Greetings, my peeps. Yeah, I got nothing. I'm that guy who, if I had a podcast, would refuse to stick to a consistent intro no matter how much it annoyed everyone.
Anyhow, um, I can't think of any important personal updates or anything that needs to go here. Nothing useful, anyhow. So let's just get into it.
So we pick up with Hǎifēng and Shango hauling the books they found at Zither's place back to Xương's clinic, where the trio get into a conversation about how many people Shango has killed they might need to interrogate.[0] As the conversation gets to the point where it starts to go in circles, there's a knock at the door and Hǎifēng's clone comes in with a scroll of notes tucked under one arm.
"I'd ask how it went but I'll find out soon enough," Hǎifēng remarks as they take the notes and poke the clone in the forehead. The clone then vanishes in a puff of Essence and silver dust that's on the floor now. Hǎifēng just sits for a moment, staring off into space, as four hours of new memories settle into their brain.[1] Then they grab the teeth bucket and vomit into it.
"Oh great, now it's a bucket of teeth and vomit," Xương laments as Hǎifēng puts the bucket outside. He tells Hǎifēng that they owe him a bucket now, and they explain that absorbing the memories is a really disjointing experience (not helped by the fact that they have 'overlapping' memories of the most and least exciting things to have happened to them in a long time) and they're going to have to get used to it.
But they get into what they learned through the research into the old books on history, nautical legends, and bit of stuff on necromancy and shadowlands. First off, they get into how there are a lot of stories that have been lost over the years because people writing/compiling new editions of certain texts would see different similar tales, conclude they were just all versions of the same story so they got phased out or combined over the years. Meaning that there are a bunch of stories that are basically lost -- in addition, many of those old stories talk about places and things that just don't exist any more. Some towns are just gone, or have been renamed, and in addition there are a lot of manses and demesnes in those old stories that don't exist any more because some of those tales pre-date the Fair Folk invasion a little under 800 years ago, and the ley lines are different now. Also, the Cinder Isles in particular is a hotbed of volcanic activity and there are entire islands that exist now that didn't then, and vice-versa.
But something that caught Hǎifēng's attention in those old stories were a number of tales of ship and pirate crews with missing left eyes. As in, everyone in the given crew was missing it. Some of those crews were living mortals, some were ghosts, and they were generally lead by necromancers. Those necromancer captains also had eyepatches that had runes stitched into them. Hǎifēng thinks the eyepatch thing might be something passed down from captain to captain. They talk about how they found the bit about the 'Ashen Umbra' in the texts, and how it's tied to a ship intended to 'ride an eternal wave of darkness to the lands beyond life and back.'
Then Hǎifēng explains that they found a couple of different but similar incomplete stories that fit together, dating back to the early Shogunate period. Specifically, they get two different accounts of sailors escaping a death cult. The cult was led by a rather irate ghost captain who used to rule over a now-sunken island in the deep Southwest, whose left eye was replaced by some stone that supposedly let them see into the void. The captain's name is missing from the accounts, but the ship itself was called the Nightmare's Unyielding Grip. One account makes a vague reference to it having had a different name before that, but the surviving text doesn't go any further than that. The captain had a dream of combining Creation's oceans with the Underworld's, to basically make the seas one big shadowland.
Naturally, there is some concern about this.
Hǎifēng also goes on to explain that while they were in the temple, they saw 'Owl,' the Sidereal who was managing V'neef Gamon's artifact collection talking to one of the monks. Xương and Shango aren't entirely sure who Hǎifēng's talking about -- they vaguely remember someone maintaining the collection, but don't remember who or what that person looked like. Hǎifēng is frustrated, and also has a headache now.[2]
Xương says there's some good news and some bad news. Good news is that he knows a little bit about the ship and the death cult. Bad news, is they're trying to recruit him. He says that the guy he's been talking to, Kim Sơn, has been very interested in this cult and has their special tattoo. Xương thinks that joining the cult requires sacrificing someone and Kim Sơn's trying to lure in suckers for that. Hǎifēng assumes that from what they've heard, the sacrifice should just be the left eye, but Xương says he's not sure because someone left the recruitment pitch early and Kim Sơn got really upset.
The group floats the subject of letting the cult 'recruit' Xương, and while he's not worried about the prospect of having to slaughter a ship full of ghosts, he's still not sure where this ship is going and if he'll be able to come back when it gets there. They talk about the three of them possibly joining up and seeing what happens. But first they want to go over what they've got, between Hǎifēng's research and the books they've retrieved from Zither's basement lair. Shango asks if Xương knows about any sort of time frame on the whole 'death cult recruitment pitch,' but he doesn't know of any.
So then they start separating the retrieved books into piles based on the subject. Hǎifēng jokes about spawning off a bunch of clones to make it easier, and Xương says "You'll make yourself sick! We don't need you Hǎifēng over!" (See, it's funny because the last syllable of 'Hǎifēng' is pronounced 'fung.' Say it out loud.) It does come up again that it'd be nice if they could ask Zither what he was doing, because given the container in which they found the texts in his basement it looks like he was planning on gathering up all of the books and destroying them at once.
A quick glance suggests that with time and effort (and Scroll's help), the group is pretty sure they can use the books and do the math and trace back where certain manses and ley lines were and triangulate where the sunken island, which is likely connected to this cult if not somehow tied to their base, used to be. It's the sort of thing that could be done relatively quickly with computers, but the Second Age is not the First Age, nor is Creation the modern world, therefore there are no functioning computers. Like, at best there's an abacus, as aside from some leftover First Age tech even the Antikythera device would be a little advanced for Creation. My point being is that we're about to get into a research montage.
A couple of highlights over the course of the next few days:
- Xương goes outside later that day and discovers that the teeth bucket has been emptied of both teeth and vomit and cleaned, which concerns him because he doesn't know who would have done that or why. Heck, the teeth bucket was there when he moved into the clinic.
- Word gets out the following day that Doctor Zither's been found dead, along with someone who was apparently an undercover Lintha pirate. As near as anyone can tell, they got into a fight and he stabbed her and she managed to Gallagher his head with a hammer before succumbing to her wounds.[3] I didn't think to specifically write down Xương's reaction in my notes, but I seem to recall him wanting to do something nice for Kanut, as that neatly covered their tracks and gave the Sentulga a dignified end. (Of course, it also made sure Kanut didn't have to answer any questions about their bodies either, but still.)
- During a break, Hǎifēng tracks down Mongo at a roadside bar of sorts in the Lungs, where they check in to make sure that he's doing okay with the news about Aunt Sentulga. Mongo says he always figured Sentulga would go out in a dramatic battle with a Dragon-Blood. Hǎifēng pays off Mongo's tab and leads him off somewhere private. Just when Mongo thinks his day's about to get a lot better, Hǎifēng gives him the bracelet of carved shark teeth they took off of Sentulga's body. They then explain the truth to Mongo, that Doctor Zither was an Abyssal Exalt. Sentulga had crossed his path and he took her out, and it wasn't actually mutual. Mongo is still confused, and Hǎifēng tells him that they and their friends took out Zither, spending a mote of Essence to flash their Caste Mark at him. Mongo's not prepared for that, and says he either needs to stop drinking or needs to drink more. He says that Hǎifēng's not the first Lunar he's met, though; he's got a couple of distant cousins who are 'of the Lunar persuasion.' One's an exile (Xương, presumably) and the other's wreaking havoc out at the Caul.[4]
Hǎifēng explains to Mongo that there's a cover-up that Mongo should let stand for everyone's safety, and he's cool with that. It comes up that Hǎifēng and their friends were looking for similar stuff and Zither was after some of that stuff as well, and they crossed paths. Hǎifēng also remembers to give Mongo the fancy compasss they took from Sentulga's body. Mongo thanks them for letting him know what really happened, and asks Hǎifēng if they knew the full details about what Sentulga was looking into. Hǎifēng says that they're digging down into a death cult and a sunken island and ghost pirates. Mongo says that as far as he knows, Sentulga was just hired to look into a bunch of old manses and alchemist stuff. Hǎifēng asks Mongo if he knows anything about the cyclopean pirate crews, and while Mongo has heard some myths, nothing specific comes to mind. But if he does hear anything, he'll let them know to thank them for telling him about Sentulga. Hǎifēng says that Mongo's a nice enough guy, and that's rare in a pirate. There's some awkward mutual 'maybe I'll see you around before we set sail again,' and Mongo says he's going to go catch up on some drinking. He offers Hǎifēng a handshake but the Lunar turns it into a hug before running off.
Anyhow, a few days of research pass, after which the group is pretty sure they've triangulated the location of the island, which is near where Kim Sơn says he saw the 'Ashen Umbra' (or at least the ship everyone's assumed is the 'Ashen Umbra,' which may in fact be the Nightmare's Unyielding Grip). It's also near the area where they're pretty sure is the home of the cult to Blackened Bone Whispers, the cult whose protection scheme at Sarahan was overthrown by the disease god Vaihil.
So the group takes the time to sort out what needs doing next, like hiring a sorcerer or someone to send word to the Three Devil Princes that they're coming to bargaingoing to head down there to trade their assorted rare goods. While trying to get that sorted, they actually find the next best thing -- a swanfolk woman named Tepora (the same one who was in the Vagabond Panther the other night), who works for the Three Devil Princes as a contact, who has no problem at all sending a message to them as long as it means she doesn't have to take the time and effort to arrange an audience herself. Hǎifēng also spends most of a day dressed as Old Man Wushu again, smuggling the books back to where the library can retrieve them.
Once all that's done, they set course for the deep Southwest and set off in the morning with Scroll tagging along for the moment.[5] Hǎifēng's more than happy to get underway, just finding Lathe didn't agree with them, though there is a slight forlorn look on their face as the island and the massive beast upon it fade into the distance. Once the ship gets underway, Xương uses a Charm called Bear Sleep Technique to sleep for a day and a half and rapidly heal up the rest of the damage he took in the fight with Zither, as otherwise it would have taken most of the rest of the trip. As it is, it's going to leave a wicked scar. (scars on Exalted always look badass, it's a rule)
It takes the group about a week and a half to get to the area. Hǎifēng's not thrilled about being here -- it's pretty close to an island where they used to live and some bad shit went down that led to their Exaltation. But they move past the specific region and onwards to an island near the sunken one, a place called Darthon.
And we leave off on the Circle docking at what looks like a normal, quaint, sleepy little island town where clearly nothing ever happens, the general store sells the same five rag dolls and wooden carvings of what might be a duck, and the locals give the characters the usual 'wary of outsiders' look that they generally expect. (and while arguably this is the start of the next 'episode,' I'm not labeling it as such since we haven't gotten to the meat of it yet)
[0]-- Aside from "Doctor Zither," there was also the necromancer way back at the start of the story, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure who else would count. He did threaten Kanut, I guess, but the group doesn't do (or need to do) a lot of interrogating.
[1]-- Not all of it's going to wind up in this write-up, but I feel compelled to mention just to get it down that I sent Hǎifēng's player a slightly-too-long summary of the research sequence, to let them decide which details were relevant and relay that in their own words rather than just describing everything as a cutscene. The summary described not only what they learned through the research but also things they saw and conversations they had at the temple, since they're likely to encounter certain characters again and may need to know about their interactions. I could edit that whole thing and put it into the post, but that feels like I'm undercutting Hǎifēng's prerogative in deciding what matters and what doesn't. (It may get its own post at some point or become part of a mini-fic, who knows.)
[2]-- Okay, so I don't think I've mentioned this in the past, but for those of you who don't know, Sidereal Exalted have an effect called the Arcane Fate that causes them to vanish from memory when they're not around. (It's a side-effect of some stuff they did to cover their tracks after the Usurpation.) It even affects written accounts and the like. They have some temporary workarounds, but maintaining permanent ties to people who aren't their fellow Sidereals or gods is extremely difficult. However, there is a roll that can be made to see if someone can remember having met a Sidereal, and conveniently Hǎifēng made that roll. (I'd previously written down the relevant dice pool for the characters and privately rolled for them, and Hǎifēng got lucky.)
[3]-- A fun bit of backstory that I'll explain here because now I don't think there's anyone alive who knows the tale, but Sentulga actually did kill Doctor Zither some years ago. Back when he was a Realm spy named Garrax, Doctor Zither got on Sentulga's bad side and she slit his throat, leading to his Abyssal Exaltation. A few days before the events of this story, they ran into teach other while sneaking around Lathe's libraries looking for information they needed on the down-low. She recognized him and he immediately murdered her to cover his tracks. He then stashed the body with Kanut, and now you know the rest of the story. Good day.
[4]-- That would be... (takes a deep breath) ...Lintha Haquen Fia-Shaw Flowers Unbending in the Storm, shahan-ya of the Silver Pact and adherent of Sha'a Oka the Black Lion. She's a canon character in Third Edition, who wields a branch of the Lintha family against the Realm forces at a continent called the Caul, which is its own brand of weirdness I'm not going to get into here. Oh, and if you're wondering why she's still on good terms and Xương isn't even though they're both Lunars, all I'll say on the matter is that Xương's exile from the Lintha isn't because of his Exaltation, but he Exalted due to the circumstances of his expulsion from the family.
[5]-- I actually can't recall if we established if Scroll came along or not. I think they did (because while they have little interest in adventuring, they also have little reason to stay in Lathe now since they managed to finish what they were looking into while working with the group), but I could be wrong. Either way, if they didn't come along, I'm retconning them onto the ship. Officially.
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