Hey there, folks! Back with Exalted, such and such. No personal news, but for those of you interested in Exalted, Exalted Essence is going to come out on DriveThruRPG this week! I didn't work on it or anything, just a really big fan.
And now, on with the show!
We start with revisiting Gou and Xương's investigation into the shed, rewinding a bit from where last session left off. As they start to move on from the shed to looking into the other stuff, Gou realizes they forgot to ask what the mysterious lodger looked like. He goes back to ask some more questions, encouraging Xương to go on ahead (where he winds up being intercepted by Hǎifēng, as we saw last session).
This time the camera follows Gou as he returns to the shop and asks the owner what the stranger looked like or what they were wearing. She starts to answer and then pauses, confused. She's actually not sure. When Gou presses her, she says she vaguely remembers a guy with scruffy long hair, who probably just wore stuff that was in the shed. But she's not sure, she can't place it.
She calls out to Mei, one of her employees, to ask if she remembers. Mei remembers a heavyset guy with a rat tail who was dressed in nice but travel-worn clothing. But she's not sure either, it's more like she's guessing. The two of them start bickering over contradictory details, and Gou slips out having come to a likely, potentially-scary conclusion:
The mysterious lodger is a Sidereal.
He starts hitting up nearby stores in at corner of town, asking if anyone remembers anyone strange hanging out in the last couple of weeks, but there's nothing concrete. Smolder is a port town known for asking very few questions, and on top of that it's been a weird time of year. It's hard to tell exactly where 'mundane forgetfulness/inattention' ends and 'the Sidereals broke reality and now nobody can remember them clearly' begins.
So he's not expecting to get much, so while he asks questions he still keeps an eye out for anything else that might seem out of place or if anyone nearby reacts if he mentions a particular place (like the clothing shop) or anything like that. Eventually he does notice someone watching him, a muscular woman with tanned skin and cream-colored hair, but he doesn't jump to any conclusions right away because he is a bit of a local celebrity. But then a child running by startles her and she jumps, and he realizes from her body language that she's a martial artist.
A familiar martial artist.
A recently-familiar martial artist.
(I'll stop that)
Not that he knows her name -- nor has he seen her face, as she was wearing a shark mask before. But Gou definitely recognizes how she moves, and that combined with her build tips him off.
He tries not to panic, realizing that she must recognize him and wondering if she knows he saw her. He doesn't give that near-panic away, and once he's done talking to the person he's been talking to he proceeds to move through a series of decreasingly-crowded areas until he's sure she's following him, and then he leads her into a secluded alley behind a building. Just when she realizes what he's done, he casually turns around with a cocky smile, his hands in his pockets.
"Nice to meet you!"
"Hi!" She gives him a genuine smile. "I'm sorry, I heard someone talking, I thought you were some local hero."
"Oh, of course, you're a fan," he says as he steps closer, his hand out. "Of course, you just want an autograph, don't you?"
He can see on her face that she can tell something's up, but continues to smile and goes to shake his hand. The moment their hands touch, he grabs her arm and pills his firewand and aims it at her as he asks to know why she's really following him.
"I don't want to hurt you, I don't want to hurt anybody," she's quick to say. He laughs at that, but she continues and explains she's keeping an eye on him because he's a major player and she's being cautious. He asks about what.
She considers her words carefully, not wanting to be caught in a lie but having to be careful about what truths she tells.
"Okay, what do you know -- or think you know -- about me?" she asks.
He explains he remembers her from the tournament, she had a shark mask, and that she got her ass handed to her. She says she's helping to clean up someone's mess, and making sure he doesn't see something that causes a dangerous misunderstanding. He releases her hand but keeps Wyrdflame trained on her, and asks what mess -- and if it's related to the shed.
She winces when he mentions the shed, and says that wasn't the initial mess but it's on the list. He asks if she knows who's responsible, who's been poking around and avoiding pirates. She snorts and say that half the people in Smolder are 'poking around, avoiding pirates.' But she then says that something went wrong, and she's helping to discreetly retrieve some items.
He asks for whom is she retrieving the items, and she pauses before explaining the items are dangerous and she's helping retrieve them to protect people. He asks if it's a matter of someone stumbling over them by accident, not knowing what they are, and setting something off to potentially harm thousands. She says they wouldn't do that much damage, but she's concerned about them falling into the wrong hands.
"You know, I've just kind of realized," he comments. "I don't think I ever asked your name."
She gives him a crooked smile and says "My name doesn't matter. But I can give you the address of someone who's better to talk to about this than me." He agrees to that and she gives him the address and says she can't guarantee that 'he' is going to be there right away, but they're not going to suddenly take off or anything, if he wants to take his time circling back around. Though she does say she'll let 'him' (whomever he is) know that Gou is coming. He puts Wyrdflame away and indicates he's going to let her go without a fight.
"By the way, when you get there, ask for Tomo," she explains, and he repeats the name back. She then steps back, hands open, and takes a few steps back before turning to leave. Once she's gone, Gou switches to osprey form and goes to follow.
We then switch back to Hǎifēng and Xương, having just talked to Bokano Spite-shell. Hǎifēng shifts into bird form and splits off four more with their various cloning Charms, and sends them to start circling the island looking for any possible signs of a necromancer -- patches of strangely-dead forest, ocean caverns with lots of dead fish, etc., with the expectation that they'll 'report' back in the morning.
And then the two of them kick back at the Drunk Octopus. The bartender is Tuyền, whom they've met before -- for the first time when she was second-in-command of a necromancer's ship, and also on their previous visit to the island when she expressed her intent to flee the Realm navy unit into which she'd been conscripted. "Oh, you two," she says, pleasantly surprised. "I heard you were back, and I thought I heard that Shango was dead but also alive?"
They give her a 'kinda' and she gets them a couple of beers, then stops and swaps out Hǎifēng's for a wine. "So, hard day?" she asks, indulging the cliche. Xương and Hǎifēng tell her it's been pretty normal, and then Hǎifēng remarks on how she clearly succeeded at making a run for it.
She says that she adapts, and says that nobody from the 'embassy village' is likely to recognize her even if they were up in Smolder. Hǎifēng says it's better that she's not down there -- and by the way, does she know any good necromancers?
She pauses, stunned at that, and while Xương can't quite get a read on her, Hǎifēng watches her face and reads an inner monologue of 'Wait, they know? But how? They've been here all of five minutes,' before she just seems generally confused -- but not guilty. She opens her mouth to respond but suddenly stops and glances up past them at the door, with a 'speak of the devil' look in her eye.
Hǎifēng uses Glance-Oration Technique to tell Xương to keep an eye on her as they turn around to look at the door to see Stormseve Serenity come in (not that they know her yet, but the audience and players do). She makes a beeline for the pair of them, and Tuyền stays even though it feels like the normal time at which a bartender traditionally ducks out. Serenity, much more businesslike in demeanor than the last time Xương saw her introduces herself to Hǎifēng and explains that she's looking into Hǎifēng's encounter at the well in Open Palm. She asks if they can move to a spot out of the way to discuss it without panicking or tipping off anyone. Tuyền, without being asked, hands her a drink, and Hǎifēng definitely picks up on a certain sense of familiarity between them before the three Lunars head to the booth.
They get to the quiet booth and she says outright that she needs to ask about the ghost. Hǎifēng volunteers whatever they know, and she asks if it was human ('Human enough,') inhabiting an animal ('What's left of one,') and then a description. Hǎifēng says it was someone with long black hair, common clothes, probably a sailor, appeared waterlogged.
She nods and thinks about that a moment and says there's good news and bad news. Before she gets into it, she starts to explain how there are different types of ghosts -- among them the Drowned, who are -- as the name implies -- are people who drowned at sea, almost always stuck out there. She comments -- with a glance to Xương -- that the Lintha leave buoys at the sites of ships they've scuttled, to avoid any ghosts bound to the wreckage.
But what this means is that the ghost isn't local, which is good news because it suggests that whomever had given it the task of hanging out in the well isn't a resident so this isn't likely to be a long-term problem for the island. But it's bad news because that suggests that the necromancer could have been any one of the 'random weirdos that comes in off the dock every day.' Hǎifēng reacts badly, implying that the island just lets people come and go, and Serenity makes it clear that they do have dockmasters and they do keep records, but because Smolder is historically a town that asks very few questions, those records are not the best and also they get a lot of traffic.
She says that necromancers usually aren't subtle, though -- mortal necromancers, like sorcerers, usually have to do something drastic to get their abilities and that often leaves them marked in some way. Exalted necromancers can often be a little more subtle about it, but as Exalts can be obvious in other ways. So it might be possible to track down who it is. She comments that the Lintha might know something, since their tendencies skew a little darker.
She says that she's gonna start running down who it might be unless Hǎifēng has anything to add (they don't), but she'll be around if they find anything new or anything comes up. She says she's easy enough to find, holding up a wing-arm and emphasizing her hybrid form. Then she asks Xương if there's any updates on the investigation, and he gives her the quick rundown regarding the shed. She then takes her leave, dropping off her glass at the bar and saying something to the bartender before moving on.
And then we cut back to Gou, who follows Iron Siaka for about a half-hour or so as she walks around the city seemingly at random in case she's being followed (but doesn't notice she's being tailed from the air). So eventually she circles back around to the address she gave him earlier, which appears to be a rented house in a row of them. He flies around and finds a good spot to observe as she goes in, but he's having trouble focusing on the house, like everything else is more interesting. If he didn't have the address or follow her to it, he might not have been able to find it at all. Also, he has to focus to watch through the windows, like he can't find the right one, but he eventually finds a good spot to perch and look in.
He sees two other people in there with her, a skinny dark-skinned guy with glasses who looks a little like Chidi from The Good Place[0], and a tall, muscular woman also with dark skin and a perpetual scowl. The two are trying not to talk to each other, though their attention shifts when Iron Siaka joins them. Gou can't hear them, but he is at least able to get a read on what's going on via body language.
She gives them some sort of report, and there's an argument, but Owl reassures them he can handle this. The scowling woman is pissed, while Siaka goes and gets the group booze and tea as they sit and wait for someone to check in. He watches for a while and takes everything in so he can find the place later, just in case, and then we leave off on him going to check in with Hǎifēng and Xương.
[0]-- As astute readers may recognize, this is Emerald Owl on Brass Perch, recurring Sidereal friend of the group. Well, more accurately, recurring Sidereal friend of Hǎifēng, who's the only one who remembers him at the moment.
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