Happy Exalted Posting Day, for those of you who celebrate!
Before I get into it, a quick note/reminder that over at my FurAffinity page I recently posted some of my furry cyberpunk fiction, including the final chapter of the novel I've been working on for a decade, and a couple of stories that got published a few years back.
The waning gibbous moon peeks through the overcast sky as a carriage, probably horse-drawn but I actually didn't think about that until just now so who knows, brings the group into the hills where the upper-class folks of Goldenseal live and can look out over the city. Jotaro doesn't have 'shape the course of nations' money, but he's got enough to have a nice walled estate on the lower slopes of the Firepeak mountains. So the carriage stops in front of the gate with the Moonlight Maiden Circle (our intrepid player-characters), Jotaro himself, his bodyguard Hopeless Spring, and the unconscious Pakpao.
They get out and Hopeless Spring carries Pakpao like a sack of potatoes over to the gate, where there's a small guard booth. Jotaro tells the woman watching it that everything's fine and they're headed 'downstairs,' and they're not to be disturbed. She gives him a "Sure thing, boss," and Xương realizes he recognizes her. This is the woman who served them at dinner earlier, and he gets Jotaro's attention.
Jotaro explains that was something that Hopeless Spring insisted on, but he wasn't gonna hide it since he got called on it. Xương says he's just ruling out face-stealing demons and Jotaro nods and says, with perfect deadpan, that monsters that can drink your blood and take your appearance are surprisingly common in the region. That gets a brief round of "Well, I guess, technically" comments and then Jotaro introduces the guard as Kedjani Varan, someone from his inner circle, an associate of Hollow Thunder's (and occasional sparring partner). It's about this point that the characters recognize her accent as being from Yu-Shan.
But she hits a switch in the guard booth that unlocks the gate and Jotaro leads them into the walled estate. There's a main building on the western side, presumably giving it some great views of the city, a secondary building containing servants' quarters on the other, and ahead of them is a guest house. In front of the guest house is a small stream, almost like a decorative moat, that comes out of the side of the mountain and drains on the other side. There's a bridge over the stream, a couple of those big stone lanterns by the edge, and in a small garden in the corner where it comes in is one of those bamboo deer-scarers -- which I just now realize I forgot to mention at the time. Whoops.
Jotaro crosses the gravel-lined courtyard along a brick path, and he snuffs out the light on one of the stone lanterns. He reaches inside and fiddles with something, and the stream stops flowing and starts draining down the other side. Then he begins to turn the top of the lantern like it's an oversized salt shaker, and the bottom of the stream opens up and the bridge over it turns into a set of stairs leading into an underground space.
"You know, this was already here when I moved into the place?" he comments as he keeps cranking the mechanism that reworks the bridge into the stairs. Someone asks if the realtor knew about it, and Jotaro says that it was one of the reasons he bought the place. There are a lot of homes in the hills with powerful individuals who might need a private secret space either because of the sensitive nature of their work, or their weird proclivities, or they can afford it and just like to giggle at the fact they live in a home with a secret passage.
Jotaro leads the group into a dimly lit space and begins turning up the lamps to reveal a somewhat cavernous room about the dimensions of the whole estate. The room appears to be a private dojo, though next to the weapon racks there are racks of musical instruments and what appear to be a lot of items that'd be used in entertaining (or training someone in Dreaming Pearl Courtesan style) -- tea sets, tables, cushions, and the like. He takes a moment to point out a door leading out of the room that leads back into the main house, it's just easier to access this place from the outside via the secret entrance in the courtyard.
Jotaro then asks the others if they think he should get Hollow Thunder, but they don't particularly see the need. He says he's pretty sure Pakpao's not physically dangerous at all, and Hǎifēng reminds everything they disabled her with a single punch. Hopeless Spring lays Pakpao (whose face has been cleaned up, but her nose is swollen) down on a cushion in the middle of the room and comments that tying her to a chair seems like it'd be a bit much.
Xương remarks that it might be a bad idea to give her access to rope anyways. Spring says that's a good point; she likes Xương. He says he likes him to. Gou asks who wouldn't, and Spring opens her mouth to say something, and pauses and says she was about to say 'dentists,' but realized dentists probably love him. Xương asks what's a dentist, and Jotaro interjects to save them all from the digression by asking Spring to get water, some tea, and... he trails off, glances at Xương, and nods in his direction, and she tosses him her jug of questionable booze before going to get the stuff.
A few minutes later there's a small table with a pitcher of water and a pot of strong tea, with Hǎifēng sitting and partaking in the latter. The courtyard entrance has been closed and the stairs retracted into the ceiling, and Gou stands by the door that leads to the house, as the only obvious exit at this point. Spring just leans against the wall, pretending to pay the bare minimum of attention. Jotaro goes to nudge Pakpao awake as Xương looms over her.
"Greetings, Chosen of Karana," he says as she comes to.
"Greetings, Chosen of the Sun and Moon," she responds as she sits up, trying to breathe through her swollen nose. "Is this the time for uncomfortable questions?"
Xương leans in and gives her the biggest shark-grin he has, the type that reminds people that the Lintha have a reputation as cannibals[0], and says he's the uncomfortable part. (In game-mechanics terms, he's just instilled a Minor Intimacy of fear in Pakpao, which can be used against her.) As she recoils at that, Jotaro looks around in case anyone else wants to start, but they let him go first.
(For the record, I did kinda half-script this conversation to make sure certain story points got conveyed without me having to scramble and improvise too much, but I left plenty of room for the characters to interrupt and ask questions of their own.)
"With the pleasantries out of the way, let's start with the big question," the Eclipse Caste begins. "Why?"
"You're going to have to narrow that down for me."
"The contract. You've been toying with every stage of the process."
"I'm the one who sent Beh Banin to you in the first place a year ago to make sure the Guild didn't chew her up and spit her out," Pakpao says, seemingly proud of herself. "It was for her benefit, but I definitely got something out of the vantage point it offered."
"Did you know what I am then?" Jotaro asks.
"I suspected. You definitely weren't any ordinary Guild member, and let's just say I'd already recognized the touch of a fellow spider upon my web. For what it's worth, I only determined you were a Solar some months ago."
Personal curiosity overtakes Jotaro. "What gave me away?"
"You played the game far too well."
"No, no, from the start."
"Zhaojūn, with time and effort, could be the next bit Guild hub, a base camp for further expeditions into the Southwest. Yet, in the last three years or so, not only have they made no real progress on that front, they've actually lost ground in that regard -- in ways that aren't immediately obvious. You're not the only Exalt secretly operating in the region, and not even the only one interested in undermining the Guild, but this coincided with your arrival."
"Maybe I'm just incompetent," Jotaro remarks. "Hypothetically."
"But that's the thing," the Puppeteer says, eyes gleaming as she seizes an opening. "They weren't your failures. Not entirely. They mostly happened around you. As if someone was interfering with other merchants in the area, with Majestic Khadra. You've been just good enough to be helpful, but not so good to counteract the loss. No, if you were incompetent enough to be responsible, she certainly wouldn't let you on her precious barge." The inflection in Pakpao's voice when she refers to Majestic Khadra in the feminine is subtle but noticeable.
Hǎifēng picks up that Jotaro's uncomfortable -- as Majestic Khadra, like many Guild factors, operates through proxies and aliases, Pakpao's implying that she knows Khadra's true identity -- and that she suspects Jotaro does as well. The 'who knows whose secret identities' conversation is going down a track that Jotaro would very much like to divert.
"Okay, fine, fine, I've been raking your sand garden, I get it," Jotaro quickly says. "So back to the first question. What is the point of all the scheming?"
"I want you as my ally against the Realm. The scheming, the game of Gateway we've played with the city over the last few months... has been part test of your abilities, part attempt to present the Realm as an enemy to ally against."
"To what end?" the Solar asks, an eyebrow raised.
"I want the Realm gone, to disentangle them from the royal family and bring Zhaojūn back to local rule."
"And by 'local rule' do you mean Zhao rule or native rule?"[1]
"I haven't decided yet," she says with a half-shrug.
"I'd be curious as to what your husband, Daopei, thinks of all this."
Gou recognizes the name -- Zhao Suterin Daopei, a ranking official in the Ministry of the Blue Robe, essentially Zhaojūn's equivalent of the Justice Department. Skipping some extraneous detail, he's powerful enough that if something were to happen to Pakpao it'd be a huge mess.
"He's on-board for ejecting the Realm. He doesn't know what I'm considering after." She looks around. "Could I get some water, please?"
Xương offers her the jug of booze, and she says "No Scorpion Milk for me, thanks." That gets a look from Xương, and Jotaro quickly explains that 'Scorpion milk' is just one translation for it -- the liquor comes from scorpionfolk who live up in the nearby mountains.
Jotaro gets her some water and pours some tea for herself and, in a tone that suggests he already knows the answer, asks "So where does Karana fit in all of this?"
"He doesn't," Pakpao says matter-of-factly. "He and I have different visions for Zhaojūn. He would set every Immaculate temple on fire, and if Goldenseal has to catch, then so be it." She sips her water. "So what gave me away?"
"You tried a little too hard to steer me to view the Realm as a threat. One run-in too many with the Marionette Cult, the timing of a schism in their ranks. That sort of thing."[2] Jotaro grins slightly. "Also, not every step onto your web was an accident."
"We didn't even know who you were or that you were involved, until I found you in that basement," Hǎifēng comments.
Pakpao looks over at Hǎifēng like she's just noticed anyone besides Jotaro and Xương were there, and she gives the whole room her appraising gaze.[3] She tells Hǎifēng that she tends to blend into the background -- she was on the barge, but Hǎifēng was probably a little too distracted by their 'fella' (she nods to Jotaro) to notice her. She thinks aloud, acknowledging that the Lunars as natural infiltrators themselves probably work well together as a unit.
Hǎifēng says they don't know about her whole deal with Jotaro, and didn't even know he was there when they got to town. Punching her in the face was an accident -- well, it was intentional, but they didn't go looking for her. The others confirm that, and Jotaro outright says it really was a 'right place, right time' thing.
Then he asks why V'neef Midnight Blossom thought he was the Chosen of Karana. Pakpao says that Midnight Blossom figured her out and confronted her at her home, and... she made him think that confrontation went differently, that he'd encountered Jotaro as the true mastermind giving her instructions. Jotaro's face darkens a bit as he says she tampered with his memory. She grins and says that's what she just said.
When she grins, Hǎifēng says that's the face that made them punch her before, and their guard is totally up now.
Pakpao goes into more detail, saying that she set up the confrontation at the theater and figured that either Jotaro would figure out what was really going on and confront her, or he'd be tricked into targeting the Realm and she'd reach out to him, and they'd take it from there. Jotaro asks how they know she's not tampering with their memory now, and she teasingly says he doesn't.
Gou says they could have Hǎifēng punch her some more and see if they remember it. Hǎifēng asks Jotaro if he needs more info out of her. Jotaro, assuming that's a 'how much longer is the interrogation' sort of question, says he doesn't need much more. Hǎifēng then steps up and slaps Pakpao with Unitary Being Forge, a Laughing Monster Style Charm that lets the stylist externalize one of the target's Intimacies into an entity that can be exploited. Something like sand comes from beneath their fingers as they slap her, and that 'sand' forms into an imp that looks like Hǎifēng dressed in Pakpao's clothes, holding up a sign with 'Karana' in the universal 'No' symbol (as it is made out of her feelings for her divine patron).
Both Jotaro and Pakpao jump back, asking simultaneously "What the fuck is that?"
Hǎifēng explains that's one of Pakpao's inner demons, and it'll tell them everything she's trying to hide. So if she answers honestly, she might be able to avoid embarrassment, because these things love to embarrass you.
Pakpao, somewhat horrified, explains she needs time and puppets to tinker with memories -- and once she had Midnight Blossom subdued and repaired some of the puppets he destroyed, she had the time she needed to put on a show for him that altered his memories. And I can't recall if someone specifically asked this, because my notes are spotty on that, but she makes it clear that she's kept Beh Banin safe from all of this -- the worst thing that's happened to her was being menaced and groped the other day. But Suzhao Ginger's a horrible person, so screw her.
Xương emphasizes that Ginger was a horrible person, and Pakpao says her contacts tell her that Ginger's still alive but likely wishes she wasn't. Hǎifēng pretends not to know anything about what happened with Ginger, and comments she seemed so stable. Pakpao gives Hǎifēng a pointed look and says that Ginger may or may not be stable, but that day her shadow certainly wasn't -- referring to Hǎifēng's Tell, suggesting that Pakpao noticed it.
Hǎifēng then asks Jotaro what to do with her, as she seems like his nemesis. Xương kinda wants a nemesis, and there's a brief digression on that before Jotaro gets them back on task and says he can't just kill her (for the reasons mentioned earlier regarding her husband), and he's not entirely sure he's got the moral high ground to judge her machinations anyways.
Hǎifēng asks her if she's going to keep harassing and trying to kill him. She says, matter-of-factly, that she's been trying to steer things towards a confrontation as a way of proposing an alliance. So she's got no reason to keep going after him. The imp then adds that she thinks he's hot, to which everyone nods with understanding (Jotaro is quite attractive, after all).
After a moment's thought, Jotaro asks her if she swears to protect the secret identities of Jotaro and his allies (and he'd do the same for her in return), for as long as they're working together. Slightly confused, as she knows he's a Solar but doesn't know everything about what that means, she agrees. And he takes her hand and spends some motes of Essence and his anima banner flares up, his Caste Mark appearing on his forehead, as the Unconquered Sun sanctifies the oath.
Hǎifēng steps up and says they now pronounce Jotaro and Pakpao 'frenemies.' Pakpao, at this point, is just freaked out and tired and says that perhaps she will take some of the Scorpion Milk. So she finishes her water, pours herself a shot out of the jug, and knocks it back. It comes up that she's going to have to explain the swollen nose to her husband, which will be awkward, but given that she's Exalted it'll certainly heal quickly (it probably won't even seem broken in a day or two).
Jotaro offers to let her borrow some makeup to cover up the worst of the damage, and she says she'll take him up on that. He opens up the stairs leading out into the courtyard and he asks him to give them all a moment, and he sends her out into the courtyard to talk to Varan, and Spring will escort her home shortly. She heads up the stairs, the imp following, dissolving in a beam of moonlight shining through the clouds above (as it only lasts for the scene and that scene is effectively over for her). Once she's gone, Hǎifēng suddenly realizes she could explain the hurt nose by saying she fell down in the theater!
But once she's gone, Jotaro tells the group they can crash at his place tonight, visit whenever while they're in town, all that. He says he's already putting out feelers to gather information about the Captain. Xương says that he's going to head back to their boat to sleep, no offense (none taken), and Hǎifēng's tempted to stay in the house and Jotaro offers to accommodate them in the guest house it that helps. Hǎifēng accepts that offer, and before they forget, they mention that Captain Ash is Omari-Khenti's mate, Nebet. Jotaro's memories of the First Age aren't as strong as Hǎifēng's, and also he hasn't met Omari's ghost so that connection isn't as strong for him, but the name does seem somewhat familiar.
"Son of a bitch," Hopeless Spring blurts out, off to the side. Her mask slips and, especially when she sets her sword down, they can see that Hopeless Spring is Hollow Thunder -- Jotaro's ally and martial arts instructor. She says that she's not an expert on Deathlords, that's literally not her department, but she'd heard rumors... she says she's going to talk to some of her people about this when she gets a chance. And with that she heads outside to make sure Pakpao gets home okay.
"Always as fuckin' secret Sidereal," Hǎifēng mutters once she's gone.
Jotaro comments, to reassure Hǎifēng, that he knew Hollow Thunder and Hopeless Spring are the same person, but he didn't want to say anything so she could reveal it at her own pace. Though he says he's also going to have to ask her to help him unpack what Hǎifēng's just told him, and he sighs and mutters that Creation is fucking complicated. But with that, everyone breaks for the evening -- Xương heads back to the boat, and Gou and Hǎifēng crash in the guest house, which is big enough to allow them private bedrooms.
And we leave it off there.
-----
[0]-- When we're playing we refer to this as the 'Big Smile,' in reference to Dave Gross's Pathfinder Tales novels, which feature a tiefling named Radovan who has what he calls the 'Little Smile' and the 'Big Smile,' the latter being a demonic grin so wide he has to partially unhinge his jaw to do it. Just a fun little behind the scenes tidbit. Also, while I'm here, in game-mechanics terms Xương's just instilled a Minor Intimacy of fear within Pakpao, which can be exploited by other mechanics and powers.
[1]-- For those of you unfamiliar with Zhaojūn's history, it's a land that's been conquered twice-over. In the early days of the Realm, the first big challenge to the Scarlet Empress' rule got smacked down by the Sword of Creation. The survivors of the attempt, the Zhao and the Baihu, fucked off down the Southwestern coast and conquered the Meiyu Coast to form Zhaojūn. Over the centuries, the Realm slowly carved chunk after chunk off of what had once been a small empire, until 50 years ago when the High Queen formally announced she was marrying a scion of House Mnemon, at which point Zhaojūn became a Realm satrapy. (You can learn more about Zhaojūn in The Realm.)
[2]-- While it's not exactly the sort of thing I planned when I initially worked out this plot, it kinda wound up being the Lunars intersecting with someone else's story. Also, for context, Karana Exalted Pakpao before making sure she'd be on-board with all of his plans, and the two are somewhat estranged from each other. This has caused division within Karana's cult, as some of them take issue with him Exalting an outsider to begin with, and others are offended that she has so little to do with him, that sort of thing. In case it needs to be said, there's a lot more about Pakpao's deal that's fleshed out in the upcoming Exigents: Out of the Ashes, though enough is left open that the version of her in my game is simply one possible interpretation.
[3]-- For transparency's sake, she's using a couple of Charms: Tangled Web Meditation and Know the Heart's Strings. The first lets her scan the room and get an idea of everyone's relationships to each other. The second, among other benefits, allows her to roughly work out Jotaro and Hǎifēng's bond, even if she doesn't fully understand the nuances of Solar-Lunar pairings.
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