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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 11.31
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Nimlas Dagorewen
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 11.31
linkki
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Näin samalla kun mietiskelen tässä seuraavaa osaa hahmon päiväkirjan jatkoksi niin voisinpa kokeilla että olisiko täällä kiinnostusta lueskella & mahdollisesti kommentoida missä menee pahemmin pieleen?
Ainoana ongelmana, jos asian niin haluaa nähdä, on että päiväkirja on kirjoitettuna englanniksi eli ne ketkä eivät kieltä ole tottuneet lukemaan tarinat voivat olla hankalampia.
Pelimaailmana on WW:n Exalted ja tarinan päähenkilönä on nuori Lunari White Morning Mist joka koittaa selvittää omaa menneisyyttään samalla kun maailmaa 2. ajan loppuessa.
Samalla voisi kysyä että kumpastako menetelmää kannattaisi käyttää tarinoiden kanssa, jokainen tarina omaan säikeeseensä, yksi megalomaaninen säie missä on kaikki vaiko pelkkä linkki aina kampanjan sivuilla olevaan uusimpaan osaan?
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Olorin
linkki
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 12.36
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Olorin
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 12.36
linkki
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Kyllä tuo voisi olla hyvinkin mielenkiintoista, itsekin kun nyt Exalted-kampanjassa pelaajana olen. Olisi hauska kuulla muiden tarinoita.
Varsinkin kun kyseessä on vielä lunarihahmo. :P
Oma lunarini, Teren Kymmenen Karhun Mieli, kuoli eilisessä chapter ykkösen lopussa, ja tarkoituksena olisi kirjoittaa ylös hänen päiväkirjansa.
Joten anna tulla vaan, kyllä täällä ainakin yksi innokas lukija löytyy. :wink:
Menetelmän suhteen en oikein osaa neuvoa, tuohon osaisi vastata vain vertailemalla näillä kahdella tavalla kirjoitettuja tekstejä.
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Alec
linkki
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 12.57
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Alec
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 12.57
linkki
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Tyhmä kysymys mut mikä on WW? Ja vielä jatkona mikä on Exalted-kamppanja?
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 13.12
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Nimlas Dagorewen
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 13.12
linkki
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[quote:8aa64e002b="Alec"]Tyhmä kysymys mut mikä on WW? Ja vielä jatkona mikä on Exalted-kamppanja?[/quote:8aa64e002b]
WW eli White Wolf, pelintekijä ja Exalted... hmm... Mitenkähän sen kuvailisi. Ota Hong Kong action/kunfu-leffojen stuntit & meininki, lisätään soppaan anime-tyyliset mega-miekat, 'hitusellinen' supervoimia ja sekoitetaan kunnolla. Sitten vain muistetaan että maailman Tärkein sääntö on: If it looks Cool, it's going to work! ^.^
Sitten arvotaan että toimiiko tämä linkki juttu: [url]http://www.white-wolf.com/exalted/[/url] <-- tuossa on linkki WW:n omille sivuille Exaltedin tienoilta.
[quote:8aa64e002b="Galen"]Varsinkin kun kyseessä on vielä lunarihahmo.
Oma lunarini, Teren Kymmenen Karhun Mieli, kuoli eilisessä chapter ykkösen lopussa, ja tarkoituksena olisi kirjoittaa ylös hänen päiväkirjansa.
Joten anna tulla vaan, kyllä täällä ainakin yksi innokas lukija löytyy.[/quote:8aa64e002b]
Lähellä se on käynyt Mistylläkin useamminkin kuin kerran mutta onneksi Lunarit ovat 'hieman' kestävämpiä kuin nuo herkkähipiäiset Solarit. ^_^
Mutta sittenpä tuleekin isompi klöntti kun postaan tuon ensimmäisen osan...
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Olorin
linkki
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 13.13
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Olorin
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 13.13
linkki
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[quote:682fe3eb6b="Alec"]Tyhmä kysymys mut mikä on WW? Ja vielä jatkona mikä on Exalted-kamppanja?[/quote:682fe3eb6b]
[b:682fe3eb6b]WW[/b:682fe3eb6b] = pelifirma [url=http://www.white-wolf.com/]White Wolf[/url] (World of Darkness, Vampire, Werewolf...)
[b:682fe3eb6b]Exalted[/b:682fe3eb6b] on edellämainitun firman eeppinen roolipeli:
[size=9:682fe3eb6b][i:682fe3eb6b]"Exalted is a game of epic fantasy set during the Second Age of Man, a time before our own.
It is an age of magic and adventure, when heroes of legend are reborn into a time of woe.
At the dawn of the First Age, the gods gave power to men that they might slay the gods' Primordial enemies. Anointed by the gods, these beings were thereafter known as the Exalted.
The greatest of the Exalted were the Solars, the Chosen of the Unconquered Sun, the mightiest of the gods. So great was their power that, when a Solar died, his power was quickly made manifest in a new individual - a reincarnation of sorts, but into a mature adult rather than a newborn.
The Exalted triumphed over the enemies of the gods, and in reward, the gods gave the Exalted dominion over the Earth. For a timeless age, the Exalted ruled justly over Creation, and their kingdom was invincible.
But the enemies of the gods had pronounced a terrible curse against the Exalted. This dark magic ate away at the hearts of the Chosen. The benevolence of the Solars turned to tyranny, and peace turned to civil war. It was prophesied that the madness of the Solars would bring about the destruction of the world. Seeing no other alternative, the lowliest of Exalted, the Dragon-Blooded, murdered the decadent Solar Exalted and locked their souls away.
And so, a Second Age descended upon Creation.
The greatest of the gods' servants no longer walked the earth, and the Realm of the Dragon-Blooded was but a shadow of the lost old Realm. Solar Exalted whose power escaped to be reborn were slain by Dragon-Blooded inquisitors known as the Wyld Hunt, and the Realm claimed dominion over Creation. For more than a thousand years the Solar Exalted remained imprisoned and defeated - until now.
The Scarlet Empress, the Dragon-Blooded ruler of the Realm and controller of the Wyld Hunt, vanished five years ago. Without her might to enforce order in the Realm, the Great Houses of her Scarlet Dynasty have fallen to squabbling over the reins of power. And in this time of crisis, the Solar Exalted have returned. It is as if a gate was opened and the heroes of old rushed through it and returned to the world.
Your character is among those individuals who have become Solar Exalted. You are a being of legend, as mighty as a demigod and as cunning as an asp. Will you be the savior of Creation or one of the terrible menaces that beset your world?"[/i:682fe3eb6b][/size:682fe3eb6b]
[url=http://www.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?line=news&articleid=366]Mikä tekee Exaltedista erilaisen?[/url]
Edit:
Hehe, Nimlas oli hitusen nopeampi. :P
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 13.19
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Nimlas Dagorewen
22. helmikuuta 2006 kello 13.19
linkki
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Ensimmäinen pelikerta, Exaltit kohtaavat Nexusissa ja matka alkaa. Aikaa tämän tarinan aikana kului noin 5 kuukautta, valtaosa siitä vietettiin laivalla jossa tapahtui suht vähän. Mutta sitten itse tarinan pariin:
Heroic Assemblage, 1st of Ascending Air - 28th of Resplendent Water, RY 768
The Shiny Symbol of Filth, Nexus
Beginning of the Season of Air
A week has passed since I arrived to Nexus, the crossroad of commerce as they say, a week that has passed with daily excursion around the various districts looking for what my mentor said would arrive here soon. The more I see, more true the elders words sound, if this is what the civilization has to offer then the whole thing should be torn asunder and to think that this is just a pale comparison of the Realm itself, how dead will the men be in there? On the other hand, not all are completely softened up even in this city, for some every day is a new fight, fight for that small scrap of food, against each other and in lesser extend I think, against the entire city but should they succeed, the struggle ends, they stay content and soften, becoming that what they fought against earlier. A few nights ago, again I wondered what would have come of me without the touch of Luna, where would I sleep if not on perched on some high branch or in cave underneath the earth, would I sleep in the gutters like many in this city or in the lavish palaces...
Memories of the past are vague, earliest thing I remember is that I was running, to or from something I don't know nor why, it was cold though, the kind of cold that goes trough any clothes or furs you have and straight to your bones. I remember falling down and looking at my blood covered hands, whose blood was it I'm not sure, then I was running along lavishly decorated corridor, walls paling in silver blaze, rage burning within me, a deep horrible rage, agonizing sense of loss fuelling it, something terrible had just happened, scolding heat on my finger. Next, or maybe it was before, I was mind numbingly cold again and dragging onwards, this time I'm pretty sure I was running away from something, in the distance shouts and voices urging me to take another step. A low growl dragged my mind back into reality, what I though as just another pile of snow suddenly moved, something heavy landing on me and the last thing I remember was me bounding on something and the whisper, "You are mine," in my mind. Movement down on the ground snapped me from my thoughts, small form of wary rabbit moving slowly in search of food. Before I even noticed, I was already swooping trough the night, acting on pure instinct as my talons grasped its fur and another small part of life moved on.
The following day my mentors words came true, the Solars I was looking made their move or they were forced to act, which, matters little since I found them never the less. One of them jumped trough window in attempt to escape of the Immaculate Order's slayer who was following him, his struggles ended with the crushing blow of the Immaculate's goremaul that send him flying trough the wall of near by house. Rest of the Solars appeared soon afterwards to aid their companion and slew the Dragon Blooded before disappearing again into the crowds of the city.
The River to Nowhere
Seasons of Air and Water
In the days after the attack, the Solars left the Nexus as did I, apparently the leader of their circle was also one of the merchant princes and had been preparing to leave Nexus for some time already, the attack was just a remainder that they are still hunted. While they were preparing the caravan, something stole my focus for a few nights, somewhere in the far North; something was tugging me, a faint memory of something important whispering in my sleep, in the morning its voice gone except for the faint pull towards the North. For one reason or the other, North was also where the caravan of the Solars was going and along it, so was I. For the better part of the next two seasons, the caravan made its way slowly towards the great forests up North East and from time to time, I get the feeling that I am closing both what is pulling me and something else, something that I have no memories of, a home.
First season of the caravan was quite nondescript, the mortals kept the rafts moving westwards, down the Yellow River until it joined with the River of Tears flowing from the North. In addition the crew who kept the caravan aloft, there were 11 additional passengers, just 9 if one doesn't count me nor the Solars and their companion, Sinje, of whom I'm not quite certain what to think. She seems to follow the same Solar, the Ash Mantis, who was attacked in the Nexus but she doesn't appear to be Solar herself, she bears no mark of Luna or clear markings of the Dragon Blooded. Perhaps she is Dragon Blooded of diluted blood or still young enough not to show the tell tale signs of her blood but mere mortal she isn't, of that I'm certain.
Most of the season of Water was similarly quiet, the caravan moving more slowly now as it dragged upstream along the River of Tears, pulled along by Yeddims on the shore. Along the Descending Water, we arrived to great necropolis of Sijan where dead are brought from all over the Creation to be buried. It was a brief stop for the caravan, few days of intense haggling over meaningless baubles and then the caravan set of again. Little after leaving Sijan, Exultant Falcon, the leader of the Solar circle held dinner party for all those travelling with his caravan. While most of the conversations going back and forth around the table were meaningless chatter, the conversation between Eye of the Storm, one of the Solars, and a apparent Dragon Blooded, about something called Cult of the Illuminated held my interest but once all talking was done, not much had been said of the subject.
Towards the end of the Descending Water, sighting of river pirates whose ship was speeding towards the slumbering caravan broke the calmness of the caravan. Their apparent plan was to divide the caravan fleet into two by boarding the rafts in middle of the caravan and sinking the first raft with catapult set onto their ship. Aside from the short struggle in Nexus, the following battle served as excellent opportunity to study the Solars and their skills. Exultant Falcon proved his skill with the orichalcum bow he keeps hidden, his arrows slew those pirates who stayed in his sight for more than blink of an eye, Eye of the Storm slew many with his fighting claws while the Ash Mantis stayed behind and helped fighting the flooding on board the barge hit by pirate catapult.
After the fighting was over and the caravan fleet was again herded together, some of the crew and Dragon Blooded expressed their interest on our fighting prowess, pegging us with questions about the source of their inhumane feats. The Exultant Falcon chose to stand silent against their questions while the Eye of the Storm gave explanation that he had blood of some minor God flowing in him. While some questions were also raised towards my actions but claim of having been touched by the elemental dragons along with the bluish tint of my skin and the cold air following me sated their curiosity. The next day and days after that, the crew and other mortals on the caravan seem to have found a new gift of finding something to keep their attention when ever one of the Solars or me came near them.
[i:1b4ca5cd2b][/i:1b4ca5cd2b][i:1b4ca5cd2b][/i:1b4ca5cd2b]
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
23. helmikuuta 2006 kello 6.00
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Nimlas Dagorewen
23. helmikuuta 2006 kello 6.00
linkki
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Näin aamuksi voisi laittaa toisenkin osan tarinasta näytille, tämän kertaisessa tarinassa loputkin Solareista näyttävät todelliset värinsä ja Misty tapaa veljensä jokseenkin odottamattomalla tavalla. Tarinan sivussa kerrottakoon että Mistyn omat muistot päättyvät Exaltoitumiseen ja sitä edeltävät ~20v ovat hämärän peitossa. Tämänkin kerran aikana pelissä kului useampia kuukausia seilatessa ympäri maailmaa joten Misty keskittyy lähinnä niihin asioihin mitkä todella pistivät silmään. Sitten itse tarinan pariin
Arctic Circle: 28th of Resplendent Water - 21th of Ascending Earth, RY 768
Quiet Travels of Wandering Mind
Seasons of Water to Earth
Very little worth of mentioning happened for the most parts during the past seasons, the caravan continued its slow journey upstream, one quiet day following the previous. The two occasions that something noticeable actually did happen however, are indeed worth of mentioning, both of which shed light onto the Solars and in some extend onto me as well. Though, some of these revelations are disturbing and raise far more questions than they begin answer.
The Nest of Hornets and Light of Sun
Season of Water
If there were any doubts about the Exultant Falcons heritage, the past day removed any shreds of doubt anyone had. The caravan had stopped near one of the unnamed villages on the banks of the River of Tears and the caravan master, along with few other mortals and the Eye of the Storm, went to handle trade matters with the villagers. While everything was quiet at the caravan, matters went horribly wrong in the village. Only Eye of the Storm returned half carrying, half dragging the dying caravan master and one of the guards with him. According to him, there were some kind of hornets in the village that attacked the trading party and only due to him being Solar he had been able to return to the caravan. The Exultant Falcon assessed situation for a moment, apparently torn between just casting off and returning to the village in order to save the missing two members of the trading party. His decision was head back to the village and try to negotiate with the villagers to get his apprentice, the Diligent Grasshopper, and guard back, which proved to be a lost cause since the swarm weren't interested in talks but wanted more food and so, the veil of secrecy surrounding him was cast aside.
Standing in clear sight, both from the caravan as well as from the village, he gathered gleaming strands of golden essence around him and started to recite the words of power. Although he was Solar exalted, the strain of the channelling enough essence to fuel his was hardly negligible, golden whirlwind of essence surrounding him soon blazed bright as the noon sun and his entire form was briefly cloaked into form of great golden falcon, lasting for perhaps single breath but more than enough to etch into minds of every crew member on the caravan. When he and Eye of the Storm returned to the caravan, carrying the Diligent Grasshopper with them, his anima was still blazing like great bonfire around him and the sign of the twilight burning on his forehead. The effect of his display on the crew was quite clear, those who didn't have assigned duties disappeared from sight under the decks and those unfortunate souls that couldn't escape doubled their efforts to do their duties while the Exultant Falcon retreated into his quarters, the golden blaze of his anima still shining trough the windows and from crack underneath his door until finally fading away during the night.
Into the Lands of the Dead Where the Forsaken Waits His Sister
Closing Days of the Season of Water
This day was one of those that makes one wonder if the creation has gone mad or was there actually sliver of sense in all that happened. Again the caravan stopped near on of the tree borne cities of the Haltan people and small group headed towards the city to trade fresh supplies and what not. In retrospect, I'm not certain which would have been better, for me to stay with the caravan or to go with the Solars as I did, what I learned that day and evening was upsetting to say the least. As we walked towards the city, the surround forest started to appear eerily familiar to that what has happened near my old manse, small plants had withered and even the great trees showed signs of death. By the time we reached the city itself, it was clear that we had entered into the lands of the dead, lucky for us we had set off during the morning and the shadowland was still part of the creation rather than in the netherworld.
After the first residents of the land had perished to Exultant Falcon's magic, figure dressed into black armour descended from the city and challenged us for entering his domain. After the Exultant Falcon introduced himself to the Undefeated Raven of the Perfect Dusk, an Abyssal exalted as they are called, but the conversation was cut short almost immediately afterwards by Exultant Falcons arrows and we were in middle of battle. Exultant Falcon's arrows bit trough his armour but abyssal response bit deeper, cutting trough his armour like it was just another piece of cloth and sent him sprawling onto the ground. Ash Mantis threw his blades, embedded with his essence, towards the abyssal and apparently managed to score few hits into vulnerable spots in his armour. Quick attack from Eye of Storm managed to knock the abyssal onto the ground and as I bounced into the air, calling forth the spirit of my totem and roared into my war form, the battle was over with single sentence; "Misty, don't!" This did unset me enough that, instead of sinking my claws into the abyssal, I landed on top of him and immediately bounced into safe distance, waiting for him to either try to take advance of this short pause or to explain. The Solars kept back while he rose back on to his feet; apparently abyssal sudden request had baffled them as well.
The uneasy silence lasted for few moments before the abyssal asked, "Misty Rabbit, don't you know me?" For a heartbeat I wondered who he meant until realizing that the name was supposed to mean something to me, while I stood there silently he removed his helmet, his face was pale, a stark contrast to the raven black hair. "Am I supposed to know you?" I asked to which he answered that he was my brother. Next one to speak was Ash Mantis, cracking another of his jokes about family reunions, if only I could remember did I have brother. The Eye of the Storm urged me not to trust anything the Undefeated Raven said, claiming that nothing but bad came from them, just as the Realm claimed that nothing but bad come from Solars themselves. He also invited me to visit the stronghold of the Lover Clad in the Reinment of Tears whom he serves, promising to take good care of his little sister, small words that caused the Solars to take a closer look on me since for them, I certainly weren't anyone's sister. While I did decline from his invitation, I did agree to spend rest of the day with him, discussing about the past and why did he claim to be my brother.
Once I agreed to spend a day with him, Undefeated Raven turned towards Exultant Falcon and stated that he'd like to rent one of the barges from his caravan to transport cargo downriver and it wouldn't matter if the trip would take him trough the Haltan capital first. After short haggle about the price of transporting his cargo, Solars and Sinje turned to return to the caravan while I stayed behind to discuss with the Undefeated Raven. During that afternoon I learned many things that I'll need to reflect upon on later time, our talk coming to end as the sun started to reach the horizon. Again he promised that nothing bad would happen to me even if I'd stay with him as the shadowland started to slip away from creation, while I must say I was curious what it would be like on the other side, I bid my farewell for the evening and returned to the caravan while I still were able.
Next morning, before the first light, there were no-one except the Solars, Sinje and me standing on the decks of the caravan, witnessing the arrival of Undefeated Raven and his cargo, carried by scores of lost souls. A massive wooden crate, almost as large as the barge meant to haul it, was loaded into last of the barges, just in time as the sun crested the horizon and drove the souls back into the darkness. Once the sun had chased last of the shades away, the caravan set sail again, the crew working more efficiently than ever before, terror hastening their pace and dread covering their face when ever they watched towards the end of the caravan. During the day, Solars wanted to know exactly what did Undefeated Raven mean as he called me his little sister and were I woman dressed as man or were he just making empty claims. To their distain, my answers shed very little light to the enigma; yes, he did call me sister and, to apparent disappointment of Sinje, neither am I just dressing as man.
The Tree City of Halta And Cult In Shadows
Season of Ascending Earth
After the Undefeated Raven joined the caravan, for many seasons there was virtually nothing worth of mentioning, until we finally reached the turning point of the caravan, the Kingdom of Halta. Soon after we arrived, the Cult of the Illuminated set their agent in motion, the Dragon Blooded traveler who had stayed with the caravan all the way from Nexus approached the Exultant Falcon and requested to speak with all the Solars and me. During the talk, she revealed that instead of being on of the Dragon Blooded as she first claimed, she was a Sidereal exalted and represented the cult that wishes to help the returning Solars to claim their place. She spoke about how the Solars were meant to rule over the creation, how they fought in shadows against the Immaculate Order and many other things but very little about Luna and her children besides that, according to her, we were meant to be subservient to Solars. As a token of her goodwill and in return for a small favor later, she agreed to reveal location of nearby burial ground for unknown Solar, an offer that the Exultant Falcon accepted gleefully.
Few days later, the Solars were traveling deeper into the forest and towards the tomb, which happened to be within territory of another Lunar, the Heaven's Moonsilver with whom I had talked earlier near city. While I stayed behind, since I had no real reason to challenge her for right to blunder the tomb in her territory, the Solars pressed onwards. They didn't make it far before Heaven's Moonsilver appeared to protect her claim for the territory; she swooped down from the trees above to from of the Solars and barred their advance. After short discussion, the Eye of the Storm presented her with challenge for right to pass trough her territory. Trusting blindly to her magic, Heaven's Moonsilver swooped high up into forest here she could throw spell after spell towards the Solar left on the ground, their anima's flaring into bonfires as essence was channeled into spells and defenses. In the end, failing to knock him down with her spells, Heaven's Moonsilver swooped down from the trees towards the Solar on the ground, doing exactly what he was waiting for. The Eye of the Storm leaped into the air to meet her, crashing against her before she could evade and sent her billowing to the ground and before she could rise, forced her to yield and allow their passage trough her territory.
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Olorin
linkki
23. helmikuuta 2006 kello 13.55
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Olorin
23. helmikuuta 2006 kello 13.55
linkki
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Ah, varsin mukavaa luettavaa ovat nämä, joten jatka toki samaan malliin. :)
[quote:770804a53f="Nimlas Dagorewen"]Lähellä se on käynyt Mistylläkin useamminkin kuin kerran mutta onneksi Lunarit ovat 'hieman' kestävämpiä kuin nuo herkkähipiäiset Solarit. ^_^[/quote:770804a53f]
Juu ei minunkaan hahmoni keston puutteeseen kuollut, vaan kyseessä oli PJn kanssa ennalta sovittu asia. Jo ennen ensimmäistä pelikertaa olimme sopineet että Teren tulee kuolemaan jossain vaiheessa, ja niin kävi. Ja melkoisen eeppisesti vielä. 8-)
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
23. helmikuuta 2006 kello 16.40
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Nimlas Dagorewen
23. helmikuuta 2006 kello 16.40
linkki
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[quote:466eb7cda0="Galen"]Ah, varsin mukavaa luettavaa ovat nämä, joten jatka toki samaan malliin. :)[/quote:466eb7cda0]
Whee... Palautetta ^.^ Mutta sen verran meinaan kuitenkin tökkiä että, pois lukien 'muutamat' typot, onko noista tullut mitään muuta mieleen kuin että lukeehan näitä?
Näin alkuunsa ajattelin jos heittelisi näitä vanhoja päiväkirjan osia päivittäin uuden kappaleen näkyville & sitten kun saa kiinni nykyisen tilanteen niin samaan tahtiin kun noita valmiiksi tulee. Melkein kuukaudeksi riittää näin kitsailemalla juttuja. ^_^
[quote:466eb7cda0="Galen"]Jo ennen ensimmäistä pelikertaa olimme sopineet että Teren tulee kuolemaan jossain vaiheessa, ja niin kävi. Ja melkoisen eeppisesti vielä.[/quote:466eb7cda0]
Ah, meillä ei ole ollut kuolemansopimusta vielä tähän mennessä ainakaan tietääkseni, toisaalta yksi Solareista kuoli toista Solaria vastaan tapellessa mutta se tulee sitten myöhäsemmissä tarinoissa selville.
Sitten vain pitää toivoa ettei noissa tarinoissa tule mitään hirveitä spoilereita kenenkään peliin. ^.^
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Olorin
linkki
23. helmikuuta 2006 kello 21.18
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Olorin
23. helmikuuta 2006 kello 21.18
linkki
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[quote:0faad62a70="Nimlas Dagorewen"]onko noista tullut mitään muuta mieleen kuin että lukeehan näitä?[/quote:0faad62a70]
En ole nyt aivan varma mitä haet takaa, mutta...
No siis, en oikein osaa sanoa. Erittäin mielenkiintoista on lukea muiden kokemuksia. Varsinkin tuo shadowland+abyssal oli varsin kiva, itse kun emme ole vielä kumpaankaan sorttiin vielä törmänneet.
Mutta tuntuu siltä, että jossain tulevaisuudessa häämöttävät. Eräs tärkeä artifakti pitäisi nimittäin saada pois Skullstone Archipelagon vallanpitäjältä... 8)
[quote:0faad62a70]Melkein kuukaudeksi riittää näin kitsailemalla juttuja. ^_^[/quote:0faad62a70]
Uhhuh. Siinä piisaa luettavaa, enpä ole varma pysynkö tahdissa. :P
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 7.32
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Nimlas Dagorewen
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 7.32
linkki
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[quote:db6b0c06bc="Galen"]En ole nyt aivan varma mitä haet takaa, mutta...
No siis, en oikein osaa sanoa.[/quote:db6b0c06bc]
Lähinnä meinasin että onko kirjotustyylissä miten paljon parannettavaa tai montako asiaa jää roikkumaan ilman että niihin tulee edes marginaalista selitystä jne. Eli parannusehdotuksia, kritiikkiä, jne. jos sellasia putkahtaa mieleen niin tietää hieman mitä pitäisi katsella / parantaa tulevaisuudessa.
[quote:db6b0c06bc="Galen"]Eräs tärkeä artifakti pitäisi nimittäin saada pois Skullstone Archipelagon vallanpitäjältä...[/quote:db6b0c06bc]
Ihan siellä saakka ei olla vielä käyty, naapuri saaristossa, Coral Archipelagosissa, ollaankin sitten hämmennetty hieman isommallakin kauhalla mutta siitäkin lisää myöhemmin. ^_^
Sitten tämän päiväiseen tarinaan, seurue kasvaa kun siihen Heaven's Moonsilver liittyy siihen ja myöhemmin kaksi muutakin Lunaria liittyy joukkoon. Muuten valtaosa tarinan kattamasta ajasta kului jälleen laivalla matkatessa takaisin Nexusia kohden, yksi lyhyt taistelu ja sitten hiljaiseloa.
Exalted: The Gathering: 21th of Ascending Earth - 20th of Descending Earth, RY 768
Secret of Empty Tomb
Season of Earth
With access to Heaven's Moonsilver's territory secured, the Solars found the burial site underneath one of the great trees. After a day of digging, the entrance into tomb itself was uncovered and jubilant Exultant Falcon was able to start looking for relics to loot. To his disappointment, the tomb had already been looted and after few moments the Eye of the Storm casually said, "you know, now that I think about it, Heaven's Moonsilver did mention the tomb being empty... And that she had pair of orichalcum knives tucked underneath her belt." This didn't please Exultant Falcon to the least and I think he snapped right then and there, since there was no relics for him to grab the tomb was left to rest in silence again. On the way back towards the city, Exultant Falcon wanted to know how Heaven's Moonsilver had known we were about to enter her territory and how to get her to come to us again, apparently lusting after the daggers she had with her. After days of waiting at the edge of her territory, Exultant Falcon just threw his arms up and finally agreed to head back to city, only to notice that someone was following us high in the trees. Heaven's Moonsilver had decided to follow us and to ask Eye of the Storm to teach her some of his martial arts in return for tutoring in magic.
Appearance of the Urrach-ya and Their Protector
Season of Earth
Some days after leaving from Chanta, while the caravan had stopped for the night, Eye of the Storm heard voices coming from the rear of the raft rented to the Undefeated Raven, voices that cited words of magic. While sounding the alarm, he ran towards the voices only to find two Lunars who were planning on taking the raft along with the warstrider it carried. While Eye of the Storm fought with them, faint, at first, rumble coming from upstream served as a warning for the effects of their magic as the river itself rose to swallow our ships under its waves. Lunars sneered to Eye of the Storm, as the great tidal wave grew closer, briefly mocking him before diving into the river, leaving him to figure out how to deal with rushing waters.
Rest of the Solars found their own ways to deal with the wave while I jumped into the river as well, taking form of great predatory fish before vanishing under. The few fish that still remained near scattered in all directions before me, except for two flying fish that apparently waited for the wave to pass over them. Their wait was cut sort as they sensed my approach and both of them streaked towards the surface with my jaws nipping their fins. As soon as they bounced from the river, both took their war forms; one of great bird the other of lupine hanging for its worthless life as the bird raised higher. Cloaking myself into form of an eagle, I soared towards the sky while Ash Mantis tried to stop their escape with his magic, slowing them enough for me to gain them and to rise above them. Slowing for brief moment to gauge their flight, I swooped down onto the back of the bird, returning to my own war form and crushing his bones while all three of us plunged towards the river below. Had I know then what I know now, I wouldn't have stopped when I heard the cracking of his bones and felt him grow limp, using his battered form as springboard to leap away from them and to take the form of eagle again before retreating to allow my Tell to substitute again.
Once the markings of Luna had calmed enough to be cloaked underneath covering essence, I returned to the caravan to see that the Eye of the Storm had pulled the raven from the river and they were waiting for him to recover enough to come to his senses, his lupine companion having left him behind. While I was recovering from the strain of assuming multiple different forms in rapid succession, Exultant Falcon worried for the capsized yacht, Ash Mantis liberated the raven from any valuables he had and Eye of the Storm kept his eye open for any additional troubles heading our way. After hours of waiting, the raven did manage to recover enough to assume his human form and his questioning could begin. During the interrogation, Heaven's Moonsilver confirmed that he was indeed one of the Urrach-ya; wretched scum who had forsook the Silver Way and betrayed Luna herself, deserving nothing more than death. While Sinje plead for his life, the raven tried to use the moment to make his escape only to be cut down by Ash Mantis who received Sinje's ire for his just actions. With the Urrach-ya matter settled, I left the matter of dealing with the remnants to Sinje who still insisted for his possible redemption had he kept his worthless life.
Idle Talks About the Past and Future While Sailing Down Stream
Season of Earth
Travel downstream was quiet, days passing by without any major incidents; Eye of the Storm and Heaven's Moonsilver practicing martial arts or working with some sort of puzzle, Ash Mantis practicing his own things and trying to get back onto Sinjes good side, Exultant Falcon burying himself into his pile of Guild papers and educating his pupil about trade. Myself, I took the time to talk more with the Undefeated Raven in his cabin, both about his past as well as mine in effort to relearn what I've forgotten.
Some ten years ago, when I still was just another mortal, our family lived in farming village called Silverview, little way due North from the city of Kirighast on the shores of the Inland Sea. There were three of us in addition to our parents, the Undefeated Raven as the eldest son, then me and my younger brother, the Ashen Cricket. As for what his old name was before he took the name he uses now, the Undefeated Raven wouldn't answer but to say that he couldn't say it, perhaps if we'll be able to see our parents I'll find it out. Raven also said that there was family argument, its reason forgotten by him as well, after which I had stormed from our home and regardless of the searches afterwards I hadn't been seen nor heard since, some feared that I had wondered into the Shadowland that was nearby, others that some creature had eaten me or that slavers had kidnapped me. For what happened afterwards, he could tell little except that he had also left home in the weeks after my disappearance, for his reasons he said very little except that his uneasy behaviour suggested that it was not in best of terms. Finally after some more probing, he admitted that, since he walked out, he haven't visited our parents and have been building up the courage to go see them, or at least to find out what has happened during the passing years. What he proposed was that we would go there together, now that both of us were heading towards Kirighast, proposition that I gladly accepted since I would have no way of knowing which of the farms was the right one and would spend days just asking around. That and even with Raven's aid, I don't know if they'd ever believe that I'm their lost daughter, time will show.
Another topic that we had many discussions was Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears invitation. Again I'm not quite certain how to think about it, Undefeated Raven says that she's not really interested about Lunars but her invitation is for the Solars. Raven's explanation on her reasons, how ever, did explain a little though I'm still bit sceptical on the matter. If he was telling the truth, and his guess on her motives was correct, maybe it'd shake those Solars up enough for me to learn something new about them, I just wish I could see their faces when they find out. While her invitation didn't include me, the Undefeated Raven repeated his own invitation to enter the shadowland and the Fortress of Red Ice as his quest.
During the quiet travel, I also had plenty of time to talk with Heaven's Moonsilver, her telling bits of old lore from song lines among other things, her views about the Way and in between the lines, fate of those Urrach-ya should we meet them again. During our talks, she often pressed me about my thoughts about the Way, not so much about how to tread it but what my thoughts were, explaining that as the times change, so should the idea of how to walk the path. While I couldn't answer all her questions, they helped me finding the Way I wish to walk for now and though there were things that I didn't agree with her, for example her thinking that even ones like that raven and his lupine companions should be given another chance, as Uf-ya she's entitled to have her way. For my part, all I could say that since she would give them another chance, I would abide to her decision regardless that I think its waste of time and would probably come haunt us in the future.
Meeting With the Elders and Start of New Voyage
Season of Earth
While the Solars disappeared into the Nexus, I set out towards the Understanding of Ice flow and Moon, my old manse which I had reclaimed to hide the ancient moonsilver/orichalcum tabled to there and to see my mentor to discuss with him about the past and to convey my learning's so far to him. Deep within his territory, we discussed about the shadowlands, what would one find from there, how to keep the eyes of the dead blinded and perhaps more importantly, he could shed more light on my past since he was one of the elders who watched over my initiation. Before I left back towards Nexus where I had parted with the Solars, the Unfettered Moon showed me how to further enhance my abilities to take different shapes.
Once I rejoined with the Solars, I found out exactly why Heaven's Moonsilver had pressed me about the Urrach-ya we met up North. Sinje had met him here in Nexus by change, rather convenient thing, and he would be travelling with us towards Kirighast. Since Heaven's Moonsilver apparently thought that he had some change to redeem himself and she'd re-teach him the Way, I would ignore his presence the best I could, not because I agreed with her or that I'd think his presence would bring anything but troubles but for my respect towards the Heaven's Moonsilver. I would like to think that I was correct as well, little over week since we left Nexus again, little brother of Sinje's protégé appeared as well, rowing towards us with small skiff and claiming that we were robbed. With his brother, whom he had abandoned to his fate earlier, he was persuaded not to escape but to travel with us and try to learn the Way, perhaps one day redeeming themselves in the eyes of Luna.
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Alec
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 7.51
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Alec
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 7.51
linkki
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[quote:da795db773="Nimlas Dagorewen"]onko noista tullut mitään muuta mieleen kuin että lukeehan näitä?[/quote:da795db773]
Turhaan Nimlas kyselet, oli meinaan loistavaa tekstiä. Itse en normaalisti tykkää lukea mitään englannin kielistä, mutta joku tässä tarinassa tempasi mukaansa. Hyvin kirjoitettu ylipäätään, tekstiä oli helppo lukea, mutta se oli silti elävää.
Jään odottamaan seuraavaa kappaletta, joka toivottavasti tulee pian :-D ...
EDIT: se tuli nopeasti, en huomannu lukiessani et olit lisänny tarinaa, hyvä hyvä hyvä...
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Alec
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 8.10
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Alec
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 8.10
linkki
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Ja kiitoksia taas tämän päivän pätkästä. Työpäivä kuluu lentäen ku lueskelee tätä hyvää tarinaa.
Millos tää ilmestyy kirjana :wink:
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 10.34
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Nimlas Dagorewen
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 10.34
linkki
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[quote:9c9831d3c6="Alec"]
Turhaan Nimlas kyselet, oli meinaan loistavaa tekstiä. Itse en normaalisti tykkää lukea mitään englannin kielistä, mutta joku tässä tarinassa tempasi mukaansa. Hyvin kirjoitettu ylipäätään, tekstiä oli helppo lukea, mutta se oli silti elävää.[/quote:9c9831d3c6]
Kiitän & kumarran ^_^
Kyselen siksi että on vaikea tehdä mitään johtopäätöksiä katselemalla pelkästään tuota 'säie luettu n kertaa'-laskuria mitä mielta toiset on tarinoista ellei sitten käytä perinteistä 'kaikki on hiljaa joten kenelläkään ei ole valitettavaa' metodia mistä taas ei sitten ole iloa kun mietin että missä on vielä parannettavaa. Omalta peliporukalta saa suurinpiirtein sorkkaraudalla vääntää että saa edes jonkin asteista mielipidettä irti ellen sitten ole muistanut jotain väärin milloin kyllä sanovat että tuo on väärin mutta sen enempää sieltä ei sitten tulekkaan.
[quote:9c9831d3c6="Alec"]Millos tää ilmestyy kirjana[/quote:9c9831d3c6]
Ensin tarvitsisi tarpeeksi tekstiä että niistä saisi kirjan, nykyisellään koko päiväkirja mahtuu ~32 sivulle eli lyhyt kirja... tosin jos käyttäisi isompaa fonttia & rivinvälejä niin ehkä siitä saisi tarpeeksi. (Itselle tulostettu versio käyttää fontti kokoa 8.) ^.^
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Alec
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 11.55
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Alec
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 11.55
linkki
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Ootko sää Nimlas joku englanninkielen prosessori...eiku professori, ku noin hyvää tekstiä pystyt tuottamaan? Ei kyllä pysty mitään parannusehdotuksia antamaan, ku huuli pyöreänä elää tekstiä läpi miettien, että kyllä jotkut osaa...
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humis
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 12.43
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humis
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 12.43
linkki
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Tekstin ymmärrettävyydelle tekisi paljon, jos epämääräiset ja määräiset artikkelit olisivat kohdallaan (http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/articlestext.htm).
Toiseksi, kannattaa kiinnittää huomiota siihen, että englannille tyypilliset lauserakenteet eroavat jonkin verran suomen kielelle tyypillisistä. Erityisesti pitkät lauseet joissa on mahdollisesti useitakin sivulauseita ovat ongelmallisia, ja käänteistä lausejärjestystä kannattaa käyttää hyvin harkiten, tehokeinona, ja pelkästään lyhyiden sivulauseiden kanssa.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 14.13
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Nimlas Dagorewen
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 14.13
linkki
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[quote:07218ea641="Alec"]Ootko sää Nimlas joku englanninkielen prosessori...eiku professori, ku noin hyvää tekstiä pystyt tuottamaan?[/quote:07218ea641]
Kuten Humiksen alla antamasta läksytyksestä huomaa, parantamista löytyy vielä 'joksikin' aikaa ennen kuin uskaltaa edes sanoa että kirjoitan hyvää englantia. ^_^
[quote:07218ea641="humis"]Tekstin ymmärrettävyydelle tekisi paljon, jos epämääräiset ja määräiset artikkelit olisivat kohdallaan [/quote:07218ea641]
Artikkelit ovat yksi semmonen joka itsellä menee lähes aina sekasin ja vaikka lukisin jutun uudelleen läpi niin noita mokia jää paljon siltikin. Huono selitys mutta koitan parantaa tuota tulevaisuudessa & pitänee käydä jo kirjoitetut palaset uudemman kerran läpi tiheämmällä kammalla.
Ei voi muuta kuin puollustautua sanomalla että englantia ei ole koulunpenkillä tullut luettua muutamiin vuosiin & sen jälkeen 80% kaikesta englannista on tullut netissä vastaan missä oikeinkirjotuksen kanssa tuppaa olemaan aina välistä hieman niin ja näin. ^.¨
[quote:07218ea641="humis"]Toiseksi, kannattaa kiinnittää huomiota siihen, että englannille tyypilliset lauserakenteet eroavat jonkin verran suomen kielelle tyypillisistä. Erityisesti pitkät lauseet joissa on mahdollisesti useitakin sivulauseita ovat ongelmallisia, ja käänteistä lausejärjestystä kannattaa käyttää hyvin harkiten, tehokeinona, ja pelkästään lyhyiden sivulauseiden kanssa.[/quote:07218ea641]
Osaltaan tuohon voi vaikuttaa kirjoitustapa miten kirjoittelen tarinoita, yhden tarinan kirjoitukseen menee yleensä muutama ilta ja kirjoitan niitä muun touhun ohessa aina kun palanen sattuu putoamaan kohdalleen. Suurin syyllinen lienee kuitenkin se että en yleensä pysähdy miettimään miten lause menee kieliopillisesti vaan enemmänkin sen muoto määräytyy sen perusteella että miten se tuntuu toimivan omassa päässä. Sitten vielä kun palailen aina välistä takasin jo kerran kirjoitettuun osaan & muutan sieltä jotain niin soppa on valmis tarjoiltavaksi.
Onneksi koneen oma oikoluku poimii kaikistain pahimmat mokat tuolta jo kirjoittaessa mutta kuten näkyy, jättää siltikin toivomisen varaa melko tavalla. Kunhan saapi tämän nyt työn alla olevan palasen jotensakkin valmiiksi niin pitää katsella tuota neljättä osiota hieman tarkemmin josko sieltä saisi edes puolet typoista pois... Samalla pitänee käydä viemässä lottokuponki koska kumpasenkin toteutuminen näyttää +- yhtä todennäköiseltä ^_^
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Alec
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 18.15
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Alec
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 18.15
linkki
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[quote:9ac6b045f3="humis"]...[/quote:9ac6b045f3]
Ei millään pahalla mut aika tylyn pistit...
Jos nyt Nimlasilta vielä voisin kysyä että miksi kielivalinnaksi englanti?
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 20.49
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Nimlas Dagorewen
24. helmikuuta 2006 kello 20.49
linkki
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[quote:e87533700d="Alec"]Jos nyt Nimlasilta vielä voisin kysyä että miksi kielivalinnaksi englanti?[/quote:e87533700d]
Hyvä kysymys, en tiedä oikein että mikä oli se viimeinen niitti kielen valinnassa mutta ehkä näistä jokin valottaa asiaa.
Paikallinen PJ aloitti tekemällä kampanjan sivujen rungon englanniksi joten alusta lähtien tein itse sitten hahmon kuvaukset (Ensimmäinen kerta kun samalle hahmolle on 4 eri kuvausta riippuen siitä millä mielellä sattui aamulla heräämään ^_^) myös englanniksi.
Toinen, ehkä se merkittävin, syy on että näin en joudu kääntämään termejä suomeksi vaan voin suoraan käyttää samoja nimityksiä asioille kuin pelissä itsessään. Charmien (lumoukset, taikavoimat, mitä lie) nimet olisivat tehneet vielä isomman sopan ja sitten vielä eri loitsut (spells). Miten nuo kaikki kääntää järkevästi ja johdonmukaisesti? Entäpä sitten paikkojen ja henkilöiden nimet jotka koostuvat sanoista esim White Morning Mist tai Ash mantis (tämän kaltasille nimille on varmaan jokin hienompikin nimitys), kääntääkkö ne vai antaako olla?
Kolmantena nipussa voisi sanoa että pyörittelen asioita englanti-suomi sekamelskana mielessä mikä sitten tekee omat hauskuutensa kirjoittamiseen. Lisäksi vielä kun en kirjoita kaunista kirjakieltä, mikä lisäksi tuntuu liiankin 'kankealta' päiväkirjan asuun ja puhekieli sisältäisi sitten joka tapauksessa tusinoittain lainasanoja... Miksi hankkia turhaa päänvaivaa siitäkin...
Viimeisenä mieleentulevana syynä kielen valinnalle voisi melkeinpä sanoa yläasteen äikänmaikan. Työtäänhän hänkin vain teki mutta siinä ohessa onnistui viemään mielihalut kirjoittaa yhtikäs mitään ja vieläkin tulee mieleen ne pakolla väännetyt äikän aineet mitä 'mielenkiintoisemmista' aiheista kun rupean kirjoittamaan pidempiä juttuja suomeksi. >_<
Tämän parempaa selitystä en oikein keksi äkkiseltään, varmaan siellä lisääkin syitä on jos kaivelisi. Ja seuraavalla kerralla koitan vastata 'pikkusen' lyhyemmin... Ihan tosi... ^_^
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Alec
linkki
25. helmikuuta 2006 kello 0.00
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Alec
25. helmikuuta 2006 kello 0.00
linkki
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[quote:47a75f2501="Nimlas Dagorewen"]Miten nuo kaikki kääntää järkevästi ja johdonmukaisesti? Entäpä sitten paikkojen ja henkilöiden nimet jotka koostuvat sanoista esim White Morning Mist tai [b:47a75f2501]Ash mantis[/b:47a75f2501] (tämän kaltasille nimille on varmaan jokin hienompikin nimitys), kääntääkkö ne vai antaako olla?[/quote:47a75f2501]
Tästä sais ihan kunnon Loru sorbusten herrasta vol 2:sen:
Ja niin Pe**e heinäsirkka kiskaisi aseensa ja...öö, vai tarkottiko se sittenki tuhkaa...
[quote:47a75f2501="Nimlas Dagorewen"]Viimeisenä mieleentulevana syynä kielen valinnalle voisi melkeinpä sanoa yläasteen äikänmaikan. Työtäänhän hänkin vain teki mutta siinä ohessa onnistui viemään mielihalut kirjoittaa yhtikäs mitään ja vieläkin tulee mieleen ne pakolla väännetyt äikän aineet mitä 'mielenkiintoisemmista' aiheista kun rupean kirjoittamaan pidempiä juttuja suomeksi. >_< [/quote:47a75f2501]
Lappeenrannasta sä väität olevas mut silti mä oon ihan varma et mul on ollu sama äikän ope :-D !
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
25. helmikuuta 2006 kello 7.15
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Nimlas Dagorewen
25. helmikuuta 2006 kello 7.15
linkki
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[quote:1e41537a6d="Alec"]Lappeenrannasta sä väität olevas...[/quote:1e41537a6d]
Nykyisin kyllä, ammoisina aikoina vaikutin Tampereella. ^.^
4. tarina, vai pitäisikö sanoa episodi, aloittaa uuden tarinan (story) nimeltään Losses and Gains. Episodin aikana sankareiden matka johtaa ensin Kirighastin kaupunkiin mistä sitten jatketaan pienoisen kierroksen kautta Mistyn kotikylään. Samalla reissulla seurueesta kuolee ensimmäinen jäsen vaikkakaan siitä ei ole laisinkaan mainintaa, johtuen Mistyn tavasta kohdella ko. henkilöä kuten tätä ei olisi olemassakaan.
Jo ennakkoon sanottakoon että typoja löytynee yhä enemmän kuin tarpeeksi vaikka kävinkin pätkän läpi uudemman kerran. U.U
Bittersweet Goodbyes: 20th of Descending Earth - 17th of Ascending Fire, RY 768
The Road Towards the Mountains
From Season Water to Season of Wood
Finally we arrived to the city of Kirighast, the capital of the Kingdom of Harborhead and more importantly, we were closing the place I once called home. Our stay in Kirighast was short, just long enough for Exultant Falcon to set up a caravan northwards and for the rest of us to get accustomed to the constant heat. Couple days after we first set foot into the Kirighast, we were again on the road, edging our way towards the mountains ahead where the Castle of Crimson Ice was located. The eye of the Storm, however, said that he'd travel alone in order to better centre himself with the creation and would join us once we'd reach the mountains. While our progress was slow at best, it didn't bother me since I could use the time to come into grip with myself and prospect of seeing my home again, what would wait us there, would it be a happy reunion or had there been some unforgivable act. Part of me wanted to leave the caravan to make it own way and crawl onwards while I would hurry to the village and at the same time, I couldn't help the feeling of dread that was growing stronger with each day we travelled.
After drudging trough the desert, we finally arrived into the foothills and the mountains rose before us, their peaks hidden underneath crimson mist. The Undefeated Raven claimed that he knew faster route trough the valleys to the castle but yeddim that had been pulling trailer with the warstrider on it would never make it trough them so he'd pilot the strider in front of us. Having said that, he began to open up the large crate, tossing the boards onto the ground and bared, under the drooling gaze of the Exultant Falcon, the orichalcum armoured warstrider for the first time. The mighty relic of the first age rose onto its feet and from inside, voice of the Undefeated Raven echoed that we should follow him. While Heaven's Moonsilver along with those two others stayed behind with the yeddim and rest of the caravan, the Solars hustled to keep up with the machines gait, I donned the shape of eagle and soared into the skies, landing onto the shoulder of the warstrider sometime later.
The Castle of Crimson Ice
22nd to 24th of Descending Wood
We arrived to the Castle of Crimson Ice during the evening of the 22nd day, the Eye of the Storm appearing from the crimson mist shortly before we entered into the courtyard and saw the guard of honour lined at the main entrance. As we studied the castle, how it rose from the ground like crystallised fountain of blood, the Undefeated Raven dismounted the warstrider and joined us as we walked between the guards, claiming that the display was in called in my honour. While I did think the gesture was nice, I couldn't help feeling that he was sugarcoating their presence but one doesn't insult their host in front of their subjects by calling their bluff.
In the inside, we were greeted by pale man who immediately apologized his lack of experience, even before introducing himself and explaining that he was our valet for the duration of our visit. Without further delays, the Undefeated Raven excused himself for the moment while our valet guided us towards the rooms prepared for our use, it appeared that the Lover Clad in Rainment of Tears had reserved an entire wing of her castle to serve as our dwellings with a spacious suite for each. While I marvelled the suite, the Eye of the Storm seemed somewhat disgruntled, muttering under his breath about the apparent lack of constraint shown all around him, his distain to the both ghosts and the living indulging into various pleasures showing in his demeanour. Once we had settled, the Undefeated Raven returned and offered to give a guided tour around the castle while the Solars headed towards the castles library, which seemed to interest them in great details.
The castle was as grand from the inside as it were from the outside, its hallways light with soft light reflecting from its crystal walls where they were left bare, many large chambers loaded with luxuries and even more chambers filled with people or ghost indulging themselves, and among all this, the Undefeated Raven said that I would be welcome to stay as long as I wished as his quest. To say that his offer didn't intrigue me would be a flat out lie, deep inside I wouldn't mind living surrounded by the luxuries he showed but in the end, the pull of the wilds won that particular battle over my heart though it wasn't a foregone conclusion.
The Gala of the Lover Clad in Rainment of Tears
23rd of Descending Wood
In the early hours of the 23rd day, the valet brought invitation to the Solars to participate into grand gala in the evening held by our hostess. A short while later, the Undefeated Raven came to ask me to accompany him into the gala as his companion and that he wished to introduce me to his mistress. Rest of the day went rather quickly for my part, I think the Solars had busied themselves into the library once again since I didn't see them at all during entire day or on the evening before galas beginning.
Since I had only various robes with me, while decent enough for informal occasions they certainly weren't something to wear into gala so the Undefeated Raven left me into care of his mistresses costumiers who created an elegant gown for me to wear. Thinking back, perhaps I should have told the Solars that I was invited into the gala as well but on the other hand, look on their face was worth the effort. As we stepped into the main hall and the courtier announced us, suddenly I wasn't in the hall made from crimson ice anymore.
The floor was made from clear crystal and looking down one could see the corals, multitudes of small colourful fishes swimming among them with occasional larger creature lazily swimming by, high above our heads the domed roof was lit as the night sky, small orbs of light floating underneath it and casting soft light to room below. Glancing down onto my furred arm, the moonsilver snake circling it raised its head to meet my eyes for brief moment before resting its head onto the back of my hand while I looked the gathered crowd. All around the room the chosen moved clad into their finery, brightly dyed and embroided silk along with jewellery of orichalcum, moonsilver and gems adorn their bodies. Beautiful music rises from unseen orchestra and the air is filled with joy for last of the great sacrifices, our great work had finally paid of and now we stood victorious. Voice of the Undefeated Raven brought me back from my dream, he said that I had spaced out as we stepped into the hall and he was worried about me though I reassured him that I was all right.
Sometime later, the courtier announced the Solars as they walked into the hall as well, Exultant Falcon and Ash Mantis both wore silk suits while the Eye of the Storm had found time to tattoo mark of the Unconquered Sun onto his chest but otherwise he came unadorned. The Solars had spotted the Undefeated Raven but I went unrecognized to them until we joined them after the dance and Undefeated Raven introduced his little sister to them. After short silence, the Eye of the Storm was first to speak as he claimed that you learn something new every day but the rest were pretty much silent. Once the first shock had passed, or at least they weren't just standing there staring anymore, we parted again to mingle around both the living and the dead guests.
I sought out the Eye of the Storm little later, who seemed rather out of place with his stern pose and asked if he would like the next dance but his response was that the only dance he'd dance were the dance of death on the battlefields. The Ash Mantis however, did agree for a dance though his mind seemed to be pretty preoccupied for the whole time, which certainly didn't help his steps. I spotted the rest of the Solars and Undefeated Raven near one of the serving tables, apparently sampling the various morsels and chatting about something, Undefeated Raven claimed that the food was best in creation and for his part I did agree to him as did the Solars until someone, I think it was the Exultant Falcon asked what the food was. Upon hearing the answer to his question they seemed to loose their appetite, the Ash Mantis went as far as spitting his mouthful onto the floor rather than swallowing and placed the rest of his serving back to the table. As for my part, I probably should have reacted more strongly on hearing that I was eating grave food but after quick though, the food did taste good, I didn't have to chase it down and the Undefeated Raven assured that it was safe to eat so as far as I was concerned, I was going to enjoy the serving.
Once we had eaten, well me and Undefeated Raven did, it was time to pay our respects for the hostess of the evening, the Deathlord called the Lover Clad in the Reinment of Tears who was lounging on the throne at the end of the hall, the Sidereal who had travelled with us talking with her quietly, standing further away from her as we came closer. As we approached her, the music in the hall crew to a halt while eyes of the crowd turned towards the throne and us. The Undefeated Raven took a knee in front of her before introducing each of us, apparently he had told her great deal about me or at least that what she said. Both Exultant Falcon and Ash Mantis bowed in turn but the Eye of the Storm merely nodded to her which drew amused smirk onto the Deathlords lips and comment that he still had some fight in him, apparently this was not the first time she had met him.
Once the introductions were over, she rose up and motioned towards the orchestra to start playing before turning her eyes onto the Exultant Falcon and asking him to join her for the next dance. The Exultant Falcon was taken back of her request for a split moment before he quickly handed his glass to Eye of the Storm and joined her, they danced along the music with grace that no mortal could match and once the dance was over, the crowd stayed silent for brief moment before the quiet murmur of the gathered people and ghosts continued. The Eye of the Storm shook his head and said that the evening is over for his part while the attention of the crowd was focused on to the dancers and quietly slipped away from the hall. Rest of us followed his example in the little hours of the night while the ghosts and few mortals still continued.
Before each of us, except for the Exultant Falcon who was summoned into private meeting with our hostess, headed to bed, the Undefeated Raven told that he would accompany us again on the way from the castle until we'd reach our home which we had promised to visit and that the Sidereal who kept tagging along for her own reasons wished to speak with us before we went to sleep. For the most part, her news meant little for me, she repeated her offer of aid and that we should seek out the cult she represented. Another thing she mentioned was their training camp long way North from here, if we'd travel to there they would be able to train us and more, again with a hint that trusting the Cult of the Illuminated would be good for us. She sounded very sincere in her words but my mentors warning kept rising back into my mind after she grew silent.
The Days After, From Sunrise to the Village of the Dead
From 24th to 28th of Descending Wood
We set forward again little before noon, before the sun started to reach the horizon we were again at the foothills surrounding the mountains and rejoined with the Heaven's Moonsilver who was starting to wonder if we were coming back at all. During the evening, the Eye of the Storm said that he knew the village where the Undefeated Raven and me were headed to, and that I shouldn't get my hopes up. While I had had an ominous feeling ever since we left Kirighast, his words made my heart sunk. It was four years since he had left the very same village, by that time the shadowland nearby had grown almost to its outskirts and the last thing he saw was the undead as they swarmed into the village. That was 4 years ago, by now the shadowland would surely have grown enough to engulf the entire village and there wouldn't be anyone left.
The next day was agonizing experience, each step took us closer to village I now hoped to be wrong one but that slim hope faded away as the Eye of the Storm recalled my family and me. His words did little to ease my feelings but at least I learned what had been my brothers name before he took the mantle of a Deathknight; the Wandering Sunrise. As the sun started to set we finally arrived onto hill over looking the desolate village, in its dying light we could see some movement among the buildings but rest of the village was dead silent. As we walked down into the almost deserted village, heading towards one of the houses on which front yard we had seen movement, its translucent form telling us that we were once again dealing with the dead. What bothered me for a short moment was that the Eye of the Storm addressed the ghost of an old woman using language I couldn't understand, had I forgotten my own native language in addition to everything else?
The ghost could tell us very little except that her small patch of herbs were dying and that we should help her with it, never realizing that there was nothing left that we could do for her or her garden. From rest of the village we could find few similar ghosts, in one of the houses we found an entire family around dinner table who stubbornly continued their routines even after they had died. During the time we spent exploring the village, for the first time I was actually glad that I didn't remember, that all that connected me to this village was just what the Undefeated Raven and the Eye of the Storm had told me, it felt like watching someone else's life, part of me mourning and part of me wondering that is this really the right place. The others learned from various ghosts that still lingered around the village that an Abyssal called Iron Heart Consume had ordered those who still remained to be taken away towards the North from where we could see orange glow in the horizon. With one last look to the remnants of the village we headed towards the glow.
The glow was coming from walled citadel where great forges spew flames and black smoke high into the air; we could hear the sound of the workers even outside the walls. The Undefeated Raven said that he would go and take a closer look while rest of us should find a place to hide and wait, returning after few hours with both good and bad news. The bad news were that this citadel was indeed crafting soulsteel and like the name suggests, it is forged from the souls of the dead and that he had seen some ghosts from the village being held there. The good news, if one wishes to call them that, were that there would be a martial arts contest held soon, and that the winner of the contest would meet the Iron Heart Consume in person. This contest would allow us to quietly slip into the citadel and the Eye of the Storm would take part in the tournament, once he'd cleared the way to the top we could slay the Abyssal as well.
The Undefeated Raven talked us into the citadel which was one sorry sight, everywhere one looked the grey ash fell from the sky like sickening snow, both the dead and alive alike were constantly forced to continue their grisly work. Once the Eye of the Storm had signed up into the contest, we were pointed towards one of the buildings where the contestants would be housed until the following evening and the contest. We kept indoors for the entire day, only briefly stepping outside before returning to keep the chance of anyone recognizing any of us into minimum. Once the sun had set, the contestants were summoned to the courtyard of the Abyssal mansion and the contest was on, multiple fights took place at the same time around the yard with winner of each fighting against new opponent while the loser would be forged into soulsteel.
The Eye of the Storm had little troubles to make his way into the final, where he realised that he was facing his old master that had taught him the very style he used. They both stared each other in silence for few moments before his master apologized that he was forced to fight his own pupil but he needed to challenge the Abyssal, Eye of the Storm replied that he too was fighting for the same cause and that he'd stand better chances of winning. The stand off continued for short while longer, and then the old ghost let out a long sigh, bowed to his student, turned around and walked away towards his end without another word. With last of the contestants left standing, the Iron Heart Consuming made his entrance, claiming that he could barely wait to test the skills of his opponent. Both he and the Eye of the Storm dropped into ready positions of their arts and without further words the fight begun.
While the Eye of the Storm took care not to channel too much essence to betray his heritage, the Abyssal didn't bother with subtlety, burning his essence into various attacks continuously. His overconfidence was his doom, during short pause as they both stepped back to look for weakness in each other's defences, we sprung our surprise. Him having used his own essence into showing off, he suddenly found that as we joined the fray, he couldn't channel enough essence to keep our attacks from connecting, his confusion showing clearly on his face as the Eye of the Storm sunk his tiger claws deep into his chest, lifting him off the ground like a pigs carcass. With their Abyssal leader gone, the ghosts turned on each other and soon the entire citadel was one huge battlefield, by the time we stepped back into the remnants of our home village the horizon was glowing again but this time it was the entire citadel that was in flames.
Bitter Sweet Farewells
Final Days of the Season of Wood
Standing on the same hill from which we had looked down into the remnants of our home, the Undefeated Raven and me bid our farewells. While I said that we would undoubtedly meet again, I couldn't help getting the same feeling of dread that I felt on the way to here, I think he felt the same as for the first time with others around, he dropped the cold, mean Abyssal attitude he kept around others as we hugged for the last time. Regardless what the Eye of the Storm said, he's the only thing I have left from my past and in the end, blood is thicker than water.
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Cara
linkki
26. helmikuuta 2006 kello 20.20
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Cara
26. helmikuuta 2006 kello 20.20
linkki
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Laitanpa nyt korteni kekoon kirjoittajatoverin puolustukseksi.
Englanninkielen käyttö on sulla Nimbas ihan sujuvaa, eikä mitenkään hävettävää. Huomattavasti parempaa kuin keskiverto suomalaisella. Olen hieman pelännytkin mihin on meidän kirjallinen kielitaito hukkumassa kun lukee l33ttiä ircissä.... :roll: Itse olen ollut aina sitä mieltä kaunokirjallisessa (niin suomen kuin ulkomaankielisessä) tekstissä, että äidinkielenopettajan touhottamata pilkkusäännöt ovat uhrattavissa sujuvan tarinankerronnan edessä. Pilkkuja voi käyttää rytmittämään tekstiä ja saamaan siitä selkeämmän luettavan. Artikkelit englannissa samoin. Ne ovat korostuksia, eivät mitään rikesakkoja aiheuttavia kauhistuksia. (Eri asia on mm. ranskan kielessä, jossa nyt vain korostetaan feminiinisen ja maskuliinisen eroa joka kielioppisäännössä.. prkl..)
Ja lisäksi että kieli on hallussa, myös tarina itse on ollut sujuvaa. Maalailevaa ja kaunista, ei ehkä action-hirmuille, mutta who cares. Jatka ihan samaan malliin! Kauhea keskittyminen oikeinkirjoitukseen ja kielioppiin voi lopulta viedä etusijan siltä tärkeämmältä, eli itse tekstiltä. Jos lukee sun juttuja vain löytääkseen väärän artikkelin, niin on jo menettänyt jotain. Sääli. :)
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
26. helmikuuta 2006 kello 21.58
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Nimlas Dagorewen
26. helmikuuta 2006 kello 21.58
linkki
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[quote:adec825a50="Cara"]Laitanpa nyt korteni kekoon kirjoittajatoverin puolustukseksi.
Englanninkielen käyttö on sulla Nimbas ihan sujuvaa, eikä mitenkään hävettävää. [/quote:adec825a50]
Kiitän & kumarran jälleen ^.^
[quote:adec825a50="Cara"]... pilkkusäännöt ovat uhrattavissa sujuvan tarinankerronnan edessä. Pilkkuja voi käyttää rytmittämään tekstiä ja saamaan siitä selkeämmän luettavan..[/quote:adec825a50]
Säännöt on tehty rikkomista varten. ^_^ Mutta noin yleisemmin yritän kyllä seurata niitä vaikkei se aina ihan taiteen sääntöjen mukaan menekkään.
[quote:adec825a50="Cara"]Ja lisäksi että kieli on hallussa, myös tarina itse on ollut sujuvaa. Maalailevaa ja kaunista, ei ehkä action-hirmuille, mutta who cares.[/quote:adec825a50]
Action kohtausten kirjoittaminen käy nopeasti puuduttavaksi ja rupeaa tulemaan 'rutiinia' niihin mikä on osa syyllinen niiden vähyyteen. Toinen syy on että Mistyä itseään, kenen näkökulmasta tarina on, taistelut eivät niinkään kiinnosta ellei sitten kyseessä ole rituaalitaistelut Lunareiden keskuudessa.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
26. helmikuuta 2006 kello 22.08
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Nimlas Dagorewen
26. helmikuuta 2006 kello 22.08
linkki
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Ei ihan kerennyt enään sunnuntaille tämä messu mutta ei voi mitään... Teekupin syytä kaikki, meni tyhjenemään väärässä kohtaa. ^.^
5. episodi, seurue saapuu Nexusiin uudemman kerran, hankaluuksien kautta tosin, ja valmistautuu matkaan salakultin koulutusleiriä kohti. Valtaosa ajasta kului jälleen laivalla, mikä sopi oikeastaan hyvin koska samalla pystyi korjaamaan muutamia virheitä Pian opetuksissa ja alustamaan tämän liittymistä Silver Pactiin.
Sitten itse tarinan pariin...
A Conspirational Tone of Voice: 17th of Ascending Fire - 7th Day of Calibration, RY 768
The Tranquillity of the Inland Sea
Season of Fire
Once again we were in Kirighast and again the Exultant Falcon started to set up a caravan towards Nexus to cover the expenses and for his never ending quest to mass more wealth. While we stayed there, he also tried to locate the local cell of the Cult of the Illuminated since he had copied some documents from Iron Heart Consume's study that he thought to be some use for them. His first attempt weren't exactly successful but Sinje managed to find two people who said to be members of the cult and brought them to see the Exultant Falcon. He stressed the importance of the documents he had to the cult and the two cultists said that they'd take the first ship North to deliver them... Which happened to be the very same caravan the Exultant Falcon was setting up.
We set sail around middle of the season of Ascending Fire; it would take almost until the Calibration before we'd reach Nexus from where the Solars were planning on heading north again. It didn't take more than couple days for everyone's routines to set since there wasn't all that much to do on the ship. Sinje spend most of her time talking with people and from time to time she instructed swordplay to the Exultant Falcon, who in turn spend most of his time buried into his books, reports and other tolls to keep his wealth growing. Eye of the Storm pretty much just kept doing what he's done before, meditate in the morning, practice, meditate more, break to teach Heaven's Moonsilver who in turn taught him, make sure that Diligent Grasshopper had plenty to do and then go back to his own training. The Ash Mantis mostly just fooled around, much to Exultant Falcons dismay that seemed to get to enjoy Ash Mantises pranks most of the time.
My own routine was pretty simple, after waking up I usually spend a while stretching and just getting the last cobwebs off my mind. Once I was fully awake it was time to find food, real food I mean rather than those biscuits rest seemed to be content eating. Depending on day and luck it took few hours to chase enough fish or game to fill my belly, returning to the caravan to bask under the sun while digesting my meal. Later I would go hunt again or stay on the ship and keep watching the Solars along with the two cultists that joined us.
The Perils of the Confused and the Disgraced
Season of Fire
It seems that I might have been wrong about the Ebon Feather; today he showed that he has at least some sense of honour left, if not for himself at least he cares about his brother's memory. He appeared from under the deck with his gear, walked straight to me and challenged me, what did surprise me though was that his only claim was that I would acknowledge that his brother Vanisher died with honour. I never asked him if he though what would have happened if he had lost, part of me think that he had thought it over and decided that even if it'd cost his life, he had to at least try to regain his brothers name. While the Solars were still figuring out what was happening, we fought and in the end, the Ebon Feather won, reclaiming his brother's name. It seems that Heaven's Moonsilvers teachings have landed into fertile soil and Ebon Feather will reclaim his place in the Silver Pack, time will tell.
Few days later I had a good talk with Pia, confused young Lunar whose only teachings came from the Cult that had adopted her. Where those cultists seem to know how to teach Solars about their abilities, when it comes to Lunars, they are as lost as a fish on dry land. I had been watching her and Jak, the Solar who she seemed to adore but who in turn seemed to distrust her for some reason which in turn made her try to please him even harder. It took little persuasion to get her to agree to talk with me without Jak standing near but in the end she agreed.
It didn't take long to find the root of her troubled demeanour, while she knew what her totem was, she didn't really know it, in fact, she was terrified of it. All the time she was trying to press it deeper rather than taking the time to get to know what it means to be one of Lunas bellowed. While I was explaining her how she could learn about her totem, she wanted to know why some Lunars had tried to kidnap her before. I'm not sure that I managed to explain the reasons so that they fit into her clear cut, black and white world but at least she seemed to accept that kidnapping her was the lesser of the two evils. We kept talking for the better part of the day, Pia asking questions and me trying to answer what I could. In the end, she finally promised to think her answer to the question about her receiving her tattoos and having her caste locked. With these first few seeds planted to her mind, maybe she'll come in terms with her totem and ultimately will join the Silver Pack.
The following day I found Jak enjoying his 'tasty' meal of ship biscuits with stale beer, while he was drowning those foul abominations with water portraying itself as beer, we talked about the apparent problems between him and Pia. Where Pia was labouring on coming in terms with herself, Jak worried about the night when she changed into another being entirely and ever since that night he had been wary around her, which in turn agitated Pia into trying to please him even more. With the obvious matter of me being one of Lunas children sorted out, he started to tell what had happened that night. With the poor teachings of the cult, he didn't know that the innocent little girl he travelled with could call on her totems greater form when needed and when she did just that, it shook his trust towards her. Apparently Pia was correct when she claimed that Jak was blissfully ignorant about her quiet work behind his back but I think his happier that way, him having his image of her innocence intact. His first reaction on learning the effects of the bond between Lunar and her totem was that how could it be fought but I think he understood my metaphor about flooding river and how one learns to live by them, the futility of fighting and the price associated with doing so. Despite the tough guy act he kept around Pia when in public, I have a hunch that she's slowly wiggling her way under Jak's skin.
The Price for the Rising Fame, Politics of the Mortals
Season of Fire
Well, it seems that the Exultant Falcon was finally starting to make name among the merchants of the guild and as so often, rising new name caused established elders to take notice of the rising star and to reel them into their webs of power mongering and deception. Their first polite offer of allegiance came during night the caravan had stopped for the night and both Exultant Falcon and Eye of the Storm had rented room from inn in the outlying city. Since I didn't go with them, I'm not quite certain what exactly happened during that night except for what the Exultant Falcon told the next morning when we were already well out in the sea again. We set sail in the middle of the night right after Eye of the Storm had returned, his anima was blazing like a bonfire around him when he walked back to the ships and since we had stopped into reasonable large city it was decided to set sail into the night rather than to wait and see if there were any Immaculate stationed there.
The next morning Exultant Falcon invited us to hear his version of the events that took place last night. He had been sleeping in his room, only to be wakened up by two individuals who informed him about his rising status among the Guild. In return for few simple, unimportant favours in the future, say vote certain way on certain matters, by his part they in turn would make sure that the Exultant Falcon would gain seat in the Guilds council. While bluffing that he was thinking about their proposal, he carefully got his blade and jumped the two, clearing his way trough the window and down onto the streets and ran straight back to the ships. The Eye of the Storm was quiet during the explanation but I managed to pry some knowledge about the events from his point of view. His sleep was interrupted by the Exultant Falcons shouts in the next room, by the time he barged in there the Exultant Flacon had already made his escape as did the two others but the room wasn't empty for he ran straight into waiting arms of a second circle demon, wielding mallet almost half the time larger than she was, that the two had called. In the end he did defeat the demon but during the fight he had burned so much essence that his anima took likings of a tiger while it blazed around him, making it painfully obvious to those who scrambled to the streets that there was an anathema loose in their dear city. Next few days were restless, the Solars we waiting for another attempt on Exultant Falcons head but it never came before we reached Nexus.
We had barely docked when representative of Exultant Falcons would-be benefactor appeared again, this time he was waiting on the pier to which our ship was being moored at. While they were talking quietly on the rear deck of the ship, Sinje asked if I could find out what they were talking about. Since there weren't anything else that looked interesting at the time, I quietly slipped into one of the drains next to them, rarely if ever does anyone pay any notice for a small mouse running next to the gunwale of the ship. Apparently the Exultant Falcon agreed to their proposal since by the time I was close enough to easily eavesdrop their conversation, the representative was just telling him that they would need at least a day to remove sanctions they had placed against the Exultant Falcon. After few more casual remarks the man left with me trailing close behind him, while he took precautions not to be followed as he walked towards the poorer parts of the Nexus, I doubt he ever looked for anything else than a man trying to shadow him, the idea that a cat preening itself or gull flying over head might be more than what they seemed never occurring.
His trail led into basement of one of the abandoned warehouses in the slums; again he stopped at the door to scan the surroundings but once again ignoring all the harmless little vermin scurrying around. In the basement he explained the Exultant Falcons change of heart to his companions, one of which looked just like the Exultant Falcon, right down to his voice as he complained about the price it had cost him to buy his identity. The two others were wearing cloaks with their hoods covering most of their faces, the other had blue hair and another was black haired with glasses but the rest was concealed by their disguises. One with the glasses seemed pleased though, rubbing his hands while gleefully muttering that everything was going according the plans and that someone called Mokrelius would be pleased to hear this. With their meeting finished, the group parted ways while I kept following the Exultant Falcons double trough the city straight into ironworks where he promptly jumped into one of the smelters without even losing a pace. Not feeling like tracking the three others, I leapt to my wings and flew back to the ship and told the Exultant Falcon what I had learned in case he would know something about the person masterminding the whole deal. Later the same night Sinje returned with docile Ebon Feather in tow and told to the Exultant Falcon that she had followed the same man that I did to their meeting place as he had asked her, but since it felt boring to stake the place out, she and Ebon Feather went partying. Even from a distance, one could almost hear the sound of a vein snapping on the Exultant Falcons forehead.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
3. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 21.20
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Nimlas Dagorewen
3. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 21.20
linkki
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Melkein muistin sunnuntaina laittaa että tulee viikon tauko päiväkirjojen suhteen kun häipäsen lomalle mutta mitäpä sitä pienistä. ^.^
6. episodi, matka pohjoiseen alkaa viimeinkin jonka aikana Misty mietiskelee omiaan ja käy pikaisesti läpi mitä kaikkea on jo oppinut itsestään sekä Solareista. Ajallisesti tarinan aikana vierähtää jälleen useampikin kuukausi samalla kun seilataan paatilla vaatimattomat muutama tuhat mailia katsomaan kulttilaisia. Kultin kanssa juttelun lomassa Solarit haastettiin rantalentopallo matsiin, vastassa kultin mestarit, Krinster Org sekä tämän kumppani vesielementaalilohikäärme Hiru
Hot Springs of Sequested Tabernacle: 7th Day of Calibration - 18th of Resplendent Water, RY 769
Random Thoughts During the Journey to the North
From Calibration to Resplendent Air
A year has passed since I joined up with the three solars and their companions, and again we're leaving northwards from Nexus where we spend the Calibration. Our destination was old first age city of Gethamane, or more accurately its ruins, on the shore of the White Sea. The trip to north presented good opportunity to set my thoughts straight for the happenings of the past year and to reflect my observations about the three solars.
As a whole, they are somewhat manageable group that shows some sense of purpose but as individuals the group breaks apart. The Eye of the Storm acts almost as an anchor for the two others with his non-yielding code and integrity, at times I wonder if the children of the Sun were like him before the great betrayal. The Ash Mantis is the ever energetic kitten who jumps into every situation without a faintest though, rarely venturing away from the safety of Sinjes lap. The Exultant Falcon... In the light of the past year, I would say that he presents just about everything that is wrong in the civilized man, perhaps he'll grow into something better with time, at least I hope so. Sinje is the oddity in the group, even after a year travelling with her; I'm still not sure what I should make of her. She's not one of the celestials like the three others or me, scent of death doesn't billow around her as it does with the Abyssals nor has she shown any signs of the wretched Terrestrials. This would mean that she's either God-blooded or chosen of the five maidens though I'm fairly certain that she isn't an exalt.
Although there is still so much that I don't remember last year shed light into my own past. I've learned that I was born as a girl and that I had two brothers of whom I have found one, the Wandering Sunrise, my older brother who now walks under the name of the Undefeated Raven of the Perfect Dusk as an Abyssal exalt. Of my younger brother I only know his name, is he still alive or not is a mystery though from what I learned when we visited what was left of my home village, it is doubtful that he still draws breath. If he hadn't left the village before it was over run by the shadowland, it is almost certain that he has died; I only wish he died rather than end up into one of the Abyssal machines. On the same note, with the Eye of the Storm confirming parts of the story, I now know that I weren't born in the east like the elders first though during my initiation but that I'm from the savannahs of the south, which in turn felt somewhat strange since my other half is from the far north, I guess Luna thought it as useful combination or she just felt like playing with my thoughts.
The Studies of Survival and Snow, the Short Course in Lunar Way
First half of the Resplendent Air
Voice crying "Pirates!" served as our welcome as we approached the docks of the Gethamane; apparently the sight of lone ship approaching from the sea during the winter was something that the locals didn't expect. Once the local had been pacified and the mix up about us being pirates sorted, we started to get ready for the travel across the frozen plains towards the mountains looming in the horizon. While Ash Mantis and Sinje spend the evening getting drunk, Exultant Falcon rented the suite from the local inn and bought supplies he thought to be sufficient for the trip, sadly he, as well as rest of the solars, knew next to nothing about surviving outside the comforts of the civilization and especially in the cold of the winter. After casually glancing over their preparations to see that they weren't making truly fatal mistakes, the up coming trip would serve to teach their lesson way better than I ever could.
Trip across the low lands acted as a warm-up for the climb ahead and at last I could travel without being burdened with heavy gear or swathed under layer upon layer of clothes, prowling the plains in the shape of my totem. A week later we crossed the snowline of the mountains where the reality of the winter started to come to life for the solars, their clothing proved to be adequate for the day as they kept walking but once the sunlight started to fade and biting cold wind from the high mountains grew stronger, lack of true winter clothes on their part started to take its toll. The Eye of the Storm felt the brunt of the winds, used to walk bare chest with just a long coat for cooler days, his first experience of the northern winds would have felled mortal man, and his first attempts to seek cover from its bite didn't prove any more successfully. While he and the others laboured to build some sort of cover from the trees he hacked down, we that had experienced the winters before burrowed into the snow where we slept, our furs, or in case of the Heaven's Moonsilver, weathers and snow above us keeping the chilling wind in bay. The following days repeated themselves, during days it was warm enough that the solars only mildly affected by the winds but as the sun faded from sight, they'd seek what meagre shelter they could. By the time we reached our destination, they were bruised from the experience but in the future they'll know from experience what they'll need to survive.
The Secret Lair of the Illuminated, Sequested Tabernacle
Season of Air
From the distance it looked just like any other smaller peak of the mountain range but as we crested it, a large valley opened up in front of us where we could see trees growing regardless of the height. While we walked down into the hidden valley, we could see the source of the warmth; they were geysers all over the valley and the entire floor of the valley slowed with warmth. In the distance we could see small village and larger building over looking it, surrounding the village were fields and fruit gardens. We were welcomed by large man who called himself Toranu and right afterwards offered us a drink from the cask of spirits he hauled with him, or more accurately the Exultant Falcon liberated it without giving him a chance to decline. After giving us a short tour around the hideout, Toranu guided us towards the rice fields where he introduced the leader of the training camp, a solar named Amaya.
Amaya greeted the solars and welcomed us to the Sequested Tabernacle before motioning towards Toranu, saying that he'd show us our accommodations and that she would meet us later after finishing her work on the field. Toranu led us to spartan huts before leaving us for a short while. When he returned, he was accompanied by smallish woman whom he did introduce but her name has slipped from my mind. After the introduction they challenged us into a match of game called beach volleyball, a game of which none of us had ever heard about before but they claimed to be the local champions of. While Ash Mantis took their challenge with enthusiasm, his team mate Eye of the Storm looked more like he'd rather head back into the snow than participate into the game. Regardless of him resisting the idea, the game was set to start later the same night before we'd meet with Amaya.
Either these cultists are loony as drunken bats or there is something weird in their water supply, that's all I can say about the game. It was played on one of the sand patches close to the geysers; they had marked a large square onto the sand and strung a net at the middle. Apparently the purpose was to hit the ball over the net and into the opposite sides area and who would first score 3 points will be the winner. While the game itself was weird, they were of fun to watch, same for the game too. The first two point went to Ash and Storm, then the girl who played with Krinster was about to serve when she turned into lesser elemental dragon, whipping the ball with her tail. Though Ash tried to block her pass, the ball bounced out of the course and so the home team opened their scoreboard as well, with them scoring a point, it was our turn to serve. The Eye of the Storm loomed like a first age hero as he tossed the ball high into the air, roaring like a tiger he jumped and struck the ball directly towards Krinster who tried to block his serve but instead the ball just blew to pieces around his hands and so the third point went to our side. While Ash started to dance his victory dance, Storm just shook his head and walked away.
We received word from Amaya little before the sunset on the following day that she would like to officially welcome us in the main building of the village. Again most of the cultists attention was guided towards the Solars though they seemed to be quite interested about Sinje as well, Amaya and Shadowy Rose whispered to each other while glancing towards her, apparently they recognised something on her. Most of the evening's talks were to recruit us into the cult as well, Amaya using lot of her talent with words to sway our opinions and in the end both Exultant Falcon and Eye of the Storm agreed to study with them for the next month. While the cultists seemed jubilant about their decision, I couldn't help getting the feeling that the real reason behind their decision was the libraries of the cult and all the sorcerous lore hidden there.
The following month they toiled on studying the cults teachings, martial arts, philosophy, penmanship and host of other skills, also in order for reach higher state of mental purity they were put onto diet of water and rice. While the Falcon and Storm toiled with their studies, I had few long talks with both Amaya and Shadowy Rose about their thoughts on us Lunars and what exactly the cult knew. As I had expected their knowledge was lagging, mostly due to their perception that us Lunars are dangerous beasts that can't be approached to learn more about us. I wish the Heaven's Moonsilver had been with me during those talks so she could have explained things to them and to act as voice of reason against their views but since she wasn't the talks went as they did. On more personal note, I did manage to pry off tiny bits of information concerning the Abyssals and their origins from those two. Amaya started to wonder just how did I manage to get into talking terms with a Deathknight since the ones the cult had met so far had proved to be less than cooperative. I have no doubts she found out that I didn't tell them the whole truth, not even half of it but some knowledge is best left untold.
The Great Northern Artefact Rush
Seasons of Air to Water
The basic studies of our two Solars were finished around the middle of the Descending Air and once they had been officially accepted as enlightened members of the cult, we set onwards once again. Descend from the mountains was a lot easier than our ascending had been and we reached Gethamane again on the last week of the Descending Air from where we set sail to catch up with Exultant Falcons decoy caravan that he had set up to cover his absence during these months. It took us about 2 weeks to catch up with the caravan, the first signs that something was a miss became evident immediately as only half of the rafts had any cargo. Steaming with fury the Exultant Falcon sought out his apprentice, demanding an explanation for the sorry state of his caravan, his ire growing even greater upon hearing that Diligent Grasshopper had not only ignored his instructions but blown great deal of his jade to buy pair of artefacts up north. After screaming to his apprentice, then to the caravan master and some more to his apprentice again, he finally found out that there had been a great discovery of first age artefacts and collectors from all over the scavenger lands were rushing to the scene. Little later, our ship was heading north along with countless others.
The focal point of the rush was a small town called Wangler's Knob in middle of nowhere, large shanty town of tents had already formed around its walls when we arrived there around the closing days of the Ascending Water. Rather than stay in the tent city, the solars marched straight to the town gates and the Exultant Falcon bribed the guards into letting them inside the town. Once inside however, they were disappointed to find out that some dragonblooded had bought the entire inn and he wasn't planning on allowing anyone but him and his companions to sleep there. After small talk with the innkeeper, they decided to sleep in one of the barns while Sinje decided that she'd rather sleep in the inn and headed back to there. My curiosity awakened, and the fact that I'd rather sleep in warm in as well, I donned the form of an eagle and jumped onto her shoulder. It took little talking on her part to convince the Dragonblooded that she really wanted to sleep in the inn and in the end Sinje pulled an egg sized gem from her backpack just to shut him up after his endless tirade of how expensive it would be to pay for the room.
After a good night sleep, we gathered up at the local store and formulated a plan to head out ahead of the Dragonblooded who was also planning his own expedition. In retrospect, I'm happy to say that all of the Solars had learned their lesson about survival during the winter, even Storm bought set of warm furs rather than try to make with just the leather coat he usually wore. In all, the Exultant Falcon bought a dogsled and enough food for 10 days for us each along with additional gear. Even without anyone suggesting it, each of them started to forage food as we walked rather than rely on the rations we packed with us while I hunted what game I could find, filling my belly before brining the rest of the bounty to fatten their findings. After four days of walking, we reached the foothills of the mountain range ahead of us and the terrain started to turn more difficult to cross with each mile as well as finding food. A week since we left the town, we were standing at the last hills before the mountains. The chilling wind kept blowing from high mountains and made our progress into agonizing battle, where we had crossed almost 50 miles per day we now managed to make only 10 miles per day.
On the first day of the Resplendent Water, we reached pass that would lead us trough the mountains without having to climb over their peaks. Unfortunately, the mountain pass also looked like a perfect place to set an ambush and no later than we had entered the pass, shouts from above confirmed our fears. The shouts were quickly drowned by the rumbling sound of an avalanche coming towards us, the yetis we planning on burying us alive under the snow and then just digging us up at their leisure after we'd freeze to death. Lucky for us and not so lucky for them, we weren't mortals and could outrun the wall of snow that was coming down the mountain and little later the yetis had learned their mistake, paying the lesson with their lives. Once we had crested the mountains, the wind that had so far kept blowing towards us now blew onto our backs and the descent turned out to be a lot simpler once again than trek upwards, in just little over week later we were again at the foothills of the mountains and we could once again hunt and forage our food from the forest ahead rather than use up our supplies. On the 15th day, the forest ended abruptly and dead, frozen wasteland opened up ahead of us.
The following day we saw another group of about ten travellers in the wastes which turned towards us, once they were near their infernal heritage became obvious for they all were first circle demons. Surprisingly they weren't looking for a fight though, while most of them stayed further back, a smaller one stepped forward and threw itself onto the ground, greeting us as we'd be their summoners. After a short talk with this grovelling demon, we learned that there had been some 500 demons working on some old fort in the middle of the wastes but now there we almost ten time as many! Regardless of Exultant Falcons tries to persuade the demon to show us the way to the fort, it kept saying that only the king of their city could allow him to do that and in order to get his permission we should follow him into the city of the demons. After deliberation and with uneasy thoughts we finally agreed to follow the little demon and to meet with their boss, who welcomed us and offered his hospitality in return for promise to find the anchor hidden in the fort that kept them from returning to their home plane. He also presented each of us with small orichalcum flame, explaining that it was a gift from him. While the Solars accepted his gifts without complains, I rummaged my gear until I found something to present as my gift for the demon in return. Although it was just a meagre pearl, the principle of trading gifts was completed on my part and more importantly, the demon wouldn't be able to demand payment for his 'gift' later on. Afterwards we parted our ways and headed towards the fort again, arriving to it two days later.
Seuraava episodi ilmaantunee viikonlopun aikana jos mitään yllättävää ei ilmaannu.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
5. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 18.36
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Nimlas Dagorewen
5. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 18.36
linkki
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7. episodi olikin enemmän perintaistä luolaston kiukuttamista, vaihtelun nimissä tietenkin. Perinteisen luolan virkaa toimittamassa oli vanha piilopaikka nimeltään Invisible Fortress minne muutama Solari oli aikoinaan paennut. Samassa paikassa seurueen Solarit saivat myöskin selville edellisten reinkarnaatioidensa nimet sekä pienoiset ideat siitä ketä he olivat. Mistyn näkökulmasta koko homma oli melkolailla yhtä tyhjän kanssa vaikkakin mansen valtaaminen sinällään oli ihan hyvä juttu. Sitten itse tarinan pariin...
Guardians of the Invisible Fortress: 18th of Resplendent Water - 26th of Resplendent Water, RY 769
The Liberation of the Invisible Fortress
From 18th to 26th of the Season of Water
Another row of mountains stood before us at the centre of the wastelands, unremarkable except for the reflection from cliff face where shouldn't have had anything to cast one. Others said that hadn't seen any signs of anything else except cliffs but once pointed, they too could see shadows in wrong places or small reflections and once we walked forward, where only cliffs could be seen before, now we could see the stairs leading up to the front door of a great mansion like fort. The front doors swung open by themselves as we approached them, the face formed onto the knocker welcoming us. Once inside, another spirit bonded into the building's mirrors appeared onto the great mirror in the hall, introducing itself as the Guardian.
The Solars spend sometime talking with the Guardian who explained that it had lain dormant ever since the last inhabitant of the fortress entered into something called the last sanctuary. The fortress had slightly eerie feel in it, all furniture's were made from stone and there were signs that the end of the Solars who lived here before was not calm one. On the second floor we found portraits of the 12 Solars who, according the Guardian, retreated to here after the usurpation and end of the first time, apparently they planned to wait for suitable opportunity to reap their revenge. Sadly, it never came and they all perished within the great hidden prison of their own making.
From the twelve portraits hanging on the wall of the hall, four faces had resemblances of the Eye of the Storm, Ash Mantis and Exultant Falcon. Of these four, two faces named Starless Sky and Crinis Proles had features pointing towards the Ash Mantis that could explain his, at times, erratic behaviour. One named Kotor Varos shared Exultant Falcon's features and lastly, sorcerer named Larquen Qeun looked like he were related to the Eye of the Storm. Only one from the remaining eight that struck me was the creator of the fortress manse, one of the great geomancers of the first age Kal Bax.
During the first day we spend on exploring the fortress, very little was found about the fate of the Solars except for the small parts that the Guardian told us. The first couple decades since they retreated into the fortress, things went smoothly but then the Solars started to turn on each other, small squabbles growing into arguments that again grew into small fights and soon the most frightening thing in their minds were the fellow refugees. Sometime about hundred years after their exile, their mortal servants long since dead or fled to their dooms in the wastes, first of the Solars died in an 'accident'. Little later another died in a mock duel that got out of hand, then first outright murder happened and that was just the beginning of the cycle of backstabbing, deceit and death. Finally there was only one Solar left, if one could call the paranoid, raving lunatic such, who grabbed what ever he could from the fortress and fled into their last sanctuary, a hideout within the hideout, almost 200 years after the usurpation.
The following day we continued our exploration and after little past noon, we entered into the corridor leading to the final sanctuary, against pleads of the Guardian. What followed was an endless stream of one deadly trap after another, each corridor, each chamber, each door, every one had some kind of trap set on to them. For mortal or terrestrial they would have spelled certain death, some of them would probably had slain even celestials had they gone off or like in one of the fake treasure chambers, set of on purpose by the idiot Ash Mantis, who just wanted to know what it did, while me and Singe were still within the room that turned into raging inferno once the trap activated. Hours later we finally entered the very deepest part of the sanctuary where the last of the Solars laid, his shivered corpse laid against the raw stone wall, covered with inscription repeating one word time after time: "Safe" So ended the story of the twelve Solars who survived the treachery of the usurpation and avoided those seeking them, they all met their deaths in this cold prison, in grips of paranoia while dreaming of glorious return, their names and faces fading into the cold winds blowing around the empty fortress.
With the hearthstone of the fortress in our possession, we all attuned ourselves into the essence flow of the manse. The flow felt strange, rather than being a constant, steady stream it fluctuated, where one moment is was just small trickle of small spring, the next moment the flow had grown into raging flood. Even with the manse being attuned towards the Unconquered Sun, it felt unsettling, I wouldn't go as far as call it unnatural but it wasn't normal. The hearthstone itself was interesting though, it had the power to hide our use of essence, who ever wields it could channel as much essence as they wish without any peripheral essence bleeding into their anima.
Once we were reasonable certain that we had discovered what remained to be discovered, it was time to plan our way back to the Wangler's Knob on the other side of the mountains. With all the first age artefacts we were planning on to take with us, the track trough the mountain pass would pose real challenge and we knew that there was a group of terrestrials, along with 600 legionaries, heading this way so travel by land was decided to be out of the question. The solution to our problem was to travel by air, while me and Sinje passed time sorting out 3 torn books into some resemblances of their former self, the Eye of the Storm and Exultant Falcon crafted gages for our future mounts, a first circle demons called Agatai, the great wasps. For the next five nights they laboured with binding the demons into their service and finally we could leave the manse without having to deal with the troubles on the ground.
As we flew across the night sky over the barren demon wastes, we could see flashes of light down below, curiosity getting better of us we swooped down to get better view of the battle raging. The terrestrial who we knew to be behind us had reached the wastes and were now fighting the demons living there, many of their troops had already perished and even though the Dragon-Blooded threw their spells against the demons, we could see new groups approaching the field of battle from the distance, drawn towards the tender meat of the mortals and terrestrials alike. For once there were no words spoken to aid the terrestrials, without another glance towards the battle we left them to their fates, perhaps few of them would make it trough the battle and live few days longer, hunted as food by the demons. With our flying steeds the travel back was a lot simpler chore than our walk had been, the trip that took weeks now took only few days and just before the end of the season of the Resplendent Water, we could see the Wangler's Knob ahead.
Seuraava episodi "To Find a Spirit", joka myöskin päättää toisen tarinan, ilmestynee alkuviikon aikana.
[size=7:59b9521dfe]464[/size:59b9521dfe]
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caramon
linkki
5. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 19.53
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caramon
5. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 19.53
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Tämähän on aivan mahtavaa luettavaa!!
Jatka samaan malliin
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
7. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 8.59
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Nimlas Dagorewen
7. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 8.59
linkki
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[quote:62e64b0c2a="caramon"]Tämähän on aivan mahtavaa luettavaa!![/quote:62e64b0c2a]
Kiitän & kumarran ^.^
8. episodi, seurue palaa voitokkaalta mansen valtaukselta keskelle uusia ongelmia ja tapaa muutaman 'ystävällisen' tahon. Näin ennakkoon voisi myöskin varoittaa että tarinassa on pienoinen paljastus Invisible Fortresin salaisuuksista siltä varalta että jonkun peliporukka ei ole ko. paikassa käynyt. Episodin aikana kaikki Solarit onnistuivat rikkomaan Great Cursensa (jokaisella solarilla kuten myös lunareilla on yksi luonteenpiirre josta nousee jokin huono piirre esille aina välistä), vieläpä samaan aikaan mikä herätti 'hieman' hilpeyttä.
Mistyn kantilta katsottuna tärkeimpinä tapahtumina voinee pitää sekä 1. ajalta nousevaa muistoa että sitä edeltänyttä/seuraavaa tapahtumaa. Sitten itse tarinan pariin...
To Find a Spirit: 26th of Resplendent Water - 22th of Descending Water, RY 769
Brokers of Spirit Pact and the Broken Solars
Season of Water
We stayed in the Wangler's Knob for about a week, Solars tried to convince the terrestrial they had brought with them about the error in the teachings of the Immaculate Order and that the Solars weren't such a horrible monsters like they were portrayed to be. For myself, watching the half-hidden Luna on the sky, I left them to their task and headed into the wilds to pay my respect towards her. By the time I returned few days later, their task of converting the terrestrial hadn't progressed whole lot and apparently they had done some side business while I was gone.
The terrestrial who rented the entire inn on our previous stay in the city had succeeded in slaying the guardian spirit of the city and the Solars in turn had succeeded to negotiate with nearby spirits on a pact for a replacement. How they did it or what the pact contained I don't know, but seeing the way that the Solars were acting, the terms weren't exactly what they had been hoping for. The Exultant Falcon had his temper up once again; acting even more bull headed than he usually did while the Ash Mantis was crying and whining on everything around him. How the world was cruel place and how no-one cared about the sufferings of the others, the Eye of the Storm had had his fill about the Ash Mantis crying and he gave more than few hard lectures about his depraved way of life and how the hardships he was facing were for his own good. As soon as the Exultant Falcon spotted me, he said that we'd set of immediately towards the Invisible Fortress and stormed out of the door without further words.
While we were flying towards the fortress, I managed to piece together patchy idea of what had happened during my hunt. Little after I had departed, the hearthstone Exultant Falcon kept with him had shattered, indicating that someone or something had entered the fortress and severed our connection into its essence flow. This meant that the battle we saw on our way back from the fortress earlier hadn't killed all of the terrestrials or their army and at least few managed to enter into the fort itself. The loss of manse being bad enough, in addition to that who ever had broken into there would also get good descriptions of us all to pass onto the Wyld Hunt which wouldn't let notion of four celestials go on as a mere foot note in their reports to the Realm.
If I'd been with them when the hearthstone shattered, they'd left for the fortress days ago but since I was paying my respect, they had taken the time to look for new protector for the city. While the Solars were figuring out how to find one, Sinje had proposed that she had a way to find one and since no-one else had came up with plan of their own, they followed her lead. Her way of finding spirits was a simple one; she simply took her walking staff and let it fall onto the ground, the direction that its head pointed were the direction they should travel. This was apparently the thing that didn't go well with the Exultant Falcon who turned into his cold attitude again. In his mind Sinjes way of finding spirits was childish and complete waste of time, or maybe it was the fact that her idea worked and they did find a small spirit that they could try to persuade into becoming new guardian spirit for the village.
With the Exultant Falcon behaving like a small despot, the talks with the spirit started with him just declaring that the spirit would become the new guardian regardless of its own opinion. Not too surprisingly the spirit was less than happy to be just mandated its new role and stated its own demands or it'd just go its ways and leave the Solars to continue their search. In the end though, they managed to come to agreement on the terms, which didn't sound too unreasonable to me, but apparently for the Solars the idea that they'd have to pay their respect to the spirit was a great hurdle that took time to swallow. In addition for being respected the spirit demanded that it'd receive a human sacrifice, which they would sort out with the elder of the village. Talking with the village elder and his solemn notion that it was responsibility of the elder to make the arrangements in turn made the Ash Mantis into weeping wreck he was. His show of weakness in face of hard decisions was too much to bear for the Eye of the Storm who flew into tirade of preaching and tutoring him about the respectable way of life, which was their condition by the time I returned.
Return the Fortress and Slaying of the Guardian
Season of Water
As we arrived to the Invisible Fortress, we could see the jagged hole the Dragon Blooded had made into the stone wall that we had conjured before leaving but besides that there was no indications of intruders on the outside of the manse and apparently they hadn't figured out how to operate the manses defences since we could enter it without difficulties. A dead silence greeted us as we entered the manses great hall where we found first of the terrestrials who had intruded the manse, his frozen remains were hanging from the wall with his dead fingers still trying to pry the steel vine tied around his neck. With more closer look we could recognize him as the Cesus Lahor, the leader of the army we saw fighting against the daemons on our way back to the city a week earlier.
Searching trough rest of the main building we found that the entrance into final sanctuary had been opened and another dead terrestrial in the false garden, under his frozen corpse were inscription he had scratched with his dagger before his demise: "The mirrors are the key." We had been suspecting that the Guardian wasn't damaged as it appeared to be, every now and then one of us could see it appearing into mirrors to keep an eye of us when it thought that our backs were turned towards the mirrors. Our inspection of the manses heartroom reinforced our suspicion, the manse had been damaged just enough to break our connection and to shatter the hearthstone with it by a small scratch in one of the mosaics.
It was Sinje who found the remains of the terrestrial party, or more precisely what was left of them, in the kitchens storage room. Their bones arranged neatly onto the shelves while their meat had been preserved in various ways, ready for the cook to make meal from. We decided to clear any remaining invaders, or their remaining, from the final sanctuary before dealing with the Guardian since his power was confined only within the manse itself and if any of the terrestrials had survived, that'd be where they could find safety. We found no survivors from the sanctuary, all who had entered it had perished into various traps in its corridors, the luckiest one had made his way to the well of blades where his remains continued to be impaled but the adamantine blades at the bottom as his remains were jerked up to the ceiling by essence and then let to fall down on to the blades time after time.
With the final sanctuary cleared and all of its traps reset, it was time to look on the matter with the Guardian. We examined the mirrors and the Eye of the Storm found out that if he concentrated his essence against the surface of the mirror, it felt like a portal. Once he shared his findings with the rest of us, all except Sinje could enter the mirrors, for whatever reason, she couldn't channel her essence to allow her to pass the mirrors. Once inside the mirror, we appeared into what appeared like a mirror image of the manse itself and no sooner that we had entered the Guardians voice echoed from all around us. It gloated how it had finally managed to lure us into its realm and how none of us would ever return from there, while it kept gloating the walls around us dissolved and we started falling. The fall ended just as suddenly as it had begun, we were standing on a board of gateway that reached as far eye could see all around us.
We had barely enough time to get our bearings before the Guardian appeared, its mask forming from nothing in front of us and with few more words it started to divide, first there were one, then two and soon all of us were surrounded by circling masks that tried to pull on our greatest weaknesses. It was first time that I've felt anything like it and I solemnly hope that I'll never have to face same again. Somehow it knew the dream, the same cursed dream that keeps coming back time after time and coaxed it to surface again. When I finally was able to shake it away from my mind, I was tied onto the back of a flaying agata; it had been three days since we had fought against the Guardian. The Solars had managed to press its effects aside long enough to tear its anchor, casting the last remnant of the first age into the oblivion.
Invitation from the Mask Of Winters
Night of the 14th on Season of Water
The terrestrial that travelled with us departed on her own ship when we returned to the shores of the Blackwater River where the ships were anchored, the Exultant Falcon giving one last try to get her to contact the Cult of the Illuminated and then we set sail towards Nexus. For the first weeks our trip was uneventful but as Luna was about to show herself in her full glory, the troubles finally reached us once again.
First signs of things to come were subtle yet profound, those of us who were on the deck of our ship had simultaneous lapse of though; for a brief moment it was like we'd seen something but the next moment there weren't anything, except that what was just a moment for us had been several seconds for the rest of the Creation. Suspecting foul play the Eye of the Storm stood in guard of the hatch leading down below while I went down to check if anything was missing or had been added. While I was going trough our cargo and things we had taken with us from the fortress, more troubles headed our way. Others said that there had been a pillar of light rising towards the night sky and that the stars themselves had started to rotate like leaves in a whirlpool and that all who looked towards it were lost in staring the spiralling starts, all except Sinje who could avoid the effect for some reason. After few moments I could also hear Eye of the Storm asking that what was happening and Sinje explaining that the starts were spinning, followed by request to look on both sides of the ship if she could see anyone approaching our ship, which she did; with nonchalant tone she explained that there were three figures standing on the shore, one of them surrounded by blazing black anima.
The short quiet was shattered by booming voice shouting from the shore; "bring us the Lunar woman or die," to that Sinje responded that there were no Lunar women on board. "We know she's on board that ship," was the answer from the shore, "you have nine seconds." While they shouted on the deck I tried to look for port trough which I could have looked towards the shore to see who they were and to get some kind of idea on what exactly was going on, with the still spinning sky the idea of running up the ladders on to the deck and getting trapped by the stars didn't sound very good idea especially since they apparently were after me. Frustrated by our lack of collaboration, the abyssal turned to his companion and told her to sing which she did, with the first note of her song a distant memory rose to my mind, it was no song but a second circle spell Cantata of Empty Voices.
The morning peace was shattered by the same agonizing voice, I remember bolting up from the bed, the blood on my hands as I tried to cover my ears. Trough the agony I could make out stomps of heavy feet, much too heavy for infantry, heavy enough to cause small ripples in the water basin on the table. Looking out from the window I could see them, trio of warstriders marching down the street with dozen or more foot men with them, the crimson glint of the blood dripping from their blades and armour, the pillars of smoke rising from the city gleaming city. The scent of fear and blood in the morning wind grew stronger each moment, with disbelief I watched as the group spotted one of the Suns children and hastened their steps, for a brief moment I though they were coming to his aid but instead the warstriders marched onwards while the infantry opened up with their firewands.
Sound of my rooms door opening, followed by heavy footstep tore my attention from the slaughter on the street and towards the armoured figure standing in the doorway with his bloodied blade drawn, crimson drops making trail on the spotless tiles. The grim resolve in his eyes turned to terror as I let my rage free, apparently he had expected to find only young ones, the children of the Solars they were slaughtering, in these chambers rather than a child of Luna. His own anima lighted into its blue blaze while his blade struck harmlessly against the shimmering moonsilver scales of the moondragon armour, I ran towards the door with remains of his still twitching corpse hanging from my claws, I must find him, warn him about the treachery. Something struck me as I burst out from the front door, making crimson arc in the air as it cleaved trough my side and threw me across the street. From the distance I could feel my body crying from pain but the light of Luna kept me on my feet while the flesh healed and I kept running towards the pull in my heart. "Take the other agata and follow me!" Voice of the Eye of the Storm brought me back from my daze, a quick glance around assured that I was in the hull of our ship and not in my dream.
Keeping my eyes glued onto the deck, I scrambled from the hold of our ship and jumped onto the agata, telling it to fly close to the water towards the shore in case I'd need to jump. From ahead I could hear a splash at the same time as the infernal voice finally subdued, glancing ahead I saw Eye of the Storm in the river, swimming towards the 3 Abyssal. We both reached the shore about the same time, Storm wading from river on to the shore while I hovered in the air, waiting to see how the fight would start in earnest which didn't take long. The Eye of the Storm bounced towards the Abyssal who had readied his blade to meet his attack but instead of stricking him, Storm used his blade as a springboard to get more speed onto his strike against the third Abyssal who had troubles keeping his firewands aimed on him. Once I saw Storm bouncing towards his prey, I urged my mount forward, while Storm sunk his claws trough the Abyssals' parry, agata rolled onto its back so that I could slash out against the same Abyssal before the great wasp finished its barrel roll and swooped out of their range.
I felt my hackles standing as the essence was channelled behind me into single point, glancing behind me I saw the Abyssal raising his firewand in while the time seemed to slow down before the shot. The Eye of the Storm was entirely covered into the searing flames and for the first time since I met him, I could hear him screaming in pain. The armoured Abyssall lowered his grand daiklave onto Storms throat while he was writhing in agony on the ground and demanded that we stopped or he would slit Storms throat, for a brief moment I debated whether to bolt ahead and try to grab him with my claws before the Abyssals could sever his head entirely or to bid my time, it the end waiting felt like the best thing to do for now.
With his freehand, the Abyssall who called himself Thousand Dark Flames pulled out a medallion and stared it for a brief moment before turning his attention towards me, demanding me to come closer. Reluctantly I slowly came closer to the Abyssalls but stayed well beyond the range of their firewands, requesting that they reveal why they were after me. The Thousand Dark Flames said that the Mask of Winters invited me into his stronghold to visit him and that I wouldn't be harmed, a promise that in light of their actions sounded a lot less than trustworthy. As for why the Mask of Winters wanted to see me, they claimed it to be of no concern. Maybe it was of no concern for them but for me, it most definitely was something to be concerned about. In meanwhile Sinje shouted from the ship that she still wanted to know if I had came to conclusion about considering her and the Solars as friends, apparently knowing it was more important to her than impending decapitation of the Eye of the Storm and my answer that I'm still thinking about it probably didn't do much good.
Our lack of immediate surrender to their demands, in addition to the fact that we deemed that it'd be a good time to settle our differences while they were waiting for our response, finally made the Thousand Dark Flames to live up to his ultimatum and he slid Storms throat, casually kicking his dead corpse into the river while sorcerer next to him brought her bow to bear and slew the agata I was riding. Fortunately the Abyssals hadn't kept us under surveillance for long time since they didn't know about the small demon Storm kept in his belly, while I jumped away from my dying mount I could hear the little bug singing happily in my mind while reuniting Storms almost severed head to his body. I took the form of the tiger shark as soon as I struck the water, the saltless water burning against my gills as I streaked towards the source of intoxicatingly sweet scent. Fighting against the instinct to strike to the source of the sweet scent, I gripped a hold on the orichalcum bracelets he had and as I turned towards the deeper water his free hand gripped hold on my dorsal fin. We resurfaced on the far side of our boat, Storms little helper had managed to patch him up well enough that he noticed when to jump on to the deck of the ship rather than to fall back into the river.
We could see the Abyssals on the shore, their posture showing their clear displeasure on the way the meeting had gone and, for a short moment, they seemed like they'd try to jump over to our ship. While I know that the exalted can jump almost unimaginable distances, some two hundred meters is a lot even for us, especially if you're loaded down with heavy armour like the Thousand Dark Flames was. The sorcerer brought up her bow for few parting shots as our ship continued to travel down stream, firing few fire arrows onto the side of our ship just to let her spite to be noticed. The Ash Mantis shot his mouth to them as he always does if he gets away unharmed, the Thousand Dark Flames just shouted that they'd get me sooner or later and that I could count on that. With them using either sorcery or demons as their hounds, it'd be difficult to lose them but unlike they claim it is far from impossible.
After we were certain that the Abyssals weren't going to jump us again that night, Sinje tended Storms wounds the best she could though there weren't much that could be done without aid of sorcery so she merely dressed his burns and went onto see the mortals. While their wounds were only minor had they occurred on any of us, them being mortals they were a lot more serious, it took better part of a week for them to recuperate in which time the Eye of the Storm had already healed most of his burns. By the time we reached Nexus, I was little surprised that the Abyssals hadn't made another attempt though the Exultant Falcon said that he had overheard the Thousand Dark Flames telling his companions that he hadn't expected this sort of company, even the Eye of the Storms wounds were healed.
Loppuviikosta alkaakin sitten uusi tarina "Seaside Stories" minkä aikana, kuten nimi vihjaakin, seilaillaan ympäri Creationia enemmänkin kuin tarpeeksi.
[size=5:62e64b0c2a]526[/size:62e64b0c2a]
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
10. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 20.27
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Nimlas Dagorewen
10. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 20.27
linkki
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9. episodi, "Exiled Divinities," aloittaa jälleen uuden tarinan minkä aikana seilataan Creation laidasta laitaan ja käydään pikaisesti herättämässä pahennusta sen ulkopuolellakin. Mistyn menneisyyteenkin saadaan hieman lisää valoa vaikkakin Misty itse loppujen olisi ollut paljon tyytyväisempi jos ei olisi oppinut kaikkea.
Tämän episodin aikana Misty käy jututtamassa opettajaansa sillä välin kun muut hämmentävät tilannetta Nexusissa. Paluun jälkeen homma rupeaakin leviämään sitten käsiin kun tapaus Mistyn menneisyydestä pullahtaa pintaan ja hieman sen jälkeen saadaan lisää vieraita...
Exiled Divinities: 22th of Descending Water - 17th of Ascending Earth, RY 769
The Weeks of Contemplation and Learning
From end of Descending Water to Ascending Earth
I parted from the rest of our group once we arrived into Nexus, much had happened during our last trip and there were many things that I needed to discuss with the Unfettered Moon. We discussed about the events of the past year, the cultists and whole host of other matters, while he passed on the findings of the elders about the matter of Abyssals and their lords. For one, he confirmed what I had learned from the Cult of the Illuminated, that the Abyssals are in fact forsaken Solars. Another matter was that the elders had come to conclusion how to relate with the fallen Solars as well as the choice that lies ahead of me. I can only hope that if, no, when the time comes that I face the choice, I will be able to make it. Even more than that, I wish that the day of decision never arrives. I know, it is a fool's hope but I can't help it, it is a choice no one should need to make.
Since the Unfettered Moon had his own territory to look after and what I wished to learn was not exactly his speciality, we parted for few days so he could find a No Moon to teach me and I could take the time to check the Understanding of Iceflow and Moon. It seems that our destinies are entwined, no matter where we go; we seem to come across each other. The No Moon whom the Unfettered Moon brought back to teach me was no other than the Ebon Feather. As the time goes on, I'm beginning to think that had it not been for his brother, the Ebon Feather wouldn't have lost his face in the first place. He spend the night treading the Song Lines for the knowledge I needed but it continued to elude him, his opinion being that most likely it had never been part of them so the only way that I could find the answer is to go on a vision quest myself.
The Ebon Feather suggestion about treading the Song Lines as the No Moons tread them would have taken far too long to master, I couldn't see the Solars willing to wait for the months it takes to master the correct charms to find and walk along the Song Lines. The Unfettered Moon ruled out finding the answers trough travelling into the untamed lands where past, present and future are all present. While the answers would undoubtedly be found there, his opinion was that I'm still too young and inexperienced to try. After discussing about other methods, dreaming was the chosen method since it is relatively easy to learn. With Ebon Feathers guidance during first dreams, showing how to weave them into trails to find the knowledge I want or to shape them into dream of my own making, I set on to find the elusive past.
The Dream of the Shrouded History
First nights of the Ascending Earth
I followed the path towards the memory from great gala in the first age like Unfettered Moon had suggested, from the first step into the great hall down to last goodbyes. Though I was alone during the gala in my dream, I could remember patches of conversations, seemingly unimportant titbits tossed around here and there. Most importantly I found out that, like the rest of the creation apparently already knew, during the first age I was called Mithra from the Waxing Moon caste. Among other things I now know from the first age is the name and face of my mate who couldn't arrive into the gala due to his work.
My dream dwindled back to second age after the gala, into the events before the Silver Lady's touch while I could feel myself slowly drifting towards wakefulness. Surfacing memories weren't whole, there were still missing pieces, long gaps where years passed in a blur and then there were parts that were clear like yesterday. Faces of my parents, my older brother before he became Abyssal, me teasing my younger brother, being comforted after breaking my favourite toy, a blur of random memories coming to surface in no real order just before waking up again.
Life in the City and Troubled Falcon
Second week of Ascending Earth
When I returned to Nexus, first order in business was to find out what the Solars had done while I was gone. The Exultant Falcon had reached his goal, or at least one of them, he had been appointed into the Guild council as a full member in a private meeting that was held few days earlier. There had been some talks about future business plans during the meeting and right from the start, Exultant Falcons benefactors started to reel in all those 'small and insignificant' favours. Apparently that was the last drop for him and he had been planning on having small conversation with his benefactors, on his terms.
We were walking towards the mansion of Falcon's benefactor when some mortal stopped us, I might have guessed it by the time we first saw him that he had some grudge or boon against me. He kept staring me while approaching, once he was just few yards away he pulled his blade, accusing me of slaying his father and stating that he had came to get his revenge from my dead body. The Eye of the Storm tried to grip his blade but the mortal danced further away, asking if I was too afraid of taking him alone without help from my buddies. Instead of fighting him there on the street like he apparently had planned, I said that I would fight him tomorrow at noon on small course behind Exultant Falcon mansion, to which he agreed.
With the duel averted for the evening, we continued to the mansion where Exultant Falcons current nemesis lived. Our first visit was fruitless, or should I say our 4th visit, that actually was our first visit, or something like that. While the Exultant Falcon was fuming that we had been mislead by his nemesis, me and Eye of the Storm noticed as a dematerialized demon that had been spying us bolted towards its masters to tell them the news that we had seen trough their ruse. Unfortunately for them, and fortunate for us, it didn't know that we had spotted it, which meant that our enemies wouldn't expect us for some time, probably. This in mind we set towards the same mansion, only to be stopped by two second circle demons on its front lawn.
Regardless of our first reaction, there weren't going to be a battle between us, not if we could do tiny little favour for them. Apparently they had been ordered to stop anyone from coming near the main building itself, meaning that they'd have to fight us except that there were flaw in their commands that the demons were more than happy to abuse. In return for us slaying their summoner, they'd leave us alone provided he'd be dead in about an hour after which their commands would force them to attack us.
With the demons out of our way or should I say set loose into the city, we pressed onwards into the mansion. On the second floor we came up with a familiar sight, the same person who I saw talking with Falcons double, who spitted insults and threats of doom onto us as soon as he set his eyes on us. After his tirade, he released his horde of 12 demons onto us, meaning on letting them tear us apart. His face turned from evil smile into terrified, open mouth stare as his army of demons flickered and vanished back into Yozis. Before he could recover from the shock of losing his private army, Storm and me had him pinned against the floor with my jaws around his windpipe. Rather than face Falcons wrath, he invoked some sort of spell that instantly turned his entire body into fine ash underneath me. Their summoner dead, the two daemons we saw earlier were free to begin their rampage trough the city that they set for in earnest. While the local mercenaries arrived to arrest anyone in the mansion, we slipped into the night trough the back windows and headed back to Falcons place.
Almost Duel at Noon, Almost War at Evening
Third week of Ascending Earth
The next day we heard that one of the demons had just flown away while the other had demolished few of the most expensive buildings in Nexus and that the Council sentenced their summoner to death or to mere banishment from Nexus if they turned themselves in. As the noon approached, the Exultant Falcon cleared his mansion from servants in preparation for the duel and exactly at noon the Indigo Mountain knocked the door. Once we all had gathered into the back yard, the Indigo Mountain gave out his speech how I had killed his father, taken the exquisite sword he had made, scarred Indigo Mountains face and how he would exact his revenge. While I was pretty certain that the time when he claimed this to have happened, I was still just a mortal and even more importantly I would have been around ten years old, it was kind of hard to believe I could have done what he claimed. It took little talking, but finally we were able to get trough to him that I hadn't killed his father and that the real killer, terrestrial named Derial Kiril was the likely cause for his loss. I'm not sure why, but every time I think about the name Derial Kiril, I start seething from rage.
With the Indigo Mountain sent to continue his quest for vengeance, we turned our attention back into our own projects. Exultant Falcon continued his plans on creating small forge near the Nexus where he planned on starting his own orichalcum craft. I used couple days on going trough every dance school in Nexus in search of some new dance that I didn't know yet but it seems that finding one is almost impossible. Surprisingly though, when I mentioned this to Sinje she said that she could teach me. Few days later, Eye of the Storm agreed to attempt to explore his past, using the same technique that I had used. The technique itself is safe, only when one is interrupted in middle of their dream does it pose a problem and I probably should have known that the troubles were fast gaining on us while I was keeping eye on Storm while he dreamed.
The first sign of troubles was the small stream of acid that started to leak trough the melting ceiling of the chamber where we were, I grabbed Storm onto my shoulder and headed towards our rooms on the second floor while shaking him to wake him. By the time we got to second floor and Storm was awake though still groggy, we saw that the entire front of the house had been melted away and standing at the middle of the lawn was the Thousand Dark Flames and his per sorceress. He claimed that he rarely give a second chances but if we'd know what's good for us, I should go with them quietly and without further words he jumped into the second floor hallway where Storm and me were standing.
Stand off lasted few seconds before Storm bounced the Abyssal, unfortunately his attack failed to connect the nimble Abyssal, I followed his lead onto the Thousand Dark Flames, my own anima lighting the dark corridor with silver light. The Abyssal didn't manage to block my claws entirely though he avoided the worst, ending up with couple scratches before bringing his firewands to bear on Storm. He used the same technique that he had used just three weeks ago on the shore of the River of Tears, incinerating Eye of the Storm just like he did back then. Before Thousand Dark Flames could ready his defences, I managed to get few more scratches that slowed him down a bit.
"He never said that you can't be hurt," he said while dodging little further away to get enough room to aim his firewand, "suffer for your lack of obedience!" Then the whole world turned red, such a sweet, bright crimson colour. I could smell my fur burning, the white drops scorching the floor under me as the chain shirt melted, my claw biting deeply into something soft that was flung away before I landed into something wet. I think he shot me again, I'm not quite certain, I remember him spitting blood on me, then his head just limply drooped on the side. For a moment, I wondered why he kept standing before noticing my claws impaling his belly. In the meantime, Exultant Falcon had managed to slay the sorcerer as well, her crumbled remains laying on the ground little further.
The Heroic Nexus Guard
Turn of 3rd and 4th week of Ascending Earth
I was on my way to look how Storm was managing when the first brave souls of the local mercenary companies arrived to arrest us all, demanding that we would be taken to their barracks for questioning. There were about twenty of them with their leader making the demands, he did agree to wait though, a wise decision on his part since I was just about ready to tear him apart along with as many of his troops as I could. While they kept guard outside to keep us from running, I returned to house to get new clothes since my gear shared the same fate as Storms did, their ashes blown into the winds. We waited until our animas had calmed enough and only thing that remained that marked us as the feared anathema was weak shining of our caste marks on our foreheads.
The guards escorted us to their barracks where they had cleared cell for each of us, from the quick look on the cell it looked like it had been constructed to hold weaker terrestrials and would probably had yielded had we tried to break out but for the time being we just bid our time. The following morning the local mercenary garrisons had rounded up every terrestrial in their ranks in order to keep safe if we'd try anything, their main concern was that who had summoned the demon let loose week ago. After two days of questioning, they took the simple way out of the bothersome deal and pinned the demon onto the dead Abyssals who were quite convenient scapegoats.
The Exiles from Nexus
4th week of Ascending Earth
We were released the next day, on our way each of us received the latest list of the Civilities, at the bottom was new 3 lines added today, all identical except for the name; The man called White Morning Mist is hereby exiled from Nexus and must depart by sunset tomorrow, never to return. For Exultant Falcon those 3 lines meant a lot more than to me, his dream of getting into the Guild council lasted for little over a week. We barely reached what was left of his house before scared runner brought him a letter that declared that he had been retired from the guild with fat pension to sweeten the deal, in other words the Guild said that "get lost and never bother us again." Little later second runner brought another letter, this time from Falcon's benefactors and just before we were leaving, third one arrived that just told him not to worry and that everything would sort out.
These letters gave me an idea and while rest were finishing up on loading the ship, I sought a courier service to deliver a parcel for me. The fee was astronomical but then again, not many are willing to travel to Thorns even for the kind of reward they were receiving. Especially when you're delivering a packet pointed directly to the Mask of Winters himself. Not that it matters though, I really don't think he will be pleased at all when he reads the letter, I have a hunch that the poor messenger will meet his demise. Another thing my hunch is telling me is that he won't do as I asked in the letter but just dispatch new hunters to chase me but if he does, they will need to chase me without their little trinket which makes the game so much more interesting.
Solars had finished up preparing the ship when I returned, I was kind of surprised to see the Grasshopper having joined his mentor even after he had been publicly declared as an anathema though he had known it for year by now any ways. In top of all that he had ran away from his home in order to join us, looks like he didn't like being merchant that much after all. There was new face on board as well; Indigo Mountain joined us in order to continue his quest for revenge. Once everyone was onboard, we set sail downstream, hopefully we'll stay far enough ahead of the Wyld Hunt that's now on our tracks as well so me and Storm have time to heal our wounds.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
14. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 11.48
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Nimlas Dagorewen
14. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 11.48
linkki
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10. episodi, seurue seilaa ensin pohjoiseen hakemaan hearthstonen mansesta ja sitten käännetään nokka kohti länttä. Kostonhimon tyydyttämiseksi huitastaan vaatimattomat ~4000 mailia suuntaansa pienellä purjelaivalla, näin käy kun kiukkuilee väärälle porukalle. ^.^
Samaisella reissulla suoritettiin jälleen hieman kaivelua Mistyn menneisyydestä ja koitettiin keksiä että miten vahva linkki Eye of the Stormlla on Mistyyn. Jotta soppa ei olisi liian selkeä, yksi miehistön jäsenistä päätti kaiken lisäksi vielä exaltoitua keskellä myrskyä. Osaltaan ihan hyvä juttu koska toisin kuin Misty joka voi aina muuttaa muotoaan vaikkapa linnuksi tai kalaksi, solareilla olisi ollut edessään 'lyhyt' uinti jos paatti olisi mennyt pohjaan. ^_^
Sitten itse tarinan pariin...
Chosen of the Maidens: 17th of Ascending Earth - 25th of Descending Earth, RY 769
Journey of Healing and Contemplation
The Three Seasons of Earth
It seems that our luck is turning and just for once, it seems to be turning towards better times. Since we boarded the Dance of Destiny, newly named Exultant Falcons ship that we captured from luckless river pirates, there has been no major trouble at all, small mishaps yes but nothing serious, which is good since both the Eye of the Storm and me needed the time to heal our wounds.
The first 3 weeks went fast while we sailed upstream along the River of Tears towards the White Sea. On the 28th day of the Ascending Earth, most of the others left towards the Invisible Fortress to retrieve new hearthstone to replace the one that had shattered when the terrestrials managed to force their way into the manse. While they flied off, carried by first circle spell, I stayed behind since my wounds still needed time to heal and looking towards the sky, Luna was about to bask in all her glory again. We returned about three days later, both the group that headed to the manse and me from my own journey, the ships crew and Ash Mantis had already spend little time in Icehome, the last stop on our trip before its purpose would change.
Up until now, we had three reasons for our trip; first was to retrieve the newly formed hearthstone from the Invisible Fortress, second was to put some distance between us and the Wyld Hunt which most certainly would have heard of the events in Nexus and lastly, revenge. The Exultant Falcon wanted his revenge on the mysterious Mokrelius and Indigo Mountain was after Derian Kiril to avenge his father's death, both men ready to travel to the end of Creation to spill the blood of their respective nemesis. While finding Mokrelius, who ever he or she might be, doesn't matter for me, name Derian Kiril raises feeling that I should know him and that in what ever terms we knew each other, they weren't good. On the 3rd day of the Resplendent Earth we set sail again on sole purpose of revenge, a decision that I fear will come to haunt us in future.
The Shared Path of Dreams and Nightmares
Quiet Night of the Resplendent Earth
Once out in the sea again, good distance away from potential sources of troubles, the Eye of the Storm and I took the time to pry into the web of dreams. Unlike last time though, we agreed that we would try to walk our dreams together in our search for answers. We started from the more pleasant memories, revisiting the great gala in the first age, seeing quick flashes linked to events there, reliving them for a short moment and then moved onwards to more fragmented memories. The Eye of the Storm showed some of his dreams, most of them were just as fragmented as mine, for one dream that was different, one he had in the Invisible Fortress.
If there is one thing that I dislike in walking the path of dreams, it is their tendency to give answer to your question but in so doing, also answer to questions that you didn't even know to ask and often times, didn't really want to ask let alone know the answer to. Watching someone whom you care about, or cared about in your previous live but still remember about, die isn't pleasant thing to see, especially when you see the end coming trough their eyes, final moments before the darkness sweeps in, the desperate attempts to stall for just a few more breaths. While Storm relived his past, me being 'merely' there for the ride, I could note few things that he couldn't note himself in much the same way he could examine my dreams for hints that my perception glazed over. When I visit the Invisible Fortress next time, there is something I'll need look for since we didn't find it yet and to be honest, we really didn't know what to look for though is should've been plain obvious.
The rest of his dream, though it was more of a nightmare than a dream, I couldn't make sense of, the thing I could make out was that I really didn't wish to know any of it. Now that we know of them how ever, they are yet another pile of unasked questions that looms there waiting for their question bearing answers. When the Unconquered Sun rose above the horizon and the path of dreams faded, I wish I could say that it'd made things more clear, partially it did and partially it just made me feel even more confused, one thing is certain though, that night gave us lot to discuss about in the coming days. If the shadows of our past keep on gaining us on every corner we turn before we can find out of them, I fear that, if we are lucky, the past will merely relive itself but if we're not, as it seems in light of resent events, our past will not only relive itself but grow before spiralling to new circle.
Remnant of the First Age, Azure
Season of Descending Earth
After over a month out in the sea, land finally rose from the ocean and before us laid one of the few surviving cities from the first age, the gem of the far west, Azure. No sooner than the Dance of Fate had been moored along the piers, Sinje gathered her entourage and disappeared into the city to, in her own words, 'to make certain that the services provided in each bar, casino and other establishments would be safe for the crew.' For those who stayed behind, the Exultant Flacon declared that he would head to nearest restaurant and for those who wanted to join him; the tab would be on him.
First few days were calm, we spent time on exploring the city, listening rumours on local events and making subtle inquiries about both Mokrelius and Derian Kiril. When the first week of the Descending Earth was coming to end, the troubles returned, come to think about it, when ever we stay longer than few days in any town the troubles find us as they did once again but if we stay just for couple days we are gone before the storm arrives. When Sinje walked back to the ship from one of her trips to the first age casinos, it was the end of calm for our stay in Azure.
From the distance, she looked like always but once onboard the changes on her came obvious, feathers growing from her arms and midst of her hair, I don't know how she managed to get Ebon Feather to place his totems battle form as a token for his bet and quite frankly, I don't even care to know. Once she had shown her newfound ability to rest of the crew and me, Sinje proceeded to decimate the local seagull population in broad view to anyone in the harbour area at which point the Aloin Readiflight, the ships captain, started to make preparations for our departure that wouldn't be far from now. Apparently the novelty wore off soon for Sinje who returned to her usual self, barring the Tell and wandered off towards the casinos.
The same evening, the Exultant Falcon limbed back to the ship, once again there had been attempt on his life and this time the assassins had struck while he was alone and judging from his condition, nearly succeeding this time. Since the assassins had made their escape and it was commonly agreed that they would most likely make another attempt before we set sail the next day, one of us would stand in guard instead one of the crew. Like we predicted, the assassin, not assassins like the Exultant Falcon had claimed, did make new attempt but sadly for him, the Eye of the Storm was waiting for him and the assassins attempt to sneak past him was a sad attempt. After short interrogation, after we learned who had hired him and rest of the meaningful details, he was set free thought the Exultant Falcon had Sinje to tear parts of his memories away with blade that we found from the Invisible Fortress. In creation, there are things that should never have been discovered, let alone fallen into hands that are willing to use them and the blade that rips memories is one of those things that should have stayed forgotten.
His willingness to erase, or in this case have someone to do it for him, people's memories to hide his meddling is starting to become almost too common occurrence, for short term gain he's willing to take actions that are certain to bring later repercussions to which he reacts in the same way, with the quickest way to cover his participation. Were the terrestrials and many of the mortals call us demons, anathema along with host of other names; the Exultant Falcon has begun to shown rather disturbing willingness to live the part they are portraying for us celestials, right up to the point of stabbing Storm with a needle laced with one of the most potent poisons available for mortals, detail that he didn't know at the time except that the poison was potent, possibly potent enough to slay even us celestials, rather than to admit that the mortal assassin was nearly successful due to his weaknesses. When I think what the Unfettered Moon told me, I can't help myself but to wonder, perhaps it would be better to take his advice and use it on the Exultant Falcon, perhaps it would be the best thing to do, I hope it will never come to that but time will tell and my heart grows wary.
The Ship of the Dead and the Avenger of the Past
Season of Descending Earth
Strange fog rising from the ocean on the second day after our departure from Azure signalled that more troubles were heading to our direction, from midst of the fog, a trireme approached our ship on collision course, stench of death and decay billowing all around it like a sickening wet blanket. Once our ships draw closer, we could make out the group of zombies scuffling towards the bow of the ship in preparation to board us after their ship had rammed against ours. Their plan never came to being though as Storm and me turned the table and boarded their ship long before they came anywhere close on ramming us, where Storm just jumped on board, I swam underneath their ship and climbed onboard from the other side. Aside from the group of zombies, there were two others on the deck of the ship, a man with a daiklave and another, terrestrial wearing jade armour, Derian Kirin, the one we had been searching. The battle on board their ship didn't last very long before the terrestrial was unconscious and the other who had turned out to be Dawn caste Solar just like Storm, had abandoned the ship and jumped overboard.
Once their ship had been looted from anything even remotely valuable and sunk, others could turn their attention towards Derian as well. As soon as he came to, the Indigo Mountain launched into his prepared speech about how he would avenge his dead father and so on, to which Derian answered that he had killed so many man that he couldn't possibly remember them all, answer that drove Indigo Mountain such seething rage that we had to drag him out of the room or he probably would have tried to kill Derian there and then. Since I had the feeling that he and I shared some connection in the past, by the time when he came to I wore the same face as I did when I was still mortal in hope that it would provoke him into revealing something from the past, which it did. When he noticed me, he called me ship girl, from what I've managed to learn from our crew during our travels it usually means someone who's going to be sailor one day but isn't old enough to be called one yet.
That proved that my hunch on us sharing past was correct and perhaps he could shed more light to it but sating the bloodlust of others came first. Rather than allowing his wounds to heal on their own and thus give me time to learn what he knew about me, Storm ordered his little demon to patch his wounds up so that the Indigo Mountain could get his revenge as soon as possible. Heavens forbid, he had waited for over ten years to get his duel; it would have been unreasonable to have him wait for extra few days. Their duel took place on the deck of our ship and in the end, the Indigo Mountain berated him for what ever he could think about before driving his blade trough his hearth. In return of sating Indigo Mountains blind lust for revenge, Derian took the knowledge he had from the past ten years with him to his grave, the best chance in the past year and a half to learn what happened.
Sea of Storms and Touch of the Five Maidens
Season of Descending Earth
Now that one quest for revenge was completed, the Exultant Falcon could continue his without having to bother with trivialities interfering with his search. For the next week, we sailed aimlessly from one island to the next, apparently his plan was to make so much noise about his search that Mokrelius would be sure to hear about it and just in case he didn't already have trap set up, he'd have plenty of time to plan one.
During the week we spend searching, one of the crew, a girl named Silk Cuts, grew steadily more feverish and finally, during rough storm she snapped. We found her clinging on the mast of the ship when the storm suddenly seemed to calm, yellow anima blazing around her while caste mark of same yellow shined on her forehead, the Maiden of Journeys had deemed her as worthy of exaltation. Unlike Luna, who takes her time to visit each of her children upon their exaltation to explain their new status, the Five Maidens apparently don't think such things to be important and needlessly to say, Silk Cuts could have used someone to explain her just what had just happened and what she had became, something we tried to explain her during the next days.
[size=6:18420d6e85]804[/size:18420d6e85]
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
20. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 22.59
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Nimlas Dagorewen
20. maaliskuuta 2006 kello 22.59
linkki
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11. episodin aikana seilataan vielä hieman lisää kun ei viime jaksossa saatu matkustelusta tarpeeksi, tällä kertaa käytiin myös Creationin ulkopuolella ja 'morjestettiin' Chejop Kejak:iakin nopeasti ennen kuin vipellettiin karkuun. Episodin aikana saatiin viimeinkin selvyys Sinjen luonteesta ja Misty tapaa vanhoja tuttavia.
There and Back Again: 25th of Descending Earth - 15th of Ascending Wood, RY 769
The Naval Battle of the Western Sea
Season of Descending Earth
Silk Cuts' charms took us trough the storm front without further harm, into the eye of the storm, a play of words that the Ash Mantis didn't miss as he asked Eye of the Storm how he felt on being in the eye of the storm. Once we were in the calm waters of the eye, rest of the crew had short moment to come to grips with one of their own becoming something far greater than any of them could have dreamed, their rest was short lived as Silk Cuts started to bark orders to check the riggings and so the life went on again, changed yes, but the illusion of normality returned.
While the crew was making sure that the short while we spend in the storm before Silks exaltation didn't do any major damage to our ship, she climbed into crow's nest and soon afterwards we heard her shouting; 'Ships ahoy.' There were seven ships on the far side of the eye, none of them bearing flag of any local island nation and all of them armed.
For a short moment there was flurry of action on the deck while the Solars figured out what to do next, prevalent plan was to shoot them with our implosion bow before they could approach within range of their own weapons since they'd naturally be hostile towards us. They'd be right on their assumption too, once we shot them and most likely sunk one of their ships, they'd certainly be hostile afterwards. Before they could set their plan in motion though, lone ship separated from the fleet and started making its way towards us with white flag held high, surprisingly enough, they wanted to talk with us rather than try to sink us straight away.
According the ambassador, there was naval exercise in progress in the area and we should vacate the area, never mind the little hurricane out there, this is perfect spot for naval exercise. His talks didn't rebuff the Exultant Falcon who immediately claimed that he was searching for entity called Mokrelius and that he had reason to believe that the nearby island would hold the key to his search. The ambassador was quite reluctant on allowing us to explore the island but quick glance around the deck, one celestial exalted manning implosion bow at the bow and at least one terrestrial exalted in heavy armour standing next to helm, flat out denial of Exultant Falcons request would most likely turn out badly.
Expecting double-cross, we kept our distance to the fleet while navigating into one of the shallow bays where the ship would be protected from worst of winds should the storm move and, as we unfortunately found out, should the ship sink, it would hit the bottom before being completely submerged. For a change it wouldn't hurt to be wrong on our suspicions but once again they proved to be warranted, we hadn't made it far inland before sounds of battle echoed from behind, the battle being over by the time we made it back to our ship. Three ships had closed up into combat range, one of them sunk before being able to fire but two others did reach firing distance of their ballista, badly damaging our ship that was now taking on water and would have sunk completely had it been in deeper water. Rest of the enemy fleet kept their distance or more precisely, tried to get away as fast as they could, especially since Ebon Feather sunk both of the remaining ships that attacked us.
Besides having the ship shore up rather than sinking, we were lucky that the island had lots of trees to provide wood for repairs and that the damage wasn't as bad as we had first feared. With hard work the ship could be repaired with tools we had and with Silk Cuts' charms we should also get trough the storm without too much of troubles, provided of course that she could figure out what exactly she had done in the first place. During the days that crew spend repairing the ship, we explored the island for glues but our success wasn't worth of mentioning, only one who found anything of value was Ebon Feather who was the first to explore ruins of abandoned village; old book and sack full of jade. Once the ship was repaired and rechecked, we set sail once again.
The Sea of Cherry Blossoms, the Canal of Silver and Gold
Season of Ascending Wood
A great hurricane, such as the one we were in, looks quite different when one looks it from its eye than it looks from outside the storm, when you approach it from the outside the weather starts to turn worse and worse, while you know that it is a storm you are headed to its true strength is deceptively easy to miss. From its eye though, if one looks straight up, one can see the perfectly clear sky and if one looks around nearby the weather is nice and calm. But when one looks towards the horizon, all there is to see is a wall of wind, thunder and flying foam, there is no subtlety in the change nor any illusions of the strength of the storm, stern of the ship could still be within the calmness of the eye while the bow is being torn asunder by the raging winds and unless Silk Cuts could figure out how to repeat her actions, that'd be precisely what would happen to us.
Much to everyone's relief, Silk Cuts managed to figure out how to call her charms, except that this time, instead of creating small bubble of calmness amidst the storm, the entire ship rose from the ocean while petals from cherry trees appeared from nothing floating along the gentle wind, when we looked over the side of the ship, the entire ocean had turned into petals. Silk Cuts was just as surprised as everyone else was about this and said that she hadn't got a faintest idea just what exactly she had done, never mind where we'd end up or if she would even be able to get us back into Creation.
We sailed the sea of flowers for the next five days and for the first time in the past year and a half, I didn't watch Luna bask in her full glory but kept to myself under the deck. During those five days, the mystery of Sinje finally unravelled when Silk Cuts suddenly realized what she was and, unlike Exultant Falcon or Ebon Feather, didn't keep silent but said her discovery out loud while grapping first thing she saw that could be used as makeshift weapon. I knew that Sinje wasn't mortal or exalt so I had though her either as god-blooded or maybe a half-caste but her being Raksha was something that truthfully hadn't crossed my mind. The Unfettered Moon said that 'on some decisions that one makes, it is better to stay silent than to speak out,' this one fit his words all too snugly.
On the 5th day, a sudden jolt of our ship told us that we had reached our destination, wherever it might be. Once on deck, the surroundings confirmed that we most certainly weren't in Creation anymore, the air was sweeter, all colours brighter, all buildings around the city in which we had landed more pristine and on the streets, elementals, spirits, men made from living wood, all kinds of supernatural beings mingling along like mortals in cities of Creation. When we peered over the railing of our ship, we saw that we had landed into canal of purest silver and cold, their colours more akin to moonsilver and orichalcum than to mundane metals, with our ship neatly blocking the entire width of it, something that didn't take long to land us into troubles with the local population.
Thump from the stern of the ship was the beginning of our troubles, a small craft sailing along the golden partition of the canal had bumped on to our ship and its passenger was certainly not happy about having his travel interrupted in such manner. No sooner than the Exultant Falcon had managed to greet him and apologize for our sudden arrival, the person claimed that he was Chejop Kejak, on important business from Bureau of Destiny and that we should move our ship immediately if not sooner. The Exultant Falcon tried to explain how we had ended up in there and pointed out that Silk Cuts, who he dragged with him to show to the annoyed bureaucrat, had just exalted and didn't quite know how she brought us there but if he could just give us a little hand we'd be on our way and let him go on with his business.
By this time there was small crowd of beings gathering to watch the unscheduled play in their city but more ominous group was heading our way as well, twelve lions, each easily twice the size of mortal lion, made from what appeared to be pure orichalcum. As soon as he spotted them, Chejop Kejak ordered us to be arrested at which point Silk Cuts did her thing again, apparently she agreed with our silent though that no matter where we are, getting arrested would be a major, if not down right huge, bad thing and before the lions or whom ever that Chejop Kejak was could do anything to stop us, we were once again sailing the sea of flowers.
The City of Conspiracies and Retired Heroes: Azure
Season of Ascending Wood
Like the first time, we spend five days in the sea of flowers before splashing down into what seemed to be Creation once again, something I'm quite sure that everyone was feeling relieved about. Once the crew got their bearings and approximated our location, we found out that we weren't too far off from where we had left and that Azure would be our best bet to get our patchwork repairs replaced with permanent ones and to find out more about the mysterious fleet that attacked us.
Like on our previous visit, Sinje gathered her entourage and disappeared into general direction of the city's entertainment district. While the crew looked after the repairs, Aloin Readiflight said that he was going to retire from sailing, granted he was already past his prime years but hardly elder but I think his decision stemmed from the fact that he suddenly found himself amidst of demigods and even some of his crew ascended in front of his eyes. The Exultant Falcon weren't too pleased about hearing the news but didn't argue too much except that Aloin should wait until we had returned from the west and that he'd have free trip back east with us, offer that he happily accepted with notion that he'd buy two barrels of coconut rum and a sun chair to relax on the way, Eye of the Storm mentioned that he'd buy him a parasol as well, to make his pleasure cruise more pleasant.
While I headed towards the docks, Exultant Falcon headed to see if he could find out any information from the official records either about the three ships we sunk or any hints about their owners, this time the Eye of the Storm went with him, just in case there'd be more of ninja-assassins stalking about. The records appeared to be lost case for first, then Exultant Falcon noticed that there was some discrepancies among them, from the looks of it, there were number of ships that had been build, repaired or sold but any records of them had been removed carefully enough to fool casual inquiries. Scenting a conspiracy in work, Falcon pressed on and found out that only one with power to have the records altered was the governing body of the city, armed with this latest discovery, he pressed onwards with his investigations, determined to get his answers. I'm just waiting to know how many new enemies he'll make this time.
My own inquiries weren't too successful either when it came onto the matter of the fleet we encountered, only thing I managed to find out that one of the sunken ship had been constructed here in Azure and then sold to a private entrepreneur but no-one seemed to remember his name or what he looked like. On the other hand, I met discharged Nexus guard in one of the bubs while I was asking around about if anyone had heard anything about Derian Kirin or knew anyone who had served on his ship.
The ex-guard was claiming how he had been discharged since he was way too good for the Nexus guard, what really picked my interest though, was his claim how there had been group of anathemas loose and how they, or more precisely he himself, had put them back to their place. It was quite fun story though, I wonder how he had reacted had I worn the same face I wore the time he so valiantly put the evil anathema down for the size. But now that I know he's here in Azure boasting like he does, maybe I'll pay him a visit in the little hours of the night and remind him that there are things out there that are meaner than mortal and some of them might appear out of nowhere to whisper their displeasure.
Unexpected Reunions in the Far West
Season of Ascending Wood
By now, I've pretty much given up on acting surprised when someone comes up acting like we'd know each other from before since the Creation seems to take great pleasure dropping people I don't remember meeting onto my path, so when I heard a man calling 'Hey sister,' while I was having a drink in one of the bars, I just casually turned out to look who it was this time. He couldn't be more than twenty, southern by the tone of his skin, somehow familiar looking face and he appeared to be happy on noticing me so I raised my tankard as greeting towards him before he sat down to my table.
While I was busy sorting out fragments of my memory in attempt to figure out just whom I was talking with, he turned to call some old guy he had been sitting before to get over here to see whom he had found. Before he could turn around again, I figured that might as well take the leap and said, 'Ashen Cricket?' When he said 'yeps,' I jumped up and grabbed him into embrace, while he complained I'm ruining his image, I just held him for a while, I had just about thrown away any hopes of seeing him alive anymore. As for his complains about ruining his image, somehow I think there weren't a single guy in the bar that wouldn't have traded place with him in a heartbeat but each to his own.
The old guy pointed towards me and said to Cricket that 'See? I told you she'd make it.' While I didn't have a slightest glue on what they were talking about, the Ashen Cricket asked how did I survive after being thrown overboard, again something I didn't remember having happened, little white lie about drawing my second breath at that moment averted the issue for later time. After ordering another round of drinks for us, the Cricket commented about me having turned out into terrestrial exalted, calling me lucky bastard, while I sat there smiling, I couldn't help wondering how he'll react when he finds out that I'm no terrestrial but horrible anathema that'll destroy the entire creation.
We kept drinking and getting to know each other again, most of the time me asking pointed questions to learn more about the time I've completely forgotten and excusing caps my in memories as result of hectic times since my exaltation. When I mentioned about Derian Kirin, both of them grew gloomy for a moment before muttering that he was the one who threw me overboard, while they didn't know much about him after he had struck on his own, there was few useful bits for future. At one point during the evening, Ashen Cricket wanted me to show him the ship I arrived to here with so off we went, probably been funny sight for those who saw us wandering towards the docks. When we finally got to the Dance of Fate, most of the crew and from first look, most of the Solars as well had already called it a night but we caused enough noise to make sure that if there was someone sleeping before, they'd be up in no time. After quick round of introductions, the partying continued into wee hours of the night, Ashen Cricket passing out after boasting to his new best friend Ebon Feather that he could have his sister anytime, something he'll hear about later.
There are some nice perks on being exalted, one of them being the fact that hangovers are something that the mortals have to deal with and there was certain mortal who was going to have a good one once he woke up and woke up he did. He slept happily like a big baby the entire time I carried him up onto the deck, the whole time he was in the air but by the time his head appeared onto the surface again after his short flight, he was fully awake, barring his short panic, he didn't even remember his hangover until after getting back onto the shore. With the retirement of the Aloin Readiflight and Silk Cuts being promoted as the new captain, there was one vacant spot in the crew roster so when Ashen Cricket dropped few hints that he was looking for a place on any ships crew, the Exultant Falcon pointed towards me and said that if I'd be ok with hiring him, he'd have a job. Little he knows just what he have stuck his nose this time but unless he freaks out completely, it'll workout one way or the other.
Hiring Ashen Cricket did pose one problem though, seems that he had been keeping the old guy away from the creditors that were waiting, their small time games had been enough to keep interests from getting out of hand but did little to sort out the dept itself. Not too surprisingly, the largest of his creditors was the Guild to which he owned quite a deal of jade, I'm not exactly sure how one ends up with almost a full talent in dept but that was what the Guild wanted from him. In addition to the Guild, some local thugs and sorts wanted their share as well but their claims were almost trivial when compared onto what the Guild was after. On top of all that, while I was washing my face in the morning, crimson letters started to form onto the surface of water in my basin, forming a short message in river speak; "Denying your fate is futile. You will be mine, my dear Mithra." Though there were no signs of its sender, I think I have pretty good idea about whom it was, also meaning that my letter had made it trough to its recipient.
[size=6:097d3b3f00]1039[/size:097d3b3f00]
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
26. elokuuta 2006 kello 10.03
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Nimlas Dagorewen
26. elokuuta 2006 kello 10.03
linkki
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Näin ne asiat vain unohtuvat, nyt kuitenkin kun olisi taas aika aloittaa syksyllä kampanja uusintana niin voisikin laittaa lisää typojen kasaumia näkyviin. (Kielipoliiseille ennakkovaroituksena että typojen määrä ei ole vähentynyt.) Sitten itse asiaan eli tarinan osat 11+
The Bad Night of the Heroic Guard from Far Away Nexus
Starless Night of the Ascending Wood
Even though there are no real, solid, connections to the Real in Azure and prospect of Wyld Hunt being organized from single sighting was slim at best, having mortal running around claiming how he alone handled group of horrifying anathemas, especially since he was talking about us, couldn't be left uncheck indefinitely. Sooner or later, with the rotten luck of ours, it'd catch wind and spread into ears of someone who either would act on the claims or worse, to one of the Silver Pact who'd think that I couldn't keep one mortal in check so I paid a little visit to our great hero when he had retired to his small room for good night of sleep.
Sneaking into his bedroom, I sat next to him onto his bed and woke him up with a light poke between his ribs, my hunch of his first reaction proved correct by his muffled screaming the second he woke up and saw me, that scream would probably have woken up the entire neighbourhood if I hadn't been ready to muffle it with my hand, at the same instant I started to regret having taken my war form for the visit, especially the keener sense of smell since our hero proceeded to soil himself. "That's not very fitting for one as heroic as you," I chastised him while wrinkling my muzzle, "screaming and soiling oneself like little baby." Once he had stopped his attempts to scream I took my hand away from his mouth so he could answer to me but all he did was lay there, shivering.
"The little birds told me that you have been rather talkative lately," I began while standing up, "they tell that there was someone here who, what was the phrase he used, ah yes, bitch slapped the anathemas back into their places." Judging from the panicked look in his eyes, he probably was expecting me to rake his guts onto the walls next. "Granted it makes a nice story to tell around in bars and gives great boost to your ego but I trust you can see how it looks from my point of view?" He muttered something remotely similar to agreeing though it wasn't louder than mere whisper under his breath. "I try to be kind towards you mortals, I don't run around tearing them apart just to spill their guts or most of the other things people claim us to do and then mortals such as you start going around telling how you put me to my place, it's not very nice now is it?"
With him shaking his head frantically I continued, "Now sooner or later some poor soul is going to think that you are telling the truth and that I was, like you said, bitch slapped to my place, tries to do the same on next celestial they see and that'd turn out rather badly. Or," I paused for a moment and extended my claws to drive the point for him, "someone, like those either of those two others you put to their places, with much less understanding than me will take notice of you running around and decide to pay you a visit as well or I'll be forced to make an example just what will happen to mortal who doesn't know better. I'd rather not do that but I do have a reputation that I must look after, I'm sure you understand that?"
"So here's what we're going to do," I told him, clasping my hands together. "You will be so kind that you'll stop running around spreading this little story of yours and in return I don't have to come to explain all this for you again, wouldn't this be suitable solution?" The guard probably couldn't believe he was going to live trough this night but frantic nodding pointed towards that at least something had gone trough his thick skull. "Good," I said with wide smile, not sure if he saw it that way since it showed quite a few of my moonsilver teeth but it's the thought that counts. "Now then, unless there is anything else you wish to talk, I'll let you go back to your sleep and go back on taking care of my businesses." Not too surprisingly, he didn't have anything else to talk about so I gave him light pad on his sweaty forehead before disappearing into the night.
The Makings of the Coup in Azure
Season of Ascending Wood
Few days later the Exultant Falcon shared his findings with rest of us, he was certain that the current leader of Azure was in fact one of Mokrelius' lackeys and went on to conclude that, for long run, it would be better if we would orchestrate change in power. During his investigation he also found two most likely successors for the current leader in the event of his unfortunate passing, one was captain of small fleet while other was land bound ship owner. Exultant Falcons first plan was to persuade one into his side but the plan was put aside since we couldn't be certain if they too had been already bought and if we could buy their support easily it'd mean that someone else could do the same as well so new plan was formed.
After more searching, we came up with a name for person, Danya the Nomad, who had all the basic requirements for becoming new leader but didn't have the support and had so far been on the sidetrack of the political game. She did have couple major flaws, most severe of them being that she was a woman and, in contradiction to western traditions, had had the audacity to spend some time as a sailor. Those two points left her without the backing she'd need to truly challenge any of the standing candidates and that would be where we come into the picture once we figured out plausible way to do it without making our part too apparent.
The Games of Power in the City of Gods
Season of Ascending Wood
Unexpected visitor who wanted to see the Exultant Falcon, claiming that she could assist him on dealing with Mokrelius, disrupted our planning. She introduced herself as Blind Orchid and from judging from her old, shivered form, it was hard to believe that she could be any use at all on tracking down the Mokrelius but looks can be deceiving, even more so when dealing with supernatural beings. She explained that there was a case underway against the backers of Mokrelius in Yu-Shan, with our testimony on their side, she was certain that the case would go trough and without his supporter in Yu-Shan, Mokrelius wouldn't be able to pose significant opposition to us anymore. Once the Exultant Falcon had hammered out details of what was expected from us, the Blind Orchid opened portal directly to the gates of Yu-Shan. Once in Yu-Shan, she invited us to stay in the mansion of her benefactor for the duration of our visit.
Our part was supposed to be simple and without difficulties, just appear in front of the magistrate and tell them what we had seen in Creation and how Mokrelius had interfered out lives on multiple occasions. At least, that was the script our host had prepared, unfortunately it didn't last any further than first sight of the defendant and his solicitor, the Shadowy Rose who was quite surprised to see us there, just as we were surprised to see her. Seeing her confirmed our suspicion that we were indeed being manipulated into age old game of position, prestige and power, only this time it was between two gods rather than two mortals, one with higher position being the accused with crime of interfering with the Creation in order to make room for our host to rise in rank. Blind Orchid presented number of indirect evidence that supported her case but there were no solid evidence to present for the magistrate who listened trough her tirade and thing informed that he'd take a week to deliberate the matter and then hear our testimonies.
The Shadowy Rose contacted us little later and set up a secret meeting in one of the quieter parts of the celestial city where she wanted to know just why we were helping in a case against one of the most important supporters of the Cult. We explained her how the Blind Orchid had approached us with her offer to help us deal with Mokrelius in return of our testimony, also that while we wouldn't mind to see their case being dismissed, now that we had been declared as witnesses in the hearing we couldn't just walk away. The Shadowy Rose proposed that instead of giving out our change of heart, we could help her to find evidence that would let the magistrate rule the case in their favour and that if the benefactor of the Blind Orchid would hear about our search, the Cult had secret training camp even in the celestial city from where we could seek refuge should thing go badly.
With only week to look for the evidence we needed and us being unaccustomed to workings of the Yu-Shan, we figured out that our best bet would be to seek out Mokrelius in Creation and get the answers we needed directly from him. The Shadowy Rose explained that she or her people couldn't track him with their magic since he was out side of destiny so we would be on our own, we reminded her that even if Mokrelius himself was outside of destiny, what about his ships and followers, being mortals and mundane ships they'd sure to be within the web of destiny, apparently thought that hadn't occurred to her but she promised to look into the matter. The Blind Orchid wanted to know where we had been during our meeting with Shadowy Rose but she accepted our story of sightseeing and that if she had nothing against it, we'd rather wait down in Creation for the summon to testify for the magistrate since we had business to tend to. Just before we left Yu-Shan, we received information from Shadowy Rose that would lead us to the hideout of Mokrelius.
Case of Mokrelius versus Exultant Falcon, Finally Closed
Season of Ascending Wood
We set sail immediately once back in Creation, information Shadowy Rose provided to us indicated that the ships Mokrelius had sailed when he evaded us in the hurricane were docked on shore of nondescript island in middle of nowhere, little over day travel from Azure. When we sighted the island and the four remaining ships anchored there, it was decided that rather than give them enough time to set sail and more importantly to attempt to sink our ship again we would take out their masts with the implosion bow. Just when we saw last of the four ships being crippled, a huge boulder crashed onto our ships side, luckily it didn't hit near waterline so leak it caused weren't going to sink the ship but as second boulder sailed past us, we decided to further away from the island rather than risk being hit again. While the crew did what they could to the leak, we made plan to infiltrate the island after the sun had set.
Our approach on the island went unnoticed by its inhabitants, our luck holding until we had ascended the hill at the middle of the island, huge boulder like the one that had struck our ship landed near Exultant Falcon and booming voice demanded to know who had caused the noise in the night. The Exultant Falcon stepped out into plain sight while rest of us snuck closer and prepared to the almost inevitable fight ahead that didn't take long to arrive. After short talk with Falcon, Mokrelius wanted to know if the past events would prevent Falcon and him from tolerating each other or making deals to which Falcon said sure they could, Mokrelius saw straight trough his ruse and the fight was on. While his thick hide deflected most of our strikes, we managed to make small cut here, another there, effectively bleeding him to death and not a moment too soon since he was chanting words of power the whole time. Regardless of being hit, his concentration held right up until the killing blow landed at which point essence he had gathered for his spell went of like a star in middle of night.
After the battle had ended, we saw bluish flash of essence on the far shore of the island, the tell tale sign on sorcery which the Exultant Falcon recognized as spell Travel Without Distance. The Ebon Feather flew towards our ship immediately to make certain that who ever the sorcerer was, he or she wouldn't have time to recover from the spell and take over our ship. It took rest of the night from us to go trough the site where Mokrelius was building his base of power and to round up the remnants of the cult that had been worshipping him as god, the cultists we set free to do what ever they wanted and took head of Mokrelius with us as proof of his demise.
The Unexpected Testimony Before the Magistrate of the Yu-Shan
Season of Ascending Wood
We barely had enough time to reach Azure again before Blind Orchid appeared again to escort us to Yu-Shan, she had high hopes on the case and with our testimony it should be as good as won. Her face fell when the Exultant Falcon made his speech, going trough what he and Mokrelius had talked about on the island, making special note to mention that Mokrelius claimed that he had no help from Yu-Shan at all and all his actions were his alone. In addition to that, Exultant Falcon displayed the head of Mokrelius, explaining that we had taken care of the incursion into matters of Creation as the celestial mandate empowered us to. Our testimony shocked the Blind Orchid and when it came for her to deliver her speech, all she could do was to stammer trough her notes in no real order so it really wasn't much of a surprise when the magistrate summarily threw the case out.
Needless to say, the Blind Orchid was anything but happy with our testimony, especially since in effect, we had destroyed any hope she had had for winning with our sudden change of hearth. On her way out, she stopped next to me to whisper with venomous tone that the Silver Pact would be sure to hear about this, my assurance that they would indeed hear about it only increased her annoyance. The Shadowy Rose came to talk with us once we were outside, she looked rather ragged and tired, first saying that even though the god she defended didn't come to thank us, he was quite thankful for our help. Her next news weren't so good, the Mask of Winters had started his campaign against his neighbours and his army was driving south as we spoke. The Exultant Falcon was just about to comment the Mask of Winters desire to have me on his side but he took the hint from my glare and bit his tongue on the subject, the very last thing I want is for the Sidereals or anyone else for that matter to get knowledge about the matter, being pawn in their games is bad enough, being turned into hostage or sacrificial lamb it something completely different.
Danya the Nomads' Rise to Power in Azure
Season of Ascending Wood
When we arrived back into Creation, we found Azure in chaos. The old head of the leading body had vanished two days ago without a trace and the rumours were flying. For us, this worked out better than we would had dreamed about if the matter had occurred to us, which it hadn't but with opportunity such as this we were quick to seize it. We set up meeting with Danya and explained our version of what had taken place during the past week to her, it was blunt without much of finesse often seen in coups, which what we were planning was, but in this case it was more of a strength than weakness.
Since she had been sitting on the sidetracks of the political game in Azure, Danya had spotted how Mokrelius infiltrated into top chair of the city and quietly worked to track down this abomination back to its lair in middle of ocean in order to avoid causing panic in the city. Once she knew exactly where Mokrelius kept his lair, she bid her time, keeping close watch on his movements while waiting for the Outcastes she had secretly contacted to arrive and slay the demon. That happened few days ago, on the moment when the demon was slain, puppet it used to control the Azure faded away with it, which explains why there were no sightings of the old head of state.
Danya was little sceptical on the plan, we were practically handing the entire city to her on silver plate without any immediate benefits to ourselves but then she thought about the matter for a moment and chose not to look the gift horse into its mouth too carefully. In order for the story to really take root, she arranged small semi-secret gathering for all the important people on the preference that she didn't wish to alert the general population about the near disaster that had passed and she brought two of the heroic terrestrials, namely Ash Mantis and me, with her to tell what had happened in detail for the curious. They say that the children of the changing moon have honeyed tongues and, had anyone known about it, the story of the demons death and part Danya played in it was testimony for that. By the time the meeting was over, probably only thing that could stop Danya from becoming the next leader of Azure was her ending up dead. With the new matron safely on her way towards the top chair of Azure, we wished her all good things before boarding our ship and setting our sails towards the war torn east.
The Long Sail Towards the Growing Storm
Three Seasons of Wood
Once we were out in the open sea again, it was time to start preparing the Ashen Cricket into inevitable moment when he would find out that he is surrounded by celestial exalts and that I weren't terrestrial like I appeared to be. During our casual talks I dropped subtle hints here and there, asked pointed question or made casual remark about matters that dealt with supernatural. As I half expected, his knowledge was mostly based on folklore and other random sources. When I asked what he though about the anathema telling him that we had met few of them on our travels and chances were that we'd meet more, his opinion was that they were made up by the Dragonblooded in order to consolidate their power with conveniently demonized villains that could be blamed for what ever went wrong. He grew worried that I had joined some religious group when I assured him that the anathema, or celestial exalts to be exact, were quite real and it was something he shouldn't just pass with shrug.
The Ashen Cricket in turn wanted to know when I'd find a decent farm and a husband, claiming that my stocks would start to go down once I've turned thirty and start to get wrinkles. While carving up my own territory from suitable location is something I'm planning on doing, the whole husband thing could wait for later time when I could take the time for it. He kept probing the subject until I reminded him with the same example I had told him in Azure except pointing out that now that Silk Cuts weren't among the crew anymore, the numbers only got better, at which point he decided that he really didn't want to hear the details again, that and he remembered that thirty years meant very little when I could live for few centuries, or millennia's.
Another thing that he wanted to know was why I hadn't taken the leadership over the Exultant Falcon, who he thought to be just another mortal, since the exalted were supposedly meant to be leaders of people, I explained that there were few reasons for it. First and foremost reason being that I didn't see need for going for the leadership of our small group since the trading which the Exultant Falcon was quite keen on doing in every port didn't interest me, secondly it let me to do what I need to do rather than having to tend to keeping things running. The Ashen Cricket said that he would valiantly sacrifice himself to manage the Exultant Falcons property if we'd toss him overboard and took over the ship, his display of disappointment was quite well played when I turned him down since it would make it rather hard for me to finish what must be done and even harder to keep my word to my mentor.
One night I asked him about the Abyssals and their ilk, only to receive the same doll eyed stare I got from him when I told him about celestial exalts, I could almost see my words gliding in from one ear and out from the other but this night he would listen what I had to tell rather than day dream. I glared him for a moment, then said that I'd be back in a few moments and went to get the Soulsteel bow that the Abyssal sorceress had used, tossing it to his lap I told him that unless he wanted to end up as one of the poor souls used to make the bow or any other equipment the Abyssals use, be it one of their zombies or ghosts, he'd better start taking the matter more seriously. His paling face indicated that now it had gone trough to him and I got his attention now, he examined the bow for few moments before giving it back and claimed that in his opinion, I had gotten mixed up in matters far too big for me.
I toyed with the bow as I told the Cricket what had happened in the past year and a half, that during that time I had visited the Yu-Shan thrice, the underworld twice, had dinner with God and one of the Deathlords, danced in their gala, met four Abyssal exalts, over a dozen celestials and few Dragonblooded. One of the downsides of exaltation is that, whether you want or not, your bound to become mixed into matters of supernatural beings. Once he heard my explanation how things worked, his first complain was that no-one had mentioned anything about getting involved into such matters when he was hired, not that he'd believe any of it had we tried to explain it to him.
About three weeks since we left Azure, the Ashen Cricket started to sound like he'd be ready for the next great discovery so I asked him to join me again once his shift was over. I started by saying that I'm sorry for deceiving him for the past few weeks, that regardless how I look I'm not really a Dragonblooded but just act as one since it makes dealing with people less problematic. He said that he had always suspected that the jade armour I wore from time to time was just a fake and that I was quite good with makeup to make believable disguise like that, not to mention mad enough to do it public. With a faint smile I asked if he wanted to know why I was so certain that the celestial exalts are more than just a fairytale, he just nodded and promptly fainted as I called out my anima into blazing corona around me, telling him that I know they exist because I am one.
When he came to, Cricket wanted to know how it had happened and if our mother had been running around since as far as he knew, there were no celestials in our bloodline. It took little while to explain him how celestial exalts differed from the terrestrials and how the exaltation happens for us, he also slipped that he had indeed been listening the Realm talking about the anathemas since he asked are we like they portrait us to be. Another thing he kept mixing up was the beastmen and Lunars, thinking that they are one and the same but with little explanation he started to see the difference between the two. All in all, he took the revelation rather well except that he's now suspecting that rest of the crew aren't what they appear to be, though I assured him that the rest of the crew are mortals just like he is, never the less, I kept close eye on him for the following days, it's a wonder where the tiny mouse can hide to when it wishes to remain unseen.
Battle of the Harborhead and the Fallen Fortress
Season of Descending Wood
We arrived near the coastline of the Harborhead around the middle of the season of Descending Wood, the signs of war coming more apparent when we saw the coasts, it was decided that rather than dock and risk being boarded we would go on land good distance from nearest port and continue by foot or in this case, by magic. Our first destination was the Fortress of Red Ice, in case it were still standing but when we arrived there, all that was left was small pieces of red ice slowly melting in the cool mountain air. While rest of us surveyed the battlefield, curiosity got better of Sinje who wanted to taste what the red ice tasted like and found out that its crimson colour matched with its taste of blood. Besides of broken machines of war, there was nothing else of note in sight, one thing had changed since our last visit though. The pull in my heart was pointing south instead of north like it had done last time we were at this spot and Falcon agreed that since we're here, we might as well follow it to it's source.
After short flight we passed trough first line of rearguards, their arrows harmlessly consumed by the raging winds and cast aside. Since it'd be only mater of time before we'd come up against sorcerer who could rip apart Falcons spell, he turned around and started skimming along the edges of the army, finally coming to a halt on top of nearby hills from where we could see the entire battle raging in the low lands. We watched as the masses of undead advanced towards city, in the forefront of their charge was two circles of Abyssal exalts who made bloody path into the ranks of the mortal defenders though their side wasn't just mortals either. We could see the elemental banners of the group of terrestrial exalts blazing among the defenders, there was also the golden blaze of the Solar exalts and not least, there was Athlat, the southern god of war who stood with the defenders.
Regardless, the dead pressed on and in the end the defenders had to choose either to retreat or be cut down where they stood. My attention was held something else than the raging battle, behind the lines loomed the towering form of a behemoth, a creature so huge that entire castle had been build on its dead, decomposing, back. It was not the creature or the castle on its back that drew me, with ever growing sense of dread I begun to understand just what the words in the water basin had meant, somewhere in that castle stood the Mask of Winters and unless the spiral come to stop, there might be night when I would be standing there, watching as the creation die all around me. We stayed there until the city fell, then headed back towards the ship and headed further east, past the fortified city of Lookshy, the Nexus and finally reached the Great Forks.
The Rumbling Sound of the Approaching Tide
Between the Seasons of Descending Wood and Ascending Water
In a way, it's funny how much your world can change in matter of weeks and how the small signs gather until its too late to do anything. Before the creation had its flaws and cracks but you could see them coming and more or less prepare for them, but when the tide of times begins to turn, there is no time to prepare, no time to plan and thus, it begins.
We were passing the Nexus when I parted the Solars for few days to check if there were messages at the signpost I had nearby and granted there were, the Undefeated Raven wanted to meet as soon as he could. The message was old though so I doubted he'd still be waiting at the location mentioned in the note but he was there, looking as glum as he always does. His news were bad, they could've been worse but not by much. He had a new master, one called the Mask of Winters and what ever he commanded, the Undefeated Raven would be forced to do so he had been waiting here for the past two months, always on the lookout for the messenger bearing the orders so they could be dispatched before they had change to deliver the orders. The Undefeated Raven wanted to say farewell once again, though this time there was good change of his words becoming a reality. There was a silent click as again one door closed, when he stood up the choice that I had been dreading to make was made by the tide of time. I doubt that no one in the inn heard our last words to each other and even if they could have heard, they'd never know the meaning of those two little words we both said; "I'm sorry."
[size=4:a52c58c628]4746[/size:a52c58c628]
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
26. elokuuta 2006 kello 10.04
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Nimlas Dagorewen
26. elokuuta 2006 kello 10.04
linkki
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Ja tarinat jatkuvat, osa 13:
Next leaf in the stream proved to be the Ebon Feather who finally lost his mind, he had been acting strange ever since he found the ancient book from the island where Mokrelius had apparently been captured. We were in the Great Fork's harbour when he made his appearance, dressed up into foreboding cloak and acting smug, the Ebon Feather declared his plan of summoning one of the Ebon Dragons souls, a third circle demon, with the help of his new found friends and since we were his old friends he wanted to invite us into his side of the upcoming war against the Mask of Winters. Not too surprisingly, none of us were exactly happy to hear his plan and while we gave the appearance of thinking his offer, Storm tried to get grip of him only to find out that the Ebon Feather standing in front of us was actually just an illusion. Laughing he called us fools for not taking on his offer, berating us he continued to show a piece of metal which he claimed to be from the Invisible Fortress and said that with it he'd be able to build whole army of automatons like the ones in the Fortress. The Exultant Falcon managed to talk him into agreeing to meet us though, he would be waiting for us in a clearing someway out of the Great Fork where we could discuss about his plan and how we might help him. In hindsight, at times I do hate to be right.
Meeting with the Ebon Feather went slightly better than we had hoped for, again something we'd regret later but for the time being he seemed to have come to his senses. He claimed that he had been doing a greatest mistake of his life but after talking with Sinje he had seen the error in his plan and now pleaded our help against Mokrelius who supposedly weren't dead as we had thought but had only retreated to another hidden base in the deserts of the South. Acting as gullible as always, we took his bait and didn't end the matter there but listened his explanation of what had happened, how he had infiltrated Mokrelius base but on his way out he had to leave most of his possessions, including the damned book, behind and just as he were getting away, he had been struck by some kind of magic that prevented him from channelling any essence what so ever.
The Dispersing Pack and the Falling Night
Quiet Night of the Season of the Ascending Fire
In between all that went on while our short stay in the Great Forks, I managed to make time to meet with my mentor who happened, though I'm starting to question if it was mere coincidence, to be near by. Often times he has told me bad news but never has his news been like the ones he brought now, never have his stories bode such darkness, not just for him or me but for the whole Silver Pack as whole. The Unfettered Moon listened what I had to tell from our travels, the Cult of the Illuminated taking his interest and the following night he told me something that no one had ever told before, the great secret that should and would stay secret that only the children of Luna would know until it would finally fade into the forgotten past where it belonged. When he stopped talking in the early hours of the morning, the betrayal was looking straight at me, it was no surprise that the elders didn't talk about it and actively discouraged anyone else from telling the tale from the last days of the first age.
He wasn't surprised when I told him about the Heaven's Moonsilver request to help her in the rise against the elders, telling what had happened between her and Raksi, the unfortunate visit she had had with the elder. What did surprise me was his comment that if we would decide to act with her, we would find more support than what we would expect and that, in essence, the Silver Pack was gearing towards war, not against the Realm or her vassals, not against the fair folk but against our brothers and sisters, the lines were being drawn in coming of a battle against the elders themselves. The two factions were stringing out for the younger Lunars to join into their ranks and among his carefully placed words; the Unfettered Moon probed my position within the undecided young ones. Though neither of us said it directly, both of our positions among the quickly diving pack came obvious to both of us, what I personally fear is that when the bloodshed ends, there is no more Silver Pack, no new Lunars are taught who and what they are, the No Moons aren't there to draw the moonsilver tattoos and one night, only the scattered tales will tell of the children's of Luna who once were.
His bad news weren't over just yet though, he had one more thing to tell me that I most certainly didn't wish to learn, much less to know to be true. He listened my recap from the battle between forces of the Mask of Winters and Athlat; paying more attention onto the thing I felt when we circled the behemoth and when he finally spoke, the Unfettered Moon told what the tug in my heart meant. Somewhere in the past, during the first age, Mithra and Larquen Quen had stood before both Zenith and Waxing Moon, both giving their solemn pledge in their prayer to the Unconquered Sun and Luna; thus joining part of their celestial shards together with bonds that would follow them trough their reincarnation. Those who had forged such bond would forever know each others location, no matter where in creation they were with just a simple though and nothing short of direct intervention from both Unconquered Sun and Luna themselves would ever break it. Although he merely confirmed what I had feared ever since we watched the battle, it brought another question that needed to be answered; why did the Eye of the Storm have the memories he has?
Before we parted again, he had one more thing to tell me concerning the Exultant Falcon. The Unfettered Moon wanted to know how he was coming along, saying that the sand was running out and in no distant future, two years by the most, he would stand to be judged. It was a question that I dreaded to answer but once he heard my answer, the Unfettered Moon just nodded, saying that it was more important than I thought to be that the Exultant Falcon would be ready in time. He would have asked the Ebon Feather to aid me since he had apparently lost the little sense he had and he didn't know the Heaven's Moonsilver well enough to trust her with the work, it would be up to me and those who I would find to help myself to get him ready to face what was coming. With the way things are going, I most certainly hope that the Exultant Falcon will be ready when the time comes, whether he likes it or not; which I doubt but he'll be ready one way or the other.
Signs of Betrayal and the Mount Metagalapa
Season of the Ascending Fire
The Ebon Feather told us about the secret lair hidden among the volcanoes in the south and promised to lead us to it, while we were riding on the Exultant Falcons Stormwind Rider towards it, his story starting to fall apart more and more as we kept heading towards the alleged hideout of the still living Mokrelius. On our third day the story was leaking so badly that we started to press him for the truth about the matters, why his Tell weren't as it used to be, why he couldn't show his anima, just why was it so important that we followed him into south. The Ebon Feather squirmed to dodge our questions but now that the cat was out of the bag, there were no way for him to get it back into there. Finally the Exultant Falcon examined him with aid of the All Encompassing Sorcerers Sight which proved our suspicions to be true, he weren't even a living being but merely cleverly crafted automaton designed to keep us busy in the south while the real Ebon Feather could act his plan in the north. Once the ruse was revealed, we threw the construct down into one of the volcanoes and headed back north to find out just why he wanted us away.
To our surprise, there were no direct signs of Ebon Feather having done anything when we arrived back to Great Forks, though when Exultant Falcon went trough the ship more thoroughly he found that Ebon Feather hadn't left empty handed; with him, two bars of orichalcum turned out to be missing. Next couple days were quiet until rumours started to arrive from the northeast, somewhat worrying rumour to say the least, the entire Mount Metagalapa was missing. While rest of us continued on with our business in the city, the Exultant Falcon took off on his magical wind and sped towards northeast to see what was the truth on the rumours. When he returned, the Exultant Falcon confirmed that the mountain had indeed disappeared but he thought that he could follow the telltale trail of essence leading westwards from the spot where the great floating mountain once were.
We trailed the trail of essence until we could see the mountain looming ahead, pillar of smoke billowing from the volcano that had awoken, there were once stood city now all we could see was masses of demons. When we drew closer, the great artefacts that pushed the mountain forward stood out from its side, each glowing with a great blue flame of essence. It was a chilling moment when we recognised the horde of demons teaming in the ruins of the city on top of the mountain, they weren't just any demons but the very same that had been guarding the Invisible Fortress. Somehow the Ebon Feather and whom ever he was working with had managed to bring all those demons out here, meaning that the secret location of the fortress had also been revealed. If the five thousand something demons loose or under control of some unknown entity weren't bad enough, group of six demons leaped into the air from the city above, circling us for sometime before one of them, a second circle demon which we had seen in Nexus, approached us and said that it was our lucky day; he and his fellow demons had been ordered to kill anyone who approaches except the old friends of the Ebon Feather whom the new master of the Mount Metagalapa wished to invite as his quests.
The Solar Way of Creating Allegiances
Season of the Ascending Fire
After we accepted the invitation, the demons escorted us up to what once was lively city, now all that stood in sight were demons or demon blooded creatures, there were no signs of any human who once lived there. Our escort guided us towards one of the greatest buildings still standing and into grand hall where we met the new master of the mountain, man clad into a super-heavy armour sat on throne with orichalcum gore-maul next to him, the Ebon Feather stood behind him wearing the same outfit we had seen him in on the docks of the Great Forks except for the orichalcum jewellery he wore. The man introduced himself as Iron Lotus, welcoming his brothers of faith into his house; which meant that he too was member of the Cult of the Illuminated just like the Exultant Falcon and the Eye of the Storm were.
The Iron Lotus looked towards Ebon Feather who left towards the back of the hall before turning to ask if we'd like to stay for dinner and apologised that he had to ask Ebon Feather to see for the food being prepared correctly, his demon servants didn't understand how to make proper food nor did they have eye for proper aesthetics. We waited in middle of strained silence until group of automatons appeared carrying tables and chairs which they set up while we watched, little later another group arrived with trays of food, the Ebon Feather in their tow. He seemed strangely quiet for the whole meal and the Exultant Falcon examined him more keenly though he made certain that his observation seemed quite innocent and he didn't speak of his finding until we were well away from Iron Lotuses house.
During the meal, which while tasty was anything but pleasant, the Iron Lotus explained his plan of striking against the Hundred Kingdoms, a patched area where, like its name suggests, are literally hundreds of small city states and kingdoms, each constantly at war against their neighbours. Judging from what I've heard about the Hundred Kingdoms, his plan would have quite good chances of succeeding, there would be no coordinated effort to repel his forces since every petty leader wouldn't dream on allowing anyone else to send their troops into their grounds and single city state would have no changes at all against second circle magic and the horde of demons. Although, I doubt that there will even be many true battles since most, not all but most, will recognise the futility of their situation quickly enough and bow to Iron Lotus. His only immediate threat is Lookshy and for good reason, besides of the Realm, Lookshy is the only known power that still has weapons from the first age and the will necessary to bring them to bear should threat such as Iron Lotus rise.
Threat from Lookshy was why he was planning on actually summoning the soul of the Ebon Dragon into creation, it would be his trump card against them but it was still almost two whole seasons into Calibration, should Lookshy strike with their first age weapons before he could summon the third circle demon, Iron Lotuses dream of conquest would end right there and then. On the other hand, if Lookshy would stay lucid until Calibration and Iron Lotus had enough time to complete the summoning, the result would probably still be the same except that cost of the war would be incomprehensible. The Exultant Falcon inquired if the Iron Lotus acted with backing of the Cult to which he only replied that he and the Cult had an understanding, which could practically mean anything.
Quite frankly, I don't understand why the Iron Lotus told us his plans, especially when it'd take nearly two months before his army would reach the Hundred Kingdoms, either he is completely naïve or he wants something. Those two months would give us plenty of time to inform Lookshy from the new power within the Scavenger Lands or do any number of other things to throw sticks into his plan, only thing he asked was that we wouldn't interfere with his plans. After few more pleasantries, we bid our farewells to him and Ebon Feather whose last words to Sinje were that he was sorry but his destiny was on Iron Lotuses side. I wish I could make up my mind about the Iron Lotus but the little he spoke during our visit left me with rather low impression of him, something that I had to reassess after the Exultant Falcon told us his findings, after hearing what he had to say, I would love seeing his petty reign come to the end as painfully as possible. Even though I don't really care what happens to Ebon Feather, enslaving Lunas children is something that just doesn't happen and go uncheck.
Towards the Invisible Fortress and Search for the Lost Trinket
Season of the Ascending Fire
When we returned to the Great Forks, the Exultant Falcon set of to make sure that when the Iron Lotuses army would strike at the Hundred Kingdoms, he would reap the benefits from disrupted trade it would cause in order to make up for the losses his last caravan to west had suffered. It is ironic that he himself caused that caravan to fail, when we dealt with Mokrelius, the coming strife died with him and since there was no war, there was no burning need for his shipment of weapons. I wonder if he's taking any precautions for similar thing happening this time. While he was busy with trading, I walked into the embassy of Lookshy to casually mention about the anathema who's planning on going into war that would also include Lookshy but from the look of the speed things move in there, I honestly doubt that anyone will notice the matter until well after the war has started at which point it will be conveniently lost to keep the appearance that there were no prior knowledge about the matter.
The Exultant Falcon gave his apprentice his instructions how to deal with the everyday matter while we would be gone, double checking that the Diligent Grasshopper had same idea on things that he had. After getting far enough from the Great Forks that we couldn't be seen anymore, Falcon summoned the Stormwind Rider that was quickly becoming the normal way of travelling for us, while somewhat cramped for the Solars, I spend the trip curled up as a snake and just dozed until we arrived to our destination. There was some good in the fact that Iron Lotus had taken the demons from the wastes surrounding the Invisible Fortress, namely that with the demons gone, we could already see the grass starting to grow into what used to be lifeless wasteland. It was clear that the fortress had been looted while we were busy chasing ghosts in the south, the stone wall that we had conjured to keep the demons away from the manse had been smashed and the inside of the manse looted from what ever we had left there.
While the Exultant Falcon examined the manse to find the small change that had happened in the flow of essence that had shattered the previous hearthstone, the Eye of the Storm searched the rooms with maze build into them more thoroughly, Sinje's favourite pastime with the talking showcases was ruined as they laid broken all over the room but she and Ash busied themselves with something. As for myself, my time trickled into shaping the stone barrier around the manse back into hills they had been after which I searched the manse once again. Even though we did go trough the manse on our previous visits, back then we didn't know what to look for, let alone from where and even with the knowledge on where to look for, it still took me better part of day to finally discover the hiding spot. Even after all these years, it was still in perfect shape and now that it was in my hands once again, I couldn't help but smile. By the time we were planning on leaving the manse, neither Exultant Falcon nor Eye of the Storm had found what they were after.
The House of the Bull
Season of the Resplendent Fire
Next stop on our trip to the north was to pay a visit to the best-known Solar in the north, the Bull of the North, the Exultant Falcon was planning on tipping him on the Iron Lotus as well, his circle would most likely be strong enough to handle both Iron Lotus and the demon army. For my shame, I hadn't noticed that the Exultant Falcon didn't know about the customs of the tribes and as such, hadn't explained him the proper way to act while taking advantage of the hospitality customs. Luckily his blunder wasn't as bad as it could have been, the Bull of the North laughed it off though for a moment his retinue didn't show all too pleased but they too joined him. His jovial mood faded for a short moment when he noticed my tattoos and markings of Luna, which I didn't keep hidden like I do while not among the barbarian tribes. He wanted to know the real reason why we had came to his house since he didn't believe that anyone who travels with Lunar would just happen to stop by and so the Exultant Falcon explained him about the troubles looming in the southeast. Even though the Bull didn't say anything about the matter, I have a hunch that if he weren't aware about the Iron Lotus, he would have one eye watching the horizon for signs.
During the feast in the evening, I took the moment to ask if either Bull of the North or one of his circle would know how to break the spells the Iron Lotus used onto Ebon Feather to make him his thrall, while they looked at each other for a moment, I knew that they'd want something in return for the knowledge which proved to be correct. They would explain how to break the spells if we would find out why there had been no word from Crystal in the far north, none of the groups send to check the situation hadn't returned. Though it was little steep price for the knowledge, we agreed to find out what had happened and in return one of Bulls circle explained us how to free Ebon Feather. At one point I took my saxian and just started playing without really trying to play any specific tune but the notes just kept popping into my mind as if I'd always known the tune, Sinje listened it for a few moments before she rose to her feet and started dancing. There was a moment of stunned silence as those who had gathered just gaped in awe to our performance, after which Bull brought out the Linovian Redwood Wine which he saved for the special occasions. Even if we didn't impress him with our experience, I can pretty safely say that he, his circle and anyone present, will remember the performance we made for quite a while.
The following morning, once everyone had awakened from the last night feast which went on until last of the participants fell asleep, we set towards Icehome where we would meet with Bulls contact who in turn would tell us more closely what the situation around crystal was. Once again we travelled using the magical storm the Exultant Falcon summoned, speeding over the frozen plains towards our destination to where we arrived in just a few days later. The Bull of the North's contact told us that the last group had left to crystal about half a season ago, never to be heard again and it was good that we had agreed to take a closer look into the situation. He also provided us what supplies we needed, mostly thicker clothing, some errant gear that might come handy and something that I doubt he never thought we'd ask, a small puppy for Sinje.
The City Fallen Silent and the Lurker Beneath
Season of the Resplendent Fire
Reason why there were no messages coming from Crystal was apparent when we arrived, there were no one to be seen anywhere at all. We explored the city's main parts but found no signs of its inhabitants, what we could find was strange, it was just as if every singly person in the entire city had just put down what ever they were doing and disappeared. There were houses where meal was on the table, opened books still on desks in studies, everything seemed like people had just said: "I'll leave this here for a moment and be right back." Except that they never did come back, we found gear left by the previous group in the inn, all neatly packed, as nothing was wrong. Only thing that was out of the place was the single word painted on the wall of the larger buildings, Swar. Sinje asked if I knew who had written the word, which I didn't and if she had any idea, she weren't going to tell us about it.
We searched the surrounding area of the city for any signs that could explain what had happened in vain, there had snowed since what ever had happened and if there had been tracks, they were buried under the snow. Our second guess was that they had found something from the ice mines that were the primary income for the city, which proved to be correct. We found a diary detailing how they found an entire first age city buried under the ice, the notes ending abruptly about season and a half later.
The ice mine in question didn't look much, just a hole in the ice that wormed its way deeper and deeper until suddenly opening into what appeared to be the airship dock of a large city that stretched for miles underneath us. After looking it from the dock, we descended down onto the streets that had still automaton carriers moving about, patiently waiting for passenger to get in before moving on again. Regardless we decided to walk around rather than use the carriers, even though they'd probably be simpler, we didn't have any idea how they work and where we'd end up. When Sinje said that we were inside Raksa's stronghold, it was good that we hadn't used the carriers; we'd probably be in one for rest of our lives. Regardless of that, we pressed onwards, against my opinion but the others wanted to see the centre of the stronghold. The Unfettered Moon was correct when he described the wyld, even though his explanation didn't apply into the city in which we were walking but the idea was same and in the future, if we see the same again, the rest can continue if they so wish.
Sinje used her skill to make a path towards the centre of the city along which we travelled, it didn't follow any particular path but apparently took us closer to what ever it was in the centre of the city. At one point we came up with place where axes flew in the wind as if they'd be leaves caught in wind and apparently they attacked Sinje, the whole thing was weird to say the least but she said that we should start going downwards to the sewers. Once we reached the lowest level, Sinje explained that we were apparently inside of some wyld creature trapped here since ancient times and it weren't planning on releasing us. Somewhere among the sewers we would find something she said to be Cup, something to do with the creature and if we could find it, we might find our way out.
What we found I'm still not quite certain, some kind room or machine or something, Sinje said that it represented the Cup we were looking for before it apparently attacked her and Falcon. Being Raksha herself, Sinje could defend herself against the attack but the Exultant Falcon weren't so he received the full brunt of the attack, which was quite bad since the thing that was attacking us weren't materialized. Though the blade I carried with me was able to hurt beings that weren't materialized, only one who could see the creature was Sinje or Falcon and with Falcon disabled, all we could do was to wait for the inevitable to happen. Finally the creature had enough and set out its terms, we would help it to break free and return to the wyld, in return it would let us leave after ravaging our minds to make sure we'd follow its wish.
On our way out from its bowels, another Raksha appeared and asked Sinje if he could join to protect her on the dangerous quest she was embarking though he hadn't been in the creation before. I don't know what she was thinking, or was she thinking at all, but dragging something made from blue flame and wears diamond encrusted armour is sure fire way to bring more than enough attention onto our way. Not only that, the thing would need one of our hearthstones in order to fill its need for essence while in creation without need to go on rampage in every single city we'd come across. Grudgingly the Exultant Falcon agreed to loan the hearthstone he was wearing to the Raksha and we could finally get out of the being. Once in creation again, we placed sign into the shaft that claimed the tunnel to be unstable and finally covered its entrance with snow. While I can't say what the others think, my next plan just got clear as dewdrop, and should I ever find any of the manses Swar spoke about, I know what to do.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
26. elokuuta 2006 kello 10.06
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Nimlas Dagorewen
26. elokuuta 2006 kello 10.06
linkki
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14. jakso, puoliväli lähestyy uhkaavasti.
From City of Silence to the Castle of Blood
Season of Resplendent Fire
I left the Solars to go trough the abandoned city while flying off to spend couple days alone and to pay my respects to Luna as well as to contemplate how to go on from today. When I returned to Crystal, the others had collected everything valuable from houses, looted the vaults and were now waiting for me to return before summoning the tornado. Rather than heading straight back to Icehome, we headed southeast to find out what had caused the sudden appearance of shadowland we heard from the Bull of the North.
After a day of futile searching, we came to small village and decided to ask if anyone in the village could point us to right direction. While the others stayed further away, I went to speak with the locals who spoke Forest-tongue and I was the only one who was fluent with that particular language. The things didn't start too well with the villagers, apparently there was a standing taboo against talking with strangers but I was able to convince them that I was actually from neighbouring village so the taboo didn't apply to me. The villagers didn't know much about the shadowland, in fact they hadn't even paid any attention to it except for thinking that it'd make it easier for them to pay their respects to their forefathers. In return to my probing, the villagers wanted to know whom the others were and if they were my slaves. Luckily none of the Solars understood what we were talking about even if they'd manage to over hear us, I doubt that they would have understood.
Finally the village elder begun talking about the shadowland about days walk east, though his directions was haphazard they told us everything we would need to find it. The next thing he said was that he wanted to invite me to dine with their village and that I could leave my slaves into one of the pigpens on the edge of the village for the night. While I didn't have great objections for his offer, the Solars didn't like the idea one bit, especially about the part of them being housed into pigpen though the part about them being cannibals came close second, and the Exultant Falcon called out the storm as soon as he found out about the directions the villagers had given.
Following the elders' directions, we found the edge of the shadowland without further difficulties though we'd wait until the next morning before entering it. Quick search of the shadowland didn't reveal much, only single village which inhabitants were all slaughtered, apparently in order to push the shadowland into Creation and something familiar, a castle made from crimson ice; the citadel of the Lover Clad in Reinment of Tears. Her new citadel had outwards appearance much alike her previous that the Mask of Winters had destroyed, towers were arranged differently and there was no bustling courtyard surrounding it but other than that it had the same eerie feel around it.
We walked up to the main gate without seeing anyone and until Exultant Falcon knocked, the entire area seemed as it had been abandoned. Voice from the battlements responded to his knock with demand that we identify ourselves and declare our business. Once we told him our names, the Scholar of the Black Vault jumped down from his lookout point right into middle of us with some extra flair in his landing to impress us before introducing himself and letting us enter into the silent castle. Results of her defeat were most apparent inside the citadel, gone were the countless courtiers, partygoers, hangings, murmur of various ghosts and living in their orgies, on their place was just bare walls and silence. The Deathlord herself, however, looked exactly the same as on our last visit; unearthly beautiful while lounging on her silken divan, silver mirror floating few paces from her and her blade laying on the stairs leading to her.
Apologizing the poor state of her holdings and lack of proper servings for us, the Lover Clad in Reinment of Tears welcomed us to her new citadel, paying extra attention towards the Exultant Falcon who seemed to pale just a bit, apparently on the memory of their night together. Once the introductions were over, it was time to hear what had happened to her deathknights, especially to the Undefeated Raven. While she didn't tell us directly how she, and now Mask of Winters, controlled their deathknights, she asked if we could help her recovering something that the Mask of Winters took from her; set of gages not too unlikely the ones that Eye of the Storm uses when he summons demons into the Creation. She suspected that they would be located within the Mask of Winters citadel, which unfortunately was on top of the Behemoth that, in turn, was in middle of his army, which was currently fighting against the Kingdom of Harborhead. If we would return those gates to her, she would teach us, or more precisely to Exultant Falcon and Eye of the Storm, of second and third circle magic.
Regardless of her invitation to stay for the night, the Solars were rather keen to leave as soon as possible, most notably the Exultant Falcon, which pecks the question, about what happened on our last visit or more precisely during the evening the Exultant Falcon spent with the Lover Clad in Reinment of Tears. I'm starting to get the feeling that the Solars are starting to get pretty used on living on the trail, this being the second time they rather spend the night under stars rather than take the offered accommodations. Of course, previous time they'd spend the night locked into pigpen, eating something they probably don't even want to think about and this time, I think it was the prospect of having to eat grave foods and maybe spending another night with the Deathlord that drove them back onto the road.
From Calm of the North to the Battle Against the Wyld Hunt
Season of Resplendent Fire
We bid our farewells and set off with the Storm Wind Rider, on which we travelled back to Icehome. Fox Cataphract, the walking troublemaker, was left well outside the city to keep locals from noticing it, even with cloak to cover most of its form; it would cause no end to troubles; something that it would end up doing regardless what we'd do with it on our travels.
Meeting with the agent of the Bull was our first agenda. He was quite anxious to hear what had happened to Crystal, regardless of the denial that the unshaped had placed on us, I mustered my will and told him exactly what had happened; both to the city and to us. He listened the whole time without single word, only nodding every now and then, either he was just pretending that he'd listen or that he was really listening, either way my report seemed to impress him. Before he left, each of us were given small token that the Exultant Falcon recognized as seal of the Haslanti League's secret intelligence people or something of that sort, regardless on their exact name the seals would prove that we had helped the League in case, or more likely when, we get into troubles.
Heaven's Moonsilver joined us while we were staying in Icehome; she had stayed behind to meet up with her contacts while we continued to investigate the situation in Crystal. Once our preparations for the trip back south were complete, Exultant Falcon called out the storm and off we went; sadly they remembered that we had left the Fox Cataphract behind so we turned to pick it with us as well. No sooner that Heaven's Moonsilver saw it, she turned towards me and said that she didn't think that the rumours had been true; that I had allied with the enemies of the Creation but when she saw Fox Cataphract waiting us, she was starting to believe that there were truth in the claims. The Solars though it was funny, which it weren't from my perspective but it really didn't matter. What matters is that the rumour was spreading and with the apparent tendency for Solars to gather up the worse possible candidates for 'allies', there's little hope of them dying anytime soon. Each day that Fox Cataphract travels with us is another flick of flame under the tinderbox.
Regardless, we packed into the storm once again and travelled south along the River of Tears and then up Yanaze River until we reached Great Fork's where our ship was waiting. First signs of troubles came apparent when we arrived to the docks and saw the ship; there were burn marks on the deck, tell tale sign of terrestrial anima flare, bellow we saw signs of goremaul strikes on the walls and the cargo hold was looted from anything valuable. While none of us said it but I doubt that there was any doubt in anyone's mind about who had attacked the ship; the Wyld Hunt had finally found our trail. Besides superficial damages the ship had suffered in raid, it was still intact and regardless of our suspicions there were no troops guarding it in case of our return.
While the Wyld Hunt hadn't left anyone to guard the ship, why they didn't I can't say, but as we were standing on the deck the Exultant Falcon noticed someone spying us from the anchor crate. Rest of us spread out in preparation to fight while he asked the spy to get out of the crate and tell who he or she was and for once, it actually worked. The person climbing onto the deck was rather sorry sight, skinny man wearing ragged clothes and complaining that he hadn't have anything to eat for few days. Once his string of complains was over, he introduced himself as Father Longroad, member of the Cult of the Illuminated and that he was sent here to help us in our troubles. While the Solars went to have a talk with the harbourmaster, I headed to see if Misty Cricked had been captured as well but he turned out to be safely in the clutches of Ruika, much to his dismay. Cricket had heard about the troubles at the docks and even the fact that the Wyld Hunt had struck there but wisely kept his distance. Apparently Ruika was keeping close reins on Cricket though she complained him to be stubborn disciple but she promised to keep on tutoring him while I was busy with my own troubles.
The Solars had been busy as well while I was in the city; they had met with the harbourmaster and inquired him about the attack. The Wyld Hunt had struck about a week ago, raided our ship and taken its crew captive. After securing the crew and making certain that we weren't among them, they had loaded everything onto their own ship and sailed downstream couple days ago. With little luck we'd reach their ship as it went downstream, while it had been one of the fast runners the heavy load would slow its pace. Exultant Falcon used his magic to scout the river and in at noon he returned to inform us that he had spotted the ship; it was anchored about 3 hours downstream from the Great Forks. As the evening was closing, we fell onto the Wyld Hunt like avenging banshees, exactly as the Wyld Hunt had expected us.
We circled the ship beyond arrow reach, trying to locate the terrestrials or any signs of the crew but couldn't see any so we hit the shore and skimmed around the small patch of forest near the spot where the ship was anchored; straight into the arms of the waiting Wyld Hunt. The sound of two warstriders casting away their camouflage nets and straightening up to their full height indicated the beginning of the battle. Fox Cataphract jumped out of the storm straight away and started to ran towards them, Sinje was second to step out and head to meet the striders, sadly Storm decided to join the battle as well since otherwise we could just have flown away and with little bit of luck, the Wyld Hunt would have dealt with both of the troublesome Rakshas.
But since Storm also joined the battle there was no point of telling Exultant Falcon to ignore the striders and return to the battle when it would start on our terms. Both me and Heaven's Moonsilver leaped into air while Exultant Falcon directed his attention towards the ship the terrestrials used, his interest fixed on single item on its foredeck; the light implosion bow that had been removed from our ship. The battle in all was over rather rapidly, for what the elders had told about the Wyld Hunt being like, the one that we met was hardly worth of mentioning. One of the warstriders went down before the terrestrials had time to start moving, the second lasted little longer but it too went down without causing any troubles. Remaining two of the group proved to be more challenging though, one was earth aspected and the other was air. Earth immaculate did what his kin does best, he levelled his goremaul against Storm while the air immaculate noticed me flying towards the backs of the already engaged terrestrials and filled the air with chakrams.
During the opening moments of the battle we heard loud explosion from the river, apparently the Wyld Hunt, or at least some of them, was smart enough to rig a trap into their unguarded ship. The Exultant Falcon had boarded it without meeting any resistance and ran directly to the implosion bow, directing it towards the warstriders without making sure that it was operational; following explosion sent the ship to the bottom of the river. The one bolt he managed to get off before the explosion rocked one of the striders but besides that it did little.
As the battle turned against the terrestrials, mostly due to the unbelievable incompetence of their warstriders, air immaculate saw how it would end and used her affinity with winds to make her escape, her earth aspected friend didn't have that option so he gritted his teeth and made his last stand where he stood. Perhaps he would have taken consolidation from knowing that his escaping partner would soon follow him had he knew about the end but he never got to see her end. The escaping terrestrial didn't make if far before she was captured and after short interrogation, Exultant Falcon let her to Fox Cataphract to deal as it saw fit. While others were busy watching their fight and fishing drowning crew from the river, the Eye of the Storm and me went trough the fallen terrestrials and begun sorting out which way the last member of the hunt had headed.
The Evil Bronze, the Good Gold, the Scheming Chosen of the Maidens
Season of Resplendent Fire
With little difficulty, I picked the scent of the fifth hunter who was escaping towards the nearest city. At the time we thought we were chasing down just another terrestrial so we set of to the chase without wait, next time we'll know better. Our chase lasted couple hours but we reached the escapee before he could vanish into the city ahead or make our hunt more difficult. Immediately upon sighting his fleeing form, we charged into battle, another mistake for our part. I've seen terrestrial fighting forms before but the technique he used was new, not to mention that he was using the serpents-sting staff, weapon of choice for two kinds of fighters; either those who are stupid or those who truly know what they are doing. Needles to say, with our luck, he proved to be the later of those two.
The battle lasted for a while; in the end he retreated after managing to disable me for moment and somehow prevented me from channelling my essence. That was of no importance though, the thing that mattered was that during the fight his anima had flared and it was no terrestrial anima, no terrestrial has anima with such vibrant colour nor does any celestial except for one; the chosen of the five maidens. Once my wounds had closed, we set on with our chase once again but the sidereal had too much of head start to reach before the next city, his trail leading us to small basement where we found remains of burnt prayer strip but nothing else.
Little after that, we heard familiar moaning from the front porch of nearby inn and found Father Longroad curled onto the ground, holding his belly in agony. Since we were causing quite a scene, especially me, still wearing my war form, was causing just about every mortal to flee from sight; we took him with us and retreated back into the forest. I wasn't the only one who thought that as just a little too convenient if not down right suspicious but with his current condition the Father Longroad wouldn't be of any help so Eye of the Storm commanded his little demon to see if it could get our benefactor to his feet.
His explanation about the Sidereal being member of the Wyld Hunt followed the expected pattern, there were two kind of Sidereals; the evil, bad, celestial slaying kind and the nice, fluffy, all around good kind which he naturally was member of. I don't know about the others, but I for one am starting to find it harder and harder to believe anything any of the maidens' chosen say. They're always your best friends just as long as you are use for them and do as they advice you to do, ask something inconvenient and get nice, fluffy explanation why you really shouldn't be thinking, let alone asking, the question in the first place; ask too many questions and I have distinct hunch that the answer will arrive in form of a blade across ones throat in the night.
The Solars spent almost a week combing the riverbed for remnants of the loot the terrestrials had taken from our ship during their attack before returning to Great Forks where we parted ways. They stayed behind to ready for the coming battle against the Iron Lotus and his army of demons while I headed to see Unfettered Moon, I wished to hear his insight on the problematic Raksha and their ways. I spent the next month rediscovering how to channel my essence that the Sidereal had blocked, during that time the Unfettered Moon also taught me few things that I would come handy in future, if there is one.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
26. elokuuta 2006 kello 10.08
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Nimlas Dagorewen
26. elokuuta 2006 kello 10.08
linkki
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Osa 15.
The Battle of the Mount Metagalapa
Last days of the Descending Fire and the week of Calibration
I returned to Great Forks just before the end of the Descending Fire and joined with the Solars who were already waiting. First part of our plan was simple; we would sail upstream with the Hound of Destiny until well beyond sight from the city from where on we would use Father Longroads magic to reach the summit of the mount Metagalapa directly rather than climb up like the first plan had been. No sooner than we had left the ship behind, Sinje started to ask Father Longroad if she could steer the conjured cloud or if it was edible, followed by tirade of improvements she would make to it. Others were more or less silent until we sighted the floating mountain from between the clouds, the roar of the essence engines pushing it towards the Hundred Kingdoms masking the little sound our approach might have caused. While rest of us kept searching for signs of troubles on the mountain, Exultant Falcon and Sinje argued about the best place to land; finally Sinje pointed her spot to Father Longroad. We waited a short while for attack that never came, if our approach had been detected, no one was making any noise about it.
Exultant Falcon kept glancing towards the horizon though he didn't mention anything to rest of us at first so Ash Mantis left to scout ahead. Exultant Falcons nervous gazing made rest of us uneasy as well and Eye of the Storm asked what he was looking at; there was something big heading towards the mountain, something that drew the ambient essence straight from its surroundings. Even though none of us said it, we all though the same thing; Lookshy had mobilized and one way or the other, Iron Lotuses summoning would end. While we weren't truly nervous about the fact that 7th Legion was bearing towards us, the thing that really worried us was the fact that there are two known powers that have weapon stockpiles dated to the First Age and the one that was known to bring them to bear if needed was the very same 7th Legion. While they were still too far to be seen with bare eyes, using Storms spyglass I could see the shape of the First Age warship as it flew towards us. If the 7th Legion was willing to risk bringing their only carrier, one of less than half a dozen left in entire Creation, into the battle, then there would be only one outcome for the battle; either the 7th Legion would be victorious tonight or there would be no mount Metagalapa left to shadow their graves, either way, we'd better be far away by that time.
Ash Mantis had been busy while we were wondering how long we'd have before the 7th Legion started their assault. Cloaked into disguise of his essence, he ran towards us with the tiara in his hand, he kept running by us and tossed the tiara to me before hiding from sight. Not a moment too soon either as the Ebon Feather appeared from the same doorway, his immediate reaction on spotting us was to shift into his warform and bring his bow to bear. Surprisingly, the part of our plan where Sinje would try to provoke him into breaking free from the charms actually worked, rather than letting his arrow fly, the Ebon Feather just slumped down like weight of the entire mountain had landed on his shoulders. Even more surprisingly, two demons that were guarding the doorway seemed to ignore us completely, apparently they hadn't been commanded to raise alarm if group of invaders suddenly arrive or they were just asleep, which I doubt.
Looking towards the approaching 7th Legion, we briefly though about leaving the battle to them but the Ebon Feather feared that they would arrive too late to stop the ceremony. There was quick debate about the matter but in the end we decided to look the matter to its end, whichever way it'd be. The Ebon Feather said that he had a plan to lure the guardian demons away from their post; he would call out the alarm about the approaching legion, which would draw the demons away from their post. Our string of luck continued as we watched owl demons rising to their wings and heading towards the perceived threat, ignoring us completely. We managed to sneak all the way into the Iron Lotuses inner sanctum before our luck finally ran out.
The Last Battle of the Eye of the Storm
Calibration
Iron Lotuses inner sanctum was impressive sight, build directly above working volcano his sorceries had erected, narrow catwalks circling its walls and two bridges extending to the platform in the centre of the volcano and there he was, continuing the ritual while swarm of automatons moved to block our way. Regardless of their fearsome appearance, heavy armour and great blades, the automatons were cut down in mere seconds. When the last of the automatons fell, Iron Lotus had no choice but to stop the ritual, ruining the only chance he had to summon the Ebon Dragon into Creation. Needless to say, he was not happy about it at all. Exultant Falcon told Iron Lotus that he was planning on ruining his plans again in the future, regardless what they might be. The Iron Lotus in turn wanted to challenge one of us into duel with him, the rest of us stood back while Eye of the Storm stepped forward and onto the narrow stone bridge.
Iron Lotus demanded that we recognise the sanctity of the duel and would not intervene, even with our agreement not to intervene he called group of demons to stand in guard, apparently he didn't trust us any more than we trusted him. Once the demons had spread around the crater, the duel could begin and he threw the first punch, swinging his goremaul towards Storm who easily danced from its path. Storm managed to scrape Iron Lotus with his claws and threw the iron mask he wore into the lava; revealing Iron Lotuses burned face. Besides the ritual scars of my Lunar brothers, I've never seen exalt whose wounds hadn't healed fully or perhaps his scars had occurred before his exaltation. Skin on the right side of his face was smooth while the left was nothing more than scars and Storms claws had just marred what remained of Iron Lotuses face that glared Storm with pure hatred in his eyes.
Suddenly Eye of the Storm just shivered up, like his body had been left to dry under the southern sun for many seasons, the spark of life in him snuffed in an instant. The stunned silence was shattered by Heaven's Moonsilver scream as Iron Lotus struck Storms lifeless corpse with his goremaul and threw down into the pool of lava. What ever he did to kill Storm, also left Iron Lotus staggering but his servant demons were quick to get hold of him and jump onto their wings. Rest of the demons jumped into the air as well and quickly rose beyond striking distance; all the while the Iron Lotus berated us about his future revenge. Everyone who had bows let their arrows fly, many of them struck the demons but only few struck well enough to drive them back into malfeas. There was another, more pressing concern as well than Iron Lotuses impending escape, the whole mountain was shaking and starting to list on one side meaning it was time for us to high tail out of there. From the look of things outside, the 7th Legion had the battle practically won and they were busy clearing out last remnants of the demon army while we slipped into the night; only few skirmishers noted our passage and gave half-hearted chase before turning back.
I'm not sure if the Iron Lotus ever made it out of the volcano, Sinje used her magic to seal the mouth of the crater and I collapsed the tunnel behind us. I wish that 7th Legion found him sealed in the volcano and truly sealed him into there for the next millennium though I'd settle just for his head on a pike. Our journey back to Great Forks was silent one; while we had stopped Iron Lotuses insane plan, the price had been heavy. Little before the Great Forks, Ebon Feather claimed that he couldn't bear staying with us after what had happened and he would leave to find some solitude. Once we made certain that the book from which all this had begun was destroyed, Ebon Feather leaped to his wings. Father Longroad left as well, though not before spouting little more of the cults musings how they had actually supported us all the time and what else he could come up that would sound suitable.
The Dispersal of the Circle
Last Days of the Calibration
Remaining of the Calibration went quietly after the wake for the Eye of the Storm, as each of us prepared to take time to reflect on what happened and to look into our private matters that had been pushed aside by resent events. Heaven's Moonsilver planned on having a monument raised for Storm in Sijan, so if he ended up into underworld he'd have the grave goods he deserved. Sinje planned on taking the walking disaster into the gladiator arenas of Nexus to keep it busy -and to die, should real stroke of luck hit- Ash Mantis finally stopped his silent treatment against Sinje and went with her. The Exultant Falcon begun searching for summoner for hire, the demesne he had found would need a small army in order to be transformed into functioning manse. As for myself, I would finally have the time I need to put Unfettered Moons' teachings into use and so on the first days of the Ascending Air, each of us went on our separate ways, agreeing to meet in Great Forks in six months.
The Spirit Court of the Frozen Valley
Season of Ascending Air
My path led me back to my manse, the Understanding of Iceflow and Moon where I could start my search for what would become guardian for the manse. After days of searching, I found a spirit that was willing to listen my proposal. To be honest, it was quite far from what I would have hoped for but my manse is powerful and its effect into the essence flows around the valley is distinct, let alone to the spirits who claimed it as their domain. We spent the evening haggling out the details of our agreement, neither of us willing to give ground on our own demands but in the end we had contract we both could accept.
What came next was the gruesome part of our deal but also one of the more important ones; the Inevitable Demise of Tiny Woodland Creatures was just a minor spirit at the very bottom of the local hierarchy of spirits. It needed to grow a lot stronger in order to be able to offer any meaningful defence for my manse and to rise higher in the hierarchy of spirits, and its rise in power needed to happen soon. While I can't say I'm exactly proud of what I did to unfortified hamlet I had noted earlier, part of the careless sheep is to be eaten by the wolves and perhaps the next village elder pays more attention onto the protection of their hamlet rather than gathering wealth. By the time I headed back towards Great Forks, the Inevitable Demise had grown to be the most powerful spirit in the valley.
The Invitation Into the Halls of the Dynasts
From Season of Resplendent Air to Season of Ascending Water
Second plan of mine needed a lot more work that finding guardian for my manse had, first problem was finding enough jade to cover the expenses, then there was matter of finding the correct people and lastly, rehearsing to show the expected anima flux for terrestrial exalt. A quick walk around the more prestigious shops confirmed my fear about the monetary burden I would be facing should I go for the shops that had already made it into the spotlights. Ruika suggested that I should find seamstress who had just set up her shop and was out to prove herself. She mused that promise of casually dropping their name to patricians and acting as living mannequin in return for favoured buyer status would go long way lessening the financial burden. While Ruika's plan worked for clothes, only way to get suitable jewellery was to pay full price for them, which in turn played havoc to my quickly diminishing funds, problem that I would need to fix soon.
It is unbelievable how high price the dynasts in Melevhil are willing to pay for a simple goremaul if they think it has great history and to lessen the pain of losing relative. Granted, I did stretch the truth just a little bit about the origins of the weapon and how its previous owner had met his death, not to mention tying strings of essence that made certain that even most cynical would feel tug in their hearts while listening my hearth-breaking story about dear brother who had died in battle against the Anathema and now I was forced to sell his maul, only memento that I had, in order to afford proper memorial for his honour in Sijan.
Back in the Great Forks, for the months I went from one occasion to the next, keeping up the appearance and slowly working my way into the inner circle of the patricians. First weeks were hectic, while Ruika could tell little about the politics of the great houses; plunging straight in middle of their games was exiting to say the least. Little over a month later I was starting to make real progress, I would dine out with patrician almost on daily basis and stood on first name terms with some. Finally I managed to score an invitation into the closed party held by Cynis Nasec, a young terrestrial from house Cynis, whose tentative trust I had gained after weaving my way trough his subtle inquiries and tests to find out if I was a spy from other houses.
Even though I had heard stories about the parties Cynis hosts, experiencing them first hand was something you only believe afterwards. Apparently receiving invitation directly from Nasec himself to his party also served as a signal for other patricians to lower their guards a little bit, or more likely to start looking for ways to gain some benefit from me, since during the following weeks I received more attention from their part than I had received during the entire previous month put together. Downside of their attention was the fact that I was becoming another player in their games of power and prestige, minor at the moment but still someone to keep closer eye on.
Meeting in the One Hundred Kingdoms
Season of Ascending Water
I travelled eastwards after completing my ritual hunt for Luna, curiosity drawing me to see how much damage had the 7th Legion done and if Mount Metagalapa was still there, how far it had pushed into the kingdoms. It was around the middle of the season of Ascending Water when I reached the mountain, most of buildings at the plateau showed little damage from fighting and while soaring around the mountain, all I could see was few token guard posted there to keep random looters and vagabonds away. During my short stay in nearby garrison I heard that there was someone else looking for information about the mountains recent past and if I would go see them, I should be careful since one of them was terrestrial exalt.
Apparently the 7th Legion had just crushed the demon army and made certain that there were no summoning ritual in progress anywhere on the mountain before recalling their troops and returning to Lookshy. There had been anathemas on the mountain but had they been killed or driven away, that I couldn't figure out for certain from the rumours so I asked where the scholars were staying and headed to have a word with them instead.
They were staying at the best inn in town, the Drunken Boar, where I met them while they were having their meal. It was easy to note which of them the soldiers had meant on mentioning about being exalt, he was build like an ox with clear reddish tint on his skin, flaming red hair and beard, marking him as one of the fire aspected terrestrials. The other man looked more as a scholar, lean build and unlike his companion, bore none of the tell tale signs of terrestrial exaltation. After inviting me to join them, the scholar introduced himself as Silver Dune and his companion was called Vagran Fury Blade.
During the idle conversation, Silver Dune asked quite many pointed questions which, on quick thought, appeared completely innocent but were loaded with meanings. Particularly my ties with the Realm interested him; they both had noticed the bluish tint on my skin and hair along with small accent in my speech, assuming me to be Dynast. What I couldn't make for certain at that time was why exactly he wanted to know how I felt about the Realm but my answer that the Realm and I had 'different' opinions on each other seemed to suit him.
Another thing he was very interested was the rumours about anathemas that had escaped during the fighting. While there were none here that I was aware or had heard about, I told him that in Great Forks I might know someone who in turn knew someone else that apparently knew whom to talk about in order to find some of those anathemas, naturally, that all was purely academically possible of course rather than certain. Besides those two matters, rest of our conversation was pretty much just casual small talk though I couldn't shake the feeling that he was probing me the whole time.
Reason for his questions became clear while we were sailing towards Great Forks; we were again talking about possibility of finding the same group of anathemas which had been on mount Metagalapa. He continued to question my thoughts about the Immaculate Order and their teachings, giving me a look that spoke volumes about how little he believed into my assurances that I would think they are correct. After hearing me finally claim that their teachings we ignorant at best, Silver Dune pulled his hood little deeper after glancing around him to ensure his words wouldn't be overheard and in quiet tone claimed that he was member of the Eclipse caste, a Solar exalt. When he saw my sceptical look he offered to force his caste mark to appear, something that even on quiet ship such as our is pretty easy way to draw attention; regardless he displayed his celestial heritage.
Since I didn't run off screaming about anathemas or any other more common reactions, he noted that he had been wondering about the gauntlets I wore, examining me more keenly than before. Regardless of his attempt, Silver Dune couldn't pierce the veil my charms pulled over his eyes. Finally he asked directly if I was terrestrial exalt, immediately saying that it was unfortunate that I would lie about something so important upon hearing my affirming reply. I kept smiling innocently at him while blinking my eyes; Silver Dune took a quick half step backwards when he saw my silvery eyes and teeth, while I'm not certain what he did expect, child of Luna apparently wasn't the one.
Gathering of the Circle and Troublesome Ashen Cricket
Season of Ascending Water
We arrived to Great Forks without incidents, something of which I was quite happy about since outcry about anathemas such as one in Nexus would play havoc into all the work I've done here. Once on shore, I took Silver Dune and Vagran to meet with rest of the Solars who had returned from their travels while I was in Hundred Kingdoms. Exultant Falcon hadn't changed a bit during his time in south, he weren't all too happy about being introduced to Silver Dune and his companion but once he heard Dune being Solar, his temper calmed a bit. Ash Mantis weren't on deck but after calling for him, he too came to meet with Silver Dune and promptly tried swiping the orichalcum ring from his hand; not too surprisingly failing in his attempt. After being introduced to Sinje, after retreating from hearing distance to other, Silver Dune asked if Sinje were exalt or god-blooded. The confused look on his face brought smile on mine when I just answered that he'll be much happier if he doesn't know. Heaven's Moonsilver and Silver Dune seemed to get off on the wrong foot right at the beginning, not sure if her apparent Tell was the cause or something else but they didn't seem to get along too well.
Once everyone had settled, we went trough the important news from the past six months and decided where our next move would take us. The Exultant Falcon recalled that there was working forge left in Iron Lotuses fortress and since the 7th Legion hadn't demolished it or posted heavy guard there, he wanted to see if it could be restored for his use. Since rest of us didn't have pressing matters to tend, it was decided that after getting crew back to the ship and fetching the Fox Cataphract from Nexus, we would sail back to the Hundred Kingdom. While rest of the crew headed back to their lodgings to gather their belongings, I headed to Ruika's school to pick up Ashen Cricket and to hear if anything note worthy had happened while I was gone. No later than I had asked, my temper flared as Ruika told about the latest adventure of my little brother.
Crickets disappearance didn't annoy me as I had half expected him to slip out of the school since Ruika had put him into work in return for tutoring and lodging. The thing that got my temper flaming was that on his way out of the door, Cricket had liberated quite sizeable sum from schools coffers. After assuring her that I would find him before leaving and make sure his debt would be paid, I set out to track him down. Silver Dune proved to be pretty good on tracking people down, we found Cricket in one of the outlying inns, merrily drinking away his bounty. His jovial mood faded the moment when I stormed into the inn, screaming "Ashen Cricket, what in the nine hell did you think you were doing?" Silver Dune had stayed outside while I went inside and dragged Cricket after me; a quick glance towards him confirmed that I was correct when I thought I heard him laughing outside the whole time.
Ignoring his whimpering, I dragged Cricket straight to Ruika who, despite the lost money seemed to enjoy the show. Luckily he hadn't managed to spend all of the stolen money so he could pay it back with little bit of hard work. Roof tiles could use good scrubbing to rid of any moss trying to grow between them and schools vegetable garden could also use some weeding. Even though he complained that it was unfair to him to be pressed into hard labour like that, a quick reminder about the punishment he'd face in the hands of the law silenced him for the time being. Since I didn't trust Cricket to finish his work without supervision, I visited the harbour to tell Ash Mantis and Sinje to go ahead and sail to Nexus and back while I would make sure Cricket stayed inline.
Later that evening I had little talk with Cricket, asking him just what was he thinking when he decided to disgrace himself and me in Ruika's eyes. He spat back that he was all grown up already so he could take care of his own business and quite frankly; he didn't much care about his big sister friends. Seething with rage, I bit my tongue and glared him silently until I had calmed enough to ask that apparently he weren't interested in the least if he disgraces his sister in the side of his own endeavours. That got him thinking for a moment rather than responding straight away with another jab, which was good thing since I doubt neither of us, would have backed down after few more venomous words and to be honest, we were both looking for a fight that night.
Crickets pause gave us time to calm down a little so the rest of our conversation was bit more civil. Finally he said that, in hindsight, maybe raiding the schools coffers hadn't been such a good idea and in future he would make sure he wouldn't steal from any of my friends. I think part of his assurance came from my solemn promise made under Luna's face, that should he ever get the urge to do something similar, despite it would break my heart to do so; I would no longer consider Ashen Cricket as my brother but just another hoodlum to be run down and dealt with, regardless on where he'd try to hide.
All Roads Lead Back to Mount Metagalapa, Even for the Dead
Season of Resplendent Water
The Dance of Fate arrived back from Nexus few days later so we said our farewells to Ruika, Cricket seemed quite happy on getting back onto the ship, and set sail towards the Hundred Kingdom. When Silver Dune saw Fox Cataphract, he understood just what I had meant when I said that he'd be much happier if he didn't know truth about Sinje or her companion. Regardless, we set sail upstream as soon as ships stores had been restocked and other trivialities sorted.
Journey upriver was just as quiet as our trip downstream had been, which suited me just fine and don't think anyone else was too annoyed about it either. When we met the Exultant Falcon under the mount Metagalapa, he said that while waiting for us, he had visited the local mayor and acquired his permission to explore the mountain and if possible, drag the entire thing off his land. Although I seriously doubt that the piece of paper would have any meaning in the eyes of local rulers, it would at least allow us to climb to the mountain without having to worry about upsetting the few guards posted there.
On our third day on the mountain, Exultant Falcon spotted two figures coming towards the mountain and towards the rope ladders leading down to the ground. Since neither the guards nor us were expecting anyone, the two strangers were either scavengers or, with our luck, something much worse. We made our way down to the lower plateau where the ladders from ground ended before the two managed to climb all the way. There was brief debate whether to cut the ropes and let them fall or to allow them to reach the plateau, the Exultant Falcon wanted to drop them while Sinje and Ash Mantis wanted to let them up; me and Silver Dune didn't favour either side but stood by watching.
Finally Exultant Falcon gave in to Sinje and Ash who helped the two masked men to the plateau. Without saying a word, they started to head towards the upper plateau, ignoring our questions and only stopping when physically restrained. It didn't take long to notice that there was something very wrong with the two, the kind of gnawing feeling that you can't put your finger on but something is definitely amiss. Silver Dune and me kept them from scaling the ramp upwards while others started to peel away their gear, the two didn't do anything to stop them from removing their gear and reason for their lack of resistance came obvious once their masks were removed; they were stitched together from pieces from number of corpses. When the Exultant Falcon noticed the essence storing devices surrounding their waists and along their spines, it was decided to toss them into the crater rather than wait and see what their devices would do.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
19. lokakuuta 2006 kello 8.38
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Nimlas Dagorewen
19. lokakuuta 2006 kello 8.38
linkki
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Kun taas on hieman 'vapaata aikaa' niin voisi lisäillä jälleen muutaman osan tarinasta nähtäville, pienoisella viiveellä tosin... Mutta joka tapauksessa, Mistyn päiväkirjojen 16. osa
The Ruins of Rathess: 8th of Resplendent Air - 1st of Resplendent Earth , RY 770
From Fortress of Demon Army to Fields for Farmers
Season of Resplendent Water
Once the dead were dealt with, Exultant Falcon busied himself with tearing the essence engine into pieces in order to learn how to build new ones to replace the damaged ones. It didn't take long for him to come to realization that repairing the engines would require large amounts of materials, which were next to impossible to gather without raising all sorts of inconvenient questions, in addition the work itself would take small eternity. Since Exultant Falcon wasn't too keen about having to finance their repairs from his own coffers and the locals weren't going to pay their repairs either, the mountain would stay where it had finally came to rest; right on top of Silver Dune's fief. Not surprisingly, he weren't too keen about having new mountain shadowing his lands.
I'm not entirely sure who came up with the idea of turning the plateau on top of the mountain into new fields for the local farmers; while there were arguments about having to haul the topsoil up and host of other problems, it offered most efficient way to ease the troubles to local farmers. In hindsight, I'm surprised how easily it all happened; Silver Dune went to explain the plan to local landowners, Exultant Falcon drew plans for a elevator system to lift people and gear to mountain, Sinje, Ash Mantis, Heavens Moonsilver and Vagran helped where they could while I used the Singing Staff to repair embankments and ramp leading up from elevator site.
Once the elevator was completed, Exultant Falcon left to over see the construction of his manse, saying that he would return in about a week before flying off with his personal hurricane. The others spend the week on finalizing the repairs we had made while Silver Dune and me begun organizing the local population into workforce to haul cartload after cartload of soil up to the plateau. First two days were frustrating, locals seemed more interested on bickering about trivialities like who should have more responsibilities in the project due to their family name and other meaningless matters but once we managed to convince the heads of few important families to set their fight aside and start to work, convincing the rest was simple task.
Even though the work was going smoothly, locals would be hard pressed to haul enough soil up to plateau to plant their crops in time but each day there were few new faces among the crowd. From the look of things, I'm going to return here in a year or two to see how their work in transforming the mount Metagalapa into pastures has progressed or will it stay as the barren reminder of the Iron Lotuses dream of conquest it is now. When Exultant Falcon returned from his trip to his manse-to-be, we had another talk about plans for future and it was decided that we'd travel first to Greyfall to supply our ship, then head south.
The Duel of the Panty Thieves in Greyfalls
Season of Resplendent Water
Our arrival to the city of Greyfalls was foreshadowed by ominous rumour spreading around the city; there was news about plague spreading in countryside. What made this particular plague weird was its method of contagion, rather than spread on contact like normal plague does; carrier for this one were claimed to be panties and to ensure the safety of citizens everyone should bring theirs to newly opened health centre. Few things get people moving like a rumour of plague and for the three days it was about the only thing the city talked about until news came from officials that the suspected plague had turned out to be nothing more than common diarrhoea.
Was there truth or reason for the rumour? Well, it turned out that Ash Mantis and Silver Dune had made a bet on which of them could steal more panties in three days time. While Ash Mantis had started out with the traditional way of raiding clotheslines, Silver Dune had sent Vagran ahead to spread the rumour about the plague. Silver Dune would had won their bet if Ash Mantis hadn't recruited Sinje to help him but with her help, Silver Dune received the penalty for losing; he spent one day as Ash Mantises personal servant, dressed up as a maid.
In meantime rest of us chased down scraps of information and rumours about our next destination, the city of Rathess. Besides wild rumours and horror stories, there was very little to learn that we didn't already know besides that there hadn't been expeditions into the ruins for sometime. Once our preparations were completed, we set sail downstream towards Great Forks where we would stop briefly to check on news and then continue further downstream past Nexus from where we would sail up the Grey River until city of Jades; the last real city, and the nearest Realm garrison or more accurately, base for the Wyld Hunt, before the jungle surrounds the river.
Random Thoughts While Sailing Towards Rathess
From Season of Resplendent Water to Season of Ascending Earth
For the most part our trip was quiet except for incident with few more of those zombie automatons and apparently next reincarnation of the Vanisher, the Bandit. Long time ago, when we visited the Sequested Tabernacle, I explained to Amaya and Shadowy Rose that I don't go guessing what Luna thinks but thinking about Vanisher and Bandit, I can't help but to think she either had a bad day when she chose those two or she's playing some elaborate scheme. Either way, I just hope I can stay as far from him, and his reincarnations, as possible.
When we finally arrived to Jades, Vagran and I went to speak with the garrison commander about local news and more importantly, to find out had there been resent sightings of the horrible anathemas as sightings of them would inevitably mean Wyld hunt stationed nearby as well. For the most parts, meeting with the commander was a moot point since there hadn't been expeditions to Rathess for some time but we learned one important thing, Wyld had pushed all the way to outskirts of the city. Having Wyld right on the outskirts of the city could only mean one thing; we'd run to Rakshas while exploring the city and I for one, I'm starting to get pretty damn fed up with those things.
Once the supplies were on board, we set sail again. It didn't take long before Sinje noticed blade I bought from Jades, it was unremarkable straight blade save for one thing; it was made from cold iron, metal which mere touch burns Rakshas as if it was scalding hot. She wanted to know why I had bought it and what I was planning on doing with it, as if it weren't blain obvious, no one wields cold iron blade unless they plan to kill Rakshas. I doubt she'd understood even if I had tried to explain her my reasons so I slid the blade back into its scabbard regardless of her complains that by buying the blade I had just ensured that every Raksha we'd encounter would be hostile towards us.
Why exactly did I buy the blade? It took me little time to really figure it out myself, in its simplicity the reason was quite chilling. I'm running out of excuses to tell to myself; every time I ignore the Solars taunting me, I think that it isn't worth getting my hackles up, every day I tell myself that keeping the circle together is the most important thing is another day when I fail to do what should be done. I've failed the Way just about every single day since we left Nexus the very first time and only thing that I can think anymore is keeping my promise to Unfettered Moon, at least there's one thing I haven't broken... yet.
Ever since our testimony against the Blind Orchid and her benefactors, my image among the Pack haven't been that good. I have a hunch that all it would take for me to lose what little respect I have left in the eyes of the elders is someone like Heaven's Moonsilver to call out a meeting and tell them what she has seen. While she might do exactly that, she too would lose much of her favour due to her own inability to act so it's unlikely that Heaven's Moonsilver to get me exiled. What I fear is that, sooner or later, we'll run into Lunar who we don't know, especially since we're near Ma-Ha-Suchi's territory, who has no reason not to make my shame known to the Pack. Should that happen, I would be lucky to keep my life.
The Ancient City of Rathess
Season of Ascending Earth
Looking down towards the city while soaring high above it, I wish I could've been here during the first age. Even after millennium in the mercies of weathers and jungle, the octagonal city still had most of its original structures intact. Our first objective was to scale on top of the great pyramid like manse that reached upwards for hundreds of yards, at the very heart of the city. After admiring the view for few minutes, we spotted the entrance halfway up on the far side. There were two goblins guarding the entrance, apparently they could sense the cold iron blade I had, or there was something else that didn't go well with them since they attacked us immediately only to be cut down just as fast.
Little later another group of goblins approached us but this time they didn't attack but invited us to meet their king, who in turn turned out to be delusional Solar. The little moment we spent with his court just confirmed the impression of someone who has wandered into the wyld and lost his or her mind in there. While the conversation didn't go well, for once it didn't come to blows either but we could walk outside and continue our exploration.
Next place where we headed was the city's necropolis, its outer sections had been looted long time ago but from what we could tell the innermost parts were still untouched and for good reason; no less that three celestial lions stood in guard there. While they allowed us to walk around in the area they patrolled, two of them escorted us all the time to make certain that we didn't try defiling the tombs, great disappointment for certain members of our circle. The lions could tell us a little about the Solars and Lunars buried there, according to them, there laid the bravest of the celestials from the war against the Primodials. After some coaching by Exultant Falcon and Silver Dune, lion escorting us said that they would be willing to aid us taking down the self appointed Goblin King should we in turn agree to their terms; first we'd need to restore the looted partitions of the necropolis into respectable shape, secondly they wanted a sacrifice.
Sinje and Ash balked straight away upon hearing the last demand, for them the idea of sacrificing 5-year old girl was something neither of them were willing to even think about. Regardless of their opinions, it was something that we wouldn't be able to do anyway, at least not without heading back to nearby villages to search for suitable sacrifice, but restoring the necropolis wouldn't be problem, even though we didn't agree to their terms. Exultant Falcon went back to the ship to inform them about our plan on staying behind for at least three weeks to work with the necropolis so they should sail back to Jades and return later to pick us up. Restoration work went more smoothly than we had expected and even the celestial lions said that they were impressed on the results.
Once the necropolis had been restored into condition the dead could be proud of, we turned our attention back into finding out more about the city itself. There were more manses within the city but apparently the Goblin King claimed them all, only thing of interest we found during the exploration was old hull of a first age airship, half buried into swamp and damaged beyond any hope of being repaired with our resources. Well, actually we did find something else as well, namely Rakshas, whole tower full of them but the Solars made deal with them for exchange for seven of the flyers they couldn't repair themselves. Apparently they were in war against the Goblin King and wanted us to help them to over throw the Goblin King but for once the Solars didn't jump onto the offer to help the Rakshas in their war against Creation.
Just in case the situation in the city was too clear, we found third party vying for power as well; small group of Dragon Kings. They were holed up into one of the massive towers just as the Raksha were, sending out small raiding parties for food and supplies when needed. They too were looking for allies in fight against the Solar God King and the Raksha, looking on the two other parties, it wasn't hard to see who presented the best ally should we, or might as well say when, take part in the coming battle for control of Rathess.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
19. lokakuuta 2006 kello 8.41
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Nimlas Dagorewen
19. lokakuuta 2006 kello 8.41
linkki
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Rathesin valloitus jatkuu... Herkkähipiäisille voitaneen kuitenkin kertoa että kaikki ei ole miltä ensin näyttää, satunnainen metsän elukka tosin menetti henkensä.
The Ruins of Rathess, Part Two: 1st of Resplendent Earth - 3rd of Resplendent Earth , RY 770
Summoning of the Goddess of Conquest and Awakening of the Dragon Kings
Season of Resplendent Earth
We spent few days talking with the Assistant Speaker for the Tribe who explained us the current situation from their point of view as well as hinted about the legend of Dragon Kings who had entered into some sort of hibernation during the Contagion. While he could tell us very little about their resting places, except that they were most likely somewhere underneath the city, they had few ancient tomes written in Old Realm script which we hoped would contain some hints about their location.
Sadly the books revealed very little, one was some sort of encyclopaedia and others contained religious lore, leaving us with only one option, to venture into the under city and find the vault the hard way. The conditions down there were what we expected them to be, some of the corridors had caved in while others were filled with stagnant water. Regardless of the horror stories Assistant Speaker for the Tribe told us, we met nothing more intelligent than frogs and other amphibians. Finally after hours spend wading trough the tunnels the Exultant Falcon noticed flow of essence on the wall, which centred into moss covered runes.
No matter where I come across the relics of the First Age, they never stop to amaze me. Regardless of our efforts to break trough the stonewall, it held us back without suffering even single scratch, after an hour of trying we decided to give up for now and return to the Dragon Kings in hopes of finding out how to open the doorway into the vault without having to resort hammering our way trough it. Just as with the location of the vaults, Assistant Speaker for the Tribe couldn't help us and neither could the tomes, again leaving us with one option, which could go very badly should we make mistake; we would try to summon Leeayta, the Lizard Queen.
Summoning the Goddess of conquest isn't something that you do lightly so, with the help of the Dragon King tribe, we sought out the largest temple dedicated to her and set to work to restore it into pristine condition. While others laboured restoring the temple, I flew back to our ship in Jade to retrieve pair unneeded artefact weapons we would offer to her, should she decide to appear. On the next evening, for the first time since the usurpation, servants of the Unconquered Sun and Luna raised their voices in both Old Realm and High Holy Speech before the whole Dragon Kind tribe to honour Leeayta and ask for her appearance.
Even though it was first time for me, and I think for Silver Dune as well, to hold true service, Leeayta was pleased with our performance and appeared before her flock. The Silver Dune presented our gifts to her and respectfully asked for her assistance on waking the sleeping Dragon Kings as well as her blessing for the upcoming battle, she revealed us the correct ritual to open the vaults and gave her blessing for the war. Somehow I got the feeling that she was more than pleased to receive offering and service but what I think pleased her the most was that we asked her blessing for war.
The next morning we gathered few of the Dragon Kings to come with us to awake the ancient Dragon Kings from their stasis. Within the vault we found two containers of some sort, one of them still intact but the other had broken down long time ago. The Exultant Falcon examined the intact cylinder for sometime before reaching to tab something he said should be the control panel for what ever that thing was. With sound of liquids draining away, the cylinder opened and revealed its occupant. After coughing up some liquid to get his lungs clear, the very first question he asked was that what year was it followed by if the contagion had passed.
In all, after going trough the remaining 3 vaults, one that had been broken into and looted, we found four surviving Dragon Kings. Their first priority was to start organizing the younger Dragon Kings into working core of society and after hearing our recap of the situation in Rathess, gearing up for the battle. The ancient Dragon Kind that called himself the Glitter Flame Presence assumed leadership of the tribe with militant efficiency while others managed with rounding up Stalkers from outside and their training to awaken their intelligence.
The Putrid Stench of Betrayal
Season of Resplendent Earth
Now that the Dragon Kings had their own to lead them, Exultant Falcon, Silver Dune and me held council about the matter of the three Celestial Lions guarding the cemetery and our deal with them. None of us were exactly jubilant about the idea of what we should do but there are unpleasant choices that must be done and knowing it would cause troubles with Ash or Sinje, it was decided that they shouldn't be involved into the matter. We left Ash and Sinje to Rathess to keep an eye for troubles and to help the tribe in their preparations while we would head back to Jades to pick up iron weapons, something we made certain not to mention to Sinje, and Exultant Falcon would head further north to inform the Cult of the Illuminated about the situation.
In retrospect I probably should have expected troubles from Ash and Sinje, which was why we tried to keep them in the dark about our true reason to travel to Jades. It took few days for Dune and me to locate orphan who fulfilled all but one of the requirements set by the lions, another few days to arrange and set in motion the chain of events that would satisfy the last one as well. When Exultant Falcon returned from his trip and we travelled back to Rathess, heading directly to the cemetery to conclude our deal.
We could tell that Ash and Sinje would try something the moment when we saw them coming towards us just as Silver Dune sanctified the deal with his anima. What I didn't expect was that they were willing to orchestrate scheme that, in the very best case would just stop the deal or more likely, result us breaching the very deal Silver Dune had just sanctified. Somehow Sinje had ended up with document that stated that she had adopted the child we had brought with us, therefore making her unsuitable for offering. If the celestial lions hadn't been standing next to us and requesting that no blood would be spilled within the graveyard, that evening would have most likely ended in bloodshed.
Silver Dune explained the lions that we had no knowledge about the adoption and as far as he saw, both parties had agreed into the deal without deception only to be backstabbed by a third party. We got lucky that time; Silver Dune had, knowingly or unknowingly, formulated our agreement so that, regardless of the betrayal, oath sanctifying it hadn't been broken. Exultant Falcon congratulated both Ash and Sinje for their work and reminded them that due to their actions, the blood of those Dragon Kings who would have survived with the help of the lions would now be on their hands.
Besides the troubles, that night did offer something for me; it provided one more answer that I could give to Unfettered Moon when I see him. It also taught that, should another situation like this arrive in the future, not only do some insist on sticking their nose into matters that they've been left out due to their views, but they'd be perfectly willing on trading lives of their circle mates over life of a mortal.
Unsurprisingly the mood was quite dark for the next few days before the gibbous moon reached its turning point and I left the Solars to revise the plan for war while heading into the jungle to seek out prey for Luna. At least, that is what they thought I would be doing while in fact I flew towards Jades. There was another child who met the criteria's as well and with small nudge would be suitable offering as well. This time I didn't have the luxury of time to check every angle like we did last time, merely to ensure that there were no signs of her being adopted and nudge her towards the right path. Once she fell asleep, I retrieved one of the flyers from ship and carried her to Rathess, closing our deal the lions without further troubles.
All in all, I hadn't slept for almost two days during the trip so I headed straight to our quarters, not bothering to keep quiet while removing my armour and ended up waking the others. Signs of sleep faded from their eyes quite rabidly when they saw me cleaning blood from my hands and armour while telling them that our agreement with the Celestial Lions had been fulfilled and they would fight on our side as promised.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
19. lokakuuta 2006 kello 8.51
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Nimlas Dagorewen
19. lokakuuta 2006 kello 8.51
linkki
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18. osa ja samalla kolmannen tarinan päätös. Taistelua Filian Wisdomia vastaan ja uuden tuttavuuden tapaamisen lisäksi tällä kertaa ei tapahtunut paljoakaan. Valtaosa pelistä kului sodan kanssa.
Confrontation of Powers: 3rd of Resplendent Earth - 6th of Descending Earth , RY 770
The Child of Luna, The Lunatic of Sun and the Battle for Rathess
Season of Resplendent Earth
Apparently Ash Mantis finally understood that some unpleasant things must happen in order to prevent more unpleasant happenings since he didn't cause more troubles during the following days like Sinje who took her ire onto Exultant Falcon. Perhaps I should tell them exactly what happened in the graveyard but on the other hand, letting them wallow on what they think happened will work as a reminder for them for now at least. The Glittering Flame Presence, one of the ancient Dragon Kings, was going trough our preliminary battle plan with us when one of the scouts returned to inform us that he had spotted beastman fighting with goblin patrol near the city gates. Knowing that we're relatively close to the territory of Ma-Ha-Suchi and the little detail that the scout had seen silvery anima flare, we set off to see if we could find this 'beastman' and whether he'd be friend or foe.
When we reached the city gate where the scout said he'd spotted the beastman, there were only dead goblins lying about in the feet of the towering beastman. Sight of his lion-man warform put my largest fear at ease; that Ma-Ha-Suchi himself had come to see what was going on near his territory. While Exultant Falcon was busy drooling after the moonsilver artefacts he wore, my attention was fixed on searching the tell tale signs which would tell me whom I was dealing with. His response to my greeting proved my hunch about him being one of the Nightfangs, he stomped right at me and demanded to know who I was. Much to Ash Mantises disappointment, fight didn't erupt, or at least not the kind of fight he was hoping for, but Onyx Ashen Mane averted his eyes from mine first and our relative standing was settled.
Onyx took his human form again as we walked towards the eastern tower where the Dragon Kings resided, even in his human form he towered almost a head taller than me. We talked some more during our walk trough the city though he appeared much like other Nightfangs I've spoken before, much like certain Dawn caste solar had been in the beginning of our journey, but I managed to pry little bits of knowledge out of him. Onyx had been initiated into the Pack not so long ago and he was out here to learn more about his powers before setting of to carve legacy to call his own.
We barely made it back to the tower before sounds of approaching army started to echo trough its halls, looking out from we saw that rather than wait for us to set our plan into motion, the Goblin King had decided to bring battle to us. While his goblin army swarmed towards the much smaller group of Dragon Kings who would take care of them, Filian poured his essence into leap that carried him directly into the tower, over two hundred yards from rest of his army. Heavens Moonsilver went to inform the celestial lions that the battle for Rathess had begun and rest of us fell onto Filian. Our first battle was over shortly with Vagran and me taking brunt of the beating, though our heavy armour deflected most of the strikes even they couldn't hold all his strikes from landing. Regardless, in the end he was forced to retreat with help of Han-Tha's magic. With their leader out of picture, the goblin army fell under combined barrage of battle magic from Exultant Falcon, Heaven's Moonsilver and Dragon Kings with murderous effect, those few who made it away from the slaughter were mopped up by lesser Dragon Kings and celestial lions.
After the surviving goblins were dealt with, one of the celestial lions approached us to inquire if we agreed that they had fulfilled their part of our agreement. Although they did slay some of the goblins, Silver Dune said that in his opinion the lions hadn't aided us against the Goblin King himself and thus their obligation wasn't fulfilled. Even though the celestial lions are spirits and their reactions aren't exactly same as those of mortals or exalts, their displeasure on his words was clear. When Glitter Flame Presence heard that Filian had retreated into his safe haven, inside the Great Temple of Sun, he informed us that he could open portal for us, a secret back door of sort, which would lead us directly into the temple's main chamber.
I wish I could have seen Filian's expression when the celestial lions leaped trough the portal. We jumped trough the portal right after them but by the time we had our bearings again, the Goblin King laid in pool of blood with claw marks all over his dead body. While the Solars went to make certain that he was truly dead this time, I bowed to the lions, thanking them for their assistance and, as far as I am concerned, I held their obligation fully fulfilled. The lions agreed that both parties now fulfilled our contract and returned to their duties guarding the cemetery.
Rathess, Reborn
Seasons of Resplendent and Descending Earth
With the battle against Filian now behind us, we spent few days resting and planning with the ancient Dragon Kings. Our next objective would be to drive off the Rakshas as well, which worked rather easily in the end. When they saw circle of celestials, group of ancient Dragon Kings and small army of lesser Dragon Kings, all armed with cold iron weapons, the Rakshas took heed from our hint, packed their gear and retreated back to Wyld.
We spent most of the following month repairing the most important parts of the city, concentrating on places like temples and few key structures in addition of repairing houses from human octet. The ancient Dragon Kings had their hands full on retraining the lesser Dragon Kings and repairing some of the essence driven machinery around the city. For the most parts the restoration work went without mishaps, every now and then we took time to talk about the plans the ancient Dragon Kings had for the city. One problem came up time after time, the Realm. Even with all the back stabbing going on between the great houses, once the Realm learns that the Dragon Kings have returned, they would spend no time to mobilize the Wyld Hunt as well as number of their legions in order to crush the budding nation.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 3.51
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 3.51
linkki
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'Pienoisen' tauon jälkeen, ja kun tässä junassa istuessa on riittävähkön tylsää, voisi laittaa lisää turinoita liikkeelle. 19 episodi, Filianin kosto haudan takaa ja taas kerran silpastaan Creationin halki parannuksen perässä.
Deadly Vector 6th of Descending Earth - 28th of Descending Earth, RY 770
Filian's Revenge from Behind the Grave
Season of Descending Earth
It looks like hoping for Filian to rest quietly was too much to ask, even after his demise his legacy continues to haunt us. The wounds he caused to Vagran during our battle last month have refused to heal and he is still lingering on brink of death. In addition to that, Ash, Dune and I have started to show symptoms of some sort of disease. More troubling matter about this disease is that, what ever it is, it's diminishing our essence and proved to be incurable with the resources that the Dragon Kings or us could provide in Rathess. Even one of the most potent medicines known during the Age of Sorrows, the Sweet Cordial that Falcon brought from Nexus, had very little, if any, effect on disease. Silver Dune seemed to suffer from worst infection, small sparks of essence glimmering in every bead of his sweat, Ash and me weren't as badly affected but both of us could feel the disease gnawing us. None of us knew how badly ill Vagran was, but since he hadn't healed at all, it was safe to assume that he was infected as well.
We had little bit of luck though, when we cleared out the Invisible Fortress we came across with rather potent artefact dating back to the First Age which, according the legends, had power to cure even the Great Contagion. That was the good news; the bad news was that in order to heal anything, it needed small supply of rare herbs and more importantly, two special ingredients that could only be found in the wyld. If this wasn't enough troubles already, Exultant Falcon managed to tick off Heaven's Moonsilver badly enough for her to challenge him into a duel, when we found him; he was laying on the ground with gateway piece half buried into his ribcage.
Next morning we worked up some sort of a plan, naturally the reagents from Wyld would be found on the opposite sides of Creation. Exultant Falcon would head westwards with Sinje and some other Raksha from Nexus while rest of us would head north. Sinje and Ash had some kind of telepathic link trough which they could talk with each other so naturally we didn't work out plans on where to meet in case of said link should fail, optimism which did come around to bite us later. We really should have seen it coming in the light of our past experiences.
Lurking Dangers of the Wyld
Season of Descending Earth
The Dragon Kings provided us with one of their transports for our trip to north that would cut our travel time quite considerably. Even with their transport, our estimation about the speed that the disease was progressing was that we'd have only a week, two at the most for any unseen delays. Luck was on our side during the flight, as we didn't run into any delays before reaching the edge of Creation where we landed for a short while to plan how to proceed and to bury Vagran who had finally succumbed to his wounds.
Area on which we landed was still within border-marches, there Creation is still the dominant force and incidentally, it was as deep as the Solars could safely venture into the Wyld without protective charms, which neither Ash nor Dune knew. Naturally this didn't stop either of them on venturing deeper, into the Middle-Marches where the creatures described as unicorns could be found, with us regardless of near certain twisting effects the Wyld would have on both of them.
It took only few days before the effects of the Wyld begun to show on Ash and Dune. Luckily, quite relative expression I think, they both only suffered mild mutations, Ash coming out almost unscathed, his mutation was barely noticeable bulging of his frame. Silver Dune, however, weren't as lucky. Faint stubble on his face quickly spread across his entire body in matter of days, turning into stripped fur much like mine except it was black on golden-yellow base where mine is black on pure white. It could've been much worse though, it's not unheard that people who have gone as deep into the Wyld as we did to grow extra arms, wings or go blind or even start decomposing while still staying alive until there's nothing left of his body, even then some poor souls wouldn't die. But as I said earlier, they got reasonable lucky this time.
We found pair of unicorns after about a week of searching, dealt with them without problems and harvested their horns. Well, almost without problems. The link between Ash and Sinje got severed during the fight, according to Ash when one of the unicorns tried to impale him with its horn. By this time our other group had managed to reach western Wyld zones and was probably heading back, only problem was that we hadn't worked out a plan for inevitable loss of contact with each other to workout location for rendezvous. We really should have seen this well in advance but it didn't do any good to worry about it anymore.
Since we couldn't contact Falcon and others, we decided to head to Icehome at first, leave message to there for them to head to Nexus where we waited fruitlessly for a week before leaving word to there as well to head to Rathess as fast as possible. By the time Exultant Falcon and Sinje finally arrived, both Ash and Dune were already showing steadily worsening symptoms of the disease, in addition wounds Ash had suffered in fight with the unicorns had refused to heal just as wounds Vagran had. Now that we had all necessary reagents needed to use the ancient artefact, we could finally ruin Filian's last attempt of revenge.
Messengers of the Cult
Season of Descending Earth
Shortly after we returned to Rathess, Father Longroad arrived with group of cultists to continue work on repairing the city and take care of the temple. While most of the cultists went straight to work, Father Longroad expressed his deep concern about the spiritual growth of our Solars. According to him, the leaders of the cult were growing concerned that they would turn into 'loose cannons' like Iron Lotus and would very much like them to return to Sequested Tabernacle for more learning. While he never said it directly or even hinted about the matter, the way he set his words made it quite clear that, should their wishes be ignored, it would be most unfortunate that we'd come across more people willing to test our skill on surviving ambushes.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 3.56
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 3.56
linkki
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20. episodi kertookin jälleen matkustelusta ympäriinsä, sitä tuli tehtyä ihan riittämiin. Exultant Falcon liittyy Silver Pactiin ja uusia 'liittolaisia' putkahtelee kuin sieniä sateella...
Reunions 28th of Descending Earth - 21th of Resplendent Fire, RY 770
From Rathess to Great Forks
From Season of Descending Earth to Ascending Wood
The great wheel turned once again, with it turned next page in Exultant Falcons life even though he didn't know what was to come in the near future. Before we left Rathess for the last time, I borrowed one of the Dragon Kings orbs for few days. Since Silver Dune was planning on staying behind this was my last change to track down my old ring, though I already had pretty good idea where it was and regardless of my hopes that I had guessed wrong; our path weaved to the edges of the Shadowland. On the bright side, I knew now that the ring would be kept safe. On the down side, as long as it stayed where it was, it could be used as a link to find me. By the time we returned from our little trip, others had already finished loading up the Hound of Heaven and were just waiting for me.
We bid our farewells to Silver Dune and the ancient Dragon Kings, and then we set sail down stream. Our first stop was in Jades from where we picked up two terrestrial passengers, not on our own volition though. I went to see if I could find out latest news and rumours from local garrison, when I came back to dock, servants were busy loading the terrestrials luggage onto our ship. Needless to say, Exultant Falcon took rather dim view on this and wanted to know what was the meaning of this and complained to the dynast that his ship was already rented to me. This didn't phase the dynast in the least, he was adamant to get transport out of Jades and he was willing to pay good price for one; detail that somewhat calmed Exultant Falcon. Just for once, our normal luck didn't come to bite us, our trip down Grey River until it met with Yanaze River and again up stream until Great Forks went without any troubles. With two dynasts onboard, peace and quiet was more than welcome.
During the trip, our two passengers mentioned that Cynis Nasec was planning on throwing another party around the end of the Ascending Wood and soon Ash and Sinje were planning on crashing into there. Problem for them was that most of the parties the terrestrials held were invitation only so they'd need to produce one of their own. It took some asking around for me to find Nasec in time and to talk him into handing me one, which I then showed to Ash so he could forge one for himself and Sinje. Why exactly he was so interested on getting into the party, I have no ideas but at least there weren't any troubles because of it.
Exultant Falcon and the Unfettered Moon
Season of Resplendent Wood
As the season of Ascending Wood turned, I met with the Unfettered Moon to talk with him about what had happened since our last meeting and to ask if he would like to meet with the Exultant Falcon before we continue our travel towards the training camps. Later that night I told the news to Exultant Falcon who weren't exactly pleased to hear that I had arranged a meeting between him and one of the elders without asking his opinion. Regardless of being trapped into the matter like this, he grudgingly agreed that better to get the matter settled now, especially after I mentioned that the time had ran out and whether he wanted or not; he had meeting with the elders.
We arrived to the groove where Unfettered Moon was waiting for us on the evening of the fourth day of the Resplendent Wood. Remembering his behaviour earlier when I told him about the meeting, Exultant Falcon behaved quite politely towards Unfettered Moon when I introduced her. Unfettered Moon talked mostly to Exultant Falcon during the evening, only asking few questions from me. I could see Exultant Falcon straining his ears to overhear her questions, especially my answer to a seemingly innocent question; "Is he honourable?" He was quite nervous for a moment while Unfettered Moon examined him silently before letting him know the real reason why I had brought him here, invitation to join the Silver Pact, a rare honour to for those who aren't Luna's Beloved. Judging from the look on Exultant Falcons face, this was something he really hadn't expected.
Once Exultant Falcon had accepted the invitation, not that I think he had much of a choice, in his mind at least, rest of the evening went more or less with Unfettered Moon explaining what was to come and who would be present during his initiation. At least one of the true elders, Ma-Ha-Suchi, would arrive to over see his initiation, if for no other reason but to cast his voice of disapproval. If other elders would arrive, she couldn't know for certain. In any case, it would be another month before his trials would begin; large gatherings such as this take time. While she didn't say it, it also meant that Ebon Feather, Heaven's Moonsilver and me had one season to make certain that Exultant Falcon would be ready. Heaven's Moonsilver and Ebon Feather would also take part in his initiation as their part in Pact dictates, they would join other No Moons examining his performance while rest of us, Ash, Onyx and me would just enjoy the show.
The Return of the Vanisher, the Ebon Feather's Dead Brother?
Season of Resplendent Wood
Following month wasn't exactly enjoyable for Exultant Falcon as he honed his skills for the initiation, spending most of his time between physical exercises listening our tales about our own tests and about the Silver Way. Amidst the training, Ebon Feather approached each of us in turn, apologising his past actions and the troubles he had caused. My first thought was to tell him to take his pleas to someone who cares but luckily I bit my tongue while thinking, Ebon Feather growing rather agitated as he waited. In the end, regardless of my first thought, I agreed to let the past slide into the mist of memories where it would be slowly forgotten.
While most of our time went to train Exultant Falcon, there was still enough time to see into our own side projects. Ash disappeared into the underworld to seek out what ever picked his interest, I continued burrowing my way trough the ranks of patricians towards the inner circle of the Dynasties and Sinje spent most of her time teaching the little girl she had adopted. Among all other matters, we also did little smooching up with Lookshy. Falcon and Ash worked to craft ancient maintenance manual for one of the warbirds we retrieved from Rathess; once their forgery was completed we loaded it onto wagon and hauled it to embassy of Lookshy. Needless to say, they were quite willing to accept our generous donation and would have loved to purchase information about where we had found the automaton. Sadly for them, we turned down their offer but promised to keep Lookshy in mind should we come across with something similar.
Few days later Ash found out something that picked up Ebon Feathers interest, apparently there was master thief running amok in Great Forks. Not that this was anything new but according the rumours, this thief went by the name of Bandit and his methods sounded awfully similar to those used by Vanisher, Ebon Feathers dead brother. While I was busy with laying ground works among the dynasts, they worked out a plan to draw this Bandit out into open and reunite the two brothers. Their plan was rather simple, put out word that they were selling quite valuable artefact and then wait for him to make his move to snatch it away.
It took few days for the word to seep trough the underworld but it did work in the end and meeting was set up between would be buyer and Ash who had disguised himself into scavenger lord. He weren't alone in the meeting though, Sinje used her magic to hid herself while Ebon Feather took form of raven, Heaven's Moonsilver hung from ceiling in form of her totem and me, I was the tiny mouse in the shadows. Meeting with the prospecting buyer, a young woman, went without troubles; Ash asking little more than she could afford but promising to wait if there were no other buyers, he'd lower the price into her offer.
While others stayed behind, I followed the lady away from the meeting place and along the alleyways. Not once did she notice the various small creatures trailing her to the inn where Ash's alias had his dwellings. She discarded her cumbersome dress in the back alley and continued her way dressed in sleek silken infiltrator suit. By the time she had scaled the wall onto the second floor and was busy jimmying the window, small squirrel had ran up to the roof where I returned into human form. I doubt she was expecting what happened next, her attention was fixed on cutting the window while hanging from the third storey windowsill with her toes and she didn't notice me reaching down to grip her from the roof. Next thing she knew, she was dangling above the alley from her ankle.
This didn't phase her all that badly though, her immediate reaction was to try to pry herself loose from my grasp but once that didn't work she pulled out firewand and asked if I was feeling lucky. Her bluff didn't work as planned though as I extended one of the claws from my bracers and cut her firewand into bits. By now Ash and Ebon Feather were standing around as well, Bandit's reaction on seeing her brother was one of disbelief while Ash was once again wondering how Ebon Feather's brother was actually his sister, I would have thought he would have grown used onto things such as this by now.
Once Ebon Feather was assured that he was indeed looking at his brother's reincarnation, we could start asking her about her side of the story. There weren't much to learn though; apparently there was some sort of stronghold in the south from where her old allies operated. While Bandit's story didn't shed much light into the situation there and whether they'd pose threat to us, we should be able to find their base should it come to that. There was another thing to take care first though, her caste hadn't been locked yet but luckily that would be easy to take care of. While Bandit stayed with us, Ebon Feather headed to inform the elders about new Lunar whose caste should be determined.
The Great Gathering of the Silver Pact
Season of Descending Wood
The day for Exultant Falcons initiation finally came around. I had expected large gathering since two elders were going to arrive but the gathering that appeared before us as we glided into the glen was something beyond my wildest expectations. Ma-Ha-Suchi stood out from in his warform, near by stood Lilith, one of the greatest among the Changing Moon's, all in all, over third of all Luna's Beloved had gathered around the glen. Unfettered Moon came to greet us and pointed out various elders, quickly explaining who was who, pointing our Lilith in particular with casual remark that her impression on Falcon would mean great deal for him. Once Luna had taken her place on the sky, Unfettered Moon cleared her voice and explained once again why she had called for the gathering.
First of Exultant Falcon's trials was rather simple, as far as trials go at least. Tree standing on the side of the glen had been stripped bare, sap seeping on its trunk making it quite slippery. Dyke around its base boasted pointed spears to impale Exultant Falcon should he slip and fall and at the top of the tree; there was small birds nest with eggs. His task was to get those eggs without breaking them. It didn't take long for him to shoot bundles of arrows onto the tree and use them as steps to make his way to the nest. Once back on the ground, Exultant Falcon brought one egg to Unfettered Moon before presenting another to Lilith.
His second trial would measure his ability to work with spirits. According to Unfettered Moon, valley someway from here had spirit that had broken away from its natural place in local hierarchy. Not only had it broken away from its place but apparently it had also slain some of the nearby village. Hearing her explanation about Falcons next task, I got quite distinct feeling of dread. The spirit she was talking about, Demise, was the guardian spirit for my manse and if Exultant Falcon were going to deal with it, he'd most likely stumble onto my manse as well. Few hours after his departure, I felt as my link to my manse was severed at the same time as my hearthstone cracked. I should have known he wouldn't be able to leave manse such as mine alone.
Exultant Falcons reception back at the gathering was not exactly what he had expected as I had quick few words with him about disrupting manse belonging to someone else before setting off towards my manse. I had few words with Demise as well, letting my displeasure on his actions show quite clearly while attuning my manse once again. Third trial was trial of wits; Unfettered Moon challenged Exultant Falcon into game of riddles. While he didn't work out them all, he knew enough to pass the final trial.
In a way, there was fourth trial except I'm not certain if it was planned. Ma-Ha-Suchi claimed that Exultant Falcons performance was the lousiest he had ever seen to which Exultant Falcon responded by questioning his eyesight. That led into foregone conclusion; luckily it didn't go beyond few off handed swipes and muttered words before Ma-Ha-Suchi stormed away to return to his territory. With the initiation rites completed, it was time for the gathering to kick into high gear. Burning Moons wasted no time before they had circles drawn into sand and boasting about ones deeds could begin before they tested their strengths. Ash found out that he too was expected to step into the circle more than once or twice, many of the younger Lunars wanted to see how they did against Solar.
Exultant Falcon was left alone for the most part, he spent his time listening Lilith talking about first age and the person who she remembered. He didn't make it trough the morning unscathed though, he too was called out few times to step into the ring. I too took advantage of the situation and nudged him into the ring both to see how well I would do against him without our magic and to teach him a lesson about disrupting my manse. As Luna started to approach the horizon, the creatures of nearby lands trembled in fear. The entire gathering set out to hunt, with huge gathering such as this; we passed all but most dangerous of game.
Burrowing Deeper into the Halls of the Great Houses
Seasons of Resplendent and Descending Wood
Amidst everything else, I continued my work on making my way behind the closed doors of the dynasties. It didn't take much to notice that, should I wish to dwell deeper, I would need more weight to throw around among the dynasties. For an Outcaste such as me, there are few ways to gain power in the games of power. In theory, being able to draw six celestials into the picture would be more than enough to be used as leverage. Unfortunately it would also quarantine another visit from the Wyld Hunt and ruin everything I've worked so far. Another way is trust the power of jade, again something that I have very limited amount of. Then there is the age old way, latch onto someone who already has enough weight behind their words and use their draft to build up your own powerbase.
It took better part of the month to coax Nasec into lending some of his prestige to open more doors and introduce his new protégée to other dynasts around the Great Forks. Some of them I had spoken before but those had always been just casual small talk to pass time, carefully thought ahead of time to appear pleasant while actually meaning nothing. This time their words were filled with subtle nuances and hints, I spent most of my time just listening Nasec and others, learning where to look for hints and clues. Once the guest had left, I would tell him my impression about the topic they had spoken about and what, if any, hidden meanings there was.
Where Nasec could rely on years of experience, I had to trust my instincts and quick wit while testing my wings among the social jungle. By the end of the month, I began to have inkling of idea about the social standing of various dynasts in Great Forks, which incidentally is the most dangerous time since it's quite easy to make assumptions based on those bare bone ideas. Luckily most of my mistakes weren't too grave and, in some extend, were expected from someone who hadn't had the luck to be born into the Realm. Another thing that hampered me from time to time was that I knew few words of High Realm but nothing that could be called of being fluent by a long shot so I asked Ruika if she could tutor me.
After we came back from Exultant Falcons initiation, Nasec continued to guide me trough the tangled web of dynastic policies. Dealings became quite a lot simpler as my grasp on High Realm improved and I could listen in on people more easily.
Looking backwards, past two month were quite hectic. Ruika could spare time to tutor me during the mornings before she had to tend to her other students, then few hours helping Exultant Falcon, from there to run errands for Nasec and to listen his explanation about the people we'd meet that day. Afterwards we went trough every meeting once again with him pressing me about the things I had noticed and if I had made out anything that could later be used for advantage.
Towards Gethamane and the Sequested Tabernacle
From Season of Ascending Fire to Resplendent Fire
Once I returned from my manse with new hearthstone to replace the one Exultant Falcon had shattered, we begun preparing to set sail on our new ship which Exultant Falcon christened as 'Hope'. While our old ship had its own charm, our seemingly ever-growing group would've been hard pressed on finding enough room on it, let alone cabins. Long ago, when we first set sail from Nexus, our group consisted just 4 celestials, Sinje and 6 mortals. From that small group we've grown into pack of 6 Luna's Beloved alone, Exultant Falcon and Ash Mantis represent Solars and finally Sinje. In addition there's old crew of the Hound of Heaven, Falcon's own discipline, Sinjes daughter and new sailors we hired from Great Forks, all in all, over score of mortals travel with us.
On matter of mortals and our crew, knowing our luck when it comes on smooth sailing, I probably broke more than few taboos for the sailors during our trip down stream. Each evening when we stopped for the night, those sailors who didn't have duties to perform at the moment, matter that I checked from Gavril each day, were assembled onto the beach to learn something they almost universally abhorred; swimming. It took some work getting them into the water but I managed to make progress anyway and while most of them didn't learn much, most of them learned enough to stay afloat long enough so that if, or when, they fall overboard we'd have time to sent someone with boat to fish them out.
As we sailed upstream on River of Tears, Ebon Feather, Heaven's Moonsilver and Bandit came to have a word with me. They were planning on forming pack of their own and wanted to know if Onyx and me would join them as well. If it had been just Heaven's Moonsilver and Ebon Feather, I would have most likely accepted their offer, what Onyxes answer was, I didn't ask nor hear it. While I have tentative trust towards Ebon Feather, his brother needs to prove himself to be different from his last incarnation. I doubt I won any points with Bandit for my answer, but until I know him better, I don't think I'd feel comfortable accepting him into same pack, let alone accept blood bond with him.
Our journey towards Gethamane went uneventful until mid Resplendent Fire when lookout shouted that another ship, half covered in mist, was gaining on us. Exultant Falcon took post in the bow, next to the implosion bow he bought from Great Forks along with the ship while rest of us waited to see if our luck would hold true once again. As the smaller ship drew closer, we could make out the lone figure standing at its bow, holding white flag over his head. Soon we could recognise the person holding the flag as well, someone who I hadn't seen for over a year, the Undefeated Raven of the Perfect Dusk.
Messengers of the Mask of Winters
Season of Resplendent Fire
There was some muttering amongst the crew that Exultant Falcon should sink Raven's ship before it was too late once they noticed the undead crew toiling on the approaching ship. Luckily Exultant Falcon didn't do what our crew silently hoped for but when they pulled alongside with us, that were as far as his hospitality towards the dead went, his reply to Raven's request to be allowed to step onto Hope's deck was flat no. While I could understand Exultant Falcon's distrust towards him, death knights were the reason for his forced retirement from the Guild and banishment from Nexus, I wish he'd get over the past sooner or later. There was another death knight on boat with Undefeated Raven but she was new for me, apparently Mask of Winters didn't trust Raven to be able to make the journey alone.
The standoff went on for a while; finally Exultant Falcon gave up and allowed Undefeated Raven to come aboard to deliver his message. By now every crewmember that didn't have important things to do on deck had disappeared below which suited me just fine. Once on board, he pulled out scroll and begun reading the message within. Apparently Mask of Winters had indeed taken note from letter I sent to him after our run in with the Thousand Dark Flames in Nexus, sadly his message had stayed the same even though it was coated with pleasantries.
He repeated his request, although this time it was worded into invitation, to join him in the, soon to be, conquered city of Kirighast for victory celebration. He also gave his assurances of safe passage to anyone who would travel with me, both to the city as well as away from there. Not surprisingly, Exultant Falcon refused straight away, Ash agreed with him while Sinje stayed silent. For my part, I wanted to have some time to think about my answer to his invitation, which Undefeated Raven said I should accept, if for nothing else, then for his sake since Mask of Winters would probably extract some sort of price from him for failing.
Undefeated Raven invited me for dinner on his ship since Exultant Falcon made it quite clear that as far as he was concerned, Undefeated Raven could starve rather than gain benefit of his hospitality. While I didn't have anything against his invitation, Ashen Cricket weren't that keen on the idea when I extended the invitation to him as well but he accepted it in the end. We mostly spoke about what each of us had been doing since our last meeting except Ashen Cricket who just sat there quietly like he'd been served his last meal. Finally, after some probing, he spilled his reason for being sore puss, he couldn't understand how I could enjoy dinner with undead.
I honestly doubt he would have understood if I had told him that, ever since our visit in the Castle of Crimson Ice, dining with undead or deathknights weren't such a big deal. He did calm down a bit after Undefeated Raven got my hint and showed Ashen Cricket that he did have blood running in his veins and it was same colour as blood in mine. After the display, mood around the table rose a bit. During our conversation I tried to pry some knowledge about his companion, Maiden of the Mirthless Smile, but barring her name and some inconsequential bits all I could work out was that apparently she was there to make sure Undefeated Raven wouldn't get any funny ideas as well as to keep him safe.
As for the invitation, to it I promised to give my answer in the morning after I'd have time to think it over. More than that, I'll needed the time to try and come up a plan on how to turn Exultant Falcons head on the matter if straight question doesn't work. Another problem is the Cult of the Illuminated, should they learn about the invitation, which is almost given, they'll want to know why. If they learn the reason as well, they'll attempt to use if for their advantage. With this in mind, I'll need to pay a lot more attention during our stay in the Sequested Tabernacle; the very last thing I'll need is to give the Cult way to find me.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.02
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.02
linkki
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21. episodi; tällä kertaa käytiin morjestamassa Mask of Winterssiä tämän viihtyisässä linnassa mätänevän jättiläisen selässä... Ei ehkä niitä kaikistain parhaita ideoita mutta toisaalta, kaikki selvisivät hengissä ja jotain hyvääkin saatiin selville.
Another Visit in the Sequested Tabernacle
Season of Resplendent Fire
Rest of our trip to Gethamane was uneventful once Undefeated Raven and his escort had turned back towards Thorns with my reply that I would accept Mask of Winters invitation but, barring unexpected developments, it would be sometime around season of Earth that he should expect my arrival. I was quite surprised on how easy it was to talk others into accompanying me into Mask of Winters citadel. Will it be enough to change the outcome from that the dreams whisper about, I hope so but only time will tell.
We left our ship's crew along with rest of our Lunar companions to Gethamane and loaded three warbirds onto wagons to haul them outside of the city before taking to air. I'm not sure what Exultant Falcon told to Lilith so she wouldn't accompany us to the Cults hideout but on the other hand, I'm not so certain that her reaction to their tales would've been good. It's quite different thing to tell about the First Age and how things were to us that have no real knowledge except for broken dreams than to someone who actually lived trough the end of age.
If there's one thing to say about Exultant Falcon, he sure likes making flamboyant entrances. We swooped over the rice paddies, bright golden glistening of our warbirds pulling the eyes of the cultists toiling on their fields towards the sky, before landing directly at the main entrance of the Tabernacle. First of the residents to arrive was Krinster Orr, followed by Amaya and Shadowy Rose. Once the opening pleasantries were exchanged, Amaya led us into the manse where we could discuss more privately about reason why the Cult wanted us to return.
As Father Longroad said in Rathess, the Cult was starting to get worried about our, though I suspect they mostly meant Exultant Falcon and Ash, spiritual education. With this in mind, they hoped that Exultant Falcon would continue his studies and strive to gain more enlightened status within the Cult. Naturally, should he accept their offer, he could begin his studies immediately and they should only take about a year. Even though Exultant Falcon were tentatively interested on their offer, he turned it down with explanation that there we couldn't spare year for training, not mentioning the crew of his ship waiting in Gethamane who would probably drink his ship away while waiting.
Amaya also told us how Krinsters attempt to infiltrate Mask of Winters stronghold had gone, while it didn't go as bad as I had thought, it had gone badly. Krinster had been able to escape but his companion, Hira, weren't so lucky and she had been captured by Mask of Winters troops and her fate was unknown. I'm don't remember exactly who mentioned that we were planning on heading to the Mask of Winters citadel but once Krinster heard about it, he immediately said that he would join us. While we couldn't talk him out of coming, Exultant Falcon managed to coy Krinster into accepting his leadership. In addition to his radiant self, Krinster would bring small, handpicked, group of Tiger Warriors with him, which we wouldn't hopefully need.
Once the official businesses were concluded, Krinster challenged us into grudge match at that same game we played on our previous visit. This time our team consisted Onyx and Sinje while Krinster teamed up with Pia. I don't know how Krinster trains, but judging from the game, it does very little to improve his performance. Our last game ended three one or two, not sure which, this time the local team got their behind handed to them three to zero. Immediately after the match, Krinster proposed that Sinje and Onyx would join the local team, he would love having them playing in Sequested Tabernacles team against southern camp.
Much to his annoyance, Exultant Falcon found out that unless we'd be willing to spend almost a month at the Tabernacle, he would be demoted into hauling the Tiger Warriors to Gethamane with his travelling spell. While he was busy playing glorified coacher, I focused on studying what books I could find concerning both Realm and Immaculate Order. I would have preferred on expanding Eye of the Storm's spell book with spells from Cult's scrolls but sadly they were restricted for those who had already joined the Cult. Never the less, I could find few interesting titbits from the encyclopaedias I red that shed more light into inner workings of the great houses.
Towards the Great City of the Dead, Sijan
From season of Descending Fire to end of Calibration
Little over a week after our arrival to Sequested Tabernacle, and judging from Exultant Falcons face a week too late, Krinsters group of Tiger Warriors was transported to our ship in Gethamane and we could start packing our gear to join them. Amaya gave us another net that we should throw over Mask of Winters, don't know if she remembers but she gave us one on our previous visit as well. From what I understand, it should not harm him per say but ground him into Creation long enough for the Sidereals to read his fate. Somehow I can't help to think that they aren't telling everything it does and in their mind, losing one group of Solars might well be favourable trade for the knowledge they'd gain.
While the sail downriver towards Sijan was calm and quiet, I can't say the same for myself. The dreams started once again, only now they were more vivid than before, in some cases more vivid than I would have hoped for. The immense hatred and blackness beyond, whispering voices, freezing grip; while I only saw it once long time ago, I still awake covered with cold sweat every time I saw that dream and no matter what, I just couldn't stop shivering. More than anything, there are so many questions that the nightmares raise that can only be answered by meeting with him. Even then, does Mask of Winters even know the answers himself or will it all be for nothing?
Lilith said very little on the subject when I tried to pry her once again, only repeating that she never could understand what I, or Mithra, saw in him. Why can't she explain more or even hint what there is that she isn't saying, at times I really can't understand the elders. She hasn't mentioned my questions nor the times when she saw me staggering from my cabin to others though, of that I can only be grateful for her. Those few nights that I didn't have nightmares from the past, they kept whispering about future, showing glimpses on what might happen or would happen should I try to avert them. One thing came painfully clear though, regardless what I'd do; I would soon meet him.
We arrived to Sijan with just few days before Calibration; we would stay in the great necropolis for the Calibration and continue our travel when the spirit courts had settled again. When I think back, we really didn't plan arriving to Sijan just for the Calibration, our plan was just to seek out nearest dock when time came but here we are. It's one year since the battle of Mount Metagalapa and one year since Eye of the Storm died. Visiting his memorial was natural choice and small part of me just wanted to see what kind of memorial Heaven's Moonsilver had had the Mortician Order build for his memory. She guided us to ascetic monument with just his name and date of death carved onto its side, only other decoration was small showcase with replicas of his tiger claws and glass flower Sinje made in it.
The Growing Shadowland of What Used to be Kirighast
Season of Ascending Air
With Calibration behind us, we headed towards Lookshy, which would be our final stop before turning southwards towards Kirighast. Harbour looked as busy as ever when we docked, Lookshy official coming onboard almost immediately. The Seventh Legion would hire our ship to transport cargo to unspecified location, whether it would suit our fancy or not. On the bright side, their cargo was heading south so it wouldn't cause much of delay and barring the unlucky, for our passengers, event of them learning that there were eight celestials on board with them, hauling their cargo would work to offset the cost of our trip.
The cargo turned out to be both men and crates of gear, along with half a dozen Dragonblooded officers. Once we were on our way, they revealed that our destination was near Celeren, which was some way north from the Shadowlands Mask of Winters had created when he conquered Thorns. With little encouragement from Exultant Falcon, Krinster agreed to keep quiet about the glorious light of the Unconquered Sun until our guests were safely on land again.
Harbour of Kirighast was quite different from our previous visit, this time our ship was the only ship in sight. Reason for the quiet was readily apparent as we gazed towards the city; many of the buildings had suffered some degree of damage, as had the fortifications around the harbour itself. In addition to the signs of past battle, there were no signs of life. According Exultant Falcon, Shadowland was expanding around the city at astonishing rate but for some reason it didn't expand more than hundred meters towards the sea.
Rather than scout on foot Exultant Falcon took one of the warbirds while I took form of eagle and we flew over the apparently abandoned city. My search revealed very little but Exultant Falcon was luckier, if you want to call it that, he saw some sort of machine on one of the hills that belched black ooze and smoke. His closer investigation also revealed large gages filled with people being feed to the infernal machine, there were also five Abyssals overseeing the process. There was short but rather heated argument about what to do next once we returned to the ship. Solars wanted to attack the Abyssals and save the people who were being slaughtered while I reminded them that Mask of Winters wouldn't look it too keenly should we attack his troops while we had his tentative promise of safe passage to Juggernaut. Two Abyssals signalling us from the shore, asking if this was the ship of Exultant Falcon interrupted our argument over the matter.
On shore, we met Maiden of Mirthless Smile and Undefeated Raven who said that it was unfortunate that we had arrived so soon to witness the gruesome method used in expanding the Shadowland. He also explained that Mask of Winters weren't in Kirighast but some hundred miles north from here and that there was small harbour near the Juggernaut where we could leave our ship for the visit. While Exultant Falcon couldn't get Raven to promise that they would stop sacrificing the people to expand the Shadowland, Undefeated Raven agreed to pause it for duration of our visit as gesture of good will.
Juggernaut, the Citadel of the Mask of Winters
Season of Ascending Air
Little before our arrival to the harbour, Krinster came to me and said that since I had been invited by Mask of Winters, I should take the net Cult had given him and throw it onto the Deathlord. Apparently Sinje had once again shown her complete lack of restrain on divulging knowledge to those who really do not need to know everything about the matter in question. Luckily Krinster weren't coming with us to the Juggernaut, claiming that he couldn't be certain about his abilities to keep his divine glory from shining. Heaven's Moonsilver, Ebon Feather and Bandit would also stay behind along with rest of the crew; together they should be enough to ensure that when we return from the Juggernaut, there would still be ship waiting for us.
We walked towards the looming Juggernaut in uneasy quiet, Undefeated Raven leading the way. Mask of Winters' citadel appearing before us once we reached to the top of stairs running alongside the Juggernaut, unlike the Fortress of Red Ice, this one was build from black stone. As it was on our visit with the Lover Clad in Reinment of Tears, Undefeated Raven explained that Deathlord himself was going to meet us little later and he would show us our rooms first. Unsurprisingly, our rooms followed the same theme as rest of the castle did; black walls, black velvet, and black satin, everything was black. Even with knowing where Lovers' citadel got its crimson colour, I think I liked her taste on decoration a lot more than Mask of Winters.
Later that evening Raven returned to inform us that Mask of Winters was expecting us in the main hall. No matter how I tried to shy away, the pull in my heart was steadily tugging me towards the main hall and, given the ease which I could feel his emotions; he was sure to know the uneasiness of my mind. When we entered into the main hall, his eyes fixed themselves onto me immediately, whether he saw what he wanted or not, I couldn't tell, his face hidden behind mask made from ice leaving only his eyes visible. Once Undefeated Raven had knelt before him and announced our arrival, the Mask of Winters asked if I had finally accepted what he thought as my destiny. While I didn't deny it directly, I couldn't say for certain what I thought at the time since there was still so many things that I would need to find out. He then continued into the matter I wish he wouldn't bring up, specially in front of everyone else since getting them to keep quiet about his question would most likely be more than little difficult.
The big question, would I renew the ancient oath dating back to the First Age and stay in his citadel as my destiny said. While I first declined his request, saying that there was still much for me to see and much to find out in the Creation, there was short moment of indecision before clear though. Why was I so worried about this meeting in the first place and so determined to leave on first opportunity? The Mask of Winters weren't the evil monster others claimed him to be and now that I thought about it, tomorrows wedding were awfully near and there was lot that I should be doing before then. Before Lilith guided me towards our rooms to fit the wedding dress, we remembered Krinsters companion Hira whose fate we should also try to find out. After quick thought, Mask of Winters said that since I had asked, he would give the elemental dragon to me as a wedding gift.
Back in our room Lilith dismissed the servants who had been waiting for us and asked few pointed questions that lifted the veil of magic from my mind. My short burst of anger went by soon and was replaced by same unease I felt on our way to the citadel. Little later we were all gathered to think what we should do next, Exultant Falcon thought that we should hightail right away rather than risk that someone notices that the charms on us had failed. Under claim that we wanted to explore the citadel, we made it all almost to the stairs leading down onto the ground before we remembered Hira, if we'd run away now, she would rot in the citadels dungeons. After little thought on the matter, we decided to try to spring her before making our own escape and Exultant Falcon dropped one of his cufflinks to fabricate excuse for another convenient reason to take a walk outside.
The Undefeated Raven was waiting for us at the main entrance; he said that we shouldn't wander outside since, regardless of their assurances that we'd be looked after, it was apparently quite dangerous to move outside. Undefeated Raven led us into the dungeons after little persuasion where some huge demon, or something like that, guided us deeper into the Juggernauts belly where Hira's cell was located. She looked quite ragged hanging from Soulsteel chains that sapped her essence and kept her from escaping. While Undefeated Raven was unwilling to open the cell door for us so that we could give her some water, I slipped between the bars and took Sinjes waterskin to Hira. It took some extra persuasion to convince Undefeated Raven to let Exultant Falcon and the others to take Hira with them in order to get her into better shape since she was hardly in condition that you could present her in any kind of ceremony.
Later that evening I had little talk with Undefeated Raven about the events of the day. While he were surprised to learn the real reason why Mask of Winters wanted to have me brought to him, he doubted that I would be staying for long. When I asked why was he thinking like that, Undefeated Raven replied that even though he was Abyssal exalt, he weren't stupid. He had noticed the way I've kept looking around while he gave me quick tour around the citadel earlier and nonchalantly handed single cufflink to me, the same that Exultant Falcon had dropped earlier.
Short Moments of Calm Before the Storm
Season of Ascending Air
I tried prying more bits of ancient lore from Lilith while we were getting ready for the dinner. Still she couldn't, or wouldn't, tell much but at least I did manage to get tiny morsels to mule over later. Lilith had met with Larquen Quen, or as he is now known, Mask of Winters, only in passing during the First Age so she couldn't tell much about him that I hadn't found out already. She did mention that his personality left some to desire and perhaps he would one day grow into something. Did she mean Larquen or Mask of Winters who would grow I couldn't make out, this is why I don't like asking elders about persons, I can never quite make out are they speaking about the past or present. Besides that all she would say was that love was, and still is, blind. I was going to snap back at her about her past husband 'lovingly breaking her arm just to show his superiority' but luckily I managed to bite my tongue before making that statement. Last thing I needed in our current situation was insulted elder skinning my hide.
Another thing I tried to find out more about was myself or more precisely, my previous self, Mithra. Lilith had met her, me, it gets confusing in times, few times but never got to know her better. She did remember that I, Mithra, was indeed one of the waxing moons, something I already knew, and few scattered bits that might hint out where I should head next to find more answers. I was just leaving my chambers to look for Mask of Winters to ask him about the past since he should know Mithra a lot better than Lilith or me for that matter when one of the servants informed me that Solars were asking me to join them at the citadels baths.
Lilith declined the invitation and stayed behind to tend her own business while I followed the servant to the baths where Exultant Falcon and others had taken Hiru to recover. To my surprise, Undefeated Raven had also joined them though the mood was quite uncomfortable and when I learned what they had been discussing about I could easily understand the reason. Exultant Falcon had earlier dismissed Undefeated Ravens presence and continued his scheming to slay Raven with the others, blissfully ignorant that he could hear their schemes until Raven cleared his throat to remind them about his presence. Undefeated Raven endured the foreboding for sometime before he excused himself and said that we could continue our scheming for our almost certainly doomed escape attempt.
Once Undefeated Raven had left, others explained their cursory plan on how to break out from the citadel without leaving Hiru behind. Sinje claimed that she could smuggle Hiru past the sentries and to keep others from missing her, she would create duplicate of Hiru that we in turn would escort back into the dungeons. While we would keep up the appearance that nothing was out of the ordinary, like anyone would believe that, Sinje would bring one of the nets Cult of the Illuminated gave us to toss onto Mask of Winters and, hopefully, return in time for the dinner which was due in few hours. With fake Hiru safely behind bars of her cell, we headed back to our rooms to change into something more suitable for grand dinner. I toyed with idea of loaning some of Exultant Falcons more representative clothes for the dinner but decided against it when we got to our rooms for two reasons, first was that Mask of Winters was waiting for his wife to join him at for the dinner rather than his husband. Second reason was that, like Lover Clad in Reinment of Tears had done, Mask of Winters had ordered one of his seamstresses to ready gown for me, small part of me wondering how they manages to get it fit me just right without try-out but then I remembered that I was fitted for a wedding dress earlier. Thing that I didn't exactly like on the dress was its colour, it was muted black like everything else in Mask of Winters citadel, rather than shade of purple that is usually connected to the Silver Mirrors.
Dinner with Mask of Winters and the Leopard of Harborhead
Season of Ascending Air
I could sense Mask of Winters thoughts the moment we stepped into the great hall and figuring out what would be the most likely topic for the table discussion didn't take much. Only bright side on the matter was that neither of our resident news agencies was with us. Besides Mask of Winters, I could recognise Undefeated Raven and one who I think was the Leopard, Oshom Kurgaz. Before Mask of Winters crushed Harborhead armies, he was puppet of the Realm, now he was puppet for Mask of Winters. There was about a half dozen other men seated around the table, all dignitaries of some sort from Harborhead but they weren't introduced to us and for majority of time they just sat silently. Servants guided Exultant Falcon and me to seats right next to Mask of Winters, Exultant Falcon on the left and me on to the right while Onyx was seated near Undefeated Raven.
Mask of Winters apologised his earlier behaviour once we were seated and servants had faded back into the background after serving the appetisers. Unsurprisingly Exultant Falcon weren't exactly friendly in his replies but at least he managed to avoid insulting our host directly. They kept speaking for some time while I was lost in my thoughts, I should've paid more attention onto them but try as I might, I couldn't tear my mind away from the question that was sure to be asked soon. One of the more important things that slipped my mind was off hand notion made by Mask of Winters; now that civil war had erupted in the Realm, he was the single most powerful force in Creation.
While Exultant Falcon didn't directly insult our host, the Leopard was different matter. Falcon asked Mask of Winters about the promised pause in expanding the shadowland around Kirighast to which Mask of Winters replied that integrating city's population was going as planned and everything was well in city. When Leopard agreed to Mask of Winters explanation, Exultant Falcon called him fat coward straight to his face. Even though he was correct, already strained mood around the table grew even more strained. My attempt to ease tension didn't do much good but at least there weren't more direct insults flying around.
The moment of truth came when Mask of Winters presented small box, from under his cloak and turned his attention towards me. He said that he now understood that he had pushed the matter too quickly and before going further we should exchange our rings like we did in the First Age. He held now opened box so that everyone around the table could clearly see the Orichalcum ring nested within. Fortunately, at least in some sense, I had left my moonsilver ring to my room along with the rest of my gear, so I would have short moment to gather my thoughts while one of the servants would run to fetch it. I could see displeasure in Mask of Winters eyes for the delay, no doubt he had planned the whole thing in advance and this delay required him to revise them. It was also the moment when everything went south. Ash Mantis dropped his charms and appeared right next to Mask of Winters, elbowing one servant towards the Deathlord to distract him for a brief moment for Exultant Falcon to throw the starmetal net over the Deathlord. None of us wanted to stick around to test Mask of Winters martial skills, especially on his home turf so we made our exit. Solars jumped trough the windows while I headed towards my room to gather my belonging before taking form of a raptor and making my way back to our ship.
The Aftermath of the Dinner
Season of Ascending Air
Once everyone had made it back to the ship, to my surprise none of us had perished, I could start stitching together some sort of idea what exactly happened after I had left the main hall. Lilith had gone feral on Mask of Winters face, forcing him to focus his attention onto her rather than on us young ones. Exultant Falcon didn't waste time on making his escape; Ash Mantis did try to aid Lilith without lot of luck. Both Heaven's Moonsilver and Ebon Feather arrived at the same time as Sinje and Krinster Org made their entrance trough the ceiling. Their efforts on slowing down Mask of Winters didn't do much either. Onyx went after Undefeated Raven and managed to throttle him into unconsciousness before Mask of Winters turned his attention towards Onyx after incapacitating Lilith. Part of me is glad that Onyx didn't succeed on killing Raven while other part of me wishes that he could've done what he was trying. In the end, Sinje ended up saving both Lilith's and Onyx's lives with her intervention thus claiming life debts from both of them.
While we were discussing what to do next, Ash Mantis fell onto his knee in front of me, presenting a small box he had been hiding behind his back and opened it, inside was weddingband made from orichalcum, sight that brought another memory from the First Age. For brief moment I weren't on our ship, it wasn't Ash Mantis who was kneeling; both my pack and Larquen Quens circle were around us at the Crystal Lotus manse. Ash Mantises statement, "but if you don't want it, I guess I'll have to keep it," brought me back to present date.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.06
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.06
linkki
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Kummallista miten paljon pieni Deathlord vetää herneen nokkaansa rukkasista & 'hienovaraisesta' kiukkuilusta omassa linnassaan. Joka tapauksessa, kuten sanontakin menee, perästä kuuluu...
Sea Battle of Inland Sea
Season of Ascending Air
While our hasty leave from Mask of Winters citadel had been relatively unchallenged, he was not so quick on allowing us to escape his grasp all together. Two attack biremes appeared from the perpetuating mist with full sails and oar, a small parting present from our host. It wouldn't take long for the warships to gain our slow merchant ship and bring the fire projectors mounted on sides of their vessels to bear. As if fire projectors weren't enough of trouble, both ships also had a lightning ballista on their fore deck. Luckily our merchant weren't completely unarmed; Exultant Falcon had managed to secure, at quite considerable amount of jade, an implosion bow for just this kind of situations. Sadly, while implosion bow is comparable in terms of raw power with ballista and have slightly broader range of uses, its reach is roughly half of ballista.
We had few advantages over our adversaries though, since they hadn't opened fire yet, even more importantly stayed beyond reach of our implosion bow, meant that most likely they were under orders to capture us rather than sink us. Second, and most likely decisive, advantage was our numbers; while two biremes could easily carry more troops than our ship, those troops would be mortals much like our crew, we had almost dozen celestial exalts waiting for them. Should their crew be composed from undead, Krinsters anima would do short work of them. Soft thump of our implosion bow signalled the beginning of the battle little after Ebon Feather, Heavens Moonsilver and me jumped overboard, our plan being to swim to the chasing ships, board them and wreck as much havoc as ever possible after disabling the ballista's on their bows. There was short moment of hesitation among the abyssal exalts when we leaped onto their ships though the lull in battle was over just as quickly as it had begun.
Battle on board the ship didn't last long, while abyssal exalts are quite powerful by themselves, being outnumbered by Luna's children and under fire from our ship, it was lost battle for them. Last of the abyssal exalts tried to make his escape by swimming after he was thrown overboard by implosion bow hit, he would have probably succeeded in his escape as well if he hadn't shot me with his firewand. As soon as fighting on deck was finished and most of my wounds healed, I leaped into sea and took form of great shark, followed the scent of his blood and tore him apart. Others were already stripping the biremes from their artefact weapons and fireprojectors when I returned, Exultant Falcon griping about ballista I wrecked though I think it was mostly out of habit on seeing artefacts getting busted.
Short Interlude at Khrosal Fortress and Pay Back
Season of Ascending Air
Our next stop was at Khrosal Fortress, small and relatively unimportant fortified city on southern border of Harborhead, or at least it used to be small and unimportant, before Mask of Winters campaign begun. Now the city stood in guard what was, in effect, border between land of the living and the dead, even though true shadowland was still quire away north. Huge military camp had grown onto the outskirts of the city along with assorted refugees, fortune hunters and seedier sorts adding to the crowds. While we used our short stay in Khrosal mostly to relax as much as possible from the events previous days, as well as sell most of the heavier weapons we captured, the true reason for our stop was a lot grimmer. Sinje was famished from using her Raksha magic both while in Mask of Winters citadel and before, meaning that either she would ravish few of our crew or we'd stop in port so she could find mortal that suited her fancy. When we sailed northwards two days later, there were one or two more dream eaten husks wandering around somewhere in the city.
Besides Lilith and Silk Cuts who had joined us again for the time being, others wanted to take another go against Mask of Winters or at least strike against his military might. Myself, I weren't exactly thrilled on the idea about making it certain that Mask of Winters would be our enemy in the future but on the other hand, he was driving the Creation into shadows, which weren't very pleasant future either. Our route would take us past Kirighast once again so Exultant Flacon did some scouting around on one of the warbirds, his first plan was to locate firedust stores around Kirighast military district and set them on fire. While he could spot most likely buildings used as stores, they were isolated and under heavy guard so we revised our plan, we wouldn't strike against the stores but go after his fleet of warships currently in Kirighast harbour. We spent few hours on going trough various plans, ranging from sabotaging the ships to trying to wreck the coastal fortifications to sneaking on board their ships and using their own weapons to punch trough their hulls. We were just about to board our warbirds when I remembered something we all had forgotten, almost two years ago on Silver River, Ebon Feather threw celestial circle spell, the torrential cascade, on us that would wreck utter hell on ships anchored within the fortified harbour.
We revised our plan once again, where we had been planning on raiding the ships and sinking them one by one, now we would just land on top of the battlements from where Ebon Feather could see the entire harbour and while he worked his magic, the rest of us would make certain that no-one would disturb him. To our surprise, not a single soldier, neither living nor dead, tried to stop us while Ebon Feather weaved his magic and then it was too late for them to do anything even if they could have. There was a moment of silence when he released the spell, as if the sea was gathering its courage to rush forward, then, with a great roar, the ocean rose into wall of water, easily over sixty feet high and some hundred yards wide and smashed against the anchored ships, throwing them aside like they were just leaves in the wind and carrying their remnants inland. Retreating wave was our sign to make our exit, Ebon Feathers voicing the thought that almost certainly was going trough each of our minds when he said "I think we should leave now."
Dreams of First Age and Growing Ambitions
Seasons of Ascending and Resplendent Air
Silk Cuts, or more precisely the Cult of the Illuminated, had more plans for Exultant Falcon though. She had already informed them, without bothering to ask our opinion naturally, that we would meet them in Nexus. Never mind that we were still banished from there, or that we might have other plans set out, naturally we would be happy to meet them as soon as possible. Once we left the ruins of Kirighast behind us, rest of sailing towards Nexus was uneventful which suited me quite nicely since I was planning on using the opportunity to try to sort out some of the lately resurfaced memories and search for more clues about my past, both fro First and Second age. During the night I explored the dreams, going back to the memory that surfaced when Ash Mantis presented my old wedding band few days ago. While fragment of memory from the First Age had been quick and held just few unconnected bits, they served as starting points from which I could nudge to find out what else was hidden into the memories of my other half.
White Willow Catkin kept hurrying me as we raced down stream on our Simhatas. All the time she kept repeating that we were going to be late, late of what she stubbornly refused to say. I was just about ready to pounce her and, should it come to that, pull the answers out of her with my claws when I noticed rest of my pack waiting someway ahead on a small glen. Judging by their mischievous smirks and hushed whispers; they all knew exactly what was going on while I was just taken in for the ride. Amber Wolf of the Silent Wind tossed bundle of cloth to me before I had time to make my objections heard, urging me to change since we were already late. I just wished that someone would finally tell me what was going on while chancing but as soon as I was ready, we were off once again, White Willow Catkin telling where exactly we were hurrying. We were supposed to meet Silken River, we hadn't seen each other since construction of my manse, and some friends of hers at the Crystal Lotus manse before sundown and a quick glance towards the sun pointing that we were going to cut it close.
As we rode into the clearing from the forest and the Crystal Lotus manse appeared in distance. Where Silken River greeted us at the main entrance, same conspiring smile playing on her face as on rest of my pack, stating that others were waiting in the main chamber. When we stepped into the manse, Amber Wolf of the Silent Wind handed small disc, maybe two inches in diameter and half inch thick, to me, smirk on his face so wide that it was threatening to split his face in two. We hurried into the main chamber, stopping before its doors to catch our breath and make sure our outfits were immaculate. Silken River ushered us inside just as the sun touched the horizon, its red tinged rays reflected by uncounted mirrors in manses walls. The moment I stepped into the chamber and saw Larquen Quen pacing restlessly next to the hearthstone pedestal, huge swarm of butterflies took off in my belly. Rest of the night I spend with my head among the clouds, my heart threatening to burst from joy each time when I glanced onto the orichalcum ring on my finger. While the dream itself didn't shed much light into my past but again it did give few new links to follow in future.
We had smooth sailing all the way to outskirts of Nexus where Diligent Grasshopper did something quite spectacular; he challenged Exultant Falcon into blood duel for gaining equal partnership on Exultant Falcons business. Grasshopper has grown into quite handsome young man, a sudden realization even though he has been with us for the past two years, just that before he has always been in the background rather than pulling attention onto himself. Judging from Exultant Falcons expression, had Grasshopper issued his challenge anywhere but in earshot from Heaven's Moonsilver and Ebon Feather, he wouldn't have given it second thought but unfortunately for him, Grasshopper had spent some of his free time studying the correct wording for his challenge and making it impossible for Falcon to ignore it without losing his face.
Fight itself didn't last very long, though its result weren't certain since Exultant Falcon haven't paid much attention on training for fights that turn up close and personal. Though, after this I have a hunch that he'll start taking his melee training more seriously. While none of us really did expect Exultant Falcon to lose, it was surprising to notice that Grasshopper did manage to wound him as badly as he did. Exultant Falcons reaction was less of a surprise; he was fuming for the next two days it took Grasshopper to regain consciousness. In the end, after tiny reminder about etiquette surrounding blood duels, Exultant Falcon refrained in merely doubling Grasshoppers dept and demoting him from captains' man down to seaman.
The Mouth of Cult of the Illuminated Speaks
Season of Resplendent Air
Even though Silk Cuts had set up meeting with the cult in their temple in Nexus and was assuring us that there wouldn't be anyone to stop us, despite her objections, we weren't planning on testing how well the Council of Entities was enforcing our banishment. That and in lesser form I think it was slight hint of Exultant Falcons, and probably others as well, displeasure on being treated like errant dog by the Cult of the Illuminated; since they wanted to meet us so badly, they could come to see us on our boat. Shadowy Rose did arrive few hours later though she was accompanied by two bodyguards, either she didn't feel safe walking among the Nexus crowds or she could sense the growing animosity towards the Cult. Once Ash, Sinje and Bandit had returned from their foray to the city, we gathered into main galley to hear what Shadowy Rose had to say.
She begun by saying that she had both good and bad news. Good news, in short, was that they had managed to do what they were going to do with the net Exultant Falcon threw onto Mask of Winters and had learned his weakness. Only way to slay him was by his own hand, which also was their bad news. Thing that would've interested me a lot more, what would happen to his soul when he dies, went both unasked, since I weren't planning on drawing image for her on my reasons, and unanswered. Needlessly to say, now that we had successfully completed their last task and certainly wouldn't have anything else to do, we would love to do another small favour for the Cult, or at least that what Shadowy Rose hinted as she moved onto next piece of news.
Bull of the North, a Solar warlord who had been quite successful on his campaign in the northeast, should be brought under Cults control, or tutelage as she put it. They were uneasy about thought that there might be someone out there gathering power whom they didn't have strings attached. Shadowy Rose didn't exactly look pleased when I voiced my opinion, that he was doing exactly what good warlord should be doing rather than sitting on his behind. Neither did she like my opinion about Cults ability to offer anything worthwhile for Luna's Children, explaining that since there were so few of us among the Cult, they didn't have knowledge necessary to teach us properly and for their defence, at least Pia appeared to enjoy her life among the Cult.
After short uneasy silence she continued that naturally if meeting with the Bull would be too dangerous for us, the Cult could sent out another agents to deal with the matter, most likely with blade in between his shoulder blades, judging from the undertone in her wording. That was before Sinje, once again, decided that Shadowy Rose really needed to know that we actually already knew Bull of the North and were in reasonably good, or at least speaking, terms with him and his circle. Only thing she managed to leave untold was our aid to him with situation in Crystal, though most likely it too would've came up if Exultant Falcon hadn't hushed Sinje to be silent. We ended up agreeing to meet Bull of the North, grudgingly, and deliver Cults 'offer' to his circle. While we're at it, we might as well see if we, rather than the Cult of the Illuminated, could gain allies from Bull's circle.
Another Ray of Light to the Forgotten Past
Season of Resplendent Air
While Exultant Falcon took one of the warbirds and left to check how Mount Metagalapa's restoration effort was progressing, I headed to meet with my mentor and after meeting with him I continued to meet with the Dog of the Stars, one of the elders who were present in my initiation. Enfettered Moon was quite interested on learning the latest news, especially about Mask of Winters, his own news were more or less normal; hodgepodge of rumours, boasts and such things though there were few more important matters that warranted more attention. My meeting with Dog of the Stars another matter, for one I was curious to know if blade I asked her to craft was finished but main reason to meet with her was to ask her about my past. To my surprise her protégée, Iron Mist Stripe, was with her, my first thought was that she was going to claim the debt I owned to her but it turned out that she too was just visiting.
Dog of the Stars couldn't tell much, at least not directly but with her and Iron Mist Stripes help, I managed to piece few more pieces together now that I could compare what I've learned about my past with them. According to what I had learned earlier from Ashen Cricket, Derian Kirin had thrown me overboard somewhere in White Sea, this had happened little before Silver Lady's touch. It fit well with the fragment of memory I that have from freezing cold surrounding what I strongly believe to be visit from the Silver Lady herself. What happened the following month is still big mystery; Iron Mist Stripes found me floating downstream on top of what could've been remnants of ship along the Rolling River, about a month later, half way across the Creation, over four and a half thousand miles from White Sea. In addition onto having travelled thousands of miles from White Sea, I had used my newfound charms to hide my origins. Why and when I did that, I can't tell but in any case when Iron Mist Stripe found me, she didn't find half starved girl from Harborhead but a man who, judging from his outlook, seemed to hail from western archipelagos. Most peculiar thing, how ever, was that, during that single month, I had forgotten my native language, Fire Speech, completely.
When Iron Mist Stripe found me I could talk Wood Tongue as if it were my new native language, which was enough to throw the elders off track about my origins until now. According to Dog of the Stars this weren't unheard of, there had been some exalts whose memories from previous lives were so strong that, in effect, they reverted back to their previous selves. With that in mind, in addition to more and more common dreams from the first age, inheriting in a manner of speech Mithra's native language along with some other of her skills weren't so bad. While I agreed with her that it could've been much worse, I can't help to wonder how much I truly inherited from my previous incarnations and more importantly, how many times it has happened by now.
Neither Dog of the Stars nor Iron Mist Stripe could tell me anything about White Willow Catkin, Amber Wolf or rest of my pack from the First Age except that none of their names sounded familiar to them. Silken River, her being Solar, they suspected having perished in the usurpation, had she reincarnated and if she had, would her latest reincarnation remember anything from the First Age, their guess was as good as mine. Since none of my old pack appeared to have survived and Larquen Quen or Mask of Winters as he is now know would most likely be less than forthcoming due to our go-away present in Kirighast, only ones who could shed more light to my past and Mithra were the elders.
Judging from what I had learned by now, Mithra was most likely from eastern part of Creation which narrowed number of elders likely to know about her down to just a few; first was Raksi, the Queen of Fangs, who still had her hackles up towards me so seeking her council would be my last option. Silver Python and Rain Deathflyer, two elder No Moons who created the Kingdom of Halta, I haven't had anything to do with directly so their disposition is largely unknown to me. Uka might know something about Mithra as well but I've never met him and it would take weeks to reach his territory. Then there was Ma-Ha-Suchi, while his territory weren't exactly in the east, it was reasonably close and taking detour that would take me trough there shouldn't delay me more than few days.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.14
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.14
linkki
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Episodi 23 käsitteleekin valtaosin Mistyn omia juttuja. Nopea nahistelu Bloodhoofin, Full Moon Lunarin, kanssa ja vieläkin nopeampi tapaaminen itsensä Ma-Ha-Suchin kanssa. Bonuksena tosin oli Ma-Han näkeminen ihmisenä, Fan service for thö win! ^_^
Exultant Falconinkin kohtalo selviää, niin karu kun olikin ja samalla tullaan vapauttaneeksi 8. Deathlordi Creationiin... Rapatessa roiskuu jne... <.<
Blood Duel with Bloodhoof, Child of the Burning Moon
Season of Resplendent Air
Once I had finished my talks with both Unfettered Moon and Dog of the Stars, I continued my travel towards the Unnamed Lair of the Great Ma-Ha-Suchi. He'd probably be reluctant to reveal anything substantial straight away but with little luck I might be able to find out some new leads to follow. While I could pass trough most of the territories of my brothers and sisters, the closer I got to Ma-Ha-Suchi's territory, gaining right to pass trough got harder and harder until young Full Moon called Bloodhoof challenged me into duel for the right of passage. I think he saw me as easy way, since, even without channelling my essence to hide them, markings of my totem aren't very obvious, of gaining more renown among his pack and more importantly, in the eyes of the Ma-Ha-Suchi himself.
During the customary boasting prior to the battle, I apologised Bloodhoof that I couldn't be entirely certain that I would be able to keep the Bitter Dirge for the Ghastly Endings, my soulsteel grand goremaul, from claiming his life. Our fight would be the very first time I wielded it without explicit intention of slaying my opponent and its thirst for blood was almost insatiable, just as its edge bit into my palm, drawing blood, seemingly on its own, and the wailing of the souls grew hint stronger. Display of its thirst for blood weren't only thing, all around me, up to about four feet distance, the ever-present puddles of water and fallen leaves on the forest floor suddenly grew frozen dew over them.
Even though Bloodhoof held his ground, I could see glimmer of hesitation appearing into his eyes upon hearing my apologies, which was all that I needed. We both leaped about the same time, my hunch about his intention of using his crushfists and greater strength to crush me proving correct as he opened his arms; apparently he had expected me to leap straight into his bear hug. Bloodhoof realised his mistake as I landed some five strides from him, my claws digging into the ground for a heartbeat before I darted towards his embrace. Only thing that kept him from receiving full strength of my blow was his charms, with essence guiding his moves, he twisted in mid-flight and what would've been bone crushing blow merely grazed his side.
As soon as his hooves touched the ground, Bloodhoof twirled around to force me into fight on his terms. What he didn't know was that in doing so, he unwittingly stepped straight into trap. The hearthstone from my manse grants more than just connection into the stream of essence from manse, every blow of mine that connects is followed by blast of freezing essence, strong enough to slay mortal all by its own. Bloodhoof learned that the maelstrom of essence among my blazing anima bit trough his fur like he'd been naked in the blizzards of the far north. The sudden assault by the frigid cold broke his focus on battle long enough to for me to squirm free from his clinch before he could truly apply his strength and charms into it.
The look of determination in his eyes as he stood up again told that the advantage I had gained trough my charms and bluff before the battle wouldn't last for long. With most of my essence committed into fuelling the artefacts I wielded and the Moonsilver Monkey, if I wanted to win the fight, it would need to end soon. I think Bloodhoof also noticed, or at least suspected, my gamble when I swung the Bitter Dirge for the Ghastly Endings in long arc and leaped towards to get inside my strike. Luckily for me, my gamble worked, with sickening sound of bones being crushed, my goremaul struck straight into his chest and sent his broken body flying against ancient tree trunk. His eyes glinted with anger for when he regained his consciousness and found me sitting on his chest with Pale Leopard Claw resting on his shoulder as a silent reminder of his position.
Lair of the Great Ma-Ha-Suchi
Season of Resplendent Air
In hindsight, it might've been cruel for me to wait for him to come wake up again and force him to expose his throat as sign of submission before carving the scar on his side and allowing him to mark his defeat on my arm. Regardless of his bruised feelings, he was bound by his word to grant me passage trough his territory and escort my to the lair of the Ma-Ha-Suchi himself. I think that the fact that, even though I had won, I still told Bloodhoof the news what he would've claimed as his prise for our fight served only to fuel his anger, which he eventually took out on pair of beastmen who were unlucky enough to cross our way. By the time we arrived into the ancient city in which Ma-Ha-Suchi and his children lived, three more Luna's Children had joined Bloodhoof and me.
Unlike the stories of Ma-Ha-Suchi usually portray him; he was very courteous host. Once the feast ended and we gathered around the bonfire, Ma-Ha-Suchi wanted to know the real reason why I had sought to talk with him. His reaction to my question if he had known Mithra was about what I had expected, though instead of just saying no, he laughed and said that he would tell me what he knew the day when I could beat him. Laughter around fire died down when I, curse my big mouth, said that 'if that is what I must do, then might as well get it over with.' I barely had time to curse myself for blindly jumping his bait before he asked what would be my terms.
Aside of doing the incredibly stupid thing and challenging my elder in front of his pupils, only thing working for me was that Ma-Ha-Suchi allowed me to set the terms for our fight. Besides him rested his dire lance that, just like my goremaul, had reputation of being very powerful artefact. Unlike my goremaul however, its reputation and strength both were very real. Combined with his superior knowledge of charms and skill, I wouldn't stand any change at all against him and, even with relatively non-lethal nature of duel, there's quite good change that I wouldn't live trough the fight. My choice that we would fight without our magic and artefacts, both in our human forms, had the best illusion of fair fight. As small perk, even with my defeat, I would gain little bit of knowledge I wouldn't have gained otherwise; I would see Ma-Ha-Suchi as he appears without his warform, something that he seldom shows voluntarily.
Fate of the Missing Exultant Falcon
Seasons of Resplendent and Descending Air
When I came to, I found myself back in the jungle at the edge of Ma-Ha-Suchi territory with Bloodhoof and two beastmen watching over me. I think Bloodhoof found some reconciliation from me receiving sound beating on Ma-Ha-Suchi's behalf; at least he seemed to be on slightly brighter mood. After carving rest of the scar on his side, marking his blood debt fulfilled, I leaped into the air and begun my long flight back to Nexus where I expected others to be already waiting. To my surprise, Exultant Falcon hadn't returned from his trip to Mount Metagalapa.
He was originally supposed to have returned over a week ago but for some reason he hadn't. The fact that he hadn't send any word for his reason hinted that something had gone wrong so we left word to the cults' temple in Nexus about our plans and went after him. Four days later we were at city of Marita, the closest port to Mount Metagalapa that could handle our ship. While others concentrated on rooting out any rumours or hints about things up north, Onyx and me took into air in form of raptors and headed towards the mountain. Our search revealed very little, only that something heavy had been hauled down from now dormant volcano but neither of us could tell which direction it had been taken from there. Nearby village was deserted as well, signs of fighting barely noticeable but without any witnesses we couldn't make out what ever had happened.
We spend the day searching for any survivors from surrounding countryside, finally finding two from village some 60 miles from Mount Metagalapa. First was starved man that attempted attacking us with a hacked off limb of some villager, second was girl hiding in the attic of reasonable intact house. The man we dealt with single swing of my goremaul, the girl seemed to be in reasonably good shape and we took her back to the ship with us. We noticed that she weren't as well off as we had first thought on the first morning after finding her, she had forgotten everything that had happened last day, which in sense was good since she didn't remember slaughter of her village, sadly it also meant that we couldn't learn anything from her. Regardless we carried her to our ship where Sinje could see if she could get her to remember anything.
Almost a month later, we tracked down the small caravan moving away from the mountain with wagons large enough to haul what ever they had removed from the crater. To our surprise, we found our old acquaintance Snow, the same sorcerer who summoned demon workforce that build Exultant Falcons manse, driving the wagons. He seemed rather agitated when we landed our warbirds nearby and walked to talk with him, hissing that we didn't want to make his employer our enemy at the present time. His words gaining strength from Lilith's notion that we were surrounded about four dozen dematerialized demons. Though we probably would've won the fight, had it came to that, we left Snow and his employer to continue their slow trek and went ahead to see where they were heading at.
Some way ahead, about three days for the slow moving caravan, we saw ship docked to makeshift pier with horde of automatons swarming on its deck. In addition to them, there were pair of second circle demons and few humans as well. We considered our options for a while, deciding to pay another visit to our friend Snow and have a little chat with him. Our plan was that Onyx and me would sneak to the wagon, snatch Snow and make our leave while Lilith would keep an eye for the demons, others were waiting by the tree line to swarm in should the demons notice us. Luckily to us, neither Snow nor the demons paid any attention to us as we crept towards the slow moving wagon and climbed on board. The first, and last, thing he noticed that anything was wrong was Onyxes arms embracing him and then crushing him into unconsciousness. Next time, if he's as smart as he claims to be, I'm sure Snow will instruct his demons to defend himself should he be attacked while snooping without being ordered to. Since they hadn't been ordered to do anything for those heading away from the wagons, the demons allowed us to leave on our leisure with the unconscious Snow.
The Fury of Lilith and Awakening of the Brother Hateful
Season of Descending Air
Poor Snow didn't look too happy when he came to, surrounded by dozen more or less annoyed celestials. Once he learned that we weren't after his hide, at least not yet, he confirmed our fears about Exultant Falcons fate. The woman who was travelling with Snow had slain him, his remains were stored into crate of true ice for transporting for some unknown purpose, at this point Lilith turned to leave and get her revenge from this Azure Maiden of the Winds but she agreed to wait for a little while so we could work out a plan to take out both groups at the same time.
While Solars, with help of the demons Snow had summoned, would take care of the ship and its crew, Sinje, Lilith, Onyx and me would take care of the caravan and the Countess Two. Fight at the wagon was over as soon as it had begun, Lilith tore the Azure Maiden of the Winds into shreds before she could barely realise what was happening. Onyx and my part in the fight, if by some stretch one can call it that, was to merely hack the horses free from wagon and pick up casket where Exultant Falcons remains were along with anything else of his gear we might notice. Without looking back, Lilith continued her way, she'll find him again and I can only hope that she'll have more luck than me.
Onyx took Exultant Falcons casket while I quickly gathered everything else into sacks and then we made haste to get distance between the scene of the battle and us. Reason for our haste was large obsidian block that was crackling with essence. Sinje wanted to stay and see what it would do, apparently blissfully oblivious to the stench of Abyssal essence billowing from it but since neither Onyx nor me were staying with her, she followed us. While she did leave with us, it didn't stop her from complaining that she wanted to see what would happen once build up of essence reached its peak and apparently it wouldn't do for her to satisfy her curiosity alone but she'd need someone to be there with her.
Inky black pillar of essence rising towards the sky lit behind us little later, when what ever it had been what was trapped into the obsidian block tore free from its prison. Regardless of Sinjes whining, I for one was quite happy with the fact that we had few miles between each other. When we reached the ship and found out what exactly what had been imprisoned to that block, decision to leave it be turned out to be the right one. Battle at the ship had been short as well; two demons and automatons were no match for the Solars and Snows demons. We had lost few demons as well but it was no concern for us, we set sail almost immediately after Sinje took one of the warbirds to take word to Mount Metagalapa where Heavens Moonsilver and Ebon Feather were waiting that we'd meet at our ship.
On our way towards Marita, we took time to interrogate the surviving members of the ships crew and their leader, Midnight Cloud Hunter, whom we had actually met couple years back before our battle with Iron Lotus. The secret society that he was part of, the Illuminated Seven, was planning to take the obsidian block to their hide out and use it to gain more power. He also revealed what had been imprisoned within it, a Deathlord named Brother Hateful who was now heading towards the Mount Metagalapa.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.25
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.25
linkki
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Lyhyessä 24. episodissa lokki parvi saapuu selvittelemään Exultant Falconin jäämistöä. Samalla alkoi 5. varsinainen tarina jonka saatossa ajanhammas löytää niin Brother Hatefullin kuin Mistynkin...
Ja jostain kumman syystä tulee mieleen että tästä kyseisestä osasta on kadonnut pätkä jonnekkin...
Divided Assets and Parting Ways
Season of Descending Air
Diligent Grasshoppers reaction when he saw Exultant Falcons frozen remains was not exactly what one would expect from trusted pupil when he loses his mentor. After first staring his remains for few moments, the Diligent Grasshopper started to laugh, muttering that it'd work this way as well. Apparently his ambition was greater than any of us had expected, even with his sudden duel with the late Exultant Falcon. We learned just how big his ambitions had grown little after returning to Nexus when he called us all to meal he had set up.
In short, he was taking over Exultant Falcons assets, including Hope. But since he didn't want to appear completely heartless, he would dispense some of Exultant Falcons assets with us so we wouldn't be left to fend of on our own. In fact Diligent Grasshopper had bought small yacht that he would donate to us just for goodness of his heart. Not only that, he would also let us keep everything we had gained trough 'slaughter and looting' as he put it. There were just a few little details in his offer that didn't work out nicely, like that yacht he had purchased was hopelessly too small to carry us and what gear we had. It didn't phase Sinje though, she would've accepted the smaller vessel in a heart beat had it been her choice. I wonder what the Diligent Grasshopper would've replied had we just told him to stuff his plans and that we'd take everything regardless of his plans.
In the end, we, or more precisely I since others didn't seem to care, paid him token price for the ship. Next business was to sort out the matter of our crew; unsurprisingly the Diligent Grasshopper had offered to hire most of the old crew, including Ashen Cricket, onto his ship. It took little talking to get them to stay on Hope rather than to go with the Diligent Grasshopper, in addition to small raise in their pay. On the other hand, Ashen Cricket finally got the post he had been eying for a long time.
To Slay the Lord of the Dead
Season of Descending Air
I'm not quite sure whose idea it ultimately was that it was our responsibility to go out and slay the newly awakened Deathlord. Interrogation of the Count Three had revealed the Brother Hatefulls weakness, apparently he could be slain by just hacking him into bits with suitable weapon and we would be the ones to do it. Regardless of the questionable sanity of this plan, we set sail upriver towards the Great Forks and Marita. The Cult of the Illuminated sent couple of their Solars and Silk Cuts to help us in our coming fight who joined us at the Great Forks.
We arrived to Mount Metagalapa on the morning of the 28th day only to find that the surrounding countryside was sliding into the underworld. Apparently our newly awakened Deathlord had been busy with his work with the mountain as well, two of the great essence engines looked as if they'd been repaired and the central volcano was active once again. Peregrine were the first who flew his warbird into the crater and the first to receive the warm welcome from the Deathlord, beating hasty retreat back outside with storm of blades following on his heels.
Rest of us had barely managed to land and make our way to the mouth of the crater when Brother Hateful released necromantic spell he had been chanting. A great crimson geyser rushed from the crater, rising miles into the sky before starting to spread into wide disc. None of us were keen on finding out just what would happen once the disc had spread into its full size, what ever it would do, it almost certainly wouldn't be good for us. With wary eyes towards the crimson sky, we headed to the tunnel that ran trough the side of the volcano. To our surprise, the tunnel hadn't been cleared since we collapsed it after our fight with Iron Lotus over year ago.
While Krinster Org laboured with clearing the tunnel, the first drops of the starting downpour fell. Nature of the downpour became clear after just few drops had fallen, the crimson colour had hinted it but now it was confirmed, for miles around the Mount Metagalapa, rain of blood turned the ground into muck of blood and gore. Comparing to the show of magic and the tunnelling trough the collapsed tunnel, fight itself against the Brother Hateful was both short and bland. Our greater numbers made short work of the ancient Solar before he could cause significant troubles, only ones who got hurt were the Fox Cataphract and Peregrine who grew ill from the stench of blood.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.30
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.30
linkki
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Sitten olikin muutama pelikerta mistä ei oikein irronnut tarinaa vaikka yrittikin joten seuraavan palasen aikana loikataan 3 episodia eteenpäin. Vanhoja tuttavuuksia kuolee pois ja uusia tulee tilalle, sota etelässä alkaa ja maailmat räjähtävät... Tai jotain sen suuntaista...
The Plans of the Elders and the Pains of the Young
Season of Ascending Water
In a way, what happened during the presentation ceremony of my new blade shouldn't been such a surprise. Both the Unfettered Moon and the Dogs of the Stars hinted what their plan was well in advance but I didn't notice, or didn't want to believe their pettiness being such as it was, it in time. Would the things gone different had I realized what they were planning? I wish I could say that but on the other hand, having seen Lilith in a fight twice before, part of me is glad that the things went as they did.
Like the Unfettered Moon had asked, I delivered the invitations into the ceremony to fellow members of the Silver Pact and those Solars who were interested on participating. The ceremony itself went mostly like planned, the Dogs of the Stars presented the blade she had been working for past few seasons. While the blade itself was quite magnificent, the same cannot be said about the name she chose for it. Perhaps there was some hidden meaning or some other greater reason for her choice but she didn't see the need to explain herself. Though, part of me, and not so small part to be honest, feels that her choice was largely unsaid taunt.
Regardless, the ceremony was interrupted by Ma-Ha-Suchi who had found out about it and decided that he should pay us a little visit. Most of his ire was directed towards the Unfettered Moon and the Dogs of the Stars, taunting them about Lilith's absence and what were they planning on doing without her holding their hands. He also voiced his opinion about my worthiness for wielding the newly forged blade into battle and then asking if anyone present felt otherwise. None of the younger elders said anything except mumbled their objections under their breaths, only one who stood up against the opinion of the ancient elder were Peregrine and myself though I'm not entirely certain which of us spoke first. In any case, we stood by our own opinions and challenged the great Ma-Ha-Suchi to defend his opinion with the foreseeable result. At least this time I managed to draw blood from Ma-Ha-Suchi, small consolation but in light of our previous meeting, an improvement. Before he left, Ma-Ha-Suchi said that Blind Orchid send her regards to me, then he broke Dogs of the Stars muzzle one more time with quick punch and left with the blade.
Once Ma-Ha-Suchi had left, the Dogs of the Stars finally explained what they had been planning. So much for Exultant Falcon being important, as they had continuously claimed in the past, he was only needed to rein Lilith into loose coalition with the younger elders. More importantly, had Exultant Falcon, and Lilith, been present at the ceremony, they were certain that she'd stood up against the ancient elder in front of everyone present. But now that Lilith was wandering around the Creation again, their plan had lost its crucial piece. Had either one of them bothered to tell about this before, when I last met them just before we headed to slay the Brother Hateful, I might have been able to talk Lilith into participating the ceremony but since they didn't, I couldn't and thus the matters turned out as they did.
Seasons of Lunacy and Wandering
From Season of Ascending Water to Descending Water
A lot, and very little, happened during the past season. For one the Iron Lotus is dead, only thing that saddens me about his demise is that the Raksha half-blood, Ria, rather than myself killed him. She also managed to kill one of the cultist Solars who was staying with us to safeguard the Iron Lotus and to assure his return into the hands of the Cult. The city of Denandsor is once again silent, only things moving about are the ancient automaton guardians cleaning out the dead. Ma-Ha-Suchi and Raksi have begun their campaign against the threshold, their move against Rathess and Jades will come soon.
On more personal note, Bloodhoof delivered message from Ma-Ha-Suchi while we were waiting for new cargo at Nexus before continuing towards Lookshy. I'm not sure how much truth his message contained but for many parts it held true to what I had already learned. He was also the first to relay the news about the upcoming war and the offer from the great Ma-Ha-Suchi. Unlike the offers we received from other prospecting allies, his offer was quite simple and straightforward. While I don't agree with all he proposed, there were some points that I can't really disagree in the light of past months.
The war in South would start soon, Bloodhoof didn't say exactly how soon but if he was offering part, a month or two at the most. With the Dragonblooded distracted with their war for succession, the entire southeastern threshold would be engulfed with flames of war reaching from Republic of Chaya to Jades and from Denandsor to Rathess. Bloodhoof was quite interested about the news from Denandsor, especially about the matter concerning their late leaders recent defeat.
Unlike we had hoped; Iron Lotus did indeed manage to escape from Mount Metagalapa after our battle rather than be slain by the 7th Legion troops. Not only that, during the following years two more Solars had joined him and his plan to claim the Denandsor as his own personal realm. We had noticed his handiwork, or more precisely the magical barrier around the city, on our way to visit the Rathess. Rather than spend time to learn his defences or even if he had army of demons waiting for his orders, others insisted that we should strike immediately. Due to this, in lack of kinder term, idiotic, rush into the battle, the Iron Lotuses two companions came as surprise for us but in the end we prevailed even though it almost cost Peregrine his life. Perhaps next time Peregrine will listen for the voice of caution rather than rush headfirst into fight against an enemy without bothering to learn his strength or number of his allies.
After making detour to Lookshy, where Ash and Sinje managed to cause citywide alarm with their appearance in front of the city council, we ended up travelling back to Rathess rather than towards Gem to look into the matter of the Illuminated Seven. The Dragon Kings in Rathess wanted to arrange great celebration in our honour, while they were dealing with the arrangements we headed into the Wyld to find out what had happened to the Silver Dune. Notes we found from his abandoned dwelling indicated that he was heading southeast towards Kryal. Much to our surprise, the city had managed to remain whole even though it was located in depths of the wyld. Unfortunately all we could find from the city were Rakshas appearing as Dragon Kings although we did manage to stumble to Vagran whom we carried back to Rathess.
Masquerade turned out pretty well, except for the uninvited quests that Peregrine pointed out. Two of them I already knew, Iron Mist Stripe and Bloodhoof, two others turned out to be ambassadors from the Lover Clad in Reinment of Tears and another Deathlord whom I hadn't heard before, the Princes Magnificent With Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers. With name as hers, I wonder what should one address her and why does almost every abyssal or Deathlord have name longer than Calibration. Last of the uninvited quests turned out to be one of the Illuminated Seven.
Bloodhoof and Iron Mist were both checking out the defences in Rathess for the coming attack while the other three were looking for possible allies into their own wars. Sunrise Sundering Killer, messenger of the Lover Clad in Reinment of Tears, didn't exactly offer anything new, his main interest was liberation of certain gages the Mask of Winters had taken when he destroyed the Fortress of Red Ice. The second Abyssal, Daughter of Crows, offered to produce a weapon that would hurt the Mask of Winters in return for escorting her to Stygia, the very hearth of the underworld and back. While her offer sounds intriguing, there are few details that cause troubles, not the least that Mask of Winters will not let it slide when he notices my presence in the Underworld. Lastly there was Bitter Jade, or Countess Seven, who offered Illuminated Sevens aid in battle against the Mask of Winters in return for promise that their activities in south could continue unhindered.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.34
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.34
linkki
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28. episodi, Rathesin taistelu ja sen jälkipyykki. Siderealit saavat osakseen vielä hieman lisää epäluottamusta & huonoa karmaa, sinänsä kuin se on enään mahdollista.
Towards the Second Battle for the City of Rathess
Season of Descending Water
Few days before the battle for Rathess begun in earnest, the Cult, or more precisely the Shadowy Rose, introduced another newly exalted Solar, named Lady of Shining Sapphire and her servant, to us. Once the round of introductions was done, Shadowy Rose left her to our gentle care. Apparently she's some sort patrician or minor noble, or was before turning into a horrible anathema, from south even though her looks didn't strike as your average southern would.
Before the fighting begun, Shining Sapphire, Onyx and me headed out to the jungle to bring down one of the great predators of the south-eastern jungle, the tyrant lizard. Partially our reason for going out to hunt rather than stay and help with preparations was that we both, Onyx and me, were quite fed up with staying in city, not to mention their apparent vegetarian diet, and on the other hand, our trip served both as a scouting trip as a test for the new Solar to see how she'd fare out in the wilds.
The battle for Rathess, once it swung into full speed, lasted just a single day. The repercussions it brought, how ever, are entirely different matter. For one, the Iron Mist Stripes was revealed to be one of the Sidereals rather than child of Luna. His actions also strengthened my perception about his kin to be something one shouldn't place even inkling of their trust upon. He wanted Ma-Ha-Suchi dead and weren't going to stop at nothing in order to reach his goal; including ignoring the Silver Way, regardless of claiming to follow it, and turning against those he claimed to be his allies, namely us. In the end, he didn't get what she wanted, a small consolation that I'm personally quite happy about.
The Aftermath
Season of Descending Water
Once the dust of battle had settled, we could start piecing together summary of sort on what had happened. Two of the younger Lunars who accompanied Ma-Ha-Suchi were slain during the battle, both by Peregrine, while our losses were primarily among the mortals or fey. Onyx fought against Bloodhoof once again while Sapphire squared off with someone I've never met before.
On the bright side, I finally have the blade Dog of the Stars grafted me during the last year. On the down side, I'm more than little suspicious about it, while I would like to believe that the enchantments crafted into it are what Dogs of the Stars said they'd be, in light of Iron Mist Stripes actions, I have my doubts. Like Bloodhoof said when we met in Nexus sometime back, actions of those whom with you associate yourself cast their shadow on you as well.
On topic of the Iron Mist Stripe, all I can say is that hopefully I'll never need to see his wretched face again, barring on seeing his head on pike or rolling on the ground. If him and his like are the future of the Silver Pact, choice between the two factions eases into choosing between those to whom honour is just a word to throw around when it's convenient and those to whom it actually means something. Even though Dog of the Stars arrived to try to explain the actions of her friend, along with some herbs that supposedly would help curing what ever the disease Iron Mist Stripe contracted onto us during the battle, her excuses how Ma-Ha-Suchi was too strong to be left alive fell ruefully short on explaining Iron Mist Stripes actions.
Only good thing about the entire matter is that the Iron Mist Stripe declared my life debt, death of the Ma-Ha-Suchi. Even though it meant that fulfilling my dept became quite a lot more difficult, if not impossible, I'm glad that Onyx saved Ma-Ha-Suchi and prevented me from going after him while he was still wounded and suffering from the same disease as we were. Before his escape, Iron Mist Stripe left me with one more parting gift, the very same that the Sidereal accompanying the Wyld Hunt left, somehow he interrupted my ability to channel essence. So far I've fought against two Sidereals and both of them did the same thing, judging from their moves during the fight, it appears like it relies on some sort of specialized martial art technique. If my hunch proves to be correct and I have enough time to study the charms I need, next time I meet Iron Mist Stripe, I have a distinct feeling that one of us will die.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.37
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.37
linkki
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29. turina jatkaa jälkipyykin selvittelyä ja samalla menee Mistyn Mentorikin pesuveden mukana viemäriin. Positiivisenä puolena voitaneen tosin sanoa että Iron Mist Stripes saatiin kiinni & asiat selviävät yllättävän paljonkin.
The Short Interlude of Calm
Season of Descending Water
Few days later, Bloodhoof came to see us and made tentative inquiries about how we managed to cure the disease Iron Mist Stripes contracted to us. Once he learned about the Panacea Pipe and its curative powers, Bloodhoof wanted to borrow it to cure the Ma-Ha Suchi. We had our reservations about loaning such a powerful artefact but with his word on its timely return, it was the right thing to do.
While we waited for his return, the Daughter of Crows wanted to discuss about helping her to reach Stygia. Her explanation on what exactly we'd be doing in the underworld with her was sketchy at best; there'd be troubles that we would need to take care with brute force if necessary. She couldn't, or wouldn't, makes no difference, say what she was fetching from Stygia but should we help her to get there and back, we would gain some sort weapon to use against the Mask of Winters. Judging from her growing annoyance, apparently she had counted on us to jump on her offer rather than just offer to loan one of our warbirds. Not to say about the guaranteed interference from the Mask of Winters part the moment he senses my presence in the underworld. Never the less, the Daughter of Crows would have to wait for our help, should it ever come.
The Evening of Anger and Sorrow
Season of Descending Water
Once everything was in order in Rathess, we set sail down stream, our first stop in Jades. When I returned to our ship from my trip to gather information about the city's defences and important people in charge, the Onyx Ashen Mane told me that the Iron Mist Stripe was waiting for me bellow deck. I thought that I'd made it clear enough that only two ways I wanted to see his face again were either when I've fulfilled my debt or his head on a pike but apparently there was something he wanted and, apparently, only way to get rid of him was to hear him out.
As I expected, his first question was about Ma-Ha Suchi. After hearing my reply that he's still alive and that there was nothing more for us to discuss. Iron Mist Stripe claimed that I really weren't mad at him and, to prove his claim, should I want his head, I'd be free to collect it without him trying to defend himself. For someone who supposedly knew me better than most, he was gravely misguided in his opinion that I wouldn't tear his worthless head off his shoulders. To my surprise, and disappointment, Dog of the Stars had masqueraded as Iron Mist Stripes and taken his place while true Iron Mist Stripes, true to his nature, was hiding in the background, probably laughing to himself.
His amusement was short lived though, once his ruse was revealed and he was arrogant enough to stick around rather than use the short moment to make his escape once again, he got what was coming for him. If the Heaven's Moonsilver hadn't intervened for his worthless life, he would have died there and then. Naturally our luck mandated that things just couldn't go that well for us, before going down the Iron Mist Stripes managed to cause enough damage to sink our ship. Only bright side was that, since we were docked at Jades harbour at the time, salvaging our crew and cargo was easy though it took two days to fish everything from the Grey River.
We buried Dog of the Stars that night once Luna had taken her place in the sky, her last words still ringing in my ears. Rest of the night I just kept wondering what she prophesy meant, neither Heaven's Moonsilver nor Ebon Feather knew anything about it and it'd take day or two before Iron Mist Stripes would regain consciousness.
The Tale, and Fate, of the Chosen of the Maidens
Season of Descending Water
If my opinion about the Sidereals was low before, interrogation of the Iron Mist Stripes proved that it could plummet even lower depths. He seemed to be quite well informed about what had happened before, claiming that he had personally made certain that events turned as they had. Apparently he had played with my life well before I ever met him. His list of offences included things such as assuring that the Iron Hearth Consume attacks my home village, murder of my parents, arranging the pirate attack against the ship I was working on in the White Sea and the list goes on and on. The final insult on his part was that I should be grateful for him for having lived a life this well planned.
Once we learned what we could from Iron Mist Stripes, it was time to figure out what to do with him, besides the obvious. Peregrine was adamant that we should try to talk, or force, Ma-Ha Suchi from attacking Jades or Rathess but since we didn't have anything special to bargain in return, that plan didn't go too far. Until someone, not exactly sure who came up with idea of using the Iron Mist Stripes as chip to sweeten the deal and in the worst-case scenario, Ma-Ha Suchi would just rend him into bits, a win-win situation for us.
Sadly though, Heaven's Moonsilver and Ebon Feather disagreed with our plan. Neither of them told us about their own plan before we were on our way to Ma-Ha Suchi's lair. Their attempt to spring the Iron Mist Stripes was nearly successful until Peregrine, at least I think it was he, convinced Heaven's Moonsilver that either we'd turn Iron Mist Stripes to Ma-Ha Suchi, people of Jades wouldn't stand a chance. She returned him grudgingly to our custody and we could continue our way the next morning. Later that same night I had little talk with Heaven's Moonsilver and while both stood firmly on opposite sides on the matter, we managed to come to agreement that would both let her have her revenge and wouldn't end into death of Ma-Ha Suchi.
Ma-Ha Suchi wasn't exactly pleased on seeing us but we did reach sort of agreement on the issue of Jades and Rathess. While he and his pack would leave mortal population alone in both cities, celestial exalts in Rathess would be different matter. From time to time, or more precisely when it would fit him, they'd issue a challenge for a duel with one or more cultists. As long as the fights would stay honourable, cultists could keep Rathess under their rule. I think half of his willingness to agree to the deal came from the fact that now his protégées could test themselves against Solars in known location near his lair rather than having to seek them out.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
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12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.44
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Nimlas Dagorewen
12. helmikuuta 2007 kello 4.44
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30. ja samalla viimeinen osa Mistyn tarinasta. Yksi asia johtaa toiseen ja se kolmanteen, lopulta siihen että kylmä kyyti osui kohdalle. Mistyn kuoleman myötä hänen shardi siirtyi eteenpäin Icy Moonstonelle joka liittyi porukkaan muutaman kuukauden kuluttua. Jos ennusmerkit pitävät paikkansa niin Icyn päiväkirjoja saattaa putoilla jälleen kun kerkiän syventyä niiden pariin.
Departure Towards North
Season of Ascending Earth
We were on our way back to Jades when two pillars of silvery essence rose towards the night sky behind us. Peregrine asked me to head back and see what was going on back there, though I already knew the answer but rather than tell him directly, I circled back to Ma-Ha Suchi's lair. Heaven's Moonsilver didn't waste time before exacting her payback. I only hope that I was wrong about the price for the plan.
The situation in Jades hadn't changed while we were negotiation with the Ma-Ha Suchi; the city was preparing to repel an attack that wouldn't come for long time. Sapphire agreed that she would go meet with the mayor of Jades and try to ease their fears about the future. The plans suggested for assuring them that the danger had passed were, eccentric, to say the least, Sinje insisting that Sapphire should reveal herself as Solar in front of the people while making a speech. Only problem would be that there wouldn't be anyone left listening her two heartbeats after showing her anima. Luckily the common sense won in the end and she just spoke with the mayor, telling him that Jades had protectors who wished to remain secret for the time being.
Turmoil in the Underworld of Nexus
Season of Ascending Earth
Our arrival to Nexus went without further disturbances. Father Longroad wanted to see me little after docking while others were running errands around the city. He wanted to know more about the Iron Mist Stripes, sadly though, Father Longroad had to content with my surly reply that he's dead. At least I hope he's dead but I wasn't going to tell that to him. What I wanted to hear from him was more interesting; even though Peregrine played disinterested I'm pretty certain that he too was listening with keen interest. Iron Mist Stripes claimed, I'm tempted to think by mistake, that should it come to it; they would slay the Solars once again. Judging by the nervous laughter, it was something Father Longroad was not expecting and the way he carefully chose his words spoke volumes.
Meeting with Ebon Feathers sister Seven Devil Clever didn't go that smoothly. She was making her mark into the Nexus underworld and old timers were getting more than little restless about her success. While I must give them my regards for finding out the teahouse where we met and setting up an attack on such short notice, sadly they hadn't found out that she isn't mortal. Out of 20 or so would be assassins, only one made it alive and that was because we needed one for questioning. Once we knew who was behind the attack, it was time to return the favour. I was little surprised that the mastermind behind the attack was the same who we had met almost two years ago, what surprised me more was the fact that I still remembered the path to his hideout in the sewers. Needless to say, the meeting didn't go smoothly. On the bright side, Seven Devil Clever has her hands full for a while to fill in the power vacuum that his death left.
While Sinje went to see her Raksha friends in Nexus and converse about their plan on attacking the unshaped near Crystal, I headed due east to check with my own contacts in the Great Forks to hear if there had been any developments that I should pay attention to. I also visited the Unfettered Moon to tell her what I had learned and to try and pry more knowledge from her concerning both the Iron Mist Stripes and the prophecy Dog of the Stars mentioned.
Towards the North Where Rakshas Lay
From Season of Ascending Earth to Resplendent Earth
We set sail towards Windcreche little after mid Ascending Earth, our sail upstream would take about a month or so if we'd stay out of troubles. I might just as well have hoped to find fully intact First Age city, along with all its habitants, as to hope that we'd stay out of troubles. This time it was Peregrine who decided that he really, really wanted to punch a hole onto ships hull and toss one of the Raksha into the River of Tears. Throwing one of the Rakshas into the river wouldn't had bothered me all that much if he hadn't done it trough the hull and the fact that they enjoyed the courtesy of hospitality while on board.
Once Peregrine regained consciousness from my not so gentle restraining and Raksha entertainer whom he had been trying to throw overboard was well enough to talk, it was once again time to sort out what exactly had happened. Apparently Peregrine had stumbled in just in time to see the Raksha ravish some mortal they had brought to feed on and, in fit of insanity, tried to sunk our ship by using her as battering ram. Laughing Man, leader of the Rakshas on board, complained about how poorly they were treated even though the principle of hospitality should protect them from anything such as this and I should make it up to them some how.
Unfortunately tough, tossing all of them over the side of the ship would be even greater breach of old customs. With little coaching Peregrine agreed to apologise, not his actions nor reasons, but the troubles and damage he had caused. I'm not certain if the Rakshas noticed the slight but his theatrics on the deck where he held his act seemed to satisfy their hurt feelings enough to settle the matter.
We had smooth sailing until reaching the Malice bay where we met, or rescued, the drunken Undefeated Raven from the wreck of his yacht. I'm not quite certain how exactly he managed to run his yacht onto the shore like that but he managed to do it anyhow. Unsurprisingly, he had yet another message from the Mask of Winters, who was again requesting my presence at his citadel. Not to mention the little detail that he was more than little ticked from our go away present in Kirighast harbour. Should I turn his invitation down, Undefeated Raven explained, the next time I'd meet with him, would be when an entire circle of deathknights arrives to escort me to his citadel.
The War for the Unshaped
Season of Resplendent Earth
There's something about the northern winter that makes me feel at ease, perhaps it's due to my other half or perhaps it's the freezing winds, I don't know. Never the less, it was time for us to fill our end of the bargain struck with the Rakshas and go to war for them. Laughing Man arranged one of the Haslanti airships to carry us to what used to be Crystal but as we approached, all we could see was an outpost in middle of being fortified to stall our attack. It was good thing that Sapphire had decided to stay behind in Windcreche, without protective charms or tattoos, the wyld would've twisted her in same way as it did to the poor crew of the airship.
The battle itself was rather anticlimactic after all the talking. We fought against three guards of the Inevitable Creeping Frost while Rakshas fought their own fights. There were hordes of some smaller Rakshas, apparently summoned by the three bodyguards, as well but for whatever reason, their attacks didn't do any harm to us. Regardless, the Inevitable Creeping Frost turned tail and ran after his bodyguards, along with their troops, fell, signalling the beginning of the end for opposing Rakshas.
After mopping up the remains of the Inevitable Creeping Frosts forces, the Laughing Man declared that we should participate their victory party and that, even though he'd like to, asking us to help them with carving out the unshaped would be more than what our agreement required. During the party Laughing Man and his court made tentative inquiries about what kind of gifts we'd like, in off chance that we'd receive some. Peregrine and Ash Mantis hinted about armour and riches that they'd like, my gift wish was a bit simpler; just go away and never bother me again.
With the airship now looking more like a flying whale, thanks to the twisting effects of the wyld, our return to Windcreche took days and with wyld so close, edible game was far and between. Our next plan was to sail around the tip of the track of land between the River of Tears and The Silver River, then sail upstream until Rubylak. There we'd hopefully meet with the Bull of the North and could deliver cults message to him before continuing even further north towards the Invisible Fortress.
Messenger from Unfettered Moon arrived about a week after our departure from Windcreche, young Lunar named Resplendent Weasel whom was supposed to know the spell needed to track down Lilith. In hindsight, I shouldn't been that trusting towards him but he knew enough to placate most of my suspicions and none of the Solars spoke against him either so off we went.
The Last Evening of My Life
5th day of the Season of Descending Earth
We set camp some three hundred miles from the ship after day of flying. My suspicions started to rise when I noticed that the Resplendent Weasel hadn't had his caste locked yet, his claim being that this was part of his initiation test set of alarms in my mind. It didn't matter though, his trap worked like a charm, which was bad thing for my part. Not only did he manage to lure me out into wilderness, the ice dagger he wielded had some kind of enchantment on it that froze every wound it made so that they wouldn't heal.
His last words to me were that "the Winter Queen sends her regards." I'm not sure if he waited for last plea for mercy or something else from me before my death but, as I was fading into Lethe, judging by his furious reaction, "take your prophecy and stuff it," were not the expected last words. At least I died with smirk on my lips.
Epilogue
4 months later
Honoured Heaven's Moonsilver,
I wish I would have had the chance to speak with you one more time and tell this in person, but since you are reading this, I'm afraid that it is no longer possible. I know that we didn't exactly agree on many things, some fervently enough to raise our hand against each other, so I understand should you decide to walk away from what I'm about to ask.
Although I'd like to trust the Ashen Cricket not to do anything truly foolish that will get him killed, such as coming after me, please look after him if or when you're able. It should've been my duty to keep my little brother out of troubles but looks like I ended into one myself. The locket belonged to mom, give it to Ashen Cricket and tell him that I love him and we'll meet again.
The two rings you probably recognized already, if they aren't with this letter then rough up Ash Mantis until he hands them back, and know what to do with them. The necklace is for you along with my last plea. Somewhere out there is person who now holds shard of my soul; the necklace should lead you to her, or him, with little luck before servants of the Mask of Winters will. Explain her why they are hounding her so she'll know what to expect and why her heart is pulling her towards the flames. Also, give my diary to her. Read it if you wish, perhaps it contains something that you might find enlightening, or amusing.
As for the rest of what is, or more likely was, in the crate, I can't help but to get the feeling that by the time you have finished reading this letter, its content has long since been divided. If, by some reason, I'm should be wrong with this and they're waiting for you to finish reading, then take what belongs to Lunas beloved back to the Elders, other than that, put them into good use.
Last thing is my gift to you, use it as you wish or hand it to someone who you think needs it. From the glen where Exultant Falcon proved his worth, fly north until you see earth's teeth rising from ground, between two is a narrow pass of constant breath. Look for the flow that shouldn't be there. When the guardian comes, tell him that you have my permission to enter. Should he refuse to acknowledge your claim, well, I'm sure you know how to make him listen. I know you probably dislike the atmosphere with passion but it is something I couldn't change.
I never was good with apologies and I know that this is a poor substitute but for what it is worth, I am truly sorry about the way things turned and grateful that the rose never shattered. Farewell, sister, and thank you.
White Morning Mist
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
22. marraskuuta 2007 kello 16.09
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Nimlas Dagorewen
22. marraskuuta 2007 kello 16.09
linkki
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Niin se aika vain vipeltää, sattui vain silmään vanha otsikko haahuillessa & voisi nyt samalla sitten laittaa lisää pätkiä näkyville.
Lyhyehkössä välitarinassa esittäytyy Mistyn uusi reinkarnaatio, Icy Moonstone, samalla kun viaton Scavenger Lord ( hieno nimitys haudanryös.. Siis arkeologille ) jää jälleen nuolemaan näppejään. Samassa pätkässä esittäytyvät myös Veiled Forest, Icyn tytär, sekä Glittering Phoenix, puolijumaluus matkalla kohti virallista jumaluutta.
Sitten itse turina...
The Alleged Burial Mounds of Amber Sky
Some Two Days Journey due west from Kriss
Corcot Berel was beyond ecstatic as he climbed trough the rubble of what used to be the grand entrance into the vast burial mound, towards the surface. A quick glance towards his seven remaining, out of twenty who entered, companions confirmed that he weren't the only one with his jubilant mood, wide grins on their fatigued faces regardless and the horrors they faced within the tomb. With his share from this excavation, Corcot could finally retire into the safe, and comfortable, life of a scholar from his life of a scavenger lord. His jubilant mood darkening for a brief moment as he noticed the slinking silhouette against the light from the entrance, those damn cats were sniffing around again.
Regardless of the repeated attempts his men to scare or chase them away during the past few days, they always returned. With a weary sigh Corcot raised his slingshot, he'd rather used his firewand had it not been swallowed by some demon bound to guard the tomb, to teach those things to keep their inquisitive noses clear from his business. A small part of his mind was worried though, what if they were among of the guardians set to guard the tomb like those hideous lizards were? Or worse still, hounds of some other scavenger lord waiting for his tired crew to make their way into the open before ambush. His fears didn’t come true this time though, at least not yet.
With a casual glance, their base camp looked undisturbed but signs of someone rifling trough their equipment were obvious to Corcot and his men; corner of a tent flap moving in breeze even though it had been securely tied when they left, backpacks piled slightly differently and so on, the signs were everywhere once one knew what to look for. Then there were the paw prints around the campsite, some were about the size of his palm, the others were huge, almost a foot across and inch deep. While the cats seemed to have avoided crossing the ward surrounding the camp, there were also fresh footprints within the camp, human footprints.
Sure enough, the cats returned during that night as soon as the moon had risen, lazily pacing along the edge of the ward while the men scrambled from their tents. The smaller tiger, when compared to the larger one, was still quite majestic sight, its shoulders reaching about three and a half feet in height, measuring about nine feet in length. Besides from few skins before fireplaces or hung on the walls, Corcot had never seen a tiger with white fur before. Just as if it had felt his gaze, the cat sat onto the ground right at the edge of their encampment and fixed its ice blue eyes to him.
Something about the tigress, now that he could examine it more keenly, struck odd to him, its ice blue eyes lacked the gleam of a wild beast but instead they held unbearable, piercingly calm gaze that felt as if it’d go straight trough him. Pattern of stripes on its fur was strange as well, running lengthwise on its head rather than across as they did on the other one. Even more nerving was the casual way that the beast kept watching Corcots’ men scrambling around the campsite with their weapons, ignoring their shouts and the scant few stones some tossed towards it, not even flinching from its place nor moving its gaze away from him as Corcot threw a torch right next to it.
While the second tiger had common reddish-brown fur, it was just about the only thing normal about it. Towering well past six feet on its shoulders, the great cat was beyond anything Corcot, or any of his men for that matter, had ever seen or even dreamt about. Where the tigress appeared as strong but lithe, the massive tom was bulging with muscles. Lack of any visible mutations spoke against some random wyld mutation, as did the unnervingly intelligent look in its golden eyes. Faint shimmering in the air along the outskirt of their camp near the tom was a small consolation though; at least Corcot’s ward against fey and troublesome divinities was still working. Judging by the errant sparks striking against its flanks and face; it was most likely either some minor god or had enough divine blood in its veins to be affected by the wards set to protect the campsite.
"Why are we wasting our time by playing this silly game with these mortals?” A deep, rumbling voice asked in the language of the Old Realm; with withering undertone in it. “Just take what is yours and be on our way. We’re late as it is already and I doubt we have time to spear fooling around like this.” It took few breaths before the fact that the great tiger spoke truly registered into Corcot's mind, followed by another realisation that sent frozen shivers down his spine as he heard the reply from other side of the camp; Anathema. "Because I do not wish to spill anymore blood, not while near this place. Besides, why would you trouble yourself with the kill if mongrels will do it for you," a calm voice replied from where the tigress had sat just moments before.
Crouching on its place was a young woman, appearing no older than 20, wearing a silken cheongsam adorned with images of lotus blooms, more suited for halls of the great cities rather than out in the wilds. Even with the impending danger of her being one of the dreaded anathemas, Corcot couldn’t help but to marvel the sight before him. Neither marks of diseases of childhood nor did life mar her face. Even the suns rays had failed to have any noticeable effect on her milky white skin or she’d never been under its gaze. Her free flowing hair, shining under moons light and reaching to middle of her back was striped by similar white-black stripes running along it as the tigresses head fur had been was adorned by a circlet of five small lotuses, three blue and two white ones. Her large almond shaped amber eyes, framed by long lashes of same pure white as her hair, kept their hard edge while her gaze swept over the men. High cheekbones and delicate build of her features gave her face classical beauty, unlike the unnatural beauty of the fey and their ilk, she was clearly being of the creation. Unluckily it also meant that the cold iron weapons they had for just that kind of occasions were useless.
Twin moonsilver arcs, faintly glowing with the cold light of the moon, rose along both sides of her swan like neck until their tips met about a half palm from her ears. At the nape of her neck, more lines of silver joined the arcs to form part of a larger pattern before they disappeared under her robe. She stood little over five and half feet tall, far from being brawny like the stories usually portrayed Lunar exalts. Instead her curvy though lithe build and wiry muscles gave her appearance degree of delicacy, a lot like one would expect from acrobat. The gleaming silver tattoos reappeared on her arms, running along them in series of complex occult symbols and runes rather than deceivingly simple design on her neck and chest. Just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse, passed trough Corcot’s mind as he recognized group of symbols on her arm; all too similar with a group of symbols he had seen few times before on tomes describing the three circles of magic wielded by the anathemas.
The clearing was briefly lit by silver-purple glow of her anima as she casually flicked her wrist and every single enchantment Corcot had painstakingly grafted onto his groups equipment during the years shattered along with the wards surrounding the camp. "You know why we are here," she continued in language of the River Province, “the only question that remains begging for answer is how many of you wishes to see the morning and who prefers to join the ghosts.” Kitharas, one of Corcot's hired guards, dashed towards the Lunar with his spear poised to impale her before Corcot could reply. His charge ended just as fast as it had begun, as an arrow surrounded in fiery nimbus of emerald essence struck straight trough his chest, nearly cutting him into two.
The tangled hawthorn bush near the camp, from which the arrow flew, flowed aside as if they were parted by invisible hands to make way for the Dragonblooded archer. Corcot had seen children of Sextes Jylis before but never one with such pure blood as this young terrestrial had in her veins. She couldn’t be much past her 15th birthday but already her blood was showing its potency trough her appearance. Like the Lunar, she wore silk robe though hers was green and embroidery were slightly different. She stood little less than five feet tall, her anima banner rising feet or so above her in an endless sea of cherry petals fluttering in the wind, the fluorescent emerald tint of her skin and hair emphasized by the flickering of her anima.
Her green hair reached down to her shoulders with thin braids on the sides with a small circlet of five blooms hanging from one, single blue shamrock with four white ones beneath it. Regardless of her young age, or perhaps because of it, there were no signs of remorse or pity in her big green eyes for the dead. If it hadn’t been for the grim expression on her face, and terrestrial blood for that matter, she’d been quite lovely sight. The soft and rounded features of her face pointing towards the Realm, as did her pure blood, though how did she end up allying with anathema escaped Corcots mind. Like just about every terrestrial exalt Corcot had seen before, there weren’t an ounce of excess on her body.
“At least I tried to avoid needless bloodshed but since you seem to be that eager to join the afterlife,” movement in corner of his eyes tore Corcots mind away from the young dragon blooded. While his attention had been focused onto the terrestrial, the Lunar woman had taken her warform and was standing just few paces from him. She easily towered over everyone in the camp, passing even the great tiger by some two feet. Though her eyes kept their cold but calm gaze, the way her ears were half-flat against top of her head, fangs bared, spoke volumes of her irritated mind. Unlike in most stories describing Lunars in their warform, her warform wasn't huge mountain of bulging muscles nor did she grow claws as big as swords. Her tattoos burned with cold silver light underneath her fur as if Luna herself was shining trough them from inside of her, their pattern, and the image of the crescent moon, burning into minds of every man.
Her head was that of tigress before, covered with pure white fur barring for the black tear streaks underneath the, cold, amber eyes. Likewise the stripes on top of her head ran lengthwise until reaching first of the burning silver arcs. Unlike what he had seen on the few predators he’d close enough in the past to see their fangs, hers were white as pearls. While her shoulders, rippling with wiry muscles underneath, were at least as wide as of any of the men in Corcots group, on her huge form they still seemed narrow. Similarities between her two forms continued on rest of her as well, though her warform was by no stretch of imagination delicate anymore, it still held its relatively lithe build. “So which will it be then, will you all follow the fool or is there any glimmer of sense in your heads?” While she lacked claws size of sword, hers were about length of mans finger, each glimmering with moonsilver runes, there were little questions about what would happen should his answer be to anything else than consenting.
With a defeated sigh, Corcot nodded towards the Lunar and her companions, perhaps after the next dig... That's what he always thought after unsuccessful expedition or when the Dragonblooded did the same as the Lunar was doing now, that after the next dig he could finally retire... “At least,” he begun before the words died into his throat as she picked up the massive, five feet long and nearly foot wide, moonsilver daiklave like it’d been just a child’s toy. “It has been so long time, Eternally Dancing Moonlight.” She whispered in old realm as her anima banner engulfed the blade into storm of silver lotus petals, “Time for you to awaken from your slumber.” Front half of a massive white tiger emerged from the flickering display of her anima and protectively folded its paws around the blade until slowly fading from sight as she reclaimed the ancient blade.
“At least you could tell us your name,” Corcot muttered after finding his voice again. “You desecrated my tomb…” She began with quiet, exceedingly slow tone. Slowly turning to face Corcot again while continuing, “Steal everything you got your hands on…” Ears flat against her head and claws fully extended as she stepped next to him with unnatural speed, “and yet you didn’t seem to bother on finding out my name?” Though Corcot wasn’t exactly burly, the ease on which he was lifted up was still unnerving, her claws biting trough the chest of his buff jacket. “I’m not quite sure which I should take greater insult of, your plundering or your ignorance.”
Her voice mere whisper between clenched teeth, “did you even bother on trying to learn whose tomb you would desecrate or was it all just for the riches waiting for you?” All Corcot could do was to shake his head in denial since his voice had abandoned him again. “Think carefully though not too long, you just used up your last graces. Your next words will decide whether any of you see the morning or not.” Though Corcot did know whose grave it was, dangling few feet in the air, angry anathema staring into his eyes with her muzzle just scant inches from his face, all he could voice was a faint whimper.
“Amber… Amber Sky…” Corcot managed to whisper just when the Lunar was about to lose her patience, “But you died before the contagion…” Seemingly satisfied with his answer, she let him down again before speaking. “And yet I am quite alive… Although it is Icy Moonstone,” without further words towards him, she returned to the tent where Corcots men had stored the artefacts from the tomb. Ignoring mundane items, regardless of their worth, she rummaged around until finding what she appeared to be after in the first place; two green jade hearthstone bracers and a jade powerbow. “Where we are headed,” she told to the young terrestrial, passing the artefacts to her. “These will aid you more than anything else from the tomb would. Happy birthday, Veiled Forest.”
Looking towards the Lunar walking away with the artefacts that were supposed to pay his way into a cosy retirement, Corcot motioned his men to start packing up the camp. What they didn't hear was her quiet, emotionless, words towards dozen or so nearly materialized forms around her in Old Realm, "by the time sun crests the horizon, you have hunted every one of them down. Enjoy your hunt," Corcot and his men had desecrated their last tomb.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
22. marraskuuta 2007 kello 16.19
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Nimlas Dagorewen
22. marraskuuta 2007 kello 16.19
linkki
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Sitten itse Icyn tarinan kimppuun... Ensin melkein onnellisesti mennyt kohtaaminen muun Circlen kanssa, ihmeellistä kyllä pahimmilta väärinkäsityksiltä vältyttiin kiitos Abyssalien jotka saapuivat paikalle juuri parahiksi.
The Crossing Paths
Sijan, the City of the Dead
Just about every road leads into Sijan or some other place where the underworld overlaps with the Creation, if not in life then afterwards. We managed to keep ahead of the hounds on our heels by keeping away from small villages we passed when possible and when not, by arriving and leaving from other directions to which we were actually headed or coming from.
Majority of the demons we had guarding us perished as fodder to slow their progress by sinking rafts they were crossing rivers with and on couple occasion to tear their undead trackers to pieces. The scant half dozen that remained wouldn’t slow them more than token moment but it’d be enough to make our escape. As of why we headed to the city of the dead, our plan was to keep heading northwards along the Grey River until reaching the White Sea and Sijan was the largest city on its eastern shore. Boarding or stowing away, on ship headed upriver or across the river was bit risky but would put the river between us and the Abyssals following us.
Our stay in Sijan turned out to be a lot shorter than we had planned but luckily the Abyssals weren’t the ones that found us first, though we didn’t know it at the time. We had taken accommodations at the Shadowy Boars inn and were planning for the next day when another group of hounds reached us. We were expecting meal to be delivered about at the time when they arrived so knocking on the door didn’t send us scurrying immediately. Regardless I took the scant remaining Erymathyses with me as precaution when I went to answer it.
Instead of the servant I was expecting, the hallway was packed with people and at least two Rakshas, one of them a Cataphract to make things worse. Leading them was a man that I had never met in this life but he was an echo from distant and not so distant past. Last time we met was in my previous life when he invited my pack into his stronghold to extend his proposal, now Larquen Quen was standing in the hall; holding the very same orichalcum weddingband on his extended hand that he presented to me many life times ago and in my past life in his stronghold.
It’d take us just few moments to back those belongings that we couldn’t easily leave behind, especially anything that could be used as emphatic link to any of us, so I threw last of the fodder into the grinder while bolting back towards the interior of our room. Not surprisingly, the blood apes bought us just enough time to gather our belongings before being cut down. I was more surprised by the length of time that the meagre ward on the interior door brought us. Sure enough, they tried to force the door at first but since it held unlike the last door that shattered on the first kick, there was a short moment of calm as the storm gathered its momentum before resuming.
Rather than try to force the door again, they tried talking which suited us. Since we’d have to try to lose this latest group just like the Abyssals, might as well see what we’re dealing with. While I stood in the middle of the chamber so that I’d have ample room to swing the Eternally Dancing Moonbeam, should it come to that, Veiled Forest took post at the corner of the room along with Flickering Phoenix. The previously roomy den begun feeling rather cramped once the latest hunting party poured inside. As I had hoped, they dismissed the jade lions standing around the room as part of decoration rather than recognising them for what they actually were.
Two Hidden Moons, probably with their mates, male going by the name of Ebon Feather and a woman named Heavens Moonsilver. Three others were most likely Solars, two men who introduced as Ash Mantis and Peregrine the young woman was called Shining Sapphire. Two Rakshas, a Cataphract of pure blue flame and female, probably noble of their ilk called herself Sinje.
After everyone was introduced, Peregrine took out moonsilver-soulsteel necklace that lazily swung around like a pendulum for a few moments before coming to a stop while pulling against its chain. Next he explained about my previous incarnation, who had travelled with them before her demise and in her letter asked them to find me before the Abyssals would. Sounds of the approaching dead coming from the hallway indicated that they weren’t very far ahead of the next group. More meat into the grinder, I though while ordering the jade lions into the hall where the Cataphract was already busy making the dead stay dead.
To every ones surprise, and probably his as well, there was fourth Solar around whose disguise was ruined due to Teodozji’s infernal aura. While the jade lions were ablaze with black lightings, poor Zeniths’ caste mark was burning just as brightly. Though neither party directly attacked each other, there were raging battle going on never the less. While the jade lions are relatively powerful, compared to other demons of the first circle, it wasn’t much of surprise to see them perish under the unforgiving gaze of the Unconquered Sun.
Little later two old acquaintances, still rather confused zenith and Peregrine, were busy getting reacquainted. Apparently they had known each other while serving in the imperial legions, before their exaltation, and now they met once again before the coming battle. Regardless of the untold number of questions waiting to be asked, the next wave of undead troops swarming in to the corridor meant that we should take our leave before having to wade waist deep in rotting flesh. Unfortunately from our point of view, most of the buildings in Sijan are underground, to leave the topside clear for mausoleums, and since the dead were swarming from the only entrance, it was time to make our own exit.
While discretion might be the better part of valour like aunt Delano used to say; discretion and shaping of sorcery, even of the lowly emerald circle, are mutually exclusive matters. Briefly surrounded by strands of silver-purple essence, one of the telltale signs of sorcery, I called forth of my totem spirit. As my iconic anima flared into being, shattering the veil of illusion hiding the fact that I was standing in my warform, I leapt towards the ceiling and created new exit for us trough it; straight into the hands of the waiting Abyssal circle.
Our clash against the Abyssal circle was short one, mostly due the fact that where they had been chasing just single celestial, there were now seven. Once two of the Abyssals had fallen, the remaining two took off promising to return later day to finish what they started. After quick evaluation of our situation, it was time to beat tail towards the ship Peregrines circle had waiting in the docks. This evidently weren’t first hasty departure for their crew that was already casting off by the time we reached the docks; just in time to find out that the Abyssals weren’t alone in their pursuit, some sort of flyer crashed between us and the ship, releasing horde of automatons. Like the Abyssals before, the automatons had very little chance against us.
Once we were safely on our way, it was time to discuss about our next direction. Apparently Peregrine and others had some enemies in deep south that they wanted to take care of, regardless that it’d mean travelling thousands miles, first down stream into the Inner Sea and then over the southern deserts. Knowing that there’d be troubles in south, either caused by us, Mask of Winters or the mysterious Illuminated Seven whom we were heading to deal with, most of my time went to summoning new group of demons to throw against what ever we’d be facing.
New Faces and Family Troubles
From the fortified city of Lookshy to city of Yane
The great Inner Sea opened before us after two weeks of sailing downstream, thanks to the elementals aiding our ship with steady tailwind and clear waters. We took an intermediate stop at Lookshy to pick up supplies and some cargo to lessen the financial burden of our ship. Very little of note happened during our short stay, only thing worth of mentioning was the arrival of a young full moon, the Sandstorm Wind Runner. Apparently she was another protégée of the Onyx Hound who had decided to send her to learn more from me, though I’m not quite certain what or whose stroke of genius it was to send her into Lookshy. As with nearly all full moons, her tell was clearly visible to anyone who spared more than casual glance towards her. Needless to say, when in the stronghold of the Seventh Legion, being recognized as celestial is bound to lead into an interesting night. Regardless, there were no incidents and we set sail towards the southern shores of the Inland Sea; another tedious trip of summoning, boredom, more summoning and studying.
Next stop on our way was at the city of Yane, home of the acting captain of our ship, Shining Sapphire. She wanted to see her parents and let them know that she was all right. The locals weren’t all too helpful towards foreigners in their beloved city, at least in the inner city, near the docks their attitudes were more trade oriented as to be expected. We headed towards the district reserved for nobles and richer people under watchful eyes of the Shining Sapphire. The guards at the gate gave her some troubles, not too unsurprisingly they were reluctant to allow strangers to pass. Since she was only one of us fluent in flametongue, what she said to her parents went unknown but judging from their sour faces, they didn’t like it at all. Grudgingly her parents agreed to put up with us for the night with not so subtle wish that we’d be gone by noon, preferably sooner with Shining Sapphire left behind to attend her duties towards her family, in this case marriage.
While the night passed uneventful, there was slight delay on our trip back to our ship. Shining Sapphires would be groom had the great idea of hiring some local mortals into impersonating the Wyld Hunt bearing down to her, and then he would gallantly ride into rescue with his personal guards. This would naturally cause Shining Sapphire to fall in love with him and they’d live happily ever after. All in all it wasn’t too shabby plan for a desperate groom; had it worked. Only kink in his carefully laid plan was that she really was a Solar, accompanied by five celestials along with two dozen demons, which meant that the would Wyld Hunt had short and bloody end. Our rescuer nearly met his demise as well had it not been for Peregrines skill with medicines, though his fate was in point of an assassins’ poisoned dart.
The Illuminated Seven, Invasion of Gem and Cult of the Illuminated
From Chiaroscuro to all around the blasted southern deserts
After yet another swift departure, we continued southwest along the coast. Shining Sapphires groom-to-be stayed with us only until next larger port, though I’m not certain if it was to get away from Sapphire who had spent quite a while chastising him for thinking that she couldn’t take care of herself or due to us being celestial exalts. Regardless our trip went without troubles to Chiaroscuro. From there we’d be heading south towards the stronghold of the Illuminated Seven, only some thousand or two miles across the desert. Rather than get on our way immediately like Silver Flame wanted, we stayed in Chiaroscuro for a week. I managed to convince the impatient Solars that rather than walk across the desert, we’d save lot of time in the end if I’d summon mounts for us and we’d fly there; after a long debate though.
The hideout of the Illuminated Seven was located inside the cauldron of an active volcano, with the mandatory long, narrow ramp winding towards its main gate. While rest of us stayed behind, Silver Flame led small recon party into the fort. Unlike we expected; there were only few problems getting into the fortress and once inside, it was quick walk to meet with the Count Zero. In the end, there was no great battle or even small one. Apparently most of the Counts ire stemmed from one unlucky incident with our circle, namely when he was thrown into a lava pit. Ash Mantis managed to talk him out of fighting us and into an uneasy alliance, or something resembling one.
Count also handed us two hearthstones, supposedly for some First Age remnant requiring no fever than five specific hearthstones to operate. First stone was from manse located even further south, second was from manse located somewhere on the Blessed Isle. While he didn’t have location for remaining hearthstones, the count had found out that the fifth hearthstone, named Captains Stone, could lead us to the remaining three. Naturally we’d have to be attuned with its manse first. Peregrine was jubilant to accept the offered stones and immediately set to plan how to reach the remaining three; first we’d attune the closest manse and then head to find the one on Blessed Isle and so on. Easy in theory, not so easy in practise. In order to attune with the manse from which the Gunners Stone originated, one would be required to meditate in middle of a raging inferno deep within volcano. Should the remaining four manses be similar, only manse that we’d have little difficulties would lie somewhere in the east.
Our next stop was to be Chiaroscuro, immediately followed by sailing towards cooler climates or at least that was the plan, instead we ended up heading towards hidden camp of another cult. Unlike majority of the creation, the Cult of the Illuminated worshipped returning Solars as saviours of the creation. In addition to their worship, the cult had hidden training camps in various parts of the creation to train their new heroes. Both Peregrine and Shining Sapphire had studied in cults’ camp, Sequestered Tabernacle, somewhere up north while Silver Flame and Ash Mantis weren’t members of the cult, at least not yet. Silver Flame received invitation from one of the cult recruiters before we could set sail from Chiaroscuro with instructions how to find this secret training site.
The cults’ camp was an ancient fortress carved into side of a mountain, literally in middle of nowhere. Within its walls was a full blown army training ground, an army that would soon march westwards towards Gem. Shining Sapphire got her hackles up once she learned about the planned invasion, arguing that it was wrong to send out army to conquer Gem. Deal was made after lengthy argument with the Solar general, Shining Sapphire had until the army reached Gem to convince them to surrender or the assault would happen as planned, so in practice nothing changed from their point of view. Interestingly enough, they also had quite extensive library magical knowledge tucked away into the runnels within the mountain. Naturally only members of the cult were allowed to study those tomes so I ended up joining as well even though there were unmentioned hints scattered here and there that only Solars were actually welcomed.
So off we went once again, while the invasion force marched across the desert we flew ahead on our demon wasps. Our stay in Gem was rather uneventful, relatively speaking, at first Sapphire tried to work her way into good terms with the despot but in the end we stopped beating around the bushes and went straight for the neck. Bound and gagged despot woke one night in the middle of the desert after being snatched from his bedchambers. Shining Sapphire then tied noose of essence around his neck so that when the approaching army reached Gem, surrendering was extremely good idea from his point of view. After his sudden conversion, the despot found himself under sacrificial dagger of the yozis worshippers only, to be saved by his elite guard arriving just in the nick of time to prevent his death. When the army finally arrived to the outskirts of Gem, the city held for three days before despots neck finally snapped and he ordered an unconditional surrender.
Once the Solar general took control of Gem, or as they put it, accepted their wish for an alliance of mutual protection from the cult, we could head back to the camp. Barring the apparent militant slant in their curriculum, their training regime was pretty similar with the regimen in the Amber Hill; surprise quizzes, inspections and so on. The greatest difference was the trainees, in Amber Hill they were children of various ages, here they were all adults with somewhat unnerving glint of fanatic belief in their eyes. In addition to the studies, there were times when one of the Sunchilds wanted to test their mettle. From my point of view, the most valuable gain from our stay in the camp was new book with seven spells that I managed to copy from the scrolls in the cult libraries; especially two defensive spells of the sapphire circle.
Return to Chiaroscuro went peacefully though it was just calm before the storm which struck when Shining Sapphire was negotiating about purchasing new ship for us. It seems that Sapphires reputation as being celestial exalt had spread after our visit in Yane and now the Wyld Hunt of the Immaculate Order arrived to slay her. The fight itself bore striking similarity to our fight with the Abyssal circle, they too thought that there’d be only one exalt standing against them rather than half dozen and just like the Abyssals before, they paid the price for that particular oversight. The last surviving Immaculate, child of Pasiap, did something that his ilk is almost unheard of doing, he surrendered rather than make valiant, though futile, last stand. This didn’t suit Shining Sapphire who was adamant with her desire of seeing his death, her usual reluctance to spill blood ignored the moment when she thought that the ship she was negotiating about was damaged during the battle.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
24. marraskuuta 2007 kello 6.51
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Nimlas Dagorewen
24. marraskuuta 2007 kello 6.51
linkki
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Kun alkuvaikeuksista päästiin eroon, ja ihme kyllä Gemikin jäi ehjäksi, asialistalle otettiin Paragon parin mutkan jälkeen. Ohessa törmättiin jälleen Wyld Hunttiin sekä tavalliseen tapaan nahisteltiin keijujen sekä Abyssalien kanssa.
Limitless Ambition of God King
City of Paragon
Next stop on our way was the city of Paragon, about a week from Chiaroscuro. Our main purpose on visiting there was to secure a hearthstone compass to help finding the manses. In addition Peregrine and Shining Sapphire planned on giving a stern lecture to the Perfect about the correct way of governing his city. Their main beef was the symbol of citizenship which enforced both the laws and will of Perfect, on pain of death when necessary. Peregrine and Sapphire went off to find out more about the Perfect while Veiled Forest, Flickering Phoenix and me headed towards the part of the market catering tallismongers and thaumathurges. Rather than even bother trying to appear as locals like Peregrine and Sapphire did, we made it quite obvious to all that we were neither locals nor mortals. Even trying so would’ve been moot point, no one in their right minds and not completely blind would believe, not even for a single heartbeat, that.
Part of the reason why Peregrine and Sapphire wanted to go hunt alone was also due to their suspicion that we’d draw troubles like bees to honey. Regardless of their concern, we didn’t end up into troubles like they did. First was Shining Sapphire who got attacked and taken as prisoner, not long afterwards there were troubles in the docs, not too surprisingly centred on our ship. While I wasn’t entirely certain what they had done, demon I set to guard Peregrine just informed that there had been a fight against three terrestrials, having the harbour surrounded by full dragon meant that someone was ticked. After a quick though, I recalled most of the demons, namely the blood apes, left behind as guardians onto the other ship we ‘purchased’ from Chiaroscuro.
Little later we were summoned, or arrested as he put it at first, to see the Perfect by some hapless soul with few friends trying to stay hidden on the rooftops. Little did he know then that had he attempted to act on his declaration that we were under arrest, his little gang would receive full attention of a mere scale of demons. Not that we ever got to see the Perfect, we had just entered the courtyard of his palace when one of the demon guards looking after Silver Flame materialized to inform me that he too was under attack within the palace. Since the Perfect was apparently planning on dealing with us one by one, it was time for the gloves to come off. The entire courtyard was engulfed into thick fog as Eristrufa materialized along with the rest of my entourage of demons.
We hooked up with the bloodied Solars within the palace, they had fought with the personal guard of the Perfect and weren’t exactly in best of shapes when we found them. Shining Sapphire wanted to go after Perfect straight away but both Peregrine and Silver Flame were too tired to take on rest of his guards so we took our leave. Quicksilver, or Countess Four as she was previously known, delivered parting message from Perfect as we approached the docks. He would order every citizen to attack us or die as traitor, should we ever show up in Paragon again. At the same time, she asked us to take her with us. Apparently her appreciation of Paragon had had its allure worn away to reveal the rotten core.
We gathered on the rear deck of our ship to figure out our next move once both Peregrine and Silver Flame had healed their wounds. While Perfects ambition of forcing any of the Solars to swear oath of citizenship, he had been successful in coercing Shining Sapphires retainer into accepting the oath. Naturally she was more than little annoyed on this development and wanted to find a way to remove its effect. While there was no clear consensus on how far they’d be willing to go in their quest for retribution against the Perfect, some sort of revenge for his actions was one thing they all agreed upon.
Paragon, Perfect, City God and the Days That Followed
City of Paragon and its outskirts
We finally came into agreement on four different courses of action, each with increasingly dire consequences for the city itself along with the Perfect, after another evening debate. First, and probably the least damaging for the city at large, option was to summon a Luminita to track down our missing Perfect. In case the demon wouldn’t be able to track him down, our next plan was to summon the god of the city and explain our dilemma to him; either we’d find the Perfect or his pristine city would lose much of its lustre. The third option was risky one, in the best case there’d ‘only’ be massive casualties among the citizens, refugees flooding the nearby settlements, famine for few years and so on; the worst case would lead into opening of a new shadowland. Last option was all out war and razing the city to the ground though it was more of a fleeting thought.
Our first plan worked until group of Erymathyses swarmed the Luminita, slaying it within blink of an eye. Death of the Luminita was little concern to me though, it had served its purpose and unknowingly the Erymathyses had saved us the hassle of disposing the demon afterwards. With little work we found Perfects trail again, only to lose it within the suburbs of the city. Night didn’t go into complete waste though, we met Wolverine the Burning Moon who wanted to know if there were any exalts around for him to challenge. Since we had more pressing matters to attend to, we pretty much just brushed him aside, much to his dismay, and continued our chase.
Since plan A had failed miserably, it was time for plan B. We gathered onto small islet near Paragon and summoned the city god to us. Even though Silver Flame didn’t think himself as a priest, as a member of the Zenith caste, task of leading the summon fell onto him. Once the god appeared, clothed into finery suitable for his position in the Celestial Hierarchy, we could begin the discussion about the future of his city. While both Shining Sapphire and Peregrine wanted the Perfects’ head on a pike, Silver Flame and me were more on lines that anything goes just as long as the matter is solved.
We reached suitable compromise in the end, even though at times it seemed like it’d end up into all out brawl. God of Paragon packed down from his adamant demand that the Perfect rules over The Paragon into a perfect while Peregrine had to relinquish his demand that the sceptre, which was the source of Perfects’ power, would be destroyed and replaced with a facsimile. In return of our assurance that we’d do our best to minimise disturbance to his orderly city, the city god revealed the location where the Perfect had retreated in order to avoid our retribution. After Shining Sapphire had sanctified our agreement with her anima, we could head back into Paragon to finish this farce.
We found the Perfect in his secret hideout, just as the god of Paragon had said, seated on identical throne to his lavish palace, surrounded by host of servants and what-not’s. His demeanour was far from what it had been when Peregrine and Silver Flame had met him earlier. This time there were no smug smile on his face and even some of his arrogance had faded, result of having time to ponder on consequences of gaining an undivided, and annoyed, attention of a full circle of celestial exalts. On our previous visit, just few days earlier, Peregrine and Silver Flame had slain nearly dozen of his terrestrial exalts in addition to some mortal troops. While I didn’t end up having to slay anyone during our skirmish, his pretty palace lost few walls and floors as I made my own path, rather than try to navigate trough his palace corridors, to join up with the Solars.
The Perfects dissatisfaction on having to meet us on terms of which he couldn’t dictate practically shone from his face, probably first such meeting for long, long time for him. Once the formalities, regardless of their icy tone, were dispensed, we could get into the heart of the matter. The Perfect immediately demanded to know if we were there to return the regime of Solars and where was our Dragonblooded lackey to take his place. My reply that if his head had grown too heavy and neck too stiff to bend with passing time, then yes, we did indeed have a trusted terrestrial with us or we could find more supple neck with lighter head to replace his aging body. Either way, the matter of his disregard of the Celestial Hierarchy by enslaving celestials would be solved here and now.
In the end, the Perfect made his choice and like most rulers, he chose to relinquish some of his authority rather than lose it along with his life. For the ordinary citizen of Paragon the life would go on as it had this far, for those who would swear the oath of citizenship in the future there would be few changes. First and foremost change was that, even if person himself wanted to become a citizen, he would never have another celestial exalt receive the mark of citizenship. With the return of the Solars, this might come to haunt him in the future though. Unlike terrestrial exalts, celestial exalts have no aspect signs to notice and very few would disclose their divine nature if asked. Terrestrial exalts, on the other hand, he could ask, or force, them to swear wealthy to him. Though, should he ever attempt enticing Veiled Forest to accept citizenship, there’d be new perfect ruling the Paragon.
There would be no summary death penalty for the mortal population anymore, on demand of the Shining Sapphire; each would receive punishment based on their crime. She also demanded that the rigid laws were to be changed into more liberal; the exact measure of their change was up to the Perfect. Peregrine also added his own interpolation that the Cult of the Illuminated could operate within Paragon without persecution from the local officials. The Perfect accepted all demands, regardless of his wounded pride, since in his mind he didn’t have any options but to accept them; at least not if he wanted to stay in power. As soon as Shining Sapphire had sealed his oath to follow our demands, the Perfect took his leave on excuse of having city to run.
On our way back to our ship we ran into Wolverine, we had seen him earlier while trailing the Luminita in search of the Perfect. On our last meeting he had portrayed himself as one of the Burning Moons and now the little runt wanted to know which of us pussies were Lunar. Since he wanted to test his mettle bad enough to make his challenge in front of the entire crew along with few errant souls within the docks, I pointed towards the next peer and ordered my demons to keep any interlopers away. What followed was probably the saddest excuse for a fight seen in long time. His attacks and defence were something that one could expect from first year student, a clumsy student at that. After receiving single strike on the flat of the Dancing Moonbeam, he did something completely unexpected for a Burning Moon; he yielded.
Once I accepted his surrender, along with notion of his meekness, Wolverine requested that I should teach him more about martial arts of Luna’s chosen. Judging from his lack of tattoos and etiquette, he had most likely just exalted and thus didn’t know better. Since we were heading eastward, towards Nexus and the apparent location of one of the manses Peregrine wanted to locate, he could tag along as far as I was concerned. Besides, I was already taking Quicksilver to meet the elders and have her caste determined; one more pup wouldn’t be much of a hassle. Or so I thought, Shining Sapphire on the other hand went on rampage when she saw Wolverine coming aboard and beat the poor sod unconscious.
We carried the unconscious Wolverine bellow deck to rest after Sapphire had calmed down a bit. While Peregrine looked after his wounds, we noticed something rather disturbing which also explained Wolverines pathetic performance earlier. For reasons known only to him, he had implanted disk of silver shaped as mark of the Burning Moon to his forehead. Apparently the jade necklace he wore caused it to glow on will. What all this meant was that we had mortal in our hands, claiming to be a celestial; which, needless to say, was pretty much the very definition of a bad idea.
With little help from Peregrine, Wolverine regained consciousness in few hours and we could find out what was he thinking when he decided to try to appear as celestial exalt. Once he realized that his ruse had failed, Wolverine explained that he was planning to become the first self-exalted person in Creation and it had been glaring mistake that neither Luna nor Unconquered Sun had chose him. He had worked his entire life for that, even learned how to channel essence in order to attune the artefact armour of his. Regardless of him being mortal, he had portrayed one of the chosen in order to gain my tutelage so learn he would, like one of Luna’s Chosen.
Since he was well enough to speak, Wolverine had rested enough to begin his first lesson. While he whined about still being pretty bashed up, I merely mentioned that he had as much rest as any Lunar had during training and it was time for his first lesson. Luckily the Glimmering Phoenix was feeling rather bored on the life onboard and agreed to aid me with the first lesson. Once Wolverine made it to shore, I pointed a tree some hundred yards from us and named it as safe place then Phoenix who would be his opponent. In place of the smart thing to do, he bounced Phoenix and tried to wrestle him into submission. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long before Phoenix to grow tired on Wolverines futile struggle and end it with a single bite.
This time he could rest until he had healed completely, mostly since Peregrine didn’t wish to heal his wounds on daily basis. He proved to be quite resilient for a mortal though it didn’t do much good for him; from moment he regained conscious until falling from exhaustion, the training continued with quick breaks for essentials to keep him alive. Once we reached Nexus, I took him into gentle care of my sifu, the Jade Hound, who could continue his training; if Wolverine thought that the worst was now behind him, he couldn’t been more wrong though the harsh realities of his situation were quickly revealed to him.
While Veiled Forest and Glimmering Phoenix went to buy occult supplies and assorted expendables, I went to see the local temple, and to rummage trough their libraries for any occult lore, of the Cult of the Illuminated with Peregrine. Although their library was quite extensive when compared to many private libraries, there were very little that I hadn’t already learned or didn’t see becoming useful in foreseeable future. The resident Solar, or Shining One as celestials were called within the cult, whose responsibilities was to look after the local temple received small gift as well; score of Erymathyses along with their cages to use or banish as he saw fit.
The Shining Sapphire also managed to sell our old ship to some local merchant who was blissfully ignorant of its rather colourful past during our short stay within Nexus. Next we would make our way upstream the Grey River and then jog over land to search for some sort of urn supposedly hidden into manse near Denandsor. From there I could fly further into the wilds on Agatas and take Quicksilver to meet with the elders who would teach her who she truly was while Solars were walking back towards the ship. Once everyone was back onboard, we sailed past Nexus and started making our way upstream the Yellow River towards the Maruto River.
Life onboard settled into dull rhythm after first few days spent sailing; my time divided between teaching Veiled Forest, unravelling Salina’s lore and during nights, calling Anuhles’es from Malfeas. By the time we made landfall some three weeks later, in place of the Erymathyses I gave away, I had three fangs of Anuhles’es, one of each major subspecies, bound into servitude. Incidentally this also meant that in there’d be no dogs on our ship, nor in its immediate surroundings, for duration of their stay, which suited me just nicely. Reason for our trip to east was yet another hearthstone for the ancient artefact Peregrine was after, second hearthstone out of five that the Count Zero claimed we’d need to control it.
Unlike the first manse filled with bonfires of essence near Gem, manse of wood was half buried under a great tree but once found offered no difficulties to attune. Gathering the remaining three hearthstones would require us to travel deep north, west and apparently to the Blessed Isle itself in addition of finding a way to attune the fire manse. While Peregrine is determined, almost to point of being obsessed by it, to claim the remaining hearthstones and the artefact, I’m starting to get second thoughts on the matter.
Count Zero mentioned that there’d be someone else tracking the same artefact as well but didn’t offer more information about them. Nor did he shed any light on what the artefact was except that it was powerful; possibly even an intact first age warship. Should we actually find a warship that was still in working order, then what? With no base where for maintaining it, it’d end up like the smaller warbirds stored within ship hold; with no way to meet its maintenance requirements we’d be forced to stash it into suitable location or perhaps he was planning on using one of the Cult bases as a safe haven. Regardless I’m not convinced that what ever he is after is worth the troubles we’ll have to go trough, first in order to secure it and later to keep it from falling from our hands.
Another three weeks later, we could see Nexus looming ahead. While we were stopping from more supplies and some cargo, the Jade Hound invited me to bring Solars to meet him with cup tea in the Iron Black Cloister. Though, before I could take Peregrine to meet with my sifu, I took him to the baths for his badly overdue bath and shopping for more suitable clothes for his position instead of his worn out outfit. Our visit begun Jade Hound testing my reflexes with quick jab of his staff, something I was kind of expecting and avoided with little help of magic, followed by tea ceremony and more or less casual exchange of news.
Before we gathered around the fireplace in great hall, the Jade Hound apologized, sounding almost sincere, that Wolverine couldn’t join us since he was recuperating from training, most likely with more than few strained muscles and broken bones. Most of what we talked about weren’t very important, though Peregrines interest peaked once Jade Hound begun talking about various martial arts, ranging from techniques meant for mortals, to Vermilion Spider style and even few celestial styles, taught within the Iron Black Cloister.
While I had never kept it as a secret that I practise one of the supernatural martial arts, I didn’t go out of my way to tell about it either. Besides the short display in Gem with the exalt-to-be Wolverine, a farce that luckily went mostly unnoticed by the Solars except for the Shining Sapphire, I hadn’t used any signature charms of the Violet Bier of Sorrows style during my daily katas. It probably wouldn’t have made any difference even if I had used them though, since the Violet Bier of Sorrows is among the rarely used styles of the already rare celestial martial arts besides the five dragon paths of the Immaculate Order.
Peregrine, much like his previous incarnations, was keen on seeing the Violet Bier style himself which came in no surprise for Jade Hound. Since I had still to master the form, and Peregrine wanted to see more advanced techniques, Jade Hound agreed to a friendly match with him. While Peregrine wielded his Reaper Daiklave, which name I hadn’t learned yet if it even had one, Jade Hound chose the Orchid Serpent and Willow Oak, twin Moonsilver serpent fangs. The match itself was over in just few heartbeats, Jade Hound demonstrating some of the higher secrets of the style, among few that I suspect were from other styles as well.
The Monastery of the Ancestors
The edges of Wyld, high north
Our stay in Nexus lasted for little over a week before we set sail towards north in pursue of the third hearthstone. Our journey upstream went without major incidents and we made landfall after some two months of sailing. Next part of our trip was arduous trek across the frozen plains in pursue of the hearthstone. To make things worse, we weren’t the only ones after the hearthstone and on top of that, we were actually chasing the unknown group that had already taken the stone.
We found the culprit right at the bordermarches, a raksha noble residing in a great fortress of ice, shaped like a sharp spire, rising to scrape the sky. He weren’t alone though, three dark figures, a lady cloaked into warm furs and two men in heavy, black armour, stood watching the spire from safe distance. According to their explanation, they were there to lay siege against the fort in order to regain something that was stolen from their monastery. If three Abyssals weren’t enough, there was another army of rakshas approaching from the wyld.
To our surprise, the approaching army was led by the same Cataphract that accompanied the Solars on our first meeting in Sijan. He had arrived to fight his own battle against the servant of the Winter Queen, whom ever she might be. The battle itself was rather nondescript affair, both rakshas sending their hordes against each other and engaging into shaping duels themselves. As for our part, we simply marched trough the armies, ignoring their feeble attempts to harm us, and up the spire to meet the raksha noble. Rather than surrender to us, the nameless noble leaped from the top of the spire in a grand gesture of defiance; with the hearthstone still on his person.
Down on the frozen plain, next confrontation was already brooding. The dark trio was indeed after the same hearthstone as we were and for the short moment it appeared like we’d have another battle but the situation defused when the Abyssals receded their claim for the stone on excuse that if it was so important for us, we could keep it. We stayed for a little while to discuss with the Fox Cataphract while the Abyssals left eastwards. It wasn’t much of a surprise to see the string of essence leading us eastward as well as Silver Flame inserted the hearthstone into his compass.
We did have one more advantage over the Abyssals than our numbers, where they had to drudge across the plain on foot; we had stashed our snow gliders nearby and arrived to the manse days ahead of them. The manse itself was actually a small monastery dedicated to one of the countless ancestor cults of the north. It was also well on its way to change its aspect towards the underworld with the local monks regularly worshipping the dead and zombies patrolling the outskirts. Our arrival threw few spokes into their plans though, the zombies burned by Silver Flames anima and monks placed into house arrest.
A few days later the Abyssals finally arrived. This time there were neither talks nor illusion of civility as we released the avalanche onto them. Granted, the avalanche by itself was hardly enough to even seriously hamper the Abyssals but should they have any walking dead or mortal troops, it’d wipe them out. Our battle took place within the avalanche, the three Abyssals leaping to meet us as we rode down hill on the ice boulders.
Unlike the battle of the ice fortress, fight against the Abyssals was far from easy. The Shining Sapphire took brunt of the beating, collapsing mortally wounded onto Silver Flame. She owns her life to Peregrine and his skill with medicine, though will she ever acknowledge it is entirely another matter. First Abyssal to fall was the lady in fur cloak, now clad in an articulated plate, her attempt to escape and fight another day ended with well aimed arrow from Veiled Forest. The remaining Abyssals soon joined her, first by over extending himself and being consumed by balefire, second lost his head after being offered choice between yielding and death.
We stayed within the monastery until Shining Sapphire was well enough to travel and everyone had attuned to the essence flow from demesne underneath it. Ash Mantis and Silver Flame used our short stay to round up the monks into the courtyard, and then mercilessly slaughtered the defenceless monks into a shallow mass grave; which they had dug by their own hands just before their death.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
24. marraskuuta 2007 kello 6.54
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Nimlas Dagorewen
24. marraskuuta 2007 kello 6.54
linkki
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Quest for the Five Metal Shrike
From far north to southern bordermarches
Our return to ship was uneventful and once there, the argument about our next destination begun with renewed effort. The Shining Sapphire got her hackles up once again, this time she drew line onto map, someway south from the southern shore of the White Sea, and declared that only way she was going to go anywhere past the line was over her dead corpse. At the same time Peregrine wanted to sail west in search of the fourth manse and I suggested that now that we’re nearby, we could check out the libraries of the Sequester Tabernacle. Even Silver Flame, who usually pretty much ignores the conversations about our next destination, voiced his support on visiting there.
This provoked curious response from both Peregrine and Shining Sapphire, when we were at the Kether Rock he was praising the libraries of the Tabernacle and continuously suggesting that I should head to there to study. Now that we were actually nearby and visiting there wouldn’t cause undue detour onto our way, they were adamantly against visiting the cult headquarter, claiming that he’d receive some quest from there while the Shining Sapphire fumed that the closest harbour was deadlocked within the arbitrary line she drew on the map. Rather than make landfall there and make the few day trip on land; she’d sail around the peninsula, into the Realm’s vassal states, then trek halfway across the same peninsula, go around a shadowland as well as mountain range.
Both Silver Flame and I were rather baffled about the sudden change of heart Peregrine showed towards the cult. Until now he had never spared words to praise the Cult of the Illuminated and the Sequester Tabernacle, now he was using what ever excuse he could come up with to persuade us not to visit there. Most likely he had caused some sort of major blunder there and rather than face the music, he was hoping that the passing time would take care of his punishment. As for what his crime had been, Peregrine refused to discuss. Regardless, we were in a deadlock about our next destination and in the end, it was Ash Mantises vote that decided our next heading; westwards to find the next manse.
Another three weeks passed as we sailed around the tip of the peninsula and turned southwards, our destination looming some thousand miles west of the Blessed Isle. Our goal was in the middle of nowhere on the open ocean, or more precisely, on the bottom of the ocean some three miles down from the surface. After a short consultation with the local elemental, we learned that the manse was located within an air filled cavern at the bottom so only problem was reaching the said cave. Silver Flame was confident that his charms would suffice for the dive while I could take form of local sea life and Peregrine made a deal with the nymph.
With our guide we had no troubles on finding the cave and manse within it in the lightless depths of the ocean. Unsurprisingly the local nymphs had gathered there to bask within its essence flow and were little apprehensive on the sight of us but with our assurance that they could relax within the manse regardless of our attuning to it, they went back to their idle loitering. When we reached the surface again, the gleeful Peregrine turned to study the Captains Urn, only to realise that one of the manses, the only one that we hadn’t yet attuned to near the Gem, had disappeared with its hearthstone shattering.
This threw Peregrine into a frenzy to reach the manse as soon as possible, so we set sail towards Paragon, also rather conveniently further away from the Sequestered Tabernacle. As soon as our ship was safely docked, we took air with Agatas and headed towards the city of Gem. The city was in middle of fortifying its walls against the threat of nearby shadowland that had appeared some hundred miles from the city. What was worrying was the size of this newly formed shadowland, its diameter was said to be nearly fifty miles and with the haste it had formed, meant that the most likely culprit was a deathlord.
Should the manse stay within the shadowland long enough, its aspect would start to turn towards the Abyss and most likely it would render its hearthstone useless in terms of what ever the thing Peregrine was chasing. This in mind we made a quick plan with the local god king, sent by the cult, how to both restrict the dead from crossing into the creation and seal the shadowland. First the Solars would head to the shadowland and patrol its borders to keep the dead where they belong, in the meanwhile I’d summon legion of elementals and demons to both mine and haul salt and finally once the preparations were complete; a massive carnival celebrating life would be held near the salted border to seal the shadowland permanently.
Luckily the shadowland appeared to be only temporary tear between the two worlds. When Peregrine and others returned from their scouting trip, they explained how the shadowland was closing up on its own, their own opinion being that it was a trap of some sort that had failed to close. Regardless we let the demons continue their mining of salt under watchful eye of the local elementals, even if the shadowland would close on its own, the local economy received welcome addition from the salt mines.
Once the hearthstone had reformed, it was time to finally find out what it was that was so important that we had been running all over the creation for the better part of the past year. Only downside was that what ever it was, it had preference on keeping within the bordermarches of the Wyld where the conditions were anything but hospitable. Both Shining Sapphire and Veiled Forest stayed behind since neither had reliable way to protect themselves from the Wyld, rest of us left in the early hours of the next morning.
It didn’t take long before the effects of the Elemental Pole of Fire begun to affect in full, the chitin carapace of our demonic mounts starting to blister from the heat and most likely it would’ve been one way trip for them regardless of what happened once we found what we were looking for. Before us hovered a mighty relic of the First age, its existence almost forgotten within passing time and the moment it registered us closing in, attempted to make certain that it’d stayed forgotten.
Three of our four Agatas died in an instant, the Solars had barely enough time to leap onto the sky ship before their mounts perished. While they continued battering the entrance into the ship itself, I ordered one of the remaining Agatas to materialize and followed them from a short distance. After some difficulties the Solars made it into the bridge and took control of the ship. We were most likely the first living souls on board the Five Metal Shrike since the usurpation and now we’d need to figure out what exactly to with the most powerful weapon in creation.
The moment it’d came into attention of just about anyone, we’d have our hands full on battling those who wanted the ship for themselves and more than enough of those who’d love us using its might to further their agendas. In the end, we ended up doing what the pirates are famous of doing; after looting a price of unimaginable value, we ended up searching for a safe place to stash it. Instead of some far away island, our hideout was a cavern located in middle of the mountain range and for further protection the Shining Sapphire used the Singing Staff to mould the mountainside until all hints of the caves existence were removed.
Since we were once again sailing along the coast of the Inner Sea, Shining Sapphire wanted to visit her home town in order to save her sister from safe and dull life her family had in store for her. On our way to Yane, we stopped in Chiaroscuro to pick up fresh supplies and news. Instead of treating us like just another ship passing trough their port, the residents of the city welcomed us with a parade in our honour with sacrificial gifts and priests chanting praise. Rather stark contrast on our last visit which ended up with a confrontation with the unlucky wyld hunt sent to deal with Shining Sapphire but no doubt the past event had persuaded the locals to spare no efforts in order to placate us.
After day of being treated like divinities, we continued our journey towards Yane where things had taken turn to worse since our last visit. Undead had been sighted on numerous nights on the outlying fields and the city was gearing up for major battle. We were greeted by two ballistae aimed towards our ship as we neared the harbour, only the ships longboat would be allowed to enter the port and even then we’d have to go trough custom check if we wanted to visit the city.
Like on our previous visit, Shining Sapphire led us trough the city towards the palace complex located in the middle of Yane, and just like on our previous visit the guards were reluctant to let us pass. When we finally made it to Shining Sapphires family mansion, there were new guards posted there that informed us about the new residence of her family; in the poorer part of the palace complex. And just as on our last visit, the uppity family member made his opinion about us quite clear from the first moment he entered and then put up display of surprise when we took similarly dim view. Needless to say, it went down hill from there.
The Gathering Winds of War
City of Yane
While Shining Sapphire was busy talking with her relatives and salvage what she could; Silver Flame, Peregrine and me kept our council in their garden. Peregrine wanted to stop the approaching army of the dead and save Yane from suffering the fate of its eastern neighbour cities. After tallying up our current resources it was obvious that unless we gather all the allies we could, it would be very short, and sad, war from our point of view.
Our preliminary plan of action was ready just in time for the Shining Sapphire to inform us that she had finally managed to talk her family into the idea of exile. Learning that we weren’t going to leave as planned earlier and that she’d need to talk them into saying and becoming the masterminds behind the salvation of their city, Sapphire went to have another talk with her cousin who wasted no time on claiming her as delusional. With some work, and a casual notion of the family regaining the lost status among the nobility should the plan work, she managed both cajole the royalists and strong arm more reluctant relatives behind our plan.
Judging from the reports of the Seven Devils Clever and Ebon Feather, who had boarded our ship in Chiaroscuro under disguise of local noble and her retinue, the approaching army was still holding fort near remnants of a fallen village, about a months march along the coast. With just weeks to spare before the arrival of the invaders, idea of enlisting aid of the Seventh Legion mercenaries was dismissed. Not that they wouldn’t accept the offer of jade, but since they’d arrive long after the siege had begun, forcing them to make landfall directly into the battle, something most sane commanders loathe to do.
The short time before the battle left us with just one reasonable source of trained troops, the Kether Rock. After yet another debate, Peregrine agreed that this was important enough that we couldn’t leave our call for aid into single messenger like he had planned at first but one of us should fly to Kether Rock personally. Just moments after his departure, the Ebon Feather reminded me about the potions the Jade Hound was expecting me to liberate, so to speak, from the cults training camp and that with all the commotion of sending troops into war, this would be the ideal time to visit their vault.
I reached the Kether Rock some hours after Peregrine and learned that he was holding a meeting with the local leaders of the cult. On a whim, I barged into the meeting chamber just in time to hear as Peregrine was being grilled about his plans should Mask of Winters himself decide to take field. While the local leaders were certain that we weren’t telling them everything, they did agree that defending Yane was ‘the right thing to do’. With some luck, actually tons of it, we might even get the chance to deal with the Mask of Winters, permanently.
The locals had their hands full with the preparations for the coming march across the desert to Yane so Peregrine and I could take moment to rest after our flight. Since the Kether Rock was probably the safest location within days travel, I asked Peregrine to act as a guardian while I’d enlist one of the lesser elemental dragons of fire to be part of our backup plan should we suddenly need more muscle during the battle. Peregrine would’ve probably balked from the idea, had he known what I was planning, since the lesser elemental dragons weren’t exactly something one should summon on a whim.
The summoning itself went as planned; unlike his lesser kinsfolk often did, the dragon acknowledged the celestial writ upon which I requested his service for duration of the coming war without questions. Most likely there’d be some repercussions for calling him to our aid but having him, or one of the greater elementals owning favour or allegiance to him and capable of standing against the army of dead, should be more than worth the risk. Regardless, I let him to return to his duties with notion that I expected him to be prepared for the war and within days travel from Yane from now on.
Next night seemed like ideal time for making little stroll around the fortress and to sneak within the vault where the cult stored its magical and mundane treasures. Breaking into the vault was easier than I had even dare to hope for. One of the mortal members of the cult didn’t ensure that the vault closed all the way after him so I could practically just walk into the allegedly most secure place in the entire Kether Rock. It was a shame that no-one would ever learn how simple the daring heist of the three potions, each glowing with golden light, had been; certainly much to the Cults relief.
We set off towards Yane the next day. The main force of some five hundred tiger warriors with their two Solar generals would march across the desert while the rest of us, two full circles of Solars and single circle of Sidereals, would fly ahead of them to work out the arrangements with the local rulers. Back in Yane, the preparations for the coming war were moving onwards though there was still much to do; among them was selling out to local nobles as mercenaries, hired by the Shining Sapphire’s family to defend Yane.
Shadowy Rose, one of the Kether Rocks’ Sidereals, acted as our negotiator towards the local nobles. She presented our mercenary army as a mixed band, numbering almost two scores, of Terrestrials and God-Blooded with a full dragon of elite troops on their way to bolster Yanes’ defences. Her story about how the Shining Sapphire’s family had discreetly approached us with an offer certainly raised their marks in the local hierarchy.
Rest of the meeting was rather dull; Shadowy Rose negotiated suitable fee for our services, a field to set up tents for the foot soldiers, permit to enlist volunteers from population and number of other necessities. Day after our meeting with the local ruler, Shadowy Rose set up a meeting with the local garrison to work out how our defence would be organized.
Not long after the preliminary preparations for the army were completed, the Ebon Feather informed me that the Jade Hound was expecting, not wishing, me to meet him at the Iron Black Cloister. Most likely his request had something to do with the potions I stole from the cult, what ever it was. I left one potion among my personal effects onto the ship and took the remaining two with me to deliver to Jade Hound. The trip to Nexus also offered a welcome rest from the stiffing heat of the south.
There was something different about Jade Hound when I met with him, he didn’t try to surprise me with his staff nor any other of his usual tricks. He seemed quite happy to receive the potions I brought with me, for the few heartbeats before disappearing into his chambers with them. When he finally appeared from his study, much of his jubilant expression was gone and on its place was the stern look Jade Hound usually wore before one of his training regimes.
Before we begun, he handed me a bowl of salve that I was to smear on myself; salve that glowed with warm golden glow, just like the potions I brought to him earlier. We trained the entire following week without any breaks besides the merest necessities like water. Near the weeks end, when thought I was becoming delirious from fatigue, I became aware of the fine threads around us, spanning like a spiders web. The minute lack of attention onto my opponent was all that the Jade Hound needed to level a blow that’d cleave my head straight off my shoulders; had it landed.
His wrackstaff cleaved straight trough where my head was, passing trough my dematerialized form. Once I rematerialized few heartbeats later, Jade Hound halted his attacks, stood back and welcomed me into a higher tier of enlightenment. That weren’t the end of our training though, just a short pause to come in terms with the new, larger world before continuing. The following day, before calling me Agata for the flight back to Yane, I bid goodbyes to the Jade Hound and other teachers.
Skirmishes and Reunions
City of Yane and its surroundings
As the inevitable battle grew closer with every passing day, reports from scouts indicated that the approaching army had completed three massive siege engines and were busy constructing two more. Those massive engines of war were also perfect targets for act of sabotage and naturally the task of bringing them down fell onto our circle.
We headed eastwards during the following night in order to reach the approaching army when majority of their forces were kept in bay by the Unconquered Sun. Infiltrating into their camp was almost too easy, just one guard post paid any notice to our passage and even they just assumed that we were part of their undead troops.
Getting near the monstrous war machines themselves weren’t that easy. A large circle of undead stood in guard around them, shoulder to shoulder, with mortal overseers scattered on short intervals to keep close eye on things. The machines themselves were something pulled out straight from nightmares. From distance they appeared as pale warstriders but on closer examination the truth raised its ugly head. Each machine had a metal skeleton, covered with spikes and hooks, upon which the necrosurgeons impaled hundreds upon hundreds of bodies to act as muscles that moved the contraptions.
Even though the security around these horrors were tight, it was still composed of mere mortals with their undead charges and as thus, Ash Mantis had no difficulties on slipping past it to plant firedust charges onto one of the completed machines. Another point of interest in the camp was a huge, almost forty feet high, tent placed near the war machines. With little luck, most of the necrosurgeons worked within it which would make it an ideal target as well.
Little later the shaken Ash Mantis returned to inform us about what resided within the huge tent. Unlike we had hoped for, it was not a surgeons workshop but cover for something much more dangerous; a Hekatonkhire, long dead dream of the ancient primordial’s. What made it truly dangerous was its ability to mimic any charm it witnessed and it had seen straight trough Ash Mantises disguise. Should the creature appear on the battlefield while mimicking his stealth charms, it’d tear gashing gaps into our lines in no time.
Regardless, there was little we could do to it while in middle of the army camp. Father Longroad stayed behind with Ash Mantis to light the firedust while rest of us back tracked our steps away from the camp. The following thunderous explosion kicked the proverbial hornets nest. Our head start lasted for some five miles before the Hekatonkhire, or Loras according to Ash Mantis, gained us.
The fight that followed lasted only few seconds, ending into beheading of the beast, but it was something none of us really wishes to repeat. Peregrine received the brunt of the attack, bloodied from two gashing wounds, rest of us were unharmed. Had the fight lasted longer, the outcome might very well been quite different. Luckily for us, Father Longroad managed to disrupt beasts’ follow-up attack for the flurry of strikes that had nearly felled Peregrine and bought us an opening to slay the beast.
Another thing of note happened on our way back to Yane; we found an unconscious castaway lying on the beach, surrounded by a scouting party from the undead army preparing to add yet another body to their ranks. The demise of the scouting party was a foregone matter, not one of walking dead returned to tell what happened, not even the nemissary who tried to escape by dematerializing; only to be torn apart by the waiting demons.
The castaway turned out to be a young Lunar called Starchaser, his ship had sunk somewhere far west but for some reason, he washed ashore here. His story sounded strangely familiar, just as if it had happened before only difference being that I was the one coughing up seawater. For some reason Starchasers story of being shipwrecked made Peregrine even more paranoid than he usually is. Apparently he thought that we had stumbled upon some old acquaintance of his, someone named Iron Mist Stripes.
Except for the guards patrolling on the city walls, our return to Yane went unnoticed. Not that the guards paid any more attention onto us than the carrions gathering before the war, just another small group of apparent scouts returning from who knows where. While Peregrine went to inform the war council of our findings, rest of us went our separate ways; Ash Mantis to find, or cause, troubles, Shining Sapphire to her family, Silver Flame probably headed towards the nearest watering hole and Veiled Forest, Flickering Phoenix, Starchaser and me headed towards the hostelry.
Getting a good night sleep turned out to be more difficult than most nights, mostly due to the uninvited visitor. Claiming to be some sort of messenger or prophet, he decided to sneak into my room and wake me in the wee hours of the night. Rather than take my less than subtle, and more than slightly annoyed, hint to beat it; he showered the entire room with shards of black obsidian, along with assorted innards and bits of the two demons delivering the said hint.
After few tense moments he finally managed to spout his all important messages. Not that they made any real sense though: ‘All is not what is seems’ was his first message, which by itself is absolutely useless. ‘You are surrounded by layers and layers of deceit,’ another meaningless sentence to anyone who has ever set foot to Nexus, let alone lived there for any lengths of time. His last utterance had a faint glimmer of sense in it; ‘Starchaser is the key.’
Once he had said what he wanted, the annoyance finally faded into the night. Sadly the mutilated demons and shards of obsidian didn’t fade with him so I spent rest of the night watching over sleeping Teena in her room just in case. Unfortunately my vigil didn’t turn out to be in vain for another intruder attempted to sneak into her room. His intrusion was cut short as he noticed me standing by the window, in my warform, Dancing Moonbeam drawn and shining with violet flames.
Rest of the night finally went without further disturbances. Apparently I weren’t the only one with nightly visitors, both Peregrine and Shining Sapphire had also received same visitor as I did. Peregrine also gained visit from local assassin though the assassin was now floating in the harbour he had still managed to attempt to poison Peregrine.
There is something about the Starchaser that strikes odd. For one he kept calling me Misty during our talk, short for White Morning Mist or my previous incarnation. Secondly I can faintly remember her, or his previous incarnation, lying in ever growing pool of blood at Misty’s feet. Why exactly Misty tore his throat still eludes me but there must’ve been some good reason for it. One thing is certain though, our meeting was no random happening but there is something on the move in the shadows.
Parties, Plans, Assassins and Promises
City of Yane
Basking in their renewed status, Shining Sapphires family organized a grand gala for the local nobility. Most of the leaders of our mercenary army were invited to attend as well, regardless of Sapphires opinion about it being a bad idea. Gala passed without any major blunders or troubles, no-one was insulted beyond the expected or assassinated.
Days after the gala were filled with planning sessions, reports from scouts and even more planning. The battle would be fought near a river, two days march from Yane. Peregrine’s plan was to use the river to slow down the approaching army while our archer could make pincushions of them. While the plan itself was sound, the river was dying and by the time of the battle, it’d little more than tiny stream along the cracked riverbed.
There was also another matter to worry about, namely the Abyssal circle accompanying the army and most importantly their dark cousins of the Iron Wolves. Jack the Outrider, one of the Solars from Kether Rock, had spent much of the past month scouting out the approaching army but he hadn’t seen any hints of their whereabouts. It wasn’t hard to guess their general location, fact that they had infiltrated into the city was given but how long they keep gathering information before going after the key personnel?
We got our answer the next day as two Abyssals invited themselves to our meal, after lacing it with a rather healthy dose of poison. Luckily there were no mortals with us as the poison would have slain them for certain, it was powerful enough to cause some discomfort before being burned away by essence. The fierce fight that followed turned most of the inn into shambles and one of the Abyssals, along with half a dozen demons, dead, while the other fled. While the loss of the demons is trivial matter, replacing an experienced exalt is another matter altogether.
Once the dust of the fight had settled, and we had rested, the Flickering Phoenix came to talk with us. He had done little thinking about reaching his lifetime goal of godhood and now that an opportunity presented itself, he was quick to pounce it. Since the Shadowy Rose had mentioned that some of the southern gods would also take part in the battle, we should seek out one that had the power to grant his wish. That was easier said than done though, while there was countless number of gods capable to grand his wish, the one Flickering Phoenix wanted to receive his ascension was no other than southern god of was, Athlat.
Battle of Dry Creek
Single day march eastwards from Yane
Unsurprisingly, the army of death struck during the night as much of their forces found glare of the Unconquered Sun unbearable. First real engagements were between the goblin hordes of Fox Cataphract and two main formations; they fought far ahead of our main line of defence. While his horde was unable to drive back the army of death, or even stop their advance, goblins managed hack down scores of zombies as they made their way towards our lines.
While the approaching army did their best to keep our attention towards the field beyond the dried creek, war ghosts, numbering some hundred fifty, made their way around our main forces and materialized in middle of our archers. Had their plan worked, it would’ve caused untold havoc among the newly recruited troops. Unluckily for them, Glittering Phoenix could see their approach and instead of materializing in middle of archers, the war ghosts materialized straight into pincers of to units. Peregrines Tiger Warriors cutting wide swath trough their rear and Erymathyses pressing onwards from their front.
While the war ghosts were being decimated, the main force of the undead army finally reached our defensive line. Little they knew that awaiting them on the other side of the creek were some three hundred elite Tiger Warriors to whom this was the fight they had been waiting for so long. Front of the approaching army broke like swells against Cliffside, their ranks decimated by Silver Flame and his troops.
The undead hordes were only a diversion of sorts, something to keep us busy while the real striking hammers of the undead forces made their way to our lines. Loras, the forsaken dream of the slain primordial, brought back to Creation by powerful necromancy, led two warframes towards the defensive line, crushing everything on their path. On the opposite flank, the Thornguards led by Abyssals struck against Silver Flame.
Peregrines luck in battle didn’t let him down, though he probably wished it to miss him just once, as his unit was the one bumping heads with Loras and warframes. The three heavy weights cut a bloody swath trough the Tiger Warriors, tossing their torn remnants aside like leaves in wind. Their sacrifice wasn’t in vain though; their deaths allowed Fakharu strike on their unprotected rear, felling one of the warframes in minutes and the other followed soon after, leaving Loras standing alone.
On the opposite flank, Thornguards didn’t fare as well. Their advance halted to Silver Flames unit and slowly Tiger Warriors superior numbers begun to take their toll among them. Rather than fight to grim end, the Abyssal leader threw down his blade and surrendered which didn’t go well in eyes of his unit sorcerer who called him traitor before trying to flee. In her haste to flee the sorceress made one critical error; a lone sorcerer shaping sorcery in middle of battlefield had better make sure that she’s well beyond any immediate threats. Her oversight costs her life as Ash Mantises ragtag unit of riff-raff turned her into a pincushion. With his chains undone, Loras stood motionlessly for few moments and then he was pulled back into depths of the Labyrinth.
The Victorious but Shattered Circle
City of Yane
Our army set out towards Yane once the dead were given their rites and messengers sent to take news of our victory to northern army as well as Yane. On our way Shadowy Rose came up with an idea of us revealing our celestial status in our victory parade. While her plan was nearly dismissed at first, it did have its perks and with their advance preparations among the populace of Yane, would help to clean some of the reputation commoners usually attach to celestials.
Peregrine was last to hold out against the plan but he too agreed to it with Silver Flames notion that it really didn’t matter that much if we arrive in all out glory; the northern army would and like they say, early bird catches the worm. Ash Mantis rode ahead to inform Shining Sapphire, who made certain that her ire for this turn of events was known, so that she’d have time to either adapt her own plans, or hastily work out new ones for our not so subtle arrival.
The mood in city was that of a great festival, everywhere one looked the people were cheering. There was a short, stunned silence among the crowd as our animas flared, then the cheering resumed. It is safe to say that unless Yane falls to Mask of Winters, story of our victory parade will become part of local folklore; an army led by no fewer than seven celestials with one of the elemental dragons following their lead, making it clear whose side the heavens were. Shining Sapphires speech served as a proverbial icing on the cake.
Unfortunately, the parade was the last thing to go smoothly for the following days. While our circle might work towards common goal, the very moment immediate threat has dissolved everything breaks into petty bickering about any possible excuse that can be argued of. Not only does this happen in private but also in front of outsiders, such as the abyssal prisoner who we were interrogating as one of countless arguments broke loose. Though as bad as that was, worst was still to come.
Local representatives of the great houses still holding interest on Yane invited four of us, namely the Solars, to a dinner to discuss about the latest developments. Even though the invitation was for Solars alone, few places are closed for inquiring eyes and ears of Luna’s children. While the representatives of houses Tepet and Cynis were testing out waters, both Peregrine and Shining Sapphire jumped at their throats at first, the next moment both were too busy to fight among themselves to pay any attention to anything besides their own whims. If the terrestrials had any illusions of us being untrustworthy demons, Peregrine and Shining Sapphire went long way to prove that particular note wrong and to replace it with image of spoiled brats throwing a tantrum for having to go to bed, including a food fight.
I had a quick talk with Fakharu later on the same evening to find out how right my hunch had been. Had he had his way, he wouldn’t have lifted his scaly finger to participate the war against Mask of Winters. His convenient excuse was that it weren’t his job; after all he is a celestial censor, not a warrior so if the south were to fall, it weren’t his fault. Rather than help defending the south, Fakharu would’ve just sat in his sanctum, watching the falling night, filing one report after another how things were turning for the worst and that someone should act.
On their quest to make the world a better place, next place to visit was the royal reception in palace to discuss Tepets’ offer with the king. Peregrine was more interested in throwing the great houses out of Yane than anything else while Ash Mantis and me preferred to forge an allegiance of convenience for the war. One thing I must give for Peregrine, he truly has talent on turning every possible ally into, if not downright enemies, at least making certain that we’ll get no aid from them.
Any curious ears had their fill as we had yet another ‘discussion’ on the best course of action, miraculously it happened behind closed doors in one of the side chambers. The argument ended Ash Mantis walking away, telling Shining Sapphire that if she acted like a spoiled brat, then he’d treat her like one. Peregrine left soon afterwards with similar note, leaving just Shining Sapphire and me to continue for few more minutes before she stormed out of the reception.
In middle of all the arguing, only thing that actually got anywhere were our stand on should we make enemies out of houses Tepet and Cynis, or see them as potential allies. Before leaving, Peregrine seemed to finally giving into a though that we can’t defeat Mask of Winters without allies, even loose ones like the great houses. There will be no love and very little trust in that alliance, but time for infighting is coming to an end, the choice between standing as a group and falling, one by one, into the night is near. In words of sifu, “as the firestorm sweeps trough forest, the trees do not get to vote.”
Alliance of Jade with the Seventh Legion
The pieces were finally in place; our army defending Yane had enough troops to withstand brunt of the assault, weeks before the expected arrival of the Mask of the Winters. We set sail northwards during the wee hours of early morning, unknown to vast majority of our troops and even to most of our sidereal advisors. Our aim was to reach Lookshy and hire the Seventh Legion to strike on the rear and flanks of the Mask of Winters’ army. Even though they wouldn’t be able to reach Yane in time to aid us, at least they’d tie some of his troops and perhaps even few of the Death Knights.
We made good progress once out of sight from the city, group of Hurakas’ materialized to keep the winds behind us while another group of Nymphs kept the ocean calm. The elementals dematerialized again as the towers of Lookshy appeared over the horizon, even though we weren’t your average ship by any standards, having nearly a dozen elementals guiding your ship would bring tad too much attention.
Like on our previous visits, custom officer came aboard almost as soon as the first rope landed onto the pier. His examination was rather brief though, unlike before, our ship had the colours of a diplomatic vessel with message to the generals. Hadn’t it been for the slight manipulation of the papers by our Solars, the papers for audience would have disappeared under a mountain of red tape. Now, thanks to some nameless clerk, courier informed us that the assembly would hear our case day after tomorrow. In the meanwhile we had time to spend some time in the city’s foreign quarters.
The Creation is surprisingly small place from time to time, proved by the fact that not only did we run to Ebon Feather and his rag-tag group but to Misty Rabbit’s lost brother as well. While Ebon Feather and others joined to our ever growing army against the dead, Ashen Cricket had already made his choice. Cloaked into bonfire of pale green essence, he raised his hand against us in name of his Neverborn masters. Even for one of the infernal princes, it was bad idea to try and take half a dozen celestials single handed.
The following evening we stood in front of the general assembly, masquerading as members of House Ragara. I’m sure there will be few truly mashed toes for what we said in the great hall, but in the end, even if they’d find out who exactly were behind the ruse, one are they really going to come and cry to Lookshy for attacking the Mask of Winters… Well, some might but it’s not likely.
True, and Final, Death of Larquen Quen
We reached Yane mere week before the Mask of Winters army was estimated to reach the city, Juggernaut was some thirty leagues from the site where we planned on stopping the army of dead. Our allies in the city were more than little anxious to hear our plan to take on the Juggernaut. I can only guess what went trough their minds as we sailed to port, quickly replenished our stocks and headed out again.
Given time, the end of the Juggernaut and Mask of Winters will grow into a glorious tale of mighty swordsmanship and celestial magic. Many names will get tagged with some of the honour, more vilified for their part, one more glorious or horrendous that the one before. Truth on the other hand, it’ll pale into hushed talk of the scholars and onto dusty pages of tomes buried into the libraries.
We arrived to the advancing army at dawn of the following day after retrieving the Five Metal Shrike from its wet grave. Ignoring the troops on the ground, we few towards the Juggernaut until we reached firing distance. Then, less than half a minute later, the Juggernaut was no-more. I wish I could say more of its destruction, how it was an epic battle and such but in the end, Ebon Feather pressed the firing button of the God Spear, there was a short pause and then it was over. The shock wave struck us little later, the final confirmation.
End of Larquen Quen, or Mask of Winters as he was called now, bore similar undertone of finality. He didn’t perish along with the Juggernaut but his fate was sealed never the less. While the battle did last for some time, and we did change blows of our blades, it was still far cry from any of the stories will tell of it. ‘Only his own hand will slay the Mask of Winters,’ such was the prophesy and so it ended, with Peregrine driving his Daiklaive trough the doomed Deathlord’s chest.
Our return to Yane was similarly hardly things to make legends, at least straight away, as we coaxed the damaged Shrike down in middle of the training field. Feasts and celebration would come later, for now, the first order of business was to get some sleep.
From Hero to Zero, or How Enemies Mount
The great celebration for the defeat of the Mask of Winters followed on the day after we returned from our fight. While the party was in full swing, the leaders of the Cult set their plan into motion. Unsurprisingly their goal was to secure the Five Metal Shrike; more specifically they wanted to dismantle it. All in the name of learning how it was made so that they’d be able to manufacture more of its kin.
Not only that, for this once in a lifetime offer, Peregrine could also enjoy another season of rest and relaxation among the Cults trainers in their Northern training camp. Meals and everything included. If they wanted to avoid confrontation, they sure picked the wrong person to ask. Like many times before, Peregrine went to the walls and ensured that any future confrontations would include blades. The Five Metal Shrike vanished that very night, much to Cult’s annoyance and we hid it among the mountains, behind wall of stone.
We stopped at Harbourhead some nights later to investigate the city. In wake of Mask of Winters fall, the once orderly city had descended into anarchy. Without Deathknights to hold their reins, hordes of undead went berserk and ravaged the city while the remaining Redguards looted the rest. With little preparation we managed to salvage a small fleet of some half a dozen ships, each carrying some hundred or so refugees from the doomed city. Few more days and we passed trough the battle line into the territory held by the Seventh Legion.
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Nimlas Dagorewen
linkki
24. marraskuuta 2007 kello 7.02
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Nimlas Dagorewen
24. marraskuuta 2007 kello 7.02
linkki
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Näin tarinassa on edetty aina pienistä untuvikoista hieman vähemmän untuvikoiksi & siinä välillä on sattunut ja tapahtunut hieman yhtä sun toista.
Seuraavaksi tulee jälleen taukoa palojen puolesta kun ei ole aika riittänyt kirjoittamaan ja voisi sanoa että on ollut hieman vaikeuksia keksiä että mitä sitä kirjoittaisi kun tapahtumissa ei ole ollut oikein semmosta särmää mihin tarttua.
4 sessiota olisi mistä pitäisi kirjoittaa tarina, Nexusin alamaailman kahinoista ja miten vanhat 'ystävät' aikoivat kaapata vallan sekä sitten Circlen uusimmasta ideasta; seilataan Imperial Cityyn katsomaan mitä siellä tapahtuu...
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