Board Thread:Midian Play-by-Post/@comment-24302820-20141007123300/@comment-24302820-20150217044215

On the 18th of Eldus, Adrik called in his marker from Seito to help him finish off the threat posed by Mother and the arachnitaurs. Together with the massed force of Aerenidae Adrik collected, all of Seito's bannermen and their forces, they linked up with Daryen, Gunna, and Tallania. They accompanied Tall and her Malachim Vampires into Infernus to meet with the Diarchy. Tallania established formal political ties between the Principality of Malachai, Citadel (above and below) and Magnose Primera. The Diarchy tasked out ten Enforcers, and thirty vampiric foot soldiers to aid Seito. The fact that Seito's mentor, Seth, is the lieutenant and former squire of the Ipsissimus didn't hurt matters.

The initial entry went much smoother than Adrik's first time. He knew what to expect, and had far more forces with him. Most of the traps were undone by Tallania's demonic minion.

With most of their forces on the upper levels of the lair slaying arachnitaurs, and rescuing envenomed people, Adrik led Tallania, Daryen, and Seth and his forces to take on Mother itself. Seito led the Undead forces in a head-on charge against the massed technogrotesqueries. As the Vampire cavalry engaged the spider beasts, Seth, along with his henchmen Samaa and Kritot, took the fight directly to Mother. Adrik, Tallania, Daryen, and Gunna held the breach.

The tide started turning on two fronts. First, the Vampire cavalry's charge was finally halted by the Undead clockwork horrors. These two forces slugged it out in brutal melee. Secondly, Adrik used one of the mystic weapons he had seized from the Kadje Morsi (in a clear violation of his faith) to halt the monsters and get them to attack one another. Tallania and Daryen aided him in forming a barrier out of corpses, mystically controlled spider beasts, and fire. Seito, Samaa, and Kritot awakened Mother and injured it, bringing it into the fray.

During the fighting, one of the spider beasts trying to escape landed next to Adrik. As he slew it, it mouthed the words, 'You came back.' Only as the monster passed away did Adrik recognise it as having once been the young child that originally led him to this horror, the child that he left behind.

After much fighting, including a wounded Mother destroying many of her own 'children', the giant monster tried to escape this reality. This attempt was stopped by the troupe. Mother turned out to be sentient, and tried to use Adrik's telepathy to parley. Tried. The troupe destroyed the subdued beast amidst its many pleas for mercy and offers of servitude.

The Beast Killers found several carts of The Wonderously Flavoured Beverages of Lady Ruth, Baroness Elizabethstonshire AKA Ruth E's flavoured vodkas (revealed by Mother in an attempt to surrender). This cargo had been missing (along with the traders) some weeks ago, and currently represents the entire supply in of this new and highly popular brand in all of Stormundia. Many of the missing members of the Church of Amelioration were rescued. Some had sadly passed away. Other rescuees had been missing for several years. The church will be invaluable in helping them reintegrate into society, and many are likely to join. Tallania helped herself to all of that wonderful booze.

Gunna went back after the battle, hungry and disappointed that Mother had crumpled up and vanished, and collected as much of the silk as she could. It's a rough sort of silk, but there is a great deal of it. She also set a bunch of maggots against the devastated flesh of the technogrotesqueries to try and clean it from the metal, but that experiment failed. Putting the remains on ant hills worked, though.