The Lotus Blossoms! - Volume II

[Sticks]

"I got no idear. Dagnabbit, he ain't been gone more'n a afternoon an' they already plumb forgot what Wic looks like!"

Leaf made the jibe with a playful grin, but she really was curious. Carefully navigating around the edge of the pool, she smiled at Kelam and hoisted their box of clothes, armor and Kelam's sword onto one hand, to better hold her towel in place. She crossed to the right side of the pool, Kelam following, and deposited the box neatly against the wall, unobtrusive but within reach. Carefully folding her towel-wrap atop the box, she slid into the water near the Captain.

"Ahhh, I ain't never gettin' tired'a this. Beats cold streams or sea-water any day in my book."

She offered Kelam a hand into the pool, then aimed a joking elbow at Slang. "So, no sign of Wic, but you found the platonic ideal'a a harborhead man. Where'd you find 'im? Who is he? Any ideas 'bout Wic, Cap'n?"

[Malozing]

Slang snorted at Leaf's comment of them forgetting what Wirric Stanton looked like. They watched the two women make their way to the group.

The Tya winced as the former monk's elbow grazed their side, but lifted their head more above the water to reply.

"He-" Slang gestured toward Skymoth with a wave. "Appointed himself as our guide after following us around for a bit. He's like Qhispe."

Slang shifted to lean their head against the bath's edge, careful to keep their chest under the water.

"As for Wic," The captain threw their arms upwards in a frustrated gesture. "I can't find any trace of him. It's like he vanished into thin air!"

[pfm1995]

Tuoni sits on a ledge high in the bath, only a few inches of water protecting his modesty - not that he seems to mind, as he raises a hand to acknowledge Brown Leaf and Kelam. While the bath and the water are wonderful, what he's really here for is the steam. It wafts over his skin light as a feather, soothes his many puckered scars, and holds him close and safe. It reminds him of home.

But there's a feeling there that isn't only the steam, though he'd thought it was at first. He raised a hand and traced a line down his mask, feeling the beads of water pool under his fingers, and reached out along the connection he and the mask shared. What is it?

[Eurus]

Skymoth in a public bathing area probably counts as a drowning hazard, considering how many double takes and surreptitious stares he gets, but he seems to be enjoying himself. He's relaxed and actually a little less chatty than usual, willing to just soak and enjoy. Part of him is thinking that he should have gone for a run before this, though.

"I take offense to that remark," he shoots back at Slang's last comment. While he never actually met Qhispe, he's heard a bit about her... enough to not be impressed.

He rises to his feet (water cascading over his body like something out of a cloistered monk's most indecent fantasy) and smiles broadly at Leaf and Kelam. "I'm Skymoth. Figured I'd make sure none of you get into too much trouble while you're here, eh?"

[Ascension]

Kelam, still standing and wrapped in her towel, blinks with a not inconsiderable degree of astonishment as Skymoth stands. She normally maintains a cool indifference toward men, but it's impossible to ignore a display like... this. From across the pool, the lounging Dynast ventures a wolf whistle.

Even the spirit at the edge of Tuoni's consciousness lets out a gasp.

"You are foreign to this land," she... Tuoni is reasonably certain the spirit is female, now, so she... whispers to the shaman through his mask once she's recovered her thoughts, "but there is power in your bones, power in your mask. Surely you don't fear the monks of the Isle... Surely you would suffer a goddess to speak to her people, in her place of power? Let me in..."

[pfm1995]

Even Tuoni's head is knocked back a bit by Skymoth's indecent display; standing behind the Lunar, he misses the full-frontal force of his assault but even he's forced to admit those are some very nice shoulders. Fortunately, a distraction avails itself.

I was relaxing myself. Tuoni mutters, at least in his head. But who are you, what kind of god are you, that you cannot speak to them yourself? I see your likeness on the wall, you still have followers here. I have some power, true, but I like to think that it was not gained foolishly.

Truth be told, Tuoni was curious - he didn't know that he could quite remember his mask reacting in this way before, and who was this goddess that she needed a stranger to speak for her? Curiosity would be his doom, he was sure of it, but for now he was willing to sit and listen.

[Sticks]

Leaf laughed, she couldn't help it. "Well, the fact that yer willin'ly standin' pretty in a bath alone makes ya diff'rent from Quispe, Skymoth. But I get what y' mean, Cap'n."

She stood as well, took a sloshing step forward and shook Skymoth's hand in the manner unique to the physically mighty, no bone-crushing grips, just a mutual firmness that spoke volumes to each other. She released his hand, then fell back alongside Kelam. "I'm Brown Leaf, an' this-here's my partner, Kelam. By the way, nice delts." She indicated Skymoth's shoulders, keeping her tone casual.

She then glanced at the dynast and then looked back to Skymoth, speaking more quietly. "I'd like t' chat more, but honestly you won' be dealin' with us fer long. We need t' leave this city soon, jes waitin' on our last group-member t' arrive. He knows we're comin' here, so we should wait 'til he shows, but right now what we don't need is any more surprises."

Spoiler: OOC

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I'm going to say that Leaf has gained a minor intimacy of respect towards Skymoth. We'll just call it 'Skymoth: Nice.'

[Ascension]

A faint impression of laughter echoes through Tuoni's mind.

"I could manifest myself in the physical realm this very moment, or send portents and omens for my followers to interpret. But then if the Immaculates came asking, I wouldn't be able to blame it on you and say 'but an Anathema made me do it!'"

A subtle vibration in Tuoni's mask gives the impression that the goddess is circling him, observing him from different angles.

"And you're not staying in the city, I hear, so the malus won't fall on you, either. I just want to have a brief word with the Lunar... deniably."

[Malozing]

Slang rolled their eyes at Skymoth. "Thank you for getting my meaning, Leaf. I don't know if he'd-"

It took Slang a moment for Brown Leaf's words to sink in.

"Wait, we're leaving already? What did you do?!"

[Ascension]

"It's not her fault!" Kelam insists, defensively.

She wades into the pool until the water comes up to her knees, but hesitates before going further. A glare toward the Dynastic voyeur only draws a grin, so she keeps her towel for the moment and turns her attention back toward Slang. She drops her voice to discourage eavesdroppers.

"She didn't do anything wrong, but we learned her home valley is in danger. We need to move quickly... with Wirric's sorcery, if possible... to get there before... our enemies do."

[pfm1995]

I should just get a banner to hang over my head... Tuoni grumbled. It would be less noticeable.Very well, I will help you talk to the Lunar - be polite, even in this place you are my guest.

With that, he stands - as unconcerned with modesty as Skymoth, though he doesn't carry it nearly as well - and strides over to tap his fellow Anathema on the shoulder. "A goddess wishes to speak with you." He said simply.

[Sticks]

"Thank chéri, but I'm hopin' they ain't gonna be our enemies an..."

Brown Leaf began to speak, but stopped, turning her attention to Tuoni.

[Malozing]

"Ah." Slang sheepishly scratched the back of their head. "Sorry for jumping to conclusions. This group does tend to find some sort of trouble, sooo..."

Tuoni's announcement to Skymoth drew the Tya's attention to the two.

[Ascension]

OOC:

Spoiler: OOC

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Recommended reading order:

Valin, please start with the second IC spoiler. Everyone else can start with the first.

The Public Baths:

Spoiler

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The white-painted wood of Tuoni's mask trembles, its shuddering noticeable enough for others to notice. Its face, typically blank but for the shallow scars of battles long past, suddenly isn't. First its cheeks fill out, then plump lips appear, a flaring nose, an abstract indication of hair. Only the eye-holes remain unchanged, and Tuoni's eyes behind them, the rest of the mask is changed to a vision of a Harborhead woman, her tribal ethnicity unclear, her features beautiful with a defiantly pre-colonial sense of beauty.

For any who studied the older statuary in the baths' lobby, the face is unmistakable. This is the visage of Wafting Sweetness, the Steam Vent Goddess, patron of this and other springs throughout Harborhead. The local family bathing nearby take notice and genuflect as best they can when half-submerged in steaming water, murmuring prayers. The Dynast half-rises from the pool, and his eyebrows rise further.

"Is that sorcery?" he asks, curious rather than outraged.

The goddess's voice issues forth from the transfigured mask, fluent Flametongue in feminine tones, only slightly tainted by the slurring echo of Tuoni's own voice underneath.

"I was angry when I first sensed you bathing in my waters," she says to Skymoth, with stern dignity, "but then... I realized..."

Suddenly her sternness vanishes, eclipsed by welling emotion. Relief? Enthusiasm? Just a hint of vindictiveness?

"He left you too, didn't he?!" she gushes.

Before Skymoth has a chance to process that question, the orange disc of the sun touches the Western rim of the world, and in that instant the sunset intrudes into the bath chamber itself. A dull orange sphere appears above the bathers' heads, surrounded by flitting tendrils of dusk, violet and navy...

Wic:

Spoiler

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Wic's timing is poor. Another wave ripples through the water as he pushes off of his ice raft, spoiling his jump, and only the toe of his boot reaches the platform where his daughter waits. He slips on the wet lip of the ice raft, his foot, his leg plunging into the frigid water. He's able to arrest his slide into the water with his hands, but from the waist down he's submerged. The cold wastes no time stealing into his bones, within moments he's already losing feeling in his toes.

"Father!"

His daughter rises to her feet, her cloak falling back. She has the body of an adult woman now... or perhaps that of several adult women, fitted together with more enthusiasm than skill... and her right arm is truly monstrous: massive and muscular, dotted with patches of bristly hair, with unnatural joints and claw-tipped fingers. Despite this transfiguration, she rushes to aid her father with all-too-human concern... and all-too-human short-sightedness.

Her shifting weight tilts the ice raft, tipping Wic further into the water. The paralyzing cold rushes upward through his body... his grip loosens... his daughter's monstrous paw reaches out too late, a futile gesture...

Wic slips down into the water. It soaks through his clothes, soaks into his skin. And it's so very, very...

...hot?

Everyone:

Spoiler

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The sunset orb hanging above the bath implodes, and one Wirric Stanton, Esquire, Monster Maker, exile of Whitewall, itinerant alchemist, erstwhile passenger of the Tya ship Remora, returns to the realm of existence.

Gravity wastes no time in reasserting its hold on Wic, and the Descending Sun hurtles downward. Kelam's combat instincts register the falling object as a threat, and she backsteps out of his path, leaving him to land, with a loud splash...

...directly atop Captain Slang.

The Dynast springs to his feet and wades across the pool as quickly as he can, his sheer excitement evident on his... face.

"If that was sorcery, you have to teach me!" he shouts at the dazed Wic.

[Inspector Valin]

"AAAARRGH!"

No one ever accused Wirric of an excess of dignity. The sorcerer cries out at the fall that seemed unending, at the image of the girl with the mighty arm fading away from him. At the growing heat that was enveloping him. Slowly the sorcerer starts register the shift from chill to scalding, the little sounds of others in the water, the sight of others around him. He blinks, eyes adjusting slowly as he gazes about the scene.

"What.... where... Captain?! Brown Leaf? Everyone?"

Wic looks surprised beyond measure. It takes him a second to realize exactly how he landed, and that realization is... not one that manages to do much to calm him down. Even as the warmth of the batth takes hold of him, it's easy to see the blush spreading across Wirric's face. He pulls himself upwards swiftly, hands raised in quick apology. "Sorry! Ss-sorry, Slang. I hadn't expected... this"

What 'this' is seems rather unclear, even to Wirric himself. He sinks back into the bath beside the dynast, barely noticing the water continuing to soak into his clothes, muttering half to himself half to his new friend. "This... isn't the White Sea. She's not here. Was I dreaming? But I wasn't asleep. I wasn't anything. But if I was nothing how could I be there?"

Where once Wirric's mind would race, a combination of sudden heat and sheer inability to correlate his situation with what has now happened has left the master sorcerer quite confused. He's starting to relate to that strange woman with the pipe he met in Nexus once. Now though, he looks intently at the Dynast: gesturing across the bathhouse with the air of one who has finally solved a mystery. "This has to be the dream, right? Right. That makes more sense." Wic chuckles in satisfaction, resting his head against the side of the bath. "I think I'm dying. The cold does strange things to the mind. I'm dying and I'm thinking about everyone... at the bathhouse. All together, smiling and having a good time and..."

The trailing off is accompanied by a red faced glance at Captain Slang. Wic starts to slowly sink deeper into the water, eyes closed. He can't bring himself to finish that train of thought aloud, even in a dream. He can't just surrender to this. Maybe if he focuses he can wake up still, save himself, save his daughter...

[Sticks]

Brown Leaf was as startled as anyone by Wic's sudden reassertion of existence, she was also motivated. That was her best means of transport resignedly slipping beneath the warm scented waves of a perfectly lovely bath. She rushed over to where the sorcerer sunk, churning up the water around the dynast's...legs.

"A'ight brother, up an' at' em. Ain't nobody got time t' sleep under-water, 'cept Daan'd 'a course. Hey! Eyes up an' exercise some self-control there, you rascal." This last rejoinder was directed at the excitable dynast. She stuck her hands beneath Wirric's armpits and hauled him bodily out of the water, squinting her eyes against the cascade that poured off his heavy robes. Still holding Wic aloft, she turned him to face her, and placed him down on his feet.

"If'n you done swallered any water, best t' cough it up all dignified-like. There's a lady present." She indicated the perplexed mask-face of the goddess atop Tuoni's nude form. Boy-howdy, ain't this a situation.

[Ascension]

"You know this man?" the Dynast asks Brown Leaf. "Is he on drugs? I think he's high on something, it sounds like he's hallucinating."

He turns back to Wic and raises his voice.

"When you teach me that teleportation spell, you have to tell me where you got the drugs, too, okay!"

Watching all this unfold, Kelam takes a moment to simply facepalm.

[Eurus]

By the time Skymoth can absorb what's just happened, he breaks into a snorting, slightly waterlogged laugh. He's not quite clear who this screaming falling man is, but it's definitely kind of comical. The interrupting Dynast just makes it even more so.

He has to take a few breaths to calm himself, and he throws an arm over Tuoni's... the goddess's? No, it probably still counts as Tuoni's shoulder. He's not the most tactful fellow, but he has an inkling what this is about, and he tries to guide the channeling shaman to the most unoccupied corner of the baths.

"If you're speaking of the Long-Horned Bull, then... yes, I suppose he did. It was rather rude of him, but I like myself too much to waste time on resentment. I hope I haven't caused offense, goddess."

[Inspector Valin]

"Okay. Okay. Ohhkay."

Wirric takes a second to steady himself, looking down at his feet and taking a breath of stifling sweet air, before turning his gaze up to his circlemate, looking a touch pained but resolute.. "Leaf, I need you to answer this very carefully. Is that a lady?"

He gestures across to the figure in the mask, and then to the Dynast at his side. "To me, that looks like a naked Tuoni with a woman's face. This man might be right: that sounds like a hallucination, doesn't it?" It really does. Wic turns to the rather loud stranger, growing a touch more confused as he tries to explain. "I knew they were coming here. I could be imagining this. Though I... don't think we've met before. So does that mean I'm not hallucinating? Or are you a metaphor for something?"

[Ascension]

Spoiler: OOC

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Since I think it's the only language Wic and Brown Leaf share, I'm assuming Wic is speaking Old Realm now.

"Speaking Old Realm in such a state!" the Dynast exclaims. "He's truly a dedicated student of the occult!"

He switches to Old Realm himself, speaking with a heavy accent, but fortunately better fluency than Drogath managed.

"We are not the hallucination, honored teacher. I am Ragara Molo, and these are... your friends, I think. But you could not have come from the White Sea..."

A thought comes to Molo, and his eyebrows seem on the verge of attempting flight.

"...unless your power is truly beyond my ken!"

Wafting Sweetness, meanwhile, is taken aback for a moment.

"...no, you haven't caused offense," she says, after a pause, "but I hoped you'd learned resentment. It's no waste... It's no less than he deserves. He cares only for himself, you know. Not for the women he steps on as he climbs to power."

[Sticks]

Leaf gave Wic a quizzical look. "Boy, if this is yer hallucination, you tell me what I'm doin' here nekked. An' then you bes' hide yerself from Kelam. Anyway, yea, that's Tuoni. We're in them baths I was tellin' errybody about 'afore you gone an' bunked off t' Mela knows where. The baths are the sanctum of Wafting Sweetness, who ah...." She paused as she considered the most delicate way to phrase her description. "...Is sacred 'round here, an used t' dance with Alhat, if'n you take my meanin'. 'Parently Tuoni caught her attention, an' she's got somethin' t' say t' Skymoth. Oh yea, that brother there's Skymoth, he's like our tree-friend, if'n you take my meanin'. He done attatched hisself t' Tuoni an the...Cap'n!"

She turned away, bumping Ragara Molo, whom she was pointedly ignoring. "Kelam! Is the Cap'n okay!?"

[Inspector Valin]

"Ah. A tree man. And the bathhouse. And a scion of Ragara." Wic nods repeatedly in the hope that will make it appear as if he knows what's going on. At Leaf's mention of Slang he's about to follow her to assist the good-Tya... before remembering the good-Tya's state of dress, and stepping back for a second. Leaf can handle that: the former Immaculate seems entirely too comfortable with mass nudity, a trait the private and secretive Wic has never shared. Best not to risk helping poor Slang from the pool only to drop them back in again though a nervous twitch.

"I... need to think." Wirric mutters in Skytongue. He takes a seat at the side of the bath, not seeming to notice the water soaking into his trousers. 'Being surrounded by naked people' is the sort of thing that makes Wirric uncomfortable as a rule, but his mind is far too distracted right now for that. After a few seconds though, he turns to the Dynast at his side, speaking now in High Realm.

"Tell me, Molo. What is Somewhere?"

The question might be abstract to the point of nonsense but the man seems like he's interested in esoterica and with the heat and humidity of the bathhouse, Wirric isn't in a position to choose his phrasing carefully. Still, he knows enough to at least try to begin at the beginning. "I should have been Elsewhere. Nowhere. Suspended between time and place, hung upon threads of essence outside of being. A nonentity until the sun set and I appeared somewhere. Here, specifically. Though I intended to be anywhere else, that's ultimately a side issue."

This is the important part. Wirric meets Molo's gaze with wide eyes, trying to communicate the sheer wonder of the truth with his would be disciple. "Because I wasn't truly Elsewhere! I definitely existed, in some way. I was in the White Sea with a girl... a woman, now. Who I had not seen for far too long." His mind drifts back to where it'd been just minutes ago, suspended above that endless sea. "We talked. She was upset. I tried to go to her, to comfort her and apologize. I slipped, and fell..." Wirric trails off, before turning a quizzical eye on Molo as he starts to question those last four words, growing more excited as he continues. "Did I fall? Was that real? Could I have made some mistake, and my non existence faltered into some kind of half reality? Was it a dream we shared, our fates tied together in the great Loom, spanning across the world? Can you dream from nowhere though? If I was truly nowhere, I could not exist and therefor could not dream."

Wirric sighs, laying back against the bathhouse floor and closing his eyes. "If I were to break through the gates of Yu Shan, could even Heaven itself tell me the truth of it? Of her? I've spent my life pondering such questions and I scarcely know where to begin: what chance has some poor meger god of understanding such things?"

[Malozing]

As Wic stumbled over his words, Slang flushed and sank deeper into the water.

‘At least I still had my bindings on…’

The Dynast and Leaf’s attention seemed solely focused on Wic, and Tuoni and Skymoth have turned away from the Tya. Slang glanced around at the other bathing groups. Ragara Molo’s companions and the family on the far side all had turned their eyes towards the sorcerer.

Quietly and quickly, Slang moved out of the pool and towards their belongings. They grabbed their clothes and ducked into an alcove behind one of the statues to dry off and dress in some semblance of privacy.

Brown Leaf’s voice suddenly shouting their title caused Slang to jump and bump their elbow into the stone statue. Hard. Slang muffled their grunt of pain with a hand as they glanced back at the group, hoping that no one will notice their little hiding spot.

Spoiler: occ

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Dexterity 4 + Stealth 5+ Stunt 2

Spoiler: Dice Roll

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(11d10)[4][10][4][3][8][10][4][10][3][7][3](66)

[Ascension]

Brown Leaf's question catches Kelam off guard.

"The captain? They're right..."

The word 'there' dies on Kelam's lips as she turns and sees a conspicuously empty patch of water where the Tya's head had previously bobbed.

"Don't panic!" she immediately assures her girlfriend, even though there's a rising note of fear in her own voice, "I'm sure they're okay, I'll find them."

She closes her eyes and focuses purely on the sounds of the bathing chamber, parsing and filtering information with a killer's instinct as her hearing sharpens to superhuman acuity. Not the babble of conversation, either loud and close or distant and whispered. Not the lap of water or the faint sigh of rising steam. Not the sounds of her own body, rushing blood or churning stomach. She listens for the sound of breathing, counting the breaths, comparing them against her mental map of the room...

"...I can't place them..." she realizes, with dawning horror.

Maybe there's just too much unfamiliar background noise... too many people, too many languages, too many sounds from the bath itself... or maybe...

Maybe they aren't breathing any more?

"I will find them! And they are okay!" she swears, a little too loudly. With dramatic determination, she throws her towel aside and dives beneath the surface of the near-scalding water, ready to save her captain... her friend... from a drowning death.

Meanwhile, Molo stares at Wic.

"I don't know whether to be in awe of his occult understanding or in awe of the quality of his drugs!"

After a moment's thought, he considers, "Maybe both. They do say altered states can be a key to enlightenment..."

He snaps his fingers at one of the men amongst his gaggle of companions.

"Scribe! Record this man's wisdom for contemplation!"

While the very naked and very wet scribe goes rushing off to find pen, ink, and paper, Molo sits by Wic's side.

"You attempted to breach the realm of Elsewhere?" he asks, fully invested in Wic's rambling now. "I have only read of one man who attempted that feat before, and it is said he never returned from the journey!"

[Eurus]

Skymoth grins, bright and dangerous. There's no subtlety in him, but then, there's not much subtlety in a bolt of lightning either. His voice is easy and playful when he replies.

"I don't think I qualify as a woman, but I understand what you mean, and I can't argue with you there. I think sometimes that he's forgotten that consequences apply to everyone, even gods. I meant what I said... I don't see much of a use in holding grudges. But I didn't say I don't take my revenge."

[Malozing]

As Kelam dove into the steamy waters, Slang, fully dressed, stepped out from their little hiding spot with a couple of dry towels folded under their arm. The only sign that the Tya was even in the bath was water dripping from their hair and onto their shirt. They walked over to Wic and plopped down next to him. Slang offered Wic the towels without making eye contact.

"Here. If you want to get into some dry clothes, I, um, got some that looked about your size. They're by that statue." They pointed out the very statue that hid them from view moments ago.

The moment Kelam surfaces, Slang called out to her.

"Kelam, I'm over here." Their tattooed face started to flush again. "I just needed to get out of the baths. Sorry. Didn't mean to worry you."

[pfm1995]

Tuoni is surprised by Wirric's sudden appearance, but not that surprised - the shaman is a copper spider as well, and well familiar with the tips and tricks of their breed. He takes a few quick steps out of the splash zone, his feet tearing up small sheets of water, before settling facing Skymoth again. This is what you wanted to speak about? Comparing old flames? And this could not have been done without me, because?

The conversation Wirric is having is much more interesting. From across the room, Tuoni does his best to listen in even if most of the concepts used are foreign to him. This talk of 'Elsewhere' made no sense and sounded like some fey trick - which, knowing Wirric, it very well could be - but matched what he had experienced the last time he'd needed to run and didn't care where to. This talk of a woman, though, that was new.

"He's lucky." Tuoni calls out, interrupting the goddess' and the Lunar's gossiping. "That he found himself here is a blessing - he could very well have wound up..." and his voice catches, not wanting to reveal too much. "...elsewhere."

Not all places of power are friendly.

[Ascension]

"Without you this would make even more of a scene," Wafting Sweetness communicates to Tuoni, "and the Immaculate monastery isn't the only other temple I'd rather didn't hear of this. But stay focused, please! I need to hear more about this..."

"Revenge," she says out loud, reclaiming Tuoni's voice for the moment. That word has certainly caught the goddess's attention.

"What kind of revenge?" she asks. The question isn't suspicious, but expectant. She wants to revel in the details of any embarrassment Ahlat may have suffered.

Meanwhile, as Kelam surfaces, her panicked expression gives way to shock.

"Slang! Captain!" she blurts out, "I'm so glad to see you! You're... very hard to notice!"

The outburst briefly distracts Ragara Molo from his study of Wic's ramblings, and he nudges his fellow sorcerer with his elbow.

"Now, I'm glad to see her," he says, with a leer at Kelam. "Knew it'd be worth waiting for before she dropped the towel; nothing about that figure's hard to notice."

'You could easily kill him, you know,' a certain dark voice reminds the deathknight, 'And consign his soul to the oblivion of the Void.'

If you want me back on the team, this strategy is a major improvement, Kelam thinks.

[Sticks]

Brown Leaf bristled. She saw Kelam's face, and could guess what was transpiring behind those cold, beautiful eyes. She made a small gesture with her hand, catching her girlfriend's attention, and tapped herself just above the navel with the same hand. Remember here.

Molo had stepped forward to leer, he was right behind Leaf. She turned the long way back around to Wic, and her elbow swung wide. With casual force, her hard joint drove into his midriff, right in the Fire chakra. She tried to play it off, not especially caring if she sounded sincere. "Well now the Cap'n's oka OH I'M SORRY!" She half-stumbled against Molo, her foot slid under his as he staggered. Still seemingly off-balance, Leaf twisted, lifting her foot and taking his with it. "WHOOPS!" To any casual observer this would seem the awkward movements of a clumsy person up to her knees in water. To those who knew otherwise, it was a classic leg-sweep right out of Tiger style.

Spoiler: OOC & Rolls

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I could see an argument for this being a Manipulation roll, but I'm going to stick with good old DEX. Leaf isn't exactly trying to be subtle here, just expedite karma a little bit.
So that is DEX+MA+Specialty+Stunt, and throw on a single Excellency to make it even.
(4d10)[4][6][9][8](27)
(4d10)[2][9][2][9](22)
(4d10)[2][9][6][6](23)

[Ascension]

Spoiler: OOC

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Technically speaking this should require either a grapple and throw or the use of Tiger Style's Raging Tiger Pounce, and would initiate combat either way, but... it amused me as written, so let's run with this.

Two-point stunt, and...

"Woah, careful- HEY!" is all Molo manages to say before he is dunked suddenly and gracelessly into the water.

Kelam knows just where she could place her foot to ensure that the Dynast never rises again. Drowning is an awful, agonizing death, and her imagination is eager to point out how the temperature of these springs would enhance the man's suffering. Would he feel the scalding heat through the inner lining of his lungs? She's willing to bet he would.

But she drives back those thoughts. He resurfaces, sputtering and cursing. Kelam tenses again as he looks toward Brown Leaf, but he's merely frustrated, not looking for a fight.

"Watch it! Safety's no joke! Fella could get hurt..."

His scribe returns before he gets much further than that, and his attention soon returns to Wic.

"But right, yes, what's this about Elsewhere? Please share!"

Kelam, an arm now drawn protectively across her chest, sidles up next to Brown Leaf.

"Thank you," she murmurs, "but he's already back to normal."

She sighs.

"When I left the West, I hoped I was leaving that kind of behavior behind. But men can be pigs anywhere. Especially with power backing them. How do you face that?"

She rubs idly at an old battle scar on her arm, a faint line healed almost to the point of invisibility.

"Maybe Slang and their crew have the right idea."