Normally, Dyron Slivari would not be caught outside her master's residence walking the slums, the very dregs of Five Coils society. Tepet Amon is a high ranking politician of Five Coils, after all, and she is his personal slave. Slivari has spoken, danced and played sweet music for courts all the way up in the District of Air, has seen the bountiful food they eat, their fine garments spun from materials that ought not to be possible as cloth, the amazing architecture and technology that makes their lives so much easier.

Normally, Danae Adela would not be found outside her cell walking alongside a politician and his courtier pet. Hers is the duty of crafter and general, putting her securely in the realms of Earth and Fire, where she and those with similar talents manufacture, repair and test all of the machinery that makes Five Coils run -- and then some. For Adela has had a hand in the making of grand and terrible armaments that one day might surge to the surface, and conquer the lands beyond.

But Lord Amon has insisted on having both Danae and Slivari accompany him. They make a strange trio, the handsome dark-haired Air Aspect and the two Solar Anathema identified by their distinctive, Essence-limiting collars. Together they walk speechlessly through winding, filthy streets until they reach a metallic door at the end of an alleyway.

At a touch from the man it opens, the contents of the room within lit by dimming Essence lamps: warstriders! At least a fang of them in severe disrepair, kept in this secret cache for who knows how long. Amon raises his eyebrows to the captive Solars, as if to invite comment.

"Seriously?  Warstriders?!?"  Danae thought to herself, trying to keep her excitement hidden under a veneer of professionalism--after all, it wouldn't 'Serve' right to look like she was enjoying her work too much...

Oh well--he apparently wanted some manner of comment--what would be the most appropriate sort to give at this point in time though?

"Under ordinary circumstances--I would pronounce these to be quite a useful addition to any force lucky enough to get their hands on them..."  Danae began after a moment's consideration.  "Indeed, a warstrider makes for an excellent siege weapon--so far as I know in any case...  However, speaking from a purely professional standpoint--it would be of limited use in the relative peace of Five Coils--save for intimidation and law enforcement angles--their size makes it difficult to move along small passageways freely, and while the additional power is handy against stationary or other extremely large targets--their role is best served to support a conventional force, rather then act as a backbone unit..."

"You're a bright young woman, and your assessment is a sound one," Amon replies smoothly to Danae. "But these machines were never built for the peace of these poor confines to begin with."

"Take a look at them, if you wish. I will allow you the Essence to examine them and assess damage."

"Well, naturally"  Danae replied, and on the 'Note of authroization' so to speak--she took a look over the various mechanics of the machines...  While admittedly, she was better at the creation of new devices then the maintenence of what was already present--one didn't come without the other, and she did have a particular knack for armor...  This was just--moderately larger then she was generally used to.

Slivari was confused when she and another were asked to come with her Lord. Normally she went with him to grand places fully of beautifully dressed people and politics. Though she of course did as he asked and that is how she ended up staring with wide gold eyes at the old Warstriders, When her Lord lifted a brow as if he wanted them to comment she was at a loss for words. Rare for her but what could her Lord expect, she was no expert in these things. no her expertise was in the courts, in winning people over or discovering information.


Not wishing to make a fool of herself, Slivari kept her lips sealed. She listened to the exchange between the woman and her Lord with curiosity, even if she knew next to nothing about them perhaps she could learn. While the other solar looked over the monsters she glanced up at her Lord a hint of confusion on her face. Why did he choose to bring her here? surely it wasn't to simply look at these things. Was her Lord planning on using them for something?

Amon smiles at Slivari's confusion. Of course she would not understand, his expression seems to say. Gentle, but just a little patronizing. Still, he has never been an unkind master.

Danae discovers a total of ten warstriders in the room. Five are common warstriders, five are scouts. Clearly these are not the cream of the crop, but seeing so many of them in one place when whole talons were usually needed to support and maintain them is a huge surprise. They have been lacking in maintenance for years, and only the airtight construction of the room they are stored in kept their dismal condition from getting worse.

[Private to Danae Adela: Danae discovers the warstriders are damaged enough that they can only function with the low-power stance limitations (WotLA p. 148), even if they had hearthstones to power them (they don't). They are also less sturdy: 4L/4B soak and 2 hardness less than normal. Repairing this fully would take at least 80 hours of maintenance *per* warstrider. Otherwise the machines are still functioning.]

Even more astonishing is that none of the warstriders in the cache are of jade construction. Of each type there are two orichalcum, two moonsilver and one starmetal. Their weapons are only mundane, but warstrider-sized.

Amon gives Danae time to look over the machines before calling her back. "I wanted you both to meet. Danae, this is Slivari. Slivari, Danae Adela. You will need to trust each other very soon now," he says enigmatically, starting to walk away from the room...
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:52, Thu 30 Oct 2008.

"Yikes"  Danae noted, her head poking out from one of the moonsilver models' fusilage after her inspection, coughing out a few motes of dust.  "Well there's your problem!"  She exclaimed, hopping down with a slight shimmer, and pulling out a little diagram she had sketched during the inspection.  "These things haven't had maintenence in ages!  It'd be far more practical to just melt them down for their materials, and rework them into something simpler--it'd take a small work crew days for each one just to get them up to basic running order!"

At that point though, having caught the reference as to the whole 'Trust Thing' though, Danae blinked quizzically.  "Oh...  Some... New project or something?...  Well, in any case"  She turned to Silvari then, and raised a hand in greeting.  "Name's Danae...  Sadly, they've got me doing all the tech stuff for most of the fancy weapons and armor lying around--what's your role in this whole debacle?"

Slivari gave her master a small smile, some where she supposed she cared for him. He had always been a decent man and had never treated her unkindly. She pushed those dangerous thought out of her head as she was introduced to Danae.

As her Lord turned away from them, she glanced in his direction but assumed he wanted to give them some time alone. For what reason she was unsure at this time.

" Honestly I do not know what my role is to be" said the beautiful courtier with a delicate shrug of the shoulders.  "I have never dealt with anything quite like this before" Slivari was still very confused by all of this, certainly there was no reason for her to remain here when she could be doing something else. But her Lord had said she and Danae should come to trust one another, Though why exactly she was sure she would know soon enough.

Though his back is turned to them, Amon's voice drifts back towards the two Solars. "If you work together, you may have a chance. You see... the Coils have become corrupt beyond reason."

"One way or another, you will right this wrong. Find the others like you. The sky awaits..."

He vanishes before their eyes. It is as if he was never there. And at the moment that he winks out of existence -- by some power beyond anything they have seen Dragon-Blooded capable of -- klaxons begin to wail throughout the District of Water.

"WARNING! Maximum Security Breach in Forbidden Level B31. Maximum Security Breach in Forbidden Level B31. Now switching to Orichalcum Alert in Water Level B26 and below. All Jade Personnel and Ranked Officials, proceed to the nearest evacuation station."

"WARNING! As per Orichalcum Breach Protocol, purging of all affected levels will commence in T-minus 30 minutes!"

[Private to Danae Adela: Oh, I forgot to say this: during your analysis of the 'striders you realized that you can potentially do a quick fix to power up one or two for a short amount of time, the difficultly for that would be pretty high though!]

Danae and Slivari also realize, at the advent of this announcement, that the Essence-limiting effect of their collars has been lifted.

"Orichalcum alert?"  Danae said with a blink, glancing back and forth, and thinking about this for a moment.  "... I don't actually think I've heard of that one before...  And the implication--given the whole dirty connontations..."

She frowned a bit further then, and took a look over at the various walls.  "...  Okay...  Your patron goes and vanishes--something that's probably kinda impossible...  An alert like this gets called...  the Water Districts are generally full of undesirabl..."

Her eyes then opened up as she seemed to realize something, and patted the collar at her neck...  Blinking several times more as the implications seemed to hit, then after a few more moment's processing--well, she let herself come up with a big grin.

"...  Mass jailbreak?"  She concludes, before scrambling over to the Warstriders again.  "You're a solar too, right?  If we want to exploit this little opening to make a dash for it, I'm gonna need your help for this!"  Tossing a few small tools back to Silvari, she gestured towards the Starmetal and Moonsilver Warstriders.  "We're gonna take some of the golden machines--I know I have use for it, and you probably will as well, once things settle down, I can try cannibalizing them for parts or something to actually develop some gear with--at the same time, we've also got a ready source of other stuff going on here--while I'm working at getting these things ready for a temporary trip, do you mind seeing what materials you can pull off of the Moonsilver and Starmetal machines?  They're in pretty rough shape, so it shouldn't be too hard for you to pry a good amount off--but both materials are kind of rare and hard to produce, and if we're lucky, we might be able to use it to buy our way into another escapee group!"

Working quickly, Danae proceeded to flit between the Orichalcum Warstriders at that point, pulling functional pieces off of the ones 'Not' selected, and using them to set up a quick, temporary fix on things, Caste Mark starting to glow in the excitement of being able to actually work for her OWN benefits for a change!

Slivari was in shock, she had watched her Lord vanish and his last words to them weren't what she would call normal or very comforting. Next thing she knew a loud warning was going off about an Orichalcum breach. She stood there for the moment feel completely lost, then she felt it. Bright Golden eyes widened as the solar realized her essence collar was no longer working.


She didn't have to much time to think about it, Danae had just thrown some tools at her. Catching them the girl stared with wide eyes " Right... Look I have no idea what I am doing! The only reason I can tell the difference between an Arm and a Leg is because I have them!" she said this as she raced over to one of the warstriders that Danae had mentioned. Standing there in front of them she let out a sigh and bit her lip, she had to try and that is exactly what she did. She tried to get as much Starmetal and Moonsliver as she could.

Slivari's help seems to hinder more than aid, but Danae herself works fast and efficiently. She manages to quick fix two orichalcum warstriders and takes apart enough moonsilver and starmetal for about 6 dots of artifacts each.

5 minutes later, they can clearly hear commotion from outside. People are running, panicking in the streets. Five Coils militia are among them, their magitech-amplified voices calling for the people to slow down and calm. As the chaos builds Slivari and Danae start to hear weapons being fired, and screams...

[Private to Danae Adela; Dyron Slivari: I am assuming you'll each take a 'strider, yeah? let me know two things: whether you're taking a common or a scout, and what type of weapon you'll choose to wield with it. you'll be able to find a warstrider sized mundane weapon of any sort, also potentially a dart launcher (WotLA p. 151).]

"Not good..."  Danae mutters, making the final few tweaks, then standing back as things came together.  "Okay then! Your choice, you want to ride with me?  Or take a machine yourself?  Might be a bit bumpy if you pick the latter, these weren't really meant for carrying passengers, but if you're not really experieneced with this sort of thing..."  She trailed off then, and winced.

"Well, yeah--what do you think?"

For all her effort all Slivari had really managed to do was smash her thumb, hurt her foot which was really her fault when she kicked the machine out of pure frustration, and get her outfit dusty.

Sucking on the tip of her thumb, she turned and looked up at Danae. " Heh... Do you really think I can uh move one of these monsters on my own? I can barely get parts off!" Shaking her head she continues " I don't know if I want to chance it, I might just make more of a mess.. so I think I am going to squeeze in with you some how"

"Fair enough"  Danae responded, unbuckling her breastplate and other gear, and handing it over to Silvari.  "You mind hanging onto that stuff then for a bit then?  Don't want it slowing me down--I pretty much know the theory of how to move one of these... Realistically though?  It's my first time too!"  She laughed a little weakly then, before hopping up to one of the Common Warstriders she was able to restore.

"In any case..."  She begins, popping open the hatch to the fusilage, and beginning to strap in.  "Tight fit, but just try to hang on, and we should get out of this in one piece then!"

The warstrider is a bit laden down, hauling two people AND extra magical materials. To fit it all Danae and Slivari have to leave a little bit behind, though. (4 dots artifact worth of moonsilver and starmetal, rather than 6). But it works, and soon Danae has the warstrider moving on outside the hangar... wobbling, at first, but slowly getting used to the extra weight.

Outside is a mess. People are panicking, running in the streets. Some of them are carrying belongings or looting them, taking everything they can carry toward the nearest exit upward they can find. Fangs of elite Five Coils peace officers, led by Dragon-blooded in dragon armor, patrol the streets of the Lower District, dealing with rioting and unrest in the most final way possible: death. Anyone who does not consent to being herded into neat, patiently waiting groups is systematically cut or shot down, no matter their intent, no matter their age.

Danae and Slivari, who had seen more of Coils than most captives due to their functions, know roughly which way to go to head to either the nearest elevators or the nearest stairs. (Decide amongst yourselves whether you think the elevator or the stairs will be the better route.) However, it's impossible NOT to attract attention in a warstrider, and the nearest patrol quickly accosts them.

"Halt!" demands the patrol leader. He is a Fire Aspect wearing red jade dragon armor, wielding an artifact fire lance. The fang of men with him wear ashigaru armor and carry exceptional, elementally imbued spears and longbows. "Unidentified pilot! State your name, purpose and authorization, or surrender the warstrider immediately!"

Slivari was secretly glad she had always been made to watch her figure, Inside the machine it was cramped and uncomfortable though it wasn't like she was going to start complaining, Nope that type of thing would probably get her tossed out on her tush.

" Hey..Danae, which way do you..." Her voice trailed off as the Fire Aspect came into view, his voice making her wince. " Shit..." The young solar searched her mind for a solution to this, she had been trained to perform and mingle with her Lord's enemy's and friends. She could gather information or worm her way into a stuffy politicians heart but dealing with Monstrous Warstriders and all that wasn't exactly her cup of tea.

Figuring they didn't have time to sit and talk about a plan, Slivari placed her hand over the dawns mouth and flipped the switch to activate the speech device (?), She put a commanding tone in her voice, commanding and confidence. " I am Tepet Rovena, We have a situation involving an escaped Anathema . I do not have the time to get proper authorization for use of the warstrider or for a lengthy conversation. Hurry before the Anathema escape!." Afterward she sat there hoping this would work, she had pulled something out of thin air and hoped Danae would get this hunk of metal moving!