Well hello again. No major updates at the moment, though I do have a mini-fic I'm going to get posted in the next couple of days. It's going to be another First Age Memories post like this one. It just kind of popped into my head while I was working out some backstory. I should have that edited and posted soon. (Edit: And it's up!)
But until then, there's this.
So we left off with the crew of the Moonlight Maiden arriving at the small island town of Darthon in the farther reaches of the Southwest. Like, literally a few days' journey from the edge of the map and the chaos of the Wyld beyond. At first blush, it looks like your sleepy little island community where nothing ever happens. No weird structures, no strange smells, and the people are giving the characters that 'xenophobic villagers eyeing the outlanders' one expects this far off the beaten path. It's not necessarily a sign that everything's great, but not having it is usually a sign that something is wrong.
The only thing that stands out at first is a woman standing off to the side of a major area as if keeping watch. She doesn't appear to be a local -- local to the region, perhaps, but most of the people in Darthon have that "we're a collection of families that all grew up together and most of us are distant cousins to each other" sameness one sees in an insular community, and she doesn't match that. Though the reason she stands out, which draws the group's attention to begin with, is her armament. She carries what appears to be an orichalcum grimscythe (which, Xương notes, is kind of a bold choice given the associations), and wears a set of green jade armor.
Her hair contextualizes this; despite her dark skin marking her as a Southwesterner, her hair is bright red, in dreadlocks that spill down her back and, at a glance, look like lava slowly running down the side of a volcano. While it's not impossible she's something else, the red hair is a clear sign of the elemental aspects only seen among the Terrestrial Exalted.
Shango catches her gaze and gives her kind of a 'hat tip' sort of gesture, and she just gives him a silent scowl, that 'Okoye from Black Panther' sort of look.
But the group gives the town a quick once-over, making it look like a typical supply run. Hǎifēng heads into the general store and finds, among other things, barrels of some sort of unlabeled salted meat. It doesn't appear to be human, but they don't recognize the exact source. The shop also has a notable supply of talismans crafted from bent iron nails, clearly meant to ward off the Fair Folk. The others are poking around, and they find a community bulletin board with a calendar pretty heavy on local festivals, but eventually they spot the Eternal Wave tattoo on the locals. And not, like, just a couple of times either -- not everyone has it (mostly on an inner forearm or high up on a bicep where it's easily covered), but enough people have it that it's obvious this isn't merely a single cell of the cult within the town but something much deeper.
They regroup to figure out what to do next -- Xương's particularly trying to figure out what the plan is given that he could have had an 'in' back in Lathe. The idea comes up that he could go looking for the sunken island -- if the coordinates from the research were accurate, the place where the island was should be really close. In the meantime, Shango and Hǎifēng could just discreetly ask around for information. Hǎifēng complains they don't want to have to spend their time talking to a bunch of crusty old fishermen, and then at that moment a handsome young fisherman walks by. Hǎifēng watches him start to go, says "I'll be right back," and they immediately follow. Shango says "They'll be fine" with a shrug and tells Xương to try not to be out too late and they can meet back at the boat in the evening.
So we follow Xương as he walks back to the ship so nobody can see him quietly slip into the water and take on his shark form. After some time, he finds the sunken island, or at least a sunken island. It's not too deep -- too deep for most divers of Creation, though not so deep that someone from the modern world with modern gear couldn't get to it, just to put it in perspective. But it's covered with ruins that he recognizes as being First Age in style, including something that might have been a small palace or a large mansion. The island has most of a volcano that looks like it exploded at one point, and it's covered with pits and craters. The island looks like it got hit by meteors and just fell into a sinkhole in the ocean floor.
He finds holes leading into tunnels and caverns, and most of them seem to go nowhere but he finds one underwater cavern with something interesting -- a stone wall blocking the back of said cavern. He's not sure what type of stone off-hand, but it definitely looks like an old First Age building material. He's pretty sure he's seeing the outer wall of some structure that was either already underground, like a basement, or buried in the calamity. It's also got etchings of warding, clearly made after the fact, as if someone was very worried about something getting out.
And while he can't get past the wall from there, he's sure there must be some sort of tunnel leading to it from elsewhere, so he starts searching for those.
But while he's doing that, we cut to Hǎifēng, following the young fisherman to a warehouse down by the docks. The guy goes in and leaves the door open and Hǎifēng can see him joining some other men working on repairing fishing nets. The warehouse seems to be a storage and maintenance area for the town's fishing gear, and it's full of people working. They use Predator-and-Prey Mirror to appear vulnerable and weak (like a suitable victim for kidnapping and sacrifice) and slip in for a closer look, and after a few minutes the young man they've been following (I missed a good opportunity to have him introduce himself, but his name is Mido, which I'll use here for simplicity's sake) asks them a question in Seatongue, which Hǎifēng doesn't speak. Reading the confused look on their face, Mido switches to accented Flametongue and asks if he can help them with anything.
Hǎifēng says 'maybe' as they have a seat. They have an exchange where Mido asks why Hǎifēng's on the island, and they explain they're just here for a few days while they grab supplies. And oh, by the way, that's an interesting tattoo that he has.
Mido explains that it's a symbol of devotion to their ancestors and a reminder of the eternal nature of time and the ocean. Hǎifēng notes that they don't see that sort of devotion to the ancestors everywhere. Mido says he knows there are places where people do that, but noplace he's ever been because he's always lived here in Darthon. Hǎifēng remarks that they've noticed the tattoos on a few people, and they think it's beautiful. They'd very much like to know more if there's time to learn, since they're going to be here a couple of days and don't think their crew would notice if they were gone for a while.[0]
Mido thinks a moment, reminds himself what day it is, and says that not that night but the following night they're having a festival to the ancestors. He explains they don't normally invite outsiders to these sorts of things, but...
Like, they dramatically trail off in the way that clearly means that he's inviting Hǎifēng to the festival. Hǎifēng tries to get a read on the guy's intentions, with a... (checks notes) ...'read intentions' roll, and work out that Mido doesn't see them as a potential sacrifice... but a potential convert, instead.
Mido then asks Hǎifēng if they know how to dance, to which Hǎifēng says "Absolutely," as they devolve into small talk which also includes an invite to dinner.
Then we switch over to Shango, who's seeking out a local tavern -- not the one with the lodgings for travelers, but one where the locals hang out. And he certainly finds the local tavern for local people[1] and heads in. And... record scratch. All conversation stops and everyone stares at him as he comes in. Like, we're talking full-blown 'Pee-wee Herman in the biker bar' levels of standing out. He settles in at the bar and an older woman shuffles over. She squints menacingly at him, this outlander who is probably the first outsider to gaze upon her in years if not longer, and just asks "And?" in Seatongue (which, unlike Hǎifēng, Shango speaks).
He kind of prevaricates a bit, says he's here trying to get a feel for the local culture and all that (which is technically true), and he asks what she recommends as the rest of the bar stares daggers at his back. She simply says "Beer." And at his request gets him a beer. He asks what he owes her, and she says they'll run him a tab if they have to, clearly not wanting to have to deal with this more than absolutely necessary as long as he's just having a single drink. Now that she's speaking in more than single-word sentences, it becomes clear that her Seatongue is also kind of oddly-accented -- like, think about the same level of difference between regular English and West Country English.
She asks if he needs anything else, and he says that he's a collector of local legends and such and asks if she knows anyone who can share some, and pulls out a silver coin. Everyone's attention shifts to that, and she asks what sorts of legends he's asking about. He says he's here just killing time, and just anything. Monsters, long lost heroes, ships, lost legends. Anything about local gods or temples or anything like that.
She considers a few moments and asks with a slight grin if he's ever heard of the Placid Baron, which he doesn't. She says it's a very local legend, and he's interested, so she gets into it...
The Placid Baron was a noble of the Fair Folk who enslaved an island in the area. (As she says that, she takes a moment to grip a talisman hanging around her neck that's made out of a bent iron nail. They don't know his proper name because he himself never spoke -- or at least in a way he could understand, as his voice could shatter the minds of mortals. But they called him the Placid Baron because he liked things orderly and quiet and in fact banned all speech in his presence. If you spoke near him, he'd kill you as a warning.
But he made the people of the village work and farm for him, not for any greater purpose but just to make them do the work -- harvesting crops just to let them rot, for example -- because that's just what the Fair Folk do. Like he was playing out the idea of being a ruler instead of actually running a small nation. He also made them throw festivals to him regularly, with lots of music and dancing. (As she talks more about this, her accent gets deeper and deeper, slipping into something almost more of a full-blown dialect at this point.)
In order to communicate, the people of the island developed a 'language' of dance. Moves and body language would be used to transfer messages during the festivals and coordinate larger action, which is what led to the fall of the Placid Baron. One day, when a wandering hero whose name is lost to time came for a visit during one of their festivals, the people took advantage of the distraction and rose up and as one struck down the Placid Baron.
Shango is impressed by the story, but notes that from the sound of things it didn't happen in Darthon but another island, curious as to where. The bartender hesitates, glancing over his shoulder as if waiting for a nod of permission from someone outside of his field of vision, and says "Shasama," in a tone that seems to convey a degree of importance. The rest of the room was already quiet, but now it's silent, as if the word landed with a thud that stilled everything else.
Shango hasn't heard of such an island, but certainly feels like he should know it for some reason. He acknowledges that he hasn't heard of it, and the bartender just smirks and says that islands come and go in a volcanically-active area like the Cinder Isles, and if the stories are true it probably hasn't appeared on any charts since before the Empress.
Shango asks her for another beer and puts the coin down on the bar to buy a round for the house, and that earns him some quiet appreciation from the people. The other patrons have largely relaxed over the course of the story in any case, or at least are comfortable assuming that if they themselves aren't watching the outsider then someone else is. Shango at this point, gets a look at the bartender's arm and recognizes that she's got the tattoo.
Shango asks about it, and she tells him that it reflects devotion to the ancestors, and a reminder of the eternal nature of time and the ocean. He doesn't know this, not having had a chance to reconnect with Hǎifēng just yet, but her explanation is basically word for word the same as Mido's (adjusting for linguistic differences). Shango just understandingly says "Ah, ancestor worship," and the bartender says that she remains devoted to those who came before. And that makes Shango pause for a moment, as it reminds him of the situation with his own family.
After a few moments, he looks around the place to see if anyone's still watching him with malice or hostility. He spots a single woman sitting off to the side. She's solidly-built, muscular, and older than him but not as old as the bartender. She watches him like a hawk, like she's waiting for an excuse to start something. And in her eyes, underneath the obvious distrust, he can pick up a bit of fear in her eyes, but he can't tell if she's worried about him or something he may represent. He makes a note of her face and leans back against the bar and acts like he's had a little too much to drink since he knows she's watching him and he's trying to throw her off.[2]
He then turns back to the bartender, still performatively wobbling a bit, and asks her about the woman with the scythe. She says that Urangi is the protector of the town, working for it to protect the people from raiders and pirates and Fair Folk, because this corner of Creation is dangerous and things happen to the unwary. But the people here are wary, and protected by one of the Chosen of the Dragons. Shango comments he was about to ask about that, and that someone like her is useful to have around unless you're dealing with something like, say a Solar. She just squints at him with a hard to read look when he drops that term.
But he continues his drunk act and says he needs to leave before he gets more wasted and annoys his friends. The bartender tells him to be careful, because things happen when you're someplace you don't know well. He thanks her for the warning, but tells her not to worry, as he hasn't traveled the ocean this long without taking some of his own precautions. She then gives him a subtle nod of acknowledgement of the ages-old dance between superstitious local and cocky outsider.
As he goes to leave, he flicks a coin back over his shoulder, aiming at the woman who was watching him, not paying much attention to where it landed as he steps out the door. And once it closes behind him he can hear the distinct sound of chairs sliding, as if someone suddenly got up and a bunch of people had to get up and restrain the first person. He chuckles himself as he heads back to the Moonlight Maiden to meet up with the others.
And we left off there.
[0]-- At this point, I had to have Zac make a social influence roll for Hǎifēng, not to make sure they can sell the 'I'm a perfect sacrificial victim, you should kidnap me and take me to your secret base' vibe, but to make sure they don't oversell it.
[1]-- Yes, that is a League of Gentlemen reference.
[2]-- In other words, he's stunting to raise his Guile because she's trying to make a read intentions roll on him.
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