Season 2, Session 2 – The Blizzard Road

Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

The group has been directed to The Seven-Footed Toad, a comfy looking inn that has a wooden façade built into the side of the mountain, a wooden front that is covered a carved out cave with an obscene amount of people, food, and rooms.

Morning Meditations

Keel-Breaker, Rhum, Trapper, Tiro, and Unit 7
Abandoned Kani Crystal Mine
Windsday, Ust 14th, 2,982 Fourth Reckoning, 2nd hour of the Moon
Cinderfrost Terminal, Western Span

Seven immediately scans for danger, there’s a group of rowdy looking militia at one of the tables and the majority, if not all, of the staff are females and the evening entertainment is an old man singing out various Imperial songs. Instead of bonfires, they’ve got several kani crystals that are providing heat.

Rhum makes sure to get everyone rooms and basic rations for everyone. Altan just wants to go to sleep, whereupon he demands the VIP/presidential suite and heads to bed with his chickens. Seven needs to do some conversing with Trapper real quick about stuff.

Tiro is taking in the atmosphere of the inn, listening to what folks in the common room are talking about, drawing in the rumors. There’s just so many interesting conversations happening that he can’t just passively listen, he has to go out and chat with folks. People are talking about their underground farm, a large communal farm. The militia are babbling about some of the weirder things they’ve been seeing like shapes on the horizon even during blizzards, but there’s no traces when they approach, not even to those with extraordinary senses. And then there’s talk about the Duke that the group serves, the people are worried that he’ll be doing something that won’t play well with the current populace of Cinderfrost Terminal. They’re worried he might even invade.

Tiro knows from overhearing Altan on the Crystalgraph that the Duke really, really wants Cinderfrost. But the inhabitants don’t want anything to do with royals as a large amount of Cinderfrost’s people are refugees from the Second Ashen War. Tiro overhears a blacksmith speaking with a carpenter that they need more raw materials like wood and ores which they need to import in while they export kani crystals and kymetic inventions. But Cinderfrost Terminal is a “free” Terminal that’s free of Imperial control that can rework and repair skyships as well as the few large terminals that can produce its own EV fluid. It’s a large, comfortable terminal even with a Ministry-Trained hospital in the area.

Seven pulls aside Trapper to speak with him in Old Speech/Idlâtusian about hiding him and his presence and whether or not he can keep Jynx from speaking about him. Trapper reassures him that telling Jynx that Seven’s a masterpiece will allow the reason of the spirit explain any quirks and that Seven can always just ask Jynx not to say anything about them. Reassuring Seven that things should be fine. They also discover, that somehow, Tessikai speaks Old Speech which Seven learned thousands of years ago and Trapper needed to spend years with an elite group of Armsmasters to learn how to speak.

Seven checks Altan’s room while Tessikai argues with the proprietor about the presence of the two Thunder-Bear cubs and what they are. After the meal, Tiro tries to get Seven to sit down with an argument, but fails once Seven brings up the argument about his spears getting in the way. Tiro also finds Seven’s tendency towards using the words “This Unit” to refer to themselves as being awkward and weird. They note another Cog in the back of the inn, wearing clothing.

Tiro questions what the group does for fun. Trapper says he hunts and traps which Tiro notes that sounds like more work. Trapper says he also maintains his weapons. Which sounds like more work to Tiro. He finally notes that he dances, but like a meditative thing.

Rhum notes that in-between being a hero and fighting and he enjoys painting. Tiro questions about Seven’s weird voice the other night at while point Seven goes limp and starts speaking in that other language. Telling them to stop questioning things. That the situation inside Seven is more complicated than it seems, they need help fixing things and there may be someone in Cinderfrost Terminal that might help. It writes down a name on parchment and slides it over to Tiro. Rhum prefers to remain eating and silent.

Jynx comes in finally, bounding over to the group. Seven immediately sits down for himself. She immediately starts working on the knee. Making effort on doing a knee replacement over an hour while Tiro watches in confusion, not used to gremians field stripping a cog in an inn. Jynx passes Trapper spare parts for cogs, noting that there’s several awakened cogs which Tiro questions, being interested in how Cogs might be awakened. Jynx notes that there’s a neighborhood with a around 150 Cogs which Tiro notes is the population of his village.

Aftermath

Jynx pulls Trapper aside, saying that her mother, a City Councilwoman wishes to speak with him, alone. She also hands Trapper a mechanic’s guild token, noting that it’s hers and asks him not to abuse it. He promises he won’t, because if you can’t trust a Lawspeaker, who can you trust? Seven warns Tiro not to mention his malfunctions anymore, which confuses Tiro as he isn’t aware that they’re malfunctions. Rhum finally just tells Tiro not to question things too much. They retire to their rooms, readying themselves for the next day.

After Action Report (GM)

This was a mostly roleplaying session with the dice barely picked up and it was a ton of fun. We got to see 7’s problem a bit more and Bacon aka Tiro got to ask some good questions of the characters while getting to know the player’s gaming style. We also got the first glimpses of something being not as it seems about the situation.

World Lore Tidbit (The Second Manumission Decree)

Shortly after the War of Frozen Fires ended several of the imperial cogs began to gain actual sentience and free will. At first this was maybe 1 in 1,000, but after a while it became ore like 1 in 250. At first, the cogs hid this fact from others but eventually found others like themselves and went to a general they trusted with this knowledge for help. General Iratus ru Vlahos was quickly convinced and went to the emperor himself. The sentience of cogs were argued in the House of the Blood for months until finally a tight decision was made with the emperor himself breaking the tie and proposing a promise: cogs who had free will would be freed and given the usual choice to become a citizen or not as well as a small bit of wealth equal to years of service as if they had been a soldier. This became know as “The Second Manumission Decree.” Many hated this decision and it has been a sore point for years especially with other generals  as well as the Church of Light. The former viewed the cogs as expendable things and not real, while the latter believed no man could make a sentient creature without dark magic to aid them.

Other Notes

None,

Soundtrack

“The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac