Hello again there, folks. Back with another trip to Creation's Southwest with the crew of the Moonlight Maiden! This session serves as an epilogue for Episode 3: Hunt for the Admiral, and begins Episode 4: The Slain Scion.
I can't think of anything particularly interesting or clever to add here, so let's get into it.
So where we left off, the Circle of Lunars had just taken out the Dragon-Blooded shikari[0] leading the Wyld Hunt. And now they're mopping up the various soldiers -- not trying to kill them all, but helping the locals take out enough of them that the rest realize they're beaten and back off.
So we have a bit of a montage of bits of the fight: Shango swooping in, grabbing soldiers, and flying them up into the air to dramatically drop them. The Bonetaker faces a group of them head-on, grabbing the one in the lead and messily ripping out his spine in front of the others, deveining a shrimp. Hǎifēng weaves through the crowd with their war fans, seemingly with little effect, until the get to the other side and pause... as all of the soldiers just fall over at once.
Eventually the unit's[1] cohesions breaks enough that several are outright fleeing and the others are surrendering so they can grab whatever wounded and dead they can carry and retreat. (After all, this isn't any sort of enemy territory, so it's not like the village can capture them and ransom their return.) Xương, still in his sharkman form, announces to the people that they've won their freedom and struck a blow against tyranny. Tonight they may be burning bodies, but tomorrow they feast![2] There's some cheering from the locals, but also some confused murmurs as both the adrenaline of the fight and the Charm that empowered them are starting to wear off, and the townspeople aren't entirely sure what just happened.
And without further ado he starts helping to collect and arrange the dead so proper rites can be performed. Unlike Beacon, the town has proper priests and wise men who can make sure they don't just have to throw bodies in a pile, burn them, and hope for the best regarding hungry ghosts. The 'Anathema' the Circle helped rescue offers his gratitude steps up to pitch in and help as well, quietly suggesting that they swipe a river boat and take the canal out of the town as soon as possible before people start asking awkward questions.
While they're cleaning up the bodies, Xương proceeds to grab him by the shoulder, just sort of a tight 'warning' grip. And he asks for a little bit of reassurance that they didn't just make a mistake by saving him from the Wyld Hunt. The man, definitely some sort of career navy man to the former pirate's experienced eye, tells him that he didn't ask for this. He's not entirely sure what he is, and that the Wyld Hunt ambushed him in a bar and he's been on the run for a few days. Xương, appropriately mollified for the moment, lets go of him and they get to work cleaning up.
Soon enough the Circle has swiped an unattended boat (in addition to having picked up the shikaris' artifact weapons) on the canal and the Hunt's quarry starts punting them away as best he can. The Lunars shift back to human form, and Xương gets a distinct but not entirely unexpected look from their new possible ally, given his obvious Lintha heritage and the man's obvious nautical background.
The man thanks them again for the rescue and says that his name is Danai, formerly Admiral Danai of the An-Teng Defense Fleet. Everyone just blankly stares at him, as they've never heard of any An-Teng Defense Fleet. He slumps, disappointed but not surprised at that reaction, and proceeds to tell them how he got here after warning them he's going to sound crazy.[3]
Danai explains that he's a member of An-Teng's royal family, a cousin to one of the princes. The Lunars had noticed he seemed familiar, so they definitely recognize his family resemblance to Arris, the royal cousin about to marry into the Ragara family. But he was late in the birth order and not likely to inherit a throne any time soon, so he went into the navy and built a career out of protecting An-Teng from pirates (including the Lintha, who as far as anyone knows almost entirely give An-Teng a pass). He helped build a massive fleet to fight them, delivering many victories to the organization.
After their greatest triumph his ship was chasing stragglers down the coast, but they had a bit of a party on-board. He got really loaded, and when he went to bed he just fell over and fell asleep, fully-clothed and carrying his weapon. He takes a moment to show them the chain daiklaive, apparently called the Starshot Anchor. He says he took it off of a Dragon-Blooded Lintha captain he killed in a fight, but was unable to wield it himself so he kept it as a trophy (usually worn over a shoulder like a sash or a bandoleer). It's starmetal with a distinct greenish-blue verdigris, and close up it looks like someone started making a sword but realized too late they didn't have enough material for a proper one so they just did the best they could and attached a chain to the handle for range.
(To be fair, it looks like that because that's what happened. Incidentally, because this isn't a mini-fic and I'm talking in a more out-of-character manner, I feel more comfortable pointing out that the Anchor basically looks like one of Kratos' blades from the God of War games.)
According to Danai, apparently a Lintha ship was in the right place at the right time for a piece of starmetal to fall into the ocean where they could see it, and so they got to it pretty quickly. The tinge on it comes from a hint of Infernal taint that's infused the weapon over the course of its creation and use. But before everything happened, Danai could barely swing it like a normal chain whereas now he can wield it like the chain is silk cord.
But speaking of everything happening... Danai got wasted, passed out, and then woke up the next morning on an uninhabited island wearing his clothes and still carrying the Starshot Anchor. He thought his men had played some sort of prank on him, so he waited for them to return. A couple of days later he got the attention of a fishing boat with a signal fire and they took him on. They didn't take him back to the mainland right away, but let him work with them to thank them for the rescue, which he was fine with.
He talked to the sailors about his past, and quickly learned that vast swaths of the life he knew never happened, and now these sailors were regarding him as a madman. He played it off like he'd spent too much time out in the sun on the island, or possibly drank some seawater out of desperation, and was momentarily confused. But eventually they brought him back to Dragon's Jaw where he quickly learned that, whatever happened before, now he was in a version of Creation where he never existed. There was no An-Teng Defense Fleet, the Lintha gave the country a pass, and some of the royal families' branches were a little different (as he put it, now he had 'relatives' that didn't exist before and several of his own no longer existed). In addition, he now had some sort of magic that he didn't quite understand.
This is Chris interjecting here, with some clarifications too important/long for a footnote. Admiral Danai is something new to Exalted 3rd Edition, a Getimian Exalt. Getimian Exalted are heroes from a hypothetical version of Creation that never happened, and among the differences between the world they know and actual Creation is that in actual Creation, they don't exist. They've been brought into Creation proper by a rogue Sidereal named Rakan Thulio to help him in his personal war on Heaven. In the process they have a lot of Sidereal-like powers, and among other things can weave bits of their original destinies into the world around them much like how Sidereals can manipulate the Loom of Fate.
They haven't received a full treatment in the books yet, but there have been bits and pieces of them here and there, much of it contained within Exalted Essence, the alternate ruleset being developed by Onyx Path. They're expected to get fleshed out a little bit in the upcoming Storyteller's guide Crucible of Legends, and get a full write-up alongside the third edition Sidereals book. I point this out for context but also because there's still a good bit we don't know about how they work, and thus a few bits of this portrayal may prove to be inaccurate in the long run.
And now, back to the show.
Danai pawned his fancy captain's coat for cash and stuck with the fishermen for the moment (he'd managed to quickly earn their good favor, which he suspects is part of the magic he's acquired), and went out drinking with them while he figured out his next move. And while telling stories about his adventures (with details filed off to dodge further accusations of madness), an Immaculate monk came into the bar. Nobody else reacted to the monk so he didn't think anything of it, until the monk walked over to him and tried to hit him in the neck with some sort of nerve strike.
He instinctively dodged the attack, his power really flaring up for the first time, and he fled the Wyld Hunt's initial attempt to capture or kill him. He got out of Dragon's Jaw and fled south across the river, and thought he'd given them the slip or at least bought more running room than he had. His plan was to head to the City of Dead Flowers, a shadowland in the southern part of the Shore Lands. There he'd almost certainly be able to give them the slip through parts of the necropolis that he knew even the Wyld Hunt wouldn't casually follow, and if he was lucky maybe even put some dangerous ghosts between himself and them. From there he was going to head to the coast and hop the first boat out of An-Teng.
And if you've been following this story arc, you know roughly what happened from there. He stopped in Hue Yên to rest, and the Wyld Hunt caught up much quicker than he'd expected. They started torturing people to lure him out, and when he stepped out to face them his power flared up and gave the locals the bravery to fight back and combat skill as if he'd trained them himself. He makes it clear this isn't something he's doing intentionally, and he's pretty sure he can't make anyone do anything they wouldn't do anyways. There is a precedent for Exalted Charms doing something like this, especially Solar Charms, but even still this Charm makes the others (particularly Xương) a little nervous.
When he realized what was happening he fled to try and draw the Wyld Hunt away, but he's certain that he failed and that a bunch of people are dead because of him. The Lunars make sure he's aware that at least some people got out, because that's how they found out what's going on, and that's a little comfort to him. But after that he fled south to Phong's Promise and... well, we all know what happened at that point.
And from here, he's considering his options. He wants to hit the first boat out of An-Teng, but the coast literally isn't clear. While he thinks they've got plenty of running room right now, he's pretty sure he saw at least one monk that wasn't with the group who chased him to where the Circle found him so he's not sure if they're watching the docks. (To be fair, they would probably be watching the docks of Dragon's Jaw more than Salt-Founded Glory, but he doesn't think of that in the moment.) Alternately, he might hit the road and go east to the Lap, which involves overland travel to a much greater degree than he's normally comfortable with.
Someone, I can't recall who and I didn't write it down but I think either Hǎifēng or Shango, suggests that maybe he could reach out to one of the Princes. And he does consider that -- maybe Prince Kiotaran from the Middle Lands. He comments that he's still not sure what's going on with him. He's well-read enough to know what the Exalted are (after all, An-Teng has held onto a lot of old history the Realm wishes would remain buried) and that he's definitely one of them, and he knows enough to know he's not a Solar, a Lunar, or a Dragon-Blood. So that's something he needs to take some time to figure out.[4]
(Hǎifēng, for their part, doesn't have enough knowledge of these matters to know exactly what Danai is, as Getimians are relatively new and scarce enough for few stories to circulate. But they do know enough to recognize Danai's powers as being similar enough to a Sidereal's to concern them a great deal.)
Eventually Danai starts babbling a bit out of fatigue finally catching up with him, and they let him take a nap while they take over directing the boat back to Salt-Founded Glory.
They arrive back in the city around nightfall, and while Xương first expresses the thought out loud, all three of them figure they should get out of the country as soon as possible, just in case. After all, An-Teng wasn't supposed to be a long-term stop. They wake up Danai and offer to give him a lift. Since he doesn't have any specific destination in mind and doesn't want to be a burden, he offers to part ways the first time they stop for supplies, and they're fine with that. They grab their stuff from the apartment, and Hǎifēng leaves a note for Copper Orchid before they take off in the Moonlight Maiden.
While they're traveling, Xương feels the call of the sea, and offers to catch up with the group later. Which isn't a problem, since Danai's there to help with the sailing (which, in case it needs to be said, he's damn good at after a long and storied naval career). Xương descends into the lightless depths of the sea and communes with the mysterious monsters of the abyss. Shango, similarly, finds himself sleeping in bird form at the top of the mast each night, under Luna's gaze. In this way, both of them achieve a shred of enlightenment (and gain their second dot of Essence, which they now qualify for).
After a few days' travel, the boat docks at Tuanau, a place sort of like Beacon but bigger, but still the sort of place where the local store sells the same five rag dolls and wooden carvings of what might be a duck or a swan as everyplace else. Danai takes his leave, and Xương emerges from the ocean to rejoin the rest. They decide, as they get back underway, to head towards Lathe in the deep Southwest, where among other things they might be able to find some answers.
A couple of days later a dangerous storm sets upon them, the sort of storm where you really need to find any port. They spot an island in the distance, which has a lighthouse which isn't lit but they can only make out from the silhouette, along with signs of a town. They can also see an intact boat tied up on the dock that at a glance appears to be in good enough shape that if it is abandoned, it's pretty recent. So there might be someone here.
As they approach the island the storm lightens up a bit as if they're managing to sail out of its path or get ahead of it. They manage to tie up the boat on the dock and the move into the town just to find that it's a ruin. Many of the buildings are damaged from the elements with no sign of anyone living here. They duck into the first building that looks to be intact enough to keep them out of the rain, and it looks like it's a general store. But it's obviously been abandoned for a while.
They rummage around and while they don't find any food or anything, they do find what looks to be a smuggler's cache of rum. Hǎifēng cracks open a bottle and decides to have themselves a good time.
A couple of hours pass as they wait for the storm to blow over, and Shango sees someone out in the rain and tells the others. Hǎifēng drunkenly yells to bring them in. The mysterious figure, having heard, that, pauses before starting to back away while drawing a weapon. Shango considers for a moment and yells out that they mean no harm, and are taking shelter from the storm, and that they may as well come in... all while Hǎifēng drunkenly sings lewd sea shanties.
A woman with bronze skin, short black hair, and arms covered with tattoos comes in out of the rain. She says her name is Hanga[5] and, trying to avoid the sort of paranoid misunderstanding that gets people unnecessarily stabbed, just comes out with the fact that she's on the island with some people and they're smugglers. When Xương realizes the rum is theirs, he immediately offers to pay for it but she turns down the offer -- after all, it's not like her people paid for it to begin with. She's clear that they're not pirates, though -- in her eyes, it doesn't count as piracy unless you stab someone and/or take over their ship. She and her companions elsewhere just smuggle things for money and sometimes resell stuff that 'fell off the back of a wagon.'
She explains that they use the island for smuggling because it's just weird enough most people don't screw with it but not so weird that it'll kill anyone who sets foot on it. Also, for some mysterious reason it's oddly resistant to the worst of the storms that hit it (as the group can already see), and there's some overgrown farmland where there's plenty of fruit that can be found. She mentions, in passing, that it's called Dutan Island and Xương realizes he recognizes that name because literally part of his deal is knowing tales of the sea because of his previous life with the Lintha. He doesn't know much, though, only that it was abandoned at least a couple of centuries ago and that it's known to be haunted.
Hanga mentions that there's also supposedly a manor house, but she's never seen it. She's seen signs of a foundation where a manor house is supposed to be, but never the actual building. Some of the people she's there with, however, insist they have seen it.
Xương's definitely intrigued at this point, and wants to get a closer look before the group moves on, after the storm lets up. The rest of the group wants to know more as well. Hanga tells them if they need food while they're there, there's plenty of fruit if they go foraging (among other things, there are varieties of hot peppers grown on the island you can't find anywhere else). Also, she and the rest of her crew stay there they set animal traps for meat and that if they find any full traps to go ahead and help themselves, though she can't make any promises about the quality or freshness of the meat.
She then takes some rum before heading back out, and lets them know that if there's an emergency she and her people are huddling down in the abandoned lighthouse but the rest aren't as friendly as her so he doesn't recommend heading there lightly. They appreciate the help she's offered and she ducks back out into the storm, booze in hand.
And we leave off with the 'camera' panning over to a window giving a view of a nearby hill. Lightning flashes, and a dilapidated manor house is clearly visible (at least in silhouette) for a few moments. Then lightning flashes again, and now there's no sign of it...
[0]-- 'Shikari' is the term for a member of the Wyld Hunt.
[1]-- For those of you curious, this particular Wyld Hunt came with the four Dragon-Blooded (including the House Raden sorcerer a couple of sessions back) and a 'talon' of 125 troops. One 'scale' of troops, meaning 25, stayed with the sorcerer to deal with operations there. Many of the remaining one hundred were taken out in the fighting in the town of Phong's Promise, or in guerrilla clashes with Danai between Hue Yên and Phong's Promise.
[2]-- While I tend to base which name I use for him depending on what form he's in (for dramatic effect), Xương's just using his sharkman form for anonymity's sake and not taking bones at the moment, so I'm referring to him appropriately. Just for the record.
[3]-- You all got bits of this in the last session's blog post, but I deliberately left out a lot of detail, so make sure to stick around.
[4]-- He doesn't know about Sidereals, because almost nobody does. Outside of Heaven, only a handful of Dragon-Blooded know what the Sidereals are and most of those have been convinced by subtly-placed propaganda that the Sidereals are on their side, assisting them in Heaven's name. Which is technically true, while omitting much. The Lunars know about the Sidereals, but that's because there are still several Lunar Exalted in the Silver Pact old enough to have actually been there at the Usurpation. They certainly remember being Usurped. So yeah, I operate under the assumption that stories about the Sidereals and what they can do circulate through the Silver Pact.
[5]-- On reflection, I think she doesn't actually give her name until later, but eh. Minor detail.
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