Greetings, programs! I've got another Exalted post for you, as often happens these days.
No real news as such, but I do want to point out that after a couple sessions of actually playing with my initial vision for Lathe, I've determined that vision needs glasses. My original version was, I realized, very 'ant farm'-like in its structure, with the residents moving around in tunnels carved through what I can best describe as a petrified primordial haggis. Which is limiting in terms of scenery and is really hard to imagine people moving around in, even if it's mostly large interior chambers and not entirely rooms connected by tunnels. So I'm reinterpreting it as open to the sky with much of the city carved into bits that have been hollowed out and cleared away, with a lot of the preserved organs still extant structures and occasional bones the size of California redwoods protruding and serving as an anchor for various structures. Aside from the organs and bones and such, the rough 'shape' of it is going to be very similar to the Italian city of Matera.
I'm not going to do it right this moment, but at some point I'm going to go back and tweak whatever descriptions I've already written to have this interpretation match up with previous write-ups. So just a heads-up, there. (Edit from the future: Got this taken care of, only took me a month and a half to get around to it. Just wanted to let you know.)
Anyhow, that's more about the past and future. Let's worry about 'now.'
(Oh, by the way, quick content warning for a very brief reference to suicide)
We pick back up with Xương and Shango heading back to the clinic to find Hǎifēng doing a charcoal sketch of the individuals that Scroll saw poking around the library. Xương takes a closer look and sketch and immediately recognizes the pair as Lintha. Subtle, possibly-undercover Lintha of a weaker heritage than his own, but Lintha nonetheless. (In fact, he's pretty sure one might be 'cousin Mongo.') Hǎifēng explains who these individuals are, or at least what they seem to be doing here in Lathe. They also explain their conversation with Scroll and float the theory that they could be looking for an underwater manse. (no pun intended) Xương points out that not all Lintha are as comfortable underwater as he is, to which Hǎifēng replies that Xương's the only Lintha they've met so that's what they're basing their conjecture on.
Xương's concerned, though. He's worried that if these other Lintha are causing trouble, then it might get connected back to him. He's pretty open about the fact that he's outcast from the family, but he can't necessarily expect people who don't keep track of these things to know the difference. He does, however, give the others permission to rough them up if need be -- that they shouldn't hold back just because he might be connected (or even related) to them.
(Privately, Xương is also pretty sure these two aren't Exalted, from the look of them -- there are quite a few Lintha Dragon-Bloods, and they're not likely to be on an undercover gig. He keeps that to himself, though, for fear of giving Hǎifēng or Shango a false sense of security and looking like an asshole if he's wrong.)
Xương argues the priority should be finding out what the Lintha are looking for before they find it, because it's not like they're here -- and in a library, at that -- for absolutely no reason.
Shango decides to scout the libraries out and takes on bird form to zip over there, hanging out at the entrance and looking to see if one or both of the Lintha happen by. Hǎifēng decides to go check out the lungs, figuring that the amphitheater there marks something like a proper theater district where they can take in the culture. Xương, not wanting to get too deep into anything that might disrupt his meeting later with Kim Sơn, decides to just stay in. Scroll gets back to scribbling down notes.[0]
After about a half-hour of waiting outside the library, Shango happens to spot one of the Lintha already inside, looking around the library with a scroll in their hand. The Lintha looks over the paper and glances around like they're trying to find a particular shelf or something. At one point they look away, scroll still in-hand, as an osprey-shaped blur zips past and just snatches it away. They stand there a moment before looking back and realizing the scroll's gone. As Shango flees back towards Xương's clinic, he hears shouting behind him, but he's just too fast.
He gets back to the clinic with the scroll and explains to Xương and Scroll where he got it. Xương is like "So you just took it in case there's something useful on it?" and Shango just goes "Yeah." (I'm assuming there was a shrug involved on Shango's, but we play over voice chat so all I can do is assume/guess.)
Xương unrolls the scroll and finds that it has two lists. One list is of specific texts, with editions listed, and the other is broadly of subjects. Much of this list falls under the categories the group's been looking into, but not all of it. There's very little if any of the necromancy stuff and a lot more alchemical material. Some of the specific texts have been checked off and others have been scratched out. Scroll explains that some of the scratched out texts are ones that they took... but not all of them. Which means that while it could be a coincidence and those books weren't available, there might be a third party looking for this stuff, too. It's possible the Lintha are looking for something else, and there's just some overlap in the subject of geomancy.
Xương has a flash of inspiration and takes the list, looking over the text and trying to glean the urgency of the author in the handwriting, and attempts to intuit the one thing that would intersect in the material from all of the books (or at least the ones they know about).
He deduces two things. First, that the macguffin the material is pointing to is probably a tomb or maybe the lair of a powerful ghost (perhaps both). It may or may not be a manse now, but it probably was one at some point in the past. Second, the Lintha probably didn't write this list. It appears to have been written by someone who was operating on dry land[1], with a hand that doesn't suggest a sailor. While it's not impossible that one of them compiled the list, there's a really solid chance that either it was put together by someone who hired the Lintha, or they stole it.
Xương poses the question of how they find this hypothetical tomb before anyone else does. Shango asks if it's possible it could be tied back to Sarahan, and that maybe that's what drew Vaihil's attention in the first place. It might explain why Mnemon Arima was so concerned about Vaihil being there. Shango floats the idea of smuggling Scroll back into the library, which the being isn't entirely opposed to but it'd be tricky to move in and out because the thefts have led to increased scrutiny. Xương suggests that this also works against their opponents, too. Scroll chimes in that the books they really need are locked up in the temple, and Xương half-jokes about killing Arima and taking his form. Scroll replies that while they're not fond of killing people in general, a lower-level monk would probably be easier to get to and less likely to be noticed in any case.
We now cut to Hǎifēng, who's been watching a play about the ongoing war between the Lunar Exalted and the Dynasty in the Caul. It's not great, the actual story material obviously mostly made up, with little in the way of special effects. Think something like the Ember Island Players. It's surprisingly even in its portrayal of the Lunars, however. When they come back from intermission with a drink that's fruity and boozy (even if the exact varieties of fruit and booze are unknown), they find themselves suddenly sitting next to one of the Lintha from the sketch. Specifically, it's the one Xương referred to as 'cousin Mongo,' not the one from whom Shango stole that list.
The Lintha seems to be drinking something like a hot toddy, which appears to be made with hot tea and some sort of equally-identifiable booze. Hǎifēng leans over and remarks that it seems odd to see the Lunars portrayed so fairly in a play like this. The Lintha says that the only reason why the Dynasts in the play aren't being portrayed by literal clowns in clown makeup is because of the proximity of the very prominent Immaculate temple. This amuses Hǎifēng and they introduce themself, only to discover that the Lintha's name actually is Mongo.[2] They discuss the unnamed boozes, and Mongo explains that, like an 'infinity bottle,' most of the drink vendors in the district just have vats that they sometimes top off with whatever boozes are handy, so it's always going to be a blend of weird shit. Especially since many of them take booze as payment for food and vice-versa, because Lathe's location makes it really weird in terms of currency.[3] This winds up segueing into a conversation about the city's nightlife, and Mongo talks about how later in the evening is when the weird performance artists come out -- including a 'mutated wizard' apparently barely recognizable as human who does magic tricks.
Hǎifēng puts in the effort to befriend Mongo over the course of drinking, getting him good and liquored up and flirting with him before starting to ply him with questions, trying to figure out what he's doing in Lathe. Mongo lets slip that he's in town for work and should be working at the moment but he isn't. Also, his ship's captain took off a few days ago and hasn't reported in and he should be looking for her right at that moment but he's slacking off because she always turns up. When pressed, he gives a rough description of her, enough to make it pretty clear that she's not the other Lintha from Hǎifēng's picture. The missing captain's name comes up and he starts to come up with a fake name, but the booze has him a little loosened up and Hǎifēng's able to press him enough to get most of a name out of him: Sennong Aunt Sentulga. ('Sennong' being the name of a Lintha sept, and 'Aunt' being a rank within the family.)
After that, they wind up drinking some more up on a ledge at the top of the beast's carcass overlooking the city, where they proceed to fade to black. Afterwards, Hǎifēng communes with Luna (achieving their third dot of Essence) while the Lintha snores, and then slips off to let him wake up confused and hung over in the morning.
And now we rewind to earlier in the evening at the Vagabond Panther, where Xương has gone to met with Kim Sơn with a couple of glass syringes tucked away. He gets there to find Kim Sơn sitting in the corner with a couple of other people, both of whom Westerners and one of them dressed like one of the occultists that are so common in the city. Kim Sơn introduces them to Xương, introducing the latter as Lani and the former as Nam-Kyu. Xương's a little put off by the unexpected addition, but Kim Sơn explains that he's been talking to all of them about the Ashen Umbra as of late and thought the four of them could compare notes.
Kim Sơn then goes on to talk about how he's spent some time looking into ancestor cults and ghosts and such (because, quite frankly, he's sick and dying and so this is a very important subject to him), and makes sure that this is a cool subject for them. To contextualize his presence to Xương, Lani explains that he's more or less a local sailor with an interest in the occult. Nam-Kyu is from Wavecrest to the north, and he's trying to learn more about these forces out of concern about the Silver Prince, the Deathlord who runs the neighboring Skullstone Archipelago.
Xương goes ahead and gives Kim Sơn the syringes, explaining that they are a powerful opiate. He then explains that one syringe is basically enough to pretty much solve his pain problems for an evening, but taking both at once would solve his pain problems permanently, if he wished to go that route. Kim Sơn accepts them with sincere and heartfelt gratitude, eyes watering up a bit at Xương's kindness.
But from there they get down to it, talking about the ship. Lani offers a theory that the 'Ashen Umbra' is not actually the ship itself but is in fact the shroud around the ship. That it might be something like a ghost wrapped around the ship, perhaps something like a nephwrack (or something conjured by one). Xương considers this, describing his encounter with the literal ghost mansion of Dutan Island, and when Lani asks if he's actually been there the Lunar gives him one of the dried chili peppers. Lani eats it with the expected difficulty and, chugging his drink -- including a fresh one that Kim Sơn has brought over -- expresses his theory that the Ashen Umbra is almost a power unto itself, something like a moving shadowland that can allow a ship to sail back and forth between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. Xương is very intrigued by this idea.
Kim Sơn goes on to say he's heard about a cult that's been trying to learn more about this sort of power. They're called the Eternal Wave, and they're all about this idea of sailors being able to take to the seas and sail forever. He says they mark themselves with a tattoo, and as part of a larger plan to try and get their attention he's had himself marked with the tattoo. He shows it off -- and it's basically something like the wave from the classic Hokusai painting, but in the shape of an infinity symbol.
Xương gets a weird vibe about the tattoo and takes a closer look, and a realization occurs to him. This is a tattoo that Kim Sơn has had for a while, which means he's either been half-assing this attempt to find them or -- more likely by Xương's reckoning -- he already has found them and is building up to some sort of recruitment pitch.
And we left off there.
[0]-- I admittedly forgot to mention this at the time, but Scroll doesn't come up much unless addressed or I really need a mouthpiece in-character to get something across to the group.
[1]-- Not that the Lintha never go on dry land or anything, but they spend most of their time on boats. In fact, the Lintha 'homeland' is a floating city of ships and such lashed together in a sargasso sea. I dunno if this is true or not, but I'm personally operating under the assumption (and it seems reasonable enough to fudge) that someone like that grips a brush/stylus/quill/etc. differently than someone who doesn't.
[2]-- This was not originally the case. But Sean's 'Cousin Mongo' joke at the beginning of the session persisted such that I decided 'screw it' and renamed the character and declared him 'Cousin Mongo.' (Though not literally Xương's cousin, for the record) This conveniently means that Xương potentially knows something useful about this character without me having to finagle a way for the group to learn it, and I'm certainly not going to complain about that.
[3]-- Lathe is a major trading port that connects the West proper and the Southwestern mainland. That means it sees a lot of cowries (shells used as currency) from the Western islands further north as well as the silver-based currency common throughout the Threshold. But it's also a common stopping off point for Dynasts on their way to fight in the Caul, which means a lot of Realm money winds up spent there as well.
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