A Curious Conclave in Zumhara is the eighteenth episode of season 26, Cloudward, Ho!.
Recap[]
Last we left off, we were deep within the Amphereon, in the heart of Zern. The lands of the Corrodi Primarch, beholding none other than the sickening towers of Castle Odpadku on the horizon. Mr. Big Britches, our brand new mech, was carrying our wind riders, our intrepid heroes, along with their allies and friends and comrades, escaping from the foundry hidden under the junk lands of Zern, all the way to the Amphereon, the ancient hall of the Corrodi Primarch that now where the forms of very advanced automata that speak with human faces and human mouths. We saw them in the crystal screen with the intelligences of long lost Corrodi Primarch, Marya and Monty beholding this screen as Marya- and her blood moved into the machine. Marya looking out and seeing Ludmila arriving badly injured and being nursed back to health by small little automata worms that, over time, were gifted with her mechanical knowledge these incredible powerful forms that they now wield for the barters and bargains that they offered. We saw her waiting dutifully by the Calefactory Biangle that she had captured with her potent craft and eventually around the time of what Comfrey had called the Prime Disruption, but was referred to differently by Olethra's reanimated friend that she found on a Nat 20, Buzz, a Zoodian, an ancient Zoodian clockwork man that had been sealed away. Olethra's having a real little robot party over there with Buzz.
With these various robots, discovering Buzz had come here with Torus and Tarun, envoys from Zood, back way before the Flying Temple of Katur, back before the Illangan Empire, when this apparently deal was struck or this arrangement was made, that a flow of energy going to and from Zood and Zern would instead be arrested and that the life force of Zood would be maintained within Zood. And the Corrodi seeming very intent on keeping that force of fire and ruin and ash within Zern, as well. Hit the recirculate on the car AC for their respective worlds. We saw within the vision that Marya was having as the blood seeped into the machine of the destroyed consciousnesses of various Corrodi Primarch that had resisted the force of this total takeover of Zern. The Corrodi coming and comforting Ludmila as she eventually lost all hope that Marya would ever come, and gave in to taking the energy of the Biangle and letting it loose as Straka was born. Her doom created by her own hand there in the ash of Zern. We also saw flashes of her body being ripped open, the heart being pulled out of her chest, strange images of machine and blood and ash and ruin that we can't quite be sure exactly what it meant. And we saw that image on the screen of Ludmila's body floating, tubes entering it, with a heart removed. The heart of flesh, the thing that powers Straka. With all of that said, we also ascended to the top of the Amphereon- Beholding the ruined river that once flowed there and contacting Tazgw'agwa, and touching with that infinite power of this impossible astral being, Van took the knife, ruining Maxwell's pants in the process. Van reached the knife of obsidian into the air and cut the last bindings of the Beacons of Zumadi, releasing Tazgw'agwa, which has brought low the barrier between Zood and Zern, allowing you guys to jump right into Mr. Big Britches as a wall of water raced towards the Amphereon, climb up the spire and leap to where gravity meets and parts between the braids of Zood and Zern, and come crashing down, skidding down the mountainside to none other than Zumhara, the great crystal city of Zood.
Synopsis[]
Our intrepid heroes were in the crystal city of Zumhara, that were getting ready for the inevitable attack of Queen Ludmila, the Empress of Ruin, astride Straka, the terrible crow of pollution and destruction, the fabled monster of Scrapsylvanian lore and myth, found to be real. Now that the barrier of Tazgw'agwa had been destroyed.
In Zumhara, Max and Monty took off to the Luxaeternium, there to warn the people of Zood who were incredibly receptive to their message, discovering an engine deep in the heart of the Luxaeternium alongside Van who had communed with Tazgw'agwa, speaking to it, and it granted Van an extension of itself, and the Vanticle power burgeoning within herself. You discovered the engine that refracts Zood's positive solar healing radiant energy back, refracting again and again and again unto itself.
Van and Bert go to Zumhara to snoop around. Van discusses recent events with him, telling him she doesn’t want him to think she’s letting him down. Bert reassures her and reveals he has bought a gun – he found one in Zern and left some money there. Van finds a symbol of the Eyeless Hand and is able to travel through it. She is led to an extraplanar space where Tazgw’agwa talks to her, thanking her for setting it free. The giant creature wants to go back to its home – Shahar, which is a mythical land to Zood the same way Zood was for Gath. To still be useful in Gath, too, it grants a boon to Van, granting her some of its power.
Olethra and Daisuke went back to Zephyr Mark II, there to look into Comfrey's theoretical writings about the possibility of unfixed time, to learn more about the workings and mechanics of the MechLeod that you now are able to pilot going into battle mode with certainty about the setting that you will fix when you get there. And even having some degree of control over all of those wild and different spell effects. You also looked in and saw something about the Biangles and about the potential to use the Biangles along with the correct frequency to potentially go back in time in a way that can change the present.
Daisuke, you were able to reconnect with your ex-wife, Comfrey, and spoke of adventures yet to come and what it means to once again be out here trying to save the world, announcing yourself proudly as the Wind Riders to a city that seems to be sort of in a surfeit of adventurers here but worlds perhaps even beyond this one.
And Marya, going to the Crystalary Knowletorium, discovered the missing core of a book created by the Lords Torus and Tarun of ancient Zood, which is where we now return aboard the Zephyr Mark II with our assembled crew. You are here with the whole gang. Everyone is back at the Zephyr Mark II. At the edge of town, you see the rest of your crew is back over with Mr. Big Britches.
And the crystal recording continues as the Lord Tarun, also crystal-headed Zoodian figure, speaks. “We wished for Zood to flourish eternal with boundless life, abundant light, that all its people might flourish and know plenty. But in our studies, we understood that, to collect the energy of Zood and keep it at the point of its origin, the energy of Zern would have to be left there as well. And of course, this would doom all of those that lived in Zern to a choking glut of that ruinous Calefactory energy. We dared not, though we dreamed of it.”
Locations[]
- Zood
- Zumahra
- Conflagrant Luxaeternium
- Crystalary Knowletaria
- Eternium (mentioned)
- Zumahra
Featured Characters[]
Player Characters[]
- Daisuke Bucklesby
- Vanellope Chapman
- Maxwell Gotch
- Marya Junková
- Montgomery LaMontgommery
- Olethra MacLeod
Recurring[]
New[]
- Dilara Starlight
- Rev. Vernon J. Feldspar
- Ferumph
- Iridia Neff