The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Nine, Trait Vote the Last

I still can't believe we're here. Seriously. This is amazing. This was the first solo campaign I started. I was sick of missing gaming, GMing in particular, and just needed something to do as I was cleaning the kitchen at night for my long suffering and angelic wife. But I had an idea. And it wouldn't leave my head. So I called Ryan, who seemed to be itching as badly as I was for a game. And we were having a blast! I decided to start putting the session posts up, just for fun. I figured it was a good, if incredibly dark, story about a boy turning into a man, and wanted to see what others thought of it too.

I've done not one. Not two. Not three. But five campaigns since then.

Five.

Turns out that people not only liked what I was doing with Ryan, but wanted to join in. And I've just been very steadily plugging away at this little blog ever since. I've added in other games, done reviews, even have a small group doing random things from time to time, and of course there's the Power Rangers posts! Can't forget about those. I'm insanely indebted to that community for reading and checking out the rest of the blog.

But it all started here.

We didn't intend to end this particular campaign here, honestly. There's a lot more to Xellous the Celestial Knight, Kora, and Threen. We're doing another campaign to find out what happens to them. That's coming and I'm so excited! But when we got done with Session Twenty-Eight something in my heart said "This is done. Cut it here." And when I thought it over we had gone well beyond the bounds of the dark gritty fantasy that Ryan and I had first envisioned. And that was fine and all, but I knew I needed to renegotiate what was going on in the game. Ryan was a bit surprised, but he agreed after I explained myself. We need a genre shift.

IN SPACE!

 But first, we have to wrap this game up. At the beginning of the Trait Vote this is what Xellous had, trait-wise:

Tenacious

Hardworking

Blunt

Tough as Nails

Commanding Aura

We decided to award two traits to Xellous, while removing one. Blunt went right out the window. Xellous hasn't been socially awkward in a long time. Between the two of us we came up with three traits: Sixth Sense (which is essentially Xellous's Aura abilities expanding on their own), Loyal to Kora (gives a fourth Belief about how much Xellous loves Kora), and Show No Fear (good luck scaring Xellous, which is really the only way he makes Steel checks at all. We nixed Sixth Sense, as that wasn't something that really developed in play, although it was cool! Loyal to Kora just made sense.

So now it's:

Tenacious

Hardworking

Show No Fear

Tough as Nails

Commanding Aura

Loyal to Kora

We also looked through his Reputations. Mysterious Stranger was nixed. Hero of Khouria was expanded to 3D, as pretty much everyone in the world would have heard about what happened to Khouria and Xellous and Kora's role in saving it. His reputation of Rogue Mutant Human was 2D with khen-zai. Xellous killed one black khen-zai and disgraced another, so that's now a 3D Reputation, changed to Dangerous Rogue Mutant Human. And then, because he had communed with an ascended start, he now has a Reputation amongst stars as The Ascended Human, at 1D.

And there we have it! You've got someone who started as a thirteen year old, socially awkward  enchanting savant and ended as a socially powerful Celestial Knight! What a journey!

And there's still such a way to go...

Become a Patron!

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Eight

Months ago Xellous, Telos, and Michael had left Threen alone with her thoughts. During that time she felt horrific remorse for drowning her firstborn son, Charles. Alone for months, she made a horrific wish. And now all the other humans of Khouria have been hulled of themselves, all thinking they're Charles. All because The Nameless had found her and hijacked her wishes. And now Xellous, Koras, and Telos were going to rescue her and destroy The Nameless.

Telos had his enormous greatsword. Kora had Pyra. Xellous had his khen-zai pistol. Little Gerard couldn't come with and Ikuinen Lampo was practically useless in a combat situation. So Kora hesitatingly put her baby into Ikuinen Lampo's arms. Gerard didn't even cry. He looked into Lampo's face and cooed. Kora glowered but relented, gripping Pyra, her superpowerful bow. Leaving the cart with Ikuinen Lampo and Gerard, Xellous, Telos, and Koraheaded twoard where they knew the Nameless were. Xellous changed their auras to resemble those of elves and their journey began. They came acrost a lot of humans who all said "Hi, I'm Charles!" Kora, Xellous, and Telos grew sadder and sadder with each fallen human they encountered. How far did the ruination of Khouria go?

They may have passed hundreds as they journeyed.

As they went over a hill they saw it.

A Nameless.

Its form was shifting into a mass of things... which made no sense.  They all stopped and stared. They couldn't look away. Kora screamed and ran as fast as she could.

The Nameless began shifting towards them.

Telos grabbed Kora and Xellous shouted at her. They needed Pyra to blast that thing open, now. Xellous unloaded his pistol at the Nameless, and it reared back.

Pyra flared.

The wolf's head turned into a bear's. The bear screamed like a woman. The scream had another scream that sounded like grinding steel. Smoke came out of its "chest" as the Nameless fell over.

A gigantic colorless hand reached out of the smoking hulk. Not black. Not even darker than black. Colorless. All hue fled with the advent of that hand. Out stepped something much larger than the Nameless it had inhabited. The world began to frost over, adding a few inches of ice within a few second around the Thing as it stood before them. Kora began to cry. Xellous and Telos were rooted to their respective spots in unimaginable fear.

Looking up, Telos whispered to Xellous: "That's a demon. An actual, real, demon."

Xellous could take his eyes off it. "Yeah... we're fucked."

"Yup."

"Wait, you said a demon, right?" Xellous's head was spinning. All of a the demonology he had studied while trying to figure out what Flammeous Lads were, all the time spent in the Observatory with the monks who were now dead. Something was clicking in his head. "Demons. Real demons. They're not supposed to be in the world. At all. Heaven forbids it."

They were running before Xellous was finished talking. Xellous grabbed Kora's wrist as he ran. The demon had been talking to Kora, telling her that he would make sure her entire life would be an entire hell for uncovering him here.

The whole world went white.

The earth shook in rolling rumbles that knocked everyone and everything over for tens of dozens of miles. They could only hear ringing. White flakes covered them. Xellous, Telos, and Kora were shaking like leaves as they stood. Behind them was a crate a quarter mile wild, and at least that deep. At the center of the crater was a man in white. Gulping, Xellous, Kora, and Telos went down to meet him.

The man's eyes hurt to look at. Something about those eyes just... there was too much goodness. Too much focus. Too much purity. The man was himself. And no one. And nothing else. No judgment could live within those eyes. Just existence. Shaking, Xellous thanked the man for saving them from the demon. The man thanked them, Kora particularly, for cracking the shell. Nameless were the camouflage the demons wore in order to travel the world undetected by Heaven. Now that the man was aware he wasn't going to leave until all the Nameless and the Demons were destroyed.

The man looked at Kora a moment. He grew sad. Walking up to her the man said there were pieces that were missing. But the man could bring them back. He put his hand on Kora's head.

A ball of light appeared in the man's hand. Xellous and Telos jumped. The man smiled and handed the ball of light to Kora; it vanished. The angel explained those were Kora's missing memories. Kora could reclaim them anytime she wished. She deserved that choice, and the man would never force that upon her. Kora thanked him, trembling. The man said he wasn't done saying thank you. He would take them to see Threen, Kora's mother.

They were in Xellous's house. It had rotted in the nine months Xellous had been gone. Threen was in a corner. Her clothes had rotted away; her ribs could be counted, as well as the bones in her legs. Xellous and Kora gasped. Threen stood up, somehow. Looking at Kora Threen began to croak; she was too dry to cry. Her shoulder shook and Kora wrapped what was left of her mother in her arms.  Kora supplied the tears.

"Mommy?"

Something that resembled a child in on name entered the room. Its eyes were burning coals of spite. When Threen had begged for her firstborn, her little Charles who she had drowned, to come back, The Nameless had answered with a simulacrum, a hollow mockery of Charles. This... thing... had been tormenting Threen for months, driving her insane, causing her to keep the rift to the world of The Nameless open, allowing them to corrupt the land of Khouria because of one mother who just wanted to apologize to the baby boy she had drowned.

Threen cried and screamed, begging for "Charles" to leave. Xellous looked at the angel, who nodded: Xellous had the ability to fix this, so he should. Xellous looked over at Telos, who smiled and nodded. Xellous needed no help in this. How long had it been since that hadn't been true? Xellous walked up to "Charles" and touched the snarling little monster. He exploded its little head with one push of aura. Threen collapsed in Kora's arms, sobbing with relief. Charles was gone. The man was was beaming with happiness, but silent. He stood next to Telos, who was drying his eyes silently.

After a few minutes the man asked Kora if Telos could borrow Pyra; he was going to help the man hunt down the rest of the Nameless and needed Pyra to crack the shell so the man could finish the demon off. Looking at Telos, Xellous felt suspicious. He asked fi the bow as coming back. The man and Telos both assured him that Pyra would be returned, even if it had to be teleported to the house. The man and Telos walked out the door.

Xellous came running out after them. He asked Telos if he was leaving. Telos paused a moment and told Xellous he didn't want to overshadow the reunion with Threen. She needed Xellous and Kora. The planet needed them. But not Telos. And Telos could see that Xellous was now in a spot where he was up to the challenge. He had what it took, and Telos couldn't help but feel proud that he got to watch it happen. But the man had told him he was needed back on his world, back on Heranyt. And so Telos had to go.

Xellous hugged Telos, who returned the hug with great warmth. Kora came running out at that moment, saying Telos had been not be fucking trying to sneak off. Telos laughed and thanked them both for saving his life. For being his friend. They thanked him in turn, for Telos had been a constant support to the both of them. Telos said nothing could have given him more pleasure.

Xellous asked the man's name as Kora and Telos embraced.

"Raphael". He gave Xellous a spear the size of his hand. When Xellous needed another miracle he'd know what to do.

Raphael and Telos left with Pyra.

Xellous found a bow in the house. Threen needed food. And Xellous was going to provide. The woods just outside their house had plenty of game.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Seven

Xellous finally told his wife, Kora, the truth about her lost memories. Curious about the mother she could no longer remember, Kora asked to go back to her mother, Threen, who still lived at Xellous's childhood home, the farmhouse. But things got complicated. They've been running into random humans who all claim to be "Charles". The eldritch horrors known as the Nameless lie in wait between them and Threen. And they just killed 7-of-10, one of the most important members of the horrific race the khen-zai. Xellous passed out in the attempt. This could very well be the end.

The first question out of Xellous's mouth when he regained consciousness was how they were still alive. They were in the wagon, which was stationary. Kora told him they'd all been asking that question. The instant they'd gotten Xellous's unconscious body back into the wagon Telos had driven it with a will that seemed to be aimed at killing their horse; they'd cleared twenty miles in three hours, due south, until they'd almost lost the horse. Telos was still jittery. He said as much.

A lightbulb went off in Xellous's head. He asked Ikuinen Lampo why the khen-zai hadn't bombed the planet to ash. An orbital bombardment hadn't struck them after killing 7-of-10. Why not kill all life and start all over, just in general? Lampo said the khen-zai had never shared their logic for doing anything and this was no exception. They'd never razed any planet they'd returned to. No guesses had ever been held to over the millennia. But Xellous was right: the khen-zai were not going to rain fiery hell on the planet.

Xellous's next question was why the Nameless hadn't eaten all life already, as well as why they were on this planet in the first place. Lampo told him the Nameless normally didn't just "show up" at planets: they had to be summoned. The dark elves of the planet Heranyt were able to summon and channel the Nameless. Kora asked how any of the elves could survive such an experience. Lampo told her that the elves could withstand the the Music of the Nameless extremely well. This was because of how strong emotions, typically Grief, were a part of their very genetics. Elves sometimes turned to dust if they were overwhelmed enough by whatever emotion they had chosen to embrace! But because of this dedication to a single emotion elves could resist the Nameless like no other creature; they even hunted the Nameless from time to time, and their Sword Singers were feared acrost the solar system.

Xellous and Kora were curious. Could Lampo find out what had drawn the Nameless here? Lampo told them that being in Genevieve's body (she had taken the body of Xellous's dead sister, Genevieve, to travel with them) she could not find out. She was a descended star and thus had no innate contact with the heavens anymore. But she could get in contact with an ascended star, a star still up in the heavens. Provided that someone could provide the ascended star with good enough directions the truth would be revealed pretty quickly. Xellous volunteered. He had a lot more power than Lampo did in her limited form and he wanted to see for himself. Lampo warned him that no mortal had ever interfaced with a star the way Xellous was talking about. But then again, no one had ever learned Aura Manipulation as Xellous had. If any human could do it Xellous was the one to accomplish it. Walking up to him, Lampo apologized to Kora.

Ikuinen Lampo passionately kissed Xellous. And all of a sudden Xellous was way up in space, right next to a pulsating star. Music, soft, gentle, and overwhelmingly powerful pressed upon him. The sheer power was staggering, but Xellous found that he could withstand it if he applied all his strength to it. He could hear Lampo and the star singing to each other, harmonizing in a soft but quick cadence. And all of a sudden Xellous could hear a whispered voice, asking him where he wanted to look. Xellous asked the star to show him the planet Pyheeta, his planet. The star obliged. There was Pyheeta and the atlases that held up Xellous's continent standing upon it. On a certain continent there was a patch of nothing, confirmed by the star to be the presence of the Nameless. Xellous asked if it was possible to see that patch in its past. The star told him that since light was time yes, he could been shown what the "patch" looked like in the past, including at its very origin. At Xellous's request star "rewound" time  to nine months previous, shortly after Telos and Michael had left to find Xellous. The void was coming out Xellous's farm house. Alarmed, Xellous asked if they could go inside the house, if they could follow the light down. The star warned Xellous that would sap Xellous of his remaining strength, but Xellous pleaded so insistently the star relented with a gentle sigh.

They were looking at Threen, Kora's mother. She was weeping at being left behind by Telos, Michael, and Xellous. She was mourning how she had drowned her firstborn, Charles, and screeching that none of this was her fault. It was the khen-zai  who had influenced her and destroyed her family, not her! And now she was alone, left by those who she had loved most. The void opened up, she looked into it, and asked "Charles?"

The void swallowed her up.

Xellous fell over in the wagon and threw up, sobbing. Kora held him as he apologized, over and over and over. Finally he told Kora what had happened. Xellous had failed Threen! She was dead, the Nameless had defiled Charles's memory, and it was all his fault, for not taking her to find Kora in the first place. Kora wept with him, in shock. Lampo couldn't contain herself either. Kkora finally told Xellous, after finally drying her eyes, the he couldn't have known any of this would have happened. Lampo agreed: there'd only been one other time when she was ascended that a human had summoned the Nameless with no help. Xellous couldn't have known. Kora told Xellous that it was the khen-zai who'd done this. they had targeted Kora's family, killed Xellous's father, schemed for a planet they'd abandoned. And Kora swore: they would pay. She had a bow that could even hurt the gods, thank to Xellous. And she was going to use it.

After a moment Lampo spoke. The Nameless had swallowed her husband whole, millennia ago. She had come to Pyheeta to make something herself into something more than what she was, and she hadn't gone and sacrificed her eternity in the heavens for the Nameless to come and just wreck the planet. Or the khen-zai. It was time to fight. It was time for all of their foes to pay.

Xellous stood. He agreed. The khen-zai would pay. But first they needed to save their planet from the Nameless, without the khen-zai.

Telos came in from seeing to the horse, which had recovered enough to go at a slow trot. It was time to go, but they needed a plan.

Xellous said he had one. He'd met elves before. He remembered what their auras were like. He could change their human auras to mimic elven ones. Which meant that stupid Music wouldn't hurt them.

Something was different as Xellous began to reach out to everyone's auras. He was different. Stronger. Meeting the ascended star had changed Xellous somehow. And that change let Xellous reach deep within himself, within his friends and family, to find that grief that the elves had used to cloak themselves, and he pulled it out of all of them, to be as if they were elves. It would hurt him to do it, to finish the process, but that was a sacrifice Xellous was happy to make. And they could all the feel the difference at the end. Xellous sank onto a bench, exhausted. He'd done it. They could withstand the Nameless.

Telos hopped into the driver's seat, and Kora pulled Xellous into a close snuggle, helping him ground. They were going back north. Back to the farmhouse. They would drive out the Nameless with a bow that could hurt gods, mighty magic from another planet, and the bond that had become so strong betwixt them.

It was time to wage a war.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Six

Xellous: the main character, a fifteen year old male played by Ryan. Last session he encountered the first side-effects of the Nameless, who can wipe humans of all their memories.. except these particular humans, who all seem to identify as Charles. Odd. Xellous wields a pair of bracers called Vulcan, which make him phenomenally competent in hand-to-hand combat, give him an understanding of khen-zai anatomy and tech, and set targets struck by him on fire.

Telos: A hero from another place, another time. Telos had gotten stranded on this planet in combating the Nameless, years ago, and is now traveling with Xellous and Kora.

The Khen-Zai: A wicked remnant of the unknown proto-race. They designed humans, elves, and numerous other races, to serve their perverted and twisted ends. When the Nameless manifested the khen-zai abandoned their creations to their own whims. Until now. Now they want their former property and the planets they're on back. One of their top leaders, 7-of-10, has claimed the right of parley with Xellous.

Kora: Xellous's wife. She had been kidnapped and had her memories wiped clean by the khen-zai. She has a baby son, Gerard, who is currently down for his nap. She wields the bow Pyra, which is known for being able to blow up practically anything it hits.



Kora was no longer panicked. She was reaching for Pyra. Xellous calmed her down, telling her this was the first time any khen-zai had come to just talk. That could not be wasted. this was different enough that they needed to find out what was going on. Kora glared at 7-of-10, bu she nodded assent.  Turning to 7-of-10, Xellous graciously thanked him for coming to talk to them, using the full ranger of aura communication that khen-zai used. The black khen-zai was impressed. The rumors about Xellous were all true: Xellous was seriously gifted in aura manipulation. He asked Xellous how he had managed to learn something so sophisticated, given humanity's penchant for rough materialism. Xellous shrugged; he had just picked it up, naturally. 7-of-10 could hardly believe a human could have done it, but the evidence was there before him. Xellous was unique.

7-of-10 told Xellous and Kora that the Nameless were just a bit more to the west, and that he had come to stop them from facing certain doom. that would be a shame, given how unique  and interesting a group they were. They had far exceeded all expectations of their stock, and the khen-zai had gone from annoyed to pleased with their progression. And they wanted to help Xellous continue to evolve. He was a far more valuable asset than enemy, as far as they were concerned.

Xellous asked to talk with Kora a minute, alone. 7-of-10 condescended. Stepping back a bit, Xellous asked Kora if this was she could go along with. Kora was pale and trembling, but she agreed that if the khen-zai could help them get to her mother they needed to follow up on that opportunity. She gave her assent.

Xellous came back to 7-of-10 and was about to-

Telos came along.

His sword rang, raging lighting began to pour out from within the blade.

Xellous and Kora shouted at Telos to stop! Interposing themselves, they explained that 7-of-10 wanted to talk about the problem of the Nameless, of whom they had no idea how to deal with themselves. It might help get to Kora's mother. Telos paused, and then put his sword back in its sheath, the lightning fading as he did so.

Xellous told 7-of-10 they were willing to talk. What did the khen-zai want to discuss? 7-of-10 said the khen-zai wanted to help Xellous develop a device that would allow him to face the Nameless... which had nothing to do with Telos, Kora, and even Ikuinen Lampo. They didn't need to see what the khen-zai had to show Xellous. Xellous needed to come with him, back to the mothership, The Triumph of Thought.

Xellous could see right through that.

They wanted a lot more of him than that. He wasn't being told half the truth.

Channeling as much as he could into his aura Xellous demanded 7-of-10 be honest with him., here and now. He said there was no way they would trust with the khen-zai with something like that, how stupid did he really think they were?? 7-of-10 screamed that that no evolved monkey could speak to him like that! A wave of destructive energy came out of 7-of-10. Xellous pushed Telos and Kora out of the way, covering himself in an aura shield. The blast, which ripped up all the ground around him, merely bruised him, but the effort of making the shield hurt his body more than the blast. He charged 7-of-10, hitting him and setting him on fire with Vulcan. Kora had an arrow flying from Pyra a second later. Xellous breathed a sigh of relief.

The arrow bounced off of 7-of-10's flaming armor, exploding behind him, harmlessly.

There was a jetpack built into 7-of-10's body, which was powered by his own biological aura. 7-of-10 threatened Kora, telling Xellous he needed to surrender, because 7-of-10 was going to kill her. Even now the khen-zai wanted them to work together, on their terms. It wasn't too late.

Xellous redirected the aura flow in 7-of-10's body into the jetpack and winced in pain at the toll it took on him. 7-of-10 fell to the ground, surprised. Xellous grabbed him, holding him in place. Kora screamed at Xellous to get the hell out of the way! Earth beneath 7-of-10 was reaching up, grabbing him, responding to Telos's spell. Xellous jumped, focusing all of his aching aura on keeping 7-of-10 from shifting away.

As he passed out from the pain he saw Pyra's arrow flash.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Five

Xellous: the main character, a fifteen year old human played by Ryan. He's a genius enchanter and a celestial knight. He was a knight of the realm of Broadnough, but with the death of King Varlur and the traitorous Komas there's really no one to hold him to that vow anymore. He and his amnesiac wife Kora had decided they were going to go back to see Threen, Kora's mother.

Telos: a hero from another planet, another time. He had contacted some elves to help them get to another planet with a nuclear reactor, which they were going to use to give the star Ikuinen Lampo practically unlimited power. The elves had left to do some scouting of the planet in question, promising to return shortly.

Ikuinen Lampo: the star of Khouria. She had sacrificed her life decades ago to sanctify the ground, so that way people who died upon it didn't return as undead. She currently has possessed the body of Genevieve, Xellous's dead sister, so she could travel with him. Oh, apparently she's in love with him? 

Khen-Zai: a race of genetically altered aliens, who had left the solar system thousands of years ago to fight the Nameless, eldritch horrors that wanted the death of everything. Now they've come back, and want their planets back from their former slaves. 

I would just like to take a minute to acknowledge that this campaign has gotten really weird. 

The elves did not show up when promised. Telos was concerned by that. But, try as he might, nobody responded to his beacons. The soldiers who had been sent out to get Threen had come back, in the wake of King Varlur's and Komas's deaths. In the absence of a clear successor to the throne fighting had broken out in Broadnough.  This made Kora want to leave even more! Broadnough was falling apart and she wanted to get Gerard out of the city. Xellous didn't necessarily want to leave. Broadnough was locked in conflict and he wanted to help. But Kora was adamant; Ernzen was here, he was already working at stopping the conflict, and it was unsafe for Gerard, which Kora was not going to bend on. Reluctantly, Xellous agreed.

Telos grabbed a gigantic cart right off the street, in the middle of a battle. They brought along the khen-zai cadaver that Xellous had brought from Khouria in the first place. Xellous set up a rolling lab of sorts, in the back of the cart, so he could modify his bracers. But first, he made a potion that enhanced bow accuracy and gave it to Kora, for a rainy day; she had begun to retrain herself with the bow so that way she could effectively wield Pyra.

It took one month to travel from Broadnough to Khouria. During that time, Xellous further worked his bracers, making the bearer immune to fire and also set targets touched on fire, if the bearer so wished. Ikuinen Lampo lent what little energy she had left, and Kora ran some menial tasks so Xellous could concentrate better on his work. Immensely proud of his twenty-two days of labor, he called the braces Vulcan.

With eight days left in the trip Xellous took his mind to enchanting some armor for Telos... and then Telos shouted that they needed to come out, and quickly. There was a man walking around, aimlessly. As Xellous approached him the man looked up and smiled "Hi, I'm Charles" he said. Xellous tried to question him, but the man reiterated that he, indeed, was Charles. Telos went pale; only the Nameless could have done that to someone. Humans were particularly vulnerable to the Nameless, getting "hulled" of themselves in a matter of weeks from hearing their "Music". Even humans that had blocked up their ears experienced the problem. Ikuinen Lampo said that the Nameless didn't have auras and stars could not see them because of it. In fact, no creature could withstand the Nameless on a constant basis.

Kora began to have a panic attack, looking at Charles.  She threw up. Charles screamed. Kora asked if that's what had happened to her. Xellous guessed that might have been so? But he knew nothing about about what had happened to Kora after she ahd been kidnapped, nothing at all! But they were going to find out. 

Kora asked how the khen-zai managed to fight a constant war with the Nameless and hadn't been wiped out as a race. Xellous went and looked the cadaver they had, to see how the khen-zai managed it. The khen-zai had engineered a special organ... or was it three?? This seemed to allow them to pull their aura into an insulated area in their brain. Doing this and then putting the immobile body into one of their mechs would allow the khen-zai to survive for months at a time before needing to get away. But however they did it? How they engineered this? Xellous would need more time to figure that out.

Charles had wandered off by this point.

The next day they met five more people claiming to be Charles. Two of them were little girls.

They saw three more the next day.

The day after that they found the crashed elven ship. It was smashed to bits and there was a lot of blood, but no bodies.... or supplies, for that matter. There were tracks (and blood) leading away from the crash. Xellous and Kora found a shallow grave a bit further on. As they headed back Kora asked why they bothered going. The Nameless were clearly around and one sound from them would wipe Kora, Xellous, and Telos clean. How on earth could they contend with that? Xellous  said they needed to know what had happened to Threen. And clearly the Nameless weren't everywhere, not yet, and didn't Threen deserve they take that chance?

Xellous all of a sudden felt a malevolence behind them. Kora turned and screamed, but was quickly calmed by Xellous. Before them stood a black khen-zai, who introduced himself as Thought 7-of-10. He wanted to talk with Xellous.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Four

Xellous: The fifteen year old human character, played by Kurlak. Recently his amnesiac wife, Kora, found out that she had been married to him before she'd lost her memories. Given that by this point Xellous had been talking to her for a good three months she wanted to know why. After saving her from a few flamemous lads and finding out that King Varlur was dead, Xellous told her her entire story. She told him that she had no way of knowing how she would handled it either. Xellous has a pair of gauntlets from an Apocalypse Beast's skin, which give him phenomenal hand-to-hand ability, along with a ring that lets him know a good amount about khen-zai tech. He is Ikuinen Lampo's celestial knight, which allows him to see and manipulate auras.

Kora: Xellous' wife. She has a son by the name of Gerard, who was the product of being raped by her father Altous, who she had killed herself. Kora was kidnapped by the khen-zai and somehow had all her memories removed in the process.

Ikuinen Lampo: The world's soil is corrupt; those that die come back as zombies or worse. Stars fell to the earth and died there to sanctify the ground. Ikuinen Lampo is one of those stars. She has possessed the body of Xellous' dead sister, Genevieve, in order to help him in his fight. She's also deeply in love with Xellous, and he seems to have been the only one to not notice, up until last session. She gave him a stone of star metal, which came from her star body.

Flammeous Lads: perverse creatures created by mothers killing their children.

Khen-Zai: A race of evil humanoids that are trying to re-conquer the planet. They cannot bear the presence of the stars that have died upon it without much pain, and so are trying to subvert and remove the stars who have died there. They talk and do everything through aura manipulation.

Komas: the prime minister. He had previously helped Xellous get to see King Varlur, who had knighted him as a reward. Komas had married Kora after she had her memory wiped and helped her deliver her son, Gerard. He now knows that Xellous is her previous husband, and has not really seemed to be at peace with that yet.

Xellous made his way to the main hall, where King Varlur had been killed. Seven flammeous lads, still warm hours later, lay on the floor. Xellous saw that Komas was giving directions to personnel. Xellous found himself pitying Komas; the man had not meant to take Kora from him, nor had he asked to be in charge of a whole kingdom. And here Xellous was, about to not just leave, but take Kora with him as well. And Xellous felt a twinge of guilt about that.

But first: reagents from seven flammeous lad bodies!! Time to get to work!

The aura of the room changed as Xellous work, to an environment that was passively annoying, like a constant high pitch whine. Komas came up to Xellous. He was pissed off: where the hell had Xellous, a sworn knight if the realm, been for the last few hours??

Xellous told Komas had been calming down Kora, Komas's "wife".

Taken aback, Komas told Xellous that wasn't his place. He was the one who had found Kora, not Xellous. Far as Komas was concerned he was Kora's true husband and Xellous had overstepped. Kora had transformed Komas's life and he wanted the world to be a better place for her. At any rate, Komas needed Xellous to go to the eastern reaches of the kingdom (the opposite direction from Xellous's home) because the instant the new of King Varlur's death hit that hotbed of treachery there would be an uprising and Xellous needed to be there to head if off. Xellous agreed, but after that he needed to be on his way. Komas was confused, where did Xellous think he needed to go?? To that silly off-planet mission he'd been talking about with King Varlur? The king was dead! The kingdom was in trouble! He was needed, here, now.

Xellous told Komas he thought that short-sighted. The whole planet was at risk, and Xellous had sworn an oath to that cause, which trumped anything going on in any one kingdom on the planet. Komas told him he was fighting the khen-zai by staying and making sure they didn't get a foothold in this kingdom, which was the most powerful on the continent. Xellous told him that was clearly too big of a view: the farmers and cows were just as important as the kingdom! Confused, Komas told Xellous the cows were a part of the kingdom. Xellous told him that was exactly his point; without making sure the whole wasn't protected by getting Ikuinen Lampo practically unlimited power the problem of the khen-zai invasion, which was causing problems with their kingdom in the first place.

Komas's mouth opened. And then shut.

Xellous told Komas that his duty had to be to the whole planet, that he genuinely wanted everyone to be safe. Xellous wasn't running. He cared about everyone. Komas said he knew that.

And then he pulled out a pistol. A khen-zai pistol. With practiced ease.

Xellous dove under the shot and knocked over Komas in one clean swing. He wasn't out, but he was down.

All of a sudden the aura interference snapped. It became a crushing presence, so strong that every human in the room, Komas included, passed out.  The pain and suddenness of that pain was so intense that nobody could be expected to remain conscious. But Xellous did not fall. His hands were white, holding the piece of star metal that Ikuinen Lampo had given him. he held it up, weathering the onslaught.

It ended.

Xellous still stood. He laughed: "Nice try", he taunted to the room through his aura.

All the flammeous lads in the room reformed, stood up, and charged Xellous.

Xellous laughed and grabbed Komas by the ankles and swung him in a wide arc, hitting three of the flammeous lads so hard that they burst open; Komas's skull cracked and he caught on fire. Fending the other lads off with Komas's flaming corpse, Xellous killed a few more with the remains and the rest ran off. Xellous set Komas's flaming body down.

Ooh, more bits of flammeous lad to recover!

There was a scream of anguish. Kora came running in, followed by Ikuinen Lampo. She somehow recognized Komas and hugged his broken frame to her chest, sobbing. She yelled at Xellous, demanding to know why Komas was dead.

Xellous told her that Komas had been working for the khen-zai. He produced the pistol Komas had used. Xellous copped to killing Komas for his treachery, that even if he had let Komas live the khen-zai would have killed him anyway.

Gently laying down his body, Kora stood up. Looking down, wistfully, at Komas's body Kora told Xellous there had always been a darkness inside of Komas, that he had always struggled with. He had called her his light. What had happened that he had turned? This wasn't the man she was. Xellous told her he wished he knew, because he would have told her if he could.

They stared at his body awhile, deep in thought.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Three

Sir Xellous: The 14 year old main character, played by Kurlak. Last session he had been publicly outed as Kora's husband, which caused a huge ruckus. Kora had fainted. King Varlur and Komas were pissed off. With the help of Telos and Ikuinen Lampo Sir Xellous had related what had happened to Kora. He managed to get permission from King Varlur to go to the junkyard planet with Ikuinen Lampo, Kora, and  Telos, to get a power source for Ikuinen Lampo to stay in her Epiphany Form.

Kora: Sir Xellous' wife. As a child she had been habitually raped her father, Altous, and impregnated by him. When she had a chance Kora killed him. She was then kidnapped by the khen-zai, her mind was wiped of all memories, and she was dropped outside of Broadnough, where she met and married Komas, the now-prime minister.

Genevieve: Sir Xellous' dead sister, former best friend and confidante of Kora. She died protecting the both of them from a flammeous lad. Ikuinen Lampo revived her body and has been using it to travel with Sir Xellous and Telos, with the permission of Genevieve's departed soul. 

Ikuinen Lampo: The star of Khouria, who had made Sir Xellous her celestial knight. She's been making moon eyes at Sir Xellous for awhile now. He's not really noticed.

Sir Xellous and Komas sat by Kora's side until she woke up. The instant she saw him she got up and stormed past them, out the door, and slammed it so hard that both men thought she would rattle it off its hinges. Sir Xellous walked after her, calling out to her as she stormed down the hall. He asked if she was OK.

Kora turned on her feet, purple in the face ("There's the Kora I know", muttered Sir Xellous, half admiringly) and he found that his blood had turned to ice water. Getting right in his face Kora began yelling. No, she was not alright. For three months - THREE MONTHS - Sir Xellous had the opportunity to tell her the truth. For three months she had come to talk with him as he was convalescent and he hadn't said anything. It made Kora sick just to think about it! What wasn't he telling her?? Was Gerard's his? Why had she been pregnant? WHAT HAPPENED??

Komas had stuck his head out, saw how angry Kora was, and tried sneak back in. But it was too late: Kora had seen him. Kora demanded to know what Sir Xellous had told him. Komas turned pale and tried to shut the door, but Kora yanked the door open and screamed so loudly that the halls seemed to tremble. Why did everyone know about where she came from but her?? Thoroughly purple and breathing in ragged gasps, Kora stalked off.

Komas and Sir Xellous stood there a moment. Komas asked why the hell Sir Xellous hadn't said anything over those three months.  Sir Xellous told him it was honestly because he couldn't figure out how to say it. He wanted to say something, but just couldn't figure out exactly what to say.

They didn't hear Kora coming back; she slammed Sir Xellous into a wall. She demanded to know if Gerard's was his. Gulping, Sir Xellous shook his head. Kora demanded of Komas if he knew that, during the time she was unconscious, if Sir Xellous had told him. Komas nodded. Then Kora asked if Ikuinen Lampo (referred to as star-slut) knew as well. Looking to her left, Kora saw Ikuinen Lampo standing there, Genevieve's face had gone pale. She had come down to check on Kora and was trying to figure out how to respond. Still calling her star-slut, Kora demanded if Ikuinen Lampo knew who the father of the Gerard was, since it wasn't Sir Xellous and it certainly couldn't be Komas. Ikuinen Lampo said she knew everything. Kora asked Sir Xellous if he had noticed that Ikuinen Lampo was in love with him, head over friggin' heels. Sir Xellous looked over at Lampo, but she didn't say anything. Disgusted, Kora stomped past Ikuinen Lampo.

Ikuinen Lampo finally found it within her to ask if she could talk with Sir Xellous, but he brushed her off; he needed time to process that information. Ikuinen Lampo was about to plead with him, but they heard a scream, opposite down the hall from where Kora had gone. Komas had vanished. Sir Xellous and Ikuinen Lampo ran down the hall, toward the screaming.

There was a flammeous lad, standing over a courtier.

Sir Xellous and Ikuinen Lampo were shocked. It took effort to summon a flammeous lad, what the hell was one doing here?

Sir Xellous began to rip bits off of his shirt, to make wraps for his hands, to deal with the flames. He told Ikuinen Lampo to run back to their infirmary, grab Pyra, and get it to Kora. Ikuinen Lampo asked if that was a good idea, given that Kora probably didn't remember how to work it. Sir Xellous snapped at her that he was sure, and that she needed to get moving now; she started running. The flammeous lad turned to face him, giggling and contorting as the flames that powered it flickered. Sir Xellous still had his Behemoth armbands on; he was confident he could take the flammeous lad. He grabbed and slammed it, headfirst, into the stone floor, as hard as he could. Something inside of him snapped, and he began to pound the flammeous lad into the stone floor, over and over again, until it cracked open in a conflagration of sparks and flame. The courtier had run away.

Sir Xellous stopped to take a breath. He stooped down, and looked at the remains of the flammeous lad. He could use it in enchanting. Gingerly, he began to stash bits of the lad into his cloak.

He could hear Ikuinen Lampo and Kora screaming, down the hall.

Sir Xellous ran as fast as he could, pieces still stowed. They were on opposite sides of the hall, huddled into fetal positions, with a flammeous lad apiece standing over them. Reaching into the aura of one the flammeous lads, Sir Xellous focused all its rage upon its companion, and a new fight broke out. Sir Xellous barked at the women that they needed to get over to him, right now. They didn't need to be told twice. Hand in hand, all three ran at breakneck speed away from the two flammeous lads. Sir Xellous asked Ikuinen Lampo if she had gotten Pyra to Kora. Lampo told him that they hadn't gotten that far yet. Kora asked what Pyra was. Sir Xellous told her it was the impossibly awesome bow he had made her at a low point in her life. It was stolen by her brother, Michael, as a revenant to kill her with.

Kora stopped running. Sir Xellous tried to get her to go on, but Ikuinen Lampo told him she had been informed by Tooma Toahoya that all the flammeous lads in the area had vanished, teleported out by an unknown force.

Ernzen came running up to the trio. He told them that King Varlur was dead.

An overwhelming number of flammeous lads had attacked the great hall, where King Varlur was. He had died in the fighting. Sir Xellous started to move to the aid of the court, but Ernzen slowed him down.  he had overheard their conversation and wanted that to continue. Broadnough was his area, and he needed to take charge of it. Taking her gently by the shoulders Ernzen apologized for everything he had done. She raised an eyebrow at him, but Ernzen told her she would understand soon enough. He left to report to Komas, who was the temporary leader of the nation. So did Ikuinen Lampo.

Sir Xellous and Kora sat down. She asked about Pyra. Sir Xellous started at the beginning. He told her about how they had known each other since they were children, running into their first flammeous lad, how she had killed her father Altous, and how Sir Xellous had found out about Kora's years of molestation at the hands of her father.

They had to stop and take a moment for that.

They then talked about Sir Xellous becoming a celestial knight and Telos' release, with Kora giggling at the thought of Telos coming up out of the ground, like some sort of righteous monster. They talked about the Behemoth's coming and how Kora had killed it, not him. Kora remarked dryly that she figured Sir Xellous didn't have the stomach for such business, and they both laughed. Swallowing, Sir Xellous told Kora about her mother and how the drowning of her eldest brother, Charles, had been the start of it all.

Kora needed a moment for that too. Well, longer than that, honestly.

Sir Xellous told her about how she had been kidnapped, and how he had spent the next few months trying to get strong enough to go and fight the khen-zai so he could get her back... only to find her here. He explained what had happened to Michael, and how sorry he was that Michael had died the way he had. They mourned it, together.

Kora said she didn't remember of it. She had no idea how she could have told that to anyone, either. She asked Sir Xellous how the heck he hadn't noticed that Ikuinen Lampo was in love with him. Sir Xellous responded that he only had eyes for Kora, and that was always going to be true. He didn't notice because it hadn't been relevant to the task at hand. Kora laughed, saying he was an idiot. Sir Xellous told her that he had always relied upon her for help with the social stuff, that if he had it his way he'd be back at their barn, making some newly enchanted item. Kora said she sounded like a huge nerd, and Sir Xellous remarked that he didn't really know what he was anymore.

Kora said she wanted to see her mother, regardless of whether she remembered or not. The elves were coming the next day to take them to that planet they were talking about. But before they left Kora insisted on seeing her mom. Sir Xellous agreed.

They sat there awhile. There was still so much to do.

The next session of The Giggling Dark will happen sometime in January, thanks to the holidays and family visits and whatnot. Thank you for continuing to read, it means the world to me.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Two

Sir Xellous: The fourteen-year old main character, played by Kurlak. Recently he, Telos, Kora, and Ikuinen Lampo had a meeting with elves, at midnight. The elves were to scout out a planet that had a fusion generator, so that way Ikuinen Lampo, his sworn star, could be in her Epiphany Form, which could allow her to defend their planet directly.

Kora: Sir Xellous' wife. She had been raped by her father, Altous, and carried his child, named Gerard, to term. She had been kidnapped and completely mindwiped by the Khen-Zai, something that Sir Xellous is wanting to reverse. But first the planet has to be secure. No, he hasn't told her yet.

Prime Minister Komas: The man who had gotten Sir Xellous into his first meeting with King Varlur... a bit too easily. He married Kora after she had been dropped off in the city, alone and with amnesia.

Telos: A man from another planet. He has contacts across the whole solar system, apparently.

Ikuinen Lampo: The star of the province Khouria. She had selected Sir Xellous to be her knight.

Threen: Kora's mother. She had been forced by the Khen-Zai to drown her firstborn son, Charles, in a river. She's alone in Khouria.

The next morning Sir Xellous went to his morning audience with King Varlur. Prime Minister Komas stood at the King's right... and beside him stood Kora, pale and trembling. King Varlur was furious. Sir Xellous tried to scan the King's aura, only to find someone was trying to catch him doing it.  Sir Xellous managed to get just enough of a read to know just how angry the King was, but not enough to get beyond the merest hint of a guess. The King was out for his blood, that much was clear.

Sir Xellous asked what the nature of the meeting was. King Varlur, knuckles white from gripping the arms of his throne, informed Sir Xellous that he and Kora had been seen at a midnight rendezvous with strangers to the kingdom and had then walked through several locations, some of which they could not be followed through, where they had stayed for awhile. They were accused of treason, adultery, and the humiliation of the Prime Minister! Sir Xellous asked if he could talk with the King, in private.

King Varlur, pale, stood up, walked down from his dais to Sir Xellous and backhanded him so hard that blood flew out of his mouth, knocking him over. Standing over him, King Varlur excoriated Sir Xellous for presuming upon the royal kindness. This was a formal investigation of Sir Xellous and that harlot-

Sir Xellous was back up, yelling at the top his lungs that if King Varlur called his wife a harlot one more time...

Everyone gasped as Kora fainted, right into Prime Minister Komas' arms!

King Varlur was surprised but he didn't flinch. He asked if this was indeed the wife Sir Xellous had told him about. Sir Xellous nodded.

Prime Minister Komas, still holding the unconscious Kora, came down the dais, screaming at Sir Xellous. He demanded immediate proof of their marriage. Telos elbowed his way through the crowd and confirmed Sir Xellous' story, saying that Ikuinen Lampo and Kora's mother, Threen (who was still back in the province of Khouria) could provide further proof. Soldiers were dispatched. But that wasn't good enough for Prime Minister Komas. Gerard was his, he  had found Kora, had found a new life because of her and Gerard. Sir Xellous retorted that he clearly hadn't put himself in Sir Xellous' shoes. He really had tried to keep his mouth shut, but he couldn't keep his broken heart to himself, not anymore. Telos asked King Varlur to move this meeting into a more private setting. The King agreed. Court was adjourned.

Kora was moved to a nearby bedroom and laid down. Komas sat next to her, head in his hands. Ikuinen Lampo was summoned. King Varlur asked her how long she had known Sir Xellous. With the flush of Genevieve's cheeks she revealed she had the ability to know everyone person in her territory, so she had known Sir Xellous his whole life, and the same was true of Kora. She confirmed Sir Xellous and Kora's marriage, and gave the exact day the astrologers had married them in her observatory. Prime Minister Komas did the math and asked if Gerard was actually a legitimized bastard. Sir Xellous delicately told him that Gerard was conceived in a horrific tragedy, and left it at that. Prime Minister Komas checked out after that.

King Varlur asked what the meeting at midnight had been about, and Sir Xellous, Telos, and Ikuinen Lampo explained the plan to find a power source to keep Lampo in her Epiphany Form indefinitely. King Varlur asked why Telos couldn't just go with Lampo; the King had received a vow of fealty from Sir Xellous, after all, and  Telos was clearly capable and wise. Telos told the King that Sir Xellous was Ikuinen Lampo's sworn knight, a greater honor than being any King's sworn, and that Sir Xellous was the one who could protect Ikuinen Lampo the best. Sir Xellous agreed; he was sworn to the protection of the whole planet, not just the kingdom, and he needed to do his duty. Ikuinen Lampo only said three words: "I need him", blushed, and said nothing more. King Varlur relented; Sir Xellous would go with them, to the forsaken planet, once the elves returned from their reconnaissance.  But once this was over he wanted Sir Xellous back; the oath to the King was not relinquished. Sir Xellous agreed.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty One

Sir Xellous: the fourteen year old main character, a Celestial Knight played by Ryan. He's currently holding onto Pyra, his wife's incredibly destructive bow, some gauntlets that make him a really good brawler, and a ring that gives him knowledge of khen-zai tech.

Kora: Sir Xellous' wife, who had been kidnapped and memory wiped by the khen-zai. She's since married Komas, the Assistant Prime Minister. She's got her baby, who was the result of being raped by her father.

Ikuinen Lampo: the star who is Sir Xellous' patron. She is currently inhabiting the body of Sir Xellous' dead sister, Genevieve. She had done this incredibly awkward thing so she could rescue Sir Xellous from a very bad situation he had gotten himself into earlier. She almost died last session, and is still recovering. Technically she could leave the body whenever she wants.

Telos: A hero from another place, another time. Man, when am I finally going to start doing more with this dude???

Three months passed. Sir Xellous and Ikuinen Lampo has stayed in the general infirmary during this time, recovering from their respective wounds. There were no further attacks from the khen-zai, not even a rumor. During this time King Varlur began preparations  for Sir Xellous' fiefdom. People hurried in and out to talk with him about what he wanted when it came to setting up the castle and what his preferences were. Sir Xellous mostly put up with these visits and the bureaucratic nonsense they brought along with them, learning a lot about social graces, but sometimes his temper got the better of him and the delegates had to scurry out of the room.

But it wasn't all official business. Sir Xellous and Ikuinen Lampo had plenty of time to get to know each other. Lampo was quiet but thoughtful. She loved reading and had lots of books brought to her and she read to Sir Xellous, who had never learned. She read him fables and histories of all kind, not that Sir Xellous retained any of it, but Ikuinen Lampo was so happy when reading and it was amazing for Sir Xellous to see.

Kora also visited, always with baby (who adored Sir Xellous), usually daily. Komas had become Prime Minister and barely came home. Kora had asked Sir Xellous about her forgotten past and how he knew her. He told her they were childhood friends, while telling her little bits of their background. Ikuinen Lampo always got annoyed when Kora came in to visit with Sir Xellous, but she tried to conceal it. Sir Xellous noticed, but wisely kept his mouth shut. 

At the end of the three months Sir Xellous posed a question to Ikuinen Lampo: was it possible to get her a power source that allowed her to "permanently" stay in Option A form, also known as Epiphany form? Lampo said that the khen-zai probably had something, but she had never seen anything like it nor had she really heard any more than that. Calling upon the power of his ring Sir Xellous discovered that the khen-zai indeed had such a device: a fusion generator. Making one was far beyond the knowledge of the ring, but it was a start. Kora came in and overheard them talking about this generator. She asked Lampo how the energy outputs of dormant stars worked. Lampo explained that she, as a star was not actually dead, but was no longer generating energy at a large level, but whose passive energy signature sanctified the ground. While Lampo was explaining this Sir Xellous scanned Kora's aura to see if she was being watched or manipulated. But her aura was clean; the khen-zai had vanished.

Telos came in and was brought up to speed on their conversation. He said that actually dovetailed nicely with what he had finally remembered: he was from another planet.

Everyone else's jaw dropped.

Telos explained that there was a rot zone on his planet, centered on the former Herculaen Empire. Rot zones could act as as portals to other rot zones. Meeria had trapped him in one of those zones, years before.Yes, Meeria had been to other planets before. Once he had realized this Telos had found a little fife the elves of his planet had given him. He didn't explain how he got this fife, given that he had first appeared on this planet naked. Ikuinen Lampo's face lit up at the mention of the elves. She had heard of the elves from her time in the sky, and knew they would be able to find a fusion generator.  It was uncomfortable being in Genevieve's body, and she desperately wanted out. Sir Xellous caught the embarrassed glanced she threw his way. So did Kora. Telos told them that they would go out to call upon the elves at midnight. 

An announcer came in to announce Sir Xellous was expected by the King the next day. Sir Xellous told him he'd be there.

At midnight they all met up outside of town. Kora brought her baby, who was sleeping in a sling. Komas was still in council with the King and wouldn't be coming back that night, and she wanted to see the elves! Sir Xellous asked Telos if it was possible to call off the council with the King in the morning. Telos, alarmed, asked why on earth he'd cancel. Sir Xellous asked if they were leaving with the elves that night. Telos laughed: the elves would have to do reconnaissance work first. And, as kind as the elves were, they could not do this for free. They would need to negotiate a price of some sort. Sir Xellous said he expected as much. 

Telos blew a note on his fife that was so high no one else could hear it. About fifteen minutes later a gondola with a sail came down from the sky. Sir Xellous gaped at the ship, whispering loudly that he wanted to make one. Lampo and and Kora chuckled. Lampo told him that she would make sure he got the chance, while Kora asked if she could fly in it with him. 

Three elves (two male and one female) nimbly hopped to the ground. The female began to tie the ship to the ground with an anchor. Sir Xellous and Kora gaped: only Ikuinen Lampo was more beautiful! The elves bowed to Telos and Ikuinen Lampo and talked with them in a language that felt like music. Oneo f the elves walked up to Sir Xellous and asked about payment in the form of enchanting an item. Many more worlds out there were in a far worse state than Sir Xellous' and they needed payment to justify not helping those worlds, what with there being only a dozen or so elves flying the skies at that point. The elf told Sir Xellous about a planet, almost unimaginably far away, was a dump planet for the khen-zai. This was where the khen-zai put anything they didn't want, including people. A generator was probably there. But to get there and retrieve it they needed Lampo to be in her Epiphany form, which the elves could help recharge with their songs. Sir Xellous asked if he could talk with Lampo about it. 

The two withdrew. Lampo explained that the journey was incredibly long and required her to help them get there fast enough. Sir Xellous protested that they couldn't heal her in her Epiphany form if something went wrong. Lampo declared that nothing would go wrong. She pointed out that Kora needed to come with them. The khen-zai would surely come for Kora and it would be harder for them to find her if she wasn't on the planet to begin with. Besides, Lampo really needed to stop using using Genevieve's body; it complicated matters. That made Sir Xellous laugh.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty, Trait Vote the Second

This session in particular means a lot to me. As it turns out, the longest running Burning Wheel game I've ever run was nineteen sessions. The fact that I never got to do even close to a thirty session campaign was something I really wanted to correct, and this being  session twenty means I'm one step closer.

And Ryan had no idea what he wanted to do. Perfect.

I asked Ryan what he wanted to do, and he said he didn't have anything else he wanted to do with this point of the narrative. He only wanted one thing: to bring back Kora's memories. He told me that either meant one session or fifteen. Laughing, I told him to think fifteen. Ryan told me he expected as much. But after that he thought we should be done. Barring something unexpected I agreed with him. We're on the last act. If this goes according to plan it'll be the first Burning Wheel campaign I've run that wasn't cancelled prematurely. 

With that in mind, we took this Trait Vote very seriously. Sir Xellous' traits are as followed:

Character Traits

Single-Minded

Bereaved

Hard-Working

Blunt

Dice Traits

Prodigy

Chosen of Ikuinen Lampo

Call-On

Aura of Determination

This was a pretty short and sweet. I suggested that we turned Single-Minded to Tenacious (which makes it harder for him to lose a Duel of Wits by bringing him back once if he gets knocked out) and Bereaved to Tough as Nails (which lets him ignore Steel tests from pain and exhaustion). This was because Sir Xellous had pretty much proven to be an unstoppable juggernaut and, given how often he passed the Steel tests for these sorts of things anyway, I thought it would make sense to just make him one hard dude to kill. Ryan liked both these recommendations and made one of his own. Aura of Determination had never really been used, and he found that Commanding Aura (+1D to Command and the ability to help others with Steel tests) would probably be a better mechanical fit. I agreed.

Here's the new breakdown:

Character Traits

Hard-working

Blunt

Dice Traits

Prodigy

Chosen of Ikuinen Lampo

Commanding Aura

We then discussed the upcoming arc, as well as Ikuinen Lampo's role within it. Ryan asked for her to have a greater part in the story, preferably a bit of a love triangle, and I told him that Lampo would want to stop being in Genevieve's body. 

I then explained the difference between "Option A" and "Option B". Option A was a star creating their former body, all over again, and controlling it remotely, and is incredibly powerful. The downshot is that the body isn't actually human, and therefore cannot be healed by normal processes, so if something were to hurt the star's body very little could be done to help her. Option A would last about two to three months. It also required special stuff so that Ikuinen Lampo could recharge the form. Option B, on the other hand, was the reanimation of a human corpse, which is what happened with Genevieve. This form lasts longer, but there is no power that can be channeled. On the other hand, since the body is actually human it's easier to heal.

Ryan wanted Option B. Ikuinen wanted Option A. That would take a session to figure out. And that was before he even talked to the King about leaving his service. Yeah, good luck about that!

The Giggling Dark: Session Nineteen

Sir Xellous: The fourteen year old main character, played by Kurlak. Sir Xellous just killed his 10 year old brother-in-law, Michael, who had become a revenant. He passed out in the attempt.

Kora: Sir Xellous' wife. She'd been kidnapped by the Khen-zai while pregnant. She's since given birth to her son. Her memory was wiped by the Khen-zai, so she has no memory of Sir Xelllous at all. After Sir Xellous had killed Michael she had brought him to the infirmary.

Telos: A hero from another place, another time. He had been held in a prison of sorts for a very, very long time.

Rules clarification: Last session Kurlak and I came up with a new use for Aura Manipulation, that of the sorcerer being able to give some of his life-force to stabilize someone. The obstacle is the equal to the type of wound being stabilized. Before the roll is made the sorcerer takes a Midi wound, usually shown as neurological shock, bursting of blood vessels, etc. 

Twelve hours passed. Sir Xellous awoke in pain. He didn't feel as badly as he had a few hours earlier, but he definitely wasn't back up to 100%. Kora lay next to him on a cot, the baby snuggled up to her. They were in the castle infirmary. Telos was sitting on a nearby stool. The infirmary was full from the battles with the Cursed of Xalmantra.

Sir Xellous learned from Telos that King Varlur had been injured, but the finest doctors weren't with him; they were with Ikuinen Lampo, and had been for over twelve hours. When last Elos had heard, the doctors had been cautiously optimistic. Something about that concerned Sir Xellous. He got up. Kora was asleep for the moment and he didn't want to wake her. Not yet. He asked Telos to show him where Ikuinen Lampo was being operated on. As Sir Xellous and Telos walked they discussed Michael; his remained had been burned. Sir Xellous winced, but he admitted it was probably for the best. He and Telos discussed his feelings of guilt about Michael's death, which Telos told him was unjustified.

They got to the operating room and Sir Xellous saw how close Ikuinen Lampo was to death. He looked over at Telos and asked wryly if this was what the doctors had meant by cautiously optimistic. The head surgeon Artur's aura had been messed with by the Khen-zai; he had been sabotaging the operation the last twelve hours, but not so much that  the other surgeon, Severus, would notice. Sir Xellous reached out and purified the head surgeon's aura. He then explained to the confused surgeons what had been going on. Sir Xellous then reached out to Ikuinen Lampo's aura with his own. This caused his system to overload, and he sweated blood. With Lampo stabilized Artur, Severus, and Sir Xellous collapsed.  New surgeons were called in, while Artur and Severus tended to Sir Xellous, helping his system overcome some of its shock.

Ikuinen Lampo would pull through.

The Giggling Dark: Session Eighteen

Sir Xellous: the 14 year old main character, played by Kurlak. Last we saw him he was in a Khen-zai mech, about to be attacked by a Khen-zai armada. He's trying to figure out how to shift the mech back to the material plane so he can go and save his 10 year old brother-in-law, Michael and his wife, Kora. He is the temporary wield of Pyra, a bow of immense power. He had originally made it for his now-missing wife, Kora.

Telos: A hero from another place, another time. He had come and gotten the Celestial Knights to save the king from the Cursed of Xalmantra, a group everyone thought was extinct.

Thought-8: One of ten black Khen-zai. He had been captured by Sir Xellous and the Celestial Knights. He had been left to his own devices by Sir Xellous and so he called in an armada to rescue him.

Ernzan: A former member of the Cursed of Xalmantra. He was the one who had originally forced Michael to summon the Flammeous Lads. He had since repented of his evil and is know a Celestial Knight.

Facing down an armada, Sir Xellous scanned its auras, trying to ascertain its strategy. The larger ships, which were bio-mechanical, were hanging back. Hundreds of smaller auras were streaming out of them, identical to the aura of his mech. It was time to see if he could fly this thing. Sir Xellous, armed with the knowledge from his ring, attempted to fly the mech. It was a bit shaky, but he was able to get it off the ground. He put the ziggurat between himself and the incoming fleet, so that he could have a second. Sir Xellous didn't think they would do an orbital bomardment; Thought-8 was still on the ziggurat, somewhere, and they would probably want to keep him alive. He found an entrance into the ziggurat and busted through it, trying to buy himself some time to phase shift the mech.

All of a sudden he was being pulled out of the mech, out of the ethereal plane... somewhere. The pain was intense. The world became a kaleidoscope of colors and horror. Sir Xellous fell onto the ground. He was back on the material plane. And, standing before him, was Ikuinen Lampo, blood coming out of her mouth. She fell over, and behind her stood something that resembled Michael. The smile wasn't his, he had some significant wounds, and his eyes shone with a fell purple light. The sight of this monstrosity should have paralyzed Sir Xellous with fear. It didn't. He didn't have time. If Ikuinen Lampo died the dead would rise in his home region, his mother-in-law Threen would die, and he would lose his ability to see and manipulate auras. He reached out to his sister's body, which Ikuinen was inhabiting, and reinforced it with his own life-force. It was a similar body to his, and so he lent his own energy to what was left of his sister. His blood vessels burst and his skin began to sweat blood. He held on. Ikuinen Lampo stabilized, briefly. Michael walked up to him while he did this, grabbed Pyra, and winked at him. He jumped twenty feet, to the top of the castle wall, and jumped off easily.

Shaking like a leaf, Sir Xellous looked before him and realized he was in front of the keep of the king's castle. Bodies were everywhere, Celestial Knights and The Cursed of Xalmantra alike. There was a pile of corpses in front of the open doors to the great hall. Sir Xellous slowly pulled Ikuinen Lampo up the stairs, past the pile of corpses, into the great hall. He needed to find her medical attention immediately, before she died and everything important to him was lost. There were more bodies in the great hall. Telos sat on one of the chairs. He was exhausted and bleeding from a cut to his head. Seeing Sir Xellous Telos got up and helped him set Ikuinen Lampo down on the table. He asked what happened to her, and Sir Xellous told him about Michael stabbing her. Telos said that wasn't possible, and then grew pale. Sir Xellous didn't know, no one had been able to tell him yet: Michael had been killed twenty minutes ago, rescuing Ernzan.  Sir Xellous said it was definitely Michael, but he had been twisted into something awful. Ernzan came into the great hall and came running up to Sir Xellous, in tears, and told him something awful had happened to Michael. Sir Xellous told him that Michael was running around, but strange and twisted, and much stronger! He told them both about Michael's twenty foot jump. Telos grew very afraid at that point; he asked if Michael had purple eyes.

When Sir Xellous confirmed Michael now had purple eyes Telos picked up Ikuinen Lampo and put her in Ernzan's arms, demanding that he take her to the nearest medic. They needed to save Kora, right then and there. Sir Xellous asked why Kora needed saving from Michael, and Telos told him that Revenants bore grudges against their loved ones from when they were alive. Telos had no idea how Michael could have become a revenant on this world, but he was definitely one. They ran out the front doors of the keep, and heard an enormous explosion to their right:

BOOM. A house exploded. Pyra was a work.

BOOM. Another one.

BOOM.

BOOM. Two structures spat up smoke into the evening.

Sir Xellous locked onto Pyra's aura, and Telos picked him up. He barreled down the street, going where Sir Xellous pointed him.

And there was Kora, baby in her arms. Michael stalked behind her, laughing an awful, creaky laugh. BOOM. He was missing on purpose. He saw Telos and Sir Xellous and stopped toying with Kora. Telos threw Sir Xellous to the ground and pushed Kora out of the way. Telos' Behemoth-made  armor tanked the blast, but the explosion knocked him out. The baby was screaming. So was Kora. Michael notched another arrow. Sir Xellous narrowly got her clear of the shrapnel. Kora didn't recognize Sir Xellous, just one glance told him that. He told her that she didn't remember, but that he loved her and they would get through this. Michael told Sir Xellous that at the end, when he had died, there was only one person he had wanted to see, only one person he wanted to rescue him: his big brother, the mighty "hero" Sir Xellous. He wasn't there. And Michael would take everything from him that he loved.

Grabbing the star stone in his pocket Sir Xellous held it aloft. He found the... thing... whatever it was... that was making Michael a revenant and suppressed it, hoping against hope to buy more time. The invocation of the stone reacted with the foreign object in a way unlooked for; nothing defiled can stand before purity, nothing. The thing shattered, and Michael's little body collapsed, never to rise again. Sir Xellous collapsed next to Kora, who was trying to comfort her sobbing son. More blood poured from his skin, and he found he couldn't move. Kora, haltingly, picked him up. There she was! She was real! Her hair brushed his cheek.

Ernzan came running out with a group of people. Some of them grabbed stretchers and got Sir Xellous and Telos on them. Telos woke up and asked what he missed.