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Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The Giggling Dark: Session Sixteen


Sir Xellous: The 14 year old Celestial Knight, played by Ryan. He helped secure Thought-8, an elusive and powerful black Khen-Zai, for capture by the Celestial Knights. He's currently trying to figure out how to stabilize Thought-8, who had sustained significant harm, so that he can interrogate Thought-8 as to the whereabouts of his wife

Ikuinen Lampo: The star that gave Sir Xellous the ability to be a Celestial Knight in the first place. She's currently in the body of Genevieve, Sir Xellous' long dead sister. Yeah, that's a bit weird.

Ernzan: A former member of The Cursed of Xalmantra, a group that Ernzan claimed was completely defunct. He's since reformed and become a Celestial Knight under Tooma Tohoya, the star that Sir Xellous had recently rescued while Ernzan was off saving Michael from the Nameless.

Michael: Sir Xellous' ten year old brother-in-law, who had been forced by Ernzan to summon the Flammeous Lads that had kicked off this campaign. He's claimed to have received unique powers from his encounter with the Nameless, but nothing more is known so far.

Thought-8: A black Khen-Zai, one of the Passionless Ten, the ruling class of the Khen-Zai. His goals are to defeat the Nameless, a group of horrific extra-universal beings who have been trying to destroy  the universe since the beginning of time. He was captured last session while trying to kill Tooma Tohoya. He's on death's door, as of his moment.

Komas: The assistant to the Prime Minister of  King Varlur. He was the one who got Sir Xellous into a private audience with the king, who was then saved by Sir Xellous from falling prey to the Khen-Zai.

Other Celestial Knights began to come into the room where Sir Xellous, Lampo, Ernzan, and Michael were with Thought-8. Ikuinen Lampo quickly explained that she was in an Emissary form. There were such forms, what the Khen-Zai called Options A and B. "A" was phenomenally powerful but used a lot of energy, taking centuries to recharge. "B" took much less energy but required a fully willing person to let them borrow their corpse for revivification. Ikuinen Lampo was telling Sir Xellous this because she had the ability to restore Thought-8 to full health, but she wouldn't be able to maintain the Emissary form. It was something she was willing to do, but she wanted to get Sir Xellous' permission before she did it. Sir Xellous told Lampo that he would keep Thought-8 alive another way, somehow.

Realizing that the other Celestial Knights were a little too close for comfort (a black Khen-zai! What a novelty!)  Ikuinen asked them all to step back or help as they could, as Thought-8 knew where Sir Xellous' wife was. Sir Xellous knelt and begged for any help they could give him, prostrating himself in earnest. A woman named Loray awkwardly stepped out from the crowd and offered to help.  She was an expert on Khen-Zai anatomy.  She helped Sir Xellous scan the injured Thought-8's aura (all Celestial Knights can see auras). Loray stabilized Thought-8 and then spent the next four days helping Sir Xellous understand Khen-zai anatomy better, as she worked on bringing Thought-8 back to a more healthy state. During that time Telos, Ernzan, and Michael left to deal with some problems going on in Broadnough. Sir Xellous promised them he'd be there as soon as he could.

At the end of the fourth day Sir Xellous heard a commotion from outside. The other knights had found a gigantic Khen-Zai mech. One of the knights, Charu, wanted to jump into the mech and take the fight to the Khen-Zai. Sir Xellous, although dearly wishing to, passionately  argued against this; a lot more research needed to be done before they climbed into any strange machines. Charu called Sir Xellous a coward and a shirker of his duties toward his family, as Sir Xellous' story had become well known amongst the knights. Sir Xellous apologized for his lack of experience, interrupting Charu's tirade and confusing him. Not to be put off, Charu jumped on Sir Xellous' youth and inexperience, telling him that both of those things made it impossible to take him seriously. ; Sir Xellous retorted that experience wasn't necessary to see the flaws in this particular plan. Charu, worn out by his tirade and a bit confused, pause a moment.  Sir Xellous took advantage of the moment: he told the Charu that real courage required wisdom as well as boldness. Charu said that they were running out of time but Sir Xellous responded that didn't mean stupidity. But Charu refused to back down. The Khen-Zai were known to deliberately show up at planets, stay long enough to attract the Nameless there, and then leave right before they were attacked, leaving the planet as easy prey. Charu had seen this happen once, from the deck of an elven void ship. If they weren't going to use the mech they needed to leave, preferably by the end of the day. Otherwise the Khen-Zai would deem their planet to be not worth the effort of invading. Sir Xellous reluctantly agreed; he'd wanted to investigate the dead Khen-Zai they still had for enchanting bits and bobs he could use, as well as interrogate the now healing Thought-8 about Kora. Charu went with him, offering to help as he could.

Sir Xellous examined Thought-8's aura with Charu's help to make sure he didn't communicate improperly, as Khen-Zai talk through aura manipulation. Then, since he was the only Celestial Knight who had developed Aura Manipulation, Sir Xellous tried to talk with the unconscious Thought-8. Sir Xellous asked Thought-8 for information on Kora's whereabouts, in exchange for guaranteeing Thought-8's safety. Thought-8 waited a moment and Sir Xellous became afraid he would send out a distress call to the rest of the Khen-Zai. But Thought-8 agreed to the terms.

Kora was in Broadnough, married to Komas. She had just given birth. And the Cursed of Xalmantra had been sent out to make sure she drowned her son.

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