Roger examines the equipment in the truck, and attempts to whip up something that may be more effective against the Seeker.

When the time of the charge draws near, Roger gives Sir Ulath some flash bangs and frag grenades and makes sure the Knight knows which is which. He then instructs him, when the time comes, using whichever grenade he chooses, to think about it being the other one in an attempt to confuse the Seeker.

When that is done, he grabs a scoped rifle and takes up position on the wall.

Felix eyes Ortzel.

"You and I are going to have a looooong chat, later."

Felix opens the floor to any suggestions to his plan. If there are none, he'll get the troops in order and head to the wall to begin the bombardment phase of the plan.

"How Azash channels power is irrelevant - the runes and paths that the power flows down does not matter. What matters is that the power is there, responding only to the will of Azash, and not to any physical action on the part of the Seeker." Piper get a gentle push from Ortzel, and spins in mid-air so that she's upside-down, but continues speaking without interruption. Her dress remains in place as though gravity were pointing a different direction for her alone, but her hair seems to reluctantly deign to accept the normal dictates of gravity as they apply to anyone else. "Without the protection of Azash, then yes, your... grenades would be effective. But that protection can only be interrupted if the Seeker chooses to reject it. If it shielded itself with the Count, then that is because Azash recognised that remaining there led to a future where he did not need to bother to deflect a grenade - the protection has no meaningful limits, but Azash will often take the minimum amount of effort to protect the Seeker."

Arkady, in the meantime, gives Ortzel an impassioned speech on the presence of magic.

I don't see how either Defender of the Faith or Defensive Pacifist are relevant here, but the other three can certainly be used.

Arkady: Empathy: +5 Roll: -1 Aspects: +6 Total: +10
Ortzel: Resolve: +5 Roll: +1 Aspects: Hardened Sceptic: +2 Total: +8
Ortzel, Mental track: OXOOO OOO

Ortzel draws himself up to his full height, and looks down his nose at Arkady. "I have no intention of being caught up in such blasphemeous sophistry! The words of scripture are clear in this matter; our god stands alone, and all magic and other faiths are no more than dreams or illusions!"

Ortzel: Rapport: +2 Roll: -1 Total: 1
Arkady: Resolve: +3 Roll: +3 Total: 6
Arkady can keep this up all day.

Piper rolls her eyes and stands up, still upside-down. "I guess we might as well get this over with." In a moment, she's nothing more than a blue outline of herself, and in another moment she's gone - only to reappear in an instant the right way up again, arms folded, and an 'explain that!' expression on her face.

Piper: Mysteries: Total: +8
Ortzel: Resolve: +5 Roll: +3 Total: +8

Ortzel steps back, and pushes Piper aside, stubbornly ignoring what he sees right in front of him.

--------------

Meanwhile, at the truck, Roger remembers something... back at the Ship, when the group was dealing with the Blood Bees, Zalasbra showed them a combination of local herbs which, when burned together, produced a smoke that would poison any insect. And the Seeker is supposed to be some kind of giant insect...

--------------

Manwhile, Baron Alstrom pulls Felix and Sir Ulath aside. "The most important thing here is to ensure that my brother is bought safely to Chyrellos to stand for the election," he says. "Are you certain that your plan is the best way to accomplish this?"

Roger asks around to try and find if any of the herbs Zalasbra used are easily accessible.

"Could we get around its magic by capturing it non lethally, or does it have other defenses in place to keep it from being taken alive?" Felix asks Piper

"Well..." Felix pauses, looking at Alstrom. "We'd be forced to leave the Seeker alive and as a major future threat, something I'm loath to do, but I suppose it'd be easier to mount a fighting retreat. Our magical auto carriages are heavily armored and can move at great speed, far faster than any horse. All we'd need to do is use fire and force to punch a hole through the enemy encirclement and we're clear."

Felix turns to Ortzel.

"If magic doesn't exist then how do you explain the miraculous stuff I've seen mages do? Have you not seen your church's own Knights using magic in action to summon powerful attacks? What matters if it's magic or not, so long as it achieves something? A mere parlor trick that allows one to throw a fire storm at one's enemies is still an impressive feat. With Zemoch forces standing out our doorstep, what does it matter *how* we do something so long as it is done?"

Arkady blinks, then turns to Piper. Ortzel is briefly forgotten. "Piper, did you say that the Seeker is an insect possessed by Azash?"

It turns out that there's a (very small) apothecary in the Castle. Between that and the kitchen, Roger can find all of the necessary herbs - but there's only a small quantity of them inside the Castle.

"Capturing it non-lethally might very well work," says Piper, "but only if most of the timelines after it is imprisoned have it surviving. Azash can see really quite far into the future, but might not have thought to look for the capture of the Seeker."

"You know what's going on here a lot better than I do," admits Baron Alstrom, "and if the Zemochs are sending champions here to prevent my brother standing election for Arch-Prelate, then it's clear that that is exactly where my brother needs to be. Me and my men will support any plan that gets him there."

"Well, I, for one," insists Ortzel, "will refuse to be a party to any sort of deception or witchcraft."

"You will not have a choice!" insists the Baron. "The hospitality of my Castle I close to you, Ortzel. Whether I have to personally tie you up and throw you onto that truck or not, you are going to Chyrellos to stand for election, and you are going to let these people do what they need to do to get you there, is that understood?"

Alstrom: Intimidation: +1 Roll: +0
Ortzel: Resolve: +5 Roll: +2
Ortzel, mental track: OXOOO OOO

"Quite understood," says Ortzel sounding mildly annoyed.



Felix: Rapport: +4 Aide: +4 Roll: +1 Total: +9
Ortzel: Resolve: +5 Roll: -2 Total: +3
Ortzel's mental track: OXOOO XOO

"Hearsay," says Ortzel. "Hearsay and rumour, magnified in the telling. When I am Arch-Prelate, the Church will conduct our business with the honesty we should have used from the start!"



Piper nods. "Yes, I did."

Roger does his best to recreate the compound that Zalasbra made. Where his memory fails him, he consults Piper.

Arkady snorts. "Then God willing, Azash can be exorcised. I wonder if he was thinking of that?"

He turns back to Ortzel. "There is a rite of my Church called exorcism. It has already proven effective at casting out manifest demons, but it is specifically meant to cast out possessing spirits. As a priest you could do it; but my god will not likely answer you if you ask it of Him. Will yours answer you if you ask it of him? Can you, and will you, ask for his help to save this castle from the servants of Azash?"

Tag Church of Many Doors, and I've Got To Stand Against Satan? God Help Me!

"Alright, then," Felix says, looking at Piper. "If we take the fight to the enemy instead of fleeing, we capture the Seeker alive. Then we take it back to the base where it's placed in a specially designed cell and milked for its venom to produce cures and toxins to aid us in our journey. Would doing that place the Terran people in danger of retaliation by Azash, or have we meddled enough in his affairs that retaliation is inevitable?"

"All we have to do is pick a plan. Take the fight to the enemy and thwart Azash, or flee. I'm pretty confident we can accomplish both plans, though fleeing will be easier," Felix says to Baron Alstrom. "We may not look it, but Nate, Arkady and myself are elite warriors of the Terran people, on par with the combat abilities of Church Knights. We can win the day, I believe it."

"I swear, you're just as bad as David," Felix says, eyeing Ortzel. Then he stops for a moment in contemplation before cracking a wide grin. "Okay, okay... What if, and listen to me on this, what if I told you it really was a trick? That magic doesn't exist. That it's all down to careful study and knowledge? The Knights and the Styrics really can summon devastating works to fight enemies, but it's all based in hard science? Combinations of liquids, powders, and metals with special properties? That calling it magic was a way to keep it out of the hands of the common people who abhor magic? Let me give you a demonstration..."

Felix pulls out the sawed off shotgun he had attached to his belt and loads it with dragon's breath rounds. Looking around the room, Felix aims at an undecorated portion of stone wall/ceiling and fires, letting loose a massive gout of flame that scorches the stone. While everyone is getting their senses back, Felix pulls out another shell of dragon's breath and pries it open with a knife. He pours the powder on the grind and throws a lit match at it to show the powder igniting into a small burst of flame.

"Look, see? Nothing more than a trick of science, but a powerful trick nonetheless. The Knight's so called 'magic' is nothing more than good education in how the world works. It exists, but it can be explained. You want honesty? Just have the Knights and Styric allies say that magic is an explainable science that can be easily replicated. I'll even have our colony send over some scientists and engineers to Chyrellos to explain in detail how this stuff works."

Felix looks at Piper and mouths "Forgive me"


"That's brilliant! We capture the Seeker alive and exorcise it of Azash's influence so it'll be less of a problem!"

Arkady decides not to discuss what he's thinking about his medicine show right now with Felix, and simply says "Felix, we may not be needing to capture it first."

Arkady: Leadership: +3 Roll: +2 Aspects: +4 Total: +9
Ortzel: Resolve: +5 Roll: -3 Aspect: Hardened Sceptic: Reroll: -1 Total: +4
Ortzel, mental track: OXOOX XOO

"Azash is no more than the other so-called Styric gods, or any god but the single True one; rumour and supposition, with no power other than to stand as a symbol. By denying the existence of such a boogeymen, we rob it of the power to keep our people awake of a night in fear, which the only power it has."

--------------

Roger, meanwhile, turns up to ask Piper a question. She recognises the little bowl of herbs he's carrying and brightens up at once. "Oh! That might work! Hmmm. But there's not much here. Can you find me a barrel?"

Once the barrel is obtained, Piper holds her pipes with one hand,moving them back and forth in front of her mouth as she produces a tune of far too much complexity to hail from such a simple instrument; with her other hand, she tips the bowl so as to empty the herbs out into the barrel. And, contrary to the normal result of such an action, the bowl does not immediately empty itself; instead, a stream of mixed herbs flows out from the small bowl, continuing on and on until the entire barrel is filled.

"I presume you've got a plan to get the smoke to the Seeker?" she asks.

Piper: Mysteries: Total: +8
Ortzel: Resolve: +5 Roll: +3
Ortzel, mental track: OXOOX XOO

Ortzel deliberately keeps his back turned to this blatant display of unnatural abilities.



"That is precisely my contention," agrees Ortzel. "And thus, by banning the claim that anything the Church Knights do is 'magic', I would bring about a new era of honesty and truth to the world, without in any way reducing the capabilities of the Church."

"Yeah," Felix says, nodding his head. "Yeah, I think this is acceptable. Let the Knights do as they do, just call it science instead of magic. I was afraid you wanted to stop them from doing it entirely, which would have made the nations of the alliance weak and allow Azash to spread his influence even more."

"Originally I figured I'd just hand it to someone in the charge, but as there is now a barrel of the stuff it's probably safest to put it on a catapult or trebuchet."

Roger asks the Baron if he has access to a such a weapon.