the ghost ship

When one of my less inebriated customers told me they saw a a ball of fire in the Northern sky. I rushed up the ladder to the attic and opened the shutters. It was supposed to be night, but the sky was bright enough to read a ledger by. I rifled through the desk for the spyglass and focused the lens on the burning object. I cursed as I heard a sizzle and dropped the glass. The light of the blaze through the lens almost burned my eyeball out! Those things are expensive I tell you! I only wear an eye patch for my wench costume!

Eye squinted up at the ship, watching the light dim to a dark green. I heard the raucous customers on the pier cheering for the free show.

"Do it again!"

"That glow! It's ghost light I tell ye!"

"It's the end of the world! Ye know what that means? FREE RUM!!!"

"TOUCH THAT KEG AND I'LL SCREW A TAP IN YER NECK!" I shouted. I hesitantly held the lens to my other eye. Indeed, it was an ectoplasmic green. I made out where the bottom hull of the ship had fallen away, smashing a treasure trove of Royal Bloodwine and the rest of the Blood Dolls with it. But the ship was changing shape again. It appeared to be rebuilding itself. This was Spark mastery, not Demon magic.

"What's going on over there?" I wondered aloud. "An odd time to try out new blueprints, Marcus. Or are Sparkfather and little brother up to something?" I saw metallic tentacles painting over the hull, wiping away the Ereb'ai markings of the ship. Maybe Father was renaming it? Foundation? Gygax 2nd Edition?

When I read the new title, I dropped my spyglass in stunned silence.

EREBUS III

"Jeremiah..."

"That's right Sister", said Koen...or in his red fur I should say Vortex...as he crawled through the window upside-down from he rooftops. Kira slippped in right behind him. "We've got a rescue mission."

succession

Koen met us at Port Novem. We all knew why. I offered him the vial.

"You're the Firstborn."

He shook his head. "I don't want it. I'm not letting Aleister or Jeremiah or this new kid get their hands on it, but if the Hydra shows up before..."

"None of us do," I said, "but someone has to. It won't work on constructs. That means Qli, Ash and I are out."

Qlippothic interjected. "That leaves Darien...and..."

Amarantis felt her family's eyes gazing towards her. She shook her head.

"Darien would jump off a cliff before becoming the Founder again," Koen said. "that leaves only one..."

My clockwork hand shivered slightly as I passed the vial into Koen's paw. Silently he crept out of the tavern and blurred into the shadows.

Regrouping

I finally got peri up and running, and we said our goodbyes. The ruse performed flawlessly. As soon as peri was out of sight, Ama and I just stared at each other. We were exhausted. We didn't even have a cohesive plan.

That's when my other sister showed up. Qlippothic Projects (does it make sense to call her Qli-2 anymore, since she's the only one left?) materialized on a nearby rock. She had been on a mission of her own, to hunt down Aleister. She'd been triangulating his lair from geographic clues and energy signatures. An outcropping of Loli-Oni was an unusual clue to say the least.

Qli led us back to Laudanum to recover and stock up on vampire hunting supplies. It was no use fighting one enemy above while the one below was still active, she explained. He could easily set a trap for us as we returned from the Midas.

I stopped by Port Novem, and spoke with the former proprietress, Miss Lily. She had ordered a shipment of bloodwine as soon as she purchased the land, and the cask just came in. It tasted watered down compared to the Ereb'ai vintage, but this was tavern fare, not the King's Private Reserve. I should have known there was a demand for this in Winterfell! Could we have saved Koen the first time had we known this?

[Yes, it is better than Oni blood. Still not as strong though.]

Qli told me she's done a lot of adventuring. I hope she'll take some time to share them in this journal. She's been time-travelling as well. Apparently she gave up the disabled GT technology for an artifact from the Mythos. She told me that I...or Bloodwing...may have been successful in our quest, for the island of New Gomorrah, whch was created by the chaos of the Wormwood comet, no longer exists in the Dark Future!

While Humanity has still seen better times, it is not as decimated as she remembers. Without the island the demons, have instead taken over an airship port and named it after that ancient city.

I brought her up on current events, including Dr. Mason altered development. Qli gave me a gift from the future. It's a small floating personal sensor android! He reminds me very much of a robotic version of Lady Christine's CHED. I think I'll call him CHED 3000!