quest/src/epistolary/00042.md

---
title: 00042
created: Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:01:41 -0700
updated: Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:01:48 -0700
syndicated: yes
public: yes
---
### 00042 {#00042}

> This seems a bit strange. Certainly Blavin has been pulling strings
> from behind the scenes the whole time, but why coordinate a special
> escort for us when there are other retrieval teams, and we've been
> less than amicable with the bloke the entire time.. Alex thinks to
> himself.
> 
> *DM: I'd like to check for any signs of deceit in the toques
> demeanor or communcations with us*
> 
> Confidence you said right? What would you do if I simply chose not
> to accompany you? I mean, there's a whole city around us, perhaps
> I'd prefer a drink before climbing a mountains worth of stairs. Or
> better yet, I could get back on the boat and ride to the top and
> same myself the hassle.

Bread once again looks confused. Confidence looks surprised, caught
off guard.

<!--
Alex rolls Investigation 2 to check for signs of deceit
3 5 = Partial Success / Success at Cost
//-->

Confidence sputters, "Well, yes, of course. You've been traveling for
some time now, haven't you? I can assure you that the food and drink
at Runesocesius will be better than anything you can get here! But
the choice is entirely yours. Feel free to avail yourself of the
local offerings. We will wait here at the steps for you."

Bread nods slowly, and seems to trailing behind the conversation just
a second or two.

Their reactions seem genuine to you despite the circumstances. They
seem like a couple of low level employees of a luxury hotel earnestly
trying to follow the instructions they've been given.

There are a couple of stalls and vendors set up around the gondola
station. Many of them serve mulled wine and hot chocolate. There is
some edible fare. Hot sandwiches and pitas. Nothing that an empanada
from Enrique's wouldn't put to shame. But they look hot and steamy,
and of great comfort to anybody who might be hungry and cold. There
are a few fire pits, next to which there are long benches with
blankets, where you might sit and warm up for a bit.

The gondola lift ends here, and does not continue up to the mountain
any further. The cloud steps are the most common way to get up to the
peak, and to the Runesocesius. But you're pretty sure one or two of
the stalls here offers balloon rides up to the peak for thrill
seekers and for those with accessibility needs.

> "I think you already know I'm interested in neither bread nor
> cheese, the second of which I certainly did not ask for yet you
> tried to offer in your hasty pretence." Inky smiles thinly at the
> toques.
> 
> Taking out a small bag of gold coins and weighing it slowly on one
> hand to the sound of coins clinking inside the pouch, Inky
> continues, "Speak, answer our questions frankly and you will be
> rewarded. The hotelier up there need not know. Breathe a word of
> our little chat to another soul, however …" Inky's gaze cut briefly
> to four snow ravens perched atop a spiral lamp post and back, "and
> you will learn the meaning of disappearing without a trace."

Bread looks confused. You are starting to believe it is their default
expression. "So, you *don't* want no chee---"

"Our only desire is to help!" Confidence hastily interrupts. He
smiles pleasingly. "We are your guides! Not just physically up the
steps, but in all things here on Kelsun Peak. You have but to ask,
and if it is within our power to give it, it will be yours! We are
but humble ser---"

And just then Confidence is also suddenly interrupted. A thundering
boom like a canon sounds from somewhere nearby, followed quickly by
an explosion somewhere up above. Snow ravens fly off in all
directions in a panic. The sound ripples through the mountaintop,
rattling the ground on which you stand. A bunch of small rocks and
two large boulders shake loose from the mountainside. Shoppers and
travelers shout and duck for cover as they are pelted by the scree.
One of the large boulder bounces clear over the station and plummets
down the side of the mountain before disappearing into the cloud
ocean below. The second one falls straight toward the platform. A
vendor selling wreaths and candles dives out of the way as his stall
is crushed by the boulder. A bench is toppled over, spilling its
blankets into the fire pit, and catches fire, quickly spreading to
another nearby stall.

Bread looks up at the sky, confused. You see a thin line of black
smoke starting to rise up into the sky from over the ridge where the
Runesocesius lies. Confidence shouts, and you see him pointing at the
sea, where a balloonship is rising up out of the cloud bank, sailing
quickly toward you and the summit of Kelsun Peak.

It resembles a seafaring ship, but instead of masts and sails, it has
two large, colorful, patchwork balloons that provide it lift. A large
fan on a pivot at the rear of the ship provides thrust. As you watch,
it fires a second canon---that *is* what the sound was!---nearly
straight up, arcing up and over the peak at Palace Runesocesius.

The crew of the ship bustle around on the deck of the ship, reloading
the canons, firing the balloons, shouting, giving and following
orders.

"Cyberplasms," groans Confidence, and Bread whimpers. Alex, that
quiet, dull, static roar that has been constantly tickling the back
of your head ever since you found that dagger seems to rise in pitch
and in tone. It conveys a sense of urgency, of warning. You can
*almost* hear a desperate voice behind the static fuzz cautioning
you, "Evil..."

The only corporeal element of the crew are their cybernetic
enhancements. A mechanical leg. A synthetic eye. A claw, a hook, a
hand. An arm canon. Almost all of them have more than one, some as
many as 3 or 5. The cybernetic pieces of each individual crew member
are held together by plasmic energy arcs, crackling blue and green.
And surrounding the bioware and the plasmic arcs of each crew member,
like a blanket or a cocoon, is the translucent, wavering, ghostly
form of some humanoid long-dead.

The figure standing on the deck surveying the work of the rest of the
crew---presumably the captain---has a synthetic eye rotating freely,
360 degrees in all directions, inside its skull-like head; a bulky
arm canon; and a thin robotic leg terminating in a thick boot.
Plasmic blasts arc through its core, sometimes disrupting and
glitching its ghostly body.

The captain raises its arm canon and shouts to the crew. Its voice
carried on the breeze sounds like something otherworldly rising
slowly from the murky deep. "Fire the canon, boys! And fire up the 
balloons! Drop the ballast! That crystal is *ours!*"

It happens very quickly: the ship ascends to the summit and soon is
firing grappling hooks at it to pull themselves in and breach the
walls of the hotel.

Bread looks at you, wide-eyed and trembling. They let loose a pitiful
wail and turn and start running up the steps. "Bread!" Confidence
yells after them. They cast a backward glance at you. "I've got to
help Bread! We've got to save the hotel!" And they give chase to
their fellow toque, bounding up the cloudstuff steps.

WHAT DO YOU DO

[www](https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00203.html)