God-Kings of Lotus: Heroes of the Unconquered Sun

[The Demented One]

Silence falls as Watcher finishes his speech, a quiet unbroken by god or man. None dare speak before the Unconquered Sun, the King of Heaven, Ignis Divine. The Most High raises up the four fulcrums of his virtue, calling upon the Five-Score Fellowship to know the same virtue in their judgment. By the Aegis of Unconquered Might, he commands of them a fair and just decree; by the Trumpet of Absolute Victory, he demands that they speak the truth of their hearts; by the Godspear of All-Searing Noon, he asks that they be bold in speech and judgment; and by the Laurel of Entwining Mercy, he reminds them that justice must ever be tempered with compassion. He speaks.

"The Accused Have Spoken. Chosen of the Stars, You Who Sit In Judgment of these Princes of the Earth, Speak Your Verdict, That Justice May Be Done. I Command of You Truth, and Truth Alone. So Let It Be Done."

Where before their was clamor and strife, the Sidereal Host now speaks of one accord. Each Division's elder speaks on its behalf, casting the vote of their entire score of the Fellowship. Five voices cast their judgment, five gods testify to each verdict.

"I, Ayesha Ura, Elder Harbinger of the Division of Journeys, proclaim a verdict of innocent." The Sidereal looks up at you, positively beaming. To her, their is no doubt to as to the trial's outcome. A weary, weathered wayfarer of a god rises beside her, a ship's wheel borne up on his back. "I, Ruvia, Captain of the Golden Barque, confirm the will of Heaven in this matter."

"I, the Righteous Sage Bride, Elder Joybringer of the Division of Serenity, proclaim a verdict of innocent." The Sidereal who speaks is a small, quiet woman, her hair all in red ringlets–but for all her shy beauty, her presence is enthralling, all captivating. A lazy-looking god lounges beside her, clutching a decanter of blue gemstone. "I, Yaogin, Bearer of the Lapis Ewer, confirm the will of Heaven in this matter."

"I, Glorious Victory of Heaven, Elder Reckoner of the Division of Endings, proclaim a verdict of innocent." The bearded Sidereal shoots you a sly grin, his hands posed in the sign of Saturn, as if to bring an end to injustice. His own shadow seems to coil up beside him–but it is no shadow. "I, Wayang, the Black Puppet Mask, confirm the will of Heaven in this matter."

"I, Sifu White Lotus, Elder Shieldbearer of the Division of Battles, proclaim a verdict of innocent." The sifu seems truly ancient, his white beard sweeping the floor with its impressive length. While he seems distant and distracted, there is no lack of surety in his words. The god who speaks beside him is a beautiful woman adorned in lacquered red armor, her spear held high even in this court. "I, Hu Dai Liang, Shogun of the Crimson Banner, confirm the will of Heaven in this matter."

"I, Chejop Kejak, Elder Oracle of the Division of Secrets, proclaim a verdict of guilty." The oldest of the Viziers glowers up at you, his eyes burning green with what might even be rage. He has known, for the first time in the thousands of years since the Usurpation, bitter defeat, a defeat not even he can countermand. The deity who speaks Heaven's judgment is a strange and enigmatic thing, wrapped in countless robes of blue and grey. It speaks in a soft and strangely childish whisper. "I, Nara-O, Keeper of Secrets, protest this matter on behalf of Heaven."

Having heard the decision of all five Divisions, having heard the truth of accusation and defense, having heard all that can be said of justice, Ignis Divine speaks, and his voice is the rumbling of the sky's vault. All Yu-Shan hears his voice, for this is not only the justice of the Bureaus of Heaven, but of all Heaven. The King speaks, and his kingdom hears his commands.

"So It Shall Be. Invincible Maiden Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Watcher From Behind The Mirror, Zephyr Scales-of-War, I Find You Innocent of All Accusations, and Extend the Apology of the Most High to You. Let All Heaven, Let All the Gods Aid You in Your Endeavor to Heal Creation of this Awful Blight. Whispering Heaven, I Find You Innocent of All Accusations, and Absolve You of All Censure. I Promote You to Captain of the Division of Endings for Your Intrepid Service to the Lawgivers, and Commend You Unto Saturn. Most Efficacious Doctor of Brazen Impossibilities, I Find You Guilty of the Charges Brought Against You, But Stay All Punishment. You Are to Reveal the Secrets of What You Have Done So That Creation Might Be Healed, and to Submit Unto Lytek, That He May Discover the Secrets of Your Nature, and Return Your Exaltation to the Righteous Light from Whence It Came. Such is My Justice."

"And Yet, That Cannot Be All. Ivory Eyes, Most Inspired Child of Twilight, Arrow of Heaven Beyond All Others, You Have Spoken of Great Injustice Done Unto You and Yours, and I Have Heard the Truth of Your Voice. O-Bankai, You Are to Release the Woman Called Somber Reed from All Bonds and Confinement, and to Forgive All Unjust Debts of Ivory Eyes. I Chastise You for Such Audacious Indiscretion, and Sentence You to a Thousand Years of Faithful and Austere Service to Heaven. Such Is My Justice. I Call this Trial to Conclusion. All of You May Depart, Save for You, My Exalted. I Would Speak With You."

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory Eyes sits, fixed to her chair with hands clasped tight around the edge of the table's adamant edge. Her eyes are closed, and her smile widens even as--no, especially as Chejop Kejak cries out against them. Her smiles tightens to a dangerous rigor as the Sun pronounces judgement against O-Bankai, and she cries quick, brief tears before flying up into the air, her anima blaring to full totemic glory. Both Ivory and her familiar raptor of essence glare down at O-Bankai with stern eyes.

When she glides down to the ground, it as near the foot of the bench, waiting for the room to clear so that the Sun may speak with them.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr squeezes Ivory on the shoulder - then, forgoing all pretenses of sobriety, he laughs aloud, embracing his friends each one at a time, Ivory last of all. "I told you we would see her freed, and matters reckoned with that lout of a god - though I did not expect such exalted aid in accomplishing the task." He clapped his hands, a grin of pure joy on his face - The feeling of absolution was intoxicating, and he savored it for all it was worth while he waited for the room to clear, making a special point to send a particularly insufferable smirk to Chejop.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The tears of sorrow Yomiko wore during her final statement had ceased, but were suddenly overcome with tears of joy as the court found she and her Circle innocent. She held her arms tightly around Zephyr when it came her time to feel his great embrace and once he had moved on she held Konoko in her arms and hugged Watcher as well. She had not forgotten Ivory, as she loosed her arms around the latter two companions and embraced her even as Zephyr still did.
She looks up at the Unconquered Sun once their presence was requested and she held her hands together to speak, "Our attention is forever yours if you so requested, Ignis Divine."

[The Demented One]

"My Children, I Am Well Pleased. The Truth Was With You, and Those Who Would See You Falsely Accused Have Been Set Right. Let It Be Known That I Shall Not Abide Such Injustices Brought Against My Chosen Any Further. Your Case Shall Be Precedent and Prime Verdict in All Future Matters, and There Shall Be Divinity Above the Sidereal Exalted to Oversee All Accusations in Days to Come. I Give Personal Apology On Behalf of Heaven, and Know That I Will Not Let Your Honor and Honesty Go Unrewarded. Behold! Calibration is a Season of Gifts, and May the Highest Gifts Be Given Unto Those Who Have Borne the Greatest Burden."

In a flash of sunlight, his four fulcrums disappear, drawn back into his essence. In their stead come four gemstone, four hearthstones drawn from Heaven's geomancy. There is a scintillating pearl, resplendent in all the colors of the rainbow; a mirror-smooth disc of obsidian, so dark that all light dies in its depths; a ruddy-red stone the size of a man's fist, rough-edged and unhewn; and lastly, a crystal of adamant, its twenty facets catching the light.

"Yomiko, You Asked Me Nothing of Yourself When I Would Give You Any Gift, and your Compassion is a Light to Match My Own. I Name You God-Bride of the Unconquered Sun, and Bestow Upon You this Sublime Opal, as Testament and Sign of Our Sacred Marriage."

"Watcher, You Have Served Me As an Unshakable Pillar of Justice, Your Own Judgment All That I Could Ever Expect of the Lawgivers. I Name You Right Hand of Justice Unquestionable, and Send in You the Enforcement of All Law. I Gift You With This, the Hidden Sun Obsidian, to Aid You in Your Service."

"Zephyr, Know That Though I Am Unconquered, It Is Only for Luna's Presence at My Side. She Is the Strength to Challenge that Would Defeat Me, and for That Alone Am I Mighty. I Name You Ordained Guardian of the Golden Sun, and May You Be As Luna Unto My Chosen by This, the Juggernaut Stone, the Strength That Does Not Cease."

"And You, Ivory Eyes. You Are Wonder and Will Beyond Any That Creation Has Known. I Name Your Sorceress Supreme of All Creation, and Commend the Secrets of the Highest Sorcery Unto You. By This, the Adamant of Unconquered Sorcery, May You Bring Your Works Into the World with Compassion and Righteousness."

"To Each of these Stones There Is A Manse Within Yu-Shan, Already Bound Unto Your Will by My Command. You Shall Be Always Welcome Within Yu-Shan, and Your Sanctums Shall Stand Ever Open to You So Long as You Do Live. I Depart Now, for Calibration Ends, and the Games of Divinity Must Be Played. Go In Peace, My Children, and Serve Creation as King and Steward, Lawgiver and Guardian."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr bowed. He'd been doing a lot of that today. He spoke in tones of profound respect as he took the gift that the Unconquered Sun offered him. I thank you, my Lord. I will continue to serve my Lady, and protect your Chosen as I always have, and to protect the world with every fiber of my being.

With that, he started to back away from the shining face of Sol Invictus, ready to take his leave and return to his duties at home.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko continued to smile, the muscles in her face feeling strain but not being deterred by it. She took the glorious stone from her celestial husband's hand, and her heart swelled beyond imagining. "Surely Heaven will become my second home, in time." She takes his hand in both of hers and places his hand upon her cheek, closing her eyes. "Thank you..."

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory receives the Adamant with a gracious smile and sighs.

"With respects, Ignis, I have something to attend to thanks to your help." She grins wickedly and rushes from the court room, wings flapping as she leaps from the nearest window and takes to the skies of Heaven. Her mind is quick and clear as a glacier-fed river, easily remembering the quicksilver waterways that crisscross Yu-Shan as she guides herself back, back to where it all began.

O-Bankai stands at the threshold of his manse, and Ivory looks at him: not gloating, not imperious, but forceful nonetheless. O-Bankai cedes to her, gesturing for someone within to exit.

She's not much taller than Ivory Eyes: a stunted woman, heavy with age but not obese. Her hair is thin and mixes black and gray in equal proportions. Her skin is tanned by thirty years of Chiaroscuran sun, her eyes are soft and pale silver. The nose, the ears, the angle of her lips--they are features familiar to Ivory Eyes, features inherited. Somber Reed smells of cinnamon and mint.

They embrace, and if Ivory is crying then Reed is behind herself, shaking with tears and laughter as she inhales deeply. Ivory Eyes is suddenly aware of her scent--it has to be rice, rice, rice. Rice and the rich smell of deep, clean earth.

"I'm sorry that it's taken this long," Ivory manages between heaves, and Somber Reed pushes her daughter back to take in the sight of her. Ivory pushes her hair back into place self-consciously, realizing how long she's travelled from Lotus to the Blessed Isle, through the City and into Yu-Shan.

"Ivory. You're alive. You're really alive," Reed says.

"And I'm taking you with me," Ivory says with a laugh. She prompts her mother, rushing forward to cross the hearth. Somber Reed shoots O-Bankai a nasty look of her own as they pass the irate culinary god. "Are you ready?"

"Ready? Ready for wh--"

Somber Reed is interrupted as Ivory flares her anima, letting the raptor spread over both herself and her mother. They're enveloped in an instant and Ivory takes her mother's hands and launches the pair skyward. Her mother screams, a delighted woop.

"Ivory, how is this possible?" she asks.

"Anything is possible for the Solar Exalted," Ivory says, smiling as she turns down to look at her mother. "You've missed a lot mom, paying for my sins. That ends today. You're coming to live with me in Lotus. We found it mom, called there. It was this tiny village long ago and now...you'll see, mom. It's a metropolis now, where people live long lives and...and mom, you can have anything you want, Ivory says, still crying. "You can have palaces, jewels, feasts, wings. If you want wings, I will give you wings, mom."

"Oh Ivory," Somber Reed says as they pass lower to the ground and land at a waiting dragonboat. Reed leans in, brushes an errant strand of Ivory's hair behind her ear. "What could I possibly want with wings when I have such a daughter who would and could offer me them? That is the best gift you can give me, Ivory. The one thing only you can provide: your presence."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

After a time, Zephyr and the rest of the circle reunite with Ivory Eyes. He bows in greeting, as if Ivory's mother were a queen among the Chosen, and together they take to the Dragonboat. He looks at Ivory and her mother with a quiet smile. "Greetings, Miss. I know this must be a shock to you - but we are Ivory's friends. Her circle - Princes and Princesses of the Earth, as is she. It is an honor to meet you."

The glories of all heaven blaze by in a blur as the boat takes them towards the gate. Sights, sounds, smells accost them on every side - and here and there, watching eyes can be seen in a flash of brilliant color and shining stars. No doubt the Bronze Faction is both reeling and seething from the courtroom defeat, but the word of Sol Invictus is adamant indeed, and Zephyr doubted they would try anything. As the circle alights, Zephyr is in no huge hurry - though he is eager to return to Lotus, he savors the opportunity to see the parts of heaven through which they pass. Raised in the wild and a child of a thousand hardships, Zephyr nevertheless has a prediliction for the finer things in life - and he wishes he had more time, and more of that strange coin they used in heaven - he would have bought a gift for Ivory, perhaps, though he doubted anything he could find would equal the gifts they had already been given.

Still, there is much that needs to be done, and he has no time to tarry. He gives the others a wicked grin as they approach the Gate - "Heh... since we own property now, we should come to visit soon. I think we might actually be able to give Chejop Kejack an epileptic fit if we tweak his nose anymore, the old goat." He said, avoiding a vulgar ephitet at the last moment in deference to Reed's presence. Taking one last glance around at the glories of heaven, Zephyr mutters "Some day" before stepping through the gate, heading for Lotus. Heading for home.

[The Demented One]

Epilogue: The Sun Always Rises

Madness. The light of the sun itself, the golden radiance of the Daystar, burned with emerald flame, raining down spears of aberrant, infernal essence. The Dragon-Blooded fell to their knees in agony, their skin catching aflame before their very eyes, cancerous burns spreading across their flesh. Rising Echo fell to his knees, only spared from the wrath of the mad green sun by his Solar vigor. And then, with the sound of utter silence, of a thousand leaden bells tolling only nothingess, the world fell apart. The ground beneath the Eclipse Caste's feet disintegrated into nothingness, leaving him to fall through endless unbeing. The Dragon-Blooded and mortals caught in the green sun's wake with him unraveled slowly, deliquescing from the inside out. First there bones went, leaving their flesh to collapse in on itself; then muscle and organs, leaving their hollow skin to crumple before dissipating. The very air around him dissipated, leaving him to choke on the emptiness of the void. But Rising Echo did not fall. His anima flared to golden brilliance, flickering with infinite possibilities. He was Chosen of the Sun, a Prince of the Earth, and he could not fall. Even as Creation ceased to be around him, even as the very cosmic principle that allowed for existence was negated, Rising Echo defied unbeing, standing unconquered against the void.

And then came the desert. Out of nothingness, out of the void, out of the very unshinmaic absence of being came the silver sands of the Endless Desert, infinite unbounded malice pouring into whatever foothold they could broach upon Creation. Rising Echo struggled to follow them, fighting with more than mortal strength to ride the Yozi's manifestation back into Creation, to drag himself out of the void. But as he pulled himself, fingers scraping into the silver desert around him, there came an awful laughter, the very desolation around him mocking his efforts. Cecelyne's awful maw yawned wide, and she spoke her callous cruelty. For five days Rising Echo struggled against her sands, arguing each and every one of the vile and broken laws she spoke to bind him. For every handful of sand he clung to, dragging himself forward, the winds of Hell itself drove him back two. And yet for every law that Cecelyne presented, Rising Echo presented rebuttal and counterargument, debating the Endless Desert to a standstill.

Five days passed, five days that passed in the seconds between the void ripping Creation asunder, and Cecelyne flowing out of its gaping desolation, tainting all the world with her presence. And Rising Echo, for all his strength, faltered. Before his eyes, the sands of Cecelyne poured forward into the shinmaic breach between Creation and Malfeas, sealing it with her infinite body. He was caught, imprisoned in Hell with no fewer fetters than the Yozis themselves. On every side he would find demons and the Infernal Exalted, an entire world that would see him caught and broken and slain. Unless he found escape, impossible escape from an entire world built as a cage and a prison, he would die, whether by the emerald flames of Malfeas's wrath or the black malice of the Ebon Dragon's hatred. Without his circle, without his city, without even the light of the Most High, he who had blessed him with exaltation, Rising Echo stood truly alone.

And yet, Rising Echo was Chosen of the Sun. He rose to his feet, and began walking through the sands of the Endless Desert, towards the Demon City of Malfeas. The demons, the Infernal Exalted, and even the Yozis themselves could be negotiated with, could be sworn to sacred oaths, could be tricked, could be bested. And if anyone could best the fallen titans in a game of words, it would be Rising Echo. God-King of Lotus.

[GryffonDurime]

Downtime Theatre

Ivory smiled as she ran her thumb across the spines of the books. There were quite a few of them. The Adamant Lily Pagoda had an empty library where shelves lined walls so tall that she could fit everything she owned into that room and still have space left over to fly about, but the delivery had exceeded even that capacity. The shelves were full now, and the overflow covered the floor of the room in ankle-high piles of books and files and papers.

"Most of this is regrettably useless, mistress," D'resh said from his perch on her new desk. "Records kept with the Bureau of Destiny on the minutea of the lives of sorcerers throughout history. The chafe, not the wheat, either. If you were curious as to what Salina favored for midafternoon tea, the answer would appear to be chamomile," he said as he glided down to the pile and opened a file with a flap of his wings. "When Miss Ura was preparing the readings you requested, orders came down from the...which was the green one, Miss Ivory Eyes?"

"The Forbidding Manse of Ivy," she said absentmindedly and she flipped through an old tome. It turned into dust in her hands.

"Yes. Orders came down from the Manse to include...everything. And news that there had been a most regrettable incident with the index and a flame duck. My apologies," D'Resh said as he lept to Ivory's shoulder. "But Miss Ura did advise me, rather conspiratorially, to help you look for that--" he pointed to a thin saffron volume near the edge of the shelves.

Ivory took the volume gingerly and opened it, smiling as she did so. Inside there were clippings and copies of notes: names of a few fine Sidereal savants, notes on spells and artifacts. Even a few notions about shinmatic theory.

"Relay my compliments to Ayesha when you meet with her next," Ivory said as she took a seat at the desk.

"And when do you think that would be, Miss Ivory Eyes?" D'Resh asked, his manners starched and straight as a butler's coat.

"I was hoping it would be tomorrow. Assuming, of course, that you accept a position as my retainer here in Heaven."

"You could simply bind me to such a task," D'Resh said. A test. He was clever, yes, and politely paranoid. Practically perfect for such a position.

"I've not even bound you to my service yet, D'Resh, and I was hoping you'd prefer a salary. Of course, if you'd rather I bound you," she said, looking up from her notes with a smile.

D'Resh grinned, the tips of his beak curving in a matter that would have been unnatural for anything other than a spirit. He extended his wing, she took it, and they shook.


***

"Are you sure about this, mother?" Ivory asked, scraping a last sliver of rock from the statue set before her on the counter.

"Positive," Somber Reed replied, finishing her cup of tea with a satisfied sound. "I've seen how hard you work, how many nights you go without any sleep."

"I don't need sleep anymore."

"Just because you don't need to sleep doesn't mean that you shouldn't," Somber Reed said.

Would you care for more tea, Miss Reed? Bronzeheart asked, his voice light and elated to be of service again. Ivory had become an infrequent visitor in her own home, and the great mechanical spider enjoyed his protracted discussions with the woman. She spoke of Heaven and her career as a Chiaroscuran glassblower, and she had taken to inventing with such minimal instruction that Ivory sometimes wondered if her mother was Exalted.

"That would be lovely, Bronzeheart," she replied, and there was the noise of mechanisms lowering. A spark kindled in the brick hearth and a thin track of iron spiraled out from the cupboard with a kettle. Two pipes slid forward and released sprays of water and tea leaves.

"I still can't believe you got that little system working with his circuitry," Ivory said with a smile as she seated herself at the table and offered up the statue for her mother's approval. It was the Somber Reed of thirty years ago: the strong-shouldered woman who had pulled her daughter from the raucous of divine justice. The face, though, was lost to Ivory Eyes and so she had borrowed the severity and solemnity of her mother's current features, smoothing wrinkles where she could.

"Where did you think you got your resourcefulness from?" Reed asked as she picked up the statue and turned it over in her hands, paying special attention to the hands. The hands holding the statue were old and weathered, but the statue's hands themselves were young and strong and each palm was set with a diamond. "Your father was a brilliant man, Ivory, but rigid as a pipe."

"I wouldn't know," Ivory said. It could have sounded mean, but she chose her tone carefully.

Somber Reed shook her head, sighed, and spoke all at once: "He was a tinker. Loved mechanisms, especially the rare few First Age curios he got his hands on. I met him at the bazaar. He bough a piece of my crystal, and he looked at me with his big green eyes and I fell. We were happy for a few seasons, and then it...just ended, Ivory. He said he couldn't keep up with me, and I think what he meant was that we didn't want the same things. But I'd like to think that somewhere, he knows what a beautiful young woman you've grown up to be."

Ivory bit the bottom of her lips as they curved into a smile just as her mother slid a hand to Ivory's swollen stomach.

"Are you going to be alright? It's such a long ritual, Ivory. We could wait."

"I'll be fine," Ivory Eyes said as she stood, taking her mother by the hand with the statue tucked under her arm. She took the kettle from the fire and poured a cup for each of them. They toasted and clambered up the stairs.

The room was full of cushions: Ivory seated herself on a blue poof and her mother chose a thin pink pillow. She set the statue between them and gestured: every candle in the room lit all at once.

"What I do here, I do in the name of the Unconquered Sun and Autocthon. Their gifts empower the mortal race, and what light they have offered me, I now offer you."


***

The pegasi landed just as soon as the high jade walls came into view and trotted forward to the gate at a brisk pace. Ivory suspected that they could practically taste the sunwheat.

"That trip was absolutely interminable," the Doctor said. His own horse craned it's neck back to shoot him a nasty look.

"I think I may have an idea for fixing that," Ivory said with a smile as she slid from her mount, handing his reigns to one of the guards, a phantom conjured from wyldstuff. Ivory still wasn't sure if they were functionally real, completely human. Every Wyldshaper in Petal had weighed in on the debate without reaching a conclusion, but ultimately Ivory had decreed that they would air on the side of humanity--until proof could be offered to the contrary, every person created by Wyldshaping was afforded the full rights due to any mortal.

"That Sidereal has been selling you his wild fancies," the Doctor said as he took the guard by the elbow, turning him around to examine him as he adjusted his spectacles.

"They're interesting ideas," Ivory replied, smacking the Doctor away from the bewildered guard. "I believe they have promise, though they may require a bit of Solar perspective."

"I'm surprised you trust the Viziers at all after what they did."

"What one of them did," Ivory replied, and grabbed the Doctor's hand to drag him across the threshold. "And welcome to Petal."

Petal was a city built in concentric rings, crisscrossed by a web of canals and bridges. Most of the city was flat and empty lots, but a few of the Amalga had settled down into modest palaces. They could have a great deal more than they generally did: the Amalaga had been chosen for fine minds and responsible spirits. Each precinct had a distinct aspect of essence from the demense at it's heart, and they had entered at the wood-aspected Rose Precinct. They strolled the broad highroad that ran to the Solar Manse at the heart of Petal, passing infrequent homes and countless empty spaces.

"I see you've left considerable room for expansion," Doctor Brass said as they passed a pair of Wyldshaped consorts: two coquettish boys with sly smiles. They bowed low as Ivory passed.

"I've tried to layout the city with an eye for what it will become. Lotus is a bit of a lost cause in that respect," she adds with a laugh.

They walked in awkward silence, finally making it to the center of petal: a field of thick sunflowers as tall as Ivory's chest and the Doctor's waist. They waded through them as best they could, finally coming to the center: a circular copse where the sunflower had grown so tall and so thick that their cable-like stems had braided with one another into a high dome. There was a great gap in the ceiling to let sunlight in, and a basin that collected it just below. All around them, Wyldshapers sat, pulling elastic wyldstuff all the colors of the rainbow, shaping it like a cat's cradle. Ivory sat herself and the Doctor beside an old man with glistening adamant eyes.

"Anything to report, Ashrin?" Ivory asked.

The old man shook his head. "A few more goblins tried to come at us. Big mistake. We only got your message yesterday, though, ma'am. We've made decent progress towards the components...your statues are almost complete, but the gauntlet is still proving a bit tricky."

"Well, then," Ivory said as she reached towards the basin with her hand and drew out a globe of raw sunlight, slick with the rainbow sheen of the Wyld. It hung between her fingers, free-floating as her eyes bled to bright white, her anima erupting. The Doctor offered her his hand and she took it; Ashrin did the same. "This...is going to be quite difficult. Producing a stable Protoshinmatic Vortex was a challenge even for the Lawgivers of old. Have you instructed the Shaped to withdraw to the edge of the city?"

"I have," Ashrin said with a nod. "And everyone else is under the effects of an Integrity-Protecting Prana. We may begin whenever you are ready, ma'am."

"Here is good, and I can imagine no time better than now," Ivory said. The Doctor and Ashrin linked hands, completing the circuit and encircling the globe. The three turned slowly, peering into the unraveled heart of the Wyld.

And maybe it peered back.

[WhiteKnight777]

Silver Dawn

Zephyr groaned wearily as he collapsed into his chair, relief evident in his features. Even as inexhaustible as he was, the Lunar felt as if he was finally reaching his limits. He had been pushing himself to the breaking point for months - every day, he would spend hours holding Yeddim above his head in the fields, one in each arm, the placid, incurious beasts barely registering the difference followed by swimming, running, and flying scores of leagues around Lotus. Nights, he spent patroling - hunting the elusive cult of Might-killers. He worked relentlessly with the watch, determined that no more of his circle's loyal retainers would die at the hands of those cowards. Spare time was spent with Ivory or Yomiko, drafting letters of propoganda. He had learned much - including how to sway others with the pen, rather than just his fists. It felt good - his words were being read all over the East, now, and the prayers flowing into Lotus burned in his head and in his mind. He didn't just feel good, he felt powerful. It amused him to think that the Immaculates must be tearing their beards out over the Anathema cult blooming wild in the woods of the east. Let them try and stop him - with his speed, would make sure any intrepid inquisitors entering their territory would regret it, and quickly.

The thoughts of all his accomplishments brought a warm smile to his face as Zephyr slipped into sleep. And dreamed.

"Just because you're asleep doesn't mean you get to rest, boy. Stand up." boomed and all-too-familiar voice.

Zephyr groaned, rising to his feet and opening his dream-eyes. He looked up at the figure standing before him - It was like looking in a mirror.

The dream-Zephyr was perhaps a head taller than he himself, though Zephyr vaguely felt that might just be a matter of perspective. He had a fuller beard than Zephyr's own goatee, and his skin was a lighter shade, and his hair a different color altogether. But there was no mistaking the resemblance. Of course, it wasn't Zephyr, per se... it was him, as he had been. Or what his Exaltation had been. He had asked Ivory about it, but he hadn't really understood the explanation. What was important was what the Not-him had to say - and to teach.

"Your progress is still too slow. You can do better than this. We're close to a breakthrough - we can both feel it. Lotus position." He snapped, and Zephyr complied, gritting his jaw. His sleep hadn't been restful in months, either - every night he awoke in his dreams, in the middle of a vast, moonlit desert of silver sand, with this strange taskmaster barking orders at him - but he couldn't deny that he had learned much, so he resolved to continue.

Arranging himself on the sandy ground, Zephyr placed his body in the Upward Striving Lotus Arrangement, feeling the flows of essence humming through his chakra. He heard his dream-tutor's voice droning in a low, sonorous hum that resonated within him, speaking to something deeper and more primal than his concious self. He relaxed, tried to let the stress of months bleed off, tried to forget the frustrations of night after night of failure to make progress. He closed his eyes, and let his mind drift back to his meeting with Luna. He had replayed Her words time and time again over his training sessions, but so far he had found nothing new. Her boundless love still filled him. His heart still beat for Her. That was all unchanged... but still, nothing new.

Tonight, however, he looked past the words. He looked within. He stared into Her eyes as he remembered them. He watched the flow of Her form. Some niggling though in the back of his mind urged him on. The sounds of his breathing merged with the slow drone of the spirit's voice. He felt his heartbeat slow, his senses dilate as he emptied himself and let the memories flow in like an argent sea.

Silver in the darkness. Brilliant luminescence in the emptiness of his thoughts. Something... Yes! there was something there. He forced himself to contain his excitement, to stalk the thought like a hunter following prey. He approached it slowly... and then he lunged forward.

Into the silver sea he fell. It was so simple - so sublimely, perfectly simple, he couldn't even express it. It was a knowing, a trick of the light, a gleam in the eye. Change. Constant change. The flow of moonsilver, the flicker of moonlight on a fast-streaming river. And it was so much more. His eyes opened, and he stood, new purpose filling him.

His spirit-mentor smiled at him, and his face was no longer different, nor his eyes, nor his hair. He was looking at a mirror, a reflection... no, not even that. It was merely himself. The other nodded, and stepped towards him - and then into him. Zephyr shuddered as he felt more knowing flow into him. Secrets undreamed and dreams unbidden moved through him, and he felt himself flow and change - now he looked down at his hand, as crimson scales, black in the moonlight, were covered in a glimmering sheen of perfect, flowing silver. He threw his head back and laughed aloud, looking up at Luna's face as he shuddered awake. Dawn was breaking through the window, and he smiled as he cracked his sore joints, a massive grin on his face. It was time to go see Ivory - and he had a feeling it was going to be a glorious day.

[Ellas Aramond]

The Night's Apprentice

A young girl walked in the twilight, the cool air smelling sweet. She looked from side to side and opened the large doors of an old, run down mansion, creaking as their rusted hinges move for the first time in years. Up stairways and old ladders, all the way her eyes stayed open and alert. The girl stopped in a dark hallway. The only illumination coming from the grey light from a broken window. Looking up she re-adjusts the belts holding the sword loosely to her back. Her moves were quiet as she stalked up a hidden ladder, becoming aware of voices the higher she got.

"Forya, this is not working." A familiar, gravelly voice comes from beyond the open trap door. "We have scanned more then half the city, and still no sign of this cult. We are doing something wrong, I just don't know what."

"My lord, the only thing we know is that they see killing the Mighty as an act of glory." A much richer voice responds. "For all we know, more of these Infernals are pulling the strings and keeping them from our sight."

All falls quiet as the girl ascends the last of the rungs. climbing through looks around a very large room, most of the space on the wall covered in maps, lists, and other related notes. Before she could get a better look around however, her reflection showed up in her vision. Turning quickly only revealed Watcher's masked form standing next to her.

"Konoko," He greets her. "I take it your mother told you where I spend my time."

"Wuh-!" Is all the girl could say, the nightbringer's startling appearance almost sending her back down the laddder. "Uh, heh. Yeah." She squeaked, regaining her balance and stepping away from the trapdoor.

"Forya, we will need to go over this later. Go tell Derecha to look through District Nine, if you would." Watcher sighed, making his way to a large desk as cluttered with papers as the walls. But that sound in his voice, was that...amusement? After the masked woman leaves, Watcher turned back to the girl, interested in just what was going through her mind "So, I can only assume you had a reason for coming all the way over here."

Konoko, noting that she wasn't being turned away and even catching the bit of mirth in Watcher's voice, walked closer to the desk. "Yes, well." She takes a deep breath and tries to look as adult and powerful as she can, "Watcher, I wanna join you."

"You want to...what?" It took quite a bit to surprise the Nightbringer, and he had almost forgotten that it didn't take wonders of the First Age and people trying to kill him to catch him unawares.

"I want to part of your Exodus Syndicate!" She blurted out immediately after he was finished. "My... mom's treating me like a kid, but I'm a Mighty! I can do more than she thinks I can, even after my new dad said I made him proud!"

The image of Yomiko coming after him with her warstrider's swords raised high was quickly banished from Watcher's mind. There were a few all too capable Mighty who had found out about his Syndicate, who would never show any interest. Yet here Konoko was, practically still a child, wanting to join him? Yes, her mother would kill him if she ever found out, but this was a chance he could not pass up. "You know what the Syndicate does, right?" He replies dryly.

"I know they do what you tell them to, right? And I know you just want to spread justice to Lotus. Afterall, justice is what's gonna protect Lotus." She leaned on one leg and said very matter-of-factly. "And I've only seen a masked person that wasn't you once out my window, so I know they're not supposed to be seen."

"You are right, but there are a few things that you do not understand." He holds back the surprise that she had actually seen one of his people. "Yes, they have a large hand in the safety of the city; but the watchmen do the same thing, and they don't hide themselves. No, my people, they are willing to do whatever it takes to keep Lotus. Even kill."

"Not to mention I trained them all personally. He goes on. "That makes them more then police, more then warriors. It makes them assassins."

She only blinks at the last statements, but she was not to be deterred. "I've helped you guys fight before, and it's not like killing is so hard. I mean, my mom has killed lots of people, even she doesn't like to, she still does." She pauses for a moment as if in thought, "...Kill who?"

"Anyone who would threaten Lotus. Do you remember Iulus' wedding?" He asks, twirling one of his boomerangs. "That cultist would have been attacked by at least three of us if Izunagi had had not gotten to him first."

She put a finger on her lip and looked to the side, "...I liked Mr. Iulus. He said I was a strong and beautiful girl." She looked back at Watcher with determination in her eyes, and for the first time when Night Caste looked Konoko's eyes, he saw the strength and power of her mother. He couldn't have been sure, but now it's clear she certainly is no mere child. "I can kill anyone that deserves it. I can do whatever it takes to protect Lotus."

"I have no doubt that you can, but it is the will that I am concerned about. It is one thing to hold the firewand. It is another thing entirely to pull the trigger." With a casual toss of his weapon he opened another trapdoor, this time in the ceiling. "Meet me back here in exactly one hour, there's something I want to try." With that he leaped through the hole, vanishing from both sight and sound.

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

One hour later, Konoko sat at Watcher's desk looking at the papers atop it; partly out of curiosity, partly out of boredom. "They're listing all the different groups in the city." She muttered.

After a few minutes, a figure cloaked in black and silver swooped down through the opening in the roof, but obviously not Watcher. "The masked one is a few floors down. He sent me to get you."

She looked up at the newcomer and got out of her seat. Nodding, she trekked down until seeing the glint of light off Watcher's mask.

"Konoko, I see you brought your weapon." Without another word, Watcher stepped aside to reveal a young woman, bound and unconscious lying on the wooden floor.

Looking at her, Konoko felt her mother's great compassion already beginning to well up in her heart. She held the hilt of her weapon in her hand again, looking from the bound girl to Watcher. "...I-I have. What do you want me to do?"

"You said that you would kill to protect the city, well, this woman is a threat." Watcher speaks, all emotion gone from his voice. "Like I said before, it is quite another thing to pull the trigger."

Her wide eyes lay upon the woman, eventually looking back and forth from the victim to Watcher repeatedly. She paused and took her weapon from her back, aproaching slowly. She spoke softly, but loud enough for the Nightbringer to hear, "What did she do?"

"Does it matter?" Watcher replied angrily. "You said yourself that the Syndicate does exactly what I say. If I bring you into this, I have to know that you will do the same."

She began to shake. What had she gotten herself into? She approached the girl with fear in her eyes, holding the blade up as if to attack. But Orichalcum clattered to the ground, her hands balled into fists. "NO!" Her voice echoes throughout the ancient mansion. "I can't just kill her! I don't know what she did! She might be completely innocent!" She turned to Watcher again, shaking slightly, either because of fear or rage. "I won't!"

"Calm yourself, Konoko." Watcher said after spending a moment to observer her, all traces of anger gone. He put his hand on her shoulder, remembering his time before donning the mask that he actually had a reason to be caring. "Droite, I believe that she has alleved my concerns." The woman opened her eyes and stood up all too easily. The ropes falling off her making it obvious that it has only looked like she was helpless.

Konoko blinked and the all-too-real tears in her eyes quickly rolled down her cheeks, but she looked utterly surprised. "But..." she wasn't even sure what to say. She could only stand there dumbfounded for a moment before turning her gaze to Watcher for another frantic time.

"You need time to settle down," Watcher says, walking out of the room. "Come back tomorrow if you can still stand me, you have a lot ahead of you."

Turning to the girl, Droite went to comfort her, leading her to one of the many couches that lay about the manor. "He says that we're his eyes around Lotus." she said, sympathy in her voice. "But thats not everything we do."

Seeing Konoko's silent look, she continued. "We keep him grounded. He's said more then once, that if we weren't around, he would have made some very bad decisions; killed people that weren't deserving. We ask questions, we do what he doesn't think of, and most importantly, we watch his back."

Konoko paused for a while, her eyes still wet. She then smiled at Watcher's associate and looked over at where the Night Caste left. She let out a relieved sigh and put the Jade of her armor to her moist forehead. "...I think I can do that, too."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

-A Red Sun Sinks-

The Invincible Bride of the Unconquered Sun walked through the gates of Lotus, the ears of it's people full of the same glorious song that burst within her heart. Song of Sun and Moon, of Heaven and it's many Stars, of the Love of Sol Invictus. She sung songs of demons scorned, their masters running in defeat at the God-Kings arrival, songs of a wicked false Empress smote by the jaws of Luna's chosen, and the blades of Ignis Divine. Her songs of glory over countless weeks turned to dirges of loss. To see the Uplifter of Men swallowed by endless wretched sand, burned under vitriolic green sunlight. Songs of the burning rage she felt inside her, songs that were as scorching and wild as the flaming anima that burst from within her.
In her many temples, she would dance as she would sing. Her body moved with such divine grace and beauty, onlookers would feel it their greatest sin should they even blink. The movements of her form were exquisite, they were glorious almost beyond what mortal man and woman could hope to comprehend. Days and days, never ending, never ceasing her dance save to sleep and eat and with each passing day as she sang songs of glories most divine, her golden light would flare brighter and brighter. It was like watching the sun itself dance atop the balconies and stages of Lotus. Her heart may race, and her legs and throat may ache, but the Invincible Maiden never ceased and those who witnessed her felt their hearts swell for her as did hers for all.


~\_/*\_/~

Months could pass, and even if the fact that Rising Echo was gone the disparity of it could strike when knowing the hole he filled in Lotus was empty. She could walk down the halls of his Bureau and see in the eyes and bodies of those whom he employed carried the same sadness as she did. Oh she knew Echo was not dead, and so did all else who would listen to her(and that was a great many), but that did not change the fact that meeting him whenever one pleased was no longer an option... and when they could was entirely outside of the foreseeable future.
She did not want spirits to die so slowly, so painfully, or at all. She would spend any day she was not performing speaking with any member of the staff. Everyone from the lowest clerks to the those directly under Rising Echo, she would simply spend hours talking with them as they worked and hoping not to distract them. If she felt their work was slowed, she would simply apologize, and to their dismay leave and wait to speak with them again after their shifts.
It was not long before many of the members of staff treated Yomiko as they would a sister or a mother. The sorrow they shared, and her love of their city made them just as a family. Konoko, when not mysteriously gone, would often join her mother in chats with the men and women and was happy enough to simply listen or sleep.


~\_/*\_/~

A red demon. Flames of blood burst from it's eyes, it's mouth and it's flesh. A red demon that beset her without end. Every few nights, she would wake up, her dreams making her feel as vulnerable as she did when she was only a girl. She rubbed her neck and always went to get a glass of water from the fountain at the ground floor of her palace. She would sip from her glass while looking out over the City. Flames in the distance, orange and harmless. Torches of those who would work during the night. Mostly guardsmen and those who would prefer not to face a guardsman. O' but Lotus was rich with all sorts, and for all their flaws she knew there was always goodness to them. She would sigh and slip back into sleep.

"No, stop!" is all she could whimper as her dream avatar. A red demon of fire again would assault her mercilessly. She felt her blood gush from her in gouts of crimson flames, flames that the demon would feed on. With each drop shed, the demon was more distinct. Dreadful and beautiful, powerful and composed of not but rage. Rage and Yomiko.
"YOU WOULD SUBMIT TO ME! LEST YOU BECOME AS WEAK AS YOU WERE!" It bellowed at her, flashing before her memories. Memories she tried so dearly to leave behind, memories she just wish would die. With every cut upon her perfect flesh, she felt rage well up within her. "NO!"
This was the last time... it had to be the last time. She could not sleep, her muscles burned and ached. She could feel the fire in her, even when she was awake. This was the last time.
The red demon, the demon that was Yomiko's rage suddenly turned it's gaze from her. The little girl was no longer little. The little girl was the Invincible Bride of Sol Invictus, the Zenith Sun and before the demon she shone exactly like it. In her hands were blades of furious love, across her breast was armor of her compassion. "I would not submit to you... the rage in my heart is something that must die! You will die, demon! And I will destroy you!"
She cut at the fiend, red fire fell away and turned to gold and the gold of Yomiko's heart absorbed into her and only made her radiance grow brighter. It bellowed, it was ripped and torn slowly apart by her twin blades. Soon, it was little more than a burning rib-cage and skull, it could not move, it could only speak to her soul. "You are not invincible, Yomiko. One day I will rise again, I will show you what you need to be invincible. I will be waiting."
The demon burst, and the last remnants of it's red flame were taken back in by the swordswoman and dimmed to nothing.

She awoke the next morning, glowing as brightly as the Sun outsider her window. The strength of her soul was too great now to be kept within her, even as she slept. She walked again to her balcony as it faced the rising sun and she smiled.

"O' Lotus, my love. It is going to be a good day." And so she started to sing again, on the brightest of days.

[The Demented One]

After all that has happened, all the horrors and wonders you have seen in the five nights of Calibration, you return home to Lotus, return home to the seat of your power upon Zephyr’s broad wings. You find your city still safe, still sanctuary against the horrors that have beset the Blessed Isle. Alighting, you find the city lit by torches against the night, patrolled by double and triple-watches, armed men led by the Mighty. At your presence they halt and salute, raising their swords in patriotic zeal. The captain of the brigade, a Mighty well-skilled in the ways of arrows and bowmanship, speaks to you, telling how Captain Transval has awaited your return with anxious expectation throughout the five days’ darkness. Watcher, Yomiko, and Zephyr go to attend on their Dragon-Blooded general and second-in-command; Ivory Eyes, however, takes her mother to Bronzeheart’s sanctuary, that she might rest and recuperate within her daughter’s home.

Within the mansion that now stands as Lotus’s head executive offices, the three God-Kings find Captain Transval in his own chambers, accompanied by Jubilant Dawn, a number of Mighty savants, and a handful of spirits summoned up by Ivory Eyes. The Dragon-Blood’s joy to see you returned is all too readily apparent on his face. He leaps up from his seat with passion suited to his aspect, and launches in to a lengthy story. In your absence, it would seem that attacks on the Mighty–and on all the enlightened citizenry of Lotus–have only intensified. Assassins or assailants have leapt out of every shadow, it seems, and many of the Mighty have only escaped through undeserved luck. Transval explains at length the precautions he has taken, the heightened watches and the curfews, the careful safeguarding of the Mighty. He seems almost apologetic for the liberties he has taken in command, but everything in his deeds speaks to his best judgment.

And so it is that, as you once more settle upon your thrones, the issue of the Mighty-hunting cults takes precedence. While all of the God-Kings take up their power against them–Yomiko speaking harsh sermons against the illicit and invidious cults, Zephyr patrolling the streets in full and furious force, Ivory Eyes binding spirits to the defense of the Mighty–it is Watcher and his Exodus Syndicate who bring the greatest force against them. Every night for the next season, the Lawgiver and his sworn agents stalk the streets of Lotus, shadowing the patrols of Mighty that keep watch by night. On the very first night, it is Forya who spots the man stalking the watch patrol, slinking alongside them in the parallel allies. The murderous villain is brought down before he even hears the swish of Watcher’s boomerang, laid flat by a single blow. He is the first of what will become dozens that fill the cells of Lotus’s prisons, captured and brought to justice by the Exodus Syndicate.

Within a month, the attacks have halted. Watcher cannot help but admire what he has done, the successes of his Exodus Sydnicate–not a single Mighty has fallen, nor even been attacked, before his agents have moved in to apprehend the cultists who would raise up arms against the chosen heroes of Lotus. Now, there are none bold enough to risk defying the Nightbringer–and now, Watcher can carry his justice to them. Yomiko’s persuasions and Zephyr’s intimidation turn many of the cultists captured and imprisoned, and those who do not accede to such gentle ministrations find themselves in the hands of Watcher. Soon, the Lord Nightbringer has found out each and every cult cell in Lotus. In one single, coordinated assault, his Exodus Syndicate sweeps through Lotus, arresting each and every cultist, filling Lotus’s cells with dozens, hundreds of the Mighty-hunters. Watcher’s truth-seeking ears are soon satisfied by their confessions, lacking only one final detail–the head of the cults. Each and every prisoner protests utter ignorance of the cult’s true leader, and they all speak truthfully. But whoever has fomented this attack on Lotus has been broken of his every advantage, his followers and lackeys imprisoned. He is alone now, whatever he plots or plans.

But more disturbing still is what Watcher finds on the night of the mass arrests, as he personally brings in more than half of the cultists. Though most accede instantly to his appearance, surrendering en masse, there are some who fight–and though they are brought down easily, they lash out at the Solar with skill they should not have, skill they could not have. They fight with an excellency of swordsmanship that is rightful gift only of the Solar Exalted–and, to Watcher’s horror, an excellency that belonged to the Mighty he found dead at the hands of the cults. Somehow, they have stolen the power granted by Rising Echo unto his chosen, and no interrogation or persuasion can convince them to reveal how it was done. They speak only of the blessings of the Shining One, and break down into senseless gibbering if pressed further. Worthless. Watcher keeps a strict watch on the enlightened prisoners, devising penal protocols and uniquely inescapable prisons for their sole benefit. But for whatever mystery remains unresolved, the crisis is past. Those who would plot against Lotus and its heroes have met Watcher’s justice.

And as Watcher brings his law to Lotus, so too does Ivory Eyes bring her wonders. Far-Flung Petal, her wyld-shaping collective deep in the Bordermarches of Chaos, finally begins operations–and within days, it has changed the face of Lotus. Every city, every society in Creation rests upon the backs of farmers and laborers, those who provide the bare necessities of life. Lotus, no more. Within mere days, Far-Flung Petal has wrought enough of food from the chaos of the Wyld to feed every citizen of Lotus for years. And in days to come, the wonders grow only greater. Every want and need, every good and luxury is shaped from inchoate nothingness within Petal’s bounds, and they are barred to none. Within months, every citizen of Lotus commands all he could ever want, living in wealth to match the most opulent the Realm could offer. Poverty vanishes, for there is no need of it–without any scarcity, without a limit to what riches can be divided amongst society, there is nothing to limit all from freely sharing their wealth, benefitting from the benefices of the God-Kings.

Lotus is transformed. No more must anyone work for pay, or to keep themselves fed. Men and women now work solely for the good of their fellow citizens, and for the glory of Lotus. Ivory Eyes offers enlightenment to all who take up this endeavor, granting an education in both mortal and magical arts to all who ask for it. Soon, every citizen is literate and educated to match the most pampered scion of the Dynasty, and almost all have mastered the arts of essence, guided to enlightenment under the God-Kings’ tutelage. Petal offers these newly-enlightened mortals the artifice and implements of First Age civilization. A geomantic power grid supplies all inhabitants with magical lighting, heating, communications, and sanitation. Everyday wonders proliferate, from the transperfect domestic utensil to the thousand comforts lounge, letting the lowliest of Lotus’s people live in all the splendor of the Era of Dreams. The Dragon Rail offers travel to any, letting any citizen speed across Creation with ease and comfort. Under this magical renaissance, Lotus booms, six hundred thousand men and women living within a city built to rival the greatest cities of Creation, putting Nexus, Gem, even the Imperial City to shame. The towers of Lotus, wrought by thaumaturgy and sorcery, surpass all others, hundreds upon hundreds of feet high. Honeycombed within them are the laboratories of mage-scientists and thaumaturges, the sanctums of sorcerers, the workshops of artificers, the studios of enlightened artists, and the workplaces of a hundred hundred other refined and glorious professions. The governance of Lotus is now conducted from a splendid pleasure dome wrought over Ivory Eyes’ caldera-manse, an opal dome built in homage to that of the Incarnae themselves.

Heaven and Creation stir over the blossoming of Lotus, and the rebirth of the First Age that comes with it. Whispering Heaven, newly appointed to the post of Captain of the Division of Endings, also finds himself promoted to Head of the Convention on Lotus, a subdivision of the Convention on Essence-Wielders that consists of nine-tenths of that convention’s personnel. Lotus’s almost universally enlightened populace surpasses that of any other city or nation within the world, perhaps even exceeding any other Direction. Though the Sidereal keeps offices in both Yu-Shan and Lotus, he only rarely enters into Creation, caught up in the bureaucracy of Heaven. The Gold Faction founded by Ayesha Ura only last year has blossomed, swallowing up recruits swayed by the God-Kings’ words at the Calibration Trial. Wun Ja, Goddess of the Shining Metropolis, is an almost daily visitor to Lotus, walking its streets as if she very a common peasant and handing out blessings to all who draw her fancy. She becomes a regular coffeehouse companion of O-Mochi and O-Mizuchi, the three gods conspiring and conversing at all hours of the day. O-Mochi is proud to boast a second title now. With Petal shaping all the food that Lotus could ever need, the fields of Lotus are left to the herd of yeddim that now numbers in the hundreds, the educated beasts eating rice by the bushel as the rewards of their labor. Heaven, taking notice of O-Mochi’s role in the rise of Lotus, has seen fit to bless him with the dual titles of God of Wild Rice and God of Domesticated Beasts, and his power has grown commensurately. He is content, though, to idle the streets of Lotus, laughing to see its people well-fed and well-ruled.

Throughout the East, Lotus is a thing of wonder and legend. Yomiko and Zephyr travel through all the nations that surround them, borne in one of the magical chariots restored to order by Ivory Eyes. They come to the trade-city of Nexus, the theocracy of Great Forks, the warring states of Halta and Linowan, the flying mountain of Megatalpa, the strange republic of Chaya, the great mausoleum of Sijan, and even to those bordermarches held by the Arczekh Horde. To all they come openly as friends, speaking of the wonders of Lotus, the glories of the Exalted, and their generosity to all allies. Zephyr serves as diplomat and ambassador, winning over treaties and alliances, while Yomiko comes as a priestess first and foremost, winning hearts and minds for Lotus. Soon all the wares of Nexus are opened to Lotus, and it is not uncommon to see Haltan beastmen walking the streets of Lotus, or sapient ata-beasts discussing philosophy in salons, or Megatalpan hawks crossing the skies. The morticians of Sijan even venture out to the Exalted City itself for a dual purpose, constructing two funerary monuments. One is a tomb of black glass, shot through with veins of gold, a mausoleum to receive the body of Iulus. Its twin, towering just as high, is a golden cenotaph inscribed with all the prayers of the Unconquered Sun, a monument and memorial for Rising Echo.

But it is not only the nations of the Threshold and the Far East that bind themselves to Lotus in alliance. Yomiko and Zephyr travel to the Blessed Isle, to the Realm itself, and there they walk openly as Exalted. Roseblack announces a grand summit, a meeting of reconciliation and renewal to be held on the heights of the Imperial Mountain itself. There, Yomiko and Zephyr meet with Roseblack, dressed in the full regalia of the Dragon-Blooded Empress, the heads of the Realm’s Great Houses, and the Mouth of Peace, the head of the Immaculate Order. Five days and nights the council goes on, words spoken both in peace and in hatred. In the end, a treaty is reached, the Five Petals Accord. And it is monumental. The Empress and the Great Houses proclaim the treaty unto all the Dragon-Blooded Host and the mortal peoples of the Realm, decreeing an end to the millennial persecution of the Celestial Exalted. The Solar Exalted and Lunar Exalted are recognized as legitimate chosen of the gods, and the doctrines of the Immaculate Order officially repudiated on the matter of the Anathema. The treaty extends the full protection of Imperial Law to all Exalted, and by this, ends the Wyld Hunt. To strike down a Lawgiver is no more an act of righteousness, but murder. Despite the protests of the Mouth of Peace, and of one particularly eloquent if nondescript Immaculate, the Empress revokes all approval of the Immaculate Order, ceases all Imperial funding of it, and condemns those who have let hatred blind them. The treaty is one of peace, not only between the Realm and Lotus, but between the Terrestrial Exalted and the Celestial Exalted.

But it is not only a treaty. Zephyr and Yomiko walk among the Dynasts of the Realm, speaking with them as individuals. In teahouses, palaces, academies, manses, the God-Kings invite the Dragon-Blooded to speak with them, and those who do find old hatreds worn away. Though there are still those who cling to Immaculate Doctrine, or reject the God-Kings out of hatred for the new Empress who speaks their endorsement, those who come to them are greater by an order of magnitude. Yomiko and Zephyr win over the hearts and minds of the Dragon-Blooded Host each by each, and it is monumental. For ages the Realm has built itself upon the overthrow of the Celestial Exalted, the supremacy of the Dragon-Blooded Host. Now, they have come to see just how human the Celestial Exalted can be, just how glorious the Solars and Lunars are. None who speak with Yomiko and Zephyr could condemn them as Anathema, and nevermore shall think so simply of the Chosen of the Sun and Moon. The Dragon-Blooded Host, the children of Usurpers, have redeemed themselves of their forefathers sins.

And so it is that when the Flower of the East, flagship of Lotus, crosses over the skies of the Imperial City, it is too the sound of ten thousand dragons rejoicing. For seasons the silver desert that mars the Blessed Isle has stood unswayed, a blight upon all Creation, the triumph of Cecelyne. And now the God-Kings come to conquer her. The airship, attended upon by a coterie of air elementals summoned and bound by Ivory Eyes, comes to a halt above the demonic wastes, hovering fixed in the air. And down from it falls the very strength of Lunar, the spirit shape of Zephyr. The mighty tyrant lizard descends with a jade statue in its grasps, one of the five icons of Ivory Eyes that will be the fundament of the sorceress’s magic, the spell by which Cecelyne will be repelled. He sets it down on the edge of the silver desert, then wings back to the ship in the shape of a giant hawk. Three more statues he bears down, setting them in a ring around the wasteland with his tyrant lizard strength in full. The final monument of jade he sets down in the heart of the Imperial City, setting the arc of the ring wide enough to encompass all of the Yozi’s extrusion. With thousands of Dynasts looking on, with Empress Roseblack and Ayesha Ura watching from the flight deck of the Flower of the East, the moment draws nigh. All the Blessed Isle awaits Ivory Eyes.

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory stands at the front of the flight deck, leaning a little more heavily on her phylactery than she had in recent times--the orichalcum and adamant staff buttresses her stability as she stands at the bough, eight months pregnant. Atop it is a glistening orb, a quivering mass of congealed possibility that sings all songs at once. On her free hand is a great gauntlet of clockwork, and set in it's palm the very Hearthstone given to her by Ignis Divine. Ivory smiles as she approaches the railing, looking over to the cheering faces below. It wasn't supposed to be this easy, she told herself only for another part of herself to reply in turn: easy? This was easy?

Somber Reed approaches her daughter and sets an arm across her shoulders, squeezing lightly. Ivory hefts her phylactery into the air and begins to sing in a rasp of Old Realm that carries a deeply Primordial twang, the air of magic and sovereignty. She has none of Yomiko's talent but all of her circlemate's heart.


<<Child of my heart, born of a neverending dream,
You are cradled in light, bathed in a radiant gleam,
Flourish and grow, my mystical world,
Here you will ever belong,
Son of my yearning,
Daughter of hope,
Beautiful child of my song,
Although storms may descend,
Mountains and valleys may quake...
For the days that remain,
This is the promise I make
No shadow fall across this land,
Before the wind and fire I stand
And you my child will know no harm
Enfolded in my arms.

Out of death, life.
Out of night, day.
Glory from sorrow.
Out of grief, joy.
Out of storm, come strength for tomorrow.
Out of dust, gold.
Out of fire, air: comfort forsaken,
Out of rage, calm, out of loss find glory awakened...
Shine forever,
shine forever.>>

As her song crescendos, light wells up from each statue, arcing into a dome just above the Flower of the East. When all five beams converge, the day subsides briefly to night as the dome fills with deep blue lapis. The illusion of night lasts only a moment as Ivory's anima erupts--not from her, but from the sanctuary itself, a glorious raptor enfolding the desert and the Manse with star-flecked wings. It smiles, looks up to Ivory, and fades into a rain of golden stardust that settles on rooftops and the eaves of windows, rushing off the sides of the Flower's domed roof.

Somber Reed takes Ivory's phylactery gingerly as her daughter turns her attention to the quaking of the Imperial Manse. Veins of orichalcum striate its jade exterior, and a comet erupts from it's heart, blazing towards Ivory before hanging in the air before her. She reaches forward over the railing and clutches it, still hot from the geomantic forge.

"If the Manse is the Sword of Creation, then this is the jewel in its hilt," Ivory says softly. She refocuses and raises her free hand, revealing the Gem of Adamant Sorcery and its magitech setting. The Hand of the Great Maker whirs to life, adamant gears chiming brightly as they accelerate. Ivory gestures, raising her hand. Scrub grass follows suit, raising in tandem with her motion as the vastness of the desert succumbs to her will.

Exhausted, Ivory returns to her seat, with Seven-Leaved Prince floating just beside her. Ashrin calls out to his team of Wyldshapers, who approach the bough in Ivory's stead and begin the process of restoring fertility to the shaped land.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Standing beside his mate, as always. Zephyr cannot help but feel an upsurge of glorious pride. Here is the woman that he loves, in the full glory of her power, radiant and in her element. Even with all that he has seen in the last few years of his life, he cannot help but be awed by what she can do. For all his prowess, all his unassailable might, he is but a warrior - and she is a goddess, who shapes the very face of Creation with force of will alone. He smiles a small and secret smile as he watches her work. At last, when it is finished, he steps forward to offer her his arm.

"Well done, as always Ivory." Says the Full-Moon, his eyes twinkling merrily. "If mine and Yomiko's words were not enough to sway them, this will make even the most ardent Immaculate reconsider. Like our incarnations of old, you have defied the will of the Yozi themselves."

Zephyr chuckles softly, his body shuddering with mirth. Wrapped in cerements of silver gossamer trimmed with blue, the Lunar looks nothing less than his station - a God-King of elder days, a representative of the Most High on the face of Creation, and a warlord of unnumbered hosts. He looks down at the slowly transforming ground, watches the transformation from desecration to purity restored, and wonders, despite his jubilation, if some wounds will ever heal.

[The Demented One]

Empress Ejava smiles as she watches Ivory Eyes's amalga restore the tarnished land to wholeness, shaping barren scrub and dusty fields to lush gardens and grasslands. She now wears the full regalia of the Imperial Empress, crown and all, and commands the loyalty of all the Realm. "Thank you, Ivory Eyes. All of you. What happens today is only the culmination of all our efforts, and you have done much for me. I shall not forget this. I ask that you keep the hearthstone of the Imperial Manse–there is no other than you that I would trust to wield it who could, and it shall serve as a token of our alliance, if a grand token at that. Thank you." She smiles, her new eloquence still strange to her.

"Indeed." agrees Ayesha Ura, accompanied by a small delegation of Gold Faction Sidereals. "I will make my full report to Heaven; I'm sure Chejop Kejak will be most pleased to read it. I believe you have finally convinced Heaven that the Solar Exalted are the necessary rulers of Creation." She grins teasingly at the thought of the Elder Oracle's grievances, and her companions give a nervous titter. "I was also given a message for you, God-Kings. Lytek says that he has concluded his study of the Infernal Exalt you took into custody, and believes he might have found...well, I'm not entirely sure what he found, but he seems quite excited over it. He requested your presence."

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory Eyes' weary smile widens and she spins halfway around in the chair before standing up and gesturing to Ayesha. One of Ivory's earliest Amalga, created during her collaboration with Echo, steps forward and lays a hand on his mistress' temples, massaging them slowly as essence flows into the Sorceress Supreme.

"If you've time, then, Lady Ura, I would be most pleased if you would remain aboard and take command of the ship for the afternoon. I can imagine no finer commander than the Captain of Journeys."

Are you going somewhere, Miss Ivory Eyes? the Prince asks, his head titled.

"Lord Lytek awaits us. No reason to go all the way back to the caldera when we've a fine manse to inspect," she adds, gesturing to the Imperial Manse in the distance. "You have the bridge, Lady Ura," she adds before taking her phylactery back from Somber Reed and leaping over the rails, her wings outstretched to catch the thermals.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko smiled brightly as the hellish desert that blotted out the flesh of Creation healed over once again. She smiled, though her heart was still heavy for the companion that dwelt beyond the sand. She could only express her awe through her smile, for Ivory's display of talent for sorcery left her speechless. It was best for Zephyr to speak his words of pride and joy for his Solar mate.
Once the spell is complete, she turns to all guests present before them. "Allies and well-wishers. I cannot thank you all enough for being here, here at where the Chosen of the Sun and Moon take wrap their golden hands around Hell itself to plunge it back into it's vitriolic netherworld, to suffer as the borders of the wretched city, no longer to bring it's blight to Creation where it was punished to keep from for all of time." Her smile is ever-present as she speaks.
"So speak unto those who might still be ill-wishers of the Celestial Exalted, tell them of the greatness of Ivory Eyes. Of her love and guardianship of Creation. Let them know that we should be seen through the same eyes as Sol Invictus, eyes of perfection. Though I speak wishing for your love and admiration, know I speak without selfishness, for what we do is all for you and we expect no reward."
When her speech is complete, she sees Ivory take flight off the side of the warship. "Be well." She bows and she erupts with golden essence, the flaming wings on her back erupting outward and she too takes flight, on somewhat more flamboyant wings.

[The Demented One]

The Dragon-Blooded and mortals looking on roar with applause, caught up in the glory of Ivory Eyes, the beauty of Yomiko. The twin Lawgivers wing down to earth, borne up by sorcery and magic fire. Zephyr and Watcher follow close behind them, the one swooping down in the shape of a hawk, the other flitting through shadows to manifest upon the ground. Roseblack descends alongside them, one of the attendant air elementals catching her as she falls and bringing her safely to ground. Ayesha Ura waves to Ivory Eyes before taking the helm, turning windward to return the vessel to Lotus. She has arranged for a sabbatical in order to survey and account for the newly restored fleet of Lotus on behalf of Vanileth.

The Empress and the God-Kings parade to incessant applause, making their way towards the Imperial Palace, and the Imperial Manse within. Where once you fought your way to the walls of the palace, your journey is now attended by all auspices, all walls and gates laid open at Empress Ejava's command. She bids her farewell as you near the doors of the Manse, not following any further. As you enter the most hallowed earth of all Creation, you find the countless wards and defenses quiescent, held at bay by the gem which Ivory Eyes commands. The Imperial Manse knows its master. But this is not the day to explore its secrets–instead, Yomiko offers her prayers unto Lytek, beckoning the god open his doors.

And in response, a glowing line of light traces out an oblong rectangle, essence coalescing within its bounds to form a door of stately ivory. Turning the adamant knob, Yomiko steps into Lytek's sanctum-offices, the rest of the God-Kings following after her. Lytek sits happily on a birchwood footstooll within, prodding and poking Doctor Brass. The Infernal lies flat on a slab, and dozens of motonic lenses and essence probes spread out above him, borne on the countless spidery mechanical arms descending from the ceiling. The God of Exaltation rises happily at your entrance, arms spread wide in welcome.

"Hello, my friends! I am ever so glad to see you again, it has been far too long. The good Doctor has been most helpful with my experiments, and I believe that I've finally unraveled the most of this mystery. It would seem that the Yozis have found a way to crack open a Solar Exaltation, maim and mutilate it down to the core so that it can channel their own powers. God-Kings, the Infernal Exalted wield the very same powers as the Yozis themselves. I...I can't even imagine how it is possible. I have no idea of how this was done, and without that, I can do nothing to restore his exaltation."

Shame seems to fill the God of Exaltation with his admission. He is not one accustomed to admitting his own failures, or coming up against his own limits. Nevertheless, he moves on. "It would be utterly impossible to discover the true nature of Infernal Exaltation. The Lawgivers of the First Age had a way of finding such impossible things. By going out into the Wyld and capturing one of the Unshaped, the Princes of Chaos, they could force it back into Creation, examine the inchoate infinites that nestled and folded within its being. If you could subdue one of the Lords of Chaos and force it into Creation, we could force it to shift through countless possibilities until it revealed the creation of this poisoned shard. With that known, I can say with absolute certainty that I can undo whatever the Demon Princes have done!"

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"Let me make sure that I am understanding this correctly." Watcher says, thinking back on everything he has heard and read about the Wyld. "In order to 'fix' the Infernals, we need to travel off the map, into a realm of utter madness. Then we need to find one of the rulers of the Wyld, capture him, and bring him back here so you can force him to change shape until you find what you need? You do not even know how long tht will take, do you? And not to mention that all of this needs to be done before some new threat decides to use Creation as its punching bag."

Watcher lets out a long sigh, not knowing whether to be annoyed, or to simply disbelieve all this. "Well, I suppose we will just have to do this swiftly."

[The Demented One]

Lytek draws back nervously at Watcher's castigation, bowing his head in shame. "My apologies, Lord Watcher. Binding and experimenting on one of the Unshaped will be the most expedient method to reverting Infernal Exaltations to their original Solar state, and perhaps even restoring any warped exaltation. I cannot attest to the speed with which I could conclude my experiments, but I assure you that I will bring to bear the whole of my divine power. Remember, I am the God of Exaltation. If you do this for me, I will be able to purify the Infernal Exalted. If not, I doubt they ever will be. I apologize for asking so much of you, but it must be done."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko looked at Watcher as he spoke, then at Lytek as he replied. "I am willing to go through with such a task, but even with Ivory's mastery over chaos we cannot simply walk into the Wyld and ensnare an Unshaped." She looks at Ivory, "Can you? Can anyone?"

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory looks truly and rightly flummoxed at Yomiko's inquisition, shrugging strongly. "I feel fairly confident that we could safely descend into the Deep Wyld and beyond. I can understand, in the barest way, how we might be able to interact with the Unshaped there. But what you are asking, Lord Lytek, should be impossible. Only the Shaped can cross the bordermarches. If we bring you an Unshaped, it will calcify into useless ephemera. I don't even know how to move an Unshaped! They are...they are places, but unbound by the traditional restrictions imposed by the Shinma that defines shape and space."

[The Demented One]

"I am sorry, Lady Ivory Eyes. I know not how it was done. I never witnessed such a thing firsthand; that was sole province of the Exalted. I have been able to glean much from the memories of the Twilight Castes and No Moon Castes of the First Age, but they are hazy and incomplete, the minutiae of their methods left ambiguous and undefined." The luminous deity shrugs, an old man ashamed to prevail on the generosity of the God-Kings. He opens up an intricate mirror-paneled cabinet, withdrawing a handful of glowing gems from within; dreamstones inscribed with the memories of First Age Exalts. He explains the lineage and contents of each in brief as he lays them out, leaving you with the best record of Bright Shattered Ice and Queen k'Tula's experimentation on the Princes of Chaos.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr kept quiet for a time, his face showing an unusual shadow of trepidation. He chews his lip gently for a moment,m before he finally speaks up. "My mistress might know more - she is an Elder among our folk, and she hoards secrets as a squirrel hoards nuts for the winter... but if anyone knows for certain, it is Raksi, Queen of Fangs..." He gives a little shudder. "But she is savage beyond measure, even by the standards of we Lunars... and I doubt she would give up her secrets without recieving something in return - And she hungers for one thing above all: The secrets of the Adamant Circle... but I fear for all creation should she come to possess them. Her evil is as depthless as it is profound." Zephyr looks incredibly uncomfortable as he speaks, as if baring some secret and long-hidden shame.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

"Then it seems we have one or the other to convince. One to share her secrets willingly, and the other to take a lesser offering. A safer offering." She held her hands together as she spoke. "Hopefully it shall be easy." She smiles.

[GryffonDurime]

"It would, perhaps, be best if we were to try both avenues. If your first ally does not know, perhaps she will lend us aid against this Queen of Fangs. Where are we to go first, then?" Ivory asks, beginning the motions of gathering Essence.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr gives a slight shrug, giving an embarassed smile. "The best that I can do is put out a message for her through the Pact and hope that she finds it, and that she is willing to come. She is Changing Moon - if she does not wish us to find her, she will not be found. "

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

"Then it seems we have a plan. And perhaps we can spread the word for young Lunars to reach Lotus' doors, with all we have to offer I'm certain many would love to be citizens."

[The Demented One]

Lytek smiles weakly, clasping his hands together. "Excellent! There are surely none more versed in Wylderness lore than the Lunar Elders; I have no doubts of your success. The Unshaped are dangerous, of course, very dangerous, but you will of course prevail. I only wish I could offer you entrance into the manse-home of Raksi or any of her peers, but any invitations I may once have had were long since rescinded. Best of luck, God-Kings."

Doctor Brass leans over, testing the slack of the starmetal fetters that restrain him. He is pale and stretched, worn weary by Lytek's experiments, but his vim seems undiminished. "Ivory Eyes, you must provide me with the full details of how you banished Cecelyne! It's astounding, a whole field of shinmaic science yet to be explored. I will, I suppose, await your report with as much patience as I can muster." He laughs feebly at the joke, his voice choked with a thick clot of phlegm.

[GryffonDurime]

"It is not so hard, Doctor. We shall discuss it at length when we return from...wherever this damned wild goose chase leads us," Ivory says, mixing a stern tone with a soft smile. She gestures towards one of Lytek's many doors and knocks three times. It opens with a creak to reveal the Cathedral of Lotus.

"We've work to do, then, I suppose. Rumors to spread and Unshaped to lasso."

[The Demented One]

The gates of Lytek's sanctum open into the Cathedral-Manse at the heart of Lotus, a doorway of white jade suddenly manifesting within the Palace of the God-Kings. As the four of you step through it, you find your manse filled with bureaucrats and couriers, the usual abundance of functionaries who have become a necessary burden to ruling Lotus. Jubilant Dawn approaches you as you manifest, taking the sudden appearance of a cosmic portal within his workspace in good stride. He bears a folder so overfilled that he would be better served if it opened up into Elsewhere. He wears a new regalia, now that the finest of luxuries can be conjured up with impossible ease from the Wyld. His robe is of shimmering prismatic threads, like opals spun into silk. The edges are embroidered with a hem of gold and silver, the heraldic colors of the God-Kings. He lays his overburdened folder down on a desk, looking up at you with a sigh.

"God-Kings. The ambassadors from Halta and Linowan have been placed under house arrest by Captain Transval for simultaneous attempted murders, their is a sorcerer-engineer from Lookshy trying to install a massive adamant contraption in the State Ministry, and a diplomat from Thorns has sent word that he wishes to visit Lotus and treat with you." The first of the Mighty unheaps his dignity to match even Rising Echo's, for all that the countless imbroglios must fluster him. "And...since you just came back through Lord Lytek's sanctum, you clearly didn't have time to fly back on the Flower. I shall handle these matters at your instruction. Some day, God-Kings, I hope there will be no more demon princes and elder gods for you to worry over. It is most worrisome."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko puts her hand gently on Jubilant Dawn's shoulder and smiles at him, "I have all the confidence in Creation that you can handle these things with as much skill as any God-King, save our friend Echo. We do have a task at hand that unfortunately only we can handle now, but if there are any snares in these matters here at home, we will certainly not delay our efforts to return." She gives him a kiss on the cheek and begins to walk to the door, where her wings of fire flares with her golden anima and she flies to collect her daughter.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"Hold the ambassadors for as long as you can." Watcher says to Jubilant Dawn, once again annoyed that mortals were still trying such things. He had spent so much time trying to remove criminals from Lotus, that he had almost forgotten that such threats could come from outside as well. "I am going to want to find out exactly who put them up to this."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr snorted. "From what I heard, Halta and Linowan don't need reasons to hate each other. Still, best you deal with it - Given Halta's rulers, it's best if I not interfere. Besides, I'd best start spreading the word. We Lunars are an elusive bunch at best, and I doubt the new Empresses' words of peace will placate them, least of all the Elders - It will take centuries for some of them to come around, if they ever do... and that's only the one's sane enough to listen to reason." Zephyr smiled wryly. "I wonder what place my kinfolk will find in this new world we are building? I suppose we shall have to see."

So saying, Zephyr simply grabs a sheaf of loose paper and begins to write in his clumsy, scrawling strokes. I can kill an army with my bare claws. He mused wryly Yet I'll be damned if I can form my letters properly. His instructions were straight and to the point - messages were to go out to every corner of Creation as soon as they could. Openly, it would simply be another declaration of welcome for all Lunars to find a place in Lotus' new kingdom - but the words were laced with hidden codes and subtle shades of meaning in a private language known only to he and Resplendent Tails of Shadow, urgent whispers and a plea for help. He only hoped that they would find her, and that she would come. If she didn't... He supposed they would have to chance the hospitality of the Queen of Fangs.

[GryffonDurime]

"Inform the diplomat from Thorns that my stance has not changed," Ivory Eyes says to Jubilant Dawn. "If he wants to treat with us, I am more than willing to exchange Infallible Messangers, but I will not speak with subordinates. The rumors of Thorns are too grisly to allow me to do otherwise."

[The Demented One]

Between the dragon-rails and the flourishing sorcerer-courier industry of Lotus, Zephyr finds his message swiftly disseminated throughout all Creation. Fractious and hidden as the Silver Pact is, flight after flight of infallible messengers eventually reach their intended recipients, calling them all to a grand moot. While the Sword of Luna calls out to his brethren, the remainder of the God-Kings attend to diplomatic matters. After a thorough investigation by Watcher and O-Mizuchi, the Haltan and Linowan ambassadors are found to be guilty of little more than overindulging on rice wine, and soon released to their embassies, albeit not without some embarrassment. Ivory Eyes' message is sent out to the envoy from Thorns, and a despairing letter is soon returned, conceding to sorcerous negotiations only. Yomiko oversees the installation of the magitech console in the State Ministry, poking and prodding at the sorcerous communications relay until she has figured out the intricacies of its operation.

After only scant weeks, Zephyr finds his call answered in full. A four-winged keppa bird flies above the skies of Lotus, dodging the giant hawks that patrol the windways, and alights before him and the other God-Kings, it strange pink feathers proclaiming it foreign to the verdant East. Before their eyes, the bird shifts and changes shapes, until it is a man of about Zephyr's age, wearing a rustic tunic that is poor cover for the jagged lines of moonsilver that adorn his body. Zephyr recognizes him despite the passage of years, a fellow student under Tails of Resplendent Shadow. Ardent Destrier, the fastest man and biggest braggart of all the South–and now, he has come to Lotus. What he lacks in stature over Zephyr he more than makes up for in hair, his shoulders shaggy with dusky hair, his grey coif a mane to outdo even Yomiko's, and his silver-braided beard a thing worth boasting off.

"By the Baara, Scales-of-War, what a city you have!" he roars, slapping the God-King heartily on the back. "I'd heard stories, of course, all of us have, but I'd never imagined it'd be this impressive. All the people, the magitech–and the beasts! Yeddim and giant hawks as far as the eye can see! Count that as a tally against those Thousand Streams string-pullers, am I right?" he says, his boisterous lack of tact perhaps explaining why he was never accepted into the Winding Path. "But I cannot only stand here and lay laurels on your brow, you old brute! I've been sent in advance, as a herald. Old Tails got your message, lots of us have. We've decided to hold a moot on Lotus. She'll be hear tonight, as the moon rises, and a dozen other Lunars with her." A moot was not exactly what Zephyr had planned on, but sure enough, his mentor would be coming. "I told her I'd fly back with your word, but I'll be damned if I do before I've had a take of the city! Have one of your Solars cast an infallible messenger over to her, old friend."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr grinned broadly at the shaggy man. His fellow Lunar's appearance sent a shock through him - he remembered when he had dressed in simple desert white, or in the rags of a slave - and look at him now. But had he gained? Or had he lost something, the essential savagery that defined the Lunars and made them what they were?

He shook off the feeling. After all, was he not returning Lotus, nay, Creation itself to the first age? Were the savage mannerisms of the Lunar courts not the product of their long exile from their rightful place beside the throne? He was not turning his back on his cousins - he was leading them in glorious rebirth. He took Destrier's arm in a warrior's grip, pulling him into a fierce embrace. He looked him up and down, showing his long white teeth.

"Ah, gods but it's good to see you, and good, too, to hear the news that you bring. It will be an honor to host so many of the Silver tonight - and it will be good for them to see what we have wrought. We are changing the world here, old friend - changing it for the better. The East rises, and the banners of silver and gold flutter again. The new Empress herself has recognized the Chosen of the Sun and Moon - it is a good time to be alive."

He turned and introduced his circle mates, one at a time. "Watcher, our Night Caste. Master of shadows, master of whispers, he keeps the peace, and makes sure no one need fear the streets of Lotus, even in the dark of the night." He smiled at the Invincible Maiden. "Yomiko - Lady of the Zenith. Her beauty is surpassed only by her love and her eloquence, and her fierceness in battle." He turned to Ivory, and his smile softened as he looked at her. "Ivory Eyes. Our Twilight, a Solar Queen reborn, and the greatest wonder-worker of this And my bonded Solar." he only stopped himself at the last moment from calling her his mate - he did not want to presume, but his heart ached for it. He had been patient, but it was not in his nature - and every day her distance from him worried at his heart.

"Ivory, if you would be so kind as to send a message to my Mistress? I will need to show Destrier around the city, and to make arrangements for the moot. You will all be invited, of course." His tone made it clear that opposition on this point was not an option.

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory snaps her fingers at Zephyr's request and a small bird springs to life at the sorceress' shoulder, a miniature replica of her own anima.

"A message for their mistress, then. Ardent Destrier has arrived and been welcomed, and the city of Lotus awaits this Moot. All airspace is open, as is any gate to a Lunar bearing their castemark," Ivory says, motioning. The construct alights all at once, rising into the sky before streaking off like a comet, trailing motes of light.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"A dozen Lunars all coming here at once?" Watcher looks to Zephyr, completely ignoring the new arrival. Sure, he knew that his circle-mate's open invitation would eventually be answered; but not so quickly, and not by so many at once. He almost opens his mouth for his thoughts to e heard, but the gleam in Zephyr's eye stops him cold. This was one he couldn't win. "Hrrm." he mutters, sizing up Ardent; his motions making it clear to the others that he was going to have his Syndicate keep an eye on the new arrivals.

Using Courtier's Eye Technique on Ardent just for the hell of it.

Perception+Investigation: [roll0]+5 successes

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko seems a bit surprised at the Lunar's arrival, but smiles once it's clear he and Zephyr are old friends, and her smile only widens once she is introduced. She curtsies elegantly, "It is a pleasure to meet another of Luna's children in our city, and surely that pleasure will become tenfold once your moot arrives. Surely if you would like a tour of Lotus, you musn't miss a show of song and dance I and many of the artists of this place would love nothing more than to put on."

[The Demented One]

Within but hours, the first of the Lunars have come to Lotus, their caste marks burning brilliant silver on their brows. The first arrive in a pair, a weary scavenger lord stooped low beneath a massive sack of shiny baubles and a merchant-princess whose skin is striped with vibrant yellows against black. Short after follows a beautiful, silver-haired woman whose belly bulges with the curve of pregnancy, carried up to the walls of Lotus on a palanquin borne by a troop of spiderbrood, all the carapace and spindly legs of a spider sewn on to the stature of a man. There is a young maiden whose hands are rough with shimmering carapace, a wild-eyed barbarian of truly gigantic size, a hoary old mercenary with a peculiar cant to his ears, and many more to follow.

Yomiko soon calls for full festivities, the finest enlightened musicians and troubadors of the city lining its streets as the moot begins. The Lunars are not the only ones in attendance, though–more than a few of the Mighty come to welcome them and enjoy the revelry, and O-Mochi himself appears, a young girl at his arm. Soon the moot is ringed with a street festival, the people of Lotus spontaneously devolving into celebration. Uneasy as the new guests are at this sudden raucous festivity, they soon find it growing on them–the exotic meats and spirits, the heart-soothing songs, and the crowds of citizens shouting praise for the Chosen of Luna. It is a celebration of the Silver Pact, and yet it is missing only one thing. Tails of Resplendent Shadow has yet to arrive, though not at all to Zephyr's surprise. His mentor would be loathe to make her arrival obvious in the least.

And so it is that while his fellow God-Kings and Lunars celebrate the moot, Zephyr watches the wildlife of Lotus, the countless animals that thrive in the city. Doves, cats, foxes–there. A black squirrel, perched innocently atop one of the banquet tables, nibbling at a platter of sauteed ricefruit. Zephyr approaches with a grin, and as he draws close, the squirrel looks him dead in the eye. "Okay, okay, you caught me." In a single fluid shift, the squirrel becomes his mentor, Tails of Resplendent Shadow. She is beautiful as only Luna's Chosen can be, skin the creamy brown of Chiaroscuro coffee, hair so dark a violet as to be almost black. Clothed in only the silver tattoos that trace clover-leafs and starbursts across her skin, she sits on the feasting-table, legs casually dangling down.

"Got your call, little Zeph. What is it that you could possibly need an old soul like me for?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr smiled, and he looked at his old mentor with reverence. He bowed, palm-in-fist, in the style of student to teacher, bending at the waist. He seemed completely unconcerned by her nakedness - as, indeed, he was. He had only rarely seen her don clothes - like many Lunars, she had done away with such concerns as modesty, leaving them behind as concerns for mortals and those who had to deal with them.

"Mistress... it is good to see you. I have been busy... and now I must beg your aid." He gave Resplendent Tails of Shadow a brief summation of what Lytek had told them, concluding by saying. "... You always taught me to trust no one - but of all the Lunar Elders, you are the one I know best, and distrust the least, as you might say. We must do the undoable - bind the unshaped and shapeless, and drag it bodily into creation. I did not know who else I might turn to..."

[GryffonDurime]

"Other than the 'Queen of Fangs' that Lytek spoke of," Ivory offers flippantly. "Dragging an Unshaped across the boundaries of Creation should Calcify it, rendering it useless. I am still uncertain as to how he even expects us to physically move something that is less an entity and more a place that likes to think of itself as one."

[The Demented One]

"Luna's grace, why?" asks Resplendent Tails, a single fang jutting out from between her lips. "Why would you ever need to take a Prince of Chaos into Creation? It's impossible, it just doesn't work–I'm not the savant that Raksi is, but I've a century and a half on her, youthful though I am, and I know my lore just as well. The Unshaped cannot be brought into Creation, it's why they're unshaped at all. The Lawgivers and the No Moons tried, back in the First Age, and they never succeeded!" The Moonchild springs to her feet, incidentally purloining a plate of candied figs. She pokes one slim finger into Zephyr's chest, once more a teacher chastising a foolish student. "So if you want my help, you're going to have to tell me more than that. What does Lytek have you up to, hmm?"

[GryffonDurime]

"What about the Bordermarches?" Ivory asks, uncorking a pretty blue bottle to scent the wine within. She avoids the question of why with a practiced informality. "You seem to have an idea of how an Unshaped could be moved. Could it be taken as far as the Bordermarches? Or land crafted through the use of Wyldshaping?" she adds, accepting a goblet happily from one of her sorcerous attendants. She pours the wine into the glass slowly: it, too, is blue, and smells of winter. One of the newest products of Petal developed by a sorcerer-chef after her own heart: Twice-Distilled Water, a wine made from the same stuff as a season.

"If we can take it that far, Lytek can assess the creature from the safety of our enclave on the Wyld."

[The Demented One]

"Oh, you can manage to wrangle one of them in the Bordermarches, although it'll be all hell on you. Just having a Chaos Prince so close to Creation feeds the Wyld, lets its borders wax out for miles. Tainted lands wouldn't work, though, the storm would bleed out in seconds." Resplendent Tails sniffs the air, as if savoring the scent of Ivory Eyes's superb wine. One caramelized fig has been lodged in her puffed-out cheeks all throughout her explication, and she takes the pause to swallow it. "Now, you could probably manage to drag one of them around the Wyld. They're as much waypoint as people, maybe even more, but they still have Emanations, the masks they put on to play nice with the world around them. Bind them, break them, bargain with them, and you can manage to force the Unshaped to move where you want them to. Without a grace you can't deal with them on their own terms, but the Lords of Chaos can still be put to the blade, or seduced, or whatever you have in mind for them."

[GryffonDurime]

"So, then. It's a matter of subduing one's Emanations and then convincing it to march as close to Creation as it can go, then bringing Lytek to it's side while we conduct our experiment," Ivory says as she offers Tails the bottle, downing her own glass in one great artful gulp. "I was worried that this was going to be difficult."

[The Demented One]

Resplendent Tails graciously accepts the bottle, taking a breath-burning gulp from its tapered flute. "Oh, you make me laugh, little Lawgiver. I think you've got it. Just leaving out cutting a bloody swathe through whatever behemoths and slave-raksha the Chaos Lord has conjured up. Oh, and finding one of them, that's tricky tricky." she explains, playfully teasing Ivory Eyes. "An excellent wine, though. Decadent as this whole city is, at least it's the good kind of decadent."

[GryffonDurime]

"A decadence built on the ideals of civil service," Ivory replies with a calculated smile that betrays her pride. "Service, not out of a lust for things but out of an ideal of common welfare. What goods we import from our Far-Flung Petal are wrung from the Wyld by the finest minds and quickest wits. Lotus flourishes under that very model: that decadence has given rise to over half a million Enlightened and countless sorcerers. I hope you'll forgive any coldness in my tone, but decadence is such a dangerous word to bandy about. Decadence choked the First Age from the inside-out when the Exalted--Lawgiver, Steward, and Vizier--forgot that their first and greatest responsibility was to the world and to their fellow men, not just to their Exalted peers." Ivory's expression is that of stone and restraint, but her eyes drift into the haze of the horizon. Somewhere in her mind, she can hear the objections of the phantoms in the White Room.

"Regardless!" Ivory says, shaking herself to her senses. "As the eldest member here, we extend our welcome to the Silver Pact, with the hopes that Lotus may prove itself a worthwhile object of your attentions, decadent or not." She smiles at this last proclamation, wiping away all trace of bitterness.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher sots in his chair, leaned back with his arms crossed across his chest. The golden plate before him was still shiny and clean, never having been loaded with food. Though his glass had been filled out of courtesy, it too had not been touched. Those that served the circle had long since learned that the nightbringer never removed his mask in public, not even to eat. To ask had brought a polite, but gruff explanation of this.

He had known Zephyr for quite a while now. But that had not prepared him for the shear energy that the Lunar's allies possessed. Not all of them made it obvious, but he could read it in their body language. They had trained themselves to survive in the Wyld, that fact was all too clear to Watcher's enhanced eyes. Pity his powers of observation didn't help him understand half of what Ivory and Tails were talking about.

"Emanations? Tainted lands?" Watcher says in a rare moment of weakness. "I admit, many of these terms you are using are going right over my head. Would it be possible for the two of you to dumb it down?"

[The Demented One]

Resplendent Tails smiles graciously, turning to Watcher. "My apologies! The savants of the First Age codified an entire vocabulary for discussing the Wyld, esoteric for the sake of esotericism. You know the Fair Folk, of course. Alien monsters that come out of the Wyld, ravishing the peoples of Creation and feasting on their dreams. They are the least of the Fae, the Shaped Raksha. Each one of them was once a thing far greater, an all-powerful prince of chaos that diminished itself into the bounds of shape and form that it could enter Creation. But not all of them are diminished." Resplendent Tails seems far more comfortable with such casual terms than the formal vocabularies of occult lore, all formality dropped out of her voice–and all contention with Ivory Eyes apparently forgotten, for the moment.

"The Unshaped Raksha...how to put it. They're strange. They exist, more or less, as waypoints in the Wyld, stories as much as spaces. Once you enter the bounds of an Unshaped, you're playing out whatever plot it wants to tell. The characters in the story are the Emanations, constructed figment-selves that let the Prince of Chaos pretend to be a sane normal person. Pretend poorly, might I add. The Emanations are what you want to hit. The Unshaped only thinks, only acts through the interaction of its Emanations–which means if you can seduce or persuade one over to your side, you've got that much of it behind you. And if you can't...they still bleed. Killing an Emanation isn't easy, and it won't do pretty things to the way the Unshaped thinks, but you can do it."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr listened, struggling to understand. While not stupid, per se, he did not have his teacher's head for esoterica - he was a warrior and a general, first and foremost. He instinctively understood the dance of battle, the dance of armies, how to fight and win, no matter how strange or fearsome the foe - but when it came to understanding them, then it was a different matter.

This battle, however, was one fought with words and ideas and a battle he was less equipped to deal with. He could not stand by, however, and say nothing.

"Ivory Eyes speaks the truth - Lotus is built on the idea of strength for all, not just a few. Mortals are not chattel - they are raw potential. We train them to fulfill it, just as you trained me. Nothing can stay constant - even Lotus cannot last forever as it is. But we will be here to make sure that whatever changes take hold will be changes for the good. As to this... Raksha-thing... these Emanations sound like demon-souls to me."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

"Then surely it would be simple enough for any of us to coerce one to our needs. It's unpredictable though, so even the most well executed diplomacy has a random chance of failing, doesn't it?" Yomiko says, looking at the unclothed Lunar woman. "That, and with the unpredictable nature of the Wyld, how will we traverse it? If we know of a location where we might find the Unshaped, it may very well be countless miles away once we reach there. It would take a guide capable of navigating such a place, if there even are any."
She blinks for a moment as if surprised at herself, "My dearest apologies. I am the Invincible Maiden Yomiko. I am pleased to meet you."

[The Demented One]

"Oh, perhaps." demurs Resplendent Tails, as Zephyr protests the virtue of Lotus. "I see that you have not forgotten the lesson of the Thousand Streams River, even if you have abandoned its methods. Maybe your Lotus will succeed where the Era of Dreams failed. You have a start, at least." She speaks her criticism unabashedly, as is the way of a stern schoolmaster lecturing his pupils on their errors. "But that's a different conversation. You'll find the Emanations to be quite unlike the demonic souls of the Yozis, save in the broadest of similarities. And, my ever-so-fair Invincible Maiden, you will find that they are not easily swayed or slain. They wield raw chaos as their own will, and even the unshapings of your Lady Twilight will not be offer sanctuary against all that they do. I'd be damn impressed. Now, you will be needing a guide to the Wyld, and that–"

"Means you'll need me!" The voice is vibrant music, a euphonious aria that prevails against Resplendent Tails' own. The Lunar saunters out into the midst of the moot, the Changing Moon glistening silver flame on the honey of her skin. Countless veils of indigo silk swathe her voluptuous lunar flesh in diaphonous finery, shimmering in the sunset. Her hair dangles down to her waist, and it coruscates through strange cold rainbows, brilliant cobalts giving way to lucent emeralds and violets. "I can find you a Chaos Lord, in any direction you look for it. Trust me! she beams, a graceful smile lighting her face.

But for all her beauty, beauty to shine as the moon to Yomiko's own sun, it is not what your eyes fall on. Seven ribbons of moonsilver lie in her hands, twisting and coiling into an unbreakable fetter, a chain that collars the abomination at her feet. It is a feeble attempt at humanity, a body carved out of passion and acrid lust. Acid pinks, sunset greens, and earthy violets stain its false flesh, the gnarled assemblages of limbs that dangle down from its torso. It does not move, but flickers–with every step, a leg disappears, and another coalesces into being elsewhere, moving the monster forward. It is a raksha tamed, bowed before its Lunar mistress.

"Astra Seven-Feathers, Courtier of Luna, Princess of the Wyld, at your service. Sorry I came late!"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko smiles at the new arrival, despite the nearly-imaginable horror that resides at her feet. The black, red and gold dress she wears seem a perfect counterpart to all the cool colors the woman features and adorns. "I can tell by your leashed wyld-thing your boasts are not without merit. As I told Resplendent Tails, I am the Invincible Maiden Yomiko and I am pleased to meet you as well."

[The Demented One]

Astra grabs Yomiko's hand in her own, forcing her into an over-exuberant handshake. The enslaved raksha slavers horribly at her feet, a dozen different tongues lashing out and drooling bitter poison, but cautiously avoiding the Invincible Maiden. "His name's Joyous Provocation. I beat him in a riddling game, and stole his heart away." She leans towards Yomiko, exposing a medallion that hangs low from her neck, a shimmering opal set in a ring of iron. The heart of a faerie. "I can guide you past the dangers of the Wyld, treat with the raksha, and tell you where to find at least a dozen of the Unshaped. Your very own smorgasbord of elder things!"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She takes the opal gently in her palm to examine it, and expression only seems to brighten, even after a surprisingly excited handshake. "It's beautiful..." She looks up from the pendant to her eyes, "Have you tricked other creatures this way?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr looked wounded by his teacher's comments, but he steeled himself. He was a king now, and a boy no longer - the words of one woman should not hurt him so deeply, no matter who she was. "As you say, mistress, we can speak of this later. I would welcome your council. Luna knows that I do the best I can." He gave her a cheeky grin. "And she did not express her disapproval when I met her."

He turned to Astra, smiling, and he couldn't help but look at her form with a certain hungry gleam in her eye. Mated or no, king or no, he was still a wild son of Luna, and his needs and wants ran hot and fierce. He inclined his head to her. "Sister." he said formally. "I'm sure we would appreciate any help you might be willing to offer."

Zephyr looked back to Resplendent Tails. "I believe you asked what exactly Lytek had us doing - the Right Hand of Power has tasked us with finding a way to restore Exaltations corrupted by the Yozi to their former, pristine state... hence the need for one of the Unshaped."

[The Demented One]

"Oho?" asks Resplendent Tails, her ears suddenly perking up as they take on a feline point. She gives him a meaningful look, and speaks words that only he hears. Others see the Lunar speaking, yes, but all they hear is meaningless banter, a back-and-forth of quips and retorts between her and Zephyr. But the Full Moon hears something far more portentous. "Zephyr Scales-of-War, you promise me this. You and your Solars go out into the Wyld, and bring back an Unshaped. And when you take it to Lytek, you make sure that whatever he tries to restore these Infernal Exaltations, these akuma, he does just as much for us. You know why we wear these tattoos, why we are three instead of our rightful five castes, and now I command you to be the one to end it. Promise it."

And yet the deep meaningful gravity of Zephyr and Resplendent Tails' discourse is lacking elsewhere within the Moot. Astra is a positive font of levity, explaining to Yomiko her adventures in the Wyld with a girlish urge to please and impress. "I've fought and tricked other faeries, but no one so bad as Joyous Provocation. He's not too bright! I seduced him, and made him vow to forge my graces in exchange for a single kiss. He did–and then I vexed his heart away, and made him my pet!" The prostrate raksha snarls at this, nipping at the Changing Moon's ankles with teeth of candyfloss and snowmelt. "Of course, he's still a little sore over it." explains Astra as she gracefully sidestep's her pets mock-attack, forcing it down with one foot to its neck.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr looked at his mentor, ashamed that he hadn't thought of such a plan in the first place, that it hadn't occured to him to help his own kin even as he worked to redeem the foul monstrosities of corrupted Solar brood. He looked at Resplendent Tails, a wry smile on his face. "As you say, Mistress. Forgive me for not thinking of it first - I suppose it is my youth - I have not known the hardships you have, and I never knew what it was like before - but that is no excuse for neglecting my own. Forgive me." He repeated, once again bowing low. "For you, for our folk - anything."

[GryffonDurime]

"Catching faeries. It's really just as bad as demon summoning, in the end," Ivory says, keeping a comfortable breadth from the bound thing. "There are innocents who have been lumped in with the enemies of Creation, but the Raksha are not among their number. When should we depart? I can have a small contingent of Anti-Wyld Amalga meet us at Fardome if need be, or we can enlist Ashrin's elites at Far-Flung Petal." Ivory is clearly disquieted by the presence of the Raksha.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko can't help but laugh, putting one hand over her mouth at the Lunar's tale, "Best not to tell Konoko of that one, lest she get some ideas." She begins to look around, "Wherever she may have gone in these festivities." The smile on her face gives way to just the smallest bit of worry.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher's gulp is almost audible after hearing Yomiko's words. All the while training Konoko, he had never been able to get the image of those giant, golden swords flying towards him out of his head. Glancing around, he was easily able to pick out the form of the silver-masked girl, cloaking herself in the shadows of a far corner. He shouldn't have brought her in on dinner-watch. Too many variables. All too risky.

"Perhaps you you could go into more detail about such a feat later." He says to Astra, banishing the doubts from his mind. "I am sure that I would find some of your tricks most useful."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko returns her gaze to the young lady Lunar and her smile returns, "I'm certain she's probably just giving some poor boy a hard time. We've greater things to worry over. So tell me, what Unshaped do you think are achievable targets nearby? Perhaps we are best to venture outward once the festivities are over and morning comes again."

[The Demented One]

Astra seems to have been awaiting such a question, spouting out a quick listing of the East's Chaos Princes, enumerating each one on her fingers. "Well, most of the Unshaped dwell pretty deep in, but the Colossal Walker sometimes passes through the Middlemarches. That Which Devours keeps to the depths, but she's so that finding her can't be hard. And the Prodigal never moves, so I know I can get you there. Now, you could try to find the Whisper in the Leaves or the Blasphemous Gematria, but it'd be a long hunt through the Deep Wyld." She beams helpfully, leaning back on her pet faerie as if it were a footstool. Joyous Provocation seems entirely less than pleased with this arrangement, but his heart is not his own, and he suffers his nubile burden with patience. "Of course, I've never seen any of them myself–I can't tell you much besides their names and how to find them. But wherever you want to go, Yomiko, I'll set out. Me and Joy will just need a place to sleep for the night, and then we can set out! Raksha hunt!"

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"If any of these Unshaped will do, then I say we go after this Prodigal." Watcher speaks up, satisfied that they could actually start talking about a plan. "The easier of a time time we have finding one of these things, the quicker we can get back here. I do not like being gone from Lotus any more then is necessary."

[The Demented One]

Astra looks taken aback by Watcher's sudden interruption, looking him over slowly. "Don't underestimate me, Lawgiver! I could find any of them, no matter what they are or where they dwell. You won't be wasting any time, not with me leading you! The Prodigal is just the easiest to find, you know?" Now, Shahan-ya Scales-of-War, Ivory Eyes–and of course, you, Yomiko–which do you wish to hunt down?" she asks, her eyes gleaming. She stands, arms spread, as she addresses the other God-Kings, placing herself between Yomiko and Watcher.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Invincible Maiden blinks just a bit, her smile not faltering but her eyes becoming a bit wider, as if amused by subtle absurdity. She puts one hand on Astra's back and turns to her, "I'm certain we all trust your ability to track and bind these creatures to no end. Watcher meant no offense, I assure you. He is simply one to keep every option open, and for those not skilled against the dangers of the Wyld, swiftness is key." Her words are nothing if not soothing and motherly. "I will go where my Circle so chooses."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr looked to his mistress, seeing if Resplendent Tails would have aught else to say in reply to him, but as she stood silent, he turned to the other conversation. "If my mistress reccomends you, Astra, then I have no doubt you are the finest wyld-walker in the East. Other than my teacher's advice, I have never even heard of how to fight these things - but for my part, I favor hunting Semiramis. I know how old stories work - and I know how to be the mightiest warrior on life. His tale seems simplest, and thus most easily bent to our will."

[GryffonDurime]

"I find myself in agreement with Zephyr," Ivory says without irony or bitterness. "Sorcery's pattern is similar, I think. The relationship of gift and sacrifice. Loathe as I am to give anything more, mind you."

[The Demented One]

"Wonderful!" cries Astra, throwing both arms up into the air. "We set out in the morning. Semiramis, we're coming for you!" Joyous Provocation stands gingerly, conjuring countless unfolding legs to reach his full height, half-heartedly cheering with gibbering cries. Someone's clearly not thrilled about the prospect of hunting down a Chaos Lord. As the Lunar and her faerie slave celebrate, Resplendent Tails leans over Zephyr's shoulder. "Good. Bind the Whisper, Zeph, and bring her back. Your deeds will outshine Ingosh Silverclaws, boy, I just know it. Seven-Feathers is a nain-ya, no long years behind her, but she'll be all the guide. Luna's grace." She leaves him, going off to poach a loaf of sugarbread, enjoying all the pleasures of the Moot along with her fellow Lunars.

The young maiden Full Moon seems entirely too tipsy on the fine spirits of Lotus, and she recounts the whole of her gory reputation to the dark-eyed scavenger lord, now blanching and desperately seeking an excuse to leave. The bumblebee-princess has struck up a conversation with O-Mochi's date, the two of them discussing trade routes while the rice god endures O-Mizuchi's mocking banter. As the moon marks night and then midnight, and then feasting platters and wine bottles grow empty, the Moot begins to break up, the Lunars going off their own separate ways. Some depart the city, heading back to their own homes and havens, while others stay on, accepting Zephyr's invitation. Lotus truly is an Exalted City now.

And despite the long hours of the celebration, you all find yourselves waking as the Daystar has only just appeared above the horizon. Astra seems to have taken it upon herself to call you all to the quest, flitting between your palaces in the shape of a cockerel and rousing you with high piercing cries. The Changing Moon is wide awake, her breath faintly smelling of O-Mochi's coffee rice. "Greet the sun, Lawgivers! The Wyld wanes at dawn, so now's the best time to set out. I've got the journey all charted out, just ready your arms and retinue and we leave. Hurry!"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko goes through her typical morning rituals: bathing, praying, a light breakfast and so on. Once she dons her armor and puts both of her swords securely attached to the armor at her lower back, she looks to Astra and asks for aid in having someone looking after Konoko while she's gone, if for no other reason than to distract her daughter from the danger her Circle is sure to delve headlong into. Once Astra suggests Nettle in the Nettles and Ill-Chosen Venture(despite the level of surety she seems to have for the names, or lack thereof) , it takes a bit of coaxing to get the Invincible Maiden to agree, but eventually she feels comfortable enough to agree. Once the matter is settled, she begins walking wherever Astra guides her.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr Scales-of-War brought no retinue - indeed, with Lotus grown so large, he sometimes felt that his old position obsolete - he still oversaw the army and the watch, but the day-to-day operations were in the hands of the bureaucracy, and Lotus' countless enlightened mortals. Still, it freed him to do what he did best - hunt, fight, train, and speak to the people. The upshot was that he needed no retainers, no servants - on an expedition like this, into the very Wyld itself, they would only slow him down.

Today his mutable clothing garbed him sparsely - a short kilt of dark blue fabric, with whorls and spirals of silver. The rest of him was bare, showing his massively muscled torso and perfect physique, along with the spiraling tattoos of moonsilver that would protect him from the energies of the Wyld.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Ever since the title of God-King had been given to him, Watcher didn't like leaving the city. He disliked it so much that it had been one the his main reasons for creating the Syndicate. So there would always be someone watching over Lotus from the shadows, even when he could not. But the coty was slowly growing, which meant there was more work involved in looking out for those that would cause trouble. Even though he had inducted Konoko into Exodus not that long ago, she was still only one more tasked with protecting six-hundred thousand. He would need to bring in more, or at least convince the Circle of his new idea, but there would time for that once they got back from the Wyld.

Before leaving to meet the others, he tells Konoko that once they get back, she would need to spend some time with her mother. If not to settle her nerves, then at least to keep her from becoming suspicious. An enraged Yomiko was something no one needed right now, not when they had done so much in the past few months.

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory Eyes smiled as she met her companions at the entrance of Fardome Station: guarded by a constant watch of Enlightened soldiers trained and chosen by Transval himself, the station was little more than a raised golden dais. A large tram sat on the dais, seated within were three of Ivory's finest Wyldshapers...not usually intended for duty this rough, but they had been quite adamant when she sent out the request for volunteers. Each wore finely crafted chainmail emblazoned with the symbol of Far-Flung Petal.

"I've cleared the system as best I can. If I'm doing it right, we should run right through Midway without having to wait for the Zenith Run," Ivory says. "Of course, one never can tell with Protoshinmatic technology."

There's chatter among the three Amalga as the Godking board, and one of them approaches Watcher coyly, arms behind his back. A dark-haired friend nudges him forward.

"Uhm. Hello, sir, Godking, Mr. Watcher. I just wanted to say--I mean, you probably wouldn't recognize me but I saw you during the Battle of Lotus and I--"

"He's got a poem he wrote about you on his wall," the friend adds loudly. The young Amalga blushes.

"I just wanted to thank you. All of you. I've lived here all my life, and I was afraid that I was going to die a ricefarmer. Not that there's anything wrong with honest work!" he adds, turning to Ivory, who tilts her head--this is clearly an old point for her. "But, just, thank you," he adds, frog-marches his friend to the back of the tram, and sits down, hands covering a flushing face.

"Hold on to something," Ivory Eyes says happily, working the levers and carts of the tram. An arch of energy arises in the distance and a golden shape emerges: long, serpentine. The dragon loops into the sky and dives down, grasping the tram by it's roof and holding it close and tight like a child. Soon, the world blurs to a rush of white essence as the contraption gathers speed, rushing forward, rushing forward until...



The world returns into view: the jade walls of Petal. The dragon lets go, and the tram skids to a halt on another dais where stranger Amalga still go about their business in their empty city of wonders and phantoms.

"The Wyld awaits," Ivory says, motioning towards a gate in the distance.

[The Demented One]

Debarking the Dragon Rail, you look out on Far-Flung Petal in all its strange impossible glory, a thing pulled up from the chaos of the Wyld by Ivory Eyes's will alone. The Twilight leads you through the city-complex, to the jade gates that mark the threshold of the Bordermarches, the entrance into the true Wyld. As you gaze out into the Wyld that laps at Creation's borders, you can scarcely tell it from any of the East's forests, save in the little things. The electric blue veins that thread through the leaves of the untamed wilds, the scent of copper that wafts up from the earthy mulch, the trees that reach only just too high towards the off-pink sky. It is only the nearest fringe of chaos; not Creation, but not yet the true Wyld.

All as one, Ivory Eyes and her wyld-shaping amalga raise their arms, shaping the ambient essence that surrounds them into the familiar motonic flows of Creation, asserting their own reality on the formless fantasy around them. With Astra as a guide through this wylderness, and Ivory Eyes as a bulwark against the tides of chaos, the God-Kings venture out into the Wyld. The Changing Moon leads, straying just a few feet far of the Creation that Ivory Eyes brings with her, navigating a path through the verdant boughs and twisting roots. As you walk further and further in, it soon becomes obvious that this is no forest. The trees grow taller, and brighter, and soon bear strange fruit–trees heavy with golden baubles, or gelatinous globules of alcohol, or wisps of murky yellow cloudbursts.

Soon, the forest falls away, the trees slowly fading into massive fungal clusters. They loom like ancient megaliths, fuzzy green husks pulsing in and out like massive hearts. They drop strange, acid-colored spores that fizzle into nothingness as soon as they fall within Ivory Eyes's sway. The wyld-shapers regard the gigantic fungi warily, but Astra assuages their fears, catching a prickly pink spore on her tongue and laughing as it dissolves. The mutant mycologies grow larger and larger, tall enough to surpass first yeddim, then behemoths, until finally they are as mountains. Astra leads you up the side of a massive mushroom-cap, navigating a path up its scarlet-spotted flesh.

As you reach the summit of the mushroom, you can see across the Wyld for miles. Dozens and dozens of the mountainous fungal mounds sway gently in a widdershins wind, ropey vines as thick as tree trunks growing between. Strange small animals roam the mushroomscape: playful lichen-kittens pouncing on one another beneath the shade of overhanging fungal cliffs, pinecarps pushing themselves over the land with their spiny woodlike fins, proud dandelions stalking their prey through the mossy grasses. All of them keep a wide berth from you, frightened away by the alien reality that Ivory Eyes brings with her. Astra delights in the wyldlife, laughing at their antics.

But at you reach the far side of the mountain's cap, you hear menacing roars, a far-off rumble of savage hunger. As you reach the furthest fringe of the mushroom, you hear the sound of burning flames, a full bombasty of explosions. Only two things in all existence could make such a noise–and the Catastrophic Explosion Squid of Gem is surely nowhere near here! And so it can only be what suddenly comes up from under the mushroom's cap, flipping over the horizon and running back up it at you, their eyes burning with bloodlust.

Wyld banditos! Dressed in gaudy rainbow ponchos, brandishing burnished flamewands, and riding on huge predatory raptors, they draw near you. They number a full dozen, each man and tentacle-haired woman mounted on a claw strider. Their wide sombreros jingle with menace, tiny bells carved from the bone of unwary travelers dangling from their brims as trophies of past conquests. The banditos spread out to encircle you from the front, tracing a half-circle of menace. With a bestial whooping cry, they rush out to attack you.


Battle Joined!

Tick 0: Watcher, Bandito
Tick 1: Four Banditos
Tick 2: Wyld-Shaper
Tick 3: Zephyr, Wyld-Shaper, Three Banditos
Tick 4: Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Two Banditos
Tick 5: Wyld-Shaper
Tick 6: Two Banditos


Tick 0: Watcher, Bandito

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

With a groan of annoyance, Watcher dashes at the nearest bandito, a faint hum coming from his vambrace as essence fully activated it. He wasn't sure whether they were creatures born of the Wyld, or simply mortals turned insane by it. Not that he really cared which was true. All he knew was that these fools were in their way, and would soon learn the folly of attacking Lawgivers.

A short leap sends Watcher standing atop the claw strider's head, bringing slight confusion to both bandito and beast. The broken circle appears on the nightbringer's forehead as he levels a golden-plated palm straight at his opponent's face. Stealth would not be needed this time around, and sometimes flashy-ness could be appreciated. As if to confirm this fact, he releases a coiling tendril of energy from the weapon.

Spending five motes on First Thrown Excellency and tapping my wood hearthstone to use the "stun" setting on my vambrace.

Dex+thrown+acc [roll0]
Dex+thrown+acc [roll1]

Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 18/50
Committed: 27

[] -0
[][][][][][][] -1
[][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

Watcher raises up his essence vambrace, a bolt of pulsing geomantic energy pulsing as it wells up from the inset hearthstones–but before he can fire it, a raptor leaps forward, the red-eyed bandito it carries unleashing a gout of pink-purple flames on the Nightbringer. Watcher does not even care to move as the fire descends upon him, standing in the midst of it unmoved and unharmed. Instead, he lets loose a coruscating charge of verdant wood essence, knocking the bandit off his steed with one potent blast. He offhandedly casts a second bolt at the ground mutant, stunning him. The bandito slumps limply into unconsciousness–but not before his comrades ride out to defend him.

Four more of the banditos break from the circling, whooping and hollering just like the stock villains in the Southern outlaw ballads Zephyr grew up on. With a wordless manic glee they cast down an inferno, trapping Yomiko and Zephyr between the burning streamers of their firewands. The Invincible Maiden remains utterly confident, catching the gouts of flame with her blade and deflecting them away from herself, scorching the fungus underfoot. Zephyr catches a firebolt to his chest, but almost laughs to see the slight scorch it leaves, scarcely worse than a sunburn. As the two God-Kings are caught in the inferno, one of Ivory Eyes's amalga snarls and roars with almost Lunar fury, a pair of glistening silver claws forming over his hands.


Battle Joined

Tick 3: Zephyr, Iron Megera, Three Banditos
Tick 4: Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Two Banditos
Tick 5: Watcher, Red Sand Gamine
Tick 6: Six Banditos
Tick 7: Silver Heron


Watcher

1-die stunt, 2m

DV -2

Zephyr

One level of bashing damage

Tick 3: Zephyr, Wyld-Shaper, Three Banditos

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr merely laughed as the banditos attempted to strike a blow against him. One instant, he was standing still, and the next he was moving, fluid as moonsilver - and indeed, his body was shifting, changing as he assumed his warform, the silver of his tattoos seeming to spread to his entire form as he swelled to nearly twice his normal height.

In earlier days, Zephyr had believed himself a war-god. Then he had visited heaven, and seen the true power of the Most High, the resplendent might of the greatest gods of Yu-Shan. He had come to realize how far he had to go - and how much stronger he had to be. This apothesis was one more step on the road to awe. No more a crimson-scaled war beast, Zephyr Scales-of-War was now an argent champion, a silver-scaled behemoth of perfected martial zeal. He stood the charge as the banditos assailed them, his raiment shifting to a simple, skin-tight combat gi - and, for some reason he himself couldn't quite understand, a mask covering his face. His anima burned about him, the very air shimmering and the fungus beneath him burning and smoking as the burning heart of his rage lent him strength.

Zephyr charged forward, his arms back, diving like a bird of prey upon the first bandito. With a single blow he knocked the 'strider to the ground, then seized the bandito, and with a might cry, brought him down upon his knee, breaking his spine. He smirked, turning and springing on his heel, not even slowing as he seized another mount-and-rider pair, catching each one in a chokehold, his might fists and ferocious claws digging into the soft, exposed flesh of their neck, and then bringing them together, bashing their heads together until they were nought but red ruin.

Leaping over the corpses of the fallen, Zephyr landed square on the back of a third clawstrider. leaning down, he yanked its spine free its back with contemptuous ease, using the grisly garotte to choke its rider to death, then using their bodies as a bludgeon to annihilate a fourth bandito.

Then, he spied his final target and smirked, pointing. Beneath the mask, his eyes gleamed, silver like the rest of him. Argent flames swirled around his red right arm as he pointed at his fifth and final victim. "Taste the BURNING JUSTICE FIST, OUTLAW!" he cried, launching himself forward and driving his incandescent claw right through the strider, grabbing its rider by the neck and yanking him down through the too-small orifice he had punched in its mount, uniting both in a grisly dance of death.



Activating my war form with Claws of the Silver Moon and Halting the Scarlet Flow as Gift Charms (5m)

Activating Fury with Golden Tiger Stance, Burrowing Devil Strike, Impressions of Strength (Ogre's Loving Caress), and Wasp Sting Blur, and 3 activations of Unstoppable Lunar Wound (15m, 1 wp)

War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty)
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are Piercing and Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 []
-1 [][][][][][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])

5(6) Dying Health Levels

Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

[The Demented One]

Zephyr lays down a righteous beatdown, the very narrative fabric of the Wyld shimmering with heroic radiance as he does extreme violence to the banditos. The first one breaks in half on the Full Moon's knee, his corpse carelessly thrown atop that of his erstwhile steed. With a blur of motion he has already beset another bandito, smacking his skull into that of the clawstrider he rides. The man's skull explodes like an oversqueezed grape; the raptor merely falls to the ground, battered and dazed. The wyld banditos scream and yelp as the Scales-of-War besets them, their flamewands barely searing him with a three-way inferno. His next victim succumbs to the spine of his faithful steed, its vertebrae choking the life from his hopefully fictitious throat. His hapless corpse ends up a bludgeon for the next pair, hammering them into the ground. The claw strider explodes in a messy splorch, staining his rider with warm gore. As Zephyr's fist bursts through the belly of the last unlucky raptor, still alive as his hand moves within it, to pull through its rider, Iron Megara can only watch in awestruck rapture, the silver claws coming unbidden to her hands.


Battle Joined

Tick 4: Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Two Banditos
Tick 5: Watcher, Raptor, Red Sand Gamine
Tick 6: Five Banditos
Tick 7: Zephyr, Silver Heron
Tick 8: Iron Megera, One Bandito, Raptor


Zephyr

3-die stunt, 6m or 1wp

2 levels of bashing damage

Tick 4: Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Two Banditos

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory Eyes looks on the battlefield calmly, pulling back her cloak as Zephyr conducts his carnal assault. She smiles brightly, withdrawing a small green amphora inlaid with the five colors of jade and stoppered by adamant. Inside, three bright liquids jostle about, and as she removes the stopper one floats to the top. She sips it carefully, considering the bouquet of power as she replaces the stopper--she does not swallow. Instead, she breathes in deep through the nose and screams.

The noise of it crackles like lightning as it storms from her, rushing across the skin of the Wyldland leaving shadowed sound in its wake. It lands from its gentle arc at the feet of a group of the banditos, dying briefly into nothing. They look up, begin to laugh, and are quickly silenced as the spell suddenly rips through the air, the Thunder Wolf's Howl. It's a noise that shakes Essence down to the motes.


Releasing Thunder Wolf's Howl from her Terrestrial Sorcery Capturing Amphora for 1wp. It can't be dodged or parried. The attack ignores armor.

Int + Occult
[roll0] + 5 Automatic Successes of Bashing Damage

They're also deafened and disoriented, suffering a -2 internal penalty for five ticks per success on my damage roll. Essence wielders can roll Sta + Resistance, with each success reducing their disorientation by 5 ticks.

Essence ●●●●●
Personal 22/22
Peripheral 35/35
Glory 10/10
Committed: 10 (Vajra), 8 (CRP)

Willpower: 6/7

Dodge DV: 5

Health:
[ ] -0
[ ][ ][ ][ ] -1
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -2
[ ] -4
[ ] Incapacitated

Magic in effect:
Chaos Repelling Prana

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Invincible Maiden vaults forward, trails of fire emerging from her back as her anima begins to ignite. Both swords in tow, she reaches a small cluster of unaffected banditos and suddenly begins to sing her warsong. Her sword swings up, the very essence that permeates the air before the orichalcum edge seems to scream as it's torn open, but first catches one of the rainbow-colored and mustached riders. Another swift attack following the first does not catch the rider, but instead his mount. The second golden weapon gets stuck deep in the flesh of the creature and she swiftly kicks the beast and pulls the sword out just to create a wide sweeping arc, slicing open another of the claw-striders. She swings her essence-cutting weapon again, sweeping across the flesh of another bandito. The weapon drags across the torso of the man, from his kidney, through his main chakra and out his opposite shoulder. When she withdraws her weapon from the bleeding enemy, she holds both swords out before her, two moving claw-striders without riders then catch the painful thrust of her weapons.

Six attacks, enhancing with +3 dice using 1st Melee Excellency. So 18 motes. Also the two banditos and one raptor are getting the Deathrootklave to the face and chest.

Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Cha+Essence: [roll3]
Cha+Essence: [roll4]
Cha+Essence: [roll5]
Attack 4: [roll6]
Attack 5: [roll7]
Attack 6: [roll8]

Wow I hope this works, I've never seen my Melee pool so low.

[The Demented One]

Yomiko's blades effortlessly slice through a pair of banditos, leaving one's raptor mount maimed and the other dead altogether. As one of the mutants falls he twists upward, letting his firewand belch out a final gout of flame, but Yomiko's blades move in a flourish almost too fast to see, becoming a defense wall against the inferno. She brings her blades down on one unsaddled raptor, but the claw strider dodges her swordstroke–but Astra is at Yomiko's back, and she pulls forth from her sheath what seems to be a moonsilver blade. But then, with a flick of her wrist, it splits wide, opening into a massive sharp-edged fan that spreads larger than its wielder. One elegant stroke with the war-fan, and the raptor lies in two separate pieces, oozing blood into the Wyld.

Ivory Eyes's unstoppers her sorcery, and the world-shaking howl she unleashes all but spells the conclusion of this fight. The banditos clutch at their ears and scream in pain, falling off their mounts as their bones break and blood vessels rupture. They lie slumped over unconscious, a wary seven claw striders the sole foes left. They come together in a wedge, cagily surveying the chances before them. Any clever predator would know that this was the time to retreat, but these raptors aren't just clever girls–the Wyld has maddened and mutated them, hollowing out everything but hunger and saurian cunning. The glint of scarlet essence in their eyes promises that they will fight this to its gory ends.


Battle Joined

Tick 5: Watcher, Raptor, Red Sand Gamine
Tick 6: Five Raptors
Tick 7: Zephyr, Silver Heron
Tick 8: Iron Megera, Raptor
Tick 9: Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra


Ivory Eyes

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -1

Yomiko

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp
1-die stunt, 2m

DV -6

Tick 5: Watcher, Raptor, Red Sand Gamine

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

It felt good to Watcher to cut loose. Over the last few months, the circle had made it clear that they preferred it that he left crime-breaking mortals alive. Which ment he had to hold back, after all, using the wrong technique, or aiming just a few inches higher could all too easily make his attacks killing blows. He didn't have to worry about that here. If Zephyr's rampage gave him any hints, it was that these creatures were just Wyld-spawn, and mercy was nothing to be worried about.

In a single motion, Watcher grabs one of his not-yet-forgotten boomerangs from beneath this cloak and sends it flying at one of the claw striders, its path curved, yet nevertheless born on the back of a burst of essence. Never slowing, his golden gauntlet once again humming before sending a tendril of energy at yet another of the raptors. As if to call an end to all this, he brings his arm down, aiming the weapon straight at the raptor whose head he still stands upon. After letting what he hoped would be the last burst of energy, he calmly hopped off the beast, right before it went tumbling down in a heap of scales and flesh.

Spending 15 motes on First Thrown Excellency for 5 extra dice on each attack.

Boomerang: [roll0]
Vambrace 1: [roll1]
Vambrace 2: [roll2]

Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 5/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 6/6

[] -0
[][][][][][][] -1
[][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

Watcher's boomerang cuts through the scales of one raptor, dealing it a bloody, but far from lethal wound. As it growls with menace, he lays low two more with a verdant blast from his gauntlet, sending them both sprawling over unconscious. But as the Night Caste looks over the senseless claw striders at his feet, the first one leaps towards him, claws outstretched to rend his flesh from the fragile ligaments and tendons that hold it intact. He throws his cloak around him, concealing himself from the angered claw strider. Its talons rip through fabric, leaving Watcher unharmed. But as he tries to leap away from a second stroke, landing poised on the raptor's head, it twists out from under him, catching him with its claws. A thin line of red wells up from Watcher's flesh as he falls to the ground.

The raptor gives a roar of triumph, beckoning the other five to circle around it, and stares down Yomiko, the scent of dead claw striders still fresh on her blades. His eyes shine red–first with anger, and then with deadly, deadly essence lasers! Twin blasts of pure crimson spill out from his eyes, faster than you can see. Yomiko shifts to one side to avoid them, trying to deflect the beams with her weapon. The eye beams explode against the orichalcum, catching Yomiko with a backlash of scorching air that burns at her flesh, superheating her powerarmor over her skin. But she is a Lawgiver, and such things as being caught in a suit of armor heated to beyond what would melt any lesser steel by the laser eyes of a mutated raptor are of no threat to her.


Battle Joined

Tick 7: Zephyr, Silver Heron
Tick 8: Iron Megera, Raptor
Tick 9: Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra
Tick 10: Watcher, Red Sand Gamine, Four Raptors

Watcher

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp
1-die stunt, 2m

One level of lethal damage.

DV -3

Yomiko

One level of lethal damage

Tick 7: Zephyr, Silver Heron

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr merely smirked at the sudden advent of Laser-wielding Claw Striders. He was the Silver Dragon, and no mere occular essence cannons from some jumped-up little lizards were going to frighten him! Still, it occured to him that such a stable mutation might have value, and so he resolved to capture a few - certainly his mate would be able to dissect the workings of their unusual defense mechanisms at her leisure. He leaped into the midst of the striders, siezing one in each claw, and screamed out "Subduing Silver Typhoon!" as he picked them up and began to whirl, using the hapless reptiles to bludgeon their comrades into subconsciousness, spinning so fast that he was a silver blur of incalculable ferocity-


Active Charms: Lunar Fury with Golden Tiger Stance, Burrowing Devil Strike, Impressions of Strength (Ogre's Loving Caress), and Wasp Sting Blur, and 3 activations of Unstoppable Lunar Wound (15m, 1 wp)

War Form with Claws of the Silver Moon and Halting the Scarlet Flow as Gift Charms (5m)

War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty)
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are Piercing and Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Subdual, if I have a choice..)



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 [x]
-1 [x][][][][][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])

5(6) Dying Health Levels

Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 28/52
Committed: 4 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 20 to Charms)

[The Demented One]

Hefting up one helpless raptor in hand, Zephyr bludgeons the rest of them into unconsciousness, their hapless scraggy roars of fear swiftly fading into the hushed and rhythmless percussion of a half-dozen claw striders hitting the ground, bouncing slightly. From somewhere in the depths of the Wyld, there comes a strange booming sound, like the voice of some distant and malevolent narrator. It assails your ears with immense volume, the faintest hint of glee coloring its tone.



"FLAWLESS VICTORY!"


Astra dusts a few flecks of gore from her dress as she folds up her moonsilver fan, sheathing it in the emerald obi that wraps around her waist. She sets out to leave–but you find yourselves caught by the sight of your fallen foes. Each one, bandito and raptor, dead or still alive, is wrapped in countless gossamer strands, tendrils that grow up from the fleshy surface of the mushroom mountain. The rootlets twine tightly around their bodies–and plunge into the dead flesh of the corpses, sucking them dry of whatever alien nutriment they might bear. Only a few sucking tendrils have invaded the still-unconscious mutants.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko, for all the blood that she has spilled, is still a stalwart beacon of the Sun's compassion. She rushes to the sides of the unconscious, fallen mutants and begins tearing away at the strands that entangle them. She begins to pant out of fear and looks over her shoulder and shouts with a tone of desperation, "Please, we've felled these foes already, we need not let them die!"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr smiles at her compassion - and for that, if for no other reason, he too wades in, shearing away the tendrils from the wounded with heavy swiped of his silver claws.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"They are creatures of the Wyld." Watcher says as he retrieves his boomerang; making no move to help get rid of the vines. "Beings that would wreak havoc in Creation if they got the chance. Do not waste your strength on them."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko quickly turned her gaze upon Watcher, a twinge of anger filtered in through the compassion. Her eyes were glassy but her brows were lowering. All she did was give him that look, no words or other actions. She turned away from him and started pulling the strings away even harder and more swiftly.

[The Demented One]

Yomiko and Zephyr find the stringy tendrils of the mushroom-mountain tear away easily enough, withering and dying in their hands as they pull at the fungal filaments. As they rip them away, more still rise up to seek out sustenance–but, as the animate fibers come across the torn and severed remnants of their predecessors, they nervously slink away from the fungicidal God-Kings. Though the corpses are already withered to fleshless, desiccate husks, the unconscious banditos and raptors seem little worse for the wear, only nettled and pricked by the wandering tendrils. They lie feebly still, helpless in the midst of the Wyld.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She puts her hand on one of the pricked faces of the fallen foe, gently stroking his cheek. She pauses for a moment just looking at him, looking past the rainbow pancho, the oversized mustache and the sheer madness that must lay beneath his flesh, but it all matters not. "Let's get them healed and safe."
She begins to focus her mind outside of her body, in touch with the armor through which her essence flows and starts to open metaphysical boundaries, doors to Elsewhere. Her armor begins to burst like shattering china plates, but it's pieces disappear. Underneath is not flesh, but even greater Orichalcum plates and her size increases tenfold. The Gold Titan now looms over the helpless former attackers. She pauses, looking at them again and begins to scoop the remaining survivors in her massive golden hands.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher would have met Yomiko's hateful glare with an impassive one of his own if he could. Unfortunately, wearing a mask that covered the eyes wouldn't let it be noticed. It was all for the better anyways. If this Semiramis was really as powerful as Ivory and the Lunars said, then they would all need to be focused when they finally found him; not seething over his comments.

"Hrrm." Watcher gave his customary mutter he turned away from the group to the edge of the mushroom. If they really wanted to waste time healing wyld claw striders, then being ambushed again was the last thing the nightbringer wanted to happen. Allowing his anima to flow through him, he turned his eyes to the strange foliage that surrounded them, not letting a single movement go unnoticed.

Why was he always the one being questioned. Watcher grimaced as the thought popped up. He had hopped that this would distract him from such worries. No luck, obviously. Yes, his methods weren't exactly smiled upon by the rest of the circle, but someone had to see the good he was doing. He hadn't negotiated alliances, built wonders, or turned himself into a role model; but his actions had brought safety to the people of Lotus. Wasn't that what was important? He hadn't even had to kill anyone lately to do it! But here they were, trying to save more people that wanted them dead; while he tried to be the voice of reason. Didn't they already have a goal right now? Capture an unshaped? So why was he the only one getting a death glare? Surely someone among the group thought the same as he did? Why were they allowing this to distract them? Why weren't they doing their job!?


Spending 2 motes on Keen Sight Technique.

Perception+awareness [roll0] +2 successes.

[The Demented One]

Astra goggles at Yomiko as she scoops up the unconscious survivors in her warstrider's capacious arms, stunned by her compassion–or else, by the foolishness of aiding the wyld mutants. But she does not question the God-King, instead setting back out on the path through the Wyld. Watcher now walks beside her, his supernal senses out-classing her own. And so you set off, hiking down a vine trellis to reach the vast expanse of Middlemarches beyond the mushroomscape. Yomiko instead hurtles the chasm between the fungal ridges and the expanse of chaos before it, easily leaping over a gorge filled with bouncing rubber balls. The bounding and rebounding balls oscillate through all the colors of the rainbow, and smurm, but their peril must be left to lesser heroes. You venture out into the Middlemarches.

The midlands of chaos prove stranger still. Astra first leads you against a boggy, carp-filled marsh overhung by wilting cypress trees, a swamp that reeks of alcohol and spirits. The Changing Moon dips one hand into the bog's depths, and sips at the water she collects–rice wine. Each pool is filled to the brim with a different liquor, from laboratory alcohols to syrup-suffused kahlua, and it is only Watcher's insistence that keeps you from tarrying amid its bacchanalian waters. There is a forest made entirely out of cats, where Yomiko leaves the banditos to a fate that is, at worst, some sneezing and tiny scratches. By the time you reach the garden of disgusting artichokes and its swarms of ceaselessly-peeling horseshoe crabs, your tolerance for the ridiculous has begun to war thin.

But as Zephyr detaches the last of the unshelled arthropods from his soles, Astra calls out with triumph. Watcher's eyes have finally caught sight of a massive forest, its trees very literally glittering with wyld essence. "We've reached it! Semiramis, the Whisper in the Leaves! All we must do now is call out a fitting challenge for the Chaos Lord, and wait for her to acknowledge our call. Someone, say something challenging!"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr steps forward, throwing down the crab-shell in the same manner one might a gauntlet. He raises his fists, his very posture radiating a confident, brazen challenge to any... things that might be out amidst the Leaves.

"Here me, O scion of the unshaped Wyld - I am Zephyr Scales-of-War, champion of Luna, the unassailable Mistress of Change! I defy thee, I challenge thee, I rebuke thee! Come forth and answer my call, if thou hast the courage!"

[The Demented One]

Zephyr's challenge echoes across the shimmering prismatic expanse of the Deep Wyld, booming for mile upon mile. No answer comes from the enchanted forest save silence, an almost tangible silence that hangs ominously close. The Wyld grows far, far more foreboding, its skies shifting from a pleasant pastille hue to a deep threatening amaranth, the sound of drums beating up on the wind. The forest before you sparkles with alien menace. And then, with a thunderclap of rushing air, it is suddenly close. No motion, no change, only the sudden vanishing of a dozen miles. Another boom, another flicker of the boughs, and the woods are all around you. Semiramis has accepted the challenge.

But there is no alien monstrosity here, no formless shifting chaos. The verdant oaks of Semiramis blossom with beauty beyond any you have ever seen. Each rugged trunk is a testament to the robust strength of the forest, a rough and age-worn contour worn smooth by the rushing zephyrs that frolic and play amidst the boughs. Each leaf is perfectly unique, a gossamer winglet of green that flaps and beats in the air, in perfect mirror to the violet and amber butterflies that ring the overgrown canopy. Well, they're okay. You've seen better.

"You know, that Chaos-Repelling Pattern just ruins the natural beauty." comes a voice, a seductive whispering from amidst the boughs, positively dripping with the honey of sweet intimation. Explains how it got the name. "And it hurts, too! Like having a saucy gobbet of Creation shoved down my throat." The spindrift ribbons of butterflies flutter down, coming together in one massive assemblage of delicate wings and spindly legs. As more and more of the jewel-winged sprites come together, they fill out a distinctly human shape–and as their wings splay open, the seams between them vanish, as the whole of the shape seals itself shut. "So what I'm trying to say is, I'd much appreciate it if you'd cease it. I'll even make a deal. You stop asserting your reality in my chaos, and I won't ravish your souls and feast on your dreams. Promise!"

The faerie walks in human shape, flesh mottled and sculpted like wax over a gentle frame to create a perfect facsimile of genuine life. She walks in beauty–or perhaps it is a he, or perhaps it is irrelevant–deep purple hair spilling down pale shoulders, a red robe girded tight against voluptuous flesh. The raksha speaks no introduction, but the Wyld supplies one of its own, a subtitle of glinting shadows that manifests in the air before you.


Honeyed Words Speaker
The Vessel of Compassion



"Oh, go ahead. Just tell them all about me, why don't you?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr harrumphed at the words of the Wyld-thing, his hands on his hips. "I'd sooner shove my fist down your throat and assert my reality all over your face! Yes, let my companions simply drop their shields against your depradations and trust to your no-doubt boundless sense for mercy, compassion, and fair play! Why don't we all just strip naked and go to sleep while we're at it?" Said Zephyr. Not particularly original, or inventive, but it amused him nonetheless.

[The Demented One]

The androgyne faerie glares daggers at Zephyr, but only figurative ones. While it's all too likely this raksha has some sort of terrifying Knife Eye Attack, the bubble of Creation that encompasses you all forbids her from anything more than a figure of speech. "I promised, didn't you hear? That part where I said 'I won't ravish your souls and feast on your dreams. Promise!,' remember? A faerie promise is iron-clad, unlike your petty mortal oaths. Tell them, Lady Exposition!" Astra, somewhat offended by the raksha's frivolous nickname for her, nevertheless nods confirmation to Honeyed Words Speaker. "So there! Now, if you'd like to strip naked and sleep here, I'd be fine with that. More than fine, if you know what I mean. But don't come into my woods all arms-akimbo and threaten to shove just your fist down my throat, Luna Boy!"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr opened his mouth to make a vastly inappropriate comment, but snapped it shut again, blushing a little and looking at Ivory out of the corner of his eye. When he spoke again, his tones were more measured. "I go where I please and do where I like, wylding - I, that is, we have come to challenge you! We shall prove our strength, prove our mastery, and tame you just as the Exalts of old tamed the very Wyld itself!"

[The Demented One]

"Oooh, yes. Keep talking dirty to me, I like it." The faerie grins, conjuring up a massive seashell to sit within as ze regards you, smirking with unimaginable naughtiness. "So what're you going to do to me? Tie me up with cold iron fetters, and take a whip to me? Chain me up in some dark and horrible dungeon? Pour chocolate sauce on me and lick it off? You wouldn't be the first Exalt to 'prove your mastery' with me, you know. Desus, Ma-Ha-Suchi, the Kneejack boy....mmm. So, if you really think that you can tame me, go ahead. Just step outside of the reality-bubble, big boy."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr grinned an evil grin. If the Unshaped sought to tempt him, or perhaps to embarass him, it was in for a surprise. Though Zephyr had been chaste of late, at heart, he was a creature of primal urges - rage... and desire. Passion ran through his veins like blood, and despite his commitment to Ivory Eyes, he was no novice to the arts carnal - he had been no blushing boy-child before he came to Lotus, and the slave pits of Gem had taught him many things. "As if you could handle me - I'd break you in half. And my protections are the blessings of Luna herself - they do not come off, little wyldling."

He stepped forward, all pride and pomp, his eyes glimmering as he crossed his arms and stared haughtily at the Honeyed Words Speaker.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Gold Titan knelt down beside her companions, remaining silent between the vicious tongue-lashings Zephyr traded with the figure of androgyny. It was perhaps the most relieved the Invincible Maiden had ever felt for leaving behind her young daughter. She tried to muster all her eloquence and speak as seriously as she could between the two, her booming voice issuing forth from every plate of the 'strider.
"This bubble is no necessary safeguard for us! Any one of us could take whatever you imposed upon us! I am NOTHING if not a bulwark of both endurance and strength!"

[The Demented One]

Honeyed Words Speaker coughs with as much faux-politeness as ze can muster, despite the suspicious amount of giggling contained within the cough. "You've got a bulwark of endurance and strength, do you? Explains why you're still a maiden. Cheer up, honey, all you need is a man with a nice, ah, weapon, to overcome your soak down there." The Cup Emanation of Semiramis shapes hir face into the very model of composure, literally peeling the lines of pent-up laughter away. They fall to the earthen bed of the forest and snake away, making a faint sound of giggling as they twist and coil through the century-hardened roots of the primeval forest. "But now, let's see how this fine pillar of Lunar manhood, this rigid paragon of virile virtue, this erect and upright exemplar of...bother, I've run out of synonyms. Damn it. Fine, just cue the music!"

And, true to her word, strains of melody pour down from the boughs of the mystic glade, a soft romantic song that flows like syrup, slow and sickeningly sweet. Honeyed Words Speaker reaches out and snags the fabric of wyld energies that give meaning to the forest around you, coiling the space of the waypoint around her fingers–and then, she rips it away, as a gaudily-painted tapestry from a stone wall. What's left is only an empty expanse of azure skies, pristine and unmarred save for the insistent reality Ivory Eyes carries with her, which remains forest. Honeyed Words Speaker twists and molds the tattered remnants of the waypoint, weaving into a carpet of deep reds and shimmering purples. "I can show you the Wyld..."

The carpet flies from her hands, looping beneath to catch both her and Zephyr. The pair soar through the infinite sky–or, as scene from the bubble of reality, the sky soars around them–as Honeyed Words Speaker sings. "Shining, shimmering, splendid! Tell me, Lunar, now when did you last let your heart decide?" They swoop between the spires and minarets of a vast city that appears out of the chaos, its domes and fluted towards carved of alabaster and lewdly rounded at their tip. "I can open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder, over, sideways, and under on a magic carpet ride!

"Behold the Wyld! A new fantastic point of view! Creation can't tell us no, or where to go, or say we're only dreaming!" As the raksha puts on a bravura display, hir magic carpet passes through massive cloudbanks, jiggling firmly in the sky; over monument-studded deserts, obelisks and pyramids carved in rigid flesh colored stone; and through steamy, sensuous jungles laden with pheromonal scents. Zephyr finds his voice woven into the raksha's songs, with no conscious effort on his part. "Behold the Wyld–" "Don't you dare close your eyes!"

As the song comes to its coda, Honeyed Words Speaker soars downward, restoring the forests with a mere gesture. "Behold the Wyld! That's where we'll be! An unshaped maze, a wondrous place for you...and...me!"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr felt as if his mind were sinking into a bath of warm, thick honey. A strange sort of living, sentient honey that knew all the right places to touch, to caress, to *tease*... he shuddered, feeling suddenly too-warm as vistas undreamed of opened up before him. Shuddering, suggestive shapes, turgid monuments thrusting into the air, mighty edifices plunging into the yielding firmament and sinking languorously into the gently rolling scenery. He could almost feel the hands of the Wyld on him as he sank deeper into the song, finding himself humming along.

As the suggestive shapes surrounded him, he could sense himself responding, instinctually, to the promptings both physical and mental. It had been such a *long* time... there'd been so much to do. So many tasks to accomplish. Always more fighting, always more running about. Always something to do for someone who needed his help. When was the last time he'd given into his own urges? Was he not a scion of Luna? Was instinct and primal urge not his sacred credo? Was he not, in fact, denying an aspect of himself too-long repressed? There was nothing wrong with giving in. It was practically a sacrament, in fact, a holy duty to Luna and an act of worship...

He leaned towards the wildling, his hands grasping hungrily, when a chance glance at Ivory sent a cascade of icewater over his torrid thoughts. He stared at the unshaped, seeing not the lovely face, but what lay beneath it -Needy he might be, and perhaps repressed, but was he going to lose to this thing? Was he going to give up his dedication to the woman he loved for a momentary dalliance with some soul-sucking formless piece of chaos-filth?! where was the iron will of the Lunar Exalt? He was a bulwark against primal chaos, not its boy-toy, damnit! He roared, slamming the Unshaped with a headbutt as he took a step back, holding his arms out in front of him. "I am my own, creature, and I shall never be yours. My love is my anchor, and you shall not break me. I am stronger than you - I am the master here, and the wyld itself shall break before I do!" he roared in triumph, holding the image of Ivory Eyes in his mind as a shield against the blandishments of Chaos.

Spending two Solar Bond points to resist.

[The Demented One]

"Curses! Also blasphemies!" swears Honeyed Words Speaker, stamping on the ground. "Fine. I didn't want to seduce you, anyways. I try to ravish you and bring a little whimsy into your spirit, and you just go roar. Whatever, Lunar, whatever. You're still ravished, and you can't resist it forever. Eventually you'll break down and have a little fun. So there!" The raksha sticks out a bright pink tongue in defiant childishness. "So let's have something to eat. And no, it's not poisoned, or diseased, or some kind of monster, or another ravishing. Just normal food, promise." With a wave of hir hand, the raksha conjures up a long table laden with meats and cheeses. "Om nom nom. You should try this, it's good. Now, Lord Not-Going-To-Just-Take-A-Break-And-Enjoy-The-Wyld, why don't you tell me just exactly how you plan on mastering me? I'm getting a bit bored here."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The warstrider begins to compress, massive plates slipping into elsewhere like dew off a leaf. Before too long, where there stood a massive golden armor now stands Yomiko, her armor still golden but her frame indeed much smaller. She smiles at the Raksha. "I can tell you're a lover of song, you weave it so beautifully, so seamlessly." She clears her throat a big and looks down slightly, as though she were feeling some great modesty. "I am also a lover of music, of song." She then takes a deep breath and sings out a glorious tone, as though the Sun and Moon themselves danced above them. She had an image of an old man in her head, so her song swayed gently into a passionate rhythm of emerald flame and it's hidden beauty and of it's potential for the glory it may one day regain in the golden rays of the Sun, and out of Ligier's light. She then thinks of Echo, trapped in a literal Hell. No way to remove himself, for if he had surely he would have returned. Her mournful dirge lasts for many minutes until she stops. She pauses for a moment and opens her now somewhat glassy eyes.

She clears her throat, "And I will have you know I am in fact a mother."

Apparently I don't have a Perform excellency of any sort. My bad. So I'm using Husband-Seducing Demon Dance and channeling Compassion. That's 2wp and 10m.

Cha+App+Perform: [roll0]

[The Demented One]

Honeyed Words Speaker flickers and wavers, her shape fluid as a pool filled with ripples by a dropped stone. Violet hair shades black, and the warm gold of honey fills the pale softness of the faerie's skin as it unthinkingly resculpts its outward avatar. "Such beauty..." the raksha murmurs, all the vivacity and cruelty gone out of it. Honeyed Words Speaker darts toward Yomiko, daring the deadly reality that surrounds her. Its lithe finger brush the priestess's face, even as harsh Creation burns away at its essence, calcifying wyld energies into hostile order. The faerie flees the pattern of inimical essence, sloughing off the crystalline cancer of calcification as ze once more enters the Wyld. "Creation-born, there is such beauty in you, such fire. You, and your golden sun, and your green sun...there is something not unlike the Wyld in you." What was once a salacious allegro is now a husky wavering whisper, fraught with what could be infatuation, what could be love. "What called you here?"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She smiles at her, a bit of sorrow in her eyes for the pain she surely endured reaching into reality. She steps just a bit closer, but never leaving the bubble of safety. "I would like for you to follow me to the edge of the Wyld. The soul of a friend of ours has been mangled by the essence of things best left unmentioned." She pauses, considering sparing her from the explanation but cannot in good conscious deceive the Raksha. "We need to examine you, so we can mend his twisted essence. To draw him back into the Sun." She smiles at her softly, "Would you? For me?"

Spontaneously tacking First Presence Excellency and Irresistible Salesman Spirit into my combo. Then using both. 9 dice into my excellency, so that's a total cost of 5 XP, 1wp and 12m.

Cha+Presence: [roll0]

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr had stood still for a long, lingering moment, but Yomiko's song seemed to have broken his reverie. He once again spoke, his voice like like silver clarion trumpets. "We told you once already, honeyed speaker! We were called by the lure of the wyld itself, and the desire to tame you. We are the god-kings of old come again to impose our will upon that which is formless to bind that which is unshaped." He looked hir, a challenge in his gaze. "And you were wrong, you know. I know the flows of passion and the joy of wild, reckless abandon better than any - whether its the heat of passion or the heat of battle. The reason I would not give in to you is because I, like you, am wild, untamed - and untamable. I have been a slave once, and never again shall I be chained, whether the links be steel or gossamer. If I must, I shall tame you with my bare hands - or with the strength of my heart alone - But you should bend the knee willingly, oh Chaos-born, for we are one and the same, you and I - two creatures of change and flux. But by the only law that is, the law of strength, I am the rightful ruler!"


Cha + Presence, activating Second Charisma Excellency + Reinforcing the Herd Stance to try to win hir over to our side. Spending 4m for 2 extra successes - also, remember that I have an effective appearance of 7.

[roll0]


[/spoiler]

[The Demented One]

Honeyed Words Speaker smiles as Yomiko speaks, her eyes reflecting radiance–and now they truly are her eyes, a femininity spreading across her in graceful mirror of the glorious woman before her. "Oh, that's all you want of me, is it? Other Exalted have come out into the depths of chaos, seeking to woo and conquer we Lords of Chaos...but never to set right what is wrong, never for a thing worthy as love. I will not be tamed, I will not kneel before you, you silly Lunar, but I will help. To show you the beauty of the Wyld, to show you that it can be loved, and for the sake of your friend, I will help." She banishes the opulence and luxuries she has conjured up, and with a snap of her fingers sets the forest in order, unmazing its labyrinthine pathways and letting down the light of the sun to dapple its boughs.

"But I am one, a singular facet of a manifold gem. The Whisper must be won in fullness, or else all dissent crushed. You'll have mastering to do before the end of the day, Lunar, make no mistake. The cup of mercy has been poured out before you, but the ring must be mastered, the sword must be conquered, the staff must be made to yield. I think you can do it, my love." Her voice is sing-song, like a child spelling out their rhymes. Astra bristles at the raksha now, her cheeks flush with some strange new emotion brought to her heart at Yomiko's song. "Faerie, quit this mockery! Just tell us where the next emanation is! Don't vex me, bitch!"

Honeyed Words Speaker grins, opalescent teeth drawing tight against thin lips. "Of course, princess. Nhogg lies yonder, a miserable brutish behemoth. Luck." With a wave of her hand, she illuminates a forest pathway, laying down a shimmering road of lambent golden bricks. Onward to Nhogg.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko smiles confidently, still looking at the Raksha. She soon turns to Astra with the same smile, so full of enthusiasm and joy. She concentrates yet again through her armor and after two minutes, the Gold Titan stands before you with it's massive grand daiklave upon it's back. Her essence-enhanced voice rings out from the armor, "Well then. Let us find Nhogg."

[GryffonDurime]

"Yes," Ivory Eyes adds, strolling forward with her Amalga. "That wasn't particularly hard, and I can only imagine that the others will follow suit." The tone of her voice is a practiced irony, a farce: today she is the peerless sorceress, the arrogant witch.

[The Demented One]

Passing through the interways of the Unshaped, the transitional narrative that anchors its diverse fictions to each other, you finally come across the stomping grounds of Nhogg, a shaggy-grassed savanna lush with the scent of dramatic significance. At the center of the waypoint, the fixed axis that defines its center, a single tree stands. Its height cannot even be spoken of, for it towers up to the clouds, to the sun, up to the highest arc of the waypoint where it fades into fuzzy and undefined details, as if abandoned by a lazy artist. You cannot even see the branches. And in the midst of the plain wallows a monster as you have never seen. Its jaws gape wide, wide enough to swallow down all the Imperial Mountain. The jagged stalagmites of its mandible scrape against the earth like some grim plow furrowing the soil, while its upper jaw only ceases opening as it bumps against the dome of the sky, massive white teeth dangling down with predatory menace. The monster is like unto some massive boar in shape and form, save for where it is like a bear, like a wolf, like a siaka, like a tyrant lizard, like a spider, like a mantis. Its chimera-body bristles with countless monstrosities, each one promising predation. Where it stamps the ground, behemoths sprout from the soil, each one a single aspect of its great terrible father-menace. Yomiko's warstrider stands level with the cleft of its adamant hooves. It does not so much as notice you.


Nhogg, He Who Cuts At The World Tree
The Tempering of Purpose

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"If no one has any objections..." Watcher says in a hushed voice, holding up one of his Sun's Fist Chakrams. Allowing a few moments for any of the group to speak up, he he gives the massive creature a quick size up. He knows that f he was a few years younger, he would be scared out of his mind right now. That he would be shaking in his tightly laced boots. Good thing he had actually stayed in Lotus. Because of that, he had seen the wonders of Heaven. He had seen the horrors that that Hell had to offer. And if not even Ligier could stop them, then they could take down this Wyld-spawn.

After hearing no dissent from the group, Watcher steps through the shadows, appearing on the shoulder of of Yomiko's warstrider. He wanted the best view of this thing, after all. Taking a moment to focus himself, he recited the oath that would unlock the fury of the small weapon.

"In fearful day, in raging night
With strong hearts full, our souls ignite
When all seems lost, do not doubt the light
Look to the sky, for the sun burns bright!"

With the gold of the Unconquered Sun shining around briefly, he launches the disk at the beast, hoping the resulting explosion would bring good news.

Spending 2 motes to activate the chakram, 8 motes on First Thrown Excellency, and a willpower to channel valor.

Dex+thrown [roll0]

[The Demented One]

Watcher's golden chakram flies true through the Wyld, leaving contrails of glistering light behind it. A radiant nimbus glows brighter and brighter as it soars, culling the fantasies of heroics and glory from the Wyld's chaos and purifying them into Solar essence. It strikes Nhogg's bristling gossamer hide, shining like a golden lantern as it explodes in a holy conflagration. The judgment of the Unconquered Sun weighs heavy on the Unshaped, the sacred flames scouring away the fae monster's flesh. The massive burn stretches across the behemoth's hide for hundreds of yards...a mere speck upon the hide of Nhogg. But now, he has noticed you. Nhogg roars, a bellowing howl as from the throats of ten thousand fairytale monsters, and stamps his hoof in the soil of the Wyld. Up from the scarred pit arise a pack of behemoths, each one more huge and more horrid than the last. As they arise, the Wyld once more proclaims their titles unto you.



The Lobster Brigade

Thousand Miles Cat

Bearhive

Detective Piranha

Yuh-oh.



Battle Joined

Tick 0: Watcher, Ivory Eyes, Nhogg
Tick 1: Yomiko, Bearhive, Thousand Miles Cat
Tick 2: Detective Piranha
Tick 3: Zephyr, The Lobster Brigade
Tick 5: Astra
Tick 6: Red Sand Gamine, Iron Megara, Silver Heron


Watcher

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

Tick 0: Watcher, Ivory Eyes, Nhogg

[GryffonDurime]

"A moment's protection, if you would," Ivory says to Iron Megera as she unfurls her fingers from the gemstone set in her Hand of the Great Maker: the Adamant of Unconquered Sorcery gleams madly in her hand, refracting the glowing light of her anima. Within its manifold facets, a shape appears like a figure of gold and oil, bearing great chakrams that pierce the heavens. In her other hand, her Phylactery-Vajra gleams as well, ready to imbue her spell with impossible potence.


First cast action for GOD-FORGED CHAMPION OF WAR.

Essence ●●●●●
Personal 22/22
Peripheral 35/35
Glory 10/10
Committed: 10 (Vajra), 8 (CRP)

Willpower: 7/7

Dodge DV: 5

Health:
[ ] -0
[ ][ ][ ][ ] -1
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -2
[ ] -4
[ ] Incapacitated

Magic in effect:
Chaos Repelling Prana

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher smirks as he sees the damage caused by his weapon. If it was that easy to hit such a creature then he didn't foresee the Circle having much of a problem in this battle. Of course, it would take them all fighting at 100%, but he isn't worried. It was time though for him to start acting like the assassin, no, the nightbringer he was. No more charging through the light being flashy. A more subtle approach would be needed.

Watcher leaps from his perch, allowing the shadow and glittering gold plates of the warstrider to hide his fall from the approaching beasts, the only thing saving him from splattering on the ground being his catching himself in all the right places.

Spending 3 motes on Lightning Speed.

Dex+stealth [roll0]
and if I need it Dex+athletics [roll1]

Personal: 14/21
Peripheral: 23/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 5/6

[x] -0
[][][][][][][] -1
[][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

The enraged Nhogg charges across the plain, his thousand nostrils all ablaze with angry steam. His hooves trod heavy on the ground, rumbling and cracking the earth with every step, each of his countless millions of legs seeming different every time. Sometimes he pounces forward on a leopard's legs, or scuttles on a lobster's spindly red spinnerets, or stampedes on the mighty trunks of the yeddim. The black beating hooves are the only constant in the ceaseless shifting, and it is with those massive world-forging anvils of hooves that he stamps down at you. Watcher is the first to feel Nhogg's wrath, his attempt at evasion proving futile as one mighty hoof eclipses the sky above him. He halts at he runs forward, trying to catch a plate of Yomiko's warstrider for leverage–but he is too late. The hoof comes down on him hard, and it would shatter the spine of any man less than Watcher. When it comes up from him, Watcher lies still, bruised and bloodied but unbroken.

His next footfall comes down on Ivory Eyes, forcing the sorceress from her spell. She catches a glint of his reflection in her adamant hearthstone as his bloody battle-hoof descends. The quiver of her anima as it forces itself into sorcerous patterns subsides, and she jumps up toward the hoof, swinging from its cleft and into the air like an acrobat as her wings unfurl. Zephyr is beneath the same falling hoof, and he counters with his own upraised fist–a single pebble rising against the sea; a single insectile limb of opposition against all the strength and power of a behemoth. But Zephyr is chosen of Luna, and his upraised fist shines with silver light as he meets the attack head on, defying it with the indefatigable will of Luna Herself. Where the hoof hits his fist, it ceases to fall, and Nhogg staggers backwards, repelled.

The behemoth's eye searches the ground for the source of defiance, and falls on Yomiko, skipping over the miniscule mote that is Zephyr. He roars, and the wood of the mighty wyld-tree cracks and shatters, falling down in already-rotting splinters. He charges, his toothy maw snapping shut around the Invincible Maiden–but as the abundant ivory and enamel closes around her, Yomiko manages to hurl herself into a backflip, despite the Golden Titan's utter lack of agility. She lands the war machine on its feet hard, but the sound of it is overwhelmed by the massive, gnashing teeth, slamming down on nothing.


Battle Joined

Tick 1: Yomiko, Bearhive, Thousand Miles Cat
Tick 2: Detective Piranha
Tick 3: Zephyr, The Lobster Brigade
Tick 5: Watcher, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Nhogg
Tick 6: Red Sand Gamine, Iron Megara, Silver Heron

Ivory Eyes

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -2

Watcher

8 levels of lethal damage.

DV -1

Zephyr

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

Yomiko

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

Tick 1: Yomiko, Bearhive, Thousand Miles Cat

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She pants after her massive, clumsy flip and she takes her gaze from the wyld behemoth and to Ivory. "There's something inside Nhogg! A spirit!" Before she's even finished speaking, she's running toward the creature with her grand daiklave held in only one hand. She launches herself forward, kicking up hundreds of pounds of earth and soil in her wake, and the golden light of her anima continues to burst from the titan. She begins to sing again, her glorious war song with new-found touches of the Wyld to it as her massive sword plummets deep into it's flesh. She grips a clump of it's fur to keep a hold of it with one hand, and pulls the sword out with the other. She slams it in again to tear the hole bigger and does the unthinkable. She tears her way into the wound! Climbing into the abhorrent cavern as Nhogg's blood gushes out like a crimson waterfall. In only a moment, she has disappeared into it's flesh.

I already have Infinite Melee Mastery up. Then just making three attacks with Hungry Tiger Technique for each. Also spending 1 wp so I can use my combo so I can Excellency and Dodge if need be.

Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]

Essence
Permanent: ●●●●●
Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 25 out of 51
Committed: 23

Willpower: 3/6

-0 [x][ ]
-1 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ]

[The Demented One]

Yomiko carvers her way into Nhogg's hide, her golden daiklave cleaving through bristling barbs of hair and the armored carapace that is the behemoth's skin. With one final cleaving slash, she gouges a gaping wound into the pit of the chimera's knee, and slips into the innards of the beast, clambering up ligaments and tendons. But she is not alone–the Thousand Miles Cat unwinds itself, and springs forward into the wound to pursue her. True to its name, the behemoth is a full thousand miles in length, the most of it coiled up in one massive ball of white fur. And yet save for its prodigious length, Thousand Miles Cat is no taller than any housecat! The cat struggles within Nhogg's innards for a few moments before being thrown back out by Yomiko's hand, dripping with the crimson juices of its beast-father's blood.

But the rest of the God-Kings cannot concern themselves with the cat, no matter how long it is. As Ivory Eyes wings through the sky, Detective Piranha sets his sights on her, his trench coat flapping gallantly in the wind. He raises one fin to steady his fedora–and with the other fin, he raises up a massive gun. "Hey, boss! I smell a mystery." He pulls the trigger, somehow, sending a molten mass of hot lead flying for Ivory Eyes. She ducks out of the way, wings singed by the heat of the missile's passage. Grumbling as he watches his shot miss, Detective Piranha reaches for a hip-flask, guzzling down whatever liquor giant fish investigators guzzle down.

Zephyr finds himself faced with Bearhive, a giant bear sculpted entirely from beehives. Bumblebees buzz angrily within every hexagonal cell of his waxen flesh, pollen-dusted mandibles bright yellow with rage. The behemoth stands upright, and brings down two claws, each full of deadly, deadly bees. As the hideous hive of bee-bear monstrosity swipes at him, Zephyr's raiment suddenly transforms from simple-but-functional combat armor into an elaborate bee-keeping suit of radiant silver mesh. Zephyr swipes an armored hand through the hive-paw once, successfully ripping away a husk of wax and swatting away the swarm of deadly, deadly bees. Bearhive screams in unbearable pain, an agony beeyond beelief assailing him as Zephyr rips and tears out his delicious, honey-laden guts.


Battle Joined

Tick 3: Zephyr, The Lobster Brigade
Tick 5: Watcher, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Nhogg
Tick 6: Yomiko, Bearhive, Red Sand Gamine, Iron Megara, Silver Heron
Tick 7: Thousand Miles Cat, Detective Piranha

Yomiko

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp
2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

Two levels of lethal damage. Thousand Miles Cat nipped ya.

DV -3

Zephyr

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp.


Tick 3: Zephyr, The Lobster Brigade

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr flexes, and once again he becomes the Silver Dragon, his form swelling to a silver titan of war-forged ferocity. Gleaming in silver radiance, Zephyr holds up one silver-clawed hand to point at the sky-spanning monstrosity that is Nhogg. His essence gathers, forming not silver claws now, but something else - a pointed cone, alternately grooved and smooth - a drill of pure, solidified silver essence. Powered by Zephyr's own wrath, it begins to spin, its exact twin appearing on Zephyr's other fist. Ignoring the lesser behemoths, Zephyr launches himself into the air, his anima streaming out behind him like a great cloak of silver flame.

"Behold, I am Zephyr Scales-of-War, Lunar-King of Lotus! I am who I am - me, myself, and I shall not be stopped by bear or cat or any terror of the wyld. I shall break you - Behold, for THESE ARE THE DRILLS THAT WILL PIERCE THE NHOGG!"

The essence-drills on his arm whine to furious life as he leaps into the gaping wound, drilling past Yomiko as an argent streak of utter destruction, tunneling through Nhogg with the strength of his burning blood. On and up he drills, seeking out the very heart of the behemoth.


Whoo! Essence Drills a-go-go! Standard transformation sequence - Rage and wrath. Spending an extra willpower when I activate Burrowing Devil Strike to activate Consumptive Worm Hungers as well, meaning that armor does absolutely nothing.

Activating my war form with Claws of the Silver Moon and Halting the Scarlet Flow as Gift Charms (5m)

Activating Fury with Golden Tiger Stance, Burrowing Devil Strike, Impressions of Strength (Ogre's Loving Caress), and Wasp Sting Blur, and 3 activations of Unstoppable Lunar Wound (15m, 2 wp)

War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty)
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 []
-1 [][][][][][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])

5(6) Dying Health Levels

Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 8/52
Committed: 4 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 20 to Charms)
Willpower: 6/8

[The Demented One]

Zephyr plunges his drills deep into the flesh of Nhogg, feeling the awful churning as they liquefy flesh and carve through bone. The monster squeals with pain, flailing helplessly in a desperate, futile struggle to pull itself free of its impalement. No such luck. With one final surge of hot blood and manly fighting spirit, Zephyr forces his drill all the way into the beast's massive heart, his essence-drill surging higher and higher to meet its mark. Nhogg wails louder and louder, a sound like the thunder of drums, and then falls savagely still. There is an explosion of blood, a tsunami of scarlet that drenches every inch of the field, blossoming scarlet across the earth. Every cord of flesh and splinter of bone in Nhogg dissolves, deliquescing into blood. The beast is dead.

Even as Zephyr stands in triumph, the Lobster Brigade mobilizes to assault him, the huge clockwork lobster treading forward on spindly legs. As it moves, tiny hatches open up all across its body, out from which poke the heads of its pilots. The little girls can hardly be older than twelve years, perhaps thirteen. And yet despite their youth, they direct the massive mechanical arthropod they pilot with unstoppable malice, seeking to crush Zephyr in their barbed pincers. Still drenched in Behemoth blood, Zephyr roars in defiance at the attack of the giant lobster. His drill-hands become giant claw-crackers as he meets its attack head on, clamping down on its limbs–but for all that he struggles, Zephyr cannot hold off the crushing claws, and he feels their cruel chop cutting through his flesh.

And above you, up in the skies, a flame burns. A tongue of wildly lashing yellow flickers and sputters, brightening, growing into shape and form. The flame coils into tendons, coalesces into bones, is drawn out into skin. You see the shape of what has come, a bristling four-armed bodhisattva, its head that of a boar. The burning of its flesh cools and softens into gold, and with a thunderous crash it falls, cracking the earth with its impact. "YOU FOOLS! THAT WAS MY BEST BEHEMOTH YOU SLAUGHTERED!" it roars, plucking a strand of barbed gossamer from the air and shaping it into some huge awesome glaive. "KNEEL BEFORE NHOGG!"


Battle Joined

Tick 5: Watcher, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Nhogg
Tick 6: Yomiko, Bearhive, Red Sand Gamine, Iron Megara, Silver Heron
Tick 7: Zephyr, Thousand Miles Cat, Detective Piranha


Zephyr

3-die stunt, 6m or 1wp
2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

3 levels of lethal damage

DV -3

Tick 5: Watcher, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Nhogg

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory Eyes raises her Hand of the Great Maker to Nhogg as he approaches, and the many minute gears and sprockets spin to life, shedding sparks as her anima flares briefly.

"We bow before no one," she says with a shrug, bringing the hand down to her side, fingers curled inward like a talon. She brings it back up in a forceful gesture, fingers splayed. Her eyes gleam with a clarity of intent as her essence tumbles forward in a forceful spray like a wave against the shore. Where it settles, black rock outcropping arise violently, covered in gray sand and wilting scrub grass as Ivory forcibly shapes the wondrous landscape of the Wyld into tangled banality, careful only for the safety of her three circlemates. The quick jutting of rock and the geysers of sand are less artfully arranged for the faerie and his courtiers, subjecting them to the cataclysm. Most of all, Ivory defiles the great tree at the heart of the waypoint, infecting it's base with a crude verdigris that belies a truly epic infestation.

"The Doctor would be proud," she adds to the Gamine with a smile.


Battlefield Shaping: enemies without a supernatural balance or a magical resistance to knockdown and knocked down and suffer 15 levels of Piercing, bashing damage. The land is now Resources 1 and Shaped, with a slight Malfean aesthetic. Because, you know, overkill.

Of course, this is a Speed 7, DV -5 action costing her 2 of her 4 banked successes.

Essence ●●●●●
Personal 22/22
Peripheral 31/35
Glory 10/10
Committed: 10 (Vajra), 8 (CRP)

Willpower: 7/7

Dodge DV: 5

Health:
[ ] -0
[ ][ ][ ][ ] -1
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -2
[ ] -4
[ ] Incapacitated

Magic in effect:
Chaos Repelling Prana

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher dashes forward, right into the path of one of Ivory's mounds of jutting rock. Instead of dodging the hazard, however, he lets it erupt under him, placing himself in such a way that he rides it up without being hurt. And though the mound comes to a sudden stop, the nightbringer does not. Using the momentum from the stone, Watcher leaps into the air heading straight towards the new Nhogg, pulling out Genesis and two more chakrams from the folds of his cloak. With the wind blowing the mass of black behind him,his golden armor seems to gleam as he recites the oath for the small weapons. Once close enough, he stabs out with his blade three times, not dealing any damage, but Watcher's assured movements seem to say that he does not mean to. After the third stroke, he allows the weapon to remain wedged in the monster's belly, giving him a handhold as he goes about his work. Acting swiftly and still saying the oath, he inserts the now glowing chakrams into the small wounds.

"...for the Sun burns bright!" Watcher finishes, his words quickly lost in the resulting explosion, engulfing the seemingly suicidal nightbringer. But as quickly as Watcher seems to have killed, he leaps out of Zephyr's oversized shadow, sword in hand, and unharmed by the flames.

Because I'm using the chakrams in a rather odd way, I'm just going to assume that success means he found a good spot to place them. Also, I'll spend 7 motes on both attacks to use my Thrown excellency+SSE combo.

And since I was still stealthing until now, my attacks are unexpected unless he notices me.

Dex+thrown [roll0]
Dex+thrown [roll1]

Personal: 0/21
Peripheral: 23/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 3/6

[x] -0
[x][x][x][x][x][x][x] -1
[x][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

The cosmic maelstrom bound within Ivory Eyes's hand seethes and churns with infinite possibility, an entire universe collapsed into a naked singularity of samsara. She plunges her hand deep into the most essential, most integral substrata of the Wyld, and shapes it into form, casting chaos into her ordained vision. From the glistening, dew-kissed boughs that encircle the blood-slick field comes the sound of screaming, the heart of chaos moaning in agony as Creation itself is forced into her breast. In a single moment, you stand upon the earth of a true world, of reality. A sweeping tide of chaos engulfs the reality, dragging it back into the Wyld–but it is a diminished chaos, a fractal offshoot of the true and unadulterated formlessness constrained within the Unshaped. The behemoths topple, one by one, as essence roils through the air, the dialectical struggle of order and chaos overwhelming them to the last. Nhogg falls, but his cast-on shapes flickers, vanishing into shapeless essence and then reforming, shifting into the same shape, but now standing. His minions struggle to rise.

And then Nhogg explodes. Unseen by him, Watcher has scaled his back, forcing one of his sacred weapons deep into his golden hide. The Nightbringer just dodges the golden light of the blast as it erupts from within Nhogg, the sun's radiance scorching the flesh he has shaped. The Lord of Chaos's bellowing cannot even be heard above the din, but he shouts a thousand defiances, a thousand challenges. As the first explosion subsides, the Lord of Chaos reaches deep into his own wound and flings away the second chakram, sending it scuttling to the earth. Its inner light subsides, its holy wrath once more constrained. But Nhogg has only spared himself from the deathblow–his golden hide has melted into slag and dross, burning away his flesh and scarring him down to the bone.

"ALL OF YOU WILL DIE. ALL OF YOU WILL PERISH. ALL OF YOU WILL KNELL BEFORE ME. I AM THE RIPPER, THE TEARER, THE SLASHER, THE GOUGER. I AM THE TEETH IN DARKNESS, THE WORM THAT COILS AT THE WORLD'S ROOTS, THE NEVER-ENDING SOUND OF DRUMS. I! AM! NHO–"

"Oh, shut up!" Nhogg startles, looking down at the fool who dares interrupt his ultimately bombastic villainous monologue. Astra looks right back up at him her eyes blazing rainbows. "I am Astra, Chosen of Luna, Steward of Creation, and I CAN YELL JUST AS LOUD AS YOU!" She seems to grow taller and taller, the Wyld yielding to her overriding will. She towers above the ruined stump of the shattered tree–and as she grows higher and higher, Nhogg seems to dwindle before her. "Look up, look up at Yomiko. You see her? You see how terrifying she is? You're a coward, Nhogg, and you can't stand to fight her. KNEEL BEFORE YOMIKO!


Battle Joined

Tick 6: Yomiko, Nhogg, Bearhive, Wyld-Shapers
Tick 7: Zephyr, Thousand Miles Cat, Detective Piranha
Tick 10: Watcher, Astra
Tick 12: Ivory Eyes


Ivory Eyes

3-die stunt, 6m or 1wp

DV -5

Watcher

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -2

Tick 6: Yomiko, Nhogg, Bearhive, Wyld-Shapers

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The warstrider is mostly caked in traumendous amounts of gore, congealed atop her in a way that only her head and most of her right arm go uncovered. Her head shifts up, blood dripping from the 'strider's massive head to look upon Astra. She is used to praise, as a God-Queen it is one of the many things she was indeed not lacking. This still seemed stronger, more meaningful. She just smiled to herself.
Suddenly, the armor burst from the gore with a bellow both beautiful and hideous. A shout of creature's roar and maiden's song in one. She held the sword in but one hand high in the air, the other also held aloft like a talon. The bloody remnants that did not burst from her in all directions slide off of her and coat her. A bloody giant stands there shrieking and unscathed.
Slamming her feet into bloody grass as she ran, the Wyld shook. Each footfall was as Autochthon's hammer slamming upon the anvil of Creation and Nhogg only heard it getting louder as she approached. She held her sword up high and stopping a few meters short of Nhogg swung her mighty blade down upon him. As the sword flew through the air her anima flared within the titan. Golden fire burst from every crack like a holy blast furnace, her eyes exploded with the same fire and cremated the sky! It was clear to all and Nhogg most especially that she was a true slayer among the gods.

Just one attack, enhanced of course. At this point I just want to be scary, and pain is scary. 1wp for combo, full 1st Melee Excellency, Hungry Tiger. So really only 1 mote spent.

Attack: [roll0]

Essence
Permanent: ●●●●●
Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 24 out of 51
Committed: 23

Willpower: 2/6

-0 [x][x]
-1 [x][ ][ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ]

[The Demented One]

Yomiko's blade comes down on Nhogg with force like unto a star rupturing, and it is only for his impossible speed that it does not smite him down where he stands. Her golden daiklave cleaves cleanly through blistered molten flesh, and Nhogg squeals like a hog for the slaughter, fear roiling behind his eyes. "NO! NHOGG FALLS NOT BEFORE YOU!" He leaps, kicking off of the warstrider's blade, and hangs in the midst of the air, hovering above the battlefield. "MY MINIONS, TO ME! TAKE DOWN THE PRIESTESS! FEAST ON HER FACE!" And yet for all his boasting, all his bold defiance, his story is that of a hunted beast, the wolf cornered and crippled by fear.

He whips his glaive through the air like a lariat, and its shaft swells and bulges within his grasp, like a spider's web unspooling from its innards. With one manly heave, he shoves his great overbearing weapon at Watcher and Ivory Eyes, hoping to gut two God-Kings with one blow. Watcher neatly ducks under the barbed glaive-head, while Ivory Eyes's wings pull around her like a cloak, sending her into a downward spiral beneath the ever-surging spear. The errant blows at last hurtles towards Zephyr, and he laughs at Nhogg's bravado as he raises his silver drills against it. Brilliant silver anima meets the primal power of chaos in an explosion of light and sound–and Zephyr is sent hurtling down, a gaping wound torn through his chest by the cruel glaive of Nhogg.

"YES!" gloats Nhogg, calling down a rain of blood to celebrate his triumph. Bearhive struggles to his feet beneath the downpour of warm slick gore, red blood filling up and overflowing from his honeycombs. His waxen maw yawns wide, and from it pours countless buzzing millions of bumbling bees, black and yellow death given flight. The swarm mobs Yomiko, but she slides back on the soles of her warstrider's massive greaves with supernatural deftness. Blood still hangs in the air, choking the swarm of bees and sending them down to the earth. Bearhive roars in frustration, as the Invincible Maiden's face remains unfeasted-upon.


Battle Joined

Tick 7: Zephyr, Thousand Miles Cat, Detective Piranha
Tick 10: Watcher, Astra
Tick 11: Yomiko, Nhogg, Bearhive, Wyld-Shapers
Tick 12: Ivory Eyes


Yomiko

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp
1-die stunt, 2m

DV -1

Ivory Eyes

1-die stunt, 2m

Zephyr

6 levels of lethal damage.

Tick 7: Zephyr, Thousand Miles Cat, Detective Piranha

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr laughs, the cloak of silver anima flaring behind him, snapping dramatically in an ephemeral breeze. The hole in his chest is already beggining to close, and he spits a gob of blood that gleams like molten silver on the grass of Nhogg's domain. He strikes a pose, pointing at Nhogg as his silvery drills flare once more into great spectral claws, and his essence flares like Luna's light.

"You're just a scared little piggy. Nhogg. I am the hero here - I reject your story, and substitute my own! I will rewrite your tale in your own blood, and my claws shall be the penstrokes! ARGENT TIGER ASSAULT!"

So screaming, Zephyr launches himself towards Nhogg, streaking through the air like an arrow, streamers of silver essence whipping through the air in his passing. He draws back his strong right arm, and launches it forward with a blow that not even a Behemoth could stop. It plows through Nhogg's defenses, melting his skin and flesh like warm butter. Zephyr looks the creature in the eye, smiling at him as Nhogg begins to glow from within with pure silver light, a moment before Zephyr's gleaming rage explodes within Nhogg, annihilating ephemeral flesh with the raw, untrammeled fury of the Chosen of Luna.


Activating Tiger Form (6m) then an all-out assault on Nhogg.

War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 29 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty +5 Bracers)
Damage: 28L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons) +5 Bracers +5 Tiger Stance)

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

(Parry is 13 Currently)

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 [/]
-1 [/][/]/[/][/][/][/][/][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])

5(6) Dying Health Levels

Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 12/52
Committed: 4 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 20 to Charms)
Willpower: 6/8

[The Demented One]

Zephyr pounces on Nhogg with unbridled bestial rage, but the raksha proves a beast just as fierce. Every thrust is met with a sidestep or an impossible backflip, every lunge ducked under or jumped above. But Zephyr's massive drills prove themselves against even the Lord of Chaos, striking three great blows against him. The drills bore through the shaped flesh of Nhogg, and he pulls himself off of the deadly gyre only with much grunting and spilt blood. "YOU! I WILL MAKE YOU WATCH AS I ROAST YOUR MATE UPON A SPIT! AND THEN I WILL FEED HER TO MY BEHEMOTHS, AND LET THE GRISTLE OF HER BONES BE THE GREASE THAT WILL SLICK THE BLADE THAT CUTS OUT YOUR HEART! AND THEN, TORTURE! AND MORE TORTURE!" He goes on like this for a while.

Meanwhile, Yomiko tangles with the Thousand Miles Cat, the two of them engaged in a sinuous dance. The overlengthy cat nips at her, sneaking past the seams of her armor and infiltrating the cockpit, catching Yomiko in its bitter adamant jaws. But before the behemoth can coils its body around the warstrider, she leaps back, leaving it to flail helplessly–and at the same instant as Detective Piranha unloads his massive handcannon at the Invincible Maiden. There is the sound of ruffled fur and outraged hissing as the behemoth only narrowly dodges the blazing silver bullet. "Who loves you, pussycat?" quips the detective, not deigning to notice the fact that he missed.


Battle Joined

Tick 10: Watcher, Astra
Tick 11: Yomiko, Nhogg, Bearhive, Wyld-Shapers
Tick 12: Ivory Eyes, Zephyr, Detective Piranha
Tick 13: Thousand Miles Cat


Zephyr

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -3

Yomiko

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

One level of lethal damage

Tick 10: Watcher, Astra

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher glances at Nhogg as he moves across the battlefield. It's all too obvious to him that the only way he can hurt the beast is with one of his chakrams, and he's running low on those. Alright, that first statement isn't completely correct, he still had his more powerful attacks; but using that much energy is a bad idea. Okay then, stick with the chakrams.

Seeing the minions ganging up on Yomiko, Watcher realizes he can do more then just pepper Nhogg with explosives, he could distract at least one of them. Reaching Bearhive, he leaps up, using many bees flying around as platforms, moving just quickly enough to avoid being stung. Once on it's back, he pours essence into the golden weapon attached to his arm, sending it into its usual power-up humming. Getting near enough, he leaps a short distance onto the tip of it's nose, pausing a moment to say "Hello." Leaping away once more, he sends himself twisting in the air to let off a shot of essence-infused water straight into the beast's face before dropping away.

Spending 5 motes and 1 extra plus one willpower to use my First Thrown Excellency+Seven Shadow Evasion combo. Also, tapping the water hearthstone in my vambrace.

Dex+thrown+acc [roll0]

Personal: 0/21
Peripheral: 12/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 2/6

[x] -0
[x][x][x][x][x][x][x] -1
[x][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

Wyld Fact: Bees drown if they become waterlogged. They hate that.

Watcher isn't entirely sure why this manifests in the air before him as he blasts a bolt of pure water essence into Bearhive's face, but he's learned a valuable science lesson about...using magical bolts of pure water essence to exterminate pesky bees that are nesting inside a giant bear. Okay, maybe it's not the most generally applicable science lesson, but the Wyld really isn't the best place to be doing science at all. Bearhive is less concerned with the educational value of Watcher's attack and more concerned with the gaping hole full of drowning bees in his face. Bearhive hates that.

Astra comes to Watcher's side, leaping off the subtitle that still hovers in the air and spreading her fan wide as she falls. "And don't even know what you are, you bear-made-out-of-bees thing, but die anyways! No matter how confusing you are, you still don't get to hurt my Yomiko and come away alive!" She brings down the razor-sharp moonsilver edge of her blade down like a guillotine–but guillotines definitely aren't for executing Bearhive! Her fan doesn't even scratch his waxy hide, and even worse–it's stuck in the honey!


Battle Joined

Tick 11: Yomiko, Nhogg, Bearhive, Wyld-Shapers
Tick 12: Ivory Eyes, Zephyr, Detective Piranha
Tick 13: Thousand Miles Cat
Tick 15: Watcher, Astra


Watcher

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -1

Tick 11: Yomiko, Nhogg, Bearhive, Wyld-Shapers

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The skid of her last dodge came to it's conclusion and she locked once again on the boar-headed general of his army of the strange and wondrous. The titanic armor vaulted a short distance through the air, once again closing in on Nhogg. She was however lost in thought... My Yomiko? Huh. Well. Hitting Nhogg, that was important now.

She sees the melted and frayed Raksha before her, the essence welling up inside her. All of her experience in combat colliding together in golden bursts in her mind and soul. The blade of holy fury was held in her hand, the tremendous weight of the weapon still not offset by the tremendous strength of the armor but the skill of arms and raw essence taking shape within her made it feel weightless. She took the hilt in both hands and thrust it forward, the edge of the weapon blazing like the sun behind a hairline crack. She held doom in her hand, and she used it to strike. "With this stroke of my blade, this challenge ENDS!"

Putting together another combo, including 1st Melee Excellency + Rising Sun Slash + Enemy-Castigating Solar Judgment + Seven Shadow Evasion + Hungry Tiger Technique for a grand total of 13 XP.
Then for a grant total of 1wp and 9m, I attack.

Attack: [roll0]

Essence
Permanent: ●●●●●
Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 17 out of 51
Committed: 23

Willpower: 2/6

-0 [x][x]
-1 [x][ ][ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ]

[The Demented One]

Yomiko plunges her blade deep into Nhogg's heart, pinning him on her daiklave as if he were nothing more than a butterfly. She clashes with layer after layer of crystalline essence, invincibility asserted upon the chaos–and each one cracks and shatters at her insistence. The beast-thing cannot even muster up a scream or a shout, falling silently to its knees. Blood pools beneath it–dramatically more blood than should have been inside of its body, and definitely more fluorescent than blood should be, and the kittens splashing around in the puddles are a bit ridiculous. "THUS DO I DIE...THUS, THUS, THUS!" mutters Nhogg, as the life flees him.

Nhogg's corpse lies still and stony-silent. The behemoths flee, desperately scampering for the far edges of the chaos, though Bearhive finds his flight hindered by the very angry Lunar still clinging to him, pummeling him one bee at a time. Victory. As you come together over Nhogg's slain form...it speaks. "NOW I AM DEAD, NOW I AM FLED. MY SOUL IS IN THE SKY. TONGUE, LOSE THY LIGHT; MOON, TAKE THY FLIGHT. NOW DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE!" he wails melodramatically, before falling dead once more. You get the feeling that he isn't taking this whole being dead thing seriously.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr arches a brow as he stands over Nhogg. "Yes, we can see you're quite dead. So very, very dead. Now, dead-thing, direct us to the next challenge we must conquer. We have little time to waste."

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"Yes, the next challenge." Watcher says, still irked that Nhogg had been able to spot him during the battle. That had been happening more and more lately. If the trend continued, then he wouldn't even be able to hide from Yomiko. "The third challenge...out of four. Why does there have to be four of them?"

He stops to pick up the dropped chakram, placing it next to its last brother on his belt. Only two left. He would have to make them last until they got back to Lotus. "Astra, we have appear to have beaten these creatures. You can let it leave now. I doubt it will trouble us any longer."

[The Demented One]

"OH, NO, DON'T MIND ME. I'M TOO BUSY BEING DEAD, BECAUSE YOU WENT AND KILLED ME." complains Nhogg's corpse, most upset. "IT DOES GET IN THE WAY OF MY JOB, YOU KNOW. SO MANY THINGS TO DO, SO FEW THE EONS IN WHICH TO DO THEM, BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYWAY BECAUSE I'M DEAD. INCONSIDERATE, REALLY. AND YOU JUST COME UP TO ME AND BOSS ME AROUND, DON'T EVEN TAKE MY....SNIFF...FEELINGS INTO ACCOUNT." There is something truly pathetic at the spectacle of a dead Unshaped attempting to choke back its tears, and Nhogg's heaven-rumbling sniffles are a sight to behold.

As the ex-Nhogg eventually calms down, and realizes how little his slayers care for his posthumous feelings, he acquiesces. "YOU KNOW, I WOULD STOP YOU, BUT I REALLY CAN'T. SOME PEOPLE DON'T PARTICULARLY CARE FOR BEING DRAGGED INTO CREATION AND EXPERIMENTED ON, BUT NO ONE LISTEN TO NHOGG, BECAUSE HE'S DEAD. FINE. I IMAGINE YOU'LL WANT TO MEET SOME OTHER EMANATION NOW, AND PROBABLY KILL THEM TOO. THE LEFT-HAND PATH WILL TAKE YOU TO JUBAL THE HUNTER, AND HE'D PRACTICALLY FALL OVER IF YOU SO MUCH AS SAY THE WORD 'DIE.' THE RIGHT PATH WILL TAKE YOU TO SHAPER OF THE EVER-CHANGING. OR YOU COULD STAY HERE, YOU KNOW, AND SHOW SOME PITY FOR ME. 'OH, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO POOR OLD NHOGG, HE ALWAYS WAS A FINE FELLOW.' YOU KNOW? SOMETHING LIKE THAT?"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko's armor began to collapse upon itself once again, the Invincible Maiden now in her smaller but equally as impressive power-armor. She looked sympathetic, but a smile was upon her face, or at least at one of the two corners of it. She walked over and sat down in the grass, somehow avoiding the blood directly beneath her but still capable of petting the kittens that frolicked about. "I really do feel bad about this. Though were you in my place what would you do? 'O' but there is the mightiness of Nhogg, surely there is no option left for me save throwing myself into the glorious fray before his infinitesimal splendor and glorious bloodshed!'" She sighed and pet his mane as one would a favored family dog. "We will hold a funeral for you once we return to Lotus, and we will even tell everyone how wonderful you have been. M'kay? Good. I have now basted you in but a tiny portion of my compassion, but I am afraid time is of the essence. You have an entire afterlifetime for pity from others and we may even one day return." She gives him a peck between the eyes and stands up.

[The Demented One]

"AWW. THANKS. YOU KNOW, OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO'VE EVER KILLED ME, I LIKE YOU THE BEST." says the remains of Nhogg, mildly infatuated. But there is no time for comical romances with dead faeries. You venture into the chaos, leaving Nhogg, who would remind you that he is dead, behind. Yomiko quickly retrieves Astra, whose mouth is now full of honeycomb. The hunting grounds of Nhogg seem to fade away into the background now that their role in the story has come to its end–in their stead, two broad paths stretch out before you. The way to Jubal the Hunter's domain is a flat and rocky path that ventures out across the suggestion of hulls in the distance, while the Shaper of the Ever-Changing's road is nestled between two rows of luminous trees, heavy with bouncing miraculous fruit that are probably full of knives or some such horrors. That's the Wyld for you.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"So there are two we have left to face, a hunter and a shaper." Watcher says. "I believe we can get this done faster if we split up. Yomiko and Ivory can take this Shaper. Zephyr and I can face Jubal. Astra and the Wyld-shapers can decide for themselves where they want to go."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

The full moon nodded in agreement. His blood was still up from the kill, and he grinned fiercely as his anima lit the chaotic scenery with shifting silver shadows. "Sounds like a plan to me. The sooner we tame this beast, the quicker we can drag it back to creation and make use of it."

[GryffonDurime]

"Agreed. The less time I have to spend inhabiting this madness, however tangentially, the more time I may have to fabricate something of use from it. Like a craggy pit. Or a new shade of red. Or perhaps both, if we're feeling ostentatious." Ivory gives a small, forced smile and marches on towards the Shaper's domain.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr laughs "Useful? Ah, but this place is a wonder! Such change, such flux, such beauty and majesty and untrammeled potential - still, we must needs tame it, for the good of creation."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She tilts her head slightly toward Zephyr with a smile on her face, "Yes I must admit there is a great charm to this place. It makes me feel like a young girl again." She then turns to Astra, "Would you care to follow Ivory and myself down this path?" She asks while slowly following the Solar sorceress.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"We can worry about taming this land later." Wacher says to Zephyr, his mind ever on the task at hand. "Come, we have a hunter to best."

[The Demented One]

After what seems like a week of deliberation, you set out down the twin paths before you. Astra takes up behind Ivory Eyes and Yomiko, following behind the Invincible Maiden as if strung along on a leash as they pursue the wooded paths that lead to the Shaper of the Ever-Changing. Silver Heron insists on accompanying Watcher, and the other amalga acquiesce, casting up a pattern of reality to protect Zephyr and Watcher as they pursue Jubal. As you leave, the distant voice of Nhogg can be heard on the winds. He really doesn't seem to get this whole "dead" thing. "OH, UM. GOODBYE, THEN. I REALLY DIDN'T MEAN IT ABOUT FEASTING ON YOUR FACE, OR ROASTING THE SORCERESS ALIVE, OR THE TORTURE. YOU COULD COME BACK LATER, YOU KNOW. WE COULD HAVE TEA! CAN YOU HEAR ME? OH. I GUESS NOT."

The two roads diverge almost as soon as you have set foot upon them, and within seconds the parties can no longer see the least sign of each other. The pathway to Jubal winds through a sun-beat savanna, an infinite expanse of scrub-land and desert punctuated abruptly with crags of jagged rock, embedded with the petrified skeletons of a thousand impossible beasts, each one a marvel of life to make the Catastrophic Explosion Squid of Gem look like a mere pedestrian pigeon. The forested path coils through the midst of trees ever stranger and stranger, with trunks of brick and boughs of smoke and fruit that look suggestively plump. If a tree does not have wriggling roots adorned with babies' faces and bark trellised over with a latticework doily pattern, it is only because it is home to a nest of philosophy finches or a clutch of squirrels drinking absinthe from acorn-shells.



Jubal the Hunter
The Conquest Blade


These words hang above a valley pressed into the face of the savanna, a deep gorge sunk deep into the earth. Watcher finds the steep and pathless walls of the canyon an easy climb, while Zephyr shifts into a the shape of a giant hawk to bring down the wyld-shapers. As you wander the sunlit canyon, the only shadow that of the title that hangs above you in the air, a bolero of percussive menace whips up from all sides, as the footfalls of some vast distant titan...or else the rushing madness of a stampede. And indeed, a vast herd of wyld things descends on you, running down the impassable cliffs. They have no teeth or talons, no quills or stingers–like some wondrous concoction of gazelle and elephant, llama and wildebeest, it is only their panic and their beating hooves that threaten you.

Or only seem to threaten, perhaps. As the stampeding herd charges headlong into the chaos-repelling pattern cast up by the amalga, they are revealed for their true nature. Their muscle and fur and scales all slough away, leaving only a flight of shimmering butterflies, plucked of their glamour. The panicked herd seems to throw itself into the bubble of Creation, peeling back the fantasy and leaving only a corona of fluttering wings. "Oh, come on now, you've spoiled my fun. I was going to bolt out from nowhere, and save you from the horrible stampede, but you've gone and rescued yourselves." complain a new voice, lusty and hale.

He saunters out from the shadow of his title, a dusky youth stripped bare of all save a tattered loincloth and a leather sling, riveted with bolts of polished bone punched through the rough leather straps. "I've seen you, of course. Taught Nhogg quite the lesson didn't you? That's what I love about you Creation-Born! So strange, so different, so real. Look at you, you beautiful man!" he says, casting a hand towards Watcher as if worshipping at the altar of the sun. "You could run a length of iron through my heart, and I would die! Forever, and ever! I couldn't come back! Do you know how odd that is? Love it. And if I'm going to have to be killed by someone, I wouldn't mind it being you, if you know what I mean. So, what's it going to be, real people? What do you want from me? A kill, a kiss, a conquest?"



Shaper of the Ever-Changing
Oaths Sworn Upon the Staff


These words appear before you, shadows cast upon the mist that chokes the lush glades of Semiramis. Forest gives way to form, mere abstract shapes that drift through the conceptual Ginnungagap of the Wyld. The path you walk is the idea of a path, the verdant oaks and haughty pines mere notions and whimsies given shape only by your perception of them. And after a journey that can be no more than seconds, no less than centuries, and other inconveniently paradoxical distortions of time, you arrive at the summit of your seeking, the final waypoint of your quest. It is a place vast beyond vastness, deep beyond depth, wondrous beyond wonder, and you begin to feel that this particular chapter of your quest could do with a bit less pretentious description. At the center of the waypoint stands the Shaper of the Ever-Changing, for such you know it must be. It is not a shape human or bestial, but a lantern, a golden lamp that stands upon an altar hewn from raw possibility.

As you gaze at the shining lamp, desires and dreams unthought-of appear within its polished face, your every fantasy given realization in that mirror of things desired and feared. Yomiko sees herself clad in radiance, a golden spear clasped in one hand and a shining shield upheld in the other. Konoko and Astra both sit beside her, throned upon gold and silver, and another woman, all but Yomiko's reflection in appearance, embraces her. A man lies dead at her feet.

Ivory Eyes sees the unreal shadows of a man dead and a child unborn, the ghost of Iulus clad once more in life, and holding a child whose brow blazes with the gold of the Unconquered Sun, and the blackness of the Ebon Dragon. She sees herself, too. There is nothing human in her.

The lantern sits, unmoved and unmoving. You want so very much to touch it.

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory motions as if to touch the lamp briefly and from afar, not trusting herself to stray closer.

"Shaper of the Ever-Changing," she says in a voice even softer than normal. "Are you a thinking thing? Can you answer me when I ask you to help us, to draw your Unshaped master nearer to Creation? Will you help us?" she asks, and what she doesn't ask hurts her: can you bring him back? Do you reflect what I want, or what I can make come true? Hollow promises from the Wyld, she tries to tell herself.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko's tears roll gently down her cheeks, staring at the lantern with awe on her face in addition to the tears. She approaches it slowly, a hand held out slightly. She brushes past the physical narrative, wanting so greatly to just touch it... a simple pressing of her fingertips on the golden shell. It's all she needed.

[The Demented One]

A golden fire burns within the lantern as Ivory Eyes and Yomiko reach for it, fingers stopping just shy of the golden lamp. Licking tongues of lambent flame seem to fall into shapes, accidents of perception giving rise to the form of an eye within the fire, staring out at you. By some coincidence of light, some haphazard arrangement of rays and hues, it seems to brim with nothing more than utter sympathy. But as the God-Kings cautiously fall short of touching it, the fire dies down, dimming to nothingness. "It's beautiful." opines Astra, unable to look away from the gilded lamp.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She stares at it quietly for a short amount of time, then finally speaks softly and quietly. "Hello." She smiles just a little bit, "I am Yomiko. Why did you show me that...?" She pauses as it sits there silently. The pictures implanted so perfectly and beautifully into her memory. Images that would not soon leave her, images she never wanted to leave her. She held her hand up once again, ever so close to the emanation before her. She presses her fingers gently on the golden lantern.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

The nightbringer finds himself taken off guard from the Hunter's praises. He still hadn't gotten used to the people of Lotus worshiping him, and here was a creature of the Wyld practically about to do the same thing. Watcher hated this place. He really really did.

"I very much doubt that you want to die." Watcher says, using his usual hostile demeanor to hide his unease. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with another Honeyed Words Speaker. "And if you make no move against us, the I shall not want you to either. Since you saw our...incident with Nhogg, then you can probably guess what we want. We require the help of your master. So if you can help us persuade him to come with us, it would be most helpful."

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

"Oh, I don't want to die! explains Jubal, settling onto the ground with a thump. He crosses his legs, looking up at you like a child examining a new toy. "But I might! If I'm not a good enough huntsman, if you're too clever for me, I could die! And not come back!" It's not a very convincing argument, and the hunter certainly doesn't seem to have a death-wish. "But I guess you don't want to play the hunt, not now. I overheard you with Honeyed Words Speaker, and with Nhogg." He might even be bashful as he confesses to this eavesdropping, but something in you protests that this cannot be so. He is raksha, his emotions only fictions, only facades. "Let's make a deal. I'll agree to whatever you want. And then, when you're done, I get to hunt one of you. Deal?"

Yomiko and Ivory Eyes

Yomiko's fingers fall upon the glistering gold of the lantern. That's all it takes. There is a quaking, a rumbling, a roar of catastrophic flame, and the lamp spits forth a towering inferno of blinding white, streaked through with supernova crimsons and nebular greens. The radiance hangs over you like an aurora, scintillating through a thousand shades of indigo, through every adumbration of black, through the countless subtle variations of violet, through the unnameable colors of the feel of wind, the taste of honey, sound of the stars turning through the sky.

The aurora shapes itself, folding hue and tint into form, coalescing into a whirling congeries of prismatic spheres. A clot of darkness chokes the space between the spheres, utter black marred by the glint of distant stars–stars that open into eyes, a thousand staring eyes, utterly inhuman. You feel the caress of some greater cosmic awareness, and see dim gray tentacles that writhe against your own flesh, seeming to slip out of the space between spaces.

"Aaaaah! Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck!" The voice booms from within the congeries of alien essence, warm and jovial. If you were to imagine the voice that a being utterly beyond mortal comprehension would speak with, the speech of a formless alien thing only pretending at humanity, it would be the exact opposite of this. "Whoa, does it feel good to be out of there! Nice to be back, ladies and gentlemen. Hi, where're you from? What're your names?"

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

The gleam that appears in Watcher's eyes is bright enough that even Zephyr can see it from the other side of the nightbringer's mirror mask. It becomes all too apparent that he plans to do something uncharacteristically self-less and crazy. "This will only happen if you do exactly what we decide on, no ifs, ands or buts." Watcher says, "And if you do everything in your power to aid us, then yes, we have a deal. I am known as the Watcher From Behind the Mirror, and I shall be the one that you attempt to hunt."

As he speaks, he knows that he shouldn't be trusting a single word out of the hunter's mouth. That it would be so much easier just to kill him. But he reminds himself that these Raksha seemed to follow the rules of their games. No, Jubal would not betray them if he too played by the rules. Each member of his circle had a different talents. Ivory could be as swift as a coursing river. Zephyr could channel all the force of a great typhoon. Inside Yomiko was the strength of a raging fire. But only he could call upon the mystery of the dark side of the moon. Only he could use it to stay out of Jubal's sight. This is why Watcher would win.

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

"Oh no, I'm not going to make my mind up now." protests Jubal, rife with mischief. "I'll do whatever you say, swear it on my heart. But I want my time to pick out my prey, and I can't hardly know which of you would be best. You're pretty and all, but I can hardly know if you'll be worth it. Can you even survive the Wyld on your own, without that little play-reality? It'd be a little boring if you can't. Imagine finally catching up to your prey, and finding that he's got no eyes anymore and his legs turned into chocolate. No, no, I'll make my pick once we've gone on your little misadventure. No sooner."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr gave the Hunter a wary, sidelong look. He had let Watcher handle the negotations, but he shared his circle-mate's misgivings. "Oh, yes? And do you plan on telling us when the hunt begins? Or are you simply going to start? I don't relish the thought of an unexpected spear in my back. There are enough aimed there already."

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zepyr

Jubal sticks out his lower lip in an overblown pout, his eyes wide in a mask of sadness. "If I'm going to hunt you down, you'll know it, and you'll have a blade in your hand. It's no fun otherwise. I could just leap forward from the darkness and ram a spear through your belly, but where's the fun in that? Where's the danger. No, I'll fight fair. Trust me." Every instinct, everything you've learned of the Wyld, suggests that you should not trust him. Especially about the oath. "Especially about the oath! Honeyed Words Speaker told you already, I can't break my sworn word. Why can't we just strike a level deal, without all this suspicion and loophole-chasing?" No. Don't do that. Do the opposite of that.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Words have escaped her. Words have simply tied sheets together into a rope and have left out their bedroom window to escape servitude, to escape the dread task of being spoken at a time like this. Her mouth hung open slightly, beautiful teeth visible behind beautiful lips. She simply looks back at Ivory and Astra in silence, then back at the emanation before her. "Hello!" Oh, there they went. "I am Yomiko, it is a pleasure to meet you." She curtsies politely, now with a smile.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr grinned at the wyld-thing. His raiment was shifting now, a long, frayed cloak of silver and a simple kilt. He was barefoot, and he stood, looking around the great plain with a gleam in his eye. "Why? Because you're a creature of primal chaos. Sworn oath and bound word mean little enough. You are change incarnate. And, O mighty hunter, the biggest reason I do not trust you..." He leaned in, baring his teeth in a fierce grin. "Is because I know you. I am a son of mighty Luna, the Argent Madonna - I know change, and I know flux. I know why they are not to be trusted, because they are part of my nature, just as they are the whole of yours."

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"If he is so untrustworthy, then it would seem easier on us to just kill him." Watcher says, throwing back his cloak slightly to reveal his hand gripping one of the chakrams. The slightly crazy tone in his voice telling Zephyr to roll with it. "He is just a hunter, after all. Meaning he has not the might of the charisma of the last two we faced. Besides, I am sure whoever Ivory and Yomiko are with to be much more useful to our cause."

Spending 4 motes on First Presence Excellency to intimidate Jubal.

Manipulation+presence [roll0]

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

"Oh, we can dance together, if you please." sings Jubal, his mouth smiling too-wide to reveal row upon row of teeth like flinty knives. "Say the word, and the hunt begins. But I'd be smote and slain by the Whisper in the Leaves if I didn't offer you a chance to strike pacts with me, and my oaths are wrought of iron. I am change, I am chaos, but what words I swear fetter me, just as your silver cage constrains you, moonchild. So, what shall it be? The oath or the spear?"

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"YOMIKO! Great name! Give her a round of applause, folks!" The sound of distant clapping comes from afar, like ten thousand thousand hands brought together in sporadic syncopation. A brilliant neon violet traces Yomiko's name within the dark, beaming with brilliant violet. "And who have we here?" wonders the raksha, as two if its tentacles slither down towards Ivory Eyes and Astra. The slithering tendrils coil around them, and check a pair of nametags that certainly weren't there before. "Ivory Eyes and Astra Seven-Feathers! Welcome, folks. Nice to have you on the show. So, what'll it be? Wealth beyond measure? Infinite wisdom? Phenomenal cosmic power?"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko looks nothing but stunned now. This was... well, this was as to be expected considering everything leading up to this point. The Invincible Maiden is far from without poise and composure. Her gaping mouth turns back into a smile, though her eyes betray no inquisitiveness. "What do you mean? Surely you cannot simply give us such things as infinite wisdom or phenomenal cosmic power. No more than we already have, at least. We are also chosen of Sun and Moon! Is there anything you can grant us that we cannot gain ourselves?"

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"Master, I don't think you quite realize what you're getting into!" blurts the Shaper of the Ever-Changing, a sudden music swelling up from within his infinite revolving spheres. Dread comes over you, a visceral trepidation. Your every sense screams warning, and well-honed muscles tense in expectation of what is yet to come. You have stood against the princes of hell and fought with the lords of chaos, and yet you still fear what this raksha forebodes. Not another musical number.



"Well, Ma-Ha-Suchi had his red roses,
Berengiere has her shining veils,
But masters, you're in luck, 'cause up your sleeves,
You've got a brand of magic never fails!

You've got a power in your corner now,
The grandest of daiklaves in your hand!
You've got some punch, pizazz, yahoo, and how!
See, all you gotta do is rub that lamp,
And I'll say:

'Exalted mistresses,
What will your pleasures be?
Let me take your order, scribe it down.'
You ain't never had a friend like me!

Life is your battlefield,
And I'm your grand army!
Just order what it is you want,
You ain't never had a friend like me!"


The darkness around you crystallizes into shape, a massive flying island suspended above a whirling oceanic maelstrom. Legion upon legion of abominations march against you, brass-girded demons and zombie juggernauts and crude caricatures of a certain elderly Sidereal. But behind you stands an infinite rank of soldiers, each one a figment of the Unshaped diminished down to a spark of shape. The Shaper of the Ever-Changing surges forwards, trammeling your fantastic foes underfoot. It's very impressive! You should clap!



"Yes ma'ams, we pride ourselves on service,
You're the boss, the queen, most high!
Say what you wish, it's yours! True dish!
Shall I obliterate Lookshy?

Try conquering the Blessed Isle,
Or raising up Luthe!
I'm in the mood to help you rule,
You ain't never had a friend like me!"


The entire city of Lookshy appears before you, at once in miniature and in its true scale. It nestles within one of the Shaper's loathsome, osseous tentacles–and with a playful squeeze, he shatters it. Its cracked and broken pieces fall into the darkness, swirling and conglomerating together into a bonsai Blessed Isle, subjugated beneath your feet. One rubbery black tentacle dips into it, dissolving the fantasy like a stone disturbing a pool, and pulls out a wondrous city of glowing lights and great glass domes. Go on, clap!



"Can your friends do this?
Can your friends do that?
Can your friends pull this
Out of their little hat?"


A top hat poofs into being atop the foremost sphere, dapper beyond imagining. One tentacle lifts it up, and another reaches into its silk-lined depths. Ta-da! It's the Catastrophic Explosion Squid of Gem! The Catastrophic Explosion Squid looks confused, and then explodes.



"Can your friends go poof!
Well, looky here!
Can your friends work sorcery's wonders,
Let 'er rip, then make this sucker disappear?"


The Catastrophic Explosion Squid's ruptured remnants poof into a swirl of fire, sucked into the shimmering surface of one glistering alien orb. It spits back a gout of phantasmal flame, spinning fire and light into gossamer shapes of beautiful, over-muscled men. They strut and pose before you, beauteous to behold–but then, with the wave of a tentacle, they are gone. It's a very neat trick!



"So don't sit there slack-jawed, buggy-eyed,
I'm here to answer all your exalted prayers!
You've got me bona fide, certified,
You've got an unshaped bound to your affairs!
I've sworn a powerful oath to help you out,
So what you wish, I really want to know.
You've got a wish that's Essence 5, no doubt!
So all you've got to do is rub like so, and oh!

Exalted Mistresses, have a wish or two or three
I'm in your service, Princes of Earth,
You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend
You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend,
You ain't
NEVER!
HAD A!
FRIEND!
LIKE!
ME!

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The illusions are indeed wondrous, and she can't help but smile as the figments swirl around her in a prismatic display of shapes and movements. Impressed surely, but convinced is indeed something she is not. "Your wonders and sorcery are little more than shapes forged from the Wyld. Were we to take anything you could give us to Creation they would simply fade or falter, yes? And even if they did not, would they truly be real...?" She looks thoughtful, losing focus on the current situation. "If you... brought someone back, say from the dead... they wouldn't be real."

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"Oh no, mistress. All wishes granted are actual, factual, and satisfactual. I can make it as real as you want–heck, I could make it more real than you are! You want the resurrection of the dead, you'll get it, and I don't mean any zombies."

The Shaper of the Ever-Changing conjures up a figment-troupe of the dapper undead, dressed to the nines in double-breasted suits and gentleman's attire. They shamble towards you, canes clattering on the ground, as the haggard moan of "Braaaains!" are heard. But soon, a voice of dissent enters the monotonous chorus. "Braaains? Martiniiiis." In no time at all, all the zombies have agreed on cocktails, and a bartender is soon conjured up to mix their orders. The zombie socialites vanish with a whish, their monocles clinking as they fall upon the ground.

"So, Mistress Yomiko, who should I bring back for your first wish? A parent? A child? A lover? The Scarlet Empress?"

[GryffonDurime]

"Real to you, perhaps," Ivory says, recovering from the shock of the Wyld outburst. She had expected something...less obsequious, to be certain. But the Wyld wanted to thrive through any story, and service was certainly one that it could manage. "But not to us. Do not forget where we are, Yomiko," she offers sternly, then winces. A small stab of pain in the stomach. Ivory's eyes widen in understanding but she regains her composure in a moment's space and speaks to the Shaper in her gravest tone.

"If you wish to serve us, then help us to draw your Unshaped master nearer Creation. Help us discover what has been done to the Infernal shards. And do so now."

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"Well now that's just a bit unimpressive, but sure. Wish granted! That's one out of three, for those of you keeping track at home." A chalkboard swirls into being within one of the Shaper's spheres, each of your names written out and underlined in pure white chalk. An invisible hand traces a single tally mark under Ivory Eyes' name, marking off her wish. "Now, anything else, Sorceress? Perhaps I could conjure up the Book of Three Circles, or bring back Salina for a chat. Or maybe you'd just like some help with that thesis paper of yours, no?"

[GryffonDurime]

"Fine," Ivory Eyes says obstinately, "I will indulge you. I wish for the Book of Three Circles! Let me show you the ways in which your grasp of reality is lacking. It shall be instructive. And I am not working on a thesis," she adds, rather confusedly.

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"Now that's more like it! Ladies and gentlemen, characters and players, give a warm round of applause to the BOOK! OF! THREE! CIRCLEEEEEES!" A golden aurora fills Ivory Eyes' hands, a great arcane fire that burns with soul-scorching wrath, yet withers not the least measure of her flesh. With a flash of indigo brilliance, it folds itself into three tomes within her hands, a triad of books that proclaims themselves by the rings set into each of their hidebound covers–one of emerald, one of sapphire, and one of adamant. With a quick page-through, Ivory Eyes sees they are filled with sorcerous notations in the Devonian cipher, the strange calculus of essence. She cannot see the least hint of fakery or forgery, and the books does not fade into gossamer even within the bounds of her Chaos-Repelling Pattern. "Impressive, I know. You can thank me later."

"That's...that's very impressive!" blurts Astra, overcome by the Unshaped's showmanship. Showrakshaship? Nevermind. "I'd like to make a wish now!" She tiptoes up to one of the floating spheres, her cheeks flush with brash embarrassment. "I'd like...um, well..." You cannot make out the rest, as the Lunar whispers her wish with hushed shame. But the Unshaped's response is anything but hushed! "Oh, why yes ma'am! I'll grant your adorable little wish, you cute little thing. D'awww, who's the cutest little Lunar? Who's the cutest little Lunar? You're the cutest little Lunar!" The Changing Moon's face is an absolute blank.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

This is unbelievable. This can't be real, can it? Things not simply brought about through fantasy, stories made as real as stories can. This was real, this must have been. She looks at Astra with a loving smile and then at this strange raksha entity. "I feel strange asking this. Everything within me forged at the heart of Creation screams at me that this is impossible. I've seen wondrous things here... impossible things. I don't know what I will do if this isn't real." she paused, then as tears began to well in her eyes again and her lower lip shook, "I wish you to bring Her back."

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"You want it? You got it." There is no fanfare here, no spectacle. Out from the infinite darkness within the Shaper steps a woman, still girlish and slight. She could be a younger Yomiko, or perhaps a grown-up Konoko. She blinks with wide-eyed astonishment–and then throws herself at the Invincible Maiden. The Lady Konoko, the namesake of Yomiko's daughter, wraps her arms around her sister, pulling her into a tight embrace."Yomi! You came back for me!" She falls on Yomiko's shoulder, utterly collapsing against her body with exhaustion and relief. Tears cascade down from bright eyes, swirling in the eddies of the chaos. "I don't know what happened. I was out by the spirit-pond, and then I saw Ichi...he had a knife. And then everything went dark. But now you're here!"

"I just love a family reunion." smirks the Shaper, quite pleased with himself.

[GryffonDurime]

For all her examination and awareness, the Sorceress Supreme can find no fault in the treasure given to her, no trace of Wyld chicanery. Ivory Eyes balks at the seeming resurrection of Yomiko's sister, then turns her attention back to the Book in her hands. She throws it down and grabs her temples. He anima erupts around her, a blazing raptor of gold and red and blue. It can't be real, because it can't be this easy.

"This is not a wish: tell me what you get from granting our desires, what you may exact from us in return. This is not real, it can not be because reality is firm. It is the silt of Meru, the deep roots of Lotus. Reality is defined by the proximity of Earth, by the warp and woof of the Loom," Ivory says, and then repeats it again and again, a mantra for stability practiced by elder sorcerers of the First Age and popularized by Devon as a meditation on permanence. The tiny clockwork gears of her Hand of the Maker begin to turn, then whir, grinding out white sparks threateningly.


Just a reminder for myself.

Essence ●●●●●
Personal 22/22
Peripheral 22/35
Glory 10/10
Committed: 10 (Vajra), 8 (CRP)

Willpower: 7/7

Dodge DV: 5

Health:
[ ] -0
[ ][ ][ ][ ] -1
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -2
[ ] -4
[ ] Incapacitated

Magic in effect:
Chaos Repelling Prana
Anima 11+

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"Well, if you really must know," concedes the Shaper of the Ever-Changing, utterly failing to mask his enthusiasm, "Long ago, I swore several regrettable oaths to Nhogg, my ugly pig of a cousin. He and I had this little argument going on for a few hundred years, and one day I may have sort of lost, just a little bit. Nhogg thought it'd be fun to have me stuff myself inside this lantern, only let me out when a Child of Earth–that'd be you–touches it. Phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space. So whenever one of you calls me up, I've gotta grant three wishes–one, two, three. And until someone wishes me free, I'm cooped up in here forever. Sad story, isn't it? Sure would be lovely if someone freed me. Oh well, shame. What more do you want?"

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory stands, suddenly possessed by the spirit of an idea. She withdraws a few steps from the book and raises her hands in a curt mudra. She gestures swiftly towards Creation and then towards the book. Her eyes flash emerald as she pulls a spell from the depths of the White Room, and when her anima erupts the faint shadows of a thousand sorcerers join, reflected in the light of her totem.


Ivory's tossing down Emerald Circle Countermagic on the book for 20m, 2w.

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Watcher

Plin! That's the sound of Ivory's new spellbook not dissolving as she casts her countermagic upon it. It remains shaped and solid, in exactly the same way that a spell wouldn't. She feels a bit silly. "Woah, woah, woah! I thought you wished for the Book of Three Circles! Why are you trying to mess it up? That's very rude!" complains the Shaper of the Ever-Changing.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She just stares at her. She can't even blink, she doesn't even notice the tears flowing from her and down into the blackness below her. This was impossible, this was a blasphemy against everything Creation dictates. Deep down this was a problem, but that pinpoint of doubt was quelled easily when looking into the girl's hazel eyes. She then embraced her back with all the force she could muster without hurting her. "Konoko!"

She's overwhelmed, she can barely think coherently. So many memories, so many feelings. There's only a bit of time between when her thoughts are not but a chaotic torrent, then they settle on a single thought. She's alive, the sins of the past undone. The wicked still walk, but their deeds are lost. How could this have happened? Those passed on through Lethe are gone, not but their souls survive to become someone anew. She looks back up at the apparently infinitely powerful raksha. "I wish for Astra, Ivory and I to understand how this works, exactly. Spare no detail."

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher lets out a laugh as he hears the hunter's words. And not his usual dark chuckle, but a deep laugh, completely unbecoming of his gravelly whisper. Were it not only Exalted and Raksha around, then anyone listening would surely have their hairs standing on end from the sheer strangeness of it.

"Of course, I understand now." He says finally. "You are a mighty hunter, that none of us can doubt. But I do not think that it is your desire for a challenge that stops you from taking me up on my deal. It is more likely that you see hunting me as too big a task for even your abilities. If you are so eager to dance, then why not do it on terms that we both can be happy with?

Spending 4 motes on First Presence Excellency to intimidate Jubal...not that I'm sure this will help at all.

Manipulation+presence [roll0]

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

"Ah...but...I mean...bwahahaha!" Jubal struggles to maintain composure, and fails. He breaks down laughing, snickering at Watcher to his mask-clad face. "You think I'm scared of you? Oh, oh my. I tried to give it to you gently, but just look at yourself! Could you even survive the Wyld without those minions? The Lunar would be a challenge, and the sorceress, but you? You're just another mortal to me. Maybe you don't quite understand, but you're in the Wyld now." He touches the earth, and a vine sprouts up from the sand, coiling upwards until it is the height of a man, a woody green shaft whose thorns are all of obsidian. Jubal plucks it out by the roots, holding it like a spear. "And you think you can just kill something so ancient as me, something that stands within its innermost sanctum, with a few shiny toys? Does that seem right to you? Don't make me laugh, Solar. If you won't consent to my pact...then flee."

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"Well!" shouts the Shaper, as the darkness around you is suddenly transformed into a kitchen. All but one of the Unshaped's crystalline sphere's vanish, and the one that remains is adorned with a chef's hat and apron. "It's all very simple, you see!" he explains, with a hearty zest. "The Wyld's not just some shiny light show, girls! It's a great big cauldron of infinities, and the soup can be just about anything. Now, what I do is take a ladle–that'd be your wishes, for those of you keeping track at home–and dip it down into this soup to find whatever you want. You want dead sister soup? I poke around the Wyld until I find the part where it brings you dead sister back to life, and I dish it out! Bang!"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The impossibilities still rushed through her head, impossibilities which were all full of descriptions that were all too expended. Flying through her head in an infinite torrent of light, color and thought until a for a moment where it all calcified in one instant, on one person. "You're okay now, Konoko. Ichi won't hurt us now, I'm going to protect you. I won't fail again." She whispered to her sister in her native High Realm, embracing her still. "I have so much to tell you, so much you missed!" She barely stops herself from an exasperated giggle, "It's going to be confusing with your names," she puts her hand on her mouth, smiling. "but you're going to love her!" Now she can't help but laugh aloud in true, unbridled joy. So much so that her anima begins to flare slightly, golden light beginning to filter into the darkness.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr gives Jubal the sort of look that would, in a mortal, inspire primordial terror. It's the sort of look that things that lived before the gods created mankind gave to small, insignificant scraps of flesh and bone that were about to become meals. Then he grinned. Since he was still a twelve-foot, towering giant of silver flesh, it was a rather shiny grin, with more than the usual number of teeth. The sort of grin that usually had a fin somewhere near the top of it.

"That's probably what Nhogg's behemoth was thinking. You know, before I killed it in a single blow. It's funny - pretty much every enemy we've ever had talks about how weak we are. Right before we kill them."

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"Are you really this dense? Are you retarded or something?" Watcher continues to speak in uncharacteristically bold tones. Maybe the Wyld was affecting him even with the protections up. "I am a Dagger of Heaven. A chosen of Ignis Divine. A God-King of the greatest city in Creation. I am the gods-damned Watcher of Lotus. Ancient as you might be, who are you, some lowly servant of an unshaped, to refuse my terms? If you think you or the Wyld concerns me in the slightest, then you may as well use your 'awesome power' on us now, so the three of us can save our breath."

[GryffonDurime]

"How?" Ivory asks the Shaper. "In accordance with Yomiko's wish--how? Is it a Charm, an act of Glamour...this can't be real. It can't."

Two conflicting wishes well up in Ivory's heart, though neither seems a clear winner yet.

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"You could call it a charm, if you like. I certainly like to think I'm charming!" puns the Unshaped. "It's a power a bit beyond your place, but it's power nonetheless. Do you really have to understand? You've got your books, your girl, your quest. I think with wishes satisfied, you'd show more gratitude. So why not make another request? If you need ideas, I've advice to spare, I can tell you what you need. Would you like to conquer Malfeas, grind the Yozis underfoot? Or should I conjure down the Unconquered Sun, and let you borrow all his loot? Or maybe–you look the type, you know, I've seen the kind before–you wanna ride the Kukla, saddle up, and then settle some old scores?"

Watcher and Zephyr

"Oh, very well then. My offer still stands." laments Jubal, as stormclouds gather overhead. Anything that was once amiable in his eyes is gone, replaced with the hard flint of the hunt. "Oh, and just so you know? Nhogg was an idiot. I'm not. Neither of you can call up a Chaos-Repelling Pattern, can you?" His spear flickers, moving faster than sight. Silver Heron, Red Sands Gamine, and Iron Megera slump to the ground, hot blood spurting forth from the newly-cut wounds pressed into their flesh. The bastion of Creation forced upon the Wyld by their will falters, and fades with their dwindling lives.

"Showtime!"

Battle Joined

Tick 4: Watcher
Tick 5: Jubal the Hunter
Tick 6: Zephyr

Watcher

Without the protection of the amalga's Chaos-Repelling Pattern, you are exposed to the raw and mutagenic power of Pure Chaos. On Tick 10, and every ten ticks thereafter, roll (Willpower + Essence) with a +3 bonus.

Zephyr

Without the protection of the amalga's Chaos-Repelling Pattern, you are exposed to the raw and mutagenic power of Pure Chaos–and while it cannot shape your sacrosanct flesh, your mind is all to susceptible to its power. On Tick 10, and every ten ticks thereafter, roll (Willpower + Essence) with a +2 bonus.

Tick 4: Watcher

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She looks up at the Shaper, eyes still slick with tears of joy. She holds her sister close and smiles. "You have given me more than anyone could have. Sol Invictus has laid his hand upon my face and granted me his blessing. I have seen the beginning of an age where anything is possible. I have helped clear the name of the Exalts, and turned 'anathema' into a curse nigh uttered but by ruffians and hateful men." She looks again at Konoko, "But what you've given to me deserves all the gratitude one can conjure. Shaper?" Her gaze returns to him again and she stands tall. "Once your task is fulfilled, and the remaining unused wishes of Astra and Ivory are granted, I wish for your freedom!"

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"Your quarrel is with us, not them. They posed no threat to you." Watcher says angrily, seeing the the bodies fall. Despite the edge of the Wyld slowly inching towards them, there was no fear in his heart. He had been truthful when he said that he had said that the chaotic mess didn't concern him the slightest. He keeps his mind focused on one task: taking out the hunter.

Still feeling the wounds he had received from their battle with Nhogg, Watcher knew that attacking head on was a bad idea. He would need to rely on surprise. He sprints towards one of the trees still untouched by the Wyld. Once there he quickly scales up it, and leaps upward to grab a hold of Jubal's floating title, using the shadows to cloak himself.

Spending a willpower to channel my second to last use of valor.

Dex+stealth [roll0]

Personal: 21/21
Peripheral: 23/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 5/6

[x] -0
[x][x][x][x][x][x][x] -1
[x][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"Really?" gapes the Shaper of the Ever-Changing, fraught with disbelief. "Really and for true? Oh me, oh my, oh wow! Hurry up girls, make your wishes!" The Unshaped's spheres whirl about in what might be called a dance, bouncing with sheer joy. Astra, flustered by the ebullient Unshaped, wings a pair of wishes. "Um, I wish for pet dragon. A gossamer dragon! And for a ring of being that isn't broken." She shoots Ivory Eyes and Yomiko a sidelong glance. "You know. All the rings of being that the Silver Pact keeps are broken. Smashed."

"Yes ma'am!" shouts the wish-granter with gusto, rubbing his tentacles together with excitement. "Ka-Dragon!" he shouts–and suddenly, Astra sits straddling a dragon of wyld magic, a wondrous beast of scintillating scales and peacock-feathers. It bucks playfully beneath her, prompting her to reach for the silken reigns that steer it. "And ka-ring! Another satisfied customer!" The ring appears, but in Yomiko's hands. And in a velvet case. Hmm.

Watcher and Zephyr

Watcher dangles from the crook of a J, hiding himself in the shadows of the Wyld's own captioning. But he's not alone. "Hello there, Sun King." whispers a voice from right...behind...his back. "You think you can hide from me? In my domain? You really don't know what you're getting into, do you?" The shadows that Watcher hides in wax inky-black, dark as starless night. He cannot see anything now, nothing but the umbral ball of shadows that ensconces him. He tenuously clutches to a hand-hold that may or may not be there, alone in the dark.

Not alone. A red light glitters in the distance depths of the blackness, countless stars shedding crimson radiance, too dim to see by. No, not stars. As ten thousand mouths suddenly open before you, each one curling into a sinister smile, you see that they are red eyes. Whatever it is that lurks in this primordial darkness advances on you slowly, each footstep a thunderclap against the silence that swathes this shadowy cage. You feel a thousand sharp fangs against your flesh, a thousand claws ripping away the sinews from the bone. The fact that you can see your slayers, as they rip you from limb to limb, to be nothing more than small fluffy kittens, does nothing to alleviate your fears. They rend, and tear, and gouge, and...and then it's over.

The darkness fades. The wounds disappear, figments of glamor. "Aww, poor Watcher. Did that scare you? You coward."

Battle Joined

Tick 6: Zephyr
Tick 11: Watcher
Tick 12: Jubal the Hunter


Watcher

Jubal has ravished your Valor, causing you to become deathly afraid of all raksha. You must spend a point of Willpower once per scene to avoid fleeing from a raksha. If you wish to actively fight or challenge it, you must spend two Willpower instead. This is a shaping effect, and can be healed or resisted as if it were also a crippling effect.

Tick 6: Zephyr

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr laughs in the face of the dark, casting his contempt before him like a blade. Once again he calls up that old lunar fury, as primal and ancient as the darkness that Jubal has called up as a weapon - the fury of the hunter, pitting wrath against wrath.

"Is that all you've got, little wyldling? The fear of the dark and the claws in the night? I am a son of Luna! I am a hunter born and bred, and the night scares me not at all! I can taste your scent, I can hear the scrape of your claws, and I say to you that I will not cower - and I will not be the beast at bay - Now you will know what it is to be hunted - I will chase you to your lair and pull you screaming from it, if you will not surrender. I am Zephyr Scales-of-War, and I bow to no man or creature of the Wyld! To battle!"

Zephyr draws himself up, and his story is not that of the hunted beast - it is that of the hunter who walks in the night. He is man and beast both - predator civilized and savage alike - compared to the wyldling, he is a man, but in his heart, he is beast. Wrapping himself in the tale, he charges forward, his anima a lance of purest silver in his hand as he drives into the dark, splitting it open with a spear of argent light.



I think you know this song and dance by now.


Activating Fury with Golden Tiger Stance, Burrowing Devil Strike, Impressions of Strength (Ogre's Loving Caress), and Wasp Sting Blur, and 3 activations of Unstoppable Lunar Wound (15m, 2 wp)

War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty)
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)


War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24(2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty )
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

(Parry is 13 Currently)

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 []
-1 [][][][][][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])



Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 18/21
Peripheral: 0/52
Committed: 19 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 15 to Charms)
Willpower: 4/8

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"Coward?" Watcher asks himself in a muted tone, his body visibly shaking from the assault. "Scared, you? Get up. Get up! GET! UP!" His mantra spurns him forward, leaping to the top of the captioning.

"Who the hell do you think I am!?" He screams at Jubal, once again unconcerned for any sort of stealth. "Not in brightest day, nor in blackest night will you ever escape my sight!" As he speaks, the quiet hum of his vambrace springs to life as essence is poured into it. "You who would try to stop what's right, burn like my power!" He raises his golden plated arm. "The unconquered light!"

With that, he lets loose two blasts of golden light, shining as though they had come from Creation's sun, and not the hand of a mere solar.

Using the Green Lantern oath and a willpower to know fear and overcome it. Also another willpower and 6 motes per attack to use my Frist thrown excellency+SSE combo.

Attack 1 [roll0]
Attack 2 [roll1]

Personal: 9/21
Peripheral: 23/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 3/6

[x] -0
[x][x][x][x][x][x][x] -1
[x][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Before Jubal could respond, Zephyr continued his assault. Driving the spear of fiery silver anima into the Valor-Aspect's shadowy heart, Zephyr gave a bellow of triumph as it exploded in a shower of silver thorns, shredding the liquid night which forms Jubal's hide.

Not content with small-scale destruction, Zephyr widen's his approach - lances of pure argent light spring forth from his fingertips, gouging great wounds and scars in the very stuff of the Wyldling's domain, knowing that in this case, the domain itself is likely linked to the hunter, if they are not one and the same. He lashes out at Jubal with the fury of a maddened beast, crying aloud. "Come then, and see what cowards we are, little wyldling. You are no hunter - you are a frightened rabbit, and I will skin you alive before I boil you in the pot!"




War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty)
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)


War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24(2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty )
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

(Parry is 13 Currently)

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 []
-1 [][][][][][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])



Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 18/21
Peripheral: 0/52
Committed: 19 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 15 to Charms)
Willpower: 4/8

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

"You–" hisses Jubal, ducking underneath Zephyr's silver lance, letting the Lunar's countless barrage of thrusts provide him ample opportunity to evade. "All–" He leaps as Watcher unleashes his wrath, neatly whirling over the golden blasts. "FAIL!" He lands crouching above Watcher, and rams his spear down with ruthless killing force. But the Night Caste leaps out from under him, swinging up into the "u" of the Sword's subtitle, then flinging the "p" downward to deflect the outraged faerie's assault.


Battle Joined

Tick 14: Zephyr
Tick 16: Watcher
Tick 17: Jubal the Hunter


Zephyr

DV -3

Watcher

3-die stunt, 6m or 1wp

DV -2

Tick 14: Zephyr

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr bellows in frustration as Jubal effortlessly avoids every one of his thrusts. Narrowing his eyes, the silver-wrapped leviathan of Lunar might assumes a mighty fighting-pose, pointing towards Jubal before rushing ahead, his steps echoing off the canyon walls like an entire stampede of Thunder Lizards. Letting the spear of silver essence fade back into his anima, he bellows again. Leaping up to join watcher perched on the title, he pries free the letters "C" and "H" by main strength alone, tossing the consonants at Jubal in a blur of motion, using them to pin the Wyldling to the canyon wall. Pointing a finger at the Hunter as silver essence blazes around his fists, Zephyr screams out

"Jubal the Hunter - By silver and iron, yield or die. CERTAIN KILL SILVER IMPACT!"

And with that, he leaps from the top of Jubal's floating title, diving towards the wyld-thing like the fist of an angry god.




War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty)
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)


War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24(2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty )
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

(Parry is 13 Currently)

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 []
-1 [][][][][][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])



Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 18/21
Peripheral: 0/52
Committed: 19 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 15 to Charms)
Willpower: 4/8

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

The wyld huntsman effortlessly ducks the flung consonants, knocking away Zephyr's furious silver fists with the broad end of his obsidian spear. "Foolish Lunar! Every blow you strike, every breath you take, every move you make is but another chance for me to slip from your clutches! If you would fight me, fight me as a man, one blow to one bl–oh okay that hurts now stop that!" The Lunar knocks the banter–and the breath–out of the raksha with one chance blow, sending him tumbling headlong. Jubal gets back up on his feet, his dusky flesh marred by red gashes. "Oooh, how I do not like you. It is lots."


Battle Joined

Tick 16: Watcher
Tick 17: Jubal the Hunter
Tick 18: Zephyr


Zephyr

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -3

Tick 16: Watcher

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko looks at the gleaming silvery ring inside the velvet purple case, her eyes are locked onto it for a moment, but it turns to Astra and Yomiko gives her a knowing look. She bites her lip and smiles, then turns to Ivory. "Perhaps your final wish should wait just a bit longer, after all I think it would be selfish of us to withhold the Shaper's absolutely wondrous capabilities-" She stops herself, she's caught herself saying something ridiculous! "-If that is alright with you!" She looks at the Shaper with shock at herself in her widened eyes. "I-if so then perhaps we should meet Watcher and Zephyr again."

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Good. Let Zephyr distract him. Watcher almost smirked under his mask. When it came to brute force, the lunar was hard to beat. He knew that he'd never want to be on the receiving end of those strikes. Still, it would let him do what he needed to do. Diving off the captioning, he pulls Exodus out of the folds of his cloak. Once close enough to Jubal, he strikes with a single, well aimed blow. Not at him, however, but at the spear that was causing them so much trouble, sending it flying away. Then leaping after it, he grabs it out of the air and stabs it into the side of the cliff, then using it as a platform. Ending it by pointing his golden blade at Jubal. "You talk to much."

Doing something something a little different this time. Using 6 motes on First Melee Excellency, and a point of willpower to channel my last use of valor all to disarm him of that damn spear.

Dex+melee+accuracy+valor [roll0] (-2 external penalty)

Personal: 3/21
Peripheral: 23/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 2/6

[x] -0
[x][x][x][x][x][x][x] -1
[x][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

"O RLY?" mocks Jubal, manhandling his spear to flip it out of Watcher's path. The God-King's blade careens wildly, striking nothing. Jubal laughs, his wounds sealing with his mocking giggles, and lopes towards Zephyr in bounds, his eyes blood-shot with rage. "KTHXBAI!" Zephyr rushes forward with his typical bravado, laughing at his opponent. He closes before the hunter can even throw his wyld-forged spear, wrestling it from his grasp in a brutal exchange, man and fae trading blow for blow to no avail. Eventually, the raksha manages to secure his manly shaft, but Zephyr stands unharmed.


Battle Joined

Tick 18: Zephyr
Tick 21: Watcher
Tick 22: Jubal the Hunter


Watcher

DV -1

Zephyr

1-die stunt, 2m

Tick 18: Zephyr

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr gives his fae opponent an irritatingly superior smirk as he stares him down. For a moment, the Full-Moon is still. A soft breeze blows about him, carrying eddies and whorls of swirling dust. The Lunar's skin and eyes are burnished to a mirror finish, and they reflect everything in strange, distorted shapes. Suddenly, his smirk broadens into a full smile as he drops into a low stance, his claws gleaming in the light like newborn razors.

"You're good, Jubal. Once, I might have found you intimidating. But I've spilled too much blood to let any little wildling bring me any fear anymore. But since you seem to want a challenge - Fine, I'll give you one."

Zephyr stamped one foot, and the earth split asunder. Flashes of orange and black flickered over his silver skin as his anima blazed like flame around him.


Assuming Tiger Form(6m)



War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 29 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty + 5 Bracers)
Damage: 28L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons) +5 Bracers +5 Tiger Style)

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)


War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 24(2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty )
Damage: 18L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons))

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

(Parry is 13 Currently)

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 []
-1 [][][][][][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])



Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 2/21
Peripheral: 0/52
Committed: 19 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 15 to Charms)
Willpower: 4/8

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

"You're a formidable...formida...kekekekeke" Jubal breaks down into strange insectile laughter, struggling and failing to maintain composure. His skin shades orange and black, tiger-stripes flaring up on his skin. Essence leaks from his eyes and mouth, and the savanna around him is swallowed by the darkness of night, jungles sprouting up from the soil. Jubal burns bright in these jungles of the night, standing against the immortal Zephyr, locked in fearful symmetry. "OHAI! I HERD YOU LIEK RAKSHA!"


LOL LOL BATTLE

Tick 21: Watcher
Tick 22: Jubal the Hunter
Tick 23: Zephyr


Zephyr

1-die stunt, 2m

Tick 21: Watcher

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Insanity. That's all this place is. Pure insanity. All the proof Watcher needed was the Raksha hopping around like a madman in front of them. Then again, who said that wasn't what he was like normally? It didn't matter, this fight had already gone on for longer then it needed to. Why hadn't he just struck the creature down before it even had a chance to react. He was losing his touch. Enough of all this craziness, enough of the gods-damned Wyld. He was sick of it.

His vambrace began to hum again as it powered up. It was the only weapon he needed right now, despite the golden sword in his other hand. He closed the distance between him and the hunter. If he was going to go with ranged, then the less space the better. It gave Jubal less time to react. "Hey." Watcher said, raising his golden plated arm. "Dodge this."

Spending 5 motes and 1 extra on Cascade of Cutting Terror, which not only doubles my raw attack successes, but also renders his dodge DV inapplicable. Why I haven't been relying on this instead of excellencies this whole time, I have no idea. Also, tapping my solar hearthstone.

Attack: [roll0]

Personal: 3/21
Peripheral: 17/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 2/6

[x] -0
[x][x][x][x][x][x][x] -1
[x][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

Watcher and Zephyr

Watcher blasts Jubal full on in the face with a blast of sunlight, burning away the flesh from his skull. The faerie's face melts in a sea of blistering blackness, liquid flesh dripping and oozing down from his skull. He won't be healing from this one. He screams, a bellowing menacing kekekekeke bellowing menacing roar of pain and fury and rage and kekeke menacing roar pain fury kekekeke pain fury rage pain fury rage kekeke and Zephyr is dancing with spears jabbing headlong and tail-long and sidelong and through organs spine and skull and bleeding, bleeding, bleeding!


Battle?

Tick 23: Zephyr
Tick 26: Watcher
Tick 27: Jubal the Hunter


Watcher

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp.

DV -1

Zephyr

6 levels of lethal damage

Tick 23: Zephyr

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Relentless as the tides, Zephyr merely laughs off the pain. The spear-wounds are as nothing to the silver behemoth, and he calls out with a single mighty roar "Zephyr Rush, you insolent little bastard!" and falls upon the wyld-born creature with all the strength of an avalanche. He buries burning silver claws into Jubal's melted flesh, gripping him between his hands and tossing his foe high into the air - and leaping immediately after him. They soar for what seems like hours, but is in reality - as much as there is reality in the wyld - only moments seizing his opponent in midair, Zephyr stands atop a protruding cliff-edge, gazing over the Wyld as far as the eye can see, holding Jubal under his arms and staring out over the terrain, feeling as if some great primal rythm were stirring in his bestial heart. Finally, he grips Jubal tight and roars in a voice of thunder. "Behold the circle of DEATH!"

And with that, Zephyr casts Jubal back down to earth, chasing him all the way and battering away at the wyldling's flesh with a ceaseless cavalcade of silver fury and blazing claws.


Attacking. Hard.




Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)


War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 29 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty + 5 Bracers)
Damage: 28L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons) +5 Bracers +5 Tiger Style)


Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)

No penalties, thanks to Lunar Fury.



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

(Parry is 13 Currently)

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 [/]
-1 [/][/][/][/][/][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])



Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 2/21
Peripheral: 0/52
Committed: 19 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 15 to Charms)
Willpower: 4/8

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory sighs and agrees, taking the Shaper's lamp by the handle.

"Real or not, if your abilities are legitimate, then duty demands that my last wish be made with care and consideration. I must use it to Creation's boon. With my apologies, Shaper, your bondage will be lasting at least another hour. We should find Zephyr and Watcher. I feel...uneasy."

[The Demented One]

Ivory Eyes and Yomiko

"Oh, I'll live." pouts the Shaper, clearly conveying that no, he cannot live with this thing, and why would you even say that you're just mean. But Ivory Eyes hefts up his lamp, and he cannot help but follow its irresistible pull as the trio of Exalted women venture off into the Wyld, crossing sideways between waypoints to reach their companions. It is not long–strangely soon, indeed–before you reach the domain of Jubal, surveying the gorge-turned-jungle where he hunts. It strikes you as particularly odd that it is broad day all around the canyon, yet blackest night within it, a pillar of darkness stretching up to the heavens. Also, the title of the Emanation that dwells within is apparently:



J bal the unter
The onquest Blade


Odd, that.

Watcher and Zephyr

As Zephyr pummels Jubal into the ground, beating again and again at the cosmic demigod, the Sword Emanation finally shuts his mouth. No more coyness, no more banter, no more of that babbling nonsense. Granted, it's not wholly voluntary on the raksha's part, and granted, it couldn't quite be called shutting up, properly, and granted, Jubal's tongue is currently writhing in Zephyr's hand, but still, it is good. No one likes him anyone. Jubal rolls on the ground in pain, blood leaking from his mouth, and his eyes, and probably whatever stupid faerie organs he has. He doesn't look terribly happy.


Battle!

Tick 26: Watcher
Tick 27: Jubal the Hunter
Tick 28: Zephyr
Tick 33: Yomiko and Ivory Eyes arrive


Zephyr

2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -3

Tick 26: Watcher

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher shakes his head as he walks up to the bloodied hunter. Why did it seem like everything they faced had to fight to the death? Was it just the way everyone was wired, or was fate playing a big joke on the four of them. It was getting really old.

"This did not have to be a giant waste." He says to Jubal. "If you had just accepted my terms, then you could still be a mighty hunter, and my companions would still be living. I take not pleasure in this, but you brought it upon yourself." With that, he points the vambrace at him, and lets loose a final volley. It was all a giant damn waste.

Same as before. Spending 5 motes on Cascade of Cutting Terror, and tapping my solar hearthstone.

Attack: [roll0]

Personal: 2/21
Peripheral: 17/50
Committed: 27

Willpower: 2/6

[x] -0
[x][x][x][x][x][x][x] -1
[x][][][] -2
[] -4
[] Incapacitated

[The Demented One]

"Your terms?" hisses Jubal, faking some semblance of normality. Watcher's glorious solar cataclysm has scorched him to the bone, an onslaught that would kill anything born of Creation. Only the sheer chaos of the Wyld holds him together, and he is not pleased. "I tried to bargain with you! A fair pact, a fae oath! And then you decided to just gang up on me, beat me down, completely ignore the plot! You were supposed to take the deal, that was the story!" He lunges for Watcher with one arm, stripped bare to the bone and tendons, and grabs him by the throat. The Nightbringer struggles, trying to kick off Jubal's chest, but finds no foothold. Jubal lifts him off his feet, and lets him hang helpless in the air. With the faerie's thick, meaty fingers squeezed around his throat, Watcher struggles to breathe...until he finds no more breath. Jubal flings aside Watcher's unconscious body, and rounds on Zephyr. "You're next."


Battle Joined

Tick 28: Zephyr
Tick 33: Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Jubal, Shaper


Watcher

Jubal's clinch deals 5 levels of bashing damage to you. Watcher is now unconscious.

Tick 28: Zephyr

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr growls, his eyes flashing as he sees Watcher fall. He stalks Jubal, moving like a hungry tiger towards the faerie... and then he strikes. His grip is like the crushing depths of the ocean, his rage like the heat of a fire-mountain. He looks Jubal in the face as his silver claws dig into the faerie's flesh, and his expression mirrors the faerie's hatred.

"No... You're next. I was going to give you a quick death... but for that..."

Zephyr roared again, directly in Jubal's face. He jammed his thumb up under the Hunter's right eye until it popped from it's socket. Popping the orb into his mouth, he grinned, showing the Fair Folk a momentary vision of his own eye clenched in Zephyr's silver fangs before crunching down on it. The vitreous jelly tasted sweet and tangy - like the dreams of lost children with overtones of sunset and lost memory.

"For that, I will teach you suffering."

Zephyr buried his face in Jubal's body, tearing chunks of flesh from his living form, tasting the wyld-juices dribbling down his chin. Fingers. Soft, squishy organ meats. A tongue. A second eye. Zephyr pinned the Great Hunter to the ground, letting him feel every snap of the teeth and grind of the bone as the Full-Moon devoured his foe alive.


Om Nom Nom Nom!

Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)


War Form (Claws of the Silver Moon)
Accuracy: 29 (2 Natural + 7 Dexterity + 7 Dexterity (Claws) + 5 Martial Arts +3 Specialty + 5 Bracers)
Damage: 28L (7 Strength + 7 Strength + 2 (Claws) +2 (Talons) +5 Bracers +5 Tiger Style)


Attacks are at speed 4 (thanks to Wasp Sting Blur) Rate 10 (Leopard Atemi). Overwhelming 6. Piercing.

Attacks: (Notes: All 10's rolled for damage count twice thanks to Ogre's Caress. 1 Free success thanks to Fury. All attacks are ignore armor completely and are Overwhelming (6) and 3 dice of damage are automatically converted to levels of damage. Damage is Lethal.)

No penalties, thanks to Lunar Fury.



Attack 1: [roll0]
Attack 2: [roll1]
Attack 3: [roll2]
Attack 4: [roll3]
Attack 5: [roll4]
Attack 6: [roll5]
Attack 7: [roll6]
Attack 8: [roll7]
Attack 9: [roll8]
Attack 10: [roll9]

Defenses (All penalties reduced by 7 thanks to Golden Tiger.
Dodge DV: 7 (8): (5 (7) Dex + 3 Dodge +5 Essence) = 13(15) /2
Parry DV: 9 (10) (13): (5 (7) Dex + 5 Melee +5 Defense +3 Specialty (+5 with Form-Type)) = 12(20)/2

(Parry is 13 Currently)

Soak:
Natural: 2(3)L/4(7)B
Armor: 10L/8B
Bonuses in War Form: 10L/10B
Total: 23/25B

Hardness: 2B/2L

Health:

-0 [/]
-1 [/][/][/][][][][][][][]([][])
-2 [][][][][][]([][][][][][][][])
-4 []
Incapacitated []
Dying [][][][][][][][][]([][][][][][])



Mental Defenses
Dodge MDV: 5: (7 Willpower + 1 Integrity + 2 Essence) = 10/2
Parry MDV: 4 (4 Charisma + 3 Presence) = 7/2

Essence
Personal: 2/21
Peripheral: 0/52
Committed: 19 (2 Silken Armor/ 2 Tattoo Artifact 15 to Charms)
Willpower: 4/8

[The Demented One]

"Oh, my head," grumbles Jubal. It's supposed to be funny, you see. On account of Zephyr having just eaten his head. Om nom nom. You see?


Wyld Fact: Raksha have a terrible sense of humor. He could have at least said something about quitting while he was still ahead. Or maybe something about losing his head, or...okay, I'll stop.

It is to this sight that Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, and Astra arrive as they scrabble down the cliffs of the savanna-forest-thing. Zephyr stands over a mutilated, maimed thing, his mouth dribbling bloody gossamer. Watcher lies prostrate, either unconscious or dead. The Shaper bubbles up behind them, his crystalline structure fraught with concern, somehow. "Jubal, are you okay? You look bad, brother. Are you taking your medicine?"


Battle Joined

Tick 33: Zephyr, Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Jubal, Shaper

Zephyr

3-die stunt, 6m or 1p

DV -3

Tick 33: Zephyr, Yomiko, Ivory Eyes, Astra, Jubal, Shaper

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Not having a much better sense of humor than your average Raksha, Zephyr stands, smirking. "I just gave him a healty dose of Vitamin Z." he quipped, spitting out a bloody gossamer gobbet to splat wetly on the ground. "See to Watcher and the others, quick - I was just finishing with this one." He snarled, planting his foot on Jubal, staring at him as if daring him to try to get up.

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory Eyes hefts her Metasorcerous Vajra in her left hand and raises her arms skyward as she enters, observing Watcher's fallen body. A cruelty enters her demeanor and four bright arms of golden Essence flare to life, rendering her a glimmering goddess. One of these new limbs takes the Shaper's lamp in hand as another searches out a small, crystal phial. Yet another arm removes its stopper as the last removes a gilded charkram that glistens like a dream from her satchel. A sword emerges from the phial, a shape of pure sunfire that Ivory grasps tightly in her right hand. How much she must look like her patron: six arms each bearing a small token of her own craft.

Her wings flap and she rushes towards the Raksha. The Essence-arm that holds her chakram pulls back and lets it fly for the faerie even as Ivory rushes forward, sword in her hand cutting through air with weightless ease.


5m to activate Ivory's Arms
Her arms take the action to uncork her Sorcery-Capturing Phial and she spends a point of Willpower for her Spirit Sword
Ivory's attacking with the sword herself (no MA penalty) after she chakrams him with her arms. Channeling Compassion.
No charms activated. For obvious reasons.

Attack with Chakram:
[roll0]
Speed 4, Damage 4L

Attack with Spirit Sword, which ignores all armor not made of the Magical Materials or using committed Essence:
[roll1] + 4 Successes
Speed 4, Damage 9L

Essence ●●●●●
Personal 22/22
Peripheral 19/35
Glory 10/10
Committed: 10 (Vajra), 8 (CRP)

Willpower: 5/7

Dodge DV: 5

Health:
[ ] -0
[ ][ ][ ][ ] -1
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -2
[ ] -4
[ ] Incapacitated

Magic in effect:
Chaos Repelling Prana
Anima 11+

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Invincible Maiden finds herself knee-deep in her own denial. Bodies strewn all around... the shapers, Watcher... No, they were just unconscious. They had to be! She rushes to the bodies of the men and women Jubal had slain pre-battle. The perfect gashes in their necks not unlike many she'd left in creatures of darkness, and her heart sank once she turned her gaze to Watcher. "No!" She rushes toward his body just on the edge of the Wyld-repelling aura and checks him over. He's hurt, but he's still breathing, he still has a pulse. Relief comes over her, sorrow still stuck to her for the lives already lost but knowing not all have perished was consolation.
She hefts him up and walks back to where the aura still stands along with her sister, no doubt in confusion. Yomiko smiles at her, "Stay here please, Konoko? I have to do something." Her anima then flares, golden fire rimmed with crimson and fiery wings bursting from her back as she flies onto the caption. Her swords are drawn and the look of concern that was upon her face is now that would strike fear into any who know her well enough. "Is it dead?"

[The Demented One]

"Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm definitely dead!" confirms Jubal. His body suddenly vanishes into the soil with a whumph, a tombstone appearing over the newly-dug plot. Here lies J bal the unter, The onquest Blade. reads the slate of granite, embellished with friezes of the raksha's greatest conquests, and also him getting his face eaten by Zephyr. "Wait, what? Why is my epitaph mispelled? Maaan, this is the worst death ever!" complains the definitely-not-alive-any-more-and-going-to-posthumously-acquiesce-to-your-demands-so-please-don't-dig-me-up-and-stab-me-with-daiklaves raksha.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr looks down at the ground with the face of someone with a foul taste in their mouth. "If our friends cannot be helped, I'm going to dig you up and defile your corpse in ways you can't even imagine." the Full-Moon says in a low, menacing growl.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko's face remains stony for just a moment, but she can't escape her soft heart, and it isn't long before her demeanor is that of amused pity. It is an expression she gave Nhogg upon his death-bed. "It was all you deserved, J'bal the Unter." She points her daiklave at the gravestone and raises her voice, "We can come back at any point, and I'm quite good at cutting up those like you! You'll surely act with a bit more tact should more like us pass through here... RIGHT?" Her eyes widen slightly with the last word, though not as furious as the last time, she is still not so happy with the Raksha.

[The Demented One]

"Yes ma'am! That is the thing that I would do because I am dead and dead people are not impolite and totally agree with whatever your plan is and please don't stab me!" pleads the ex-Jubal. He certainly seems to have no trouble holding himself together now that several powerful women are waving around magical swords.

The Shaper's spheres cascade over to the "tomb" of Jubal. "He's dead, Jim!" he confirms, prodding the headstone with a tentacle. That is not how science works at all, but whatever. "So, it looks like we're all in agreement. Time to get the family together!" One tentacle whips out a comically oversized dinner-bell, and begins to ring up an awful clangor. Honeyed Words Speaker appears in a cloud of violet butterflies, silencing the bell's clapper with her hand. Next comes Nhogg's ever-talkative corpse, dropping with a thump into a new-sprung grave besides Jubal's.

The last to enter takes no form, no body. She is only the rustling of leaves, the swaying of branches, the voice that speaks from the boughs. You feel her as a presence, and she speaks to you in strange rhyme, deranged couplets and catalectic thoughts.



Semiramis
The Whisper in the Leaves


"Good mourning dove into the water, water, everywhere you look lovely to die my pretties! You want my heap of ants marching on and on a boat, my mother over the sea you've all agreed? If all of me is on my face and not crooked cracked crinkled then we can go to tea to die and heap hope have you!"

[GryffonDurime]

"Oh by Autocthon, I hate the Wyld," Ivory says with an exasperated huff. She looks up to Shaper, who stares down with a vague expression of sadness. "Not you. You, I have grown to tolerate." He beams again and Ivory turns back to Zephyr, offering him the lamp to touch with one of her Essence arms. "He grants wishes...in a way that I can not explain. Even the dead can be..."

Ivory aborts her sentence and looks about, eyes searching.

"Where...where are Gamine, Heron, and Meg?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr points to the fallen three, then kicked Jubal's grave "This little bastard did for them - we were talking, and he struck at the weakest among us like a coward."

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory stands there, stone-still with open and unblinking eyes. She plants her vajra in the ground to free her Hand of the Great Maker and approaches J bal's tombstone, gears grinding out sparks as white as white. Her anima blares, totemic raptor, but it too is limned with white--white jade white, Earth white, the white of good sand. Her bedecked hand clenches into a fist and strikes the ground at his grave's foot, a riot of Essence clambering forward to exhume his corpse. It piles up atop a small chalk crag, perfect whiteness and utterly, terrifyingly real. The dust of chalk is everwhere, settling on the ground of the Wyldland to speckle it with reality even as J bal's own corpse and crypt are shaken with violence by the transformation, bits of white stone lancing through the defiled faerie even as it all tears open to reveal him. Most offensive of all is what Ivory has laced within the pile of stone and chalk: at its heart, deep below, is iron.

Ivory's anima fades back to a golden aura, and the Hand slows to a clocktick-whir.

"Had I the energy and the time, I would grab you by the neck with gauntlets of burning white jade and cold iron. I would lead you across the border of my land and I would fly you up to the Pole of Earth itself and laugh at the nothing you became. Sea foam! Smoke! Scrapings of rime! Swear now, upon your Heart, that you will never again kill a creature of Creation-born, never again try their mortal fragility, or so help me--I will find both energy and time enough to do what I have said."

[The Demented One]

"Cripes!" swears Jubal's corpse, feeling the full brunt of Ivory Eyes' wrath. Whatever in him sought death before has been gouged out by its cruel proximity. "I swear! I promise, I promise, I promise!" Pathetic mewling, pathetic surrender. But Astra is not satisfied. She comes up besides Ivory Eyes, and stabs the moonsilver spikes of her war-fan deep into Jubal's grave. "That's not how you promise. Say it. Say it, and mean it." Despite corpses being well-known for not being able to clear their throats or talk at all, Jubal clears his throat nervously. And talks. "All right, all right! This do I swear, by the Cup and the Ring and the Staff and the Sword, to bind in my Heart 'till all things are unbound. No more killing, honest! Just stop with the stabbing!"

"Pity. He always was the runt of the litter." muses Shaper. He sidles up alongside Zephyr and Watcher, sidling as best as a congeries of infinite crystalline spheres can. It is not very well at all. "Now gentlemen–well, gentleman and other unconscious gentleman, it seems you've been a bit preoccupied with the putting sharp pieces of metal inside my brother business, but let me introduce myself. Wake up, you, lazybones!" Watcher feels a sudden wash of soothing pleasure, lulling him awake with a synesthetic kaleidoscope of prismatic colors, songbird calls, and floral scents. It's like living in the dreams of a six-year old girl. Pleasant, if mildly disturbing.

"Now, my name's the Shaper of the Ever-Changing, and I, well...oh, I'll just dig it up out of the archives." He plunges his tentacles deep into the fabric of the Wyld, pushing aside the chaos and the change until he can penetrate the shinmaic substrata of reality. After a few minutes of digging and scraping, he pulls out the post from before. You remember, the one with the song. He holds it up in his tentacles for Watcher and Zephyr to read.




"So don't sit there slack-jawed, buggy-eyed,
I'm here to answer all your exalted prayers!
You've got me bona fide, certified,
You've got an unshaped bound to your affairs!
I've sworn a powerful oath to help you out,
So what you wish, I really want to know.
You've got a wish that's Essence 5, no doubt!
So all you've got to do is rub like so, and oh!

Exalted Mistresses, have a wish or two or three
I'm in your service, Princes of Earth,
You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend
You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend,
You ain't
NEVER!
HAD A!
FRIEND!
LIKE!
ME!

"All right, so you got all that down. Now, let's hand out some free impossible wishes, shall we?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr scratches his chin. "I suppose the obvious 'wishing for infinite wishes is right out?" he inquires. He seems remarkably unperturbed by all of this - then again, given his daily life, that is perhaps unsurprising.

[The Demented One]

"Well my, aren't you Mister Savvy (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenreSavvy)? Nope, no wishin' for more wishes. I mean, you could wish to be able to grant wishes, but I'm afraid being stuck inside a lamp is part of that, and I doubt you want that."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr looked at his comrades, running his hands through his hair. "As much as I desire to use this... creature to enhance my own power, let us first see what we can do for our fallen comrades."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

After what felt like an eternity, but perhaps was mere moments of listlessness. Countless tropes and idioms coursing through her mind all at once, the feeling of one after the other in a terrible web of mind-shackling thrallhood. She snapped out of it before it had taken her completely and turned to Zephyr. "Perhaps with one wish you might bring them back about. Wish to undo any kill J bal the unter has committed against the children of Creation." She smiles and looks at her sister and then back at Zephyr, "It's worked once already." she whispered.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr nodded in agreement. Without hesitation, he adressed the genie "I wish to undo the harm Jubal has caused my friends - the wyld-shapers and the Watcher, and any other Children of Creation he might have hurt or killed as well."

[The Demented One]

"Well all right folks, sit back and watch. One, two, three resurrections, coming up!" A calamity of sparks and flashing lights, a cannonade of prismatic energies, a kaleidoscopic whorl of scintillating essence, a very impressive noun of synonyms for light, and they are returned.

The Red Sand Gamine, Silver Heron, and Iron Megera sit up, very much alive and not dead. "We're alive? We couldn't have survived that. The raksha...I felt it. We should be dead." concludes Gamine, surveying her unmarred flesh. "Yeah. But we're...we're alive now. Thank the God-Kings!" surmises Meg, genuflecting before Ivory Eyes with embarrassing humility. Silver Heron says nothing, but only approaches the newly-healed Watcher, nervously attempting to give the Nightbringer a hug.

"We've wastreled away on wishy-washy, splish-splosh schools of higher and higher death rates!" mutters Semiramis, still inexplicable of word. Even Astra can offer up no translation, shrugging in confused defeat. "Can king conga lines parallel evolution solutions of final velocity let us be going going gone? Boding bodkins fore and aft punctuation, let light take squish and squash our shells stuffed pastabilities. In ferns and furnaces, green grain gone sun, absent son, absent father, deadbeat dad, dead dad beat dead son, sunshine singing. Drink, drank, drunk your fill and fly flee flay us to create creation?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko listens to the strings of words that flit through the air and into her ears. She then smiles and replies politely, "I could not agree more, most gracious Semiramis. Let us all move as close to Creation as you are so able." The Wyld seems to have had an effect on her...

[The Demented One]

Astra boggles at Yomiko, not quite sure how the God-King pieced together the Unshaped's babbling. "Hey! I'm the guide here, I know the Wyld better than everyone! Except the raksha! Semiramis is saying...she's saying that thing Yomiko thinks she said." She pouts, but only to cover up her infatuation. It's a shame her totem wasn't a turtle–she's really awkward! She makes an awkward face–the awkwardest face!–and tries to find something to hide behind. She does not. Poor, awkward Astra.

"Diminished derivates down counts and dukes and margraves gravid with clutching cloying clinging exes and oh's, my good great godlings tic'd and tac'd and turn to gold. Hopskipjump and away we whistle thistles and rustle the bristling briars from the rose and donna noblest of men mansion merchants chanting cheating chasing stags and stegosauruses boring us with details. Five, four, three, one!"

Whumph
Whumph
Whumph
Whumph
Whumph

is what it sounds like, the whole of the Unshaped uprooting itself and flinging the protoplasmic chaos through the Wyld. Each abrupt jaunt warps past journeys and waypoints, cheating the story to skip to its end. By the time the wayfaring Unshaped finally comes to a stop, you can see the city of Petal off on the horizon, a familiar sight once again returned to. Within, Lytek can easily be summoned up, called to perform whatever experiments he must upon the cosmic demiurge you have bound and bested. The only task that remains is imprisoning it.

"Will walls wandered it hurt our hats, hated darlings?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

The Full-Moon smiled. "I have a feeling this will end badly... but I suppose I might as well try..." he licked his lips and turned to the Shaper. "Very well - I wish to transcend my limitations. I wish to be able to fully understand and master the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation school of the Sidereal Martial Arts, as Lillith did in the First Age" He smirked, eyeing the creature. "And for my final wish... I wish for the Heart Grace of Semiramis!"

[The Demented One]

"Oooh, nice big wishes. Let's have us a training montage, boys!" The scene suddenly shifts through training that must take decades to complete, compressed into the span of mere minutes. Zephyr balancing upon a single leaf, floating across the face of the Western Ocean; Zephyr buried alive in a casket of orichalcum, breaking through it with his bare fists; Zephyr sparring with Ivory Eyes, dodging her most fearsome sorceries; Zephyr sitting in lotus position at the heart of the Omphalos.

And at the end, he feels enlightened, a new realization budding within him. All essence is one essence, a singular pattern. He knows now what he will need to begin mastering the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation. He just wishes he knew why that music about the eye of the tiger was still playing.

"And now, snatch the Heart Grace from my hand, grasshopper! Err, giant tyrant lizard." One outstretched tentacle proffers a shimmering acorn, a humble nut whose only tell is the oily sheen of rainbows that limn its surface. Zephyr whips it out from the tentacle's coil, catching it between his fingers. He feels within it the will of Semiramis, and he can bend it to his own.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr shudders as he feels knowledge flow through him - and for some reason, feels the urge to put both fists over his head. Holding the heart grace of Semiramis in his hand, he looks at it with fascination.

"So small a thing, to hold the fate of us all." Looking around him, he addressed the Whisper in the Leaves Semiramis - wait here for a moment while we make the appropriate preparations. And by 'for a moment' I mean 'wait here, still, until I say otherwise.'

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory Eyes balks at her mate's audacity, offering Shaper's lamp to Red Sand Gamine. Her Essence-appendages fade and she looks back to Petal.

"I am going into the city to fetch Lytek. I will return as soon as I can."

With that, she is off, flying through the air. As soon as she enters the borders of Petal proper, she disappears like the shimmer of a mirage, reappearing at the stoop of one of her sorcery-palaces. Within, in a foyer adorned by jewels of every color, Ivory finds Ashrin pouring tea for the God of Exaltation.

"Your Unshaped is just beyond the city limits, Lytek," Ivory says with a practiced sort of familiarity, a smile curling on her lips. "And Zephyr holds its Heart's Grace."

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher stands to the side, deep in thought. Three wishes. Three chances to make his dreams come true instantly. But what dreams did he have, besides the obvious ones? Well, best start with the one that would make things easier.

"There's a vision that I have had for a little while now." He says to the Shaper, feeling the need to explain this idea to the rest fo the Circle as well. "A Corps of specially chosen mortals from all across the East, outfitted with abilities that would allow us to spread the law of Lotus to the rest of the East. A Corps that would inspire hope in the hearts of good men, and fear in those of criminals. I have thought over how with my companions, we can make this a reality. I always run into a problem though. I need a power source strong enough."

[The Demented One]

"You need power, boy? Well, stand back, 'cause I've got a surprise for you. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please give a warm welcome to her, straight from the depths of the Sea of Mind, only fifty-five millennia, introduuuuuuucing Astis!" A burst of cobalt fireworks in the depths of the Wyld, and a towering obelisk of basalt manifests, embellished with runes of flaring emerald green. Countless gateways of brass and obsidian adorn her base, each one a tablet on which is traced out the ancient history of Creation in the oldest tongue. "Now, Miss Astis, you've come a long way, so why don't we save the interview and get to the part where you get bound and broken and transmogrified into the power source of this young Lawgiver? What do you say we give you, I don't know, a lamp?" A hideous shrieking comes from within the monumental demon as it dwindles, bound and constrained into a simple lantern, glowing the green of a Malfean sun. "And there we go! One fetich soul of Cytherea, to go!"

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Why did it always have to come down to Infernals? Watcher hoped that with Ivory's help, they could end up making the light a bit more golden, but that was a concern to be addressed later.

"Alright, second. There was recently a plot in Lotus that had cultists torture and kill the Mighty. I need to know the name and whereabouts of the being that put all that together. The mastermind behind it, so to speak.

"As for the third wish. I want to you to bring back my Dia-...no." Watcher stops himself mid-sentence. No, that wouldn't do, she was at peace. If anyone deserved it, she did. He had something that she'd definitely want though. "The members of my Exodus Syndicate, they have practically put their lives on hold to help me. I wish for them only the best. I wish for fortune to befall them. Where or when, it does not matter. As long as the form brings them the most happiness."

[The Demented One]

"Well, let's take a peek into the old crystal ball, shall we?" The Shaper rakshahandles one of his own spheres, buffing it with one tentacle until it shines like a mirror. His tentacles writhe in countless sundry esoteric sigils and obscene runes, and he forebodingly forebodes Watcher's answer (with foreboding!) "Oh, oh my. Looks like whatever you've got, it's somewhere underneath that city of yours. Nice place, but you could really stand to clean out the basement. Looks like we've got some sort of...huh. I don't quite know what this is. Definitely doesn't have a name. Tentacles, though. If names were tentacles, this would put the Deathlords to shame. Gross!" If the tentacle monster is getting creeped out by the other different tentacle monster, it must be bad! Foreboding.

"And now how about I grant that last wish? It's sweet, you don't see wishes like that much. All that selfless sacrifice for your loyal men, just like in the good old days. So, let's pluck out all those deaths by accident...push out all those personal tragedies...tweak their target numbers a bit...make sure they make it through the can't-tell-you that's coming up...and just for the fun of it, why don't we slap an extra century or two on those lifespans? Mortality's overrated, after all. Now, make it happen!" Watcher sees the faces of each and every one of his agents flash before him in the glistering reflections Shaper casts, only barely distracting Yomiko from the appearance of her daughter. "And that's your three wishes, handsome. So, let's just wait for Ivory Eyes to get back!" He pauses. "I said, let's just wait for Ivory Eyes to get back." Ivory Eyes does not get back.

"Oh, come on!" A bolt of blue thunder flies from one tentacle, causing Ivory Eyes and Lytek to appear–quite confused–where it strikes. "Okay, on with the wish-making! Laser eyes, gorilla armies, the Sword of Ice, whatever you want! Just make it snappy!"

Semiramis chimes in on the Shaper's rant with her own bemusing babble. "All is gated gutted gotten hold of holes in theories, dear me my mine own and sell salacious latest hit me in the face fink frock you princesses! We're wanting a rotten rutting wrinkle in the water water everywhere, nor any dark as day!"

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory Eyes looks about, nervously. She had hoped to discuss the matter of her last wish with Lytek on her way back, but now that seemed far too public. In her mind, she can hear the voices of the Sorcerers of the White Room raising in caucophony, each advising some strange course. They all scream, trying to be heard, vying for her attention like a game show audience--a what? A what? She's been in the Wyld too long, she's hearing things and thinking strange words and there's too much to pick from: Iulus, father, power, hope, the Flower, Petal, fulcrums, magic, Yozi, Gaia, Autocthon, the Clarion--



"Fine! The Sword of Ice! Brigid's Sword!" Ivory says at last when Shaper mentions it, and the world inside her head quiets at last. The Book of Three Circles is still tucked beneath her arm.

[The Demented One]

"Ooh, nice! You know, I've been trying to figure out what that one even does. Digging up old books, browsing the forums, all that. So, let's get you your sword!" A puff of mildly colorful smoke appears in Ivory Eyes's hands, as the Shaper of the Ever-Changing puts forth a lackluster display of special effects. The sword she pulls out of it is almost too large for her to sensibly wield, though it fits her hand lightly as a quill. The daiklave's blade is all of clear crystal, or else ice honed to the strength of adamant. She gives it an idle swing through the air, and listens to the hum of unrealized possibilities in its music. But of course, the time for a thorough study must come later. First, Lytek's experiment–or rather...

"AND! I'M! FREE!" shouts the Shaper, his lamp bursting in a cascade of chaotic essence. He coils a tentacle around Yomiko, playfully lifting her up off the ground. "Come on, ask me for something outrageous, something crazy! Ask me for the Blessed Isle, go on! Well, too bad sister, 'cause you can't have it! I'm a free raksha!" Fine. First the Shaper's theatrics, and then Lytek's experiment. The mild-mannered god has been rather placidly ignoring the displays of wyld spectacle, instead setting up a queer apparatus of adamant tubing and moonsilver discs, a wondrous engine of divine invention. He pushes a discrete black button, and the whole contraption starts up with a grand cacophony of gears and grinding metal.

"I thought I'd give you a brief explanation of how this will work, Lawgivers, solely for your edification. It always is encouraging when one of you takes up the study of exaltation, after all. Inscribed upon this engine's memory discs is a perfect replica of our Infernal friend's exaltation, a motonic echo of the shard. It couldn't exalt anyone, of course, but all the information I need is there, locked away behind whatever tricky cipher the Yozis have contrived. And so, I just project it through the pattern lens, into the conceptual core of the Unshaped, and just wait it to iterate through all possible combinations. Shouldn't take more than a few hours; the design is based on the pattern matrices you Solars were using at the end of the Era of Dreams. Well, let's begin!

Lytek throws a lever capped with orichalcum, and the whole engine flares to life. A pulse of pure gold light discharges from it, flickering with jets of emerald-green sparks. The cascade of light strikes the Unshaped, and Semiramis screams with pain. The whole of the Unshaped, waypoints and emanations and all, collapse into a single point of prismatic brilliance. Yomiko can hear the distant screaming of Honeyed Words Speaker as she is dragged into the singularity, caught up in the vortex of infinite possibilities. Lytek dispassionately observes the read-out displayed on an adamant screen, nodding as the pattern engine outputs its results. "Excellent, this should be even quicker than I'd expected! Well done, God-Kings."

[GryffonDurime]

Some small spark of tenderness ignites in Ivory as she watches the Shaper disappear.

"Is...are they?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr stands before Lytek, recalling the words of his mentor, Tails of Resplendent Shadow. "Lord Lytek... I would ask you something - with Semiramis in captivity, is there aught else you can do to help my kin - the Lunars? We have suffered sorely from our sojourn in the wyld, and we lost much that we once were. With such a source of chaos at your command, can you fix what went awry with us, too?"

[The Demented One]

"Oh my, yes! I hadn't even thought of that. If you'll just stand right there, I'll take out the motonic transcriptor, and we can just use your exaltation as a template. Come now, we've plenty of time. A simple transcription will take only minutes compared to a complete mapping." Lytek submits Zephyr to an endless array of poking and prodding with various tools, all the way encouraging him in a vaguely grandfatherly fashion. The procedure takes hours, and Zephyr is thankful to be done of it, as Lytek files away a copy of his exaltation on a disc of crystal no wider than a hand's span.

The whole experiment takes perhaps half a day, as Lytek sits clucking over his machine's read-outs. The screens display a cryptic string of sigils and glyphs–perfectly pellucid to Ivory Eyes, but mere magibabble to the rest of you. By sundown, Lytek has concluded his tests on both Doctor Brass and Zephyr's shards, compiling the results onto a pair of memory crystals. "I must be going now, God-Kings." he concedes once his work is done, packing up the machine into elsewhere. "I shall have these results analyzed in all due time, all sorts of magic science to be done. Farewell!" He vanishes back to his sanctum in a sad flash of light.

Semiramis remains collapsed in a singularity of wyld essence, still numb from Lytek's pattern-assault on her. The nexus of prismatic energies revolves dumbly in the air, showing not the least sign of sapience.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr holds up Semiramis' heart grace, feeling the faintest twinge of remorse... before mentally slapping himself. She... it was a Raksha, for cripe's sake - a super raksha! one of the greatest enemies of creation, no matter how charmingly eccentric some of her shards seemed - and no doubt they would have happily eaten the souls of any of them - and indeed, Jubal did his best, even killing three of their friends! He had nothing to feel guilty about. Nothing at all.

He looked at his friends, shuddering a little "Are we ready to return home? Even I am beginning to long for the feel of real, solid Creation beneath my feet again."

He turned to Ivory Eyes, holding out the Heart Grace of Semiramis to her "I have no idea what I'd do with this... and there's none I'd trust more with it than you."

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory takes the acorn with sad, wistful eyes and turns from Zephyr to the singularity. "There you go again, thinking you're just a warrior. You know exactly what to do with it, if you'd stop and think for a moment, Zephyr Scales-of-War," she says, and her rasp croaks a bit towards the end. "It is the core of a being. You hold it's heart and it's will. And right now, it doesn't look to be anything." She raises it up almost to her lips and whispers to it, clearly so everyone can hear: "By your Heart, be well Semiramis. Thrive. Return to the depths of the Wyld until we call upon you, and do good among your kind. Choose your stories to spread Virtue among your kind, however you may understand it. Cultivate within yourself a glorious tale of Compassion and protection."

Ivory looks to the singularity expectantly and then back to the acorn. She offers it to Zephyr, making it clear that she will not accept refusal. "Too much of Semiramis is a warrior to rightfully be mine. Consider it an investment in a story that may one day be worth telling," she says, offering him a small smile.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr takes the tiny thing in his hand, looking at Ivory Eyes with a strangely unreadable expression on a face that normally shows his every thought. At last, he nods, taking it and tucking it away in a pouch that forms at his belt - a pouch that holds the acorn safely somewhere beyond everywhere and everything before disappearing once again. "A remembrance, then." He says at last, a smile forming on his face. "A promissory of tales yet untold and stories undreamed - A glimpse of the horizon's horizon and a seed from beyond the fields we know. "

He turns, looking over his companions as he sets his face homeward. "Shall we?"

[The Demented One]

As Ivory Eyes commands, the singularity of chaos unfolds, expanding once more into its full glory. You see all five of its Emanations, bidding you a farewell. Dead Nhogg is stony still, unresponsive even to the agony he has just been subjected to, while not-quite-dead Jubal, escaped from his grave disguise, looks at you with pure murder in his eyes. Honeyed Words Speaker glances sadly at Yomiko, and then away, whether from the torment inflicted upon her or else the pain of losing her newly beloved. She leans against a sphere of the newly-freed Shaper, whose alien expression cannot be read at all. Semiramis herself still remains invisible, only a voice on the wind as the Unshaped vanishes once more into the depths of the Wyld, fleeing to heed Ivory Eyes' mandates.

"Oh I obey the baying hound me to the end of the song sing fling throng of gleaming opel gel hell is this my hell I don't know no no no we will not let you go away why wilt withering to rule them all?"

And then she is gone.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"Yes, we should be going." Watcher says, picking up the glowing green lantern. "Although, as odd as I find this statement, I do not completely regret this mission."

He wants to laugh. He looks at the lantern and smiles. Here he was, holding the refined soul of one from hell, about to start the next big step towards his ultimate goal. The funny part, at least to him, is that he wouldn't be able to go it alone any more. "Ivory, you seem to be the expert on all things magical." He hooks the lantern to his belt. "I believe I will need your help the most for this."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko felt sorrow tugging at her yet again. For every iota of affection that was felt for her, she could not help but feel in turn. There were other things to tend to beside heartbroken, enraged, dead and joyous raksha. Yomiko took the small velvet box from one of the invisible folds in her armor and opened it with on hand, revealing the Ring of Being Astra had wished for earlier that day. She approached the Lunar with a smile and leaned in to whisper something in her ear, showing the ring to her.

[The Demented One]

"Bwuh." blurts Astra. "Yes!" She is a ball of hands and arms and elbows and knees as she assaults Yomiko, leaping on her in a Relentless Lunar Hug. Her gossamer dragon, still floating overhead with Joyous Provocation chained to its horns, dips and weaves through the air, mirroring her happiness. Astra blushes red, then emerald, then indigo as she squeezes Yomiko tightly, shapeshifting out of pure happiness. Elder Konoko gently assists the two to remain standing, smiling for her sister's happiness. She has been uncharacteristically silent, stricken dumb with awe at her own resurrection and return to her sister. Once Astra notices the rest of the God-Kings waiting, though, she slips off Yomiko, gently laughing. "Oh. Hey, everyone else."

And so you return to Lotus in triumph. Zephyr holds the Heart of Semiramis, a tiny token signifying control over the whole Unshaped, while Ivory Eyes carries the three books of sorcery, and the puissant Sword of Ice, her treasures threatening to spill out of her lap. Watcher carries his emerald lantern, its flames burning with raw primordial essence, the power to forge a mighty mortal Corps. And Yomiko holds in hand that of her new bride, the luminously smiling Astra. It is with sadness that some of you leave the Wyld, and with relief for others. But all of you can agree that Bearhive was awesome. You should invite him to live in Lotus.

As Ivory Eyes lunges for the small gossamer wasp clinging to the inside of Watcher's coat, silencing its buzzing praise of Bearhive with the tip of her newfound Sword, the Dragon Rail enters Lotus itself. Its doors slide open, and you once again set foot on the soil of your kingdom. Though it is still evening, the streets are lit by luminous staves set into the ground, carved from the luciferous wood of the wondrous trees shaped in Petal. Men and woman walk the streets in their finest attire, suits of immaculate tailoring and dresses of spectacular elegance. All hail you as you pass by, raising up a hand in worshipful praise. They speak a phrase of Old Realm, a language newly spoken in Lotus. "Ave, Principia Mundi!" Hail, Princes of Earth.

You are saluted many times over as you return to the caldera-manse that has become the heart of Lotus's governance, finding that all has been well with the city-empire in your absence. Jubilant Dawn happily notes that none of the ambassadors to Lotus have attempted any more drunken murders, and that he has been able to scale himself back to a mere eighteen-hour workday, with only a few cups of rice-espresso needed to stay awake. But not all of your greetings are so cheerful. Captain Transval approaches you, carrying a small cask of mahogany. "Principia. We have received word from Thorns."

He leads you into a small chamber, set in a niche of the caldera-manse. An attendant follows him, a young soldier in the livery of the Perfected Lotus Regiment, the elite martial artists trained under the Dragon-Blooded general. He closes the windows with a sweep of his hands, a convenience now common to Lotus, and sets the cask down on the rough-hewn stone table. "We received an envoy from Thorns, bearing this amulet. I had my sorcerer-engineers examine it. Darkness triggers it." He opens the jade latches of the cask, revealing a half-disc of anthracite, dark even amid the darkness.

An inky blackness billows out from within the crescent disc, spilling into the room. It shapes shadows into appearance and image, as the magic lanterns project images on light in the theaters. Amorphous shadow soon takes on the shape of a young, handsome man–or rather, one's ghost. He is attractive enough, his face kind and pleasant-seeming. "Greetings, God-Kings of Lotus. I regret that I could not make this meeting face to face with you, but I am told you have gone off on adventure. Oh, how I envy you! But let me be brief. I am the Mask of Winters, the Lord of Thorns. I come before you bearing a gift, and an offer."

"The first is knowledge. I have kept a close watch on the city of Lookshy, of course, fearing their grand army. But it seems I was not the one who should have feared. My intelligence reports that Lookshy has been staging field operations, training drills for war. War on the Blessed Isle. I have seen their scheduled deployments, and they plan to mount a full-scale assault on the Realm by the month of Ascending Wood. I have no intention of being caught up in the internecine strife of the Dragon-Blooded Host, but I suspect foreknowledge of this would be more valued by you. Consider it a token of cooperation."

"The second point, of course, is my bargain. I have heard rumor of your shaping-complex, your city on the Wyld. I would wish to negotiate the export of certain goods from Lotus, given your consent. Certain consumable goods and exotic substances, of course, but also artifacts for the general industry and luxury of my own kingdom. If you agree to this bargain, I would only naturally submit all schema and designs unto you for your approval, as is only polite. And in exchange for opening such trade, I would lend out to you the services of a circle of my own Exalted allies. In loyalty and skill both, I suspect you would appreciate them in the coming war. I await your response, ever amiable."

The ghost bows before you, and vanishes. Captain Transval commands the windows open once more, flooding the room with the evening violet. "The Lord of Thorns gave no indication to the date of the attack, but I suspect it will not come any later than the fifth day of Ascending Wood. The Immaculates hold that as the feasting day of Tachi-Kun, God of Warfare on the Blessed Isle, and the Seventh Legion would not allow the Realm to propitiate him before they begin their attack. That gives us three months before we can anticipate the first strike–assuming we aren't being deceived. I've taken the liberty of beginning a training regimen for the army of Lotus, drilling in them in anti-warstrider and anti-airship combat. I've also begun training them in combat against the undead. The Mask is telling the truth, as best as our analysts can tell, but I can't trust him, God-Kings."

The Dragon-Blood looks up at you, his face a mask of composure. "What would you have me do?"

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"We should warn Roseblack." Watcher says, turning to the Circle. "If this Mask of Winters is right, she will want to know about something this major."

"More importantly, though, we need more intelligence regarding Lookshy. What their plans are, what specific resources they have. Give me enough time to get my Syndicate up to speed, and I can be on my way there before dusk."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr growls slightly, staring at the image as if he wishes he could reach through it and crush its source into a gooey paste between his hands. A Deathlord bearing gifts... I trust that about as far as I could throw the Imperial Mountain

He looks at his companions, his Resplendent clothing almost unconsciously shifting into a full, immaculate silver dress uniform, complete with designs appropriate to a Lunar general of the First Age. Squinting at the image, he addresses his companions Mmmm... I've no doubt the corpse-buggerer is telling the truth. The question is why now? Do they simply think the Realm weak? Or is Mask of Winters prodding at them from behind the scenes? No doubt that death-loving monster would just love to see slaughter on the scale that such a war will bring.

He rubs his temples. By Luna's blood, he can't even leave for a few days without half of Creation trying to tear itself apart! as if they didn't have enough enemies already.

"I think you did the right thing, Transaval - we need to ready ourselves. But I also say we dispatch diplomats to both the Realm and Lookshy - If this war goes forward, I have no doubt we'll have dozens of other powers looking to use it to their advantage to wreak all manner of havoc on creation."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko was never the most practical or wise of her companions, but she was indeed rather imaginative. Imagination in unison with the power of Exaltation could cause her to jump to conclusions, but conclusions that many were likely to consider. She looks away from the shadowy figure as the lights spill back into the room. "Such a vile creature... he may be speaking the truth but a Deathlord's motives are always clear." She spits the title out like weeks-old meat. "...He wants to escalate a war between the two most powerful nations in Creation into a war between the most powerful three!" It is clear that the idea suddenly crept to the surface of her thoughts. "The three of us at war would surely break Creation apart entirely!"