IN OUR LAST THRILLING EPISODE, ARKYN and FYNN paid their respects at the “court” of RED MARG, the PIRATE QUEEN. Many light-hearted shenanigans transpired, with FYNN fashioning a fine new peg-leg for an eventually grateful ALFONSE, who, to be clear, had a less-good peg-leg before that already. ARKYN managed to make a bit of an ass of himself, but it seems MARG has a soft spot for foolhardy yet sincere over-wrought expressions of dismay. ARKYN also managed to order the least badass cocktail on the menu, the Beaver Claw. Once things settled down a bit, MARG told our heroes of an engineer, SPINOZA, once employed in making weapons for Nuvonia, including the dread Razorbirds. He has fled Jasauerab to escape his Nuvonian patrons and their rather strict contract. Rumours are afoot that he has taken up with MACKELLESS OF JANJAGRE, a formerly minor clan leader who appears to be uniting that land's fractious fiefdoms! Some even say he fulfills the conditions of a prophesied Chosen One to fashion these peoples into a new, mighty empire!

On their way to the trusty airship PETUNIA, they are imposed upon by the pirate they had defeated earlier, CAPTAIN BABYFACE. He has prevailed upon their tender sensibilities to seek out the rare SYLPHIUM as he needs it for some rather vaguely-stated medical purpose.

Finally, aloft and heading south, our heroes were attacked by a fluffy, not-at-all harmless PUFFBALL SWARM. While ARKYN smashed them with the flat of his mighty axe, FYNN swiftly assembled a gun that belched sulfurous flames, and soon the swarm was pillow stuffing or coal dust (which FYNN stored for more fuel, budget-conscious as they are).

In another land, presumably Nuvonia, we witness JUSTYS, ARKYN's one-time compatriot and maybe-lover.

In a dim arcade, a CLOAKED FIGURE kneels before her and asks what mission she has. She hands him a PLEDGE BLADE, a small dagger exchanged between Kastrian Dawn Knights to declare their love. “Find ARKYN,” she says, “and bring him to me. Alive.”

The FIGURE leapt away, impossibly acrobatic, its metal limbs glinting in the torchlight.

INTRIGUE and POLITICAL STUFF in our last MILDLY EXCITING EPISODE!

FLYNN and ARKYN continue their journey aboard the stalwart airship PETUNIA, Crossing a promontory of the MONSTER-PLAGUED SOUTH, they are witness to a strange tableau: a DEEP CHASM in the land belches forth STRANGE MONSTERS. Spider-like, the crawl up from out of the wounded earth into the surrounding forest. They are the size of draft horses, or even bigger! The crew, heroes they may be, nonetheless decide to steer clear of this disturbing phenomenon. No sooner are they past it but a strange disturbance in the air distorts a column above the rift, Followed by a terrific boom! But terrors and wonders are not done yet! A RUBY BEAM issues from the Hub (where maybe the sun is or isn't, astrophysicists continue to debate this topic hotly), blasting the CHASM! Another blast of sound and shock of heat reaches our adventurers, and then all is silence. What has transpired?!

Without much further ado, the party is able to make a water-landing of the PETUNIA at a small coastal village in JANJAGRE. At first greeted with hostility due to the suspicion that they are Nuvonians, our heroes soon assuage the villagers' doubts, and are then fêted as powerful allies in the fight against the Empire. They are informed that a “moot” is scheduled shortly in central Janjagre, where no less a figure than MACKELLESS THE DAUNTLESS (along with many other honorifics) is gathering the clans to hash out their remaining differences.

After a restful night's sleep, once more ARKYN and FLYNN take to the air, careful to display the local clan's livery as a show of allegiance, to avoid any further misunderstandings. Nonetheless, powerful ENGINES OF WAR are trained upon their unarmed vessel as they approach the site of the moot! Unmistakably these machines must be the work of SPINOZA, the engineer known to have made the deadly RAZORBIRDS, among many other fearsome engines that have aided Nuvonia in its conquests! It seems he now lends his formidable mind to the cause of Janjagrean independence!

Once again, the party is greeted warmly once their stance & true origins are clear. The fatalistic Janjagreans particularly appreciate the ludicrous underdog status of our heroes, and Arkyn's tragic backstory. Still, their status is not so elevated as to secure an immediate meeting with the Chosen One. Rather they are permitted to attend the moot, without a voice.

Pomp and circumstance, if a little less fancy than at a Nuvonian court's, accompany the moot proper. After some time, Mackelless the Dauntless, the Particoloured (his eyes are brown and blue, matching the prophesy!), comes forth, and announces “WE ARE BETRAYED!”

What hairpin turns await our heroes? Who is the traitor–or traitors? Find out next week!

What the last session lacked in ACTION and VIOLENCE, this one made up in SPADES!

A TENSE STANDOFF results as MACKELLESS accuses the FATUUS and BRUSILIUS CLANS, both “Nuvonianized” clans, of betrayal! They rise to their feet, ready to fight, but tempered by the clutch of CROSSBOW-WIELDING SNIPERS ready to put them down! Before offering any evidence, MACKELLESS gives the order, and bolts fly across the pavilion! FYNN, their sense of fairness violated, bravely fires off a fusillade from their MAGICANNON, hot rounds bursting into flame, winning direct hits on the weapons of summary execution, or spoiling the aim of steely soldiers!

ARKYN is besieged by indecision–this seems wrong, but surely those aligned with the Empire get what they deserve?

No sooner does this summary slaughter break out, but dark shapes shadow the pavilion's roof, resolving into three RAZORBIRDS, tearing instantly through thick canvas! ARKYN's uncertainty turns into steely resolve–combat is something he knows! He creates a makeshift trebuchet from the support ropes and a flexible tent pole, flinging himself into the air! Sadly his aim not true, landing him ignominiously a hundred meters away!

Helpless to stop it, all look on in horror as one of the deadly mechanical avians grabs MACKELLESS and spirits him away at great speed!

After a furious back-and-forth, FYNN musters their mysterious rapport with machines, and successfully dominates the mind of one of the RAZORBIRDS, mounts it, and joins the fray in the air! Heroically plucking ARKYNN from the other foe's grasp, FYNN piloted the newly converted weapon of war to a victory, eventually driving the other bird to the ground and destroying it with the terrible weapons of SPINOZA's design!

Though FYNN loves the new mount, its deeper programming emitted an ominous message: “self-destruct in sixty seconds!” FYNN sends the former terror away to become fireworks.

Crisis momentarily over, FYNN picks through the fallen bird's mechanical guts to reveal a BLACK BOX–potentially letting them track the kidnapped chosen one!

“Very clever,” intoned SPINOZA, looking over FYNN's shoulder. FYNN is reduced to a puddle of idol-worshipping incoherent babbling.

“Why would you send these to attack us?” demands ARKYN.

“These are not mine any longer,” protests SPINOZA.

But FYNN instantly is aware–SPINOZA is lying!

Our heroes FYNN and ARKYN have roved over the known world, rallying Janjagre by returning their lost leader MACKELLESS to them, discovering a strange network of “terminals” scattered over the ring, and the dread interface that they supply access to–a super-weapon that can blast whole regions down to ashes and rubble! They have discovered a seemingly global conspiracy amongst the automata, or perhaps a religion, that they call simply the New Machine. The severed head of GIGER and their foe MONDRIAN have given seemingly contrary, confusing accounts of what the actual beliefs of the sect are–is it riven by heretical schisms? Are the automata who believe in it just mad, driven by some glitch in their programming?

And so we come to the new chapter, THE RIVER OF SOULS: THE GOD MACHINE.

Our heroes at last have come, after their many exploits, to the capitol of Nuvonia, known as Cryn. A well-defended redoubt with a bay guarded by a monstrous chain, it is walled all about. They must enter through a well-guarded sally port, where various merchants, citizens, and, depressingly, their slave servants are queued up in a remarkably orderly fashion.

Realizing that they of course have no papers of any sort, FYNN hatches a plan to use their nimble fingers and “artistic” skills to make a fair copy of someone else's documents. The theft goes off well, and they get maybe a little too creative, giving ARKYN a high status, with FYNN posing as a lowly servant.

At the gate, the guard is apparently unimpressed. With some tense back-and-forth, he eventually summons the pair to the guard house, leaving them to stew a while.

One Quaesitor MAXIMILIUS eventually showed up to interrogate them. A no-nonsense fellow, he resorted not to thumbscrews and fire, but a reasonable, concerned, almost avuncular manner, trying to persuade them that they need him as a friend and that, hey, he just needs to understand what is going on here, surely there is a sensible explanation for their obviously forged documents?

As the adventurers are trying to sweat out something sensible besides “we've come here seeking to topple your evil empire”, a new figure appears!

PERICLES, Knight of the Novaurora, the Order that has been re-minted in the Empire's image, enters. After some tense negotiating, or rather brow-beating, he escorts FYNN and ARKYN away, under the watchful guard of his goons TITO and PUENTE. Not unlike MAXIMILIUS, he's all reason, but the imposing structure, blazoned the MINISTRY OF TRUTH, does not bode well.

ARKYN and FYNN are separated, which will make a consistent story a lot more difficult.

FYNN is met by a most curious automaton: a robot investigator! Putting trust for the law into the hands of an automaton, other than as a bludgeon, is unprecedented, yet this being seems to have some rank and grudging respect among Nuvonia's law enforcement. Not enough respect to be given a nice name, though, it simply goes by GEARY, a corruption of its designation G34-RY. It is immediately interested in FYNN's trusty (and unwilling) sidekick GIGER. GIGER is sensibly showing no signs of life, not being eager himself to be picked apart like a lab animal. FYNN knows that GEARY is too powerful a mind to suborn in their usual way, but thankfully, GEARY is making use of a direct interrogation device: a briefcase festooned with various connectors and, thankfully, a very simple mechanical mind of its own. This, FYNN is able to overpower, rendering its probings useless and producing the desired report: GIGER's head is simply a long-dead automaton. Interestingly, GEARY appears to be aware of the New Machine and at least some of its doctrines. It clearly does not approve.

Meanwhile, ARKYN is offered a deal: PERICLES finds JUSTYS' position of influence over the EMPEROR inconvenient for his own ambitions. Perhaps ARKYN would be willing to rid him of this meddlesome knight, in return for a faked death and their freedom. The alternative apparently being a completely real and probably very painful death, ARKYN agrees.