Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
Caitlin is in the camp of the militant atheists, in their non-magical shadow.
Arun and Etienne are in a specifically Godless shadow near to Teleram plotting against God.
Jihx and Skyrie are in shadow Jalku, having discovered the burnt remains of Connor and Nemain, Jihx's children - two piles of ashes in the square outside a church in a village in that shadow.
Jihx and Skyrie discuss ways of getting to, and returning with, Connor and Nemain's spirits. Skyrie suggests finding a believer who has sinned, drawing a Trump of them, forcing a Trump contact, killing them and, at the point when they are almost out of reach, attempting to Trump through and join them wherever they are. Jihx goes to the church to find a sinner.
There is a sudden shout of alarm in the camp of the militant atheists - a messenger has just ridden in and says that an invasion fleet has been sighted off the coast - a huge one. People start to rush around, preparing for battle. The messenger describes to Caitlin, Terrar and the other atheist leaders a powerful fleet, much bigger than the last, coming ashore at Walvis Bay. The messenger says that he expects that they are already ashore.
Caitlin joins the atheist army as it departs the camp to meet the invaders.
Etienne, having had enough of theorising about ways to destroy God with Arun, excuses herself to leave for Vitesse to re-rack her spells. Arun decides to accompany her there to do the same. In the inn at Vitesse one of Skyrie's assistants watches them arrive but goes away when Etienne tells it to. Etienne orders some food for later and departs to the shrine in her room to pray. Arun orders a large meal and stays down in the taproom of the inn. Etienne senses the presence of God in Vitesse but does not bother to inquire about the details.
Caitlin concentrates and using the Pattern to avoid there being any clouds in the sky - she does not want God to have a chance of using lightning against her and the atheists. The sky becomes utterly cloudless, the sun beating down.
As the army travels towards the coast they begin to pass streams of refugees and can see smoke rising off in the distance. When questioned, the refugees speak of thousands of invaders with war machines (W.W.I style tanks, Caitlin knows) that are burning and destroying everything in their path. They push their way on through the refugee column stops some time later - a little too soon it would seem, as if the invaders are stopping any more from fleeing.
After a while, the army crests a hill and looks down to the coast about ten miles away. Walvis Bay, a large natural crescent shaped harbour, is filled with over two thousand ships. Its beaches are swarming with tanks and soldiers. Overhead a few Zeppelin-type airships are flying patrol. Columns of troops extend from the beachhead and the villages in the area are burning. There are also large numbers of prisoners being lead back towards the beachhead. The banner on the sails of the ships is a cross-hilted silver sword upright on a blue background so that it resembles a cross.
Terrar, the atheist leader, asks Caitlin what she suggests. Caitlin considers this and makes a decision. Suddenly the seaward horizon appears to rise up - slowly at first and then faster and faster - a Tsunami is racing in towards the invading fleet! How unfortunate for them that an earthquake should have happened at the right time for its effects to be felt here now...
There is much panic and rushing around by the enemy. The atheist forces also beat a hasty retreat to nearby hilltops. The Tsunami sweeps across the fleet anchored in Walvis Bay, smashing the ships into each other, against the rocks and onto the land. The wave then crashes onto the coastline, washing away the majority of the invading army, along with many of their prisoners and the villages and towns which were there.
The Tsunami moves some miles inland before retreating, leaving behind a muddy wasteland dotted with broken ships and a devastated invasion force. The airships are the only significant force left intact, and they are looking for survivors.
The atheists gawp open-mouthed as the Tsunami rushes in. A few of them, Terrar included, make comments along the lines of, "If we didn't know there was no God we might be having doubts now..."
In Jalku, Jihx flings open the doors of the church and strides in, his blue crystal armour gleaming in the sunlight. Someone leaves a confessional box off to one side as he enters. Jihx points at him and demands, "You - do you believe?"
"Er - Yes."
"Have you ever sinned?"
"Er - Yes."
"What is your sin?"
"Er - who are you? Why do you want to know?"
At that moment a priest leaves the other half of the confessional box. He also demands to know who Jihx is. Jihx says he is an angel of God come here to test them, and strikes him down as a 'doubter' with a blast of blue fire from his sword. Jihx then goes around all the people in the church demanding to know what their sins are, looking for 'a good one'. A voice to one side asks whether Jihx is really an angel. Jihx blasts them without looking (he is not happy!) then discovers that he has killed a twelve year old boy. "Billy!" his mother shrieks hysterically.
The man Jihx was originally questioning says he lusted after his neighbour's wife. Finally Jihx settles for a sheep thief - that seems to be the most heinous crime anyone here has committed - and orders him outside, leaving sobbing and screaming parishioners behind.
Skyrie, not knowing quite what happened in the Church, casts a 'Life Force Of The Divine Shadow' spell just to be on the safe side. The screams from the church increase, presumably as the priest and twelve year old boy boil with maggots as they turn into skeletons which then rise as undead things. Skyrie orders the skeletal priest and twelve year old to go about their normal business! More shrieking ensues.
A small child approaches Skyrie and tugs on his cloak. "Who are you, mister?" he asks.
Skyrie introduces himself (in short form) and the boy introduces himself as Tom. Tom wants to know what the skeletal horses are, why he is wearing red armour, and if he is here to burn more heretics. Skyrie gives him some answers - they are horses; its to make me look important; no, we want to find those who did last time. The boy tells him that the whole village burned the last heretics, under guidance from the priest.
At this point Jihx arrives, dragging the sheep thief. Skyrie explains to Tom that the two heretics (Connor and Nemain) were not burned properly. He can tell this because their ashes are the same colour as other peoples would be. In the background the skeletal priest is visible leaving the church. Tom runs off.
Jihx asks the sheep thief if he knows what happens to burned heretics - like him. "Not the Tombs!" shrieks the man. Jihx says that that is where he is going - and kills him. Unfortunately Skyrie had not even started, yet alone finished, his Trump sketch so there is no chance of following the man's spirit to wherever it is going. Skyrie tries to resurrect him, but the villages skeletal population is increased by one instead.
Jihx then goes off and finds a murderer, using the power of the Pattern to do so. He is big, burly man apparently in his fifties. As Jihx drags him back to Skyrie he tells him that he is going to 'The Tombs' for his sins. Skyrie starts to sketch the man.
The last time she was here in the shadow of the militant atheists, Caitlin trained her soldiers to shoot down airships with burning arrows. She gives them a refresher course in this, and airships (which appear to be trying to pick up survivors of the Tsunami) start to fall from the sky in flames.
She then organises an attack on the remnants of the invading army and watches from her high viewpoint as her troops sneak down to do battle (the invaders have vastly batter technology than the atheists, so they have to be careful and cautious otherwise they'll just get wiped out). Battle is joined on the mud wasteland below Caitlin's viewpoint.
The remaining airships loiter out of range out at sea, except for one which disappears off over the horizon.
Less than four hours of fighting is all that it takes to completely mop up the remains of the invading army; Caitlin's forces have taken some casualties, but it seems her training has largely held them in good stead. She regrets the losses caused to her own people by the Tsunami, but considers it a worthwhile sacrifice, considering the outcome. She then starts to organise the tidying up operation.
In Vitesse, Etienne finishes praying and goes downstairs to eat. Having done this she decides to find out what is happening, and Trumps Jihx.
In Jalku, Skyrie finishes the Trump sketch of the murderer and explains the process to Jihx. Jihx takes the Trump and uses it - forcing a Trump contact on the vastly inferior mind of the murderer. Skyrie picks up the murderer, holds him upside down and...
Jihx then feels a Trump contact beginning. Jihx resists it and asks Skyrie to continue. Skyrie drops the victim head first onto the cobblestones of the square. There is a nasty cracking sound as the man's head caves in. Jihx feels the murderer die (not pleasant) and is just about able to maintain the Trump contact as his life force leaves. The difficulty of maintaining the Trump link increases, stepping up occasionally as it does so. Meanwhile, the Trump call is getting slowly more insistent. Suddenly its level of insistence increases dramatically - Jihx is not going to be able to hold it off for much longer. Skyrie can tell that someone is Trumping Jihx, and scans his Trumps. He can tell the call is from Etienne and tells Jihx this. Jihx jumps through his Trump contact before he loses it altogether...
Jihx finds himself miles above the ground in thin, cold air. And falling. Suddenly the Trump contact with Etienne opens up. As Jihx plummets to earth he decides to join Etienne, who he can see is in Vitesse. Etienne brings him through and Jihx explains what happened. Etienne tells him about her theory of using a modified version of her 'Ascend to Heaven' spell to instead make a gate to go through to Hell, instead. She thinks this may take a few hours to sort out though. Jihx agrees that this is not an unreasonable idea.
Etienne leaves the inn in Vitesse and goes off, shifting shadow as she does. After a short while she finds a Stonehenge-type structure in a clearing on top of a wooded hill, surrounded by other wooded hills in a Vitesse-like shadow and begins to conjure up a gate to Hell.
As she does this Jihx Trumps Skyrie to tell him what happened. Skyrie has ordered the skeleton of the latest victim to wander off, spreading The Word Of Skyrie, and has also heard various noises that sound like the entire population of the village is attempting (not very well) to sneak away without being noticed.
When he gets through Jihx rejoins Skyrie in Jalku to try his method again.
In the shadow of the militant atheists, Caitlin bids her army farewell, orders them to prepare for the next attack, and leaves off through shadow. Terrar bids her farewell and gives her a hug as she leaves.
Once clear of the army she Trumps Skyrie using the sketch of himself he gave her earlier.
In Jalku, Skyrie feels the contact coming on strongly and puts up Trump defence against it while he figures out who it is. He is pretty sure he would not have been able to hold her off for long even with Trump defence, but lets her in when he sees who it is. They exchange news. Caitlin joins Skyrie and Jihx in Jalku.
The last of the Trump power in the sketch she has of Skyrie disappears as she enters the shadow.
The situation having been explained, Caitlin gleefully volunteers to find a sinful believer in the now almost completely abandoned village. Five minutes of crashing through houses kicking in doors and flinging furniture about is rewarded with a woman in her mid-twenties hiding under a bed. Caitlin flips the bad against the wall, one-handed, and roughly drags the woman out to Skyrie and Jihx.
While Skyrie sketches her, Jihx asks her if she took part in the burning of the heretics. She says that she did.
He then demands to know her worst sin. She says it is Pride. Jihx condemns her to 'The Tombs' for this sin (and the sin of wrongfully burning the 'heretics').
Jihx then Trumps her with Skyrie's new artwork and Caitlin accepts the role of executioner. When Jihx has brutally forced the Trump contact, the woman is decapitated. Skyrie then turns her into another animated skeleton which carries it head about under its arm.
The woman's spirit seems to move away as the last one did. Jihx maintains the contact (also boosted by the life force from Skyrie's spell). After some minutes, when the contact is very faint but still there, Caitlin joins Jihx's contact to provide him some support. This helps considerably. After almost fifteen minutes the effort of maintaining the Trump link (by now it requires a lot of effort to hold open) plateau's out. Only a greyish-brown static-y blur is visible through the Trump link with, perhaps, occasional shapes moving in it (although these might just be effects of the static itself). Skyrie is told the situation and then also joins the Trump link. He attempts to turn it into a physical Trump gate, rather than just a normal link. After another couple of minutes the gate is formed, and a large, physically present, version of the greyish-brown static-y blur appears in mid air in front of the three of them, edged in Trump-purple. Skyrie can sense that the Trump the energy is leaving the Trump sketch at a considerably higher rate now than when a Trump sketch is used normally.
Jihx leaves the Trump link (lots more effort falls on Caitlin and Skyrie to hold the link open as he does so) and steps through the gate. As he does so, he notices that it feels a bit weird - not quite link a normal Trump link.
As far and Caitlin and Skyrie are concerned, Jihx steps through the Trump gate as if it is not there, then falls to the ground, on his face, in the mud. He is dead!
From Jihx's point of view, he steps out of the gate at the other end. He is on a path through some dark, menacing woodland. The gate is visible behind him, through which he can see Caitlin and Skyrie, both with concerned looks on their faces. There is no sign of the woman, but there is a hugely powerful sense of the presence of God here.
In front of him there is a high stone archway over the path, which is visible continuing beyond. It consists of a pair of pillars with a keystoned arch of stone blocks joining them. Inscribed upon the arch in dim colours are the words:
Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Jihx takes out a Trump of Connor, noticing as he does so a snake ring on his hand that was not there before, and concentrates upon it.
Slooooowly a Trump link begins to form, and the Trump starts to glow purple, which is unusual. Jihx puts huge amounts of effort into the task and after a while the link opens up. Connor appears to be in a desert with flakes of fire falling on him from the sky (which vanish when they hit the ground but not when they fall on him), naked and covered with burns. "Please, help us, dad," he begs.
Jihx tries to bring him through, but cannot make physical contact with him. Nemain is also there, in similar condition to Connor, and also joins the Trump link. "Help us, daddy," she begs.
In shadow Jalku, at this point the last of the Trump power drains from the sketch of the woman which Skyrie made, and the gate disappears. Damn.
Caitlin and Skyrie decide to return the three Amberite bodies to Amber. Caitlin finds a couple of buckets to carry the ashes of Connor and Nemain in. Skyrie is still wondering why (and possibly if) it didn't work properly. They scoop the ashes into the buckets, pick up Jihx's corpse, then Trump the Amber arrival courtyard.
Contact is quickly made, and they go through. Having been passed by the guards, they head off into the Castle to tell Vialle the bad news. Servants are assigned to carry the body of Jihx and the two buckets to the Unicorn Chapel.
Meanwhile, Etienne has succeeded in creating a gate to Hell. One of the openings in the Stonehenge-type structure she found fills with masonry, in the centre of which is an iron-bound door, very strong-looking, with a large bar to secure it, if necessary. However, the door is open at the moment, revealing a path and dark, menacing-seeming woodland beyond.
Having done this she attempts to Trump Jihx, but she gets no response...
Back in wherever, Jihx tells Connor and Nemain that he will be back to save them and cuts the link. They do not look happy when he does this. Searching through his deck, he finds that the Trump sketch of Skyrie has gone and, when he tries them, that the Trumps of Etienne, Caitlin and Amber do not work. Bad.
He then tries his Trump Gerard - and a link starts to form! Slooowly the link opens up, the Trump glowing purple as it did when he Trumped Connor, to reveal somebody, probably Gerard, frozen into ice with only their frost-covered face exposed on the other side.
It does indeed seem to be Gerard. When Jihx asks him what happens, he explains that he ended up where Jihx is, went through the arch where there was a ferryman who took them across the River Acheron to a huge marble palace. In the palace a Minotaur named Minos judged him and sent him to where he is now. He too asks Jihx's help to get him out.
Etienne gives up on Jihx and (reluctantly) Trumps Caitlin instead. As she does so the gate into hell reveals Jihx walking past. Jihx also sees the gate appear (an iron bound door from his side too), breaks the Trump link to Gerard, and leaps for it.
As he passes through the door Etienne sees him disappear and turn into a bodiless spirit-form hanging in the air. This spirit form starts to fizz away into the air, and Etienne encourages him to return through the gate. Jihx does so, reluctantly.
They cannot hear one another through the gate, so they mouth things to each other through it instead. They both notice that Jihx appears to be an inch or so smaller than he was before!
In Amber, Caitlin and Skyrie find Vialle in her office, again with a secretary who seems to be reading documents and so on to her. They tell her about Connor, Nemain and Jihx. Vialle is not pleased or indeed terribly impressed with our progress, and who can blame her?
She offers to tell Queen Moire the news about Jihx and sends the two of them away to continue. She advises them to try and not lose any more Amberites in the process.
Caitlin then feels a Trump call coming on and reluctantly takes it. It is Etienne (the call has taken a longer time than normal because Etienne is in a fast-time shadow). News of Jihx's appearance behind the gate is passed on. The theory that if Jihx's body is present he can re-inhabit it if he comes out again is suggested and discussed. We agree that it is probably the best way to go for now, so Caitlin and Skyrie go to fetch Jihx's body from the Unicorn Chapel.
Meanwhile, Etienne receives a Trump call from Arun. He has finished racking spells, and comes through to her. They exchange news. Arun says that he could probably undo the damage causes by Jihx's body being dead so it would be more suitable for him to inhabit if he comes through the gate again. As they discuss things (and wave to Jihx on the other side of the gate to Hell), Caitlin Trumps Etienne. She, Skyrie, and Jihx's body come through the Trump link to Etienne.
Arun looks at Jihx's body. His right arm elongates into a tentacle which plunges into and merges with the back if Jihx's head! He begins to fix the corpse to make it suitable for the plan.
Etienne writes a note to Jihx explaining two courses of action and holds it up to the gate from him to read. The two courses are:
At about this time Jihx's body starts to breathe, under the control of Arun, and its skin starts to take on a more life-like colouration (Arun also makes Jihx's body super-fertile while healing him, that is, as fertile as a normal shadow human rather than a pretty much infertile Amberite; he does not bother to tell anyone else this).
Jihx indicates that he prefers option one and steps towards the gate, only to be stopped by a sign from Arun.
After a moment Arun signals for Jihx to proceed. Jihx holds his breath (!) and steps out of the gate. The same thing happens as before - Jihx disappears as he goes through the gate, leaving his spirit (which everyone can sense) fizzing away in the air in front of the gate. But then Jihx senses a 'hole' in front of him that he feels a strong affinity for. Still fizzing away he 'leaps' into the hole. It fits - if a little 'looser' than before - Jihx is alive again!
Jihx is not, initially, in control of his body - Arun is - but Arun quickly withdraws the tentacle from Jihx's head and lets him have his body back. Jihx then explains about Connor, Nemain and Gerard, and what he learnt from Gerard about the arch, the boatman and the Minotaur. Etienne recognises the descriptions from parts of her Christian religion:
Skyrie grabs a small animal which happens to be wandering past, ties it to a string and throws it through the gate. It struggles. Skyrie pulls it back. It is still alive. He then looks for a person to try the same experiment on (using the Pattern).
He leaps into the undergrowth and pulls out a teenage boy who was, it seems, watching us. Skyrie sketches him. The boy is most indignant and tries, futilely, to escape. Skyrie then forcibly Trumps the boy and throws him through the gate. The Trump link cuts out immediately and the boy's body lands on the path on the other side of the gate.
The boy stands up and looks around. Etienne goes around to the back of the gate and looks there. A solid, door-less wall of masonry is visible, but not a body. On the other side of the gate the boy shakes his fist at Skyrie and runs off into the woods. Etienne chases after him and shouts warnings to him that the animals in the woods will kill him. He does not stop running. Etienne returns.
Plans are discussed to rescue Connor and Nemain. The others are also discussed, but Jihx is rather focused on those two for now. Caitlin is sent (though she mocks Jihx's orders) to fetch the bodies of Connor, Nemain, Gerard and Lillian from the Unicorn Chapel in Amber. She Trumps off to Amber, hurries to the Chapel, collects the bodies and Trumps Arun (who has said he will stay outside the gate).
Jihx, Skyrie and Etienne step through the gate into Hell. Once through Skyrie steps back again to make sure that he can, then back into Hell. Skyrie notes that his magic will not work here. Etienne notes that hers will!
Etienne Trumps Lillian. As before the Trump glows purple and the link opens up slowly to reveal Lillian, gritting her teeth, knee deep in some bubbling red fluid. She also appears to have a few crossbow bolts sticking out of her. From the look of things she is up to her knees in boiling blood. Others are also in the lake of boiling blood, submerged to various depths. Etienne recognises this as the River Phlegethon - the first ring of the seventh circle of Hell - where the tyrants and murderers go. Etienne explains things to Lillian, who is not very civil, but Etienne excuses this, then closes the Trump link.
After some discussion with Skyrie, Jihx Trumps Nemain. Slowly contact is made, and Skyrie concentrates on turning the link into a gate. He succeeds, and the image appears in mid-air, edged in purple and visible even to those (such as Etienne) who are not in the Trump link. Jihx tries to reach through the gate to Nemain, and succeeds in making physical contact. He grabs her. As he does so, Connor also grabs her and they are both pulled through the gate to us.
As they go through the gate the pair disappear and start to fizz away in the same way as Jihx did! Oops!
Jihx goes to push them back through, but pauses as Etienne takes out a bottle, chants some words and sucks Nemain's spirit into the bottle. Jihx pushes Connor back into hell; neither he nor Nemain seem happy at this! Once Connor is through Skyrie allows the gate to shut. Etienne gives Jihx the bottle. The spirit of Nemain is visible swirling around inside.
Outside, Caitlin Trumps to Arun with the two bodies and two buckets of ashes. Arun begins trying to fix them.
As he does this, dark clouds are gathering overhead and the sense of God's presence is increasing all about them.
Caitlin steps through the gate into Hell to warn the others of this, then steps back out. As soon as she returns to talk to Arun a vast lightening bolt flashes down from the sky, scattering Connor and Nemain's ashes, crisping Gerard and Lillian's bodies, and badly injuring Arun. The bolt also strikes one of the standing stones, leaving behind the words 'I AM NOT MOCKED', written in foot-tall letters of fire. The door into Hell starts to swing closed. This is not Etienne's doing!
Etienne quickly leaves Hell and shifts to a shadow that does not have a God, muttering about her faith as she does so.
As the door to hell starts to swing closed Jihx and Skyrie also leave Hell.
They grab Arun and as many bits of the various bodies as they can and Trump to Amber. The link quickly forms and they go through with their grisly cargoes. Skyrie parts with an "Up Yours God," which results in the letters burning on the standing stone flaring up, and a bright flash of lightening...
Caitlin, Jihx and Skyrie appear in Amber. As soon as they arrive Jihx notices that Nemain is fizzing away inside her bottle. He instantly Trumps Etienne.
Etienne, when in a safe shadow, Trumps to her slow Enchanted Earth with the 'sane' God. It is here that she feels a Trump call coming on. She takes it. It is Jihx, who quickly joins her there. The spell on Nemain's bottle begins working fully again; there is still plenty of her left (!). Etienne starts to pray for another 'entrap mind' spell to hold Connor. Jihx remains with her while she does this.
In Amber, Arun quickly heals and recovers consciousness. He is sent off to resurrect some more bodies - starting with Nemain.
Caitlin and Skyrie go off for some lunch...
Session 3.4 Index Session 3.6
Skyrie's Diary for This Session