The Road Between Light and Dark: The Horned One (Exalted)

Hey there, folks, here we go. More Exalted shenanigans from the cold, dark North of Creation.

And assuming I don't take way too long writing this post, the Indiegogo campaign to reprint Trinity Continuum, Trinity Continuum: Æon, and Scion 2nd Edition should still be running, so if you haven't picked up the books yet and want to save a buck on a traditionally-printed copy of any of the books, now's the time!

And with that...

We pick up with Wandering Dawn, with the help of his wolverine familiar, gathering the others to take a look at the gruesome scene he found in the woods just off the road. Lecht and Stray Dog show up, and Dog has brought a bunch of his entourage with lights and bludgeoning instruments.

"What have you drug us out here for?" Lecht asks, grumpily, before they see the scene:

A half-dozen people kneeling in a rough semi-circle near a long-extinguished campfire, with a seventh slumped over on the ground with a rock embedded in their face. They're all frozen to death, their eyes glowing blue, and the positioning suggests they were gazing upwards at a figure standing near the campfire. On the ground in front of each one is a handful of protective charms and talismans meant to ward off raksha and ghosts -- though they're otherwise dressed normally, something about the discarded talismans is faintly reminiscent of paradoxical undressing. It's tough to tell at a glance whether the charms have any real power or not, but at some of them are made of cold iron, and with raksha that should be enough. Thanks to recent rainfall, there are clear tracks (human, or at least human-sized bootprints) leading deeper into the forest.

(Lecht gives Wanderer grief over the rock he threw into the one person's face, but in Dawn's defense he didn't know these were bodies -- he was just chucking rocks at the lights to see what would happen.)

This is clearly a campsite that's been used by travelers before -- not as safe as the open field on the other side of the road, though certainly more discreet if someone doesn't want to be clearly seen from the road. There's a wagon nearby, with an empty animal harness that suggests whatever was pulling it escaped at some point. Stray Dog checks the wagon and finds traveling supplies -- these don't seem to have been merchants or religious pilgrims or anything special like that, but between the footprints and the supplies in the wagon, this group clearly consisted of more people than bodies present.

Lecht identifies what's making the eyes glow -- they've been frozen into a form of glowing, never-melting ice. It's a known phenomenon in Wyld zones (though usually not with eyes in particular), and this stretch of the road is certainly close enough to some bordermarches for something to have gotten out and caused this or just a shifting border between the Wyld and stable Creation. The ice itself is pretty valuable in some circles for reasons that should be obvious, though Lecht warns the group against taking any.

Stray Dog wants to get his entourage and follow the footprints to find out what happened, but Lecht stops him -- they can ask what happened, first. Their hand turns that translucent sickly-green again and they lay it on one of the kneeling bodies, which begins to stir.

"What's your name?"

"Dane," the dead man says.

"Nice to meet you, Dane. I wish it could have been under better circumstances. Why are you and your friends here?"

"We were traveling to Whitewall from the east," Dane says slowly -- though fortunately coherent since his body is still pretty fresh.

"Why are they all kneeling?"

"Because the horned one wanted us to."

Lecht pauses at that and glances at Wanderer to ask if 'the horned one' sounds familiar to him. He asks Lecht to ask for a description, and Lecht tells him that he can ask the body -- they correct themselves -- he can ask Dane questions directly. They then apologize to Dane, and Wanderer asks what 'the horned one' looks like.

Dane describes a beautiful man with a body like translucent blue ice, wearing some sort of glass or crystal armor, and hair like a thick carpet of rich, green pine needles running to his shoulders, with antlers sticking out from beneath. He also wore a cape of what could be brown fur or perhaps moss, lined with white fur. And he was surrounded in a glittering mist.

To Wanderer, this sounds pretty clearly like one of the Winter Folk of the Hoofprint Court -- a nearby faction of antlered raksha. Lecht asks Dane if it was someone from the Hoofprint Court, but Dane doesn't know what that is. They then ask why Dane and the others took off their protection.

"Because his foxfolk assistant asked us to."

That raises some concern -- a second raksha?

Wanderer asks Dane why the people here were killed and the others were taken.

"I don't know. We were probably the ones who died too quickly. He was so beautiful; I would have gone with him if he'd asked."

Lecht points out that foxfolk probably wasn't fae -- at least some of those protective amulets were cold iron, that would have protected them from a raksha's influence. Dawn theorizes maybe it's a Wyld mutant. Lecht asks Dog if there's anything he wants to ask Dane, but all the Infernal can think is to ask where the others might have been taken. Dane says that the horned one came from the woods, and he probably took the others back there.

"How did he kill you?" Lecht asks.

"Oh, he didn't kill us," Dane explains. "It was just so very cold, and we were looking at him and didn't want to look away, and I just... stopped."

Sounds like some sort of magical blizzard or something, to Lecht. They release Dane, brushing their hand over his face as it turns back to normal, and they bid him rest in peace. They tell the others they've got their work cut out for them.

Wandering Dawn is contemplative -- he was orphaned in a magical blizzard caused by an unknown monster, so the idea has a certain connotation for him. Even if he wasn't already inclined to do so, he has to follow up on this. He has to know what caused it.

He turns to the others, and makes sure they're all on the same page about following the footprints and dealing with whatever's at the other end of the trail. He tells Stray Dog to bring however many of his people he thinks can handle a track through the forest, and have the rest fortify the defenses. That's easy enough for Stray Dog to do while Dawn summons Mollie to come along.

They spend about an hour stalking through the woods, following the trail, before they see a light ahead. 

They approach and they see something that at first glance looks like a small glowing fort with walls of glowing ice, incorporating ice-covered trees into its structure. As they get closer, it looks less like a fort and more like a large circus or faith healer tent -- what appear to be sturdy walls of ice or maybe crystal move and flap in the breeze, like they're curtains suspended between frozen trees. The light is a glow coming from within, resembling sunlight shining through a stained glass window except that it's blue and green.

Wanderer and Mollie approach the front, marked by what at first look to be gates but are revealed by the breeze to be tent flaps. The Solar pulls out a cold iron club that causes the fabric to ripple and recoil as he tugs the curtain aside and steps in with Mollie. Stray Dog and his followers also come in, while Lecht remains at the back.

A figure matching the description Dane gave sits on a throne covered in brown fur or moss, lined in white. He seems to be addressing about a dozen people who look half-dead and exhausted, wobbling like they're drunk or stoned. Nobody in the group has actually seen a raksha feed on the emotions or soul of mortals, but at some point or another they've all seen the after-effects of it enough that it's clear the raksha is feeding right now. Standing next to the throne is an androgynous foxfolk in somewhat-ragged, possibly scavenged clothing, their eyes faintly glowing blue.

As the raksha on the throne becomes aware of Wanderer's presence and looks up at him, the antlers sticking out of his hair twitch and tilt like the ears of an animal -- or antennae. He stands up and the throne seems to collapse -- it becomes the cape, described earlier. It's as if the cape became the throne when the fae wanted to sit down.

"The horned one, I take it?" Wanderer asks.

The raksha tilts his head slightly. "I am Yinshou. Welcome to my court, how may I help you?" As cliche as such a thing is, his voice is musical, carrying the faint sound of wind chimes when he speaks.

"Why did you take these men?"

Yinshou looks around. "I didn't take them anywhere. They wished to gaze upon me, and they followed me back here." The raksha gives an unsettling smile, sort of a 'Patrick Bateman' smile -- like he's got nothing to smile about, but he's learned how to do this because he's seen other people do it.

"You're killing them," Dawn growls. "Release them, now!"

"If they wish to leave, I'm not keeping them." It's tough to tell, but it's certainly possible that the alien intelligence of the raksha might not consciously realize he's holding them prisoner with his unnatural charisma.

Lecht taps Wanderer on the shoulder. "You need to be very, very careful here," they whisper.

Dawn glances back to ask what's wrong, as Dog speaks up. "No you don't, kick its ass. I've got your back."

Lecht just continues. "Everything you say needs to be exactly how you mean it. Don't give him wiggle room. Raksha play games, it's what they do." They they pause for a beat. "Or punch him in the face. But I'm warning you about continued conversation."

With that in mind, Dawn brandishes the cold iron club. As the Raksha's eyes widen swiftly and widely enough his face audibly cracks, Dawn summons up his best Ray Stantz and says "At the fastest available means you have, return to the Wyld and leave everyone in this area unharmed in the next five seconds. And if not I will send you there myself with his cold iron cudgel."

Now, it's debatable whether or not he could have talked or threatened the raksha into backing off, fleeing, any of the above. But threatening him with the cudgel draws a much more extreme reaction.

In a high-pitched shriek reminiscent of Judge Doom's true voice, the raksha tells the ensorcelled mortals "He threatens your lord!"

The ensorcelled mortals turn to face the group, trying to look fierce but not quite nailing it in their obvious fatigue. Their eyes are also glowing, and knives of ice literally magically appear in their hands as they advance on their would-be rescuers.

Wandering Dawn rushes forward and brings his cudgel down right in front of the mortals, slamming the ground with enough might to scatter them all around the inside of the tent with a shockwave as Mollie moves to defend him. Shocked by the sudden display of force, the raksha glows, the sheer force of their personality projecting out into the room, going full 'beautiful and terrible as the dawn' on the group.

Behind him, Lecht holds their staff close, saying "Dear friend, give me strength again" as they gather up their Essence. Their forearms turn translucent as they focus to line up a blast, pushing through the raksha's mien to cast bolts of sickly-green Essence at him.

Stray Dog readies his shield -- an artifact made of orichalcum and brass from a demon-temple's bell -- and between his own charisma and the power of the hearthstone set into the shield's center, empowers his brute squad and has them rush the raksha. The fae raises his own blade -- not merely invisible, but primarily visible as an empty space in the glimmering mist around it. The visual effect is like waving a green sword in front of a green screen, creating a 'hole' in the fog through which the background is visible. But the raksha wields his clear blade, clashing with the mortals, whose attempts to attack the fae creature are somewhat hampered by the waves of awe the creature is giving off.

Briefly forgotten, the foxfolk lunges at Wanderer with their natural claws, which are wreathed in flame, but the wolverine's able to slow them down enough that they can't get purchase. So they strike again, channeling more of their own Essence into a number of strikes. The flame around their clawed hands spreads over them into an anima banner -- this isn't merely some Wyld mutant, but a Terrestrial Exalt!

Dawn does his best to fend off the attacks, and while the foxfolk gets past his defenses, their claws just can't get through his armor yet.

Standing back slightly, Stray Dog begins making arcane gestures and drawing runes in the air. He coaxes Essence into threads that he then plucks and strums with his long fingernails, gathering arcane power. While he's doing this, his henchfolk put their all into trying to fight the raksha, but unnatural grace and an ice blade so clear as to be beyond transparent are a little above the capabilities of even an inspired mob.

As he's nimbly avoiding the attacks, dodging, Lecht is taking aim and waiting for the perfect moment. They make out a pattern and blast the fae with a pair of spectral claws that shred at his armor and sink into his body. The raksha, snarling with anger, lashes out at the followers -- but his graceful rhythm and balance are gone, and they're able to fend off his strike.

Stray Dog whistles to his brute squad in a pre-arranged signal, and they back off to get plenty of space as he finds the strand of Essence connected to the raksha's heart. And like a bead of water running down it, he unleashes a raptor of flame down the thread to blast the raksha where it explodes into flame and sets the raksha on fire. The raksha's cry of pain sounds like a harsh guitar chord.

Meanwhile, back at the front of the tent, Mollie lunges at the fox-person, sinking her teeth into grapple them as they struggle with Dawn. He socks them in the ribs with the cudgel as the fox tries to claw at the wolverine, trying to get the leverage to her her off of their back.

The raksha steps forward, out of the flames -- though still smoldering himself -- and declares that this is all 'inappropriate' as he begins to conjure a blizzard.

Lecht, having a brief moment of satisfaction at having guessed at the magical blizzard, takes aim to follow the raksha's movements. They see an opportunity and lunge forward to unleash needles of pale-green energy at the raksha. The needles rip through the raksha like cloth, causing him to half-deflate, half-melt as he still burns. The ice curtains that make up the walls of the 'tent' begin to shudder and melt as the raksha dissolves into Essence. Both the fox-person and the ensorcelled mortals, who are stirring, all slump to the ground in exhaustion.

And we leave it there.