Greetings in this era of ominous omens, between the recent New York earthquake, the even-more-recent solar eclipse, and a plague of cicadas on the horizon (some of which are apparently going to be hypersexual zombies). I'm making sure to mention all this to 'date' this post in case future generations of wasteland explorers find it and it somehow winds up being an important clue in their journey to reclaim some macguffin or simply serves as background lore fodder.
Yes, I am in a weird mood today. But that's alright, because weird moods can always be of benefit when I'm writing about an Exalted session.
So we're getting into that below the fold!
We pick up after the battle against the haloed husks last session, anima banners slowly tapering off, as Lecht and Stray Dog go back to the tavern for a drink. Wandering Dawn goes around, just checking in on folks in general and asking how often the sun showers have been happening and if they always come from the same direction. Turns out they're not common, just a few times a year, but they are usually from the mountains and forests to the west, as that's where the Wyld zones are the most prominent. (Undead threats usually come from the east) So with that in mind, he goes back to the orphanage to help make dinner and just general do his part there.
A little bit of time passes, and at the tavern, Stray Dog's up on a table singing into a mug for the crowd[0], while Lecht is just quietly having a drink off to the side. While they relax, anima banner still faintly glowing, the older monk from the Ragara camp earlier comes into the tavern, spots Lecht, and approaches. Lecht invites him to sit down just when he's about to ask if he can join them, and he takes a seat. He's an older man, kind of pale with Eastern features.
He introduces himself as Spring Lily, and explains that he's been tasked with traveling to Eslund to, essentially, settle House Ragara's tab. But he wants to talk to someone who was there and get Lecht's take on what happened. They ask what he means, and he says that he wants to know what went wrong, what needs fixing, and so forth, and Lecht lays into him over a Ragara unit going AWOL, turning peoples' lives upside down looking for a treasure that doesn't exist. Spring Lily's caught off-guard, partially because he hadn't heard the full story yet but also at the vehemence of Lecht's reaction, as they continue to accuse Spring Lily and his ilk of making messes that didn't need to exist -- and their anima pulses just a little bit.
The monk, trying to gather his thoughts, explains that he doesn't have any insight into the military stuff. He's more focused on the spiritual health of the people, and with a good-natured chuckle suggests that the captain's giving him this job to get him out of the way for a bit.
Lecht asks the monk if he's a spiritual advisor. He explains that is among his duties, yes. Lecht asks about the Immaculate Order's tenets, and he gives them the quick and dirty version of the Perfected Hierarchy -- that there is an order to everything, and everyone is expected to uphold their place in the order, and those who serve well are rewarded in their next life and over the course of lifetimes a given soul may be rewarded with the Elemental Dragons' grace. Lecht pauses for a beat and tells him that 'the horseshit you were peddling 700 years ago made more sense than what you're shoveling now.' They argue that the Order has taken these fringe beliefs and turned them into a world-spanning cult, and the monk needs to go back where he came from and stay in his lane.
The monk is very much caught off-guard and, barely trying to maintain his composure, says the Order tries to set an an example that not all Dragon-Blooded live up to. Dreadful Thorn is originally an outcaste, not raised in the Realm, and had she been brought up with proper Immaculate teachings then maybe she wouldn't have gone rogue. In fact, if she'd joined the Order instead of the military it definitely wouldn't have happened -- not that she'd have been in that position in the first place, but still. Either way, she would have been more respectful to the people and the world around her.
Lecht then calls him out on treating her like an outsider, that perhaps that just contributed to the problem, and that telling people that 'if they're good enough at being poor then maybe they get to be middle class' is bullshit.
The monk opens his mouth to say something, and Lecht cuts him off by saying he's got five seconds to leave the table. So he stops, clearly barely restraining himself as he plants his hands on the table and turns to leave. As he's heading for the door, Lecht yells at him to stay in his lane and 'leave saving Creation to the real Exalted.' That gets the monk to stop and glare back over his shoulder, a genuine darkness in his eyes at that, but then he heads for the door. On the way out he almost bumps into Wandering Dawn just as he's coming in, and doesn't seem to notice Dawn's "Oh, pardon me" as he pushes past, visibly pissed-off.
At the table, Lecht's hand is hovering over their dinner plate, the bones on it rattling like the Exigent has been thinking of launching them at the monk. Stray Dog leans in behind them, rubs their shoulders, and whispers "That was some real good blasphemy, I liked that." Dawn comes over to the table and mentions that the monk seemed familiar, and asks if anything happened. Stray Dog say it was brilliant -- Lecht insulted the core of a man's beliefs. Dawn's not sure how to take that, but suspects that if it involved the Immaculates it was probably well-deserved. Dawn asks why they insulted him, and Lecht just says they know what he's been doing.
Stray Dog says they should wrap up their business and get on the road as soon as is viable, and Lecht asks about how far it is to Gethamane (it's about two weeks). But it's late, and people are tired, so things eventually wind down and the trio goes back to the caravan to sleep...
...until awakened by an unearthly bellowing noise and alarm bells. Mollie's definitely smelling something she doesn't like, and Dawn takes that as a sign that it means something from the Wyld and tells everyone to be prepared for anything. Stray Dog and Lecht both start gathering some power for sorcery or necromancy, respectively, and Stray Dog uses his to cast Wood Dragon's Claw, turning his arm into, um... the claw of a wood dragon. It's not a terribly clever name.
They rush to the western side of town where they had the fight before, just in time to see one of the special braziers atop the wall go out as the flame is drawn outside. And then they get there and see the threat -- another haloed husk, this time a full-blown mammoth, sunlight glowing from its eyes and mouth, sparks rippling along its tusks and a glow coming from the end of its trunk, leaving behind a trail in the darkness.
Wandering Dawn grabs a torch and rushes out to try and lead it away from the gate. He swings at it with its cudgel, getting a couple of glancing blows on it and Mollie goes after the back legs. While they've got it distracted, Lecht tamps their staff against the ground to get the bone chimes going, while chanting to gather together the entropic energies in the area. Stray Dog improvises a brief couplet about Lecht unleashing their power the creature, putting all of his own supernatural charisma behind it to empower them via inspiration.
The mammoth, nearby, brings its trunk down on Dawn, who crosses his arms together to brace against the blow and uses one of his Charms to gain strength from it as well. His anima's glowing now, like the dusk sun, holding the creature's attention -- which is both good and bad, as the mammoth twists its head to try and gore him with its glowing tusks.
But meanwhile, Lecht's gathered enough power and their eyes go black with a faint green vapor. They suddenly hunch over as if in a trance, like a switch has been flipped. The image of a ghostly woman levitates from their back and with a dramatic gesture her head whips back, a green glow coming from her eyes and mouth as she lets out a banshee-like shriek as every bone in the area comes to her command and whips forth for a Flying Guillotine that does enough damage to take the mammoth's trunk off. Dawn, so very glad he's used to this, is covered in gore as blood sprays out along with sparks and bursts of that sunlight.
Stray Dog, wondering how he's going to follow up that opening act, dodges back to avoid the spray, his demonic second skin rippling unpleasantly. "It's supposed to be dead by now, what do I do?" he asks before he starts building power for his own sorcery.
But fortunately, Wandering Dawn solves the problem with the best way he knows how -- he gives the mammoth an uppercut with his cudgel, using a bunch of Charms to send it flying back where it lands with a massive thud, twitching as it goes still and dark.
"What happened to you, why are you such a mess?" Lecht asks Dawn. The Solar, still splattered with 'dead mammoth face,' just gets a wide grin and goes to give them a big hug to celebrate the win, and for no other reason.
By now, Stray Dog's entourage has finally gotten their shit together to show up, just in time for him to say "False alarm, boys, you can go back to bed" as he tiptoes gingerly around the core. The camera pans back over the crowd where Spring Lily's acolyte, the one Stray Dog recognized before, just watches grimly as the Infernal shakes some crud from his sandals, packs a bowl, and heads back to the caravan.
And we leave off there.
[0]-- As far as I know nobody's written such a thing, but I can't help but imagine he's belting out some punk-style Exalted 'cover' of Barrett's Privateers.
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