustrated.

"If you help me here, we can escape in the chamber," Rutcranna says. "Don't be a fool, Son of Conall. Carry me this way." She points to the Seat of the High Hoath.

Ivor glares back and holds the stare for long moments. Then without a word and without the slightest break in his gaze into her eyes, he tosses the flaming faggot across the cabin room. The burning torch clatters onto a table covered in a soft seal skin tarp. The bottles of wine and liquor atop the table spill and break. Soon a slow fire is emerging off to the side.

Rutcranna, still on the floor in the center of the hut, looks at the growing fire, and then back at Ivor. She is angered now, "MacConall, you may have sealed your own doom with your stubbornness! Why do you blame me for all that you have suffered from your own people's druid? Take your foolish aggression out on the snake Scachan if you see him again. Leave me out of your boyish vendetta."

Rutcranna looks towards the Throne, but she is still pinned to the floor. The fire is growing now. It has spread to the wooden floor.

After a time of seeming disinterest of Ivor's stare, Rutcranna finally looks back at him. With a look of carefulness, thoughtfulness, she makes eye contact, and says in a soft voice, "If you survive and escape, do not blame Sorcha Rhone. She is innocent. She deserves a chance to live, to make her own way. Do not let that fat pirate take her to the den of devils, to those foreign Voldruvan hogs! Just give her a chance to escape him."

She lets the words sit for a time. The fire continues to spread. Quickly, the entire Hall of the High Hoath is in flames.

"You know what it means to be enslaved. Do not set that fate upon a young girl. Danneins are not meant to be thralls."

The fire is spreading now. Both Ivor and Rutcranna are being consumed by the flames.

***NOTE SCENE: From viewpoint of Kray, Thorn

Maeriks runs towards the Rutcranna near the base of the Throne. Thorn makes a move in that direction also, but sees that Maeriks is ahead. As Maeriks takes a step up onto the raised level, the single-step circular raised platform around the Throne, the fires of the four great cauldrons flickers in and out, casting an erratic switch between light and darkness in the room, back and forth like a strobe.

At the same time a heavy dreadful voice, speaking a dark unintelligible language rolls through the room. Though it is sound, it crashes over Thorn and Kray like a wave of sickness. Both men stop and have to brace themselves. They look over at Sorcha Rhone. The little girl is near Kray. She is still kneeling down, her face twisted in anguish, eyes clinched shut. Her hands are holding the sides of her head, as if she has pain in her head or ears. Her nose is bleeding.

Ivor, Bryn, Boann, Doirind, and Laoise are still lying still and unresponsive on the floor where Kray, Thorn, and Maeriks had moved them and laid them out moments ago. Sine and Casidhe have collapsed now, lying on their sides as they must have fallen beside one another. They too give no sign of consciousness.

As the light of the entire room waxes and wanes, Kray and Thorn see Maeriks at the Throne, picking up Rutcranna, throwing her arm over his shoulder and lifting her to her feet. Hinka is lying on the ground face down further back.

Kray and Thorn scan back out around the chamber. Right at the edge of the outer circle, the dozens of Glaakieou and Ulathi stand, poised for battle, weapons brandished, glaring in towards the Throne and everyone within the center circle area. Bear, Goat, and Phantom still stand, fists clinched and leaning forward, each positioned at three positions equidistant from one another around the perimeter of the circle. Alligators slither and waddle through the crowd on the floor at the standing men's feet. Titan, the great dragon, lumbers around the back of the crowd, swinging his giant head back and forth and letting out a horrible hiss as he stomps past those who quickly jump out of his path.

Kray and Thorn look back to one another. Both reeling from the sickening feeling of The Voice.

The fire light is dying down dimmer with every pulse now. It is getting difficult to see anything even when the flames ebb higher.

Maeriks holds Rutcranna at his side. They are trying to step forward, to the Throne. But they are struggling to move.

Kray and Thorn see Phantom raise his fists, his knees bending to a slight crouch. Big Bear draws two axes from his belt and readies them at his sides with great calm, shifting his weight back and forth slowly. Goat sets one foot back and lowers his stance slightly as he brings his heavy spear up to a ready hold.

And then the fires die out completely.

The darkness is infinite.

***NOTE SCENE: Only Maeriks****

Maeriks walks down the hall towards the Throne Room. Finally he had made it. He is exhausted.

The final climb up the temple stairs had almost gotten the best of him. He was so lightheaded. He was definitely feeling the effects of the fasting and the sleep deprivation now. And the wounds from his mortification are still ailing him. He pulls his robes around him and pulls his hood forward to completely cover his face. He does not want the others to see how stressed he is, to see him so close to faltering. The Adept must appear strong, in control.

Yet it had all been worth it. They are almost there now. Almost to The Chair.

He looks back at the Heirophant, just behind him. She is walking steadily, keeping pace. He knows that she is strained and taxed as well. Beyond any measure. But she is strong. She will not relent. She nods to him briefly, and then she too pulls forward her hood, completely hiding her face from view as they enter the chamber.

All of the Ulathi are there. They wear the same robes, hoods pulled forward. He cannot discern one of them from another. They are an Esoteric Order of Mystery. They have already completed all phases of The Ritual, save The Approach. Only The Adept can usher in The Heirophant.

Maeriks gathers himself and begins the castings. One of the Uluthi bring a candlelighter and hold it forward. Maeriks opens the top shudder in the thurible and the incense begins to burn and smoke. He slides the vented lid close again and swings the brass carrier forward and back. The smell of the incense fills the chamber, and the thin tendrils of smoke wisp around Maeriks and Rutcranna. The Adept and the Hierophant have emerged.

Maeriks leads the way. Each step he takes carefully. He recites The Words, all in proper order. He crosses within the first circle, and then into the second.

He stops and swings the thurible a final time, and then hands it to one of the Ulathi who carries it away.

Maeriks holds his hand out to the sides, palms up. Rutcranna steps forth, stopping right beside him.

They say the Middle Words simultaneously. Perfectly.

With three steps, they cross the line of the Third Circle, walking side by side in perfect coordination. Sun, Moon, Moon. They stop together at the final stair. The Inner Circle. The Realm of the Stars.

Maeriks, The Adept, holds his hands high. All of the robed Ulathi will hear it. They are silent, but they stand ready for The Seance Measure.

Maeriks makes his The Proclamation, "Behold, Ulathi, your Keeper. She is the Herald of Dagan, God of Azotus, Writer of Secrets, the Sign of One."

Maeriks pauses, and then continues in a heavy voice. "May she Channel the Vision of the Unfathomable. May she Hear the Whisper From the Eight Stars. May she Speak the Will of the Furthest Voice. She is The Hierophant and emerges in this Place and Time to take her Authority. Ancient Dagan is praised."

Maeriks is sweating profusely. His body is quaking inside. His head is about to burst. A ringing begins to overtake his hearing. The pain starts to seep in, into his head and neck and back.

It does not matter now though. He has spoken The Words of Ascension. The Adept has lent his Measure to The Hierophant.

She is in front of him now. Holding him. Her cheek is on his. They are both concealed now underneath their hoods facing one another.

Rutcranna puts her lips right beside Maerik's ear, and whispers to him,...

Maerik's head is splitting. The ringing in his ears overtakes all sound now. The pain in his eyes is beyond measure.

But it is no matter any longer. She is walking forward.

The Adept has spoken. The Hierophant is enthroned.

She turns and takes her seat. The Eight Stars are above her, gleaming bright.

Now The Heirophant will Speak, though The Adept will not hear her.

***EVERYONE. No more Note Scenes. All in together now.***

You stir to the sound of grinding stone. There are loud cracks, like stone breaking.

The firelight gives you vision. You are laying on the stone floor. You struggle to get your bearings.

The others are around you. They are rising as well.In the background, a loud voice, shouting out a proclamation. Aggressively. With authority.

The sound of the voice is familiar in a way, but unknown in another.

. "...yet you are no Master Over Time, Glaaki. You are no Breaker of the Sky. This is not your Domain. You are an Alien here. A wretched beast, and nothing more...."

The voice is Rutcranna's. But it sounds different.

Sorcha Rhone is among everyone, moving around swiftly person to person. She rustles you. "Get up. Get ready!"

The grinding sound of stone continues. Now you see the Throne. It is turning. Pivoting. The entire platform of the raised stair, the innermost circle is turning in fact, and the Throne atop of it.

The Eight crystal rocks in the steel rays that extend above the Throne are shining brilliantly.

Maeriks is lying on the floor, just beneath the Throne. He is rustling and moving, but he looks exhausted and in pain, moving his limbs slowly and grimacing, eyes still closed. He raises his hand to his head, holding it in agony.

Hinka stands at the side of the Throne. He draws his knives and stands ready, looking outward.

Rutcranna sits on the Dark Throne like a Queen of Dread. She looks invigorated. Unstoppable. Her skin glistens like new. There is a dark but empowered look in her eyes.

She t speaks out again, "The Ulathi are not yours, Slug. They are mine. And these feeble tools that you send to challenge me, I scoff at them."

You look outward, into the rest of the room outside of the runic circles. All of the Glaakieou, the Ulathi, the alligators, Titan - all of them, the mob of them completely surrounding the circle - they are restless, thrashing about. They look confused. Shaking their heads side to side, twisting and reeling.

Tension is building. The Ulathi are stabilizing.

Three though stand unaffected. As steady and grounded as pillars of steel. Bear, Goat, and Phantom stand at the three points of the circle. Spread out in three directions. All facing in. Glaring at you and at the Throne behind you. They clutch their weapons, waiting just at the edge of outermost runic circle on the floor, as if barely held back by the weakest of threads. Their entire bodies are quaking with hate and wrath, yearning to launch forward to murder everyone in their path.

"Woe to you, for you have tread upon the place of your coming doom." Rutcranna's voice booms out again. " Woe to you, who have awakened Mighty Dagan. You cannot escape!"

The huge circular stone door that was sunken inside of the wall, just inside the threshold of the double door, rolls forward in a massive grinding rumble and BOOM!!--it crashes through the open wooden door and seals the exit completely. The entire room shakes and the thunder echoes.

"Come along then, Thralls of the Slug. ..", Rutcranna cries out.

"They are coming in. Be ready!" Rhone says to everyone as her mother talks in the background.

Rhone has pulled Sine and Casidhe back to the foot of the Throne in the center.

"Maeriks," Rhone says as she helps him rise. Maeriks is up now, groggy and his head throbbing.

"The Locust Spear," Rhone says, handing it to him.

The Three of the Hive are at the three angles set apart, staring inward. Ready to launch.

The alligators are walking away towards the back of the room. Titan slowly backs up against a wall.

The Deep Ones are readying nets. They spread out among their victims.

The Glaakieou are still reeling and stumbling when the nets fall over them, and the spears and the knives of the Ulathi begin to plunge into their chests and bellies.

The Hive Initiative

As the battle between the Deep Ones and the lesser Glaaki pawns rages behind them, the three captains of the Hive of the Collective lean forward, looking and waiting for a break in the outer ring barrier.

RESULT: I'm pretty sure that is Auto-PC Initiative. Control Top of Round 1.

J, I think included in that short rest was a bit of temporary HP handed out to Thorn (can't remember if others got it also) from Kray. Does that "reset" as well?