I wanted to start off on some joke on what you folks have been up to while my back was turned, but I can't think of anything clever that doesn't also make me sound like a bit of a jerk. Ah well.
So yeah, I'm behind on Exalted posts. This is largely due to my having had some issues working on a freelance assignment and pushing through a combo of mental burnout and some minor physical issues to get drafts done and just not having the time or brainspace to devote to blog posts. The only reason we've been able to play at all is that my preparations carried us a little farther than I anticipated (not complaining!).
(And as I'm sure there's someone who'll think that running a game session is irresponsible when a deadline is breathing down my neck, I'd argue that pressuring myself into a breakdown because I refused to use the relief valve would have been worse.)
For the record, I'm not gonna even try to cram what is four sessions (as of this writing) into a single post. Long stretches of typing are a little uncomfortable right now so I'm probably going to just keep it to four individual posts and get caught up ASAP, but we'll see how I feel as I go. I doubt I'll be fully caught up before the next session, as I have other things to do, but hopefully we'll be squared up by the next session after that. I don't have any sort of outline on that, though.
The delay also means more instances than usual of fuzzy details because I didn't think to attribute a line or something like that in my notes, and for that I apologize. If you're in my game and I badly mangle something, let me know so I can fix it.
So let's do this.
So where we left off, too dang long ago, the Circle had just defeated a massive chunk of the Eternal Wave cult alongside some Lintha pirates, and in the process captured Puawai, a God-Blooded son of local volcano god Magma Blossom. And Puawai, being asked about Sambel, the neighboring island, was about to tell a story about what the locals call 'The Calibration Moon.'[0]
So, first off, I wasn't here at the time. There'd been some light contact between me and Whispers' cult, but they didn't really reach out to me until after this happened, and I'd heard some of the story and pieced together the rest. Though I was close enough to see some of it. Fifteen years ago this Calibration, one night, the volcano erupted. The Sanguine Precipice, it was called.A pair of Northwesterners lived on the island, made it their little fiefdom. I learned later they were called Tristian and Valeska, but they kept their names from their servants and followers. Anyhow, it was Calibration, and the night sky is normally just pitch black during Calibration. Moon, stars, nothin'. But this night... the moon came out. Nobody knows why. But it loomed over the volcano, bigger than anyone had ever seen, and they realized that's because it was getting closer.There was a flash of light, and something leapt out of the moon. Nobody knows what because the flash blinded the people looking at it, some permanently. But whatever it was went into the volcano like a spear, and the volcano erupted with moonlight spilling out of it like it was burning white-hot -- which it might've been, I don't know. And anyone over here on Naibron fucked off into whatever shelters they could, not wanting any part of what happened.The few people who watched said that the light left the volcano, just this shape that rolled down to the water's edge before it sputtered and went out. The whole thing was seen for... well, probably hundreds of miles around. And heard from farther away. Everyone on Naibron kept their heads down while other ships came to get a closer look at what happened and looked for survivors. The volcano kept erupting through the rest of Calibration, just... deflating, like a rotting corpse.As far as I know, it's just all ash and death over there, though there are still tunnels in what's left of the volcano which -- as far as I know -- is where the sanctum is. And one of... them... is still over there. I don't know which one, I don't want to know.I do suspect, though, that they tried something big that night and it went really badly and the cult reaching out to me was part of some larger backup plan.
He sits there after that, letting them just take that in and wondering if anyone has any questions. Hǎifēng's memories of the night are still really blurry, though they do faintly recall a figure wreathed in white in the blood-bathing room where they woke up when everything went to hell. The implication is that it was Luna[1], intervening as part of Exalting one of their Chosen since as far as anyone knows Luna always personally shows up for a Lunar Exaltation. And then it's likely that they helped Hǎifēng out to the beach, or perhaps the white light was simply Hǎifēng's anima banner, but there's no good way to know. Probably the former, or both.
Xương asks the others if they want to go over to Sambel now or wait until the morning. Puawai, for his part, warns them that Sambel's got at least one big shadowland on it and it might not be safe at night. But once you get into the tunnels, he suggests, anything goes regardless of the time of day.
The group can't see any good reason not to wait until the morning, so they decide to rest and recover some Essence while Xương takes some time to walk around the village and make sure there the cult didn't have any prisoners being ignored or neglected in all of the chaos. Shango eventually goes to bed, but decides to give Puawei a 'head start.' He leaves him tied to the chair in the house they were using for the interrogation and takes his smashfists, ties them into a sack with some stones, and tosses them into the ocean just off-shore (close enough someone could find them if they went looking). If Puawei's gone in the morning and doesn't cause any more trouble, then so be it.
Hǎifēng wanders off and finds some booze, and then waits until pretty much everyone else is asleep before they turn into a bird and fly over to the other island. Xương, who's been discreetly keeping an eye on them in case they do something stupid, quietly follows from a distance in his own bird form. Hǎifēng seeks the ruins of their old home, and finds the vaguest remnants of a major -- all ruins and devastation with bits of walls and chimneys still there like a rotting skeleton, with ghosts wandering in the distance.
They land in what's left of the estate and transform back, bottle in hand, and just wander around the ruin for a bit, drinking and trying to find the areas they would have visited before. Their facial expression is mixed, sometimes bearing almost a smile of a fond memory bringing them some comfort until they recall what a farce it all was, how manipulative the Master and Mistress were. It's like the tides going in and out. Sometimes for a moment they'd do a twirl or a bit of a slow dance and then they remember and their shoulders just slump.
At one point they find where their old room would have been, but if there are any personal effects left they're buried under who knows how much volcanic earth. So they just sit and cry and drink and eventually throw the bottle against the wall. The island's ghosts drift in closer over time, clearly interested in this living being here in the ruin, though they all keep their distance.
As they get ready to leave, they hear something other than the breeze floating through the ruins... the overlapping whispers of what must be at least a dozen voices, getting closer. Hǎifēng shifts into monkey form and hides. Both they and Xương, perched on a dead tree nearby, see a blurry, vaguely-humanoid figure approach. It flickers as it walks, moving at a speed that doesn't quite match the movements of its legs (like a video game character where the animation doesn't match the moving pace). Xương recognizes it as something very much like a Susurrus, a mad patchwork ghost made of bits of pieces of other ghosts, eternally trying to be whole but never able to manage it.[2]
It moves into the space of Hǎifēng's old room and the image stabilizes into an impossibly-thin, pale, willowy figure with blond hair. Hǎifēng hears their own name among the whispers, questioning, as if the creature is asking if Hǎifēng is there. It blurs again, head moving around like a dog sniffing the air, and Hǎifēng presses themself even tighter into the corner where they're hiding, staying extra still in a near-panic... then it drifts off with the breeze, and as soon as it's gone they flee in bird form and, torn between following Hǎifēng and seeing if the creature goes anywhere interesting, Xương follows Hǎifēng.
As the pair fly away, they hear a shriek of anger and frustration from a living throat echo across the land.
Hǎifēng goes looking for Mongo[3], who seems to be coordinating something going on among the pirates. They walk and talk and head somewhere private as the 'camera' pans over to Xương's parrot form making a sour face and leaving to go to sleep before everything fades to black.
The next morning, Shango wakes up on the boat. Xương's still out, having taken something from his selection of drugs to make sure he doesn't dream about anything he saw the previous night. Shango checks on the God-Blood, who seems to have peacefully left, and then goes looking for Hǎifēng.
He finds his Circlemate asleep under a palm tree with a scrap of paper tucked into their sleeve. He slides the paper out and reads what is apparently a note, written in charcoal. It's unsigned, but reads "I had to get back to a search party. Things to do. Will find you." He puts it back into Hǎifēng's sleeve and pokes them in the forehead to wake them up.
They brush off the poke and roll over, muttering "No, baby, just a little bit longer." Shango then taps them on the cheek and now they wake up, muttering "Ah, Mongo, what's going on... oh, shit!" Shango realizes who the note's from, his eyes wide as he goes "Ohhhhh," and Hǎifēng reflexively shifts into bird form to flee, but slams right into the tree.
We then cut back to the boat as Hǎifēng's trying to get back to their quarters and Shango's trying to reassure them that he's not judging them. Xương's door opens and he sticks his head out and bellows "Can you not?!" as he just wants to go back to sleep without all of the noise.
Shango blurts out that Hǎifēng is fucking Mongo, and Xương just sights and repeats himself. "Can you not?"
By now Hǎifēng is in their room, straightening up, and from the hallway Shango asks how long this has been going on. Hǎifēng stammers through saying this was just the second or third time. Xương, who's also part of the conversation now, remarks that Mongo's the kind of guy who displays a participation trophy.
Shango insists, again, that he's not judging. Xương says he's judging a little bit (because in his estimation Mongo is kind of an idiot and Hǎifēng can do better) but he doesn't say anything beyond that.
And we have this exchange:
Hǎifēng: "He was nice!"
Xương: "That's a great reason to adopt a dog, it's a terrible reason to sleep with a Lintha!"
Shango speculates that Hǎifēng is probably secretly glad they don't have to keep the secret any more.[4] Hǎifēng says that it's nice to be with someone who's so accessible, and Shango turns to Xương and says "They're calling your cousin easy." Xương certainly caught that, and agrees, and warns Hǎifēng that if they catch anything they'll have to find another doctor for treatment. He then makes a crude STD joke that, while funny and not really offensive or anything, might actually be a bit much for the blog. Also, it's one of those 'in the moment' jokes that would take too much explanation in any case. But you can find the full thing on my Patreon![5]
Hǎifēng just gives their door the 'angry teenager slam' and locks it. Xương glares at Shango and goes back to bed, leaving Shango wondering "What did I do?" as he goes back to his room.
A short while later, someone is up on the deck of the boat, yelling to get the group's attention and knocking on the deck. Shango comes up to find Mongo there. Mongo's got a question for Shango about the previous night. Shango says he was asleep but to go ahead and ask. Mongo asks if Shango say any surviving cultists skulking around. He says they've been rounding up the bodies of the fallen and a few have gone missing and he's trying to find them.
Shango hasn't seen anything, though he does mention that the God-Blood got away. Mongo just kind of shrugs at that. Shango admits that the group had an argument and they're a little out of sorts, and Mongo says that he's been taking care of stuff and barely slept and totally understands. He says he'd offer to share some coffee if he had any. Then he offers Shango some important life advice: Never drink Lintha coffee unless you're a Lintha. There's stuff in it you need to build up a tolerance to."
And Mongo has to get back to it and maybe he'll see them around, and Shango lets him know that they're going to move over to Sambel Island. Mongo tells him that place is 'fucking awful,' and Shango says "So are we." Then he admits that was more clever in his head.
Shango then says that you gotta take care of stuff, sometimes you gotta find your comfort in coffee or the arms of another, and Mongo immediately realizes where this is going and is like "Welp, gotta go!" But he does stick around for a minute to tell Shango he's going to try to convince the captains to stay out of everyone's way, take what they already have, and go. They might do a lap around the island and fuck up any other coastal settlements. He just wanted to give the Lunars a heads-up as to what to expect. Then there's some wishes of luck and safe travels back and forth, and Mongo half-heartedly invokes a few different ocean-related gods (enough not to offend, but not enough to come across as particularly devout) and he heads off with a wave.
The camera pans down to see Hǎifēng just below the deck, listening to the whole thing, trying to kill Shango with their mind.
Eventually they come up on deck, straightened up and presentable, though still somewhat smelling like booze. They head to the side of the ship, not wanting to talk about what happened, and are just ready to go. They pull away to go around to the other island, seeing the village receding and seeing what's left of it smoldering after the attack and thinking about how thing weren't quite what they expected and now they're going to go kill a god. But, someone comments (this is one of my hazier bits in my notes, for all I know I made that comment as part of narration), killing gods is what the Exalted are for.
As they travel from Naibron to Sambel, something comes out of the sky at the boat. It's a mechanical songbird, of the style they saw in the Mirror City. It lands on the deck and proceeds to play a recording, in Yanisin Stoneblood's voice:
To begin, this is good news. It's been impressed upon me that I need to open my messages with that rather than 'I hope this isn't too late.' That said, I hope this isn't too late, but by my calculations if you'd resolved the matter we'd know by now. I believe -- What? Yes, yes, okay, I'll keep it -- right, one minute recording time. Help is on the way. Don't wait for it, I don't know when it will arrive, but it's coming and it took some doing to happen at all. I'll keep the details a surprise, but I think you'll be pleased regardless of the timing. Good luck. The bird can carry a reply back.
But none of them have anything to say to that, and as it takes off the camera follows it into the sky as part of panning over to show off the ruined island that will feature prominently next time, in Tales of the Moonlight Maiden.
(In other words, we left it there.)
[0]-- This is a version of the story I wrote down ahead of time, and while it may not be exactly how I relayed it to the group verbatim because of an ad-lib or two, but it's got the gist.
[1]-- Quick reminder, while the third edition core book pretty firmly uses she/her pronouns for Luna, the current developers and other books -- most notably the Lunars book -- have pretty firmly established Luna as a they/them, as befits a goddess whose defining trait is being mercurial and ever-changing.
[2]-- At first glance it seems like a Susurrus, but Xương can tell there's something off about it. Even moreso than you'd expect from describable as a mad patchwork ghost.
[3]-- At which point Sean, Xương's player, jokes that he's going to break his vow and let Hǎifēng out of his sight.
[4]-- For the record, while Zac is glad, Hǎifēng is not. As for me, I was lamenting that I couldn't get up to make popcorn without disrupting the scene.
[5]-- I'm kidding. I don't have a Patreon, and if I did I wouldn't paywall blog posts behind it.
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