[Exalted 2E] The Gold and Silver War IC

[Valgunn]

Five Hundred Years Ago

The moon hung in the sky as four figures arrived one by one on a rocky outcropping surveying the land stretched out before them. In the distance the bubble of a nearby river added sound to the sombre gathering. The first to arrive was a man dressed in a long green cotton shirt, and leather trousers and arm guards. The second was another man, this one equipped for battle in black jade lamellar armour trimmed in white fur. The third to arrive was a woman dressed in elegant white silk trousers and shirt trimmed with black and emblazoned on the back with some occult symbol. The fourth, and final, to arrive was a man also, and he was dressed head-to-toe in a huge black cloak that seemed to swallow the light around him.

The assemblage stood in the same silence they had arrived with for many minutes as the moon watched them, and waited. When the silence was broken it was the man dressed for battle that spoke. His voice was low and coarse, like the grumble of a well-stoked forge. "The agreement holds. If you choose to leave now, you will not be expected to stand and be counted at the end." Though it was clear his words were meant for the other three in attendance his eyes, face and body never shifted from it's concentrated vigil over the lands before them all. The three figures stood, and for one long minute nothing was said as each was lost in their own thoughts.

Then, without warning, the man dressed in green cotton burst into laughter. The man dressed in jade turned and glared at the man in green, but that only started the other two laughing. Soon the rocky outcrop was alive with the sound of laughter. "And what would we tell our families if we did leave? 'Oh, we've decided not to help our father in his time of need, now give me a hug!'?" This came from the man robed in starless night, and it prompted a fresh round of laughter as the man with the voice of a stoked forge ground his teeth. "This is serious!" He roared with restrained fury. "This isn't something you can laugh about and pat each other on the back about!"

"But it is! The situation is ludicrous! We have no choice in the matter, only decisions we already made." The cloaked man stepped forward and put a hand on the shoulder of the jade clad man he had called father while the other two wound down their laughter. "There was a choice, long ago, and we made ours, each one of us, gladly. Perhaps the weight of things hasn't hit us, and maybe we're not thinking about things as much as we should, but we all know that trying to unmake the choices of the past leaves you with less than you started with."

"Unless you're a hero in some myth, of course." The so far silent woman in white silk spoke which elicted a chuckle from everybody present. "Indeed, and we're not a band of heroes out of a story. We live in the real world, and we make the best of that." The look at the man's face, the father of all present, lifted, and for a moment he smiled.

25th of Descending Fire,
Three Days Before Calibration


It had been nine days since Mirris had come out from under the effects of the fire tree pollen of Chaya, but even before her first clear headed day for a month was over she knew she had been travelling. Not by the obvious signs such as the cage she was in or the covered wagon where the men on horseback who had taken her had put her cage. Mirris was a woodsman, and she knew every inch of the world around her for days in every direction so it was by the medley of bird song and the gentle hush of a river that she deduced she had been taken almost eighteen miles from her home.

The horsemen were at first amiable to her questions and demands (except for those to be let loose), and supplied her with reason and proof for her capture. During the frenzy the fire tree pollen brought they claimed she had stalked across the Sandy River, killed several people, and then stalked back to Chaya. They said they worked for a man whose son she had killed, a man of great influence in the nearby States of Cao. They told her she was being transported to the capital of the States of Cao where she would be judged and sentenced according to their laws.

After the initial contact though they withdrew into stoicism around her, and only spoke to reaffirm their story. However, over time the next nine days, as the story was repeated time and time again holes in it began to appear. Each horseman added details that hadn't been provided before. It wasn't long before the details piled up against one another, jostling each other as each time a new contradiction was added to the story.

Several days ago Mirris, convinced that the story was false and that either the man they claimed to work for was a liar or they were (or maybe both), made her choice; she was going to escape, and discover the truth for herself and anyone else who would try and call her a murderer.

With her mind made up and the horseman tired and complacent around the passive Chayan woman it was a simple matter to escape her captors and flee into a nearby wood – and thankfully take back her weapons they had so obligingly brought with them. Thankfully the wood was dense, and the horsemen were used to open plains so she easily outpaced them. Now though she is alone in a strange and unknown land as the dawn twilight approaches fast and Calibration approaching only slightly slower with only one name to go on: Muduagi!

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire, Dawn Approaching

With false light heralding the coming daybreak, Mirris took a deep breath and tried to stave off panic. Things were not as bad as they had been the day she'd met Azurejac... physically. She was outnumbered this time, of course, but her pursuers were men and beasts, and those could be fought.

But... she wasn't certain that she even should. Everything Chayan in her screamed against harming them, no matter what they'd done to her. Plus, they could be acting on false information, their mismatched stories notwithstanding. Perhaps this "powerful man in Cao" was lying to them. Perhaps even that man was merely misinformed and this was all some horrible misunderstanding.

They could be right. Everyone in this part of the world knew that there was nothing a Chayan wouldn't do during Fire Tree season, but few understood that a Chayan would do what they wanted to do, with no hesitation or remorse - after all, why regret anything done at the behest of their gods? No, it wasn't that she was physically or morally incapable of crossing the Sandy River and killing all those people, the problem was that she had no reason to be anywhere near the river - she should have been at home with her husband just outside of Jineah, working toward making a third child.

The thought of her family spurred her out of her reverie - she needed to locate civilization and clear this up. Someone in the States of Cao had to know what was going on, perhaps even this "Muduagi." And if no one did... then the men chasing her were bandits. She would turn them in and flee back into Chaya and be done with it.

Feeling better, she stopped to get her bearings. She would need to cross the Sandy river again to get home, of course, but for now she needed to find a foreign town. Judging the distance and using the growing grey light to help her see, she took off at top speed through the forest, weaving through dense sets of trees, pausing every now and then to listen for pursuit - of all kinds. Bandits weren't the only dangerous thing in these woods, after all. It was strangely comforting - she knew all of these places, knew that a stream was deceptively deep there, that that fragile-looking log could actually support her weight. She had already been familiar with the area beforehand, and some of the tricks that Azurejac had taught her hadn't hurt, either.

Mirris scowled as the trees thinned out - if the men had managed to get their horses through the forest, they would soon be able to make better time than she, but the hunter was soon rewarded as she caught sight of thin tendrils of smoke. Hoping that they led to Cao society, she took off once again...

[Valgunn]

Mirris

The sounds of distressed horses and the angry horsemen fill the forest drowning out the morning chorus of birdsong. The sounds of man and beast began to fade as Mirris made her way through the forest, as her skill prevailed over the horsemen who, from the sounds of their beasts, were struggling in the confined forest. As the trees thinned out so, finally, did the sounds of men and horses. Finally the din of their search for her gave way to the sounds of nature after roughly half-an-hours hard run through the forest. Sore, but determined, she took off into the rolling plains of the land beyond the Sandy River and the dominion of the Fire Trees.

After a few more minutes of cross country running, bringing her to a total of forty minutes of blessed freedom after days of interminable incarceration, she came to a river. It's burbling course ran along an almost direct path to the smoke she had spotted, and so without hesitation she followed its course.

After another few of minutes of hard running she caught her first glimpse of civilization. It was a hard dirt road running up to the river on the other side from her, over on an old red painted bridge, and then running alongside down the river in the same direction she was headed. It wasn't long afterwards that the river and road was surrounded on both sides by huge fields of dirt (the harvest having been reaped almost two months ago). The signs of civilization only grew after that. Soon she was seeing people out and about, and at the conclusion of her first hour of freedom in many days she came to a small village filled with people busying themselves with preparations for for Calibration.

[Jade_Tarem]

25th Day of Descending Fire, Dawn Arriving

Mirris slowed down to a normal pace as she approached the busiest part of town. She needed to find someone not absorbed with the local preparations for Calibration. After several unsuccessful attempts to accost passerby, she heads deeper into town, increasing the number of odd stares she receives.

She finally notes that while even the town guard is busy, at least some have remained on duty. After some short questions and shorter answers, she finally finds someone to talk to. "I am looking for Muduagi, sir... do you think you could help me?" Not knowing if Muduagi is the name of a man, woman, town, eating establishment, or concept, Mirris leaves the question as vague as possible.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

The layout of the village was quite simple. The road she had come in on lead straight through to the middle where a large oak tree gilded with charms and wards stood surrounded by a crude stone square. The square was in the process of being decorated, but despite the bustle of so many people everybody manages to avoid her. Except for one. A young man with green hair, reddish-brown skin, and dark eyes. It was clear from how every treated him and the horse-drawn wagon that he sat beside he was a travelling merchant.

“Certainly.” He said in a deep, clear voice as he stood himself up to a willowy six feet. He wore a bright, friendly smile on his face as spoke and appreciatively gazed at her up and down. “I'm Still Sky.” Up on his feet he offers his hand. “Muduagi?” Scratching at his youthful beard he gives the air a look of concentration. “Is there anything else you can tell me to narrow it down? It's been quite a popular name since Ekur named his son that a few decades ago.”

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

The hunter scratches the back of her head after shaking his hand. "Right... the ones who mentioned 'Muduagi' said that he was pretty important, so he might be the original, but I was only looking for him to try to find his father. I think I'm actually looking for Ekur, then. Do you know where I might be able to find him? Or even the original Muduagi?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

For a moment Still Sky's smile faltered. “Well that narrows it down a lot!” After a moment though his confidence is back. “Now, if I'm not remembering it wrong Ekur should be in the capital, and his family should be there so his son Muduagi is probably there too. It's all part of this big open-air festival they have in the streets of the city throughout Calibration to attract good spirits and scare away bad ones.” With a dramatic gesture he motions to his wagon. “We're only a day or so away, and I happen to be heading that way. Would you like to join me on the road, Ms.?”

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire, Dawn Passing By

"Why thank you sir, I'd be happy to!" She hops onto the wagon. "My name is Eve."

[Valgunn]

Mirris (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG53xs3Te0I&feature=BFa&)

“Ms. Eve! Excellent! And this here,” his hand pointing to the stallion hitched to his wagon, “is Straw.” Still Sky's face dropped into a mock serious caricature. “He's quite the stoic I'm afraid, so don't be offended by his silence.” After his joke he perks back up. “Well, I guess we should be off; the dawn has finally broken.” Lifting his hand up to shield his eyes Still Sky turned to face the red dawn that was now rising up over the far off forests closer to the Elemental Pole of Wood. With the sun gazing across the world at them both Still Sky stepped up onto the wagon with Ms. Eve. “Come on.” He firmly commanded as he gave Straw's reins a firm crack. With that Still Sky, Ms. Eve, and their trusty stead Straw began their journey to the capital.

The scenery goes by slowly as Straw pulls Still Sky's laden wagon. The huge empty fields of the Cao breadbasket felt fallow since the harvest were dull brown haze only interrupted by green tufts of strong and hardy grass. As the first few miles passed Still Sky took it upon himself to begin a short guide of Cao for Ms. Eve, citing that if she didn't know who Muduagi or Eruk was then she probably didn't know very much at all about the States of Cao.

He started, naturally, at the name. The States of Cao are called that because the land is divided into four parts. One for each of the three sons of Cao, and one for Cao himself. The legend goes that after Cao and his sons had conquered the land Cao brought his three sons together and gave them each a portion of it to rule as they wished as long as they, and their successors, swore fealty to him and his successors. Each agreed and picked a portion of the land to rule, and so they divided the land amongst themselves. Cao had already made his claim to the centre. Cao's first son took the lands to the south of his fathers, Cao's second and third son then divided the lands to the north of their fathers.

Today each state has a ruler, a Lord of Cao, and each has been, as long as anybody can remember, a member of the same family started by Cao five centuries ago. Each time a new ruler takes up his position after being chosen by his predecessor, he either swears fealty to the Great Lord of Cao, or, if he is now the Great Lord, the other three Lords swear fealty to him. This web of fealty - one person swearing fealty to another who has sworn fealty to another and so on - stretches down from them into even the lowest strata of government so that, ultimately, everybody is answerable directly to the Great Lord – but the Great Lord is also answerable for the actions of all who swear fealty to him. The current Great Lord of Cao is a man called Sin, and his siblings Puabi, Damuzi, and Neti are the three Lords of Cao.

Still Sky was a very patient teacher, answering questions, and repeating things when asked. As Ms. Eve listened to him it was clear to her that this youthful foreigner was wiser and more travelled than his age would indicate.

At about mid-day Still Sky brought the wagon to rest by the side of the road. The fallow fields had long ago given way to rolling hills of long grass that swayed in the intense heat of the day. Descending Fire was the hottest month of the year, and now the sun lorded over Creation from its highest vantage point the heat was at its most unbearable. “We'll stay here for an hour or so, let the noon pass by while we all cool off.” Hopping off the wagon as it settled underneath the shade of a tree Still Sky unhooked Straw from it. “Especially you, old boy.” He patted the horses neck and rubbed the underside of his mouth affectionately.

With Straw unhooked from the wagon and resting in the shade of the tree Still Sky manoeuvres himself next to Ms. Eve where he tried to strike up a more personal conversation. “So, Ms. Eve, why are you looking for Muduagi and his father?”

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire, Dawn Far Away

Mirris stays put under the shade of the tree - she already felt too hot outside the forest. When Still Sky makes his inquiry, she remains silent almost long enough to be rude, before saying, "There has been... a terrible misunderstanding, and I need to speak to Eruk - or preferably Muduagi, assuming the latter can be found. I do not mean to be blunt, but I would prefer not to speak of it."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“Well, if you don't want to talk about it to me then I don't want to intrude.” A moments silence follows as he settles himself down a little more. “I mean, if you can't talk about it to somebody who's taking you all the way to the capital then it must be personal. Not many people would do that, and not just because Calibration is only three days away. It's a dangerous world out there, and helping strangers always carries the risk of inviting disaster. Of course, I believe you should always help if you can, but then I'm not from around here.”


OOC
I'll be using this format to include things like rolls and the like, and I'd appreciate it if you used the same thing for my ease (if the game works out things can, and probably will, can a lot more complicated so little things like this will help me out).

Still Sky is using his three-dot Presence Ability (with a one-dot Guilt Speciality) and his four-dot Charisma Attribute to remind Mirris that he is taking a risk helping out a stranger and that some reciprocation isn't unreasonable. The Speciality comes into play as his social attack has a tone of guilt to it, so his guilt-provoking talents come into play here.

Rolling eight dice he gets a total of 4 successes (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3354959/). This is enough to get past Mirris' Dodge MDV and Parry MDV, so either she concedes the point (and has a new one-dot Intimacy towards Still Sky at which point she may feel like telling him, or not as you think is appropriate given her character, Intimacies, and Motivation) or she spends 1 dot of temporary Willpower to deny his charisma.

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire

"Oh, stop it. You're starting to sound like my children when they want extra sweets." Mirris pauses, unable to stay upset with him. Plus, she was putting him at some risk, although she was willing to bet that he was charming enough to escape punishment for associating with her. "Coming out of Fire-Tree Season, I was ambushed and kidnapped by a group of men who claimed to work for the father of "Muduagi," and they said that he was very important. These men also told me that a number of citizens, Muduagi included, have been murdered, and they believe I am responsible. Their stories didn't match, though, nor could they come up with a reason why I would be so far from my home to begin with, so I escaped from them - hurting none of them, I might add. I need to find Eruk and clear this up once and for all. Given that I have only the one source of information about Muduagi, it's possible that they are wrong or lying and that he is still alive. The path of my escape brought me to you."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

For a long and tense moment Still Sky lay with his back against the tree they were all taking shelter under. The cool shade of the tree branches covered his face in a mask of blackness. His expression was unreadable as the moment of silence passed into a second moment. “This quite serious.” He finally said before the silence of the first moment passed from the second and into the third. His voice was sombre and distracted as if deep in thought. Then a little, almost desperate laugh, escaped. “Oh my, I've really stepped into it. My little speech about helping people in need has really bitten me in the ass here, don't you think?” Another little laugh and his head lolls back and hits the tree-trunk with a little bump. “It doesn't matter though, speech or not it's what I believe, and what sort of man would I be if I didn't stick by my beliefs.” His head turns to her and his eyebrows raise in a querying expression. “Don't answer that. I haven't heard anything of any murders, especially not of somebody so important as Muduagi. It does make sense though. If his death, murder or not, became widely known people would take it as a bad sign. This close to Calibration... there might even be a panic if things aren’t handled right.”

His brow knits itself tightly. “You said Fire Tree season? That means you're from Chaya, right? No, don't answer that.” Another nervous habit emerges, the first she had seen in fact, as he begins roughly scratching and rubbing his beard. “I'll help you. I know some people in the capital, business mostly, but I'm sure that's more people than you know. I don't know if I can manage to get you an audience with Eruk himself, but I'll try and get us as close as possible.” Still Sky leans back against the tree, hard, and stretches out his long limbs. “Assuming you aren't some assassin tricking a nice man like me into helping you reach your target.” Almost as soon as he said it his hand raised itself up in surrender. “Just thinking out loud. Oh, sigh. I thought I was done with interesting times, too.”

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire

Mirris remains calm as he muses on the possibilities. "Chayans don't believe in assassination." At the awkward pause that follows, she adds, "I mean, we know that it exists, but that isn't how we solve our problems. For one of my people to just go and murder someone in another country would be almost unthinkable."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Still Sky's face contorts with conflicting emotions; feelings of happiness that she's being honest to him, but also concern that it wasn't something he could stop worrying about. “You had to say 'almost'?” His face lifts, as if remembering something funny. “I can't believe I just imposed myself on you like this by just assuming you wanted my help. I'm sorry, I do this a lot – not proving people innocent of murder thing, but when I see people struggling, or if I think they're struggling, I can't help but assume they want my help. If you want I can just take you to the capital, and then we'll part ways there, but I'd like to help if you'd let me.”

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire

"No no, help is fine." Mirris laughs. "But I don't have a lot in the way of goods on me that I can afford to part with, if you are expecting some kind of compensation. Perhaps if you stop by the Jinean Market at a later date, I could give you one of my crafts or pelts..."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Still Sky's hand snakes out and grasps hers firmly. “Then it's a deal.” He smiled and gave her hand a firm shake. “In exchange for one of your pelts I'll help you clear your name.”

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire

"A deal it is!" Mirris shakes his hand back. "I have a good feeling about this! Maybe we'll catch the real killer while we're at it. That would really be something."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

With the agreement struck they both settled down to enjoy the few hours of rest off the bumpy road and the hard wagon. Time flew in the shade of the tree, and soon the sun had passed its zenith and begun its slow descent into evening. Back on the road again the landscape slowly rolled by as mile after mile of rolling plains unfurled with each hour. But most amazing of all was the sense of peace. They passed through the occasional village, but everyone they met knew Still Sky so Ms. Eve didn't receive the same welcome she had before.

Like all times of peace this one too passed as the road became clogged with traffic as they entered sight of the capital of Akkad. A huge city built on the same site where an ancient city of the same name once stood, it's high walls and defensive towers present an intimidating image as Ms. Eve and Still Sky slowly make their way to the city gates after a days travel and over thirty miles of ground covered. The closer to the gate they got, the more nervous Still Sky become. His attention drifted from the road to Ms. Eve and then back to the road. It was as they passed under the stone arch of the city gate that he finally spoke to her. “Well, we're here.” He stated rather unimaginatively as he guided Straw through the packed streets lined, every inch, with buildings decorated in festive decorations. “I'll need to store my wagon and stable Straw before I find that man I was talking about, the one I think might be able to help us see Eruk. There's a Guild run common hall just along the north road off the main square. It's hard to miss with all the merchants milling about in front this time of year. On the opposite side is the flop house we'll be staying in, all the travelling merchants use it because it's the cheapest place in the city so you'll find me and anyone smart in the common hall. It'll take me an hour or so to sort out,” another wagon bumped into his. “Hey! Watch where you're going! Yeah, it's going to be hell sorting all this out and having to explain why you're with me... well, it might be a problem since I'm not a very good liar.”

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire

"Alright. I'll meet you there and then." Mirris hops down from the wagon while it's still moving, threading her way through the crowd.

The whole area felt so crowded and chaotic! Chayan towns were built to exacting geometric layouts that maximized space efficiency as well as placing an emphasis on being tidy and orderly, and there was, at the end of the day, a limit to how congested a given area could be. Here there was no such consideration given for personal space, but while the vibrancy was a bit overwhelming, she managed to absorb it with a grin. Even the danger of the situation didn't weigh her spirits down much. She chatted with merchants, travelers, locals, and even guards. Everyone who could afford to seemed to be brightly dressed - blues and purples predominated - although the clothing was more abbreviated than the long robes Chayans wore, and she wasn't sure how much of the festive coloring was special to the upcoming occasion.

Eventually, the press did become too much, and she sought a place to get away for a moment. In the forests around her home, that meant finding a secluded spot in a grove or grotto somewhere, but there was nothing like that here - any secluded area at ground level was already spoken for, either for the celebration or for shelter from the coming storms of Calibration.

In Jineah, one could climb up the town's walls, but once again she found Akkad different - armored figures patrolled, looking more professional than the average Chayan militia, and she somehow doubted they would let her run around up there. She finally found the perspective she wanted in the temple. It wasn't quiet - nothing inside the city walls was quiet - but it did remove the chaos to a manageable distance. It also afforded a breathtaking view of the city to rival the time she's climbed up the oldest oaks in her home forest, as the sunset illuminated the town. The buildings of Akkad tended toward ornate, multi-level structures with down-swept curving layered rooftops, each corner boasting a statue of a spirit or animal or gargoyle. Some of the architecture in Chaya was like that as well, but Akkad abandoned her homeland's slavish adherence to constructing along perfect geometric patters and her people's affinity for rhomboid structures. One nearby building was six-sided, some were even round. There was no clear division of 'zones' throughout the city - the "Market District" appeared to spiderweb out from a central area, with several subsidiary hubs elsewhere. Attempting to assign a distinct label to any other area of the city was an exercise in futility.

Two other things caught her eye - the first was the Redoubt. It was kind of hard not to notice it, as it rose even higher than the temple, seemingly watching over Akkad with the stern stability of a parent ensuring their children were staying out of trouble. The second was that the immediate area around the temple was absolutely stunning. Gardens predominated, with all manner of decorative flora found - flowering trees, vines, and bushes stood side-by-side with small-leafed trees that seemed to lose a few gold and ivory petals to the wind every time a gust rolled through, flickering through the city lights, which were lit one by one as the sun sank below the horizon. Eventually, she was looking at an expanse of tiny flames tracing the outline of the streets and walls, underneath a sky full of stars and the thinnest slice of the moon.

She wasn't even sure what they worshiped here, the view alone made her glad she'd made the trip.

Eventually, it was time. She made her way back through town, to the place Still Sky had spoken of, and there she learned what a 'flophouse' was. She'd likened it to an inn at first, but she'd been very wrong. The place was, simply put, a hole. A diseased, communal hole, for squatter goblins. What's the point of having money if you're going to live like this?

She nonetheless located Still Sky quickly, and made her way over to him and his new friend...

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“Ah, Eve!” Still Sky called to her as he noticed her, beckoning her over to a spare seat on the end of a long empty table. In stark contrast to the bustle outside the common hall was sparse in its inhabitants. Only herself, Still Sky, his friend, and a dozen or two others were in the hall. The high ceiling only enhanced the feeling of emptiness. “This here,” Still Sky continued as she sat down. “Is the most important person in all of Akkad, his name is Machow.” Laughs are quickly exchanged between the two before Machow speaks up for himself. “Sky, don't exaggerate like that.” He said, still chuckling. “I'm only the second most important person.” A fresh round of laughter begins but, thankfully, is brought under control quickly. “But seriously, Machow here is apprentice to the Jade Tome District's representative here in Cao. He's been stuck far from home for years now, so I bring him some keepsakes from Lagash when I make my trip there along with other assorted magical paraphernalia.”

“You also charge me through the nose for it.” Machow shoots with a glare.
“Hey now, I always give you the best price I can. I don't make a single dinar on the stuff I bring you, so don't take it out on me because Cao is raising their import taxes.”
“Fine. Fine! It's not your fault I'm stuck in this barbarian camp. But you didn't ask me here to just socialize.” A look of shock and dismay comes across Still Sky's face. “Oh, don't give me that. You have that damnable little smile you always get when you're about to ask me a favour you know I wont like.”
“That's a very specific smile.”
“Yes, well you've asked me for a lot, so much so I know that smile better than I know my girls,” his eyes turn to Mirris. “You know the rest.” Still Sky looks about nervously, his eyes drifting from Machow to Mirris and to his drink, in that order. With a subtle head gesture he tries to communicate that she should do something. A subtle head gesture doesn't provide nuance though, so what he could mean is up for interpretation.

[Jade_Tarem]

25th day of Descending Fire

Mirris looks back at Machow blankly. "The rest of what?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“He meant her lady parts.” Still Sky explained with an exasperated expression partly obscured by his hand. “He was implying he knew this non-existant,” “It exists!” “He was implying he knew it as well as he knew his ladies lady parts.” Still Sky picked up the mug in front of him and drained it into his stomach. “And I think it should be you that explains why we're here.” Machow looked at Still Sky, and then to Ms. Eve. Then a look of comprehension crossed his face and he let out a groan. “You got somebody else’s concubine pregnant?! Sky, this may be the single most stupid thing you've ever done, and I can remember that time last year with the fox statue.” The whole thing was far louder than Still Sky was comfortable with as he winced. The rest of the common hall seemed slightly closer now as many craned to listen in on the conversation.

[Jade_Tarem]

Scintillating Conversation

"I am not a concubine." Mirris said hotly, glowering. "And I am not pregnant. Probably. I'm certainly not a fox statue." Lowering her voice, she continues. "Still Sky here, who apparently leads a more interesting life than he lets on, has agreed to help me with some difficulties. Muduagi, Eruk's son, has been murdered along with several other citizens and a number of people think I am to blame. I would like to meet him to find out why, and what I could do to clear my name."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“That can't be right.” Machow said. “I saw Lord Eruk and his family enter the city, Muduagi included, just yesterday.” A great look of concern passes over his face and the face of Still Sky. “This is very disturbing.” Machow turns to Still Sky. “Do you trust her?” Still Sky nods soberly. “This doesn't make any sense at all, but I think I can help. I can't get you in to see Lord Eruk himself, but his brother-in-law, this cities high priest, is another matter. I will need the night to make preparations, but if I can get you two alone in a room do you think you're up to convincing him you're telling the truth?”

[Jade_Tarem]

Super Honesty Mode Engaged

"All I can tell him is what I know." Mirris shrugs. "It will have to be enough."

She finally takes a seat. "When will this meeting be possible?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“If all goes well?” Machow takes in a deep breath, his eyes starting off at nothing as he thinks. “Tomorrow morning.” He finally said with authority. “I'll meet you here tomorrow morning, just after dawn, as long as nothing goes wrong.” At this Machow gets up. “Now if you'll excuse me.” As Machow took his leave Still Sky followed him with his eyes, an expression of concern on his face.

“That shouldn't have been so easy.” Still Sky finally remarks after Machow leaves the common hall. The other inhabitants finally returning to minding their own business.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

"Why?" The hunter asks, stretching. "All he promised us was that he would try to get us an audience with a man who might be able to help. I'm just wondering what to do if it all falls through."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“Maybe.” Still Sky conceded as she leaned back on the bench. “I guess I'm just being a little paranoid.” The night encroaching even thicker several of the common halls inhabitants begin to leave, making their way to wherever they have to lay their heads down at night. “I just expected him to make a big production out of it.” A thoughtful moment passed on Still Sky's face. “So how was you're evening out in the city?” He finally asked, his face brightening at the distraction.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

"It was fantastic. I... wouldn't want to live here, but there was more to this city than I could have imagined, and I haven't even begun to fully explore it. The view from the temple was amazing..." The hunter launched into describing the many things she had seen and witnessed, from the spectacular glimpse of the thousands of tiny fires mirroring the heavens above to the funny baker at the edge of the main market.

Eventually, she grew tired. "Perhaps we should rest while we can. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. Where did you say our room was...?" Mirris got up, yawning. Tomorrow couldn't get here soon enough as far as she was concerned.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“Across the street.” Still Sky repeated as he stood up himself, and across the street they went. Up and down the long cobblestone road lanterns were lighting up a city that still hummed with people, though by now the street wasn't nearly as jammed with people as it had been on their arrival. Only a slow trickle of humanity ran down the edges of the street as the pair slipped into the flop house. Inside the long, cramped hallways were as devoid of life as the streets outside, and only the sounds, smells, and the occasional squeeze past somebody reminded them this building was still occupied. The rooms were equally cramped, and the two bed room Still Sky had gotten for them, devoid of a window, were no different. The only empty spaces were directly in front of the door and on one side of each bed. Sleep comes easy to the pair after the long day, and darkness envelops them.

Then, without warning, Ms. Eve feels a powerful hand close over her mouth and without thought her eyes fly open. Before her dressed all in black save for a red demon mask a woman is standing over her. In the masked woman's hand a wickedly sharp looking knife is held, and her other is clamped over Ms. Eve's mouth. The blade is held high above her, but her instinct immediately tells her the blades trajectory if it were brought down. Ms. Eve's eye spin over to her left where Still Sky's bed was and sees him sleeping soundly.


OOC
Oh no! A midnight murder!

The cautious masked murderer has chosen to grapple (clinch) Mirris, covering her mouth in the process, and then do her in while she's unable to call out in pain.

Because nether Mirris or Still Sky noticed the masked murderer her Join Battle roll sets the reaction count - normally the person who rolled the most successes would set the reaction count. The masked murderer rolled 2 successes (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3359367/) on her Join Battle roll, so the reaction count is 2. To determine on what Tick Mirris acts she must make her own Join Battle roll (Wits + Awareness), and subtract her successes from the reaction count. The lowest Tick you can act on is 0, and the highest Tick you can act on is 6, so even if Mirris rolls 4 successes she can't act faster than her assailent.

In this sort of situation there isn't much Mirris can do but struggle to break free of the clinch, but luck is on her side. The masked murder must flurry all her actions to maintain the hold she has on Mirris, so all her actions will receive internal penalties (a penalty that lowers the number of dice you roll) because she has to flurry holding Mirris and trying to stab her.

Please make your Join Battle roll (Wits + Awareness) in the OOC thread before posting.

[Valgunn]

Masked Murderer, Tick 0

If the silent assassin was surprised by Mirris waking she didn't show it. Instead holding her down with one hand, she heaved the knife down with soundless strength.


OOC
The masked murder flurries! Her first action is to try and maintain her grapple, and she manages to roll 3 successes (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3359411/). Her next action is to try and stab Mirris with her nasty looking knife, and she manages to roll 1 successes (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3359413/)! Oh dear, Mirris might be in trouble if she doesn't manage to break the clinch, but luckily she rolled 6 successes, so her Defence Values are applicable! The masked murderer's attack fails.

[Jade_Tarem]

Unmasked Potential Murderer, Tick 0

Mirris's eyes widen at the sight of her midnight assailant, and then narrow. Without even thinking, she swats attacker's knife hand aside, letting it fall into the pillow beside her head, and snaps a quick shot at her opponent's throat. While insufficiently well aimed to crush her windpipe, it did cause the other woman to back off enough that the hunter could get out of her prone position, and Mirris took advantage of that to roll out of bed and stagger to her feet. Rebounding off the wall and letting out a shout designed to wake Still Sky, she lashes out at the other woman with a powerful kick.

Mirris is going to kick after getting up (Tick 0 and Tick 5) actions.

Martial Arts + Dexterity: [roll0]

[Valgunn]

Masked Murderer, Tick 6 and 9

The mask cracked along the middle by the powerful kick from Mirris the woman in the cracked mask stumbles back and out of their room through the door she had left open, blood now flowing from under her mask from a probably broken nose. “Damn you!” She cried as she turned her back on Mirris and began pelting down the hallway off-balance from the blow to her head.


OOC
That terrible villain! She's trying to get away! She's using the Dash action, a Speed 3, -2 DV action that lets her run (Dexterity + 6 - wound penalties - mobility penalties) yards. That means she manages to run only 6 yards (or eighteen feet) each time she uses it. Since Mirris is acting again on Tick 10 this villain will be able to get 12 yards away! Luckily Mirris isn't wounded so if she gives chase she'll hopefully be able to catch her... admirably she'll be doing it all in her nightclothes!

To clarify, the assailant has ran 12 yards away (or 36 feet).

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris, Tick 10

Don't even think about it. Without hesitation, Mirris dashed out into the hallway and sprints after her assailant, not even caring about her relatively undressed state - the (relatively) abbreviated garments Chayans usually wore under the rest of their clothing would have to be sufficient, and it was still enough that she doubted she'd be picked up for public indecency. Whatever. I'm sure I've done worse during Fire Tree Month.

[Valgunn]

Mirris, the Chase (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n-w5T7gYNI&feature=related)

Tearing after her assailant Mirris was just in time to see her attacker leap through an open window. Rushing to the ledge she looks down and sees the masked woman hit the roof of the next building with a roll. With expertise the woman came out of her rolls and sped off across the mishmash of roofs. Then came Still Sky thundering behind Mirris while still pulling on a shirt. “What the hell happened? My gods, is that your blood?” His concern was obvious, but the masked assailant was already beginning to blend into the night. If Mirris expected to catch her, she needed to leap out of that window right then and there.


OOC
The terrible villain is trying to lose Mirris in the night! The masked woman is using her Dexterity plus Stealth to vanish into the night, but she's still off-balance from the blow to the head and she's leaving behind a trail of blood too which is represented by her wound penalty. With all that taken into account she only manages to roll a botch (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3359510/)! Oh no! Something terrible has happened and she's made almost no progress toward her escape at all! At this rate Mirris may just catch her without breaking a sweat!

This chase is treated as an extended roll with a culminative difficulty of 10, and a roll interval of one minute as the pair of you duck, dive, run, and so on and so on over the roofs of Akkad. This means that every roll represents one minute of game time, and that you need to roll 10 successes over the course of the chase to capture her (or to evade capture). In the event of a botch you lose the same number of successes as 1s you roll, but luckily for the assassin she hasn't got any successes to lose, so while she hasn't made any headway she hasn't suffered anything else.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

"No." Without any further warning, Mirris leaps out the window, rolling, and hoping that the citizens of Akkad were jaded enough that a nightclothes-clad woman chasing a bleeding woman through the city after midnight wouldn't be seen as too strange.

Pursuit! Dex+Athletics

[roll0]

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“What're you...” Still Sky gawked as Mirris prepared to jump. “You're insane!” He shouted after her as he slammed himself against the ledge, half dangling out as he watched her fly through the air and land on the rooftops. The assassin, still well within earshot of Still Sky turned and, despite the mask, gaped at Mirris charging across the rooftops after her with amazing speed. Turning around she leapt, rolled, tucked, and dodged her way across the roofs of Akkad again, trying desperately to get away from the irony of the situation.


OOC
And off she goes again, but now with Mirris in hot pursuit! With five successes Mirris is well on her way to catching the injured assassin, but that masked murderer isn't out yet! Drawing up on her reserves of will the woman makes tries to lose Mirris, and rolls another botch (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3359629/)! Oh my! It seems that kick to the face must have rattled loose more than just her nose!

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

Mirris ignores Still Sky's assessment of her mental health, instead focusing on the path in front of her. She darts from one rooftop to the next, vaulting over gargoyles, weaving through cords holding up paper lanterns, and using the trail of blood to stay on target whenever the assassin slipped from sight.

More pursuit! [roll0]

[Valgunn]

Mirris

With Mirris hot on her heels the masked woman becomes more desperate. Hurling herself across gaps she barely crosses, charging up inclines so steep as to almost become vertical. Her laboured breathing and the long streaks of blood paint an easy map for Mirris as she closes in.


OOC
Well, it looks like this chase is almost over! And our masked murderer, despite heaving herself all over Akkad, has rolled 0 successes (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3360843/), though it isn't a botch this time. Mirris is only 1 success away from catching the midnight assassin.

[Jade_Tarem]

Midnight escapades

With her attacker almost constantly in sight, Mirris spared a moment to consider how she would bring her target down - a mistake could lead to her attacker rolling right off the rooftops and breaking her neck in the street, which was not only a terrible thing to consider, but also supremely unhelpful.

After all, how would she get any answers from a dead woman?

Sprinting along a longer stretch of roof, Mirris spots her opportunity when her attacker attempts a jump that was a touch too ambitious. Struggling to get up, the woman is stopped cold as the hunter's weight lands directly on top of her. Mirris irritably grabs the assassin's wrist and hammers it against the roof until the knife drops from nerve-deadened fingers, then pulls it back and pins it to the woman's back and pins it there with her knee. With one arm trapped that way and the other stuck under her own body, the woman was effectively pinned.

Leaning over, Mirris hisses angrily. "Well, wasn't that fun?" She pauses for a moment, though. That *was* fun. Shaking the unbidden thought away, she began looking for a way to secure her new captive, but found none. The hunter shrugged and tore part of the assassin's clothing, using it to bind her hands together behind her back, before picking the attacker up in an over-the-shoulder carry and searching for a way down...

Chase Chase Chase Catch! [roll0]

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“You'll never survive!” The bound woman yells. “You have been marked! Yours will be the inaugural death of our apotheosis!” Ignoring the masked woman Mirris looks over the side of the rooftop garden she had finally caught her assailant on. Instead her eyes were drawn to the trouser-less form of Still Sky, his powerful legs carrying him down the ally leading to this particular building. His hands were waving in the air, and he was shouting something, but with the midnight murderer's incessant blabbering about how she was merely the first of many who would come for her Mirris couldn't hear him. “Our master will be free again, and the betrayers of his covenant will pay the price of their broken oaths and ill-gotten prosperity! The skyless night will fall, and we will-”

Then without warning the woman fell silent. Disturbed, but still relieved by the silence, Mirris turned her head to look at the woman on her shoulder. Her head was lolling to one side, and out of her chest protruded two perfectly straight arrows while a third protruded directly through her vocal chords. Quickly tracing the trajectory of the arrows she saw the archer responsible. Up on a building two roofs up stood another figure glad in black and a red mask. No, wait. As her eyes grew accustomed to the night the scant moonlight revealed the horrible truth that this man wore no mask. The horrible demonic visage was his own face, and on that terrible face a vast all-consuming grimace danced.

[Jade_Tarem]

Under dressed and under fire

Mirris blinks in shock at the new assassin, and the turn of events taken. She hadn't been kidding when she'd said that Chayans didn't believe in assassination. To run into two killers in one night was profoundly disturbing. Why is killing everyone's first resort out here? This was accompanied by the far more unwelcome realization that she was still running around in her nightclothes, and that her weapons were back at the flophouse.

Seeing no other choices, Mirris pushes to move around the nearest corner, dropping the body in a dark shadow and running for it, grabbing Still Sky on her way past and dragging him along...

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Before Mirris could move a step off the rooftop garden the figure had dashed to her side, his movements a black and red blur as contrails of sickly tendrils of red trailed behind him. In an instant, before she noticed his movements, she was blown off the roof by an open handed blow to the stomach. The body of her assailant flying through the air with her, but as Still Sky cushioned her fall the cadaver was nowhere to be found. Eyes flashing around the night cloaked city there was no sign of the demonic man that had so easily overpowered her. There was no final arrow to complete what the woman had failed to do. It seemed that, to him, her death was below his notice. “M-my gods!” Still Sky exclaimed. “That was one of the Nine Demons! We're lucky to be alive.” At that his wobbling legs collapsed underneath him, his body shaking and Mirris came down with him as he dropped her. “This is getting out of hand.” He jabbered. “I... we need Lord Eruk more than ever now. If anybody can protect us from the Nine Demons it's him.”

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

The Chayan sits there for a moment, the adrenaline rush slowly fading from her system. Someone had died right in her arms, and now it seemed as though still more would die as well.

But beating her attacker had still felt damn good.

Getting up slowly, she appraises Still Sky's condition and frowns. "One thing at a time. We don't even know that these Nine Demons want you dead, and..." She looks down at herself. "This isn't a conversation I want to have in the street, in my nightclothes. We should go back to the flophouse." Without another word, she turns and begins making her way back to their arrangements.

[Valgunn]

Mirris,
Two Nights Before Calibration

Still Sky looked after her for a moment, and then joined her on the way to their room at the flop house. At every turn though his eyes darted around, terrified that another assassin would come out of the woodwork. The god of luck smiled on the pair, or laughed, it's really quite hard to know what they guy is thinking, but either way they managed to get to their lodging safely. Their night of sleep was similarly uninterrupted except for a scare when Still Sky woke up yelling because of a nightmare, a concept Mirris found baffling but she was too tired to care for a long explanation and instead just nodded her head at Still Sky's panic stricken explanation.

The morning was sweet, except for inside the flop house. The night they checked in the swell of travelling merchants had already bedded down for the night, but now the place practically heaved with merchant flesh. At every turn lean men, fat men, short men, tall men, and every other kind of man (and woman) in every state of dress and undress, clothed and unclothed in all sorts of clothing from all directions of Creation as they all prepared for the coming day before the night-time ban on outdoor trading lifted. The Still Sky of last night, terrified and wobbly kneed was, for the time, gone as he dived into his element amongst the press of flesh and brining Ms. Eve along to make the morning more bearable.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris, Dawn Awakening

"I- *oof* - thought that Machow would be back in touch with us by now." Mirris was far from comfortable with this many strange people jostling her about. On any normal day she might have been interested in comparing Akkad's market with Jineah's (although so far it wasn't stacking up all that well), but the possibility of more assassins visiting and the very real possibility that Eruk would simply call down the guard on her at the meeting were proving more than a little distracting. "For that matter, how does anything get accomplished in this chaos?" She was also getting hungry, but figured that she would eat whenever Still Sky opted to get food.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“What do you mean?” Still Sky asks as he moves through the press like a pike in water. The idea of a world as orderly as Ms. Eve was used to was as alien to Still Sky as the concept of dreams had been to her the night before. It was a post-Contagion world where the strong and capable survived, and only the truly brilliant or truly lucky ever thrived. Though Still Sky could never explain it in words his face contorted as he tried to think of the right way to describe the sublime flow of things that existed in the chaos of the world. “It's like a river.” He finally managed. “And we're all the little drops of water.” He only half-understood his lucky guess, but it was right. The statement was lost on him as he pulled her along in her wake to the city of Akkad outside. Already the faster merchants were outside preparing, but today wasn't a day for sight-seeing. “As for Machow... well, he's probably waiting for us in the common hall. I'm sure you can imagine what the flop house would do to his delicate, academic sensibilities if he just considers the city a mess.” With that he gave a chuckle and a smile, but behind his charisma there was a darkness looming. “Ready to go check?” He gave her hand a squeeze, reluctant to let the heavily armed woman go.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

"More than ready. I'd like to get this business resolved as quickly as possible." The hunter begins making her way to the common hall, dragging Still Sky along with her.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

The common hall was quiet as all the merchants who typically used it were out preparing for the morning bell and the start of a new trade day. Machow sat in one of five chair surrounding the large fire pit set aside in the rectangular halls eastern wall. Newly cautious of hidden threats the seven other inhabitants were stark against the backdrop of the hall. Three were dressed in the gaudy silks of the South, two were dressed as ladies of the Hundred Kingdoms, and the final two were wrapped in Cao style robes. The staff that had been silently present last night were today silently absent, likely due to the lull as none of the eight people already in the hall were drinking or eating and instead seemed engaged in their own conversations. Another new revelation in the deep hues of dawn light was the second floor of the hall ringing the edge but apparently inaccessible from the public area of the common hall as no clear stairway or ladder leads to the curtained second floor.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

The Chayan looks around at the eight inhabitants in the common area. Leaning closer to the ever-helpful merchant, she softly asks, "Do you know any of them, Mr. Sky?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“I've seen two of them before,” Still Sky replied as he gestured toward the two men in Cao style robes. They were brown-faced and cultivating matching beards, but apart from that they weren't at all similar. One was much older and leaner than the other who seemed only slightly older than Still Sky and about the same build as him. “The rest...” Still Sky makes some fumbling noises as he tries to excuse himself. “They're probably new.” He offered weakly. “Or I just haven't noticed them before in Akkad.”

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

"Well, nothing to do but go for it." Mirris walks across the room as confidently as she can, hops over the back of the chair next to Machow and lands sitting in it, forcing herself to be cheerful. "Good morning, Mr. Machow! Still Sky and I have had an awful night, so I hope you have good news for us!"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“Indeed I have so your story will have to wait, and it's just Machow.” Machow nods his head in manly greeting to Still Sky who responds appropriately. “I have some bad news also, but it was not insurmountable with my great intellect. It is customary for the high priest to seal himself in the sanctuary of Yaotuab, this cities deity, and commune with him for guidance through the coming storms and ill-fortune. I had hoped to get word to him about your urgent business before he secured himself away this morning, but I was stopped by the pig-headed locals. That's the bad news, but the good news is I have another way to get you inside.” Machow leaned to his side and pulled a wicker basket to his side you had failed to notice. “The sanctuary is located at the top-most point of the temple, and is inaccessible from the outside when secured by its occupant. However once a day, at noon exactly, as part of his communion the high priest allows one temple girl in with offerings for Yaotuab.” Casting looks around until he was satisfied nobody was listening Machow slowly slid the basket lid off to reveal a set of white silk robes banded at the cuff and hem with red and a pair of silver bracelets and anklets. Casting back your mind to the day before you remember seeing a number of barefoot girls wearing the same dress. “I can sneak you into the temple storehouse in this basket, complete with this disguise, and even a description of the girl meant to go up, but getting up to the sanctuary from the storehouse and taking the girls place is all up to you.”

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

The hunter scowls. It wasn't the thought of dressing up as a temple girl that bothered her, it was the fact that she could see a number of flaws in the plan. "There are several dozen ways this could go wrong. For one thing, I do not look like I am from around here, and I am no master of disguise. Even knowing what I'm supposed to look like doesn't help. Secondly, I do not know the ways of the temple - if asked even the most basic questions about Yaotuab or the temple's proceedings, I will be quickly found out. Finally, I doubt that the high priest will appreciate me interrupting his pre-Calibration meditations. Interrupting a holy ritual hardly seems like the way to win his good graces and ask him for favors." She pauses. "Is it?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“That's the beauty of my plan. Only the high priest knows which two girls are meant to head up to the sanctuary, so all you need to do is make sure the girl whose place you're taking doesn't show up before you reach the high priest. And as for looking the part,” Machow lets his eyes flow up and down her. “You look no stranger than tree-boy over there.” Machow thumbed a gesture toward Still Sky who had been scratching his youthful green beard again. “I take offence at being called tree-boy.” Still Sky weakly retorted. “Nobody will bat an eye-lash at you as long as you keep your head bowed down while you walk about, but you're quite right about the knowledge issue so it would be best to stay as hidden and out-of-the-way as possible.”

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

"Alright, so getting to the high priest won't be so bad. That still doesn't explain why he won't just throw me out the second he realizes I'm an intruder. For that matter, I can't imagine Yaotuab will be too happy with this, either. I've already apparently made a number of enemies completely by chance, I have no desire to add a god and his high priest to the list."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“I never said it would be easy.” Machow said as he slipped the lid back onto the basket. “He's your best chance though, so you're just going to have to find a way to convince him to listen to you. If you can't then there's nothing else I can do for you. In light of what you're about to do I'm going to look extremely suspicious. I wont be able to afford to do anything for you.”

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

"Yes, and I thank you for what you've done so far." Mirris slowly gets up, picking up the basket in the process. "I wish there were longer to get acquainted, but if the time really is at noon then we should be going right away."

[Valgunn]

Mirris (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6S-ccEs41c&feature=related)

As Mirris speaks about the time one, or maybe all, of the Five Maidens hear her and supply a nice little reminder of the exact time in the form of the morning bell. Soon the sound of the huge bell located somewhere in the city was joined by a chorus of other, smaller bells that each rung seven times while the larger bell rang nine. “Indeed we should. We only have five hours before the noon bells.” Machow stands up and draws his own robe around him with a flourish, similar, though he'd never admit it, to the robes worn in Cao except for the detailing. Where there were two lines intertwined by right-angles on the local robes, his were banded by a more fluid, almost poetic, design. “Everything is already arranged.” Machow explained as he walked with Mirris to the door, opening it for her when the time came. “I'll distract the priest hauling the supplies - pretending to haggle for some incense - down into the storehouse while you hide the basket amongst the others before hiding yourself in the basket. It shouldn't take more than an hour for the activity to die down so you can get out, get changed, and begin making your way through the temple.” Outside the city was again abuzz with the chaotic life that thrived in the post-Contagion era.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

Mirris takes the basket and hefts it up, carrying it on her back. "Alright, I think I've got it. Lead the way, Machow." She strides out into the street, waits for him to close the door, and then follows him through the hustle and bustle of the city avenues, but not too closely.

As they make their way toward their destination and the sun continues to rise, Mirris's spirits brighten. Despite the massive amount of trouble she could get into for this, risking the wrath of a high priest and a god, it was fun - especially since she'd be taking most of the risk herself. Hopefully, no one would have to die today...

[Valgunn]

Mirris (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dq4xzgK41M&feature=related)

The great temple of Akkad loomed large as Machow, Still Sky, and Mirris made their way through the city toward it. The five-tiered deep blue roofs sweeping down before flicking up at the edge save for each of the roofs six corners where a pantheon of thirty different spirits sat as statues, rooted to the red stained supports that held the temple aloft, and on the top, made of flawless red marble a huge bell shaped structure sat which Mirris assumed must be the sanctuary. The closer the three approached the clearer sounds they'd heard before become. An ethereal sort of music played, accompanied by a woman's chants. The sounds echoed through the gardens to reach you, but even as an echo the sound is hauntingly beautiful. Even the gardens around you seem to react to the sounds as trees, flowers, and even grass seems to sway in the breeze to the beat of the chant.

Then, almost a stones throw away from the temple and its marble walls and pillars, Machow took a sudden detour through one of the gardens shaded by tall, straight-limbed trees. The winding path he followed was only marked by a long series of grey stepping stones, but eventually the garden path met a more stable stone courtyard hidden from sight by the tall trees surrounding it. In the courtyard there was a small monk wrapped in the local temple vestments preparing to lift one of the baskets laid out before a small building built of grey stone and roofed in red lacquered wood tiles.

Machow stepped forward, calling out to him and grabbing his attention before drawing him away from the baskets as he talked.

[Jade_Tarem]

She's a basket case

Mirris resisted the urge to make a break for it as soon as the priest's back was turned. Patience...

She continued to wait until Machow had the priest completly out of sight, before darting up to the row of baskets and placing hers in line. It's identical! Nice work, Machow... She popped the lid off, hopped in, and pulled the lid on behind her. A sense of giddiness rushed through her as the basket went dark. Made it.

That sense quickly faded as she waited for someone to put her in the storage building. The basket soon became hot and musty, and it was already dark. She passed the time trying to think of a sure-fire line that would get the high priest to help her, but wasn't having much luck.

Chief among her concerns was that she hadn't thought to ask Machow what Yaotaub was the god of. If I find out that the 'supplies' the temple girl brings include one fresh human sacrifice, Machow is a dead man.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Whether or not fresh human was on the lunchtime menu for Yaotaub it was too late to back out now. Stuffed inside the basket, hot and musty air gathering around her as time passed by with only the muffled sounds of the priest heaving baskets up and down to connect her with the world outside the wicker basket. Soon though it became her turn to be heaved up by the priest and hauled down a long flight of steps before being dropped into a cold, dark room.

[Jade_Tarem]

Super Spy

Mirris waited a full three minutes after the room went silent, before finally pushing the lid off and popping out. She had meant to exit gracefully and quietly, but ended up bursting out with a kind of "Eeeeyuuuuh!" gasp and mopping at the sweat that had built up, then shivering when the cold air hit her. The hunter regained her focus quickly, changing into the ceremonial white robes of the temple acolyte, complete with the deep blue and red decorative trim that marked them (and the wearer) as belonging to this temple.

Considering carefully, she elected to leave the short blade behind - she'd left her bow and Azurejac's gift with Still Sky. She would still be able to defend herself, and in the event that they did catch or search her, it would be a lot easier to convince someone that she wasn't up to something sinister if she was unarmed.

Machow had mentioned that she was supposed to be bringing some sort of offering for Yaotuab, but once again her ignorance of the local gods provided a possible complication: she had no idea what that offering was supposed to be. Searching the storage area for ideas, the Chayan figured that taking some of everything couldn't hurt - the basket she ended up carrying eventually contained some meats, fruits, what appeared to be a small amount of jade, and some tiny statuettes that certainly looked like religious iconography. Placing the cowl on the robe up over her head, she hoisted the new basket onto her shoulders and prepared to make her way to the high priest...

[Valgunn]

Mirris

In the pitch black of the, well, she wasn't sure where she was but wherever it was that Mirris found herself in she managed to get changed without causing a commotion. Fingers and hands reaching out she found many baskets, and with groping inspection she found one with the contents she sought. Now came the hard part, at least for her. In a room with no light she needed to find the exit.

Ascending Phoenix,
Somewhere in the Jade Tome District

The Ascending Phoenix, a man of myth and legend as much as his name, was quite unprepared for the realities that now clawed at him, or as is the current case flying towards him. Actually, that isn't strictly true. The current reality wasn't flying towards him, he was flying towards it, and it was a hard stone pavement. With the unpleasant thump of yielding flesh meeting unyielding ground Ascending Phoenix was spread out in front of the alley entrance to one of this particular towns courtesan houses – a place where the rich and the connected came for the services of ladies and gentlemen well acquainted with activities best performed behind closed doors. He had entered through the demure front entrance that nestled like so many things did in the courtesan house he was just ejected from between two buildings. The long, straight entrance had led him to the parlour, and from there he was escorted into the large spectacularly dressed hall hidden away from disapproving looks.

It wasn't until an hour later, or about three minutes ago, that anybody realized he wasn't the sort of person they catered to. After that a large man in cinched trousers and a small red vest had 'politely' steered him into the back rooms before picking him up by the scruff of his collar and throwing him bodily through a, blissfully, unlocked door. Now that same man was looming at the precipice of the door Ascending Phoenix had just experienced in-transit, a large, meaty hand sitting on the pommel of a sword that would have looked intimidating even without the present circumstances.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

The hunter took a deep breath, and slowly reached out toward the wall - one hand in front of her until it felt something solid. Occasionally tripping over other baskets and items, she continued working her way counter-clockwise around the room, hoping to find either a torch or a door...

[TheDarkDM]

Descending Phoenix meets Unyielding Street

The day was not going as planned.

One minute, he'd been carrying on a lovely conversation with a lovely woman by the name of Dawn Orchid, the next he was flying through several marvelously foul smells towards an alley that looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the Great Contagion. Any rational person would have been horrified by this twist of fate, but despite his fuzzy understanding of why it was happening, Ascending Phoenix Wreathed in Jade found himself smiling. Never in his life had he been manhandled, treated like a common bumpkin. It was new, and new was good.

The ground hurt more than he expected it to. More his fault than its, though - he'd been taught how to fall properly back home. Rolling onto his back with a groan, he saw the bouncer watching him, and suddenly felt the tang of imminent violence in the air. And while new, Ascending Phoenix Wreathed in Jade wasn't about to get caught in a life or death struggle with a random commoner in the middle of a filthy alley. Giving another groan, he scrambled to his feet as best as he could, leaning against his knees to find his breath. Putting something resembling a winning smile on his face, he looked up at the bouncer.

"Terribly sorry to have wasted your time, sir. I think I'll be going now."

Turning, Ascending Phoenix affected a limp as he walked away, hoping to inspire pity, or at least disgust. Even as he did so, though, he kept his hand firmly on the reed case that held his sword.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Groping about in the perfect dark Mirris found one perfectly smooth wall of the room she was in easily. Running her hands along the wall the first thing she discovered was that the room was curved, and soon she had its oval shape firmly in mind. The other thing she learned was that the floor was curved too. It gently swept downward from the smaller oval of flat space she imagined the baskets sat on based on the sensations of touch from her feet and her new information about the edge of the room. Despite this new information though Mirris couldn't find so much as a seam, scratch, or crack in the immaculate stone walls she was contained by.

Ascending Phoenix

The moment Ascending Phoenix turned his back the sound of a door slamming and a key turning was all the large, threatening man had to offer as he faked a limp.

Walking out of the small alley set into a large island of closely built buildings circle by a cobblestone road the evening red rays of sun jabbed themselves into Ascending Phoenix's poor eyes that had become accustomed to the warmer light inside the high-class brothel he had just 'left'. The buildings all around him were all right-angles and durable stone, with only the occasional hint of wood that had once composed the skeleton of the building before the meat of the stone had been applied. The walls were of muted colours, pale whites for the most part that contrasted beautifully with the bright reds of the tiled butterfly roofs that dominated the styles of the local buildings. Glass too, and other such marvels of technology were predominate in the form of shop windows, warded personal domiciles, and so on.

Anywhere else in Creation this lavish display would be impossible, but here, in the great civilization of magic known as the Jade Tome District such displays of power were the norm. The streets, and the styles of clothes the people wore, were similarly lavish as people went about their lives.

[Jade_Tarem]

How many Chayans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Mirris fights down panic, for a moment wondering if she might have been found out and tossed into a well-stocked oubliette. Logic reasserted itself a moment later - she remembered descending a staircase, and if it wasn't to be found in part of the wall, then clearly it came down from the ceiling to another point in the room. The steps hadn't creaked or groaned as the priest had hauled her down here, which suggested that they might be too heavy to fold up into the ceiling.

The hunter does her level best to spiral inward, hand outstretched, hoping that she won't pass under the stairs at an angle that would bash her head against them...

[TheDarkDM]

Bright Lights, Big City

Brushing the lingering dirt from his threadbare coat, Ascending Phoenix brushed his hair from his eyes and made his way down the boulevard. As the last of the strain cracked out of his back, he began whistling a jaunty tune, tipping a nonexistent hat to the people he began to pass. They were all so diverse, so interesting in their special ways, that he must have seemed a tad mad for how he stared. Yet Ascending Phoenix remained blissfully unaware of their reactions to his strange behavior - after all, what self respecting king would bother with the reactions of the common man?

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Her search for the spiral staircase hidden in the deep blackness that consumed her bore fruit as she reached the joining of the oval rooms two arcs. Hands pressing over the hard stone she found it was just as unblemished as the walls she had inspected. She had come from the direction she had hoped not to, but her outstretched hands had saved her from the stone she deduced as she made her way to the base of the staircase. Slowly, taking pains not to fall, she climbed up the stairs until she came upon yet more hard and unyielding stone, but this time she quickly found a door shaped indentation.

Ascending Phoenix

Walking around the wide roads of whatever-the-hell this town was called (after all he didn't want to be burdened with the weight of its common name just in case he came up with a better one) Ascending Phoenix enjoyed the sight of the world outside the sequestered fortress, the stuffy adherents, and the insufferable god of the forest they all lived in. So caught up in the sights of the town was he that he didn't notice a man jog straight into him sending both their belongings thundering to the floor. “Oh!” The man squeaked, a pair of half-moon glasses dangling off his ear as his mousy face turned up from the floor to look at Ascending Phoenix. “Oh no!” He squeaked again as if only just realizing he had dropped all his things. Quickly he pounced, making a big production and even bigger mess of gathering everything up.

Sydele,
Somewhere in Nexus Three Months Before Calibration

Travelling the world searching for allies, or at the very least fair dealing mercenaries, was particularly difficult if you refused to deal with the Guild. Sydele had many months ago left her home, such as it was after the twofold destruction of her clan, and not a single day she had searched for allies, or the alternate, had gone by without the Guild getting involved. After every encounter with her nemesis, one of them anyway, she had pushed on even further from the forested river systems of Linowan hoping that she could find somebody who wasn't connected to the Guild. Every month went by and the presence of the Guild only grew stronger. Soon she was encountering their wretched hub towns that would have seemed like paradise except for the Guild.

But as luck, and some god of irony, would have it she found a rumour in one of those hub towns that reeked of the Guild, the place where all roads lead: Nexus. It was quite a simple rumour, and nobody paid it any attention, but to a woman trapped in the desert even a single cup of water is precious. The rumour was that a nation in the South, beyond the Yellow River, called the Five Monopolies were standing up to the Guild using the amazing deep water ports of the Gold Pike river. According to the rumour the wealth of trade those ports offered was too massive for the local factors to risk engaging in a direct conflict with the nation. Based on the maps of the area she owned, as all smart travellers own, it would be a journey of a thousand miles by river or of only five-hundred miles by lands. The advantage of directness the land journey promised was also weighed by the terrible miasma of the Walker in Darkness and his shadowed realm that she might easily wander into if she got lost.

[Jade_Tarem]

Fair Advice

Mirris hesitated at the door for a moment. Alright, as soon as I'm through I'll need to keep to shadows, out of sight, and move only when... Her thoughts trailed off. That wasn't right - she couldn't hunt her way to the high priest, and there was really nowhere to hide in a confined area that she knew nothing about.

Chayan monks weren't big on teaching intrusion skills, or how to deceive a temple full of people. In fact, this entire scenario was so far outside her normal range of activities that she doubted anyone she knew would have useful advice - with one exception.

Azurejac's voice, or at least the voice he assumed, came back to her from a lazy autumn morning.

He'd appeared then in the guise of a large, black and blue fox after a hunt had gone badly. Mirris had wanted a distraction and had asked him what he did on a normal day.

True to form, he ignored the question completely and started talking about the rudiments of tricking people. "The first thing is to not be obviously sneaky," he said. "Which sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how hard it is to get it right. If you look like you have something to hide, people will want to know what it is. If you look like you want to stay hidden, people will try to find you."

"Why? Are people just that contrary?" Mirris had long since learned not to get irritated at his domination of the conversation.

The strangely colored fox paced in a circle around her, and she made no attempt to follow his movements - if he wanted to disappear, he would. "There's nothing contrary about it. It's a survival instinct - since you're alive *now*, anything different could kill you. Since most people don't *think* they live in a world where everyone has something to hide, then anyone who looks like they do is a threat and *must* be investigated, for the good of all. Such is humanity, Ingenue."

The hunter frowned, irritated at his name for her. "I wish you wouldn't call me that."

"There are no bad parts, only bad actors." The not-fox quipped at her. "You'll be the Heroine if and when I say you are."

Mirris sighed, still unaccustomed to the wyld spirit's odd outlook and mannerisms. "Very well. So being furtive is a bad way to deceive."

"Of course! Any child knows that. It's the execution that matters, Ingenue. The secret is become the part, or at least fake it hard enough that no one can tell the difference." The fox stopped prowling and capered back and forth on a flat stone.

The Chayan grinned again. "Not all of us change our shape as easily as you do."

"Too true! Too true! Imagine how much more *fun* things would be if you could! But for tricking mortals you don't have to. Mortals assume a great deal because they are short-lived creatures with tiny minds. Especially Chayans."

"Thank you for your unbiased and inoffensive assessment of my people." Mirris growled.

"You're welcome. So to fool one, you need only act in a way that they won't care about. Be something they expect to see, doing something they expect you'd do. You're nothing special, you *belong* where you are, and you are *right* to be doing what you are. They'll figure you out in a moment, congratulate themselves on being able to do so, and then never think about you again. And that's when you'll have them."

Mirris shook her head and straightened it. She opened the door heedlessly and pushed through into what lay beyond without hesitation, assessing as she went.

[hi-mi-tsu]

To the Five Kingdoms!

The Guild, the Guild, the Guild! The traitorous Guild had their fingers in every pie, their mark on every potential ally she'd heard rumors about! It was enough to make her grind her teeth in anger, enough to fan the flames of her hate for the lying, deceiving scum that had ruined her clan for the second time. But it was also revealing of the power they had--power she had not been fully cognizant of, when she had first dealt with the Guild factor.

Power they did not deserve.

Still, questioning for non-Guild affiliated mercenaries had brought her a tiny kernel of information, about a powerful place she'd never been to that resisted the influence of the Guild; five hundred miles overland or a thousand miles by the river. River passage would be safer, but longer...however, she could do her people no good whatsoever if she were to wander into the Walker's realm and catch a serious case of Dead. But she was quite good at reading maps, and usually skilled with surviving in the wilderness--she'd been doing it for quite some time, after all.

Oh, hang it. It's faster and I probably won't get lost. Besides...if it got too dangerous, she could always divert back to the river later...

Right...?

[TheDarkDM]

Street Sweeping

Ascending Phoenix was more surprised than anything. Staring down at the mousy little man before him, he couldn't help the slight smile that escaped his perplexed face. No one had ever...bumped into him before. He had been ignored! Completely, totally, ignored! What a marvelous thing to happen on so lovely a day.

Ascending Phoenix may have stood there longer, but seeing the man's frantic hands brush against the case concealing his sword jolted him out of his stupor. Kneeling down to scoop it back over his shoulder, he set about gathering the jumble that threatened to scatter to the four corners of Creation.

"Excuse me, my good man! I must not have been looking where I was going. Here, let me help you."

[Valgunn]

Mirris and the Temple

Pushing through heedlessly into what lay beyond the oval storeroom Mirris found herself in a small entryway made up of common stone bricks, and all of it illuminated by warm firelight. The entryway went forward for a few yards before ending in an open rectangular archway. It was from beyond that archway the warm light, firelight judging by the way it danced, and the same ethereal chants that seemed to make the world swell and sway in time with it.

OOC
Dungeon Designer 3 was built by Hell, and as such I'm having difficulty harmonizing my Primordial Essence with its twisted geomancy, so for now you'll have to make do with a map made with the power of my words!


Ascending Phoenix and the Bespectacled Bounder

In the same action, as Ascending Phoenix knelt to scoop his sword in its protective case a, he felt a sudden loss. In a moment personal stock was taken, and the item he felt deprived of was his coin purse. The next moment saw a young boy, maybe ten years, with bright red hair tearing away down the street as if all the demons of hell were after him.

OOC
This is bad! Some awful little street urchin has made off with your little bag of coins! You're a smart man though, much too smart for these terrible urchins, so even though you're very poor you entire mass of wealth isn't contained within that little bag. However, not many people like bartering when they're used to coins! How terrible the fruits of modern living are that simple barter is below these people! Until you sell off one of your other little trinkets, while you're inside the borders of the Jade Tome District, you'll need to make a convincing argument just to use the Resources you wear!

What awful little urchins to put you out like this!

Sydele and the Long Walk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EQXEIoZrZE&feature=related)

The long, lone walk was nothing new to Sydele, and neither was danger. Sydele courted danger every day, dancing with it under the light of the sun, moon, and stars wherever it found her. This long, lone walk felt different. A weight pressed down on her giving her footfalls a gravitas they had somehow lacked before. Was it the weight of destiny, her destiny, settling on her shoulders, or was it the terrible, dark presence of the Walker in Darkness and his realm that was so tantalizingly, terrifyingly close.

OOC
Normally travel would be dealt with by speeding up the flow of time in the narrative so all the travel time would be skipped with only enough explained to form the slightest sense of attachment to the journey. However you've opted to take the dangerous route, and there is plenty of opportunity for Very Bad Things to appear; not the least of which are the Walker's soul thieves.

So! To give this journey a sense of excitement and danger it will done as an extended roll! Wont that be fun? It'll be super fun! Extra special, super fun times ahead! The rules for extended rolls are found on page 122 of the core Exalted book! I'll lay out the Attribute and Ability you'll be using, the cumulative difficulty, roll interval, and the difficulty right here!

It's pretty much a no-brainer that you'll be using Survival, after all you're trekking across the wild and dangerous lands surrounding a Deathlord's personal domain in Creation! Spooky! The Attribute you'll be using is a little more difficult to determine so depending on how you describe your starting trek in the next post will determine which one you use! The cumulative difficulty is another tough one! This isn't an easy trek, so I'll set the cumulative difficulty at 30! Feel free to use the dice roller Invisible Castle (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/) to make the rolls in order to save time. Don't worry, I trust you to be honest! Next comes the time interval! This one's easy! Each roll off the dice will represent one day! And now the difficulty! Another easy one! The difficulty is 1! This means that for every success past the first counts for your cumulative difficulty!

This would be pretty boring, if tense, as it is so I'm adding a special rule! Count the number of botches you make and report it to me along with on which day you botched (which works out to which number roll it was), but apart from that botches just act as a normal failure!

And now you have all the information you need to die horribly at the hands of the minions of the Underworlds terrible tyrants! Or not!

[Jade_Tarem]

A time-honored strategy

Seeing the room abandoned, Mirris took a deep breath in order to organize her thoughts and steady her nerves.

Step One: Reach the top of the temple and the high priest's door without being detected.

Step Two: Move backwards from there to find the first good ambush point that the temple girl will have to walk through or by. Otherwise, hunt down the real girl wherever she is.

Step Three: Ambush temple girl, take her place.

Step Four: Take her basket, go to High Priest, again without being detected.

Step Five: Get to High Priest

Step Six: ???

Step Seven: Profit

Mirris pushed through the outside door and headed for the Temple Proper, preparing for a bit of a climb. Let's do this!

[hi-mi-tsu]

Sydele and the Long Walk

Though she was not adverse to danger, or battle, or a challenge, Sydele was not a fool. She danced perilously close to the edge of a deadly realm, in a place where a few wrong missteps could spell her death. Where monsters that were unnatural roamed in the darkness--or so she'd heard. Things that might not be put down by a flinging snap of her chain, or the sharpened blade of her khatar.

So...best to err on the side of caution. As the evening was drawing near, she found what kindling she could without straying too far off the path the map designated as "safe", then shrugged her travel-pack off her back and set about the business of building a fire. She would stay alert next to it, until it was strong and contained...perhaps she could get a few hours of sleep, as the morning dawned. The Walker's soul-stealers didn't come in the light.

...Did they...?

[TheDarkDM]

Vengeance?

Watching the young boy scamper away, Ascending Phoenix's face seemed frozen in a look of bewilderment. Looking down at the mousy fellow at his feet, he cocked his head.

"That boy just stole my purse."

Returning his gaze to the fleeing urchin, Ascending Phoenix examined his situation. What did people normally do when they were robbed? In the tales, guards always seemed to spring from midair to pursue the thief, but he hadn't seen any sign of such a twist. Taking a step forward, he did the only thing that seemed logical - he pursued, shouting out as he did so.

"Stop! Thief!? Stop!"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Exiting the small hallway that led down into the oval storage room Mirris found herself in a tall, at least five yards high, and wide, at least three yards, hallway leading to her left and right. To her right she can see more archways that, you'd think, would lead to more oval storage rooms, but the right hallway is also the source of most of the warm light. From where she stands there seems to be four huge furnaces lit up, but curiously it doesn't feel very warm at all. To her left there are more archways which again, you'd think, leads to more archways until it comes to a huge stone door the full length and hight of the hallway.

Sydele

Days passed, and the warped abominations of the Walker leave Sydele be. At least that's what it seems. No grizzly ghoul or ghastly ghost or infernal immortal comes to steal, slay, or do any other number of terrible things to her. The scenery changed little. The landscape was dead, scoured of most life by the horrors that crawl out from the huge nation-sized shadowland the Walker made his own. Day by night and night by night Sydele had kept watch, even asleep her mind wasn't far from the dangers that lurked so close to her, and even the slightest noise brought her back from restless dreams.

The dead landscape was good for her journey though, as she quickly realized. Her trek, a journey that should have taken two months, flashed beneath her feet in only half the time. Less than half. But as the final days began to play out, as she began to find civilization again beyond the death-marked lands beyond the Walker's Realm, she found herself on edge. She found herself seeing something out of the corner of her eye, but as soon as she twisted her head to look it was gone. A constant feeling of being watched, of being tracked, haunted her even as the sudden onrush of lively people going about and finishing the final harvest of the year surrounded her.

Two Month Before Calibration

Sydele found herself in a small river town on one of the Five Monopolies, her chosen destination, major river trade routes, the Rolling River. It connected with the Yellow river several hundred miles north, and from there the rest of the Scavenger Lands. The town itself was fairly normal. It was like, but not like, the river people of her own home so far, far away. Their life depended on the river, and the ebb and sway of it dictated the rhythm of their life, but unlike her people they live in houses on the banks of the river rather than on boats and in floating villages.

OOC
Open season! You've got the rumour, and you've got the will, so go out there and find your allies!

Ascending Phoenix

As fast as Ascending Phoenix pounded after the little thief the small boy, leaner and more agile from years of hard living, was faster, and no matter how loud he called for help nobody came to the aid of the strange man who had made, and still makes, such a spectacle of himself. Racing after him as the boy ducked into smaller streets haphazardly paced which branched into smaller street paved with dirt Ascending Phoenix went, never quite losing sight of him despite his laboured breathing. Onward and onward the chase went for ten minutes until Ascending Phoenix found himself struck dead, or close enough, by a sight he'd never seen before. The boy, his eyes screwed tightly shut pounded on past the sight, but Ascending Phoenix was riveted.

Before him, rising up from a small circular fountain were four dryads. Creatures of immense beauty, and in their natural dancing reverie more beautiful than any mortal he had seen. To one side an older man, round and fat from a good life, sat bemused, annoyed, and intrigued by the sudden slew of intruders.

OOC
As an experiment I decided to speed things up by making this fairly simple extended roll for you. You did remarkably well despite being very unfit! However you made two botches in quick succession and as part of the rules for this particular chase (a difference in successes was needed) he managed to pull away. I decided to narrate this sudden burst of distance as this encounter! So if you prefer this to making the extended roll yourself, speak up!

But!

Oh! Look at this! Four dryads! Dryads, as Ascending Phoenix would know from his academic training in the monastery are a species of water elemental. Known for their incredible beauty, their skills as entertainers, and their flighty natures (much like mortal performers!). They have the power to strike any creature that sees them dancing so enraptured by their movements that they are compelled to sit and watch the performance to the end.

You can resist the compulsion to stay and watch, continuing your chase after the boy, by spending a temporary dot of willpower! But you're so tired, and that water looks so cool, and those au naturel spirits are such fantastic dancers.

[Jade_Tarem]

Fools rush in

Mirris considers the furnace option momentarily, before turning and heading left to the huge stone doors and pushing through them confidently.

[TheDarkDM]

Bright Lights, Big City

Confronted with the prospect of continuing the exhausting chase or accepting what was obviously a benevolent gift from the Celestial Bureaucracy, Ascending Phoenix had but a moment of hesitation before moving beside the fat man and sitting down. Pulling the last of his apples from a deep pocket, he gave it a generous bite before sighing.

"What a truly wondrous sight you maidens are. Why have you secluded yourselves away in such a hidden venue?"

[hi-mi-tsu]

Sydele, the Five Monopolies

This place reminded her of home. It did so with such a strong sense that it ached, but she shoved it down, resolute. She couldn't be distracted, not now...and at least the terrible feeling of being watched seemed to have diminished slightly with the presence of all of the other people. Not gone, but she wasn't going to give whatever it was the pleasure of seeing her constantly darting looks over her shoulder.

If she was to be stabbed in the back by an invisible spirit, she'd rather they just get it over with. Until then, she wasn't going to keep looking--she'd go mad.

A wealthy, bustling port, even more bustling now with Calibration so close; this would be a good place to find information. Sydele wandered, a bit of a different figure in this portside town, but she was glad to see that she didn't stand out too very much with her choice of garb. Ah, there! A bar and inn, right on the docks; lodging and drink, all in one convenient place. And what better spot to listen in on conversations than a place where men's tongues wagged loosely?

She pushes through the doors, and steps inside, up to the counter to order a drink. Some ale and some food, and negotiations for a room...then she could settle in to listen.

She was very good at listening.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Striding confidentially, again, she finds that, again, she strides with supreme confidence without the attention of anyone, least not the door which refuses to budge. Turning to face her only other option to leave this locked storage area Mirris strides, still very confidently, down the long hallway. Despite getting closer and closer to the source of the fire, which soon becomes very apparent, Mirris feels no warmer. Entering the medium sized room with its tall roof this fact became utterly bemusing. In each corner of the square room sat a huge furnace made of black iron, and each of them had huge roaring fires going in each. From each furnace, depending on the corner, a pipe led up from its farthest corner and straight up into solid rock.

“Hello?!” A sudden, female voice cried out in the crackle of strangely cold fire. “There's somebody there?” Another female voice called out. “Really?!” A third voice, again female. “Don't be stupid.” A fourth voice pipes up. “I'm not stupid!” The first voice cried out in pique. “You're the stupidest.” The fourth called back. “The stupidest stupid.” The third chimed in. “That's not right!” The second shouted. “Shut up.” The third and fourth voice chided in unison. “But it's not right! It's not grammatically correct!” The second voice, undeterred, hurled back. “Nerd!” The first, third, and fourth voice said in chorus after a beat had passed. “D-don't we have a-a visitor?” The second voice said, almost sobbing.

Ascending Phoenix

The four maidens, if the four water sprites could be called that, were quite silent, and looked a little annoyed by the sudden inclusion of a second audience member. The compliment went far to improve their moods, and they assumed a more sultry pout than a full-out glare as the continued the dance. Their hips swayed in time with silence, or maybe the thump of Ascending Phoenix's heartbeat. Their arms and legs, and in fact their everything moved in perfect mirror symmetry to each other even as they constantly shifted position. Their feet, for the most part, were one with the water while they glided except for those moments when the graceful dance they danced called for a lifted leg.

The large man, dressed for the warm weather in a long leg wrap of opulent colours and a matching loose shirt that sat on a chair next to his bench, answered in their stead. “These moppets are here in my secluded square for my ever rapt attention.” His eyes were clear and fast, and in a flash Ascending Phoenix could feel them measure his size. “Normally my wards prevent people from finding this place, but it seems the inevitable has finally happened.” A heavy sigh escapes from him as he relaxes his huge body against the cold stone of his viewing bench. “That little rat has finally stolen from somebody with the strength of will to push past my retreats mystical defences.” Even as poison drips from his words at the mention of the urchin that had stolen from you his eyes never left the otherworldly curves of the water sprites. “But one, at least, who seems to know quality.” His hand closest you, covered in jewelled rings, gestures to the sword case. “Even if the sword inside doesn't match the quality of its home.”

Sydele

Thirteen days. Given the little presence that seemed to have taken such a shine to her since passing past the Walker's Realm it was almost ironic that it took thirteen days to track down the people she wanted to find. It was irritating, but early success, and the occasional bit of luck after that kept her passion stoked and convinced her to keep at the grind stone just a bit longer. It was then she caught her lucky break. Her investigations had caught the attention of the right people, and so when she finally found the right person to talk to they were well aware of who she was and why she was here. It wasn't a great first meeting, especially considering the subject matter and the long range of her plans, but she was in the door at least.

Her first contact, and the man she was told would be her link to the group, was a woman named Black King, after the birds and not monarchy. An average sized woman of about average looks, she nevertheless managed a rough sort of charisma that had its charms. The exact details were still to be discussed, but a meeting had been arranged for midnight the night after next where Sydele could meet some of the groups key local figures.

The day before the night after next was not uneventful though. A letter, hand-delivered by a ragged courier, came to her on the day before the night of her meeting. It was a letter from Arkasi, and was filled with tedious, but comforting, news from home. The terrible dramas of families, friends, and life in general played out on the multi-page letter. News from the war with Halta came too, and not good news. The ugly Haltan redwoods had pressed another mile into Linowan all thanks to some new backer they had found. All of this had passed weeks ago though, maybe even months, so certainly the Linowan people had pushed back the incursion and taken more than was took in turn.

It was as she was reading in a comfortable spot on the riverbank that she felt that old presence, now as normal, though not quite as comfortable, to her as a pair of shoes. Sydele ignored the presence as she usually did, expecting it to fade shortly but for some reason this time something was different. The presence loomed larger than it ever had before. A palpable sensation of drowning, an alien feeling she knew all the same, threatened to overwhelm her, but her mind was too strong for some meek spectre to overthrow. Still the presence weighed on her though.

OOC
Alright! On to the investigation portion of our broadcast! Sydele is trying to find these naughty people she'd heard about, and has begun her cycle of listen, interrogate, displace! Above is a summary of the overall investigation without getting bogged down by the minutia of the specifics (which is part of the point of these long extended rolls), but below is the exact rolls made! Fun! Also the difficulty and cumulative difficulty is mentioned!

Difficulty: 2
Cumulative Difficulty: 5
Rolls: Day 1 & 2 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3382711/), Day 3 & 4 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3382717/), Day 4 & 5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3382718/), Day 6 & 7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3382719/), Day 8 & 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3382720/), Day 10 & 11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3382723/), and Day 12 & 13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3382724/)

[Jade_Tarem]

Nerd is the word

Mirris whirls to face each new voice, completely taken aback by disembodied sound that don't even have the decency to belong to trees. She gives up after getting dizzy, and instead plants her face in her hand. "I could come back later, if this is a bad time."

[TheDarkDM]

Some Fountainside Conversation

Running his hand lightly over the revealed case of his blade, Ascending Phoenix gave a sly smile to the wealthy arcanist by his side.

"Well, sir, I am no smith or merchant, but I doubt the blade inside would disappoint your expectations."

Flicking his eyes back to the motions of the dryads, Ascending Phoenix settled back more comfortably. It was truly delightful to have a nice sit after such an invigorating chase.

"I must truly apologize for intruding on your retreat, my good sir. Had I known I would disturb you and your enchanting companions, I would have redoubled my efforts to apprehend that miscreant."

Allowing a sideways glace at the strange man, Ascending Phoenix offered a sign of apology and thanks.

"I am most grateful for your understanding in this matter. I am known as Aph - might I ask the identity of you who possess such exquisite taste and discretion?"

[hi-mi-tsu]

Sydele and the Spirit...thing

"Oh, that is quite enough." The words were muttered as Sydele pushed herself to her feet; no one else was close enough to hear them, which was the only reason she'd said them aloud. She'd had this lingering spirit--or whatever it was--about her for too long, and now it was actually trying to pull something...!

She'd never had this experience before. She vaguely remembered something about a shaman "cleansing" her home, when she emerged shaken and weeping from the ruins of it, to appease any anxious or angry ghosts that might be hanging about. And she'd certainly heard about people going to priests or shamans or mystics or whatever else, but she'd never had to do it...and what if her contact caught wind and thought she was too hazardous to do business with? All of that searching would be wasted.

Probably best to find someone secretly. Now, where was the nearest temple...?

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“No, no!” The first voice called back quickly, desperation clear in its tone. “Yeah, don't leave us alone with each other.” The fourth chimed in. “Charming.” The third sardonically added. “Don't give me that.” The fourth returned fire. “Oh! I can see her!” The first replied, and as she did so your eyes catch the image of two eyeball sized and shaped flames peeking through the metal grate of the closest furnace. “Very tall.” The first continued. “And such pretty hair!” The first continued before being cut off by clamours from the third and fourth that they couldn't see and how unfair it was the first got to see their visitor. “Who are you then?” The fourth called over the moaning of the third. “She's dressed like one of the temple girls, but she looks so old!” The first answered the question with pride blossoming in her voice. “Did I ask you?!” The fourth, annoyed, answered quickly.

Ascending Phoenix

“It's no trouble at all, but I have to confess I'm not quite as understanding as you seem to assume. Understanding is a sword, Aph, and the sword of understanding has three edges. Most people content themselves with acknowledging only two sides of that sword, believing, or choosing to believe, that there is no third edge to it.” The man's head tilts, and his body repositions itself subtly facing away from Ascending Phoenix. “It's not something you should ever hold against somebody, but you should always treasure the people who seek that third edge.” His head turns, and he presents a large smile and a fat hand. “Call me Swarnadwīpa.” His eyes, quick and clever lock into yours, asserting themselves in your view. “And I have a proposition for you. For days I've offered prayers to Jupiter and Mercury, asking to them to send to me the right man I need to set on an expedition. My 'apprentice' has fallen ill recently, and according to the insane laws of this nation I can't embark on an expedition anywhere without an apprentice so I've been spending my time in leisure here. You have a clear eye for quality, your mannerisms are one of somebody well-educated, and you're will is clearly very strong. I think you were sent to me by the Maidens. Will you come with me on my expedition?”

Sydele

It didn't take long for Sydele, already a traveller of several thousand miles, to find a local temple. On the edge of town there was a medium-sized rectangular building with a cylindrical tower in the middle sitting in the back of a square-walled enclosure about four feet high. It was made out of local red clay bricks, red clay tiles, and the occasional splash of blues and purples. The open space in front of the temple proper was divided into two large well-cared for mosaics depicting the duality of the local pantheon of gods. On one side are the various gods of the river, and on the other the gods of the earth surrounding the river. Bordering them on all sides except for the inner are various shrubs and flowers and miniature trees you can see plain-clothed men and women tending with diligence. On the mosaics themselves there are the priests performing their open-air and silent rites and rituals, while from inside the soft sound of chanting spills out.

Marvelling at the small temples mosaics and greenery, its varied itinerants, local worshippers, and well-appointed priests she was soon approached. He was a young man, freshly tonsured wearing white robes with an overwrap of orange. “Welcome.” His voice was filled with the serenity of a man who had given himself to his profession. “Are you pilgrim, or are you here for some other reason?”

[Jade_Tarem]

Burning curiosity

"Old..!" Mirris starts, before taking a deep breath. A wave of anxiety prompts her to ask, "And how old is the average temple girl?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

“Old!” The first voice cheerfully replied. The third and fourth voice groaned with annoyance at the chipper attitude of the first. Thankfully the softly sobbing voice of the second gave a more exact answer. “Ab-bout twenty to twenty-five summers.” Her sobbing began to abate as she talked. “Though the oldest is thirty summers next year. Most leave for the temples of other city fathers and mothers by then to take up their priestesses robes as the guests of other temples.” The third voice chimed in with amusing sounds all the way through to the stifled giggles of the first and fourth, but it seems their earlier insults had toughed the second for now and she kept her calm. “But you should know that. Who are you?” Sounds of dismissal from the fourth who had asked that same question before could be heard, and similar jibes were aimed at her from the first and third.

[Jade_Tarem]

Keeping cool

Alright, that's information, of a sort It was one less place where a member of the temple could catch her out.

But how to respond to their questions?

When trying to deceive, never lie if you can avoid it. Always let others lie to themselves - it's much more effective and far harder to undo. Azurejac's voice flashed through her mind again.

Mirris mentally rolled her eyes. I have the nicest role models.

"I am a..." She hesitated. "...supplicant. I need to speak to the high priest. I know he's unavailable, but it is literally a matter of life and death."

[TheDarkDM]

Intrigue, Plots to Bring Disaster

Ascending Phoenix tilted his head back with a low hum. This certainly sounded like the kind of wild adventure he'd fled the monastery in search of, but it seemed obvious there was something the merchant was holding back.

"A pleasure, Swarnadwīpa. I will admit, your offer is an intriguing one. However, it would seem immeasurably foolish of me not to inquire as to the nature of your expedition before agreeing to anything."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"And she's come here to supplicate herself before us!" The first quickly chimed in, and though you can't see it you feel somehow very certain she's beaming with pride. "Don't be stupid." The third chimed in. "I'm not stupid!" The first shot back, and the rest proceeded as it had before. The fourth voice responded by affirming the first's stupidity, and then the third repeated her claim in an inane way. It was all exactly as it had been before, except for the second voice. The second voice was silent this time, though none of the other voices noticed and just continued on with their piece. With all the time that has passed with the four voices each talking in turn, you now can identify which furnace each voice emanates from. The first voice comes from the closest to you, and the second sits diagonally opposite it with the third sitting opposite the second, and the fourth sitting opposite the first.

Ascending Phoenix

Swarnadwīpa smiles deliciously as he withdraws his hand untouched. "If you're in then I'd be glad to tell you everything, but I'm desperate, not stupid. Still, you're not an idiot, which is what I need, so you'd just leave before leaping blindly forward. I need somebody with enough intelligence, and who is willing to about our association, to convince the lesser minister of arcane affairs that I am a member of the sorcerous community in good standing. Without that, without, at least, the illusion that I'm helping ensure a new generation of sorcerers will replace the old, I can't do anything arcane outside my own home."

[Jade_Tarem]

Ad Nauseum

Mirris's eyebrow twitches with annoyance. She leaves the first, third, and fourth voices to their bickering and quietly approaches the second furnace and leans toward it sympathetically. "While they're busy, could I ask who you are?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

The second voice sighs. Through the bars the form of a young woman in a noble woman's dress painted with the colours of fire stares back through the bars at you. The two spheres of flame dotted with black voids examine you up and down. "We're the four daughters of the Fire King, a powerful elemental servant of Yaotaub, and the chief guest of the Lords of Cao at the Calibration festival." The second daughter pushes herself against the bars, his fingers halting at the gaps as some invisible force holds her in the belly of the furnace. Even as she pushes herself, flattening her flames against the furnace, a trail of flame leads back to the centre of the furnace. "We upset the city father almost a century ago with our games during the harvest; we accidentally set the food stores on fire."

[Jade_Tarem]

The bar exam

Mirris doesn't quite gasp. "You've been here for a century? That's awful!" Chayans, as a rule, did not imprison wrongdoers, considering it inhumane. It was one more example of how barbaric the world outside her homeland really was. "Who is the city-father, that he is so unforgiving?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"You..." The second daughter stares pointedly at you for several moments. "The god whose temple you're in, Yaotaub." A moment passes. "Not entirely his. It is his, but there are shrines to gods from all over the nation here tended by his own priesthood. But that isn't nearly as interesting as you are." Her eyes smoulder with delight. "You're not meant to be here. Nobody is. That spiteful tyrant hasn't let anybody come down here since he put us in these furnaces, and unless they've stopped sealing the doors down here every Calibration I'm willing to bet you're a hapless thief." Their conversation was uninterrupted still as the three other daughters bickered, talked, and just in general were a trio of sisters in endless and repeating cycles with little deviation. "My sisters are too stupid to realize it, but I'm not. It doesn't matter to me what you came here for because unless you plan to die here you're eventually going to leave, and so do I."

[Jade_Tarem]

The lady doth protest too much

"I'm not a thief!" Mirris half-exclaims. "I mean, I did sneak in. And steal the robes. And the contents of this basket. And the basket itself. And..." She flushes. "...look, it's not a permanent thing. I'm just borrowing them for a bit. Time is critical - I don't have time to meet the priest through proper channels." She hesitates. "How do you suggest I free you? And if I do, why would any of the priests here cooperate with me? I'm here to get my name cleared, not commit even more crimes." Mirris shook her head. It was wrong to keep someone locked up for so long, but it wouldn't help her family to get arrested with pointless heroics.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

A tense moment of silence from the second as her eyes darted back and forth between the three furnaces, but the other three seemed too self-interested to notice the half-shout from you. "They wont, and you can't." Was all she said in reply, at first. "Not can't, but the chute above my furnace isn't built for people to climb up, and as much as I want to get out I don't want to end up right back where I started. So I'll trust you, help you get in the temple itself and catch you if you fall out of the chute, but you've got to get me out of here when you're done."

[TheDarkDM]

Talking the Talk

With a slow inhalation of air, Ascending Phoenix considered the merchant's proposal. It was almost assured that whatever he was doing was highly illegal, perhaps even dangerously so. But he'd left the monastery in search of adventure, and it seemed to have stumbled into him. He stood, slowly, before staring forlornly at his ragged attire.

"Your proposal is intriguing, sirrah, and I am inclined to help you. However, it seems unlikely that a bureaucrat will believe me an apprentice sorcerer in such...worn attire."

[Valgunn]

Ascending Phoenix

A loud guffaw bellows from the man. The sound of it echoing upward in the small, enclosed and private square. "You have balls, at least!" A large hand smacks you on the shoulder in a friendly manner. "Yes, yes." His other hand gestured fluidly to a nearby wood doorway and quickly a tall, thin man with a long face and immaculately kept facial hair as wire thin as he was came through. He was sun-baked, and though you've only read about the difference between the brown Eastern complexions and the brown Southern complexions you feel sure he's from the desert lands of the South. The large, curved blade about a man's hand in width at the handle sheathed in leather helped more than a little with identifying him. "This here is my mute friend, Hakim. He, among other things, helps my fat, indolent ass perform tasks that I would otherwise struggle with. Such as shopping! Go." Swarnadwīpa pushes on your shoulder with one hand while motioning wildly with the other. "Go, go! Go with him and buy some new clothes. I assure you he's very capable in these matters. You're not the first young thing to have the pleasure of his company, and I'm told his sense of fashion is impeccable!"

Then the large man reposing on the bench grabs your wrist and wrenches your attention back to him. "But don't dawdle. I will have the minister ready by this afternoon, and I do not tolerate being made a fool of." His face, grim and serious, was more real and threatening than any you'd seen before. Whenever the people of the temple had threatened you it had been with full knowledge of who you were to the cult, but this man saw nothing more than a man and acted accordingly. "Now go! Go, go." A quick smile returns to his lips before he gives another light push.

[TheDarkDM]

Clothes Make the Man

Bowing precisely as low as an apprentice would bow to a master, Ascending Phoenix adopted a serious expression. This man truly was serious, and he reminded himself that any adventure, no matter how exciting, would carry risks far greater than any he'd experienced before.

"Of course, sirrah. I would not dream of betraying your trust now that our bargain is struck."

Sparing a glance to the sword wielding reed of a man, Ascending Phoenix allowed a thin smile to split his face.

"And I promise not to spend more of your money than absolutely necessary to make the proper impression. This afternoon, then!"

Following along beside Hakim, Ascending Phoenix relaxed the courtly posture he didn't remember assuming and looked askance at the southron. Truly, the outside world was full of surprises.

"A pleasure to meet you, Hakim. Sadly, I've neglected to keep up to date on the fashions of the court - what would be appropriate attire for the apprentice to a fabulously wealthy, immensely respectable member of the sorcerous orders?"

[Jade_Tarem]

Just Chute It

"...Alright." Mirris crouches, trying to look up the chute. "You realize that I might not be able to free you right away? Very well. How is this going to work?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"I'm patient." A massive thunk resonates around the room as the second daughter bashes herself against the roof of the furnace. The sound stalls the conversation of the other three who are now paying attention. "And this is going to work." Another massive thunk. "By me loosening the pipe so you can knock it out." A third massive thunk resonates, and joining in the din are the voices of the other three. Cries of confusion fill the room, but the second ignores them. "It should be loose enough, now go. Get out of here, and don't forget your promise!"

Ascending Phoenix

Hakim, a good foot taller than you, stares at you coldly. "Mraah." He 'speaks' before leading you through the maze of twisting alleys that lead to his employers hidden sanctuary. Once again out in the straight-laced town of marvels he gestured with his hands in a peculiar way you've never seen before, but you guess it's a hand-based language. The specifics elude you, but the general gist seems to be that you and him are to go along the road to somewhere, presumably a clothing store or shop, while he follows behind.

OOC
Feel free to have some fun on a shopping trip with Hakim the Mute! Trying to understand his sign language is difficult (3) for you (Int + Linguistics). You managed to get 3 successes (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3397498/) for this instance though, so no need to roll for it.

[Jade_Tarem]

Instant awesome just add vandalism

Mirris climbs atop the furnace, at first tentatively as she expected burns, but then with more confidence. She grabbed the chimney pipe and pushed for all she was worth, prying the chute free and sending it crashing to the ground.

With no delay, she scampered up the pipe, hoping she wouldn't emerge covered in soot...

[hi-mi-tsu]

Sydele

It didn't take long for Sydele, already a traveller of several thousand miles, to find a local temple. On the edge of town there was a medium-sized rectangular building with a cylindrical tower in the middle sitting in the back of a square-walled enclosure about four feet high. It was made out of local red clay bricks, red clay tiles, and the occasional splash of blues and purples. The open space in front of the temple proper was divided into two large well-cared for mosaics depicting the duality of the local pantheon of gods. On one side are the various gods of the river, and on the other the gods of the earth surrounding the river. Bordering them on all sides except for the inner are various shrubs and flowers and miniature trees you can see plain-clothed men and women tending with diligence. On the mosaics themselves there are the priests performing their open-air and silent rites and rituals, while from inside the soft sound of chanting spills out.

Marvelling at the small temples mosaics and greenery, its varied itinerants, local worshippers, and well-appointed priests she was soon approached. He was a young man, freshly tonsured wearing white robes with an overwrap of orange. “Welcome.” His voice was filled with the serenity of a man who had given himself to his profession. “Are you pilgrim, or are you here for some other reason?”

Sydele

A temple dedicated to gods and goddesses of the rivers and the lands surrounding them! What a stroke of luck. If, by any chance, her contact had her being watched, she'd appear to be nothing more than a pious river-girl, going to pay homage to the gods that guided her journey. And it was quite a pretty little temple...she jumped, startled, when the young priest approached her.

It was still a little unnerving, being around all these people; she'd been on her own for a while, of course, even before this journey to the Walker's Realm. Glancing around, she takes the priest's arm and guides him to a more isolated spot of the small temple--not completely, but at least most of the people are slightly further away--before speaking again.

"Ah...well...I am a pilgrim, of sorts, but not a religious one. I...look, I really..." She's not normally one to fumble, but she's never had this sort of an experience before; taking a deep breath, she sighs, and blows the hair out of her eyes.

"I came here...along the Shadow Realm--isn't that what it's called?--faster than by boat, and nothing really happened, but ever since I've gotten away from it I've felt as though there's something...watching me, all the time. It's...it's very unnerving. And earlier it...well...I felt as though I was drowning, for a moment. It's very unpleasant. But...but I do not even know if it's a spirit or if I'm just losing my mind..."

She pauses again, and shakes her head.

"Gods above and below, I sound absolutely mad."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Climbing into the chute you find it, to your surprise, clean and free of any sign of use at all. The brickwork provides difficult but plentiful holds for your feet and hands though. It was then you felt dry heat billow up behind you, pushing you up as the hot air from below rose up. The chute wasn't straight up, sadly, so it took several minutes of billowing heat before you reached on of the straight shafts that provided the temple with heat.

The highest opening leads out to a small room with two carved wood panels for walls on opposite side. Judging by the lectern and the arrays of cushions surrounding it you guess it might be a place of worship, or maybe it was used for education. What mattered most to you though was that the light, airy room was empty save for the red cushions and the dark wood lectern. Padding bare-foot slowly to the entry arch carved into the marble on the other side of the room from the shaft you get a good look at the temple. The centre is a single open space from top to bottom with wood walkways ringing it, leading to rooms through arches just like the one you're standing in. As Machow said the priests, priestesses, and the temple boys and girls all flow from one directional stereotype to another (though it all fades into a wash of diversity soon enough).

The first floor, judging by the sounds of activity, seems to be taken up with dealing with the visitors to the temple. The sights of men and women dressed in distinctly non-priestly grab are obvious, as is their limit to the bottom floor. The second, the floor you're currently surveying the imposing inner workings of the temple from, seems to be dedicated to all manner of day-to-day activities. The worship of favoured gods, local deities, and Yaotaub himself can be heard most clearly on the second floor. It's the third floor, the top floor, that the sleep quarters and dining halls could be found if you aren't mistaken. And right at the top, right up there, you can see the marble roof emblazoned with a gold mandala.

Sydele

"Yes, you do." The priest smiled, his face trying to show the good nature of his words as he spoke. A tinge of concern at the mention of the Walker in Darkness and his dark realm was unmistakable though. "Our temple is warded against intrusion by the dead, as it sounds like this is such a thing. Please, enter, offer up a sacrifice to Sunt and Tnus. Pray to them for guidance, and if this ghost attempts to make its presence known you will be safe on this holy ground." His hand emerges from his fluted priestly robe and gestures just outside the temples walls where several merchant stalls were arrayed. "If you have not a suitable sacrifice, there are those ordained by the gods to provide such despite their secular profession."

The merchants were divided up most notably by the type of sacrifice they peddled. Those that sold things that pleased Sunt, the river god, covered their stalls in blue and black iconography of water, while those that sold things that pleased Tnus, god of the local lands, covered their stalls in brown and white earthly iconography. It wasn't just sacrificial materials they sold - wet and dry clay, small figurines designed in the gods' likenesses, and other small things made of elementally harmonious materials - but also charms. Charms against disease, charms for fertility, charms for all occasions and all inscribed with the symbols of Sunt or Tnus. It was quite the small industry, and by the wealth the merchants displayed it pleased the gods too.

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

Mirris takes a moment to cool off, after having climbed her way through a furnace pipe. She might very well have to change before going to see the priest.

For now, though, she calmly walks out the door and up the stairs, looking innocuously for the high priest's chamber.

[TheDarkDM]

Out on the Town

Shrugging at the man's apparent distaste for small talk, Ascending Phoenix adopted a jaunty stance and began whistling as they made their way towards the tailor. Once inside and informed of the latest trends by the mute and an exceptionally confused proprietor, it seemed he had no end of suggestions for how his new raiment might be conceived. He vacillated between red and green for the color before deciding on a reserved, dignified black, though the addition of red trim spoke to a desire to at least stand out a little. For a ragged wastrel with no name or obvious family, he truly seemed in his element once someone was waiting on him, giving command with an ease that suggested royalty. An hour later, the suit was finished, and with the addition of some fine black boots from a nearby cobbler it was off to a barber to repair the woeful damages of near a week without care. When he finally emerged, Ascending Phoenix looked for all appearances a prince, or at the very least an exceptionally wealthy merchant. Giving a slight bow to Hakim, he gestured towards the center of town.

"Shall we go, then? I wouldn't want to miss our appointment."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Up and up Mirris walks, to the third floor of the temple, the second balcony ring. A few men and women, priests and priestesses, take a second look at you as you innocently search for the high priest's chamber, but soon they go back to whatever it is they were doing. As much as you search though the chamber that contains the high priest is nowhere to be found. Maddening! There seems, no matter how much she searches, no such chamber at all. What you do find, however - if the assumption that people in power tend to have large, private bedrooms is true - is the high priest's sleeping quarters.

Unlike the multiple bunk accommodations of the temple girls and boys, and the two-bed shared rooms of the priests and priestesses, this one contained only a single double-bed. Also unlike the others it had a door, but thankfully no lock, though given the extensive use of negative space in its design a lock wouldn't have been much of an obstacle. Inside, in addition to the bed, a large bookcase groaning under the weight of religious manuals, tomes, and scrolls sits on the left wall. On the right wall a well-maintained but simple desk with a large book, ink and writing implements sitting on it. At the foot of the bed there is a large, rose patterned trunk, and next to the bed, with an oil lamp sitting squarely on it, was a bed table.

Ascending Phoenix

With his new clothes, new boots, and fashionably treated hair the town seemed a much different place. People once again treated him with respect, they no longer distanced themselves out of disgust, but awed fear at one of the worlds winners. Hakim, though, treated him with the same attitude as before, but when that attitude is based on a philosophy of absolute stoicism, it is difficult to determine any change in him at all. He seems to approve of your clothes, but then that could be just your own appreciation of your outfit reflecting in his crystal clear temperament. It didn't quite matter though, because he was once again making his unfamiliar gestures again. Now though, after seeing him make his gestures out of the corner of your eye all day, your inexorable mind grabbed at the truth of his communications like a vice.

"The Lord, he will require/desire you and me at his palace/home, soon. Do you require/desire more?"

OOC
To speed things up, these five successes (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3418796/) were brought to you by the Loom of Fate: the Loom of Fate, for all your causality needs.

[Jade_Tarem]

Home Invasion

Mirris takes in the contents of the room, she grins brightly. She couldn't have asked for better than a chance to clear up her confusion about the rituals of Yaotaub, and the high priest's bedroom would, according to what she'd learned from Machow, not be used while the two-day pre-Calibration ritual was going on. *She quickly searches the bookshelf, looking for anything that might help her this morning, then carries it to a corner of the room out of line of sight from the door and settles in to read it quickly - keeping in mind the approaching noon deadline.

*
If Mirris can't find anything useful in the bookshelves, then she'll search the desk, trunk, and table. If she still can't find anything, then she'll try to leave quietly.

[TheDarkDM]

Ascending Phoenix

With a slight nod to Hakim, Ascending Phoenix stretched luxuriously in his new clothes.

"After you, sir."

Turning with a whistle on his lips, Ascending Phoenix allowed Hakim to lead him to his master, his mind abuzz with thoughts on what this mission could possibly be.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

As she glided a finger along the shelves of the bookcase Mirris' eyes quickly crossed. Of the assembled iconographical apocrypha, religious manuals, and illuminated manuscripts that were laid out before her most were written in ancient pictorial languages she didn't recognise. The few that she did, newer creations written in Riverspeak, covered none of the topics she wanted (though she now knew where to go if she ever needed to ply the egos of air spirits). Turning from the bookshelf and toward the desk she eyed the large book that sat on it, covering the entire left-hand third of the table. With no interest in the writing implements on the right she opened the book, which, to her delight, she found written in Forest-tongue, though in a dialect that she didn't know. A few minutes later she realized what this massive book was as she read the high priest's own day-to-day accounts of life in the temple.

The high priest had kept his accounts brief, choosing to reference older entries and noting any derivations rather than repeat the specifics of his day again and again. Apart from that though, he included a wealth of information. The constant need to flip back until you found what date a newer entry referenced was annoying, but as the time slipped by the reading became quicker and quicker.

Almost like a primer Mirris found herself absorbing the trivial rituals and incantations spoken throughout the temple; all the little actions that built the foundation of Yaotaub's cult, such as a sacred word spoken in greeting, postural requirements before certain images and the more mundane acts of human life ritualized into religion. Yaotaub's cult was quite strange, at least to Mirris. It's chief rules governed only his priesthood and temple, setting standards of dress and appearance, etc, while the rest looked more like a list of taxes. In addition to this, and intertwined with it, was his system of propagating his priesthood. It seemed the more it propagated, the longer his list of lesser rules grew, and a modification of his chief rules would be made.

As Mirris read through this she came across one of the chief rules that was very pertinent to her, and it explained why nobody but the high priest knew the look of the temple girl to attend to him in his sanctuary. It was one of several rules that dealt directly with the high priest, and were, as a result, not meant for the eyes of anybody else. This particular rule dictated that the temple girl must be between the age of seventeen and twenty-three, free of malformations, and possessed of green eyes and red hair while standing at an even three yards. It went on to describe, in disturbing detail, particular marks that should and should not be present; a mole on her left cheek, a faint scar on her stomach were noted to be needed, while it was clear that she should not have any scars on her left foot, or pierced ears.

Disturbing as that was though, the high priest himself seemed to be normal. His activities followed his proscribed routine, but during his time away he spent it with friends and family. Notably Catow, a foreign representative from the White Jade District, and Eruk, his brother-in-law, as well as his sister Puabi and her children Muduagi and Enanatuma. In the midst of all this information though, not a single mention, except for a growing sense of annoyance and exasperation, of any particular ritual to do with Calibration was made.

OOC
Out of character, from what Mirris has learned she can now reasonably imitate a temple girl. Ruins the secret discovery rolls I'd been making, but we'll have to save that super fun thing for another time!

Ascending Phoenix

Another final look that thankfully ends quickly was all Hakim responded with before leading the way back through town. Rather than through the alley entrance to his masters home, through his sanctuary, Hakim lead young Ascending Phoenix through the lavish front entrance. Bright, trilling blues, and deep, respectful golds abounded on the columns of his entry hall while green ferns sat potted around. To greet them was another servant of Ascending Phoenix's new friend, a lean man in crisp white robes who shooed Hakim and gently guided Ascending Phoenix the rest of the way. The rest of the home was equally well decorated, and Ascending Phoenix soon found himself lost amidst the twists and turns the servant guided him on. It seemed that the lean man waited until Ascending Phoenix was completely lost before finally bringing him before Swarnadwīpa.

The large man was, as before, and is surely the norm, sitting on a marble bench, but unlike before it was inside a well-appointed study. An eclectic collection of tomes and scrolls filled the shelves around him, written in a dizzyingly vast array of languages both dead and alive. Standing beside the corpulent man was a man dressed in a black robe similar in style to the one Ascending Phoenix was wearing. Where Ascending Phoenix's was trimmed in red and unadorned with iconography though, his was trimmed in white and proudly wore symbols of office, station and rank. This, Ascending Phoenix quickly cogitated, was the official he was meant to dupe. Swarnadwīpa smiled. "Ah! And here he is, my apprentice." The black-robed man rolled his eyes, but otherwise remained motionless. "Yes, yes." The black-robed man's voice was high and crisp, and his punctuation impeccable. "That's what I am here to determine, you know. It's not for you to simply declare some hidebound porter your apprentice." Swarnadwīpa smiled even broader. "Of course! Of course." Both Swarnadwīpa and the black-robed man now stood, staring, as if waiting for something to happen.

"Well?" The black-robed man finally said. "What are you waiting for?" His tone annoyed, his look baleful, he continued. "Introduce yourself! State your name, your prior education, and your future speciality. Come on now, don't waste my time."

[Jade_Tarem]

All the way up

Muduagi! Could he be related? Still Sky had said it was a common name, but it would explain why Machow had thought the high priest could help. Wrapped up in that thought, she almost missed a crucial detail in the eerily accurate description of the temple girl that was to visit during calibration.

Three yards? What in...? Machow could have told her about that, at least.

Well, no help for it. I'll just have to convince him on my own merits rather than sneaking in. She could, however, sneak her way to the high priest's ritual chamber... if she could figure out where it was.

Mirris quietly exited the room and attempted to find a way to the very top of the temple, searching again for the ritual room....

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Once again Mirris ventured out into the temple, and once again she searched for a way to climb even higher. This time though, with the mannerisms of the local priestly men and women fresh in her mind nobody looked twice at her. In fact a few people smile at her as they assume she's a new arrival in need of a friendly face. Just like last time though she fails to find any route to climb higher. The balconies that circle the vast open chamber of the temple remain as they are to her, and no new avenue upward appears to her.

[hi-mi-tsu]

Sydele

"Yes, you do." The priest smiled, his face trying to show the good nature of his words as he spoke. A tinge of concern at the mention of the Walker in Darkness and his dark realm was unmistakable though. "Our temple is warded against intrusion by the dead, as it sounds like this is such a thing. Please, enter, offer up a sacrifice to Sunt and Tnus. Pray to them for guidance, and if this ghost attempts to make its presence known you will be safe on this holy ground." His hand emerges from his fluted priestly robe and gestures just outside the temples walls where several merchant stalls were arrayed. "If you have not a suitable sacrifice, there are those ordained by the gods to provide such despite their secular profession."

The merchants were divided up most notably by the type of sacrifice they peddled. Those that sold things that pleased Sunt, the river god, covered their stalls in blue and black iconography of water, while those that sold things that pleased Tnus, god of the local lands, covered their stalls in brown and white earthly iconography. It wasn't just sacrificial materials they sold - wet and dry clay, small figurines designed in the gods' likenesses, and other small things made of elementally harmonious materials - but also charms. Charms against disease, charms for fertility, charms for all occasions and all inscribed with the symbols of Sunt or Tnus. It was quite the small industry, and by the wealth the merchants displayed it pleased the gods too.

Sydele

"...Thank you." Sydele glanced towards the merchants, sighing internally; she hadn't anticipated the requirement of buying a tribute, and for a moment the wild fear entered her mind that the spirit would try to stop her--if that was even what it was. She wished she knew more about possessions and ghosts and things of that nature, but she'd grown up in relative isolation, and so hadn't really experienced that sort of thing...

Still, the small figurines in the gods' likenesses were quite charming, and she stepped over to the stalls, Sunt first. The river-colors soothed her...she preferred the water iconography to anything else. A brief bit of haggling over price--not too much, she didn't want to offend the gods she was attempting to purchase offerings for--saw her coming away with two handsome figurines, one for each. Stepping back inside the cool darkness of the temple, she glanced around, uncertain...prayer had been a private thing for her, before, and she was unused to this public offering-up of gifts. Finding the priest from before, she coughed a little.

"So...I have these...what do I do with them?"

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris

Dammit. Mirris settles in to watch for the opening of the High Priest's chamber. This ought to be good. I'll have to try again tomorrow.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Settling in and keeping watch over the temple Mirris was in a prized position to see the life that busied the day of the ordained men and women that lived there. Just as she had seen before in the bustle filled roads of the city there was an efficient chaos to everything; temple girls and boys -- acolytes serving as prescribed in hopes of attaining ordainment -- scurried about on bare feet carrying, following, and listening. Adding to the atmosphere of efficient chaos was the fact nobody came up to Mirris who now bore as much resemblance to a temple girl as the temple girls themselves. Everybody around her, consumed by their own concerns, seemed to assume that, whoever she was, she was just like them: busy, and in no need of assistance.

With nothing to absorb her attention Mirris drunk in more and more of the temple. With so much to absorb her attention and hold her mind in thrall the time between then and noon slid past her almost without notice. It was then, as the great bells of the city thundered noon, that her attention was caught by the sight she'd waited to see.

On the ground, under the great roof of the space that enclosed her, stood the girl she had recently found so much about -- at least physically. She was everything the high priests book had said. Her height was incredible and almost unbelievable as her long, thin limbs seemed to have more in common with the willowy limbs of a tree than any mortal; her other physical peculiarities were, at that distance, difficult to see, but her height alone made her identity as clear as day. In her hands she held a small tray upon which was arranged food and drink in modest amounts, but as before the distance made the particulars difficult to see.

What came next was not difficult to see. The pattern on the ceiling of the great space had begun to move, and perched on the highest balcony Mirris could easily see every detail. First it began to turn, but not as a whole. Four sections moved at odds and their edges blurred together until it made her eyes hurt to continue staring. Then, as if some great lock had been opened, the four sections of the mandala split wide open to Mirris' surprise -- and even though everyone else was doubtless unsurprised many had stopped to watch the spectacle. With the mandala gate flung open there came a perfect circle made of blue jade floating down through the gap. Down and down it floated until it rested before the impossibly tall girl, and without hesitation the girl stepped onto it. Then, with the same steady grace as before, the jade circle floated up and up until it has passed the mandala gate.

After that many minutes passed, the mandala gates remaining open, until the girl and the circle appeared again with an empty tray that was quite distinctly not the one she had gone up with. After depositing the girl on the ground the jade circle once again floated back beyond the mandala gate, and once again the gate swung shut it its swirling fashion until it finally came to a rest in the form it had occupied before.

Sydele

The young man turned from the task he had been attending to, an older man with his grandson, and toward Sydele. A serene smile born of absolute faith broke across his faith as he patiently motioned for her to take the lead into the temple. "I see you have chosen devotional statuettes," he observed demurely from behind her. "I am sure the gods will be pleased by them, and that they will serve you well in your future troubles."

Slipping into the temple foyeur Sydele was greeted by the gods themselves in huge stone statue form: Tnus, her form a cross between that of a bear and a badger with slight human features attended to the land-bound side of the display, and Sunt, his form a mix of a crane and an otter with similar slight human features attended the fountain on the other side. All around the two statues and their environ were the postural forms of men and women, their icons sitting before them and their sacrifices thrown to the statues. "Place your statues as the others do and pray." Even though his voice was filled with a serene certainty almost to bursting there was a hint of something else as his eye caught sight of another priest. "Pray, and let your prayers be born aloft to them."

[Jade_Tarem]

It's a tall girl after all

Mirris blinks a few times after the spectacle ends. Alright. Didn't see that coming. She makes her way downstairs as quickly as she can while remaining inconspicuous, trying not to lose sight of the giant acolyte.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Mirris makes her way downstairs without difficulty. Following the flow of men and women down, down, down she manages to make her way to the ground floor of the temple.

OOC
If you keep sight of her you'll notice she's going about her day as you've seen all the other temple girls go about theirs.

[Jade_Tarem]

Standing Out

Mirris tentatively follows the tall girl around, finally making up her mind and approaching her when she's alone or near to it. "Hi! Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions? About the Calibration ritual?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

The tall girl turns to Mirris with a polite smile. "Um, sure?" She answers uncertainly as she takes Mirris in, and in turn Mirris finds that she fills all the requirements just as the book she read said she should. "You must be new." Hand outstretching to Mirris the young girl smiles brightly. "I'm Calix, and you are?"

[Jade_Tarem]

The new kid

"Oh! M..Mirris." Mirris shakes her hand, staring up at her. "And thank you so much. I've been terribly confused."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Calix stands, staring at Mirris expectantly with as much politeness as she can manage. "Yes?" She prompts. "The questions?"

[Jade_Tarem]

Is it bigger than a breadbox...?

"Oh! Oh, um... Well, what's it about? No one seems to know all that much about the Calibration ritual."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"Ah... you mean?" Surreptitiously she gestures upward. "What the high priest is doing up there? Well... he meditates, performs his ablutions, and communes with our god." Calix shrugs apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know more. Everyone thinks I do, but I don't."

[Jade_Tarem]

Is it bigger than an automobile...?

"Oh." Mirris says. "Do you do this every year?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"For the last three. Yes." Calix confirms with a smile. "Every day for three days before Calibration I bring him a meal and something to drink at the same time every day. It changes every year... at least it has for the last three years." She says, letting out a short chuckle at her correction of herself.

[Jade_Tarem]

Is it mineral in nature?

Mirris chuckles too, although she doesn't see what's so funny about it. Must be local humor.

"I see. Well, you're clearly pretty busy, but maybe I'll see you around! Thanks, Calix."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Calix smiled, waved, and then went back about her business. Mirris meanwhile returns to the open, indoor courtyard of the tables great open space. The men and women of the temple continue to go about their day; the spectators of the spectacle having stopped their spectating and gone about their unspectacular work.

[TheDarkDM]

Ascending Phoenix

Sweeping his arm into a low bow, Ascending Phoenix adopted a courteous smile.

"A pleasure my lord. My name is Aphidrin Cuulat, recently of the States of Cao. Lord Swarnadwīpa graciously accepted me into his house to teach me the ways of the conjurer when I completed my education at the Imperial Academy. Might my lord be interested in discussing the protocols for the summoning of demons, or the proper signs with which to allay the anger of the Fae?"

[Jade_Tarem]

A leap of faith

Mirris continues going about her "duties" as a temple girl, finds an unused bunk to sleep in, and proceeds through the following morning the same way. She even manages to get back to her same vantage point on the third floor.

But this time, she readies herself as Calix arrives to board the platform, backs up slightly, checks to make sure that no one will get in her way...

...and as the platform rises to halfway between the second and third floors, Mirris darts forward and springboards off the railing and out over the distance to the rising mandala, aiming to catch herself on the edge and flip up onto the platform - a move she's done many times in her home forest, but never for an audience...

[Valgunn]

Mirris (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmpE8tIRmGo)

A swift run, a leap, and then air. The eyes of dozens of men and women already looking on the spectacle of the Mandala Gate; the Gate of Creation. Gasps go unheard, and sharp reprieves go ignored as Mirris sails through the air. With a thump she caught the edge of the platform -- whatever magic that held it aloft undisturbed by her sudden weight -- and with a swing she rolls herself up onto the platform to the sight of a very surprised Calix. "What?!" The young girl managed as she struggled to retain her balance after her surprise, but whatever she had to say was pointless as the platform moved ever upward.

Up and up, and up the platform smoothly went; unaware or uncaring about its new passenger as it took Mirris beyond the horizon of the Mandala Gate.

At first there was darkness, but then with a flash of bright red, then orange, and then yellow there came sight, and what a sight. An endless field of rolling hills littered with the leavings of battle. In the the perfectly blue and cloudless sky hung a stylized sun, an image that seemed more at home on a statue than the sky. A gentle wind endlessly flowing over the long grass, flapping banners, and long, right ribbons. Despite the half-concealed battlefield debris there was not one corpse, or even the stain of blood, anywhere. Calix too was captivated, but not by the sight. As if driven be some unheard command by some unseen master she stepped off the platform and onto the flowing grass. Then, by the divine magic that suffused the world around them, from the place she first stepped her bare foot a grey brick road rumbled into view. Dividing the waving grass and detritus as it went the road forged a path to a not-so-distant pavilion of blues, reds, and golds.

The Ascending Phoenix

"Demon summoning, eh?" The impossibly impeccable man drawled the word like an unappreciative school master as he after so subtly turned his head to Ascending Phoenix's new friend. "Purely theory, of course. Just in case the boy Exalts -- it's not too late for a young lad like him." The impeccable man didn't look like he believed a word of it, but the look of anguish on his face told Ascending Phoenix that his new friend had played to the letter of whatever guidelines directed the impossible man. "Yes, of course. The barbarous States of Cao, though? He must be special though... given his training. Well, all your documents are in order, and as much as I'd like to prove otherwise the boy seems truly able..." A look of relief comes across Ascending Phoenix's face, but as soon as it does a wicked smile crosses the impossible man's face. "But even so, I do think I should put one of his claims to the test. Mr. Cuulat, do you think you could prepare a summoning circle for me? For summoning an elemental, though, not a demon."

Roll Occult + Intelligence to determine the quality of the summoning circle. If you attempt to draw it that is. Don't want to feel like I'm boxing you in.

[Jade_Tarem]

Off to see the wizard

Mirris blinks at the change in scenery, overwhelmed, but does her best to follow Calix. In theory, the tall woman was going to see the High Priest, and if she wasn't... then Mirris would just have to find him herself.

[hi-mi-tsu]

Sydele

The young man turned from the task he had been attending to, an older man with his grandson, and toward Sydele. A serene smile born of absolute faith broke across his faith as he patiently motioned for her to take the lead into the temple. "I see you have chosen devotional statuettes," he observed demurely from behind her. "I am sure the gods will be pleased by them, and that they will serve you well in your future troubles."

Slipping into the temple foyeur Sydele was greeted by the gods themselves in huge stone statue form: Tnus, her form a cross between that of a bear and a badger with slight human features attended to the land-bound side of the display, and Sunt, his form a mix of a crane and an otter with similar slight human features attended the fountain on the other side. All around the two statues and their environ were the postural forms of men and women, their icons sitting before them and their sacrifices thrown to the statues. "Place your statues as the others do and pray." Even though his voice was filled with a serene certainty almost to bursting there was a hint of something else as his eye caught sight of another priest. "Pray, and let your prayers be born aloft to them."


"I hope not to have this sort of trouble in the future..." Sydele stepped hesitantly back into the temple, looking at the other patrons; she would have followed the priest's suggestion, had it not been for the glimpse of...something...in his eye upon seeing his fellow priest. The serenity of his voice had been so soothing...

Perhaps it was paranoia, or sleeplessness. Perhaps it was simply a matter of being tired of being messed with, that made Sydele approach the other priest.

"Excuse me..." She glanced back at the first. "I was told by the man over there that I have only to put these statues down and pray to them and a...well...a presumed malevolent presence will be removed from me. Is this true? Is there an order I should pray in, or a fitting length of time? I do not often pray in temples, and have never done so in this situation before..."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Mirris followed the abnormally tall girl as she beat her slow, winding journey through the grass to the not-so-distant pavilion that steadily grew ever more not-so-distant. The grey stone continued to ripple into existence at the light steps of Calix as she was further drawn onward and onward by the unseen forces of that place. As Mirris followed she became aware of the stillness; the grass still flowed at the caress of the wind, but now she was amongst the grass she felt almost smothered by a cloying sense finality that prevailed over all the other senses. The feeling would reach out to Mirris when the wind blew over her as it went about its business of brushing over the landscape this way and that. Long stalks of grass seemed to take on the form of grasping human hands as they leaned over the path, and the wind almost became the sound of a persons voice.

Then, with great relief, Mirris arrived at the pavilion, and as the sense of stillness and the terrible imaginings it brought faded the feeling of relief deepened. The pillars of the the place were blue, wrapped in gold reliefs of dragons, and the roof was red and similarly wrapped in the same gold images. Between each pillar railings and spokes of ancient redwood came up to the breast, and with the same material the floor was made. While Mirris had drunk the sight of the pavilion in Calix had gone about her duty under the same mysterious influence as she had walked here under.

She attended two men who lay casually on either sides of a low table upon which the tray and items Mirris had seen yesterday sat. The man closest to her, by his dress, she knew was the high priest, but even if he were naked she could have deduced he was the man she sought. This was because the other man was unlike any she had seen before. He was tall, impossibly so, and was dressed in nothing but a pair of of trousers that seemed common and imperious at the same time. His figure was equally odd as he seemed to combine the powerful build of a strongman and the lithe slimness of an acrobat. Despite the fact that it was this man that was facing her it was the high priest that spoke in her direction first.

"Assassin?" He queried as he lay back and let his head loll so far back that he could see her -- though upside-down. "If you are then you're a foolish murderer. You must have thought to have me to yourself, but there is nowhere safer for me to be as long as I remain high priest." The other man seemed uninterested and instead concerned himself with Calix who was now curled up next to him.

Sydele

The second priest listened condescendingly until Sydele had finished. Then, taking one of her hands in his, he speaks. "Yes, yes." He assures her in a priestly way. "If it is acceptable to Heaven, and you show proper devotion and deference."

[Jade_Tarem]

Over the rainbow

"No!" Mirris objects, strongly. "My people don't believe in assassination, and neither do I. I came here to seek your help."

[Valgunn]

Sydele

The high priest stared at Mirris for a short while with a goofy grin on his face. Then he let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "Well... you certainly have confidence in yourself, and for that I will at least listen."

[Jade_Tarem]

Through the looking glass

Mirris nods. "A few days ago, I woke up to find myself in a cage, with a bunch of men saying that I'd murdered an important man named Muduagi. The details of their stories didn't add up, and I have no memory of doing anything like that, so I came to this country to find out what was going on." She pauses. "After making some friends, one indicated that the High Priest of this temple would be able and willing to help me. I would have waited for your calibration ritual to end, but the first night I was here, some assassins came after me for reasons I still don't understand." She takes a deep breath, having run out of air. "So I disguised myself as a temple girl and now I'm here."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"You are of course unaware of my problem." The high priest replied as he twisted himself back to an upright position. "Your story is... interesting, but I hadn't meant for you to tell it to me. It is my fault, I know, but before you'd told me your story I hadn't known you were a foreigner. Trust, in these lands, is not earned or given, but instead it is fought for. To fight another, to try and kill them, opens yourself as you reach into yourself to draw out your killing instinct." Then, almost as if he skipped the actions between standing and sitting, he was fully erect. "Knowing that the ancient rulers of these lands created a system of honour and blood bound by duels. No man of honour in this nation trusts another unless he has fought them, or has fought somebody they have fought. They aren't usually used on the spur of the moment like this, but I'm willing to overlook that to have a true look at you."

[Jade_Tarem]

You gotta fight for the right to parlay

"R...really? How do you get anything done? No, wait, that's not important." Mirris shakes her head. "Chayans... Chayans have no killing instinct. Life is so precious... But I have a family that needs me. I won't back down now. I won't!" She adopts her own martial arts stance - the real one, not the one her people showed foreigners. Remember, action without thoughtlessness, urgency without panic. Don't lose control and you won't lose your life.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"There is no life without death (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckTNNiLVtBM&feature=related)!" The high priest replied, but his true retort wasn't in his words. In a flash of acceleration that followed a martial form Mirris couldn't identify the high priest was on the offence. So fast was his charge that Mirris almost didn't see his open palm lancing up from his side toward her jaw.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Your part in his turn is pretty simple. Pick your DV (Dodge or Parry), but apart from that you can continue on with your turn on Tick 2. He acts again on Tick 6.

[Jade_Tarem]

Tick 2

Mirris rocks with the hit, but had already begun to move when the old man did. While the hit worked her jaw around, it didn't drop her to the ground the way it should have. Competing voices wafted through her mind.

His speed's incredible.
...action without thoughtlessness...
hit him hard, he isn't what he seems...

She waits for her focus to return, then responds with her own attack, throwing her body into the assault as she'd been taught, her hand forming the tightest, flattest fist she could manage and aiming for the throat...

Mirris will Aim for three ticks, and then Punch the lightning geezer on tick 5.
DV bonus of +2
Martial Arts + Dexterity + Aim x3 + Accuracy
2 + 4 + 3 + 1

[roll0]

[Valgunn]

Tick 6

With nearly inhuman grace the high priest diverted her blow as a rock would water. Not a moment was lost as he stepped forward into her defence, and once again as before a lancing palm come almost out of nowhere.

Attack: [roll0]

[Jade_Tarem]

Tick 10

Mirris bends back to allow his attack to fall short, then pushes forward into a backhand, followed by another jab.

Flurrying Punches!

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Where Mirris believed the high priest would fall short his inhuman momentum carried him forward. It carried his attack right into a pillar, and with the thunder crack of snapping wood his palm cracked it. Again Mirris tried to attack, but again she failed. The high priest wasn't so unlucky, and with the wet cracking and smacking sound of flesh enduring impossible strain he caught her in the side. The other man was now staring at Mirris with a molten intensity while Calix continued on in the role she had fulfilled since she put down her tray. It was the same intensity, a mind focussed by immediate conflict, that showed on the high priest's face.

The fight ended with the same insanity it had begun. One moment Mirris was caught in a struggle to survive, and the next she was again watching the high priest and the other man lounging on other sides of their table. "Whatever you may think about your people I can assure you that you have that instinct." The response seemed to compliment his last statement before he tried to knock her head -- literally -- off, and in some ways it seemed to replace it. The idea that she wasn't as peaceful as she thought she was, or as she felt she was, was abhorrent and alien to her Chayan mind, but if the high priest knew that he seemed not to care about the impact of his words. "You say you were made a captive for the murder of my nephew? That... it doesn't make any sense..."

"I think I can explain." The other man said in a voice that matched his impressively impossible figure. "My seers -- insufferable fire elementals of all creatures! - told me, well, they told me utter gibberish in-between their own personal squabbles, but the thrust of their prophecy was that you would come here. Then you would do something. Whatever it is you do here it earned a very florid description of an explosion from them. It's why I conspired to put hapless, honest Still Sky in your way." The high priest was gibbering at this point. He began to hammer on about why he hadn't been included and that it was his duty -- nay, his right! -- to be told about something so important. "Shut up, or I'll shut you up!" The other man roared at him, and instantly the high priest scrambled back in quiet fear. "As I was saying before I was interrupted. I put Still Sky in your way knowing he couldn't resist helping somebody in need and that he would naturally drag his old friend Machow into it. Machow would, of course, figure that the fastest way to get all this out of his hair would be to send you here, and here you are! I had nothing to do with your arrival though, and it was quite a nuisance making sure I knew when you'd arrived across the border -- and that isn't even mentioning how difficult it was to get Still Sky to hold still for five seconds!"

The great man sighed and pushed aside Calix who seemed to realize or care she'd been discarded. "It was worth it though, to see you. Come," he patted at the spot left by Calix, "come and sit. It's rare I get to chat with somebody with so much potential."

[Jade_Tarem]

Mirris hesitates for a moment, but with the ultra-fast and ludicrously strong high priest standing nearby there was no question that the shirtless figure could compel her to sit by him. Not to mention the fact that, like Azurejac, he seemed to be gassing on about her 'potential.'

If I ever unlock my 'true potential,' I'm expecting fireworks. She thinks, sardonically.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"Thank you," the great man said as Mirris settled down next to him. "I'm sorry, but it seems I've forgotten my manners. Would you like something to drink or eat?" His massive hand -- about the size of Mirris' torso -- gestures to the pot, cups and bowls on the tray that Calix had brought -- all of them, curiously, far too small for the great man to reasonably use. "You'll have to forgive me. I've taken to isolating myself from the world, but when the world out there and the world in here are so different I can hardly be blamed. If I had the option I wouldn't even be here, but my status isn't what it used to be and I no longer merit much attention in Heaven. It's a sad, sad state of affairs, don't you agree?" The massive man seemed entirely inclined to harp on about himself and utterly forget about Mirris' problem as he talked. "I mean, of course you agree, but that's not what I'm actually interested in. What are your thoughts on it? If I'm to maintain my peace I must limit my contact to... what's-his-name over there, and he's far too content to simply lounge about and laugh rather than engage in any serious discussion if he can help it."

[Jade_Tarem]

Finally, a use for that philosophy degree

"W...well, I guess your choices are limited to action and inaction." Mirris swallows nervously. The conversation was no longer on her problems, but she wasn't about get on the god's case about it. "If you continue to do things the same way, you're supporting the current state of affairs, and loaning your ability to control the events around you to chance and anyone else in the area. Otherwise, you have to do something to get what you want. Even... even if it's just telling others to do things, or if it's distasteful."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"Mh-mh." The great man said as he read deep into Mirris' words. "So... what you're saying is that I should kill this guy and find a new high priest... I like it." Meanwhile 'that guy' had gone almost completely white with fear with what little colour he retained kept in his face for the glare that was aimed at Mirris. "Shake things up." The massive man said with a grim look of certainty on his face. "Yeah, things definitely need a good shaking up around here."

[Jade_Tarem]

Oh snap

"Not that!" Mirris quickly leaps up between the massive man and the high priest. "You can't solve all your problems by punching them! Good grief, this is probably why you got kicked out of heaven!"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

The great man's countenance darkens immediately. The change is miraculous, and if Mirris hadn't seen it with her own eyes she could have sworn it had been a mask. "You defy me and insult me in my own home even after I so graciously welcomed you into it?!" His roar was a thundercrack that peeled across the vast empty grassland of his realm. "What are you doing!?" The high priest screamed. "You'll only get yourself killed too!" Already the massive man had idly kicked the table and Calix before him like a man knocking aside toys in his path to you both. "I was a fool to listen again to those prattling bitches. They have brought me nothing but suffering, but at their father's request I listened again! No more! I will deal with you, and then I will deal with those spoiled princesses once and for all!"

[Jade_Tarem]

Comes the Hunter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIXJeAYy0iE)

Mirris had heard that when you were about to die, your life would flash before your eyes. Imagine her confusion when someone else's life flashed before her eyes - she caught half remembered snatches of a floating city, a young man with black and red feline ears and a very long tail, battles, victories, a gleaming city filled with wonders, places she'd never been and people she'd never met. Upheaval, destruction, life, joy, pain, death, loss.

Betrayal.

Outside of her mind, things were no less chaotic. It began with the weapons sticking out of the ground, as they began to quiver, and the armor began to rattle as a swift wind picked up. The sky cracked and a rush of brilliant red and gold light streamed in, flashing brilliantly white where it connected with her. A burst of fire shot from her eyes, nose, and mouth, and with it came a sudden snapping within her - as though a restrictive band had broken that had been squeezing her heart and mind. But these things paled compared to what happened last.

A loud WHOOMP could be heard - even back in the temple of Yaotaub. In the domain, the ground itself rippled as though it were fluid struck by a large object, flinging the high priest and Calix away and spitting several weapons out of the soil and into the air. An image erupted from the tall woman, streaking high into the air above her - an image of a predatory bird made of molten fury, cast in orange and gold flame.

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l511/jadetarem/MagmaPhoenix.jpg

And down below, a radiant Mirris stopped Yaotaub's fist with a simple block, and caught a falling sword in her other hand. The crack in the sky did not mend itself. Her face had an enraptured look upon it and she laughed delightedly, almost giddy. "You know, I just realized that we were never properly introduced." She fixed glowing eyes on him, aura undimmed and manic grin in place - and perhaps most terrifyingly of all, an unmistakable symbol shining on her brow. "I'm supposed to try to kill you, right?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

If Yaotaub felt anything about Mirris' sudden transformation it didn't show on his face as he made a short leap backward -- if anything he seemed to be angrier. "You," the god growled (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buifCKc9RNU&feature=related). "You will not live to regret this!" With another terrible roar the oppressive silence that hung over the world shattered with his cry. Arcs of electricity traced a crackling outline up and down the god's body before lancing out into the endless rolling plains of long grass. Across that boundless expanse wherever a weapon or a suit of armour was found the electricity plunged into it. The high priest and Calix were unharmed by his display but Mirris' left the man she had fought grasping for words as a more terrible fear than he had yet experienced gripped him. Calix was confused and terrified in equal measure as she cast glances around at the unfamiliar world now that whatever magic had held her was now broken.

Staring Mirris down the god lifted his left hand and with it the amazing din of a thousand suits of armour rattling to life filled the air. Then as one a dull gold light poured from the suits of armour and like a swarm they came to him. Whirling about him they reconstituted themselves as a whole on his form -- a blue stained suit of lamellar painted with a hundred red dragons. Twisting his body about in the armour an arrogant smirk crossed his face as he inspected his right arm. Violently jerking his head back to Mirris the smirk vanished. "I am the master here! Me!" He shouted, affirming in himself his status. An edge of desperation had crept into his voice and with it his right hand lifted but not to an amazing din. Instead the weapons hidden in the long grass of the hills answered silently and assuredly. Just as before dull gold light issued forth from the weapons that surrounded him and came to his hand like a dutiful hawk. Coalescing in his palm the dull gold light let out a bright burst before taking its physical form -- a spear sized to his vast form and decorated with white silk.

Join Battle: [roll0]

Yaotaub has activated a pair of Charms collectively called Gilded in Faded Glories. It has two variants for both armour and weapons. With these two Charms he's capable of conjuring arms and armour (the Charms were originally called Golden Panoply of the Conqueror but were diminished when he was deposed from his lofty position). Under normal circumstances they provide him with perfect equipment, but in the presence of his spoils (defined in the Charm description as a suit of armour or a weapon given to him by a defeated foe) they become as powerful as artefacts.

This was just a brief explanation because I'm quite proud of the two Charms mechanically and story-wise.

[hi-mi-tsu]

Sydele

Still uncertain about this ritualistic prayer, Sydele nevertheless murmurs a quiet word of thanks as she clutches her statues. Though she acquired this...guest on land, the river-girl feels a stronger affinity with Sunt, and goes to his large statue first; placing her own paltry offering down before him, she knelt before it, worrying at her lip for a moment. The low susurrus of prayer arose around her; while some seemed only to be mouthing the words, most seemed at least to be murmuring their prayers to the gods.

"I have not...done this before. Not in this manner." Nearly silent, the sounds barely passed her own lips to escape into the air. Sydele's eyes fixed on the statue--not on the one before her, but on the large one.

"I have never been...the truly religious sort. I understood asking blessings for travel, for safe river-journey, for good health and success in battle, but I...have been alone for a very long time. I do not know...if this is the proper way to behave, or to supplicate myself before you, but I have never been skilled with words, either. Please. Water is my home, and my life. I ask...I humbly request that you remove this...thing which tries to make me feel as though I am drowning, which makes me afraid to step foot in the rivers I love. Please."

A pause...a minute which stretched into two, into five, into ten. Nothing. No benevolent presence, no feeling of weight lifting from her shoulders; Sydele's eyes flicker, and she shifts, going to Tnus and repeating the process of prayer. Nothing, no confirmation from either spirit or god or presence, and Sydele shifts again, a bit back, then crosses her legs and settles down to wait.

[Jade_Tarem]

Or so they say

Mirris twirls her sword into a ready position. "Well, as a certain someone keeps telling me, being a master is like being a famous person. If you have to keep telling people that you are one, you're not."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Whether the statement angered the god or not is a question for the sages of the world because by now his anger had already peaked. Like the silent wind that once lay spread out across his own personal realm the god moved with quiet speed. In one moment he was unmoving, and then in the other he was throwing his spear. In the third moment, as the spear ripped apart the air between the god and the Solar, there was a chance to defend, but the window was closing as the fourth moment rushed at Mirris.

Attack (Dexterity + Thrown): [roll0]

Sydele

And wait, and wait, and wait. Sydele waited cross-legged in front of those statues as the world around her moved on. The sun finishing its long passage across the sky, the local residents and travellers milling about as they went about their religious activities, and the priesthood of the temple milling about as they went about theirs. As time passes it's inevitable that you hear things, and see things, that it isn't strictly polite to see or hear. The gossip of the locals, the far-off personal news brought and traded by the travellers, and the internal disputes of the priesthood. Most of the gossip, news, and internal disputes fade in and out of your notice, but one brings some closure on an earlier trouble: the two priests Sydele had talked to, it seemed, weren't fond of each other if the frequent arguments, both theological and not, were any indicator. A dreary and mundane thing, but given what was about to happen as the sun kissed the western horizon as it slipped from the world and the moon rose up in the east to guard the night.

It was, at first, nothing special. A sudden, but vauge, feeling of tautness and then slackness spread over Sydele. It was as if she had noticed something and her body responded only to realize there was nothing there after all. Then the feelings came again. A sudden tautness and then slackness. Again, it happened, and as Sydele began to look around to see what it is that was the cause she saw the face of the first priest she met looking as confused and concerned as she was.

Then everything happened all at once. The feeling of drowning was there, at arms length but there, and for the first time it seemed that she was not alone. The panicked expression and the sudden gulping shout from one young man told her that much about what was happening. Then came the terrible sound. In night or day this sound would have been horrible, but with the day so soon gone and the lights of the temple not yet lit it seemed to take on an even worse aspect in the moonlight. It was the sound of water, smashing and crashing, but it was also the gulping, breathless sound of grasping for air. Following her ears she looked out beyond the wide doors of the temple to find the source, and there, floating on a growing surface of water was a small, bloated figure with tattered clothes. The water it lay on surged underneath it and spread out in all directions, carrying with it slimy and slippery things.

[Jade_Tarem]

Huzzah for AIM battles.

A Formal Greeting and the Mature Resolution of a Conflict of Interests

As the spear approaches, the flared Anima behind Mirris folds its wings (www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX6rKETIaCw) forward protectively, and the spear shatters against it before exploding in a shower of deadly light. Mirris blinks as all of it washes against the burning wings, leaving her untouched. Her grin broadens and she springs forward, feeling life and power surge through the entire motion, sweeping her blade around too fast to be seen in an enormous arc. A number of tiny petals - or perhaps feathers - swirl out behind the blade, glowing a lurid red-orange. A thin glowing arc of light in the same color reaches beyond that, cleaving the pillars of the pavilion at an angle and causing most of the structure to topple.

The strike is too fast, and Yaotaub is hit. The blow draws blood from the torso - rather a lot of it, in fact - but the large god only seems even angrier. Now beyond words, he leaps away and hurls a new spear from his impressive collection, and this time the anima does not move, as Mirris blocks with her own devices. The ensuing blast from the exploding spear takes the form of tiny lances of light, drawing blood from the Chayan's arms and face, but not slowing her down.

Not to be deterred, the Solar repeats her tactic, and strikes again. Former war-god or not, the sheer essence behind the attack carries the blade through Yaotaub's defenses once again, and this time something important is hit. Blood slicks the entire front of the god's armor, which now features two ragged gashes, and there seems to be no stopping the crimson flow. Surrender or retreat would be the wise option, but Yaotaub is not known for careful consideration when he's in a killing mood, and the angry god draws upon his essence and steps up his game with a threefold repetition of his attack.

This has more of an effect - Mirris's body is only newly acquainted with Exaltation, and in some ways is still more mortal than not. The new bursts of golden wrath hurt, badly, but Yaotaub is swaying, and the former Chayan is in no mental state to retreat herself. As Yaotaub skips back onto the roof, Mirris leaps high into the air, swinging the weapon around and down, flames and flurries following the path of her blade even as the anima flares back into existence. Her landing is obscured by a burst of light, dust, and debris, but when the smoke clears the pavilion has been reduced to splinters... and Yaotaub is half the god he used to be. Both parts fade, leaving a tired but triumphant Solar Exalted standing in the wreckage, still shrouded with an intense halo of white-orange light.

As a gentle breeze carries the smoke back, Mirris takes a deep breath and smiles easily - possibly insanely, given the circumstances. "Best introduction ever." She turns to the terrified high priest, who is sitting in a suspicious puddle, and snorts. "I'm new to..." She waves vaguely. "...this. Do you worship me now, or what?" She turns back to the spot where the god had fallen. "That was sad like starving kittens. Wasn't he a war god?" When she still receives no answer, the lawgiver shrugs. "I'm also a little fuzzy on the customs. Do I introduce myself to Calix now? Or does our meeting yesterday count?"

"It counts!"

The Chayan frowns gently. "Are you sure? Because I don't remember fighting you..."

"It counts, I promise!" The tall woman squeaked.

"Alright then." It was at that moment that Mirris realized she was still bleeding - except she wasn't. The wounds were clearly there but her desire to stop bleeding had become reality through an agent that she didn't feel like questioning right then. "I'm going to go wash up and rest a bit by the platform. You two can... do whatever it is you do up here. I'll let you know when the platform starts moving again."

With that, the lawgiver goes exploring, only mildly surprised that the realm had remained after Yaotaub's demise. She continues until she finds enough water to wash herself and get a drink, then she wanders the fields until she finds a set of armor similar to the one she had left with Still Sky, and dons it. Then she settles in by the platform, focusing. She had an inkling that if she could recover enough of her power, she could somehow heal even these terrible injuries very quickly. She didn't know where the knowledge came from - it was less than a memory, really - but she knew it was correct. And so she rested.

Mirris will do exactly that - she's going to put on the armor, rest for 2 hours (getting back 16 motes of essence), then she will spend one hour using Body-Mending Meditation. Then she will continue to rest until the platform starts to descend.

If the two mortals want to talk, she will politely ask them to leave. If they look like they're going to attack her, she will inform them that it is a stupid idea and ask if she needs to introduce herself to anyone else in their order.

[Valgunn]

Mirris

As Mirris willed, so it was. For two hours Mirris rested on the platform-slash-gate made from the five colours of jade. Without his presence the private world Yaotaub had created for himself found peace. The gentle wind brought the wild smells from over the hills with no names as Mirris rested in the new new shirt of blue-tinted steel mail she had taken as her spoils from Yaotaub's vast collection that littered the landscape. Breathing in Mirris uncorked her reserves. The reaction from her body was instant, and before her eyes she saw her body reacting to the warmth radiating from inside her. Somehow Mirris knew that over the next day all her wounds would be healed as the perfection of her body reasserted itself.

When the high priest, followed very closely by Calix, came up to her and tried to engage her in conversation she asked them to leave. Polite as she was dismissal visibly rankled the high priest. "Now you listen to me!" He exclaimed with as much courage as he could muster, but by his rigidly straight posture either he was angry beyond all belief or terrified beyond all belief -- it could go either way. "We can't leave! I don't know how the gate works. It was always our city father that willed it to descend and then return. Maybe. I don't know, and that's the point I have. We're stuck without him, and unless you have some infernal scheme for getting out of here yourself you're stuck with us." The high priest pointed fervently at the platform. "And it's because of you killing our city father that we can't leave, so I think, Anathema or not, you're responsible for getting us all out of here before we starve to death!" The high priest paused again, as if thinking. "And if that doesn't move you to action then I'll remind you I was willing to help you figure out what is going on, and I still am willing." At that he seemed almost brave as he stared at Mirris. "But only if we get out of here alive -- both of us, myself and the girl."

Loot: River Steel Chain Shirt (soak +4L/2B, mobility -0, fatigue 0).

Body-Mending Meditation. Under normal circumstances it'd take about eight to nine days of rest to heal your wounds (compare to the full month of rest a mortal would need), but with Body-Mending Meditation you'll be back to full fighting strength in about nineteen to twenty hours of rest.

[Jade_Tarem]

3D Platforming

"That's great. It really is. I kind of like you two. But I'd like to point out that I'm kind of recovering from having godly spears exploding in my face, here, and I'd like to be at full strength before walking out into your temple. I'd also like to point out that ever since I revealed myself to not be a temple girl, I've been attacked twice by people claiming to want to help me." Mirris looks up at him pointedly. "Maybe the platform will move on its own when Calibration is over in about twelve hours. If it doesn't, I'll try something else. If you're looking for something to do between now and then, I'd recommend looking for another exit, sleeping, or maybe giving that pavilion some TLC."

She settles down again, before looking back at him. "And one other thing. I don't know very much about the old Anathema, but I would like to request that you not call me that. I did save your life - it seems the least you could do."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

Counting off his responded on his fingers as her went the high priest responded. "There is no other exit -- if you go far enough in any one direction you bump into the horizon -- and the pavilion is beyond repair." Almost as if on cue the wreckage of the pavilion gives a shudder as something came loose and disturbed it. "And as for sleeping... well, don't take this the wrong way but whatever you want me to call you you're some sort of dangerous and I'm not closing my eyes longer than I need to blink until I'm back in the real world." At that he dropped, cross-legged, onto the floor with a 'flumph'. "Instead I'd like to continue what I was saying before Yaotaub interupted." Calix, a little slow on the uptake due to shock, suddenly realized she wasn't ineffectively hiding behind the high priest any more give a 'meep' and ducked behind him again. "Not that he wasn't highly informative, but it doesn't answer any question other than why you came here of all places -- meddling in prophecy like that." The high priest gave a sigh. It seemed that the fact you were being reasonable gave him leave to feel more comfortable and less terrified, but the way he kept his eyes on Mirris told her he was still fearful. "It simply makes no sense..."

[Jade_Tarem]

Fortune Cookie History

"I see. What was the actual text of the prophecy? Yaotaub said I would come here and do something. Well, I came here and did something. Was there anything more to it?"

[Valgunn]

Mirris

"And yet another reason why you shouldn't have killed him: he didn't tell me anything about the prophecy or about what he was doing with you." Letting out a polite cough the high priest gives himself a pause. "But knowing him he was probably holding back to do some needlessly dramatic reveal... not much chance of that now."

[Jade_Tarem]

Theology

"Gods are stewards and protectors. They offer guidance and support, care and structure to the world." Mirris says. "Yaotaub effected an absurdly complicated plan to bring me here, told me he was bored, and then tried to kill you and me. In all of my experience, that makes him a lousy god. I'll freely admit that his death is causing us problems, but if you're expecting an apology you're going to be waiting a while."

[Valgunn]

Mirris

The high priest smiled and laughed. "This just gets worse!" He cries, his face burying itself in his palms. "I'd forgotten... steward and protectors... that's a laugh." He lifted his head and stared at Mirris. "Gods keep themselves, but gods aren't just themselves, you see. They're also other things. A city father is the city, and what's good for the city is good for him and what's good for him is good for the city. I've lived long enough to see the connection with my own eyes. When the city riots Yaotaub is filled with anger; when Yaotaub is happy the city is filled with celebrations. I don't know anything about that platform, but I know even less about what will happen to this city without its city father." His face squares itself. "Nice job, hero." The sarcasm almost dripped of the word 'hero' as the high priest glowered at Mirris.

[Jade_Tarem]

Restraint

"Do you remember when I said I liked you a second ago? Well it's starting to wear off." Mirris stands up to her full six feet in height, suddenly looming in such a way that she seemed to take up more space. "I did not claim to be a hero. I wouldn't have even come here save that your precious city is full of so many liars and assassins that I honestly didn't believe that I would survive otherwise." She narrows her eyes. "You can get mad for all I care, but don't condescend to me. Yaotaub had every opportunity to flee, to surrender, or to - I don't know - not use violence as his first resort, maybe? I know children with more maturity and criminals with higher social standards than this thing you worship."

She settles back down, her anger not yet abated. "If you have nothing useful to say, then go wait elsewhere until Calibration ends. If you don't have the patience for that, then too bad."

Using one mote to do the Looking Scary maneuver that Dawn Caste can do. :smalltongue:

[Valgunn]

Mirris, Yaotaub's Sanctum
27th Day of Descending Fire, Midday

The world around the three seemed to groan under the weight of Mirris' unshaded presence. Even hiding behind the high priest the sight was more than Calix could bare, so she bolted in the opposite direction. The high priest's will held up against Mirris though. Even as his will kept him standing before her it was clear to Mirris' sight the sweat that was beading at his edges. "We don't hold the high ground but at least we have ground to hold." His words were as strained as the beading sweat on him indicated his body was but he said them calmly and smoothly despite it. "Take that as you will." He said before turning around and walking after Calix. It was clear though that his feet wanted to run after Calix.

With the pair gone Mirris was again alone on the platform. Returning to her meditation she found herself pulled by something. Whatever it was it had dragged her from where she'd been before because now she found herself surrounded by blackness.

Mirris, ????
????, ????

It surrounded and engulfed her. The blackness devoured her senses leaving her with nothing but her own thoughts to prove she was even alive.

[hi-mi-tsu]

Sydele

And wait, and wait, and wait. Sydele waited cross-legged in front of those statues as the world around her moved on. The sun finishing its long passage across the sky, the local residents and travellers milling about as they went about their religious activities, and the priesthood of the temple milling about as they went about theirs. As time passes it's inevitable that you hear things, and see things, that it isn't strictly polite to see or hear. The gossip of the locals, the far-off personal news brought and traded by the travellers, and the internal disputes of the priesthood. Most of the gossip, news, and internal disputes fade in and out of your notice, but one brings some closure on an earlier trouble: the two priests Sydele had talked to, it seemed, weren't fond of each other if the frequent arguments, both theological and not, were any indicator. A dreary and mundane thing, but given what was about to happen as the sun kissed the western horizon as it slipped from the world and the moon rose up in the east to guard the night.

It was, at first, nothing special. A sudden, but vauge, feeling of tautness and then slackness spread over Sydele. It was as if she had noticed something and her body responded only to realize there was nothing there after all. Then the feelings came again. A sudden tautness and then slackness. Again, it happened, and as Sydele began to look around to see what it is that was the cause she saw the face of the first priest she met looking as confused and concerned as she was.

Then everything happened all at once. The feeling of drowning was there, at arms length but there, and for the first time it seemed that she was not alone. The panicked expression and the sudden gulping shout from one young man told her that much about what was happening. Then came the terrible sound. In night or day this sound would have been horrible, but with the day so soon gone and the lights of the temple not yet lit it seemed to take on an even worse aspect in the moonlight. It was the sound of water, smashing and crashing, but it was also the gulping, breathless sound of grasping for air. Following her ears she looked out beyond the wide doors of the temple to find the source, and there, floating on a growing surface of water was a small, bloated figure with tattered clothes. The water it lay on surged underneath it and spread out in all directions, carrying with it slimy and slippery things.[/QUOTE]



Water. Astounding, how something she'd grown up with, had been around her entire life, could evoke a feeling of dread within her breast. The crashing of the water was not what bothered her, though she could not see enough to make such a sound. No, what was bothersome was the sound of drowning, the desperate grasp at one last breath, the losing battle with life. Her eyes fell on the first priest--the one who had seemed to believe, if his discussions with the second were to be trusted--and she reached out, grabbing him by the arm.

"You. Come with me." Her eyes panned the room.

"The rest of you, stay in here! Protect the normal citizens, do whatever it is priests do when asking for relief from their gods."

This was what had clung to her during her trip, what had lingered around her head; this thing, spawning twisted aberrations that at first resembled normal sea-animals and then, at second glancing, proved to be horribly wrong. She was not necessarily the bravest of women, but nor was she a slimy thing herself, to back away from a problem which was hers...

"What do you want?" Her voice, strident, rang out in the courtyard, and she stepped closer to the fountain, dodging the creatures when she could. She hoped that the priest was being priestlike, praying to his gods for help and guidance, and that he hadn't simply run away in fear...

"Are you so cowardly that you cannot face me alone? That you must spawn these things, terrify the pious citizenry that come to worship at the temple? Show yourself!"

The khatar that was normally kept sheathed at her hip was slipped over her hand, and she gripped the handle tightly. She did not know how useful her blade and chain would be against a ghost, but it made her feel better to have it in her grasp...

[Jade_Tarem]

Elsewhere...

As she drifted through the void, Mirris's only thought was Oh, this again...

She wasn't sure why that was her thought, but that was when her senses started coming back. A familiar smell, a sound of laughing children, the wind rushing through a narrow street, and a sly purr of a voice...

"You need to watch your back, Ezri."

And just like that, she was Rising Blaze Ezri. The name fit her like no other had ever done, and he stood in the streets of her city as it sailed southward along its programmed route. Ezri himself was watching the children at play - this deep into the city, there was little need for guard railings or warning signs at "ground" level. He turned to his eternal companion, Tombassa, First of Rogues, and raised an eyebrow. "Aren't married men supposed to be more mature? What did you steal this time?"

[Valgunn]

Rising Blaze Ezri, the City of Rising
27th Day of Descending Fire, Late Morning

This deep (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaUVYgwovp4&feature=relmfu) in the central platform of Rising the whip-crack winds of the city's current altitude hadn't yet snatched away the smell of cooking that lingered here. "Just a hat." Tombassa purred shamelessly in an 'as-a-matter-of-fact' tone that simply begged for further inquiry. "But while we're on the subject isn't it irresponsible for the ruler of a city to neglect both his wife and his city to watch children play?" His hand waved something away between himself and you. "Not that I know what terrible demands must be asked of you." It wasn't the smell of morning food that was so familiar though. The sarcasm in Tombassa's voice was familiar though and it was his smell that was so familiar -- myrrh and musk oil dominated by a strong smell of cinnamon that hid the smell of dry dust and wet sand. Between Tombassa's scent lay a light tinge of sweat that had, coupled with the fact that he was here, provided the clues for the insight that he had stolen something.

"Not that you're dear wife ever makes demands of you. This city is enough to maintain her interest for a lifetime; and it's only been fifty years so you've got at least another fifty before you need to find a new project to fascinate her or endure her sudden, and for you, at least, unhealthy interest." With a flourish he produced the hat seemingly from nowhere -- an impressive feat given the acuity of your senses -- and slid it onto his head. "Maybe a cheerful doomsday weapon to celebrate your one-thousandth birthday?" If Tombassa thought that producing the hat would provide answers to the questions his simple statement of fact had created he would have been wrong. The hat was richly appointed in blue and gold with a distinctly regal and religious air about it that suited Tombassa only because it suited him so badly that it somehow came full circle. "Only seventy-four years..."

Sydele, the Temple of Earth & Water
11th Day of Resplendent Fire, Late Evening

Closer and closer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgFKc2-OMV8&feature=relmfu) you stride with fervent priest dragged along in your wake by the weight of your actions. As each step brings you both closer to the shape bobbing around the bubbling and frothing source of the water you can see that for all their slime and slip the things it spawned were quite dead. As if it wasn't bad enough to see the horrible things the smell they were giving off slammed into you like a solid wall but for all the sights and stench your challenge still rung and your march unimpeded. The closer you approached the more a sick, twisted feeling of dreadful familiarity bubbled up inside you. The closer you came the more you recognised the way the thing moved in the water. Stiff and bloated the body of a human that you now recognised this thing was dug deep inside you to images of your own clan dead and floating.

Then, at the edge of hearing, you catch a gurgle, you see the limbs of the body grasping at the water. Whoever it was they were alive! They were bobbing in the bubbling and frothing water as something held it firm. The priest behind you gave a sharp grasp and is if to confirm what seemed apparent he shouted, "He's alive!" And without thought for his own well-being the priest surged forward against the omnidirectional tide of water. Splashing and sloshing he pushed forward to the body until he grasped him with both hands and with the hands of a powerful swimmer -- snap! Up out of the water without disturbing a drop a great, big pair of jaws swallowed the priest and the body whole.

[Jade_Tarem]

The Cheese Stands Alone

"Ha! Remisty's attentions aren't nearly so bad as you make them out to be, although I shudder to think about what doomsday weapon she'd concoct. I've always been content with a good blade." Ezri smirked, referencing the weapon he'd taken from that one overconfident Fair Folk noble. What had his name been, Azersmack or something? He pushed that memory aside, it had been a long time ago. "Besides, I get a lot of leeway in how I handle my duties because I was given the most onerous duty of them all - herding cats."

[Valgunn]

Rising Blaze Ezri, the City of Rising
27th Day of Descending Fire, Late Morning

Tombassa gave a laugh that was soon joined by Ezri's. Eventually the laughter died down and the two settled comfortably on their vantage point of the street. The children were still playing but neither of them could recognise what game they were playing. At first they thought it might be tag but then they noticed that there was a ball involved which led them to assume another game. Time after time they came to a new conclusion, filling the air with idle chatter that had somehow taken on a strange meaning to the pair of them. For a short while you couldn't have picked them apart from the greatest minds discussing the greatest problems while they talked about children's games. For that short while it was as important to them as the mind bending work Ezri's wife was doing on the city's new power source.

It was her mind bending work that had created such mild weather up here. It wasn't her work directly but the tests she was running had called for mild weather so she had the appropriate weather conditions arranged. The Bureau of Seasons was always willing to cooperate with the Solar Exalted since it was their duty to control the weather of Creation and the well-being of Creation was the Solar Exalted's duty. On a whim she'd arranged for a short shower of rain that was just now beginning to fall from an unusually high cloud.

What she hadn't arranged for but was happening all the same was the rapidly increasing wind speed. In seconds the delightful smell of morning was gone. Something was going very wrong.

[Jade_Tarem]

Everyone does something about the weather, but no one ever talks about it.

That's not good. It was also not a reason to panic. Ezri simply jumped up to the highest available point nearby, and then to the city's observation tower - a leap that carried him across the city in a flash. Once there, he scans the horizon for threats...