Oh, back for more, eh?
Anyhow, normally I'd plug the Exigents IGG campaign about now, but it's only got a couple of hours left as I start to write this, so I guarantee you that nobody's gonna see this post before it wraps up. All that matters is that they hit the stretch goal to write up the Foxbinder of Shifune for the companion book. ;)
Barring coming back here to add something in the middle of writing this post (in which case this sentence will cease to exist), I don't have anything else to add before we get into it.
So the group spends about a day in Ongana with Dakuri helping out the people there. Even though the city falls under the Mirage Kingdom's protectorate, it's a little outside Dakuri's usual patrols so he shows the local authorities a badge that marks him as serving the same masters as they do, and he busts out some crates of emergency supplies he keeps on his ship for situations like this (dried foods, various mixes and additives to stretch out supplies, and medicine). The city hadn't been under siege from the Fair Folk for too long, and they were more interested in harvesting fear and terror and then probably kidnapping a bunch of the people to turn into slaves so there's a lot of structural damage but not much of a body count. Much of the work involves repairing and reinforcing physical structures.
This is one of the few times the group has done something blatantly heroic and stuck around long enough for people to really react to them (the other one being Smolder), but this is very different. Unlike the aftermath of the Battle of Talipan Beach, they weren't caught up in shoring up the city with a sizable military force. Just a handful of heroes, repairing roofs, treating wounds, and keeping people calm. The locals are a little freaked out and keep their distance at first -- unlike Baryngol, all of these people are (or at least appear to be) human, so they're not as ready for having Lunars in their midst. (They do react slightly better to Dakuri, but he's a Solar, that's just how that goes.) But over the course of the day the people warm up to them, and nobody calls them 'Anathema' even once!
They get back on Dakuri's land ship[0] and get back on the path the next morning, sailing north, jungle on one side and mountains on the other. It's weird, seeing the land rippling in the magic boat's wake, trees and things wiggling for a bit before settling back down.
Another two days pass, and as the group approaches Khuvay Dakuri points out that they probably shouldn't get too close to the town itself. Not that there's a clear border or anything, but they're way outside the Mirage Kingdom's territory at this point. While as far as he knows the Realm doesn't have any real territory this far southwest, he still can't make any guarantees as to how the people are going to react to a magic boat pulling up town with a guy obviously decked out in artifact armor. The group talks about what to do, and Xương suggests skipping using the town as a base of operations and heading out to just look for the Empty Palace directly so as to remain quiet and discreet.
The others agree, though Hǎifēng adds "Unless this one's being attacked, too."
Dakuri says that if there was an issue they'd probably know by now. At this distance they'd be seeing smoke -- or anima banners, given that any trouble worth worrying about probably has Dragon-Blooded involved. And yes, causing the trouble counts as 'involved.' But he steers more towards the jungle. As they head for a good spot for him to drop anchor, he thanks them for bringing him along on this. While he finds the work he does for the Princes satisfying, this is a bit of actual adventuring and it's been a long while since he's done that.
They find a good spot to stop and as Dakuri doesn't have the ability to transform into a bird at all, the slacker[1], they decide to have him wait at the boat while the characters do a bird's-eye view recon and then they'll come back for him once they have a better handle on the situation. So the trio shift into their avian forms and begins their reconnaissance of the jungle, combing the area from the skies. And they spot a clearing with a pool of water that seems from a distance to match Xương's vision.
They also, however, spot what appears to be some big construction project a couple of miles away. Shango gets the others' attention and directs them to a spot in the trees where they can get a closer look at what's going on with the construction, and the three settle on branches. And it's swiftly apparent that this construction project is an Immaculate monastery of some sort. Most but not all of the work is being done by monks, though none of them show any obvious elemental marks indicative of Dragon-Blooded Exaltation. Not that that necessarily means anything.
While they try to get a handle on this, they hear a familiar voice coming from within the building...
"...they had already dealt with Vaihil before I got there. This trip was a complete waste of time," Mnemon Arima complains to a woman walking out with him. Of course, Shango and Hǎifēng know who he is.[2] Xương's unfamiliar with the Immaculate, he can definitely recognize that his nice silk belt signifies a high rank.
The woman's definitely not a monk herself, muscular and dressed like she's with the construction crews, perhaps a foreman. Her clothes, between color scheme and insignia, suggest she's also a member of House Mnemon. I'm blanking on what I had her say in response, but I think she just tells him that it at least gave him the chance to get out of Lathe for a bit. Either way, Shango's quietly seething -- back in Lathe, Arima played dumb as to whether he knew anything about Vaihil. Shango got the vibe he knew more than he'd let on, but seeing him here still grinds Shango's gears.
Hǎifēng asks the others if they should just sneak past and head to the Empty Palace. Hǎifēng and Xương have some quiet back and forth trying to sort out what to do as best they can without being overheard, while Shango just listens because his bird form can't talk. The biggest issue is they don't know how many Dragon-Blooded they're potentially up against. They know Arima definitely is -- while it's not impossible for an unExalted mortal to achieve the rank of abbot, it's extremely unlikely. Especially one who's going off on missions like this on his own.
But there's more than a little concern about letting the Empty Palace fall into Immaculate hands, if they find out about it. Hǎifēng suggests they go and check out the misplaced fortress and then assess the potential threat based on what's there before they decide what to do, and the others agree.
So as not to waste any time, they head straight for the pool, taking note of some security patrols wandering the jungle. None of them are obviously headed for the group's destination, but it's definitely close enough to the temple that it's possible one might come across it.
They land next to the pool of water. It's circular, and clear enough they can see that the surface appears to be the opening of a larger chamber. Like someone had just sliced a tiny sliver of the top off of a water-filled gourd. There's no fish or plants or anything in it, though bugs dance over the surface so it doesn't seem to be dangerous. It looks like there's a cave in the wall which might contain the entrance. Of course, they have to go into the water to get to it.
Now, Xương can just swim down -- he's naturally amphibious, even before factoring into his Lunar stuff. And Hǎifēng is just planning on shifting to monkey form and clinging to Xương's shirt as he descends. Shango, however, finds a toad big enough he can turn into it without needing a special Charm and quickly consumes its heart's blood to take its shape. So the three of them go down under the water, and as they approach, they can see what seems to be part of a mountainside embedded in the wall and floor of the underwater passage. And there's some sort of 'bubble' surrounding the structure.
Xương reaches through and finds that there's air on the other side and the bubble remains stable. So he reaches the bottom and comes in -- there's no barrier or membrane or anything, just a place where the water stops and air begins. As they look closely, it looks more and more like when the Wyld 'glitched' the Empty Palace out of its regular location, it calved out a perfect sphere, covering both inside and outside, and just deposited it here. The air is stale, and Xương makes a note to keep a close eye on his and his companions' condition, to make sure they don't run out of air, and also to make sure the bubble isn't going to collapse.
The three go up to the gate, which is very much like the gate at Wantari's Crucible. It has a bunch of 'trespassers will be eaten' warnings in Old Realm, which Xương took the time to learn back in the Mirror City in preparation for this. He also knows the password, from the research they did. I can't remember if I had him spend a mote of Essence (which he would have recovered so quickly it barely matters), but finds characters that make up the name of one of his past incarnations, the one who'd be the most strongly-associated with the Empty Palace, and he traces his finger over the characters in order to spell the name: Karkinos.
The Empty Palace is far removed from its original geomancy by both time and space, so there's not much power left in the structure, so while the gate opens it does so slowly.
And it opens up to the aftermath of a centuries-old battle. Degraded corpses of monsters and Fair Folk weaponry litter the floor.[3] In the middle of them is a body that the group recognizes from records as the body of the Lunar Queen Kirka, still wearing the magical armor she died in. It's in really good shape, barely even dusty after the years (as most dust as know it is shed bits of bugs and such, and there haven't been any bugs in here in a long time), though they can see it was empty long before the final battle. There are signs that she turned many of the halls of the once-beautiful palace into a workshop to develop weapons and armor, including stuff for the suit of armor still on her body. There are boards and notes and papers and tools everywhere, with diagrams and notes even written on some of the walls in chalk.[4]
Xương does some quick geography in his head and comments that the fortress is about 2000 miles away from where it's supposed to be, which is why they never found it. And that if they went back to the mountain that this place was built into the side of, there's probably a neat hole removed. Xương wonders aloud just how much of Creation has been thrown around by the Wyld.[5] While he doesn't have strong memories of it, there's still a certain familiarity to the place for Xương. He comments he never expected to see the Empty Palace again, not that he'd have expected to see it in the first place. Hǎifēng says that Xương didn't even need to get his brains scrambled. Shango says his brains weren't scrambled. Simmered, maybe. But not scrambled.
Hǎifēng takes some jewelry out of the bits left behind by the raksha attackers and asks why they're here, why was Xương shown the vision that led them here. Xương says he doesn't know, but it's become clear that in a couple of his past lives he hung out with some smart people. Hǎifēng wonders what happened. But they do have some back and forth about how some past bearers of Xương's Exaltation definitely hung out with some academic types.[6]
The group starts to split up to investigate deeper into the fortress, and Hǎifēng wonders aloud what the Immaculates might do if they found the Empty Palace. Xương replies that they'll die. Naturally, Hǎifēng means what they'll do if they find it after the group is gone, and that kind of sits as an open question as they explore.
Xương finds, on an upper level, bits of what have once might have been an airship dock in the side of the mountain where the Empty Palace used to be. He wonders, if they can find the exact spot, if there might be an airship tucked away someplace. Meanwhile, Hǎifēng finds one of Queen Kirka's proper workshops, with walls and blackboards covered with designs, notes everywhere -- it's all in Old Realm, which they can't read, but they do find a notebook that's full of diagrams and formulas and what they recognize to be the name 'Karkinos' on the cover.
They take the notebook to Xương, announcing that they found his diary and saying he was into some dirty things as they show him one of the chemical diagrams. Xương just remarks that some things never change as he takes a look at the notebook. He reads through the notebook, and while there's a lot in there that's beyond him, he's actually got enough of a grounding in chemistry and science to read that apparently Karkinos and Kirka had worked together on some stuff. The notes suggest that she was developing a special suit of armor for him, something almost alive itself and meant to bond with the wearer in a sort of symbiosis, something that can't be taken from you while you live. What's in the notes combined with the other stuff scattered around the fortress suggest that the armor she died in is either based on principles originally intended for Karkinos' armor or just an outright prototype of said armor.
Xương, who's been wondering if the armor is 'intended' for him and that's why he was shown the vision, makes his way over to it and touches it and tries to see if he can feel something within it. The armor looks like a set of stylish clothing, but he can definitely feel power within it, as well as a sense of loneliness. He can also sense that it doesn't 'know' how long it's been alone, but it doesn't want to be alone any more. He spends the essence to attune to it and it releases the queen's body, and before he knows it he's slid the outfit on -- and it fits perfectly.[7]
Elsewhere, Shango's found a bunch of the Empty Palace's systems, including the room that once contained the hearthstone (now a powerless crumbling gem, as the place has been disconnected from ley lines for so very long), as well as various tanks of fluids and power conduits and such. He's reasonably certain that if the Realm managed to find and take over the fortress, they probably wouldn't get much out of it. Maybe, in time, the right Exalted savant might be able to exploit what's in there, but almost certainly not the Realm's Dragon-Bloods, and definitely not the Immaculates in particular. Maybe Lookshy, as they've got a handle on First Age tech. He also finds a basement chamber where it would be appropriate to inter the queen's body.
When he comes back with this information in tow, Xương is feeling the new armor settle onto him while Hǎifēng's off to the side, quietly going over their own doubts and questions about their past. But now that the three of them are reunited, they talk about what they're going to do about the place -- even if the Immaculates can't quickly get much out of it, that doesn't mean anyone wants to make it easier on them. Xương wants to at least hide the entrance, and that seems pretty do-able, especially with Dakuri's help.
The bigger question is whether they can do that without getting noticed. Hǎifēng suggests that they and Shango can focus on running interference with the monks, and Shango already has an idea...
And we left off there.
[0]-- Which should probably have a name, but it didn't occur to me until I started writing this post. I'll come up with something, but I'll likely save that for next session and write it back into these posts later.
[1]-- I mean, there are ways. There's a Terrestrial Circle Spell, which means even a Dragon-Blood can cast it, that will turn you into a flock of birds (Flight of Separation), and in 2e Sidereals could use a Resplendent Destiny to turn into a corvid and will presumably have some version of that in 3e. I thought Solars were supposed to be good at everything, Dakuri, yeesh.
[2]-- To contextualize: Hǎifēng briefly spoke to Arima during their clone-research session on Lathe, but didn't mention this detail to the others at the time. To be fair, it wasn't that important.
[3]-- Raksha, like some spirits, dissolve into Essence when slain so by and large they don't normally leave bodies. (to my understanding)
[4]-- Okay, so for context: Lunar Queen Kirka is described briefly in the Arms of the Chosen book. The raksha were an ongoing problem for her, overrunning her lands and taking her people, her family and her followers. She sealed herself up in her palace and spent a lot of time preparing to fight them, eventually perishing under the weight of their hordes in her entry hall. A little more on this later.
[5]-- A lot of stuff, really. When the Fair Folk invaded following the Great Contagion, enough people died that reality almost collapsed. The chaos of the Wyld rolled in like a wave, and when the Scarlet Empress seized the Sword of Creation (aka the Realm Defense Grid) and forced the wave to roll back, stuff got dragged back out or just dumped in the wrong spot. The Sidereals did a lot of work to smooth over the glitches, blurring the seams and such so what happened isn't as obvious, but there are spots that they missed here and there, like the Empty Palace or the Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Waters' secret shipyard, Island Five (as described in Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II: The West).
[6]-- Out of character, this actually leads into a little bit of a conversation about how Sean's thinking that at some point in the future that Xương might move to the Mirror City after all.
[7]-- This armor is called Unison, and it also appears in Arms of the Chosen. Its writeup is the source of the info on Kirka. It's right in line with something that Xương's player Sean wanted but we couldn't work out a way to do, but I'd forgotten it was in the book until after we started. So I arranged this little side-trip as a way of getting it to him. It's a set of moonsilver armor that looks like black clothing (until it activates) and fuses with its wearer, drawing on their Intimacies for power.
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