Greetings and salutations and all that, welcome back! Once more unto the breach and all that.
I can't really think of anything special to add here, other than repeating -- for those who may have missed it -- my announcement from the previous post that I'm working on the Alchemicals 'fatsplat' for Exalted Third Edition. There's not a whole lot of detail I can get into other than that I'm writing a few things for a few different parts of the book. But there's lots of gears turning and things interlocking (that's an Autochthonia joke) and I'll get into more detail when I can.
And now, let's get into it as we start our next 'episode.'
We leave off with the Circle looking at the treasure map that dramatically popped out of Dreadful Thorn's gear, with notes scribbled on the back and around the edges as she's tried to find the treasure -- somewhat answering the question as to what the Dragon-Blooded officer was doing out there. She's still laying on the ground, by the way, and at a quick check she's gonna be unconscious for a narratively-convenient amount of time. But anyhow, the map.
Wandering Dawn and Stray Dog Serenade recognize it right away -- there's a guy in Whitewall, nobody knows who exactly, who makes and sells treasure maps to people passing through. As near as anyone can tell, the maps are fake -- they roughly match the local terrain, but not exactly, and the treasure itself seems quite plausible (a cache of weapons from a Shogunate or pre-Shogunate fort on a hill). If you're unfamiliar with the area north of Whitewall, it all seems on the up and up until you actually get out there. But the map shows a river that's not there, and an extra road that doesn't exist. If there is a treasure, nobody's found it and/or come back to tell the story.
So they'd be perfectly within their rights to write it off, except Lecht is staring at it... and turns the map upside down, and now it all makes sense. The landmarks still don't match, exactly, but things start to click into place upon seeing the arrangement. After all, during Lecht's centuries-long slumber, there was a raksha invasion and the Wyld swept through, and the landscape has actually changed. Dawn summons his Cache Egg, an artifact that lets him store things inside, and pulls out a modern map and Lecht begins pointing out how the map does match the land, as it it existed 700 years ago, and they do remember a Shogunate fort on a hill in that area called Fort Sadinen. And it's pretty close -- maybe 10 or 11 miles, all told?
As they explain the differences between the maps and talk about how to get there, the camera dramatically circles around them. Among the notes written on the back of the map, the camera briefly settles on the episode title:
"The Terrain is Not the Map"
By the time the camera completes its circuit, the group is talking about what to do about Dreadful Thorn -- mostly whether to take her back to her people or leave her behind, aside from a somewhat-morbid joke about killing her and using Lecht's necromancy to interrogate her. Dawn suggests just leaving her there -- her people are gone, her horse has run off, she's not in any immediate danger, and that perhaps just having to drag herself back to the rest of the troops in shame might teach her a little humility.
Stray Dog and Lecht agree that's probably the easiest way handle things, especially if they're going to go look for this treasure themselves. And why shouldn't they? If nothing else, if there's anything there, it might be useful for the people of Eslund.
So they begin the trek -- the Exalts, and Stray Dog's brute squad -- north by northeast, to a lake that used to be part of a river until the reshaped land disconnected it. They get there and there's the half-frozen lake, still early in the spring thaw, and then come across a complication -- unicorns. And unfortunately, these aren't unicorns in the middle of some adventure teaching them lessons about the bonds of friendship, oh no. In Creation, unicorns are jerks. Potentially-murderous jerks. (CW: blood and murderous unicorn) They're a known danger in the North, sometimes ridden by raksha nobles into battle.
There's a trio of unicorns, one of which is winged, and they're talking among themselves in Old Realm. Lecht is conversant enough that they can make out the gist of the conversation -- apparently some unlucky soul drowned in the lake either before the winter or fell through the ice in the early stages of thaw or something, and the unicorns are debating among themselves at which point in the said thaw the drowned body will be at its most beautiful.
They relay this to the group and while they could take the long way around, they're concerned that even turning around might be enough to draw the unicorns' attention. But Dawn has a suggestion -- they try to nonchalantly slip by without drawing attention to themselves. Not approaching them, not saying anything, but also trying not to violate their idiosyncratic sense of aesthetics. His suggestion is that they walk in a loose formation, symmetrically if possible, and just seem like something the unicorns wouldn't need to comment on or care about.
So Stray Dog arranges his flunkies into a formation that he thinks might befuddle Wyld creatures, and Lecht just puts their hood up and lowers their profile as much as possible. Dawn gets everyone walking in the same rhythm as they skirt around the edges of the area, and it works -- one of the unicorns glances over at them briefly, snorts, and turns back to the morbid conversation regarding the dead body.
Over the course of the next hour, the hill on the map comes into view. There are hints of long-collapsed ruins on the hill, and with signs of tunnels going into the hill itself -- perhaps remnants of underground levels? Dawn comments on how time breaks all things down, and he wonders on what the fort might have looked like. Lecht only ever saw it from a distance, but they recall enough to point out a tower here, a courtyard there, that sort of thing.
They head for one of the tunnels leading into the hill, and see the remnants of a hallway leading in -- at the entrance it looks just like a cave, from weather erosion and such, but there's more and more of the structure as you go in. And there's a faint blue light suggesting a chamber. They head in, and find a chamber filled with blue lights from runes and what appear to be magical crystals... with the light reflecting off of the gold and silver carapaces of a pair of almost-mechanical-looking demon spiders. These anuhles are distinctly different from the one encountered by the Moonlight Maiden Circle way back when, and one thing that stands out is that in the arcane patterns of webbing (made of hell-silk) crisscrossing the room, there are sapphires and emerald beads on the webs where perfectly mundane spider webs might collect perfectly mundane dew.
Dawn asks Lecht if they can be reasoned with, and Lecht suggests that he talk to the sorcerer, gesturing to Stray Dog. "Not all sorcery is the same," the Exigent chides. "Do better."
Stray Dog identifies the anuhles as likely descending from a Second Circle Demon named Gumela, and that there's a decent chance they can be reasoned with. He looks around and recognizes that the chamber looks like it might be part of an old temple dedicated to Mela, the Greater Elemental Dragon of Air, which suggests how the demons got there -- every demon has some specific condition under which it might 'glitch' into Creation from Malfeas. And one of the things that might cause some anuhles to no-clip into Creation is mundane spiders spinning webs in an abandoned temple.
But, again, they can probably be dealt with, and Lecht suggest that Stray Dog negotiate.
And so he just goes up to them with his goons. "Hey," he says, getting the spiders' attention.
"What do you seek?" one asks, in heavily-accented Skytongue.
"We have reason to believe there are lost treasures in these ruins, and we're seeking them."
"What treasures?"
"Maybe you can tell us. We have this map." He gestures to Dawn, who holds up the treasure map. The spider extends a single leg, and the point on the end unfolds into a bunch of little wiry fingers that snatch it and bring it closer for inspection.
"This does not tell us of the treasures."
"Well, how throughly have you explored these ruins?" Stray Dog asks.
The spider looks at him, confused. "What ruins?"
Dawn frowns. "How long have you been here?"
The spiders stop and look at each other, conferring in some sort of squeaky noise, and then turn back.
"We don't know. We haven't needed to know. We have been weaving webs."
"And they are very nice webs," Dawn comments. "Where do you get the jewels from?" he asks, because by now the group can't help but ask if this might be the treasure.
Lecht, in the back, frowns with the realization that the jewels might be demon-spider poop.[0]
"We do not 'get' them," the anulhe explains. "They just collect there."
Lecht then looks over at Stray Dog with a frown, shaking their head and gesturing to make it clear they don't want the gems.
There's a doorway leading further into the hill, and Dawn gestures to it. "Have you ever been past that door?" he asks.
They turn and look at it as if noticing it for the first time. "Nothing there interests us," one of them says.
"Would it be okay if we explored back there?" someone (either Stray Dog or Dawn, I didn't write it down) asks.
They stop again and confer in that little squeaky noise, before turning their attention to the group. "Of course, we can let you go down there. It'll give you a head start."
And it's sort of at this point where it's like 'ah, right, these are demons who live for the hunt.' Dawn sighs and looks at the others. "Well, we tried."
The spiders continue. "We can hunt you down there or outside, your choice."
"At least they're courteous," Lecht remarks.
"They're more courteous than a lot of things that want to eat me," Wandering Dawn agrees.
Stray Dog steps up. "I wouldn't advise trying to hunt us," he says as firmly as he can.
"Pardon?" The spider tilts its head, animal-like.
"If you hunt us, we'll kill you."
"Pardon?"
"I'm appealing to your sense of self-preservation," Stray Dog continues, frustrated, drawing himself up to his full height and trying to scare them into backing down. Wandering Dawn picks up on what he's doing and tries to look as menacing as possible. Stray Dog cracks his knuckles and his neck and looks back at the others as if to say 'Okay, this is happening.' And then he turns back to the spiders, his Infernal Caste Mark blazing an unearthly green on his forehead. "We may not look it, but we have the power to destroy you. And we will."
He's definitely managed to convince them the group's a bigger threat than they are -- and to be fair, they can probably take the spiders in a fight. But there's 'can take the spiders in a fight' and then there's 'be so scary the spiders don't want to try.' "Just try not to destroy the webs," one says as they back off. And one skitters down to ground level to draw a little line in the dust on the floor indicating a route that'll get the group through the hell-silk without any larger problem.
They go through the door and take some stairs down, with Stray Dog leaving one of his minions up top to stand watch. They follow a hallway to another room with a faint yellow light in it, marked by the distinct stench of decay. The light comes from some sort of magical torch on the ground, next to a long-dead body. Standing over the body is some sort of stone and metal figure or statue resembling a suit of armor, long-dried gore splattered on its fists as it stares into space. Another one stands off to the side, and there's a third in the corner. The two standing out on the floor seem to be in noticeably worse shape than the one in the corner. There's a door in one wall that's very clearly what we would recognize as some sort of fantasy vault door.
A panel's been removed from the wall, revealing some complex mechanical innards. There's a second body, partially stuck in the gears, apparently having been trapped in some sort of mishap and either killed there or... well, simply died.
"Well, good news, it looks like there might be someone we can interrogate," Stray Dog comments to Lecht, who goes to take a look at the body on the floor.
They examine the body as best they can, determining that it's a man, probably local, who's been dead a couple of years. They go through his clothing and pockets, looking for any useful hints, and determine that he was beaten to death -- as the camera's focus shifts to emphasize the long-dried gore on the nearby statue's fists. Unseen by the others, the statue's fingers twitch slightly.
Stray Dog is taking a look at the other statue, working out that it's some sort of magical automaton, probably tied into some sort of security system, maybe involving the nearby vault door.
As Lecht concludes their field autopsy, they say aloud what everyone's thinking -- that these 'statues' are about to come to life. Which, naturally, is about the time they begin to creak into motion, humming and ticking.
And we leave off there!
[0]-- They're not, they just kind of condense there by magic. Not that Lecht has the background to know that, but it is a fair concern and a reasonable assumption, given the way these things tend to go.
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