Saga of the Arden Stone

Vance & Vek before the Battle of Regorsa Skies

Vance sits in the black egg-like chair, with its top closure open, drinking a tall glass of bourbon. Around him the bridge staff of the Lolipop work without interfering. The ship is a good one and has always run on a minimal crew but since its captain became a king service on Vance's personal warship has become a badge of honor only for the best. Beside him in a similar egg chair sits a man in purple and black, with black ruffled hair and turtle shell glasses.

Vance asks him, "What do you think, Vek?"

The chaosian in purple responds, "There are a lot of pieces in play. This little adventure alone shows that. An armada of starships this deep in Shadow? You nearly blew out your cerebral cortex last night. The Cerebroenergetic Equipment may boost your brain wattage but it stretches you pretty tight. You, Agrom, Vander, and Candle are by far the best at piloting starships through shadow at warp but all four of you came out of the CE eggs looking like you were crapped out by Wyverns. Its a good skill to have in an emergency and we are here now, but its safer to trump wherever you are going."

'That said, we are behind the quartet moving the Arden stone. We can follow them as long as they are on this side of Mandalay and as long as we go slowly. I get that we needed to put the hammer down to get behind them but they are in a car now. Let one of the others do the driving while we do the shifting and perhaps that will keep your eyes from popping out of your head again. We shouldn't try to interfere with ground attacks because they don't know we are here and neither do their attackers. We can keep the star travelers off them but if we interfere on the ground who knows what will happen? We can keep the Abyssals off them once they fly out of shadow this deep to attack us."

Vance nods, "You are the one seeing the whole way? What are the obstacles ?"

Vek calls up a map of the known universe on the view screen.

Walking up to it he points, "I can see most everything up to Mandalay, as far as Rue Katal, and most things within a few thousand shadow veils on either side of the jeweled road. Desri got them away from the Nu Yark shadows well and close enough to the Road to deter deep shadow attacks. But its like Random said; the Arden Stone isn't doing them any favors by broadcasting like a slapped psionic puppy. "

"Anyway, as I said there are a lot of pieces on the move. First is echos of the Yakuza of Nu Yark sending Autoduelists after them. So far they are only able to follow them because there are 4 Amberites, two of them princes ,that are forging the trail. That leaves a hell of a Shadow Trail to follow. Random and Benedict didn't ride with them just for that reason. My guess is they can handle the Nu Yark tailing forces easy enough. Two reasonably magic shy Princes can do a lot of damage but they have a world class sorceress and a young fey king too. That's a dangerous crew to take on for a planetary criminal faction, even for Nu Yark. However, by trying to maintain themselves in shadows that vehicle runs in they have left them open to nearby disputes unconnected to their mission. They just met up with Hazarda and Timothy Elhue who were doing some autodueling near the Blighted Land shadows."

Vance thinks to his last meeting with the Autoduelists. "Will they try to take the Arden Stone?"

Vek shrugs, "No idea. Their car is a York pattern construct with a remaining shade Amber pattern engraving. That makes it tough as hell but neither York or that shade of Amber are up to the level of the Arden Stone. I would guess they don't even detect it and if they do won't be willing to make an enemy of Random just to pinch it."

"However, beyond the ephemeral forces come some real challenges. There is a force of Abyssal fey coming past Cynisure. They will make contact soon and it can't be helped. There is a Chaosian force that crossed at the Fane of Zilla but they will run into Bleys and his band of merry wargods soon. There are at least 4 Azcalan Warbands on the Jeweled Road coming for them west of Mandalay but Jake Whitetail and Digan the Rube mage are taking CHAD forces against them. There is an Ang Ri Wing of dragons coming for them but curiously they are the Fey Dragons of Ang Ri and a force of the War Dragons is weaving shadow to attack them. That sounds like an Ang Ri problem. If it were up to me, I'd aide the Fey dragons and see which way they jump afterwards. Lastly as far as we are concerned is a force of starfighters coming from the Regorian Sway and they will meet us sooner then later. That should keep us busy."

Vance looks over his personal screen. "The Regorian force I am familiar with already. Not up to our level but there are a lot of them. They run on a different structural system then my Star Fleet. Their weapons are inferior."

Vek agrees, "As I said, they will keep us busy. Frankly they probably are not after the Stone anyway but after you for that brainfraking shadowwarping you did. probably set off their warning lights like fireworks. Regorians aren't stable at the best of times."

"On the ground though we have two separate confrontations brewing and they may meet each other before coming close to the Arden Stone. Elfwyne is leading a delegation for Mandalay. Julian is leading an Army from Adagalask. Both are west of Mandalay and on the move. They are cutting across shadow at a right angle to each other.

"Lastly, if Donovan and his cohorts get past Mandalay they will reach Rue Katal where Benedict has a couple pet warbands with him and a huge force of CHAD warriors. They can keep the stone safe till it gets to Amber from there."

Vance nods..'I'm going to go play tag with the Regorians and get that out of the way. You go back in the egg and keep an eye on things."

Vek eases down into the black egg, taking a chug from his flask before putting the wired headset on. "Don't dally. Hit em' and quit em." He closes the egg.

Vance chuckles, "Yes Sahib. Helm, set a course."