Segev Stormlord
GM, 645 posts
Mon 5 May 2014
at 12:15 | Crossing the YanazeThe forests have been getting thicker as Austringer moves North. In the Southeast, fertile plains blanket the landscape, but in the East, the Pole of Wood's influence slowly makes itself more felt. This far from the Wyld, it is nothing out of the ordinary; woods like this exist on the Blessed Isle as well, though these are less well-maintained. Still, there are simply more of them, and they stretch for further, with more villages and even small kingdoms built within them rather than clearing them out for farmland, or even usable space. This leads to many of them being nearly haphazard in their layout as they follow the lay of the land.
It is a comfortable place for various creatures, some of which are dangerous to the lone traveler. Others, like the mopsid, simply are too dangerous compared to the meat on their bones to be threatened by anything larger than they. Nests of these creatures are not infrequent, and they can be seen flying through the trees on their own business relatively frequently.
It is thus a little surprising when the woods thin out again to reveal a vast plain that stretches to the East and West for as far as the eye can see. It requires gaining a proper vantage, but distantly ahead, this plain seems to end in a vast, flowing lake: the Yanaze River, more than 80 miles wide and at times audible from as far a distance away. A month, maybe two, North of that - for those who travel by foot or wagon - lies Greyfalls.
As the plains open up, a few farms are set behind small but sturdy fences, keeping the wild animals of the woods from besetting their crops and livestock. A logging village lies just in the open, serving as a trading post for the farmers as well as marking the start of well-trod dirt roads leading to the massive river.
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Austringer
player, 2 posts
Mon 5 May 2014
at 21:00 | Re: Crossing the YanazeIt feels odd to be out in the open again. And after weeks of traveling mostly by wind and wing, it feels equally strange to be standing upright on the ground as a human being. Beneath Austringer’s gloves, his moonsilver tattoos seem to itch.
He peers from the forest edge toward the distant river. So, he thinks, the mighty Yanaze, Mother of Eastern Waters. I knew it would be big, but I didn’t realize it was big.
Austringer ponders his next move. The river itself poses no barrier for a fish, let alone a mospid, but what then? Rumor among the Lunars of the Threshold has it that the Nameless Lair of Ma-Ha-Suchi lies somewhere beyond that far shore, but he has only a vague idea of the time and distance. Worse, as he glances down at the gloves covering his hands and the rather ordinary sleeves bunching around his bracers, he realizes once again that he is no match for a homicidal elder Lunar from the First Age and a literal army of his children. Worst of all, he has only suspicion that his mentor was headed there in the first place. “Why couldn’t you just give me some straightforward instructions for once, you old peccary?” he can’t help muttering.
The thought of Master Harrez in trouble brings him back to himself. Harrez’s trail has been growing colder by the day, until it recently petered out beyond Austringer’s ability to follow it. Did he cross the river at all? Or did he head off in some other direction? And if he did, which?
Harrez, he knows, would want him to take initiative for himself. Maybe the people in this logging village have seen a squat man with a vajra—or a javelina—pass through. Maybe they know more about the stirrings of the Wolf with the Red Roses. And more than that, Austringer has begun to miss human contact. He decides it's best to cross this great floodplain as a man.
With a careful glance at his clothing to ensure he looks presentable without drawing attention to himself, and a final, nervous glance at the gloves covering the tattoos on his hands and fingers, Austringer shoulders his small pack and approaches the logging village quietly but confidently.
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 647 posts
Mon 12 May 2014
at 00:08 | Re: Crossing the YanazeThe village is tiny, no more than a few buildings. The largest seems to be a pavilion sheltering the logs brought in by the lumberjacks; the second largest is apparently a shared domicile. It's mid afternoon as Austringer approaches; there is some activity as young men lead a stolid yeddim-pulled sled back into the woods, its earlier contents freshly deposited with the other lumber.
The majority of people moving about are young women, cleaning up the village itself and tending a smallish garden. A pair are working on the roof of the long, house-like structure, patching it with bark-shingles. Nobody seems to pay any initial mind to a man walking out of the woods.
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Austringer
player, 3 posts
Tue 13 May 2014
at 15:59 | Re: Crossing the YanazeAustringer approaches the nearest person, one of the women tending the garden. "Good afternoon, ma'am," he says, sketching a faint ghost of a bow and smiling his most forthright smile. "Have you seen any strangers in the area recently? I'm a traveler from the south, looking for a friend. Did a large, squat fellow with a mustache pass through here? He looks like a hunter, carrying a sort of javelin. It would probably have been about a month past."
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 650 posts
Sun 18 May 2014
at 04:25 | Re: Crossing the YanazeA handsome woman in the middle of a mortal's tragically short number of years pushes some still-dark hairs up under her kerchief, to join the slate gray ones through which the darker locks streak. "We see a few dozen travelers going through town every month or so," she says, not unkindly, as she dusts her hands off on her much-used apron. "Some have mustaches," she adds a bit unhelpfully.
"Most don't travel alone; only seen a few of those." chimes in another of the women, this one younger.
A third, about the first one's age adds conversationaly, "Area's not too dangerous, this far from the river, but that's the only place to go north to around here."
"Where might your friend have been heading?" asks the first matron as she steps out of the garden to speak to him directly. Her shoes have thick but high heels, putting her nearly eye-to-eye with Austringer as she draws nearer and gets onto the firmer-packed earth of the path through town.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:27, Sun 18 May 2014.
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Austringer
player, 4 posts
Mon 19 May 2014
at 13:51 | Re: Crossing the YanazeRealizing that saying he isn't sure where his friend was going would sound ridiculous, not to mention suspicious, Austringer instead makes his best guess. "He would have been heading for the river, looking to cross, I should imagine. He had business on the north shore."
Something one of the other women said sticks in Austringer's mind. "Wait, what's dangerous about the area around the river?"
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 652 posts
Mon 19 May 2014
at 22:28 | Re: Crossing the Yanaze"Most of the rough sorts come from there," comments one of the younger women. They're beginning to gather around Austringer as the conversation gets more interesting. "River pirates, that sort of thing." "Yeah, lets them make quick assaults and get-aways."
The first woman to speak to him rolls her eyes a bit. "There really aren't that many of them, but the tales get bigger in the telling. We're still a couple of days' walk away from the shore, here," she offers in the tone of a well-worn discussion point, more aimed at the others than at Austringer, despite being addressed to him. "What's his business? Trade, or mercenary?"
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Austringer
player, 5 posts
Wed 21 May 2014
at 03:57 | Re: Crossing the YanazeAustringer considers an apt answer for a second, hoping the hesitation isn't obvious. "Troubleshooter," he says.
Sometimes, he thinks, you just have to trust somebody. "Some while ago, my home was ravaged by some kind of beast-creature-thing. Master Harrez-- my friend-- took me in. Not long ago, I told him the whole story, and he headed off this direction, I think to hunt down the beastman or demon or whatever it was that's responsible. Have you heard any rumors of anything like that?"
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 653 posts
Thu 22 May 2014
at 04:19 | Re: Crossing the Yanaze"Oh, there're always tales of monsters beyond the river," says the woman with increasing speed of speech, as if racing to get her words out before others. If so, she fails. A torrential flood of rumors, myths, and old wives' tales spin about and ricochet around Austringer as the women each have at least one tale they heard from a friend of a friend who was traveling south from there just last month. The tales range from lurid stories about knights rescuing fair princesses from faerie dragons to shriek-seeking suspense thrillers about monsters in the dark who steal away peasants to be eaten by things under hills. One even speaks of a princess so wealthy she has seduced a god into betraying Heaven for her hand in marriage (and a share in her enormous assets). He is, of course, going to eat her up if she discovers his poverty.
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Austringer
player, 6 posts
Fri 23 May 2014
at 03:28 | Re: Crossing the YanazeAustringer blinks at the welter of stories but recovers quickly. "The north bank sounds like an exciting place," he says.
(OOC: Austringer attempts a Per+Lore+specialty in Exalts or, if the ST feels it more apt, Per+Investigation, to determine if anything they said might give him clues toward either Harrez's whereabouts or anything useful about Ma-Ha-Suchi's current operations.)
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 654 posts
Fri 23 May 2014
at 04:27 | Re: Crossing the YanazeThe stories mostly sound well-worn and rehashed, though a princess seducing a god is well within the purview of the Exalted when they put their minds to it. The part that rings most true is the reference to monsters stealing people away; Ma-Ha-Suchi's breeding pits are not exactly unknown in the Silver Pact's circles, and some may argue that being devoured would be a kinder fate. The Nameless Lair is a month or more of travel by mortal means, however, even from the north side of the Yanaze. It could be that the Elder's reach is spreading if these sorts of tales are becoming gossip this far south. Or it could just be that not much more exciting happens in a thousand-mile radius.
At Austringer's comment, however, one of the youngest in the bevy of women exults, "Oh! Yes! The King of Falan and his Knights live on the north bank! They're always in the midst of one adventure or another!"
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Austringer
player, 7 posts
Sat 24 May 2014
at 02:17 | Re: Crossing the YanazeKnights, Austringer thinks. The word plays on his imagination like a master musician on the strings of a harp. This is what he and Tepet Arslan used to daydream about when they were boys: being knights, battling Anathema and other monsters in defense of the innocent. Suddenly, Austringer’s concerns over Harrez the Rough’s whereabouts seem misplace. Harrez is a formidable warrior over a century old and can take care of himself.
But regardless of Harrez, there's still a wicked elder Lunar across that river, preying on the innocent, misusing an Exaltation that should be an honor to himself and the Fickle Maid for the vilest of ends. The forces of—Falan, was it?—might be just the allies Austringer needs to punish the Wolf with the Red Roses for his crimes once and for all. And maybe, just maybe, to discover whether he was the one who turned Austringer's life upside down the night the young Lunar Exalted.
“I’m a stranger to the here,” he says, “and I haven’t heard of Falan before.” Trying to contain an almost boyish eagerness, he adds, “This Duke and these knights, why has their fame spread all the way across”—he gestures to the river—“that? And where can I find them, precisely?”
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 656 posts
Sun 25 May 2014
at 16:23 | Re: Crossing the Yanaze"Falan's a huge kingdom on the far banks of the Yanaze!" offers one young woman.
"The King is old and wise, and has a really handsome son who's a knight and is looking for a bride."
"No, the King's young and looking for his own bride so the kingdom has an heir."
"If you're looking for justice against the evil beast-thing that ravaged your village, the knights'll help you. They fight off the hordes of beastmen from the north all the time!"
"Maybe you should become a knight!"
"If you want to talk to a Duke, the Duke of Eastriver is closest to the King, but the Duke of Oredol's closest, here. He's also the richest, I hear."
"Do you suppose HIS son's married yet?"
"Hah!" scoffs a more elderly matron, "As if any of the likes of you have a chance to even ever meet such nobility."
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Austringer
player, 8 posts
Tue 27 May 2014
at 02:02 | Re: Crossing the YanazeAustringer considers and wonders if perhaps it's just that simple. Particularly if Ma-Ha-Suchi's forces are on the rampage, he can simply head north into Falan and scout around its forests and fields until he finds a force of mortals fighting the elder's vicious beastmen. He reviews the names the villagers gave him in his head to make sure he has them set.
"Thank you," he says. "They sound like exactly the people I need to see. Where is the best place in Falan to start looking for forces fighting the beastmen?" Ideally, it'll be something he can spot from the air ...
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 657 posts
Tue 27 May 2014
at 05:17 | Re: Crossing the Yanaze"The northern border, certainly," answers the first woman to speak to Austringer. "That's the edge of civilization, so it's closest to the beastmen's lands."
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Austringer
player, 9 posts
Wed 28 May 2014
at 17:50 | Re: Crossing the YanazeAustringer reflects that the lot of a Lunar always seems to involve ending up on the borders of civilization. Still, if that is where the fight against Ma-Ha-Suchi is flaring, that is where he'll find answers, and possibly Harrez as well.
"Then that is where I'll go." He grins. "It's a long way; I'd best get moving. Thank you so kindly for you assistance, ma'am. May the blessings of Luna and the Dragons be on you."
(Assuming the villagers have nothing further to add, Austringer heads for the nearest out-of-sight place and assumes mospid form for the flight down to the river edge, where he takes a short rest before making the long flight across.)
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 658 posts
Thu 29 May 2014
at 02:33 | Re: Crossing the YanazeIt is a long flight over the Yanaze. Austringer's seen inland seas that are narrower. Boats - fishing, merchant, pleasure - occasionally pass below over the hours as he glides along, the water essence churning the air and providing a controlled breeze that almost makes it easier to face eastward.
As he finally nears the far shore, the first sign of "land" across which he comes seems at first to be a set of buildings constructed right in the water. Too stationary to be boats, it becomes clear that they're built on a barely-submerged sand bar. Men who initially seemed to be walking on water are clearly toiling under the late afternoon heat of the Sun as it descends towards the mouth of the great river. What they're doing is unclear from this height, but their overseers patrol with a stern presence which most butlers would envy.
Intently focused on their various labors, they are at least as surprised as Austringer when a great river dragon erupts from the water and snaps its jaws around the shoulder and upper torso of one of the supervisors and flips him end-over-end out towards the deeper water. He grows almost peacefully in Austringer's sight as he rises, before Earth's uncompromising grip retake's its hold and pulls him downward once more.
Screams spread in ripples just behind awareness of what has happened, and men and women start to stumble from where they kneel to scurry backwards on their hands and heels, or turn and flee as fast as they can through water at least up to their ankles. The river dragon surges onto the shallowly-covered sand bar, sending waves pushing the nearest fleeing mortals ahead as it begins to prowl towards them. Almost herding them towards the narrower end of the not-quite-island, where the tallest building stands.
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Austringer
player, 10 posts
Sat 31 May 2014
at 00:41 | Re: Crossing the YanazeThe mind of a mospid, even a Steward, is not like the mind of a man. Austringer realizes the danger to the people below, and feels the impulse to protect them, not as a matter of conscious thought but as a matter of instinct. And that same instinct tells him that this is not a time for subtlety. (Thus, he will begin by burning peripheral rather than personal essence.)
He performs a wingover to get slightly behind the river dragon, as well as above it. (If possible, depending on the relative positions of the sun and the river dragon, he lines up so he's hidden by the sun from the dragon's position.) Then, feeling the tattoos across his wings coil with the protean power of moonsilver and blaze with Lunar essence, he shifts to his warform. Faint, pale-yellow light wreathes his form. In moments, his flight is less effortless, yet he is now tremendously stronger and faster.
At the same time, he calls forth his Claws of the Silver Moon. Silvery essence now gleams along his talon-like nails. His anima banner flares brighter, to a cool white, and rises farther from his skin, forming a rough, radiant outline perhaps six inches from his skin.
While doing all this, he watches the river dragon carefully. Should it move to attack the workers, he will arrow down on it and strike as soon as possible. But this "herding" business looks suspicious-- frightening potential prey toward safety while ignoring the man it flung into the river is not normal behavior from any river dragon Austringer has heard of. He examines the river dragon as carefully as he can from this height for anything unusual.
(OOC: This appears to be three actions: (1) flying into position and trying to establish a position of surprise (presumably either Dex+Athletics and/or Dex+Stealth), (2) donning warform and popping his Claws (a shapeshifting plus a Charm; note that this is Claws in its normal form, not its Gift form), and (3) examining the river dragon (presumably either Per+Awareness or Per+Investigation). Please let me know how many rolls I need here and of what sort.)
This message was last edited by the player at 00:43, Sat 31 May 2014.
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 661 posts
Sat 31 May 2014
at 01:24 | Re: Crossing the YanazeFrom the high vantage point, with the Sun entirely behind his small form, the mospid can tell easily that the river dragon and its human quarry are not looking up at all, let alone into the daystar's blinding light. More to the point, however, Austringer can see a tell-tail glint of silvery lines tracing flows of Essence mere moments before the river dragon's wings turn from leather to feathers, and several of those develop a moonsilver sheen as they turn razor-sharp and magically hard.
Rearing up into a bipedal form, some sort of multi-winged hybrid of predatory avian raptors sweeps forward, gouging deeply into the flesh of any men too foolish or slow to get out of its way. The lethal grace of the unfettered motion is eerily beautiful from up here, where the wind can almost cover the screams of pain and fear.
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