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Table of Contents
Session 18
This session was played on 2025-10-25. Clark, Gaia and Maelle finally reach Kesizma proper, just to witness how the Rigasia/Kesizma War changes forever.
Plot
Immediately after the last session, Gaia and Maelle come back from the hospital to find Clark hidden inside their room trying to find something to wear that actually fits their now very noticeable breasts.
The situation devolves in quite adorable shenanigans for a bit, with Clark being denser than lead, and the others trying to convince them to wear the dress they found some sessions ago.
They are interrupted by Mauto, who tells them they need to leave as soon as possible, because the Rigasian tank riders have learned of her existence and are starting to ask uncomfortable questions. Not having more time to find something else to wear, Clark finds themself wearing the dress.
They decide on leaving under cover of night so they are not seen by the Rigasians, and in the meanwhile they take a chance to pick the meager possessions of both Ariyadnas.
Fulan and Keleya come and bid them goodbye, as well as telling them that if when the Rigasia/Kesizma situation stabilizes, both their peoples might find cooperating valuable.
And so they leave and, now totally healed and not having to allow some measly horses to keep up with it, Derek runs the whole night like a fast car in a highway, until they reach a small Anagusi settlement housing the portal terminals.
The party (and Mauto in particular) have a moment of panic when they notice a Rigasian plane flying over the area, which reminds them a lot of when they were bombed at end of the first arc, but the plane ends being just a light spy plane, and Kesizmans bring it down with minimal fuss by warping spacetime just enough that the thing can not stay on the air.
And with that, they finally enter a portal to Kesizma Proper.
The cave they barely glimpsed when they met Maal is gigantic and covered from bottom to top in gently-lit colorful and round buildings spotted with lots of hanging gardens. Enormously relieved to be back home, Mauto brings them to a gigantic vaguely mushroom-shaped building that seems to work as a reception area for the human traffic of the portals.
There they meet first the Speaker for Rigasian Issues, an extremely girthy Anagusi man by the name of Oleia that welcomes them to Kesizma and mentions they have been searching for their party for quite some time now on behalf of their new Valtshoran allies; and then Ferret himself, who apparently has been in Kesizma getting a replacement arm, since he lost it during the bombing.
Ferret is delighted to see Gaia again (and vice versa), glad to see Maelle, very confused about the Clark situation, and trying to do his best about the Ariyadna one.
But then the situation turns sour because Rigasia has managed to worm its way into the Kesizman Ngag and they start things as they often do, by unleashing a powerful explosive through the portals. The party only knows this because the resulting shockwave shatters every fragile object in the terminal, leaving most people there deaf in the best case.
Except for everyone who was right next to Ariyadna, who had time to raise some kind of shield to protect them.
Maelle rushes to the portals to check what happened, alongside Derek, and they learn that the Rigasians have started to portal in tanks and started mowing on the Anagusi war beasts.
Inside the terminal, Gaia and Clark try to stabilize Mauto, who was already very tired, running on fumes and drugs, and fell down wrong hitting her head. They manage to make the best of what they have, but the woman is still unconscious.
Gaia notices that Oleio has started pacing around and walking and suddenly notices that he's using the Great Dream to actually talk to other people and coordinate a defense, which she considers quite cool.
Soon they have to face three ela-GAT that crash into the terminal ready to take the place, but Clark wields the glove again and the fight is on. Two of the tanks are halfway frozen, and Maelle decides to go for broke, jumps on one of them, opens the hatch and dispatches the gunner before the driver panics and starts running through walls to dislodge them.
Clark finds themself having to run from the other half-frozen tank and manages to avoid its bullets by taking refuge behind a concrete pillar.
And Gaia tries to make contact with the whatever it is that resides in the tank cores, raising Oleia's attention who is equal parts fascinated and horrified. This does nothing to stop the tank though, so they are about to be shot up.
And then the tanks dissassemble into their constituent pieces becoming nothing more than a sorted heap of pipes, metal pieces, and screws to the horror of their crew.
Every single person in the terminal looks agape as three Umichooans in perfectly immaculate white clothes walk through the area, disassembling the tanks, repairing all damage, healing the wounded, and raising the dead without saying a word, and then going outside to do the same to every single participant in the battle.
And then they stand there in the middle of the chaos and say: “This war is against the Law. It is over now”
For the post-credits scene, we finally got the party reunited with their loved others in Zwosta, and it was the most heartwarming collection of moments in the entire campaign so far.
Cast
Quotes
- Clark: It seems like this time I grew quite a bit at once, and I'm afraid my clothes started tearing themselves apart.
- Maelle: Oh, shit.
- Maelle: …or I could give you some of my old clothing. Would need to offload them anyway.
- Maelle: Did you ever find any other clothing around here?
- Clark: Well, I found that dress at the same time as the book, maybe we can exchange it for some clothes.
- Maelle: …actually.
- Gaia: Oh, dress. Would match your new bre—uh.
- Mauto: I'm going to assume that the time loop was fake since we are alive?
- Maelle: Was fake, yeah.
- Mauto: Remember the Rigasians with the giant spider-things? They have learned that I'm here and are asking questions so we have to move fast.
- Maelle: Fuck.
- Gaia: Well, Clark, take [the dress] on; we have no time.
- Maelle: No choice, Clark.
- Mauto: Okay, sorry if I'm being rude, but did you actually grow breasts while I was not looking? Is this some bodyshifting from Macodel?
- Fulan: Heyyy, pale peoples.
- Gaia: Hi, black person.
- Maelle looks at Gaia.
- Gaia: He started.
- Fulan: Heard you were leaving like yesterday. Not even waiting for the corpses to cool. Well, for the first one: the second is super cold and for some reason not warming. Is that a thing Clark does?
- Fulan: A lot of people saw Rigasia and thought they could use them for a bit of help, but then they actually talked to the Rigasians, and are starting to get big doubts about it, even if it's just because trying to go against the Anagusi is pretty much the stupidest idea since they dropped the bombs.
- Fulan: Rigasia has huge issues as a potential ally; your people on the other hand might benefit from getting some help from here. And when the Rigasians get stomped by Anagut—and we're pretty sure they will—Anagut will keep the portals running so we might find each other again.
- Gaia: Should we steal a tank and explode it into the other one then?
- Fulan: Don't the ela-GAT have π cells? Exploding one is a horrible idea, kid, that's how you make a Zone.
- Clark: [The dress] feels so weird, weirdly comfortable. Though it might get cut and torn in the road?
- Maelle is casually trying not to smile at the fact that Clark is so obviously an egg.
- Fulan is failing to do the same.
- Gaia: Oh, Arya are you ready?
- Ariyadna looks at Gaia and says “A-ri-yad-na”.
- Gaia: Ariyadna. Arya.
- Ariyadna very deliberately says again “A-ri-yad-na”.
- Maelle: Ariyadna, Gaia.
- Gaia: Ariyadna. Okay, okay.
- Mauto: Looking nice, Clark. You don't give me the impression that you will melt from the heat anymore.
- Clark: Haha, very funny; I might melt from embarassment, though.
- Not needing to allow some horses to keep up, Derek goes nuts cross-country, literally jumping over anything that could be an obstacle. Your little party runs the entire night non-stop, passing through farmland and close to small settlements. You see towns in the distances, and the silvery lines of rivers on the land. And finally, as dawn breaks you reach a bigger settlement.
- Clark (entering Kesizma proper): I miss the sun already.
- Mauto: Would you believe that I didn't see it in person until I was like twenty?
- Maelle: What's this place then?
- Mauto: This is the main Kesizman Ngag. You can call it a Cave, or a Pocket Universe.
- Maelle: N-no, I mean the mushroom building.
- Mauto: Ah, mostly reception area, see?
- Oleia: Hello, visitores from Valtshora. I'm assuming this young one is the one called Gaia?
- Gaia: Valtshora! How do you know?
- Clark: Hello, nice to meet you.
- Maelle: Kurimoto Maelle, that's who I am.
- Oleia: Oleia, Speaker for the Rigasian Situation. That is who I am, at least now.
- Maelle: So a diplomat you could say? Interesting!
- Oleia: Yes! Yes I am!
- Gaia: How do you know my name, though?
- Oleia: Because there are important people on the Valtshoran side that are moving earth and heaven to find you; in fact…
- Ferret: Gaia!
- Gaia: Ferret! Ferret!
- Ferret: Did you find Clark? Wait.
- Ferret turns to Clark.
- Clark takes a step back.
- Ferret sees Clark's hat.
- Maelle: A bit of a thing happened.
- Ferret looks at Clark.
- Maelle: Please don't tell Dr. Kurimoto that Clark's a kitsune.
- Ferret: Well, no one wins the pot.
- Ferret: When the portal exploded I kinda ended hitting myself coming from the other side or something? At the end there were pieces of two different arms stuck there; they had to amputate. I actually came here to get a new one. Apparently I'm super lucky because from what they say the normal reaction to meeting yourself from the other side is to stop existing with a big boom.
- Maelle: Eternity touched.
- Ferret: What's that?
- Maelle: The informal term is aberrant.
- Ferret: Like… the zone things?
- Maelle: Yep.
- Ferret: You got like… zoned?
- Maelle: Saw the cloud over Nuskom.
- Ferret: Oh.
- While you have been here, there has been a pretty regular coming and going of portal sounds because they keep opening and closing them in the platforms outside. The sound is pretty light, actually: these might be the softest portals you have heard, which makes you notice how noise the portals made by Rigasians are. But now, you hear a loud one, and everyone around you raises their heads to look.
- Gaia: Nooo.
- Maelle: Oh, no. Oh, fuck. Oh, please not here.
- Clark: Can't we have any time to rest?
- Gaia: Hey, Oioia, what do we do now?
- Ariyadna looks at Gaia and says “O-lei-a” as Oleia raises a finger in a “wait a moment” gesture.
- Oleia: We have just discovered that some of the bigger war machines of the Rigasians are not vulnerable to warping; yo you have any idea of why this could be?
- Ferret: You want to help in the fight against GAT?
- Clark: IM SORRY WHAT?
- Maelle: You wanna be rigasian prisoners or stay away from home for longer? Be my guest! But I'm not letting these people die, and if you wanna help get home to Valtshora I say helping is what needs to happen.
- Ferret: Oh my fuck this is like the other Kurimoto all over again
- Maelle: Oh Dr Kurimoto taught me well, Ferret. Understand that.
- Clark (still half deaf from a huge explosion): WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW?
- Maelle doesn't have gloves on or anything so they're taking a bit of cold damage, but they are riding the fucking tank.
- Clark runs through the building and jumps behind one of the columns. Bullets hit the ground behind their feet, and the column as the hide behind it.
- Let me out.
- Gaia: We will try if you help us.
- Let me out.
- Oleia: What is that?
- Let me out.
- Gaia: It's the tank core.
- Let me out.
- Oleia: Is is that making them… what did the Rigasians put there?
- Let me out.
- Gaia: Zone bomb material.
- Umichooan: This war breaks the Law. It is over now.
Trivia
Rose has no idea how to actually make a wiki page, but HAIIIII ^w^
The denseness of Clark's eggshell might be so big that it's affecting the orbits of small planetoids.
Apparently one of the very few ways in which Ariyadna dares to contradict authority figures is by correcting them when they mispronounce a name, which probably has to do with her getting a rap on the knuckles when she failed to recitate something perfectly.
The ela-GAT are like nuclear submarines: sinking one might mean that everybody loses.
Maelle has gone from getting hit on the face with other character to actually fighting a tank crew inside the tank, and winning. It's not even that their skills are that much better, it's a matter of good rolls and strategy.
Umichooans are utter assholes, and the party caught on this so fast the storyteller got whipslash.
Umichooans look like they escaped from a Wuxia novel, of the kind where everyone has perfect hair all the time.
On the other hand, Gaia was proposing allying with the Umichooans against Rigasia in a poetic parallel of the attempts of Malian slaves trying to join Rigasia against Mali (also of Iorena taking the slightly less problematic option of joining forces with Kesizma against Rigasia).
The storyteller had to fight the universe to make this session happen. Ei had to get up to flip back eir main eletrical switch ten times total because power spikes kept happening.