the League conveens…

As they recharge on the LeyLine, Valen sags into exhaustion, barely able to stand. Treetown to the west heavily mined, Ortonvill a smoldering ruin with little medical services, they seem to have nowhere to go. Then comes a warm chiming noise from their TCDL communicators:

Opening one shows a data connection script as the device links up with the TCDL central server and begins transmitting…

*msg enc async mode active leynet 754.magic.pigeon.link -ONLINE*

FROM:C/H
Topic: ATTENTION: URGENT TCDL MEETING CALLED IN TWO DAYS @ 2200hr
All members requested at TCDL central for discusion of recent Edict of Planetary Distress Issued by Plato, Head of the Council of Learning at the Free State of Lazlo.

Hearing the Edict, Valen simply grimaces and states “It is as Kymnarkmar has long fortold, the Devourer is moving on earth, and evil is spreading surely as ripples spread from a rock tossed into still water. Take me to the leaders of your TCDL and I will speak unto them Kymnarkmar’s wisdom.”

Arriving at TCDL headquarters, MAGE remembers he does in fact still maintain a small residence here. The headquarters are in a converted missile launch tube outside of town. Outside quickly turns into a festival like atmosphere, with oddities arriving from all directions. The above ground building at the TCDL headquarters is a small farmhouse and barn.

Quickly it becomes apparent that the numerous arrivals are going to overfill the bases modest interior, and a structure resembling a stage is being built outside the barn from what appears to be random scrap metal.

Notable arrivals:

Rez riding a beat up alcohol powered motorcycle with“ Peek glowering on the back.

Johny Cardinal and Richard Helion, renowned members of Art/Brutal and informal leaders of the TCDL. They each have 6 followers in the form of young children who refer to them as “teacher”. They currently share power directing the Leagues overall strategy in the absence of the founder of the League, Dresdyn.
A prerifts converted bus containing 20 hippie looking folks, with dreadlocks, brightly colored shirts and many children. Carry no weapons.

A pale man in a impeccable black suit arrives in a black hover-limo driven by a Robot. Claims to be Ernst Vinien.

Sir Bokobo, Noli Cyberknight representing the 1st Calgary Volunteers

Lord Murgesh and 3 Lieutenants riding Rhino Buffalo representing the Vultures of Tolkeen.

Trader Joe Naruni Sales Rep

Captian Lucia Chen of Robot Control and Joe’s obvious bodyguard (and 10 troops heavily armed with Naruni weapons). They take Joe to and from the meeting in a Death-Knight assault robot followed by numerous Naruni hover pods. Two of the troops wear Mecha-Knight Powerarmor and fly an honor guard for the robot vehicle.
The troops carry 2 heavy attach cases each, stocked with items which they proceed to hawk to anyone with the credit.

They are selling Plasma Cartridge Rifles and Pistols for 70/50k 40cr a round. They are also willing to give anyone wealthy looking a test drive of a NE-030 Spy Drone, on sale today for a cool 5,999,995cr.
Warlord Corin Scard, Mida Elektis, Malik Savant, representative of Tolkeen’s Circle of Twelve. They sit off to the edge of the meeting in special vip seating surrounded by bodyguards and sycophants.
Gordo, Laramac representative of The Hackers’ Consortium. He’s selling something out the back of his beat up hoverpickup… or so you think from way hes yelling while waving a hand above his head. That or he has to go to the bathroom, who can tell with Laramacs…
Goezumi & Nacaeder, Dragon Heirs of Freehold. Sit far apart and eye each other, and Drago

.
The Great Purple Mage & Ursus, Mayor of Hill Crest.
and his Military Genera(p78 mercs)

Simaraf, herbalist from Laramy. Wears a simple black robe and caries a gnarled stick. Has an akwardly friendly way about him. He is a Mystic and herbalist of some acclaim who owns a shop known to have assisted the TCDL in the past.
(is heard muttering to himself “interesting, how very interesting” over and over…)

Plato, a kindly old man via magic portal live from Lazlo

Katmandu (old friend of Drago’s) He wears a patch over one eye and carries a strange alien item tied to the end of a stick. It glows faintly red in the light and you think you see an LED blinking somewhere under the rawhide which has been used to secure it to the end of the stick.
By the end of the second day, a large group of a few hundred concerned citizens and members of TCDL has formed. Also arriving is Dr. Gellers Carnival of Wonders (p67 new west) who starts profiting off the idle crowds with games of skill and chance aranged on the back of their wagons.

Finally the time comes, a large crowd gathers around the haphazard stage. Richard Helion is a skinny brown skinned man who takes to the podium on stage.

“Greetings, members of the Tolkeen Civil Defense League, and our honorable guests..” he intones.

“Many of you have traveled long miles to get here, and with great risk. But rest assured your coming was of the utmost importance. Each of you understands what is at stake here or you would not have arrived on such short notice. Now then, I will leave you with Plato, live via Rift to Lazlo…”

With much ado, Goezumi steps into the stage, drawing a circle there. He utters a sound in dragonese (”come forth elder”) and activates the circle with a flash of light. After a moment, directly above him appears Tannhauser, an Adult Great Horned Dragon, one of the Dragon Kings of Freehold.

“GREETINGS, LITTLE ONES” Tannhauser roars.

“I WILL SHOW YOU PLATO, NOW. LISTEN WELL TO HIS WORDS”

He then opens a Rift. On the other side sits a man behind a desk in a room with finely polished wood paneling.

*plato reads edict from sb2*

After the reading Tannhauser roars in sadness and says “PONDER HIS MESSAGE LITTLE ONES”

Then in a much more jovial voice he goes on: “PLATO! IT HAS BEEN CENTURIES SINCE WE LAST PLAYED STONES. LET US PLAY AND SPEAK MORE OF YOUR EDICT IN PRIVATE”

He then says something quietly into the ear of Goezumi , and steps into the rift, closing it behind him”

Helion again takes the podium. “Thank you for that, Goezumi . We of the TCDL are in gratitude to Freehold’s support in discussing this issue”

Scaard speaks up: “Helion, don’t tell me you understand any of these vague predictions do you? What exactly does this MEAN for all of us? Tolkeen’s defenses have held off plenty in the past, why are we to believe these will be different?” The murmors of the 20 heavily armed bodyguards surrounding Scaard confidently echo through the clearing, as the rest of the attendees fall silent and look on them nervously.

Helion shrugs and stares back at Scaard. “Commander, we mean not to disparage the skill of Tolkeen’s valiant armed forces. Your men do a fine job keeping order in the city but I fear these problems may be greater than you realize”

Scaard laughs harshly before barking a command to his men “ten-HUT, move em out sold-JERs”. As his men begin filing off he turns in the saddle of his robot horse. “Find me when you get some real intel other than this vague mumbo jumbo crap”

Mida and Malik stand under a shelter deployed form the side of the black limo, speaking with its occupant. The purple mage catches their attention and the Limo drives off.

Helion clears his throat over the commotion and states over the PA system:

“Well then, again I would like to thank all of you for coming. The TCDL has always had a mutually beneficial relationship with Tolkeen’s standing army and allies. However with the dark days our more sensitive members know are coming, there are a few active plans I would like us to consider as soon as possible”

He takes out a laser pointer and points to a holographic image which comes out of a small black box mounted on the stage.

“Devourer possibles” says the slide, and then with bullet points:

Xiticix (bug Icon, fades away with a crack of lightning to Images of the..)
Coalition

Something else?

“Again, these are the most well known threats to our Kingdom as far as we know it. Every year the Xiticix encroach a bit closer to Tolkeen’s boarders, as do the Coalition. But which if any of them are the culprits? And what of those other strange prophecies?”

I recommend we assist Scaard by increasing our weapons imports from Northern Gun by 50% over the next few weeks.

He won’t admit he needs help, oh no not that guy, but just to be safe we should begin stockpiling now. I am going to put forth a petition to Creed to create a reserve army from members of the general populace. A lot of Tolkeen citizens are not skilled in Magic but would fight to protect their country if given the chance. I am sure we could have a battalion at least for use in conscription if the city does one day fall under siege. I know it sounds impossible, but we must think about the needs of Tolkeen far in to the future if we are to survive.
He puts up a slide showing two line-graphs, one ziz-zags down while the other zig-zags up.

“My numbers show an increase in Coalition aggression towards the merchants importing from the Northern Gun area. The united arm’s dealers aliance UADA has been a friend of the League from the start.

They notice public opinion of Tolkeen in NorthernGun territory is shifting from tolerant to leery at best. The situation here seems to degenerates into ongoing boarder skirmishes with Coalition forces. We need a discreet squad of TCDL members to head the journey to NG. Our last 2 trade emissaries disappeared, so this will be a dangerous job. Securing additional armaments to protect Tolkeen has to be one of our number one priorities!

The Naruni floats up to Richard on a hover-chair. “Fear not, I Trader Joe have heard of this increased misfortune in business you share with Northern Gun. Can I not interest you in fine Naruni goods?

Richard eyes the Naruni skeptically “Perhaps it was you who caused problems with NG, in your eagerness to increase your own profits?”

“Oh no sir, I am but a humble Trader Joe” Says the Naruni sincerely, however you suddenly notice the three hover pods floating around him seem to have sprouted a few extra weapons nozzles…

Richard dismisses him “Go sell your goods elsewhere, I have heard of the prices you charge and I am afraid we have not the credit for such alien hardware”

“But sir!” shouts someone from the back “Surely we can pilfer from the pockets of the Coalitions own to pay for such a noble effort?”

There are murmurs in the crowd and the Noli starts frowning deeply.

Richard has a slight smile and goes on “Yes, and that is part of plan two. We must increase our intelligence gathering outside the borders of Tolkeen, especially to the south east. The recent nuking of the Fargo hive proved most troublesome. Did anyone ever locate the hive and assess its damage?” After some discussion about the reason of recent Coalition covert ops that have been so active behind Tolkeen’s lines, he goes on.
“No matter, the Triangular defense system of Tolkeen has withstood the Coalition’s might in the past, I do not believe their tactic has succeeded in driving the Xiticix to war with us. But I have several small Villages to the southeast I would like TCDL representatives to negotiate information-sharing agreements with. We must bring all in the path of the Coalition to the fold, for their own safety and ours.

“We already have Hillcrest” he says with a smile to the Great Purple Mage, but I would like TCDL agents to meet with people from Hogswaller, Borderline, Mad Town and Chimera. Deny affiliation to TCDL and Tolkeen if you must, but we must insure warning of Coalition troop movements in those areas reaches our ears well before they penetrate too deeply into the Kingdom.

Nevertheless I believe we must initiate more long range recon squads into Wisconsin, we simply do not know enough about the Coalition’s movements out there. If we can get enough reliable recon from our contacts we should be able to exact a fairly good revenge in aquired hardware and slain Coalition scum.
“Now I will have an open forum on recent news and trouble sighted in the Tolkeen area.”

Numerous members stand and recount tails of increased aggression from Skeleton-motif clad warriors attacking Tolkeen trade routes.

The Noli mentions his group has heard of a CS incursion locked in battle with forces at Soloman. The city is known to be neutral to both sides which is strange, but none the less Tokeen has sent a force to repell the Coalition. They seem to be holding them off for now.

Simaraf mentions that he would like to lead a group to Africa to search for one of the evils mentioned in Plato’s edict.

Telling of how Ortonville’s inhabitants were recently hauled off by the Coalition, Richards face darkens.

“How can this be?” He says angrily. “We have reliable information inside the Coalition that there were no active special forces at work in Tolkeen this month. This information was bought with the blood of our supporters. Surely what you speak of must be the work of these “Skeleton raiders” whoever they are!” He trails off sputtering before continuing a bit unsteadily. “However if you ARE right and they were Coalition, the command to work so deeply behind Tolkeen’s lines would have had to come from…” he stops with a choke “the highest levels of the Coalition…otherwise our Measures could have…decrypted it.” He trails off into technocan speaking of encryption algorithms and why he is unable to decode orders.

*coughs* “Anyway, we must free those citizens! Even the backwoods Barony is enough of an Allie to Tolkeen that we cannot simply let its citizens be carted off to god knows what fate!”

Valen quietly clears his throat.

“If you will Sir Helion, I would like my chance to speak at your podium”

“Oh?, Well then go ahead I was about done anyway.” Says Richard despondently. At this point many of the TCDL members have begun quietly speaking to themselves and quite a few aren’t really paying attention.

Valen hobbles up the steps to the podium. He turns his head across the crowd, of about 200 remaining members of the various organizations and community groups whose representatives have been invited. “Thank you” his says with some effort “for taking the time to hear what have to sa-y” his voice cracks with a metallic grind, and you can see him grimace in pain.

“Have you seen it?” He asked hurriedly, gesturing wildly then wincing at what
might be a cracked rib.

“I could almost feel it in the air…the unspeakable evil…when my captors passed the remains of the Fargo hive. There I saw madness, the shambling bodies of badly disfigured Xiticix wobbling about in a grotesque parody of life. Whatever the Coalition did to that hive, the hive has been shown to be rotten in the middle. More rotten with Styphon’s evil than anywhere else close.

Tell me, did you see his symbol on any? *he traces the symbol seen earlier on the super warrior”.


.. it is a …manifestation you might say, of his essence…”

He trails off coughing, and after spitting up a little blood he continues to speak.

“It is time you know more of my past, for my time here may be short and you must all live on to retell these tales.
I am Valen of the Bagh-Dach Clan of True Atlanteans.

My brothers in Dragonwright, bless them, and I were descendants of peoples sent to guard the 13 sacred seals set through out the earth. You see, long before humans were granted intellect by the gods, the Dragons-gods realized the potential and had already put in plans to guard Earth. In his infinite wisdom, Kymnarkmar knew that mankind could grow to be a powerful race. He also knew that this Earth was important.

My ancestors taught me this Earth is a Keystone planet, meaning that it acts as a stabilizer for all planets linked to it, via magic, gravitation, or any other force.

As Civilizations on Earth grew, my people were sent by Kymnarkmar to protect Earth. According to legend, a great protection spell was laid upon her skin. To do so the ancients had to sanctify 13 points with a ritual known only to the high priests of Dragonwright.

By the time my people the had come to dominate this Earth, man’s civilizations were barely a flyspec in comparison to what we had. And in those times the majority of Atlanteans were… shall we say.. hesitant to embrace the wisdom of balance and restraint endowed upon the lucky followers of Kymnarkmar. In their arrogance they brought destruction to earth, draining her magic and inactivating the great 13 set by Kymnarkmar’s will into
her skin. Thus ended the first age of Dragonwright.

We true followers of Dragonwright did not merely flee this planet as did many of our kind, no we stayed, and nurtured the civilizations of man that grew up around the sacred seals.

I only know of a few of the Seals locations. Few people of my age even believed that they existed. But we the faithful knew of some of their locations, and guarded them well.
In the rites of Kymnarkmar, it is uttered that:

“Battle the devourer, he who seeks to corrupt the seals and weaken keystone earth.

Give him no quarter lest he break free of his unholy prison.

Let the faithful of the true church of Dragonwright watch over these seals with zest.

Prevent their falling to evil for they can undo this world, and all worlds.

Woe to the man who stands idle while a seal lies deconsecrated.”

He hesitates, frowning sadly before continuing:

“Some of us still guarded the seals well until the Darkening. Our followers survived the return of magic to this land, and again convinced what good people remained around the seals to take up their protection. But with the coming of the rifts, the Devourer’s prison was weakened, and he began to…seep out into the world. Strengthened by Earth’s new mystical forces, I believe Styphon himself birthed Syphathal into this reality.

No one knows for sure what the foul beast Styphanthal’s origins are, but his direction at first was clear. He stopped at nothing to bring about the total annihilation of any and all followers of the true Church of Dragonwright. We faltered before his fury, and were slain or taken captive one by one until none was left.

Since I have heard this Syphathal makes a mockery all Dragongods. He has proclaimed HIMSELF a god, and supreme leader of the foul Cult of Dragonwright.

This heresay cannot continue, but I quibble not with religious doctrine or Syntax, but with all of our very survival. You see, his followers have managed to corrupt all the seals they know of. Mine was once located… somewhere around the area the old Man called Fargo… I…remember so little of it due to my torture at times…everything is a fog.. *coughs before continuing*

But I do remember my clan’s headquarters were the British Isles at Seal 9.

I was sent to Seal 11 in Fargo after the Europeans caused the fall of the Native American’s in that area. Until I arrived there were no surviving members of the church left to do Kymnarkmar’s divine work. I don’t know if any of my clan in the Isles survived, but surely some members of family Bagh and family Dach most exist somewhere there.

The only other Seals I know of were guarded primarily by other Atlantean Clans. Fellow followers of Dragonwright would sometimes share notes at the all clan meetings so I came to meet my fellow priests. A childhood friend, Monica of Clan Skellian was head priestess at Seal 4 in Puru. Then there was wise old Huang He of Clan Amaterasu, guardian of Seal 6 in China. I also know the Iliad Clan guarded Seal 8 in Crete. ”

He coughs, looking about at their reactions.

“Why should I care you must be thinking? Surely these are the prophecies of a madman? I do not expect all to embrace Kymnarkmar’s divine grace so easily. Surely even you can sense bad things ahead though?

Perhaps through the wisdom of the Dragonwright I can help steer you and those you care about safely through the difficult times ahead…the Devourer is coming! And through Kymnarkmar’s wisdom, I can show you when and how it will come…I swear it..we must reconsecrate the seals before it is too late…”
*coughing he continues*

“But know ye this, the way to the Seals is most likely fraught with danger begot from the evils which befell them in our failure. Evils yes, but according to legend to bring consecration to a seal so pleases Kymnarkmar and his brothers that blessings of mystical enlightenment are sure to fall upon the worthy. I beg of you great League of Tolkeen, lend me your most worthy champions, for Seal 11 must be cleansed or all will be lost!”
Valen then falls over, passing out. Close examination shows he is very weak and has lost alot of blood, its amazing he was even conscious at all…

“Ahem, yes well then now that the deluded old man has finally passed out, let this meeting of the TCDL be ended. Don’t forget to reapply for your monthly Freebooter license to operate in the east. If you do not have a license some of the more… aggressive security forces may think you the enemy. Scavenger hunts as usual, good luck and thanks for coming everyone, please do stay as long as you’d like.”

Richard and his supporters and friends then go back into the farmhouse.

“Don’t mind him” Says the Noli, “I would like to hear more of your friends story”.

“As would I” states Rez with a Grin! “Me too!” Says Katmandu.
The Noli states courageously “I have heard rumors of the cult of Dragonwright in the magic zone, lead by a beast known as Nrrii”…

Trader Joe makes one more offer for weapons sales before departing in his Robot.

The rest of the groups start departing, all eagerly discussing their part in the plans laid out by Richard.

By the time Valen is revived, no-one remains other than the Noli, Katmandu, and oddly enough Lord Murgesh. Valen’s entire speech was laughed at by most attendees though a few of the hippie folk did give him approving looks before departing.

Summary of possible goals:

Liberate Ortonville citizens

Make contacts in southeastern cities of the Kingdom of Tolkeen, Mizereen

Wisconsin Recon (Freebooting?)

Negotiate weapons contract on behalf of the TCDL with NG, delivering a 50% increase in supplies over the last shipment. (the last two shipments have gone missing).

Consecrate Seal 11