Greetings, folks. Back at ya with another adventure of the crew of the Moonlight Maiden, heading back towards the titular ship (via a roundabout route). There's a big combat in this session, and as a note I might rearrange the orders of one or two bits in the combat for better flow of action as long as it doesn't screw up continuity.
I don't really have anything more to add right at the moment, aside from one more plug of the Exigents crowdfunding campaign. It's only got a few days left, so if you wanna drop a few bucks on it now's the time. Most of the manuscript has been previewed in a chapter-by-chapter form for free on Indiegogo, and there'll be a final section this coming Tuesday. After the campaign, anyone who backed will get a combined manuscript (in addition to, y'know, whatever rewards you pledge for once they become available). As I've mentioned before, I didn't work on this book or anything, I just think it's really cool and want it to succeed.
And with that...
So we start off with an addendum to the training/relaxation montage we left off on last week.[0] First off, at some point during the week, Scroll eventually joins them from the oasis. While they have enjoyed the Circle's company, the idea was always that they'd stick with the group until they found a good next stop on their quest for study and knowledge. And, well, here's a mostly-surviving First Age city full of otherwise-lost technology and knowledge. In addition to the mysteries they were investigating, preserving knowledge is a primary interest of Scroll's, so they want to help the Princes with that at least for a little while. It's not exactly a tearful parting, but when the group does eventually leave the city they and Scroll part ways as friends.
Speaking of which, they spend a bit of time planning out the route they're taking from the Mirror City to the Empty Palace. Dakuri's going to give them a ride there -- it's slower than them flying in bird form, but it'll be safer and they're not in any rush as far as they know anyways. Dakuri does express some concern, though, as the route comes close to the territory of a raksha named Spear-Empress Bhadri[1]. One of the Princes assures him that as long as he sticks to the path and keeps an eye out, they should be fine.
Also during that time is a briefing on the device they'll be using in Blackened Bone Whispers' sanctum. It looks like a big crystal in a fancy metal magitech framework. I'm blanking on the size of it, I think I said about the size of a gallon milk jug. But they're shown on a reproduction of the controls what to do. They go in, set the thing down, arm it, and then run like hell.
And speaking of which, Yanisin breaks out what he's been working on for the Shining Authority collar that Haloke gave Hǎifēng last session -- basically, a temporary artificial hearthstone. It will allow early access to the evocation that lets the wearer get into the sanctum, but it'll just be good for a single shot.
Xương asks if there's a 'plan B' if it doesn't work, and the Princes reassure them that the device shouldn't fail. But if something goes wrong and it's not an option, well... Haloke speaks up, the most familiar with the sort of thing as the Full Moon of the group. They say that if they can't disconnect the god from his sanctum, then their best option is to first discorporate Blackened Bone Whispers, and then kill as much of his cult as they can. If they don't have the power to kill him permanently[2], their best option is cripple him as much as they can before he reforms.
And one last bit of business we take care of before the group gets ready to go, is Shango's decision regarding his tattoos and Caste. Having given it some thought, he decides to remain Casteless for now, but the Princes still insist that the Circle keep the moonsilver ink and needles just in case he changes his mind, or they find another Lunar in need of a Caste, or whatever.
But with that... after a few days, they gather at the 'shore' just outside the wall of the floating city, where Dakuri's boat awaits. They climb aboard with food and supplies and all that.
A wind they can't feel catches the sail of Dakuri's ship, carrying it off into the water at the edge of the floating city. They sail right for the border marked by the dome, beyond which it looks like the water goes on forever. The blurriness of the dome surrounds them as they're in it -- the only thing aside from the ship and everyone on it that has any definition is the water. The water grows choppy, increasingly larger and foamier waves striking the boat. Dakuri steers into them with the casual ease of someone who's either gone mad or has simply done this many times already.
One wave in particular builds up, becoming a wall of white water ahead of head. All of the water around lightens up, the rising sun seeming to shine through it. The wave crashes down on them and then scatters in the wind as they burst out through a rock formation onto the white sand of the desert. The ship actually leaps from the surface for a moment before hitting it, the vibration rocking their teeth as he steers it north. Everything's solid and defined again, their transition back to proper reality complete. Hills and small mountains pass by on the right, and while they eventually vanish back into the ground to reveal savannah, Dakuri seems to keep track of an invisible border extending north from them, careful not to get too close even as he dodges obstacles in their path.
About a day passes, during which the Circle takes turns managing the boat so as to keep moving -- it sails just like the Moonlight Maiden, and while Dakuri isn't used to the constant motion that comes with having people who can take turns at the wheel, everything goes smoothly enough, until the next morning.
Desert seems to solidify into playa. Off to the right, mountains and hills rise again from the land. In the far distance they can see jungle and a settlement at the edge of it, but also smoke and dust. In particular, a shining dust cloud in front and smoke in the jungle in the back. The dust glimmers in a variety of colors in the morning sun, like spray from a waterfall catching the light just right for a free-floating rainbow.
When Dakuri spots this, the group hears a quietly muttered "Fuck" through the visor of his armor as he begins loading his firewand. They get the distinct impression the dust bothers him more than the burning jungle. The wind catches some of the shining dust and it passes over the group, and they can hear screams of terror within it, as if that's the breeze carrying it along. Ahead of them is Ongana, a walled city on the edge of the jungle, and it is overrun. A horde of obsidian-scaled monsters shaped like massive pangolins trundles through the city, chasing and trying to herd screaming civilians out a gate on that side of the city into the burning jungle for maximum terror. Around the outskirts a band of crazed hyenafolk with shining eyes and patchy fur wield wicked spears to keep anyone from escaping.
In the front, at the city gate, stands a feminine but androgynous human-shaped figure that shines and glistens in the morning light, as if a living statue made from thousands of tiny diamonds. What at first appears to be a cloak turns out to be a pair of wings wraps around her front. She sees them coming -- the land's flat enough she couldn't not see them. She begins to move, sort of. They don't actually see her body move but instead light warps and bends around where she's supposed to be in a roughly humanoid shape until she's still again and the warp becomes that statue once more, only this time she's drawn a sword.
On the wall near the back of the city stands a 9-foot tall tiger-man of living flame. The centermost portion of the flame glows to a near-white, 'fading' to a golden color along the outside, with gaps in the flames to make the tiger's stripes. He glances between the burning jungle and the people of the city as if not sure which he should care about more. The flame behind him waves and shifts as he walks back and forth along the wall, like wheat in a breeze.
"Unless one of you has any better ideas," Dakuri begins, "I'm just gonna steer this thing as close as we can, then jump off and just start shooting motherfuckers." He's got one hand on the wheel of the ship while the other holds his firewand, and his gunzosha armor hums as its systems begin warming up. He then suggests that as the three Lunars are used to fighting together, they should focus on stopping the raksha while he goes into the city to directly assist the civilians.[3]
Everybody is on-board with his plan, the Lunar Circle shifting to their various combat forms. As the boat drifts to a stop a short distance away, Xương just steps off the side, his anima banner flaring to its full intensity as he bursts into his full size, lumbering towards the city with his focus on Ashutosh while the Hǎifēng lets the giant monster take the lead and Shango lifts off.
Jyoti blurs into motion, lunging at Xương. Hǎifēng observes, amused, that Xương is a sand-shark before they dash in between the raksha and the out-of-place sea monster. As Jyoti swings her light-warping blade at Xương, Hǎifēng claps with a hundred hands (two real, 98 ephemeral), the shockwave deflecting the blade. But as it passes by Hǎifēng, they get a glimpse of something in the warp of the blade -- a particular blazing volcano[4] -- but the disrupted strike gives Xương space to duck in and snap at her with his teeth, breaking her apart into gem dust for a moment, many of the 'gems' popping like candy to reveal that she does bleed after all. Then Hǎifēng swipes at her with their fans, disrupting her further as they put all they can into the raw speed to slash at her again and again.
Elsewhere, Shango swoops down into the obsidian-scaled pangolin hobgoblins, plucking quills covered with volatile body oils (using Needle Quill Technique and Bombardier Spittle Alchemy) to load into Weirdflame and unleash gouts of flame over the hobgoblins. Their obsidian scales seemed to be able to resist the heat, but the quills embedded in several of them to keep burning. They clamber over each other for some height to lunge at Shango in retaliation, tagging him with claws like the sharp end of a crowbar.
Next the hyenafolk charge Xương with their spears in what appears to be some sort of drug-fueled frenzy (or possibly Wyld-fueled, as the Wyld affects some like a drug), but whatever manic state they're in doesn't give them the strength to break his thick skin. He turns on them, his misshapen goblin shark face swinging gruesomely as he bellows at them, sending them flying.
As Dakuri moves through the city, blasting hobgoblins and saving civilians, the camera pans up to reveal Ashutosh, drawing fire from the jungle behind him to charge up for a massive fireball at Xương. Xương catches the fireball in his teeth and quashes it as he crosses over to the wall and brings a hand down, smashing the tiger down against the top of the wall with an unpleasant squish, as beneath the fire the raksha has something of a liquid body. During all this, the hyenafolk just bounce off of Xương again while the hobgoblin-pangolins swarm over Shango who hunkers down and shields himself with his wings.
Nearby, Hǎifēng lunges at Jyoti again, a little more confident now, slashing their fans across her arm and up along her chin and then they hit her with a kick, the combo completely discombobulating her. Shango sees an opportunity to get a shot at Jyoti, and draws upon Weirdflame's power, getting a sinister grin, his eyes flickering as he calls upon Dakuri to help him take a shot at Jyoti. A brightly-colored burst of Essence runs along the moonsilver barrel and flares out with a rainbow-burst of colors mixing with the flame from Dakuri's firewand as they blast her in the back, and Shango gets another shot off, cackling maniacally.
Jyoti attempts to flee, but Hǎifēng grabs her hair and drags her down to slam down into the ground. Then they snap the fans closed and stab her with them, step in, stomp on her chest for leverage to yank the fans free, and then decapitate her as she dissolves into sparkling Essence. (Octopus-and-Spider Barrage for the win)
Up above all this, Xương drags his hands in along the wall, grinding the stones on top of the wall like chalk as he claps the flaming tiger between his claws. He comically opens his hands to peek inside and see the tiger-raksha within and on instinct lunges in to snap him up in his jaws, eating him and then burping out a cloud of black smoke.
At this point we quickly mop up the battle groups in a montage[5], during which we see Shango cackling and spraying rainbow flames into the crowd of monsters with Dakuri backing him up while Hǎifēng runs in and yanks out tethers of Essence to send the hobgoblins crashing into each other so they have to scatter rather than rip themselves apart. Xương just wades into the hyenafolk, snatching them up and stomping them until the last survivors get the hint and flee.
Once the dust dies down and they start making firebreaks to contain the burning jungle, Dakuri opens the visor on his helmet and tells the others that he knows they have someplace they need to be, so he offers to take care of the town and catch up later if they go on ahead. No judgement. But they insist on staying behind to help get the people of the town squared away, and while he doesn't make a big deal out of it he is visibly relieved.
So the group starts helping the people with medical attention, building shelters so they have places to stay, etc. There's actually very few deaths, as the raksha were there to harvest fear and terror instead of lives, but there's a lot of collateral damage.
But as the others start working on things in town, Hǎifēng finds a few moments to slip off to the side and hyperventilate with a look of terror on their face as they recall the flash of what the raksha showed them. They steady themselves as they have a little bit of a panic attack.
Later in the day, Xương takes one of the hyenafolk corpses out into the jungle to make a warning totem out of it directed at anyone who might menace the town from that direction.
And we left off there.
[0]-- Oh snap, starting the footnotes early. Anyhow, just mentioning that later I might edit things to move all this stuff to the previous post and edit it into the montage there so this post picks up right after, but I haven't decided yet. Just mentioning that now to get it out of the way.
[1]-- Okay, so here's the gist. If you're looking at the official Lunar map, there's a spot in the Southwest labeled as the territory of the Bronze Tide. In line with the left sied of the label are some mountains or hills with a gap in the middle, and a wooded area on the left and one north of the mountains along the coast. The group is going to be traveling up along the left side of those mountain ranges, and the place where they think the Empty Palace is is right next to the name 'Lukha Palash.' If you're looking at the core map, just draw a straight line down from the 'l' and 'e' in 'Cinder Isles.' Also, as I think I've mentioned before, the Bronze Tide (a massive group of pirates and marauders led by an independent Lunar) is a thing that's not coming up in the game at this time, possibly ever -- one of the overall themes of this game is about being heroes, and until/unless the plot is about doing something to stop Bhadri, the Bronze Tide is in kind of a gray area that we're not going to tread. Basically, no Lunar-vs-Lunar conflict if it can be helped.
[2]-- It is worth noting that there are a few Charms that make it possible, at least one of which is available to Lunars, but that would mean having to buy them.
[3]-- For this battle I handled Dakuri the same way I handled Admiral Danai way back in Episode 3, where I gave him an action each round that could be incorporated into a PC's stunt, or if left to his own devices he'd take a shot at some goons at the end of the round.
[4]-- A reference to Hǎifēng's backstory, also alluded to briefly as the group traveled to Darthon.
[5]-- It was late in the session so rather than just spend time beating on the faceless goons like piñatas, I let everyone narrate doing a single cool thing they do while dealing with them.
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