Hey there, folks. So summer's underway and, um... okay, I don't have any big updates and can't think of any particular commentary to add here. So let's get into another Exalted write-up.
We pick up the next day, with Hǎifēng's bird-clones checking in after a very busy day[0] to inform them that there weren't any signs of any necromancy-related weirdness elsewhere on the island. After said report, Hǎifēng has them go harass Gou and Xương, getting in the windows to their rooms and screeching and making a huge racket. Gou, as he's awoken, shifts into his bird form and similarly shrieks in a moment of panic before gathering himself up and going up onto the deck. Up there he finds Hǎifēng, who's smoking and laughing and playing with the pipefox spirit they smuggled out of Heaven.
"Do you know how early it is?" Gou yells.
"Well, it's early," Xương grumbles as he comes up behind Gou.
Hǎifēng says they figured that the other two owed them something and they were going to collect it.[1] This leads to Gou trying to convince Xương that the two of them could take down Hǎifēng, which in turn leads to playful bickering back and forth for a bit.
But the three of them have a pretty peaceful day, being on-hand just in case they're needed. But Xương spends most of his time napping on the boat, Gou just strolls around Smolder keeping an eye on things, and Hǎifēng hunts up a couple of bug forms (a mosquito and a spider) to add to their library of shapes. There's a brief montage of activity over the course of the day -- medical supplies and water bring brought to Open Palm, the locals whispering and gossiping about the situation with Lost to the Riptide, and the warehouse that used to be Silver Lining's dojo being cleared out so he can have it back.
It's not until after nightfall that -- in case the title of this post didn't spoil it -- the attack comes. The Moonlight Maiden Circle are relaxing and boozing it up on the ship, singing sea shanties and the like, when the screaming begins. There are forces attacking Smolder -- a mix of living and dead, swarming in on a couple of ships emerging from a fog over the water. One of the ships is clearly some sort of translucent ghost ship, while the other's an actual physical ship with a living (or at least corporeal) crew.
Xương immediately takes on shark form and goes about sinking the physical ship, while Gou shifts to his hybrid shape and flies out to draw Haze-cleaver to defend the populace. At one point he goes to defend a father and child from attack before realizing there's a full swarm of ghosts closing in on them, and in a dramatic moment he channels Essence into the blade to completely strike the ghosts down.[2] Hǎifēng uses Laughing Monster Style to dissolve into a cloud of mist that sweeps over the battlefield, with little flashes of violet outlining their silhouette as they strike at some of the dematerialized ghosts.
A glow of silver on black draws their attention to what at first appears to be a black tapestry dangling from a second-story overhang, woven with silver dots and lines that resolve into unfamiliar constellations. Near the bottom, three bright lights appear as it moves contra to the breeze, revealing the lights to be the eyes and the empty circle caste mark of a No-Moon Lunar -- the bat Lunar Stormseve Serenity, hanging upside down from the awning in her hybrid form.
Her moonsilver tattoos, covering her body and extending onto her wings, shimmer and shift and seem to fold as she weaves her arms together. Flashes and streaks of violet flicker and whirl around her like grass carried by a breeze, and the flashes resolve into threads tangled up in her thin fingers. She brings her arms in together, like she's wrapping herself up in those star-tapestry wings, and then thrusts them out and something like a fishing net of black and violet casts out over the ghosts, tangling them up and making them brighter as they're forced into a material state.
She spots our intrepid trio and waves her arms around again, which Glance-Oration Technique translates into: 'Let us protect the civilians, make sure she doesn't escape from the fort.' Without waiting for a response, she drops off the awning and glides towards the melee, streams of Essence trailing behind her. It gathers around her hands as she proceeds to transfer the glow to ghosts and immediately send them on to Lethe.
The three of them rush for the fort, finding it outlined by fire and lightning as they approach. In the flashes of light they catch sight of a ship out in the water just beyond where, once upon a time, V'neef Gamon tied up her yacht. Streaks of light jump from the ship to the fort -- lightning ballistae. On the walls and around the building, crabfolk warriors wield halberds against zombies and skeletons rushing them.
On one of the walls, they make out a vaguely-humanoid-at-best form covered in lumpy orange armor that they quickly realize is the war-form of Bokano Spite-shell, shrieking in some unnatural tongue as she gestures and conducts Essence flows as if directing an orchestra. Only a day ago, one such performance summoned a storm to bring water for those who need it the most. This new performance is all percussion and fury, conjuring explosions that compete with the thunder to see what's going to have the combatants' ears ringing for the next week.
Amidst the fighting, they see a dark shape streaking from the ship to the cliffside beneath the fort. They'd remember from their previous visit that there are tunnels that come out there, connecting to a network of walkways and stairs and ladders, and it stands to reason that if the fort has a proper dungeon or prison, it may be accessible through the wall. As they come closer, a pair of figures comes up a pathway that runs along the cliff's edge and likely dips down towards the tunnels. Both figures are humanoid, and one appears to be dressed as some sort of naval warrior but details are difficult to determine through a haze of unnatural darkness coming off of it -- but the dark haze makes it all the easier to recognize the pale visage of Lost to the Riptide, captain of the Shadowed Orphan.
"You dare slap the Captain's hand away when they so graciously reach out to you? They save you from oblivion at the paws of the Lunars, and still you spurn them?" asks the dark figure.
"I dare. I spurn. Fuck off." She raises one arm as if getting ready to backhand the ghost, but at the last moment blood weeping from a cut on her forearm surges forth and shapes itself into a cutlass that she uses to menace it. She then spots the approaching Lunars of the corner of her eye -- particularly Xương, who comes up like a dark, terrible silhouette that rises like a wave and comes crashing down -- and says, to all four of them, "I will not be bound again. You'll have to kill me first," as a cloud of ash and blood swirl around her into powerful armor of her own.
And we come out of a pre-written cutscene (adapted for this blog post) into a Join Battle roll as the boss music starts.
Gou starts by taking on Righteous Devil Form and points Weirdflame at the Abyssal and tells her they gave her the opportunity to die honorably for her sins (that gets a snort from her) and now they have to do this the hard way. The other ghost -- a nephwrack[3] captain named Obsidian Hand of Vengeance -- takes a swing at Gou with a soulsteel daiklaive, but he dodges it with the help of Hǎifēng flowing and swirling around him to boost his defenses. Lost to the Riptide sees an opportunity and tries to make a run for it, but Gou is able to head her off thanks in part to the terrifying countenance of the Righteous Devil Form.
Xương uses a custom charm he's developed, taking a stance and conjuring up what can only be described as spectral sharks made of Essence. Hǎifēng's anima dims as they also bust out a custom move, as there's a poof within the surface of the cloud that makes up Hǎifēng's form and what appears to be a clone of Hǎifēng comes tumbling out.
Gou tries to keep the nephwrack at bay with Haze-cleaver, feinting with it while bringing Weirdflame in to pistol-whip him. And despite Obsidian Hand of Vengeance's best efforts to ward off the strike with defensive Charms, the handle of the devil caster cuts through a miasma of darkness and madness to hit him square in the face. Obsidian Hand of Vengeance swings back at him, only to have one of the spectral sharks intercept the ghost's arm and wrench him to the ground.
Meanwhile, Hǎifēng's clone takes a swing at the Abyssal, but the copied war fan skitters off the armor of ash and blood, messing up their hand in the process. Xương brings his arms together, scraping the ground as he tries to clap Lost to the Riptide between his arms, catching and stunning her as he tries to lunge in to bite her for a follow-up. In her struggles she tries to strike him and get him to free her, but can't do enough damage for him to actually feel it.
He eventually manages to get purchase on her, though, mauling her with his shark-teeth, and in the process dislodging an 'imp' made from one of her Intimacies, as Hǎifēng's using their cloud form to enhance Xương's attack.
Gou, his anima banner blazing at this point, parries a strike from Obsidian Hand of Vengeance and sees an opportunity to blast the Abyssal as Xương savages her. He blasts flame at her with Weirdflame and she screams as the armor catches and starts to explode in places. She falls to the ground, smoking and not-moving.
Hǎifēng recoalesces from the cloud and drops down next to their 'twin' and they come at the nephrack with a series of synchronized feints and trips to try and pull him off-center, and it's working. Until he glances over and can sense that Lost to the Riptide is properly dead.
"Well, this is a complicated amount of work," he says, as his job was to either recruit or kill Lost to the Riptide. But however, technically, that job was done so he activates Hurry Home, a Charm that'll whisk him away from the battle (and, likely, back to the Labyrinth in the Underworld). As he starts to vanish, Hǎifēng says "Tell your master you failed," as Gou adds "Tell your master they're next."
Obsidian Hand of Vengeance gives Hǎifēng the sort of wicked grin you can only get from a true asshole as he says "Hey, it's your word against mine," as he poofs out.
And we left off there.
[0]-- As a reminder, that was a couple of sessions ago (though it feels longer to me for some reason).
[1]-- No, I don't know what this could have been either, and didn't want to interrupt to ask.
[2]-- Namely, this was a case of Gou's player wanting to use a Charm that would let him destroy the ghosts, realizing he didn't have it, and using a stunt to justify developing it as part of the action. Not one of the normal, by-the-book uses for stunting, but one allowed in Exalted Essence that I've house ruled into the core system we're using.
[3]-- One of the nastier rankings/varieties of ghosts.
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