Join Battle
Willow 13
Seeks 9
Sleet 7

The monster, or more likely a air spirit of some kind, hisses laughter like a blizzard wind. Its translucent wings begin to sprout a jagged edge of ice on the leading edge as the joy of a fight overtakes it.

"There is no lie in the ice that will coat your wing feathers and sends you crashing to the earth below! I am what you see! I am Sleet!", it roars proudly to Willow's taunt.

It slaps its wings together with a 'thoom' as it springs with unexpected agility toward the 'birds'.

Willow can act first.
Seeks first action is Shape Sorcery.
Sleet goes last.

The piercing cry of a hawk was all the sound that Slender Willow Swaying made as she spread her own wings wide and soared upwards as Sleet rushed towards them. Each motion suffused with a grace no mundane bird might hope to make as she tucked her wings in at the apex of her assent and quickly twisted her small frame around. Essence burned and churned within her as the near perfection of the woman exploded from the form of the rainbow hawk, her body no longer buoyed upon kaleidoscopic pinions, she fell with the howling wind snapping at her clothes and the flow of her dark hair writhing like a hateful miasma about her head as she splayed seemingly delicate limbs to slow and control her descent. Those mad eyes narrowed with a wicked glee and determination as she took in the full glory of what she now sought to destroy in form and ego both.

That she could be heard at all was a miracle in itself and further testament to the madness that roiled within her as memories swirled and danced along side thundering window and adrenaline.

"Sleet? Miserable bastard of Snow and Rain? Bringer of nothing but bitter cold and wretched mud? What use are you to a world like this? Mired and wretched as it is already. Dance with the Children of Silver and see what you hunt, little bird!" She shouted above the roar of the wind as she twisted herself with the speed of a snapping eel with prey in sight. Each motion driven by a raw yet paradoxically refined instinct as she descended towards the Spirit. Essence glimmering all the while in her wake as she drew deeply upon the world around her; the rush of air, the light of the sun upon her, the cold that she felt as she fell towards Sleet with no regard for the safety of her course. Her faith in her survival all but assured by the power she had been given and her knowledge of it.

It was as she drew near that more became apparent to her fellow lunar; a panoply of phantom limbs unfurling as the Changing Moon twisted and turned in her descent. Each hand twisting through a thousand gestures and evocations as she fell ever closer towards the spirit she seemed almost obsessed with offending. All while radiance began to bleed into her lunar markings; the glowing form of an infinite centipede seeming to encircle her as they worked along her form, up her neck, along her cheeks, and over her brow to raise high the ever shifting form of Mother Moon.

Her wicked smile seeming all the brighter as she revealed herself in all her shadowed and ever changing splendor. The airs of madness and many faces seeming to lend an allure and impact to her words and actions that defied what good reason and sound logic would otherwise advise.


INSANITY TIME!

Move action to get above him (Reflexive from prior discussion)
Shapeshifting into human form (Reflexive from prior discussion)
10 Essence from Peripheral to activate Laughing Monster Form. (Simple Action)

16:03, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 8 successes using 11d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Presence 4 + Man 4 + 3 die Stunt.

To infuriate and distract Sleet into focusing on me and getting him into a better position for Seeks.

Pretty sure that Laughing Monster Form won't let me add my occult dice to that influence roll but let me know if it does. :D

Seeks What Is Forgotten had many tricks that he could draw on, and almost none of them worked up here.  Yet he had sought out Slender Willow Swaying's company, and sought to ingratiate himself to her for a reason.  She had made it clear to him that she was a warrior, something he never would have expected of himself, and that was what he needed.  He trusted her now, on her word alone, that she would buy him the time he needed to unleash his power.  What craft of war she might unleash, he could only have guessed.

Yet even with all of Luna's wisdom and Mara's secretes, he never would have dreamed in a thousand years that he would witness the display she put forth. He stared in mind numbing incomprehension as she regained her human form, and plunged herself bodily at the foe. What strange arcanum burst to life about her he could only guess at, but it was terrifying in its eldritch symmetry.  He suppressed a shudder as he watched the utterly inhuman nature of it, still unused to the presence of immortals and still terrified of what it meant.  He had thought he had understood magic, but watching his companion made him realize how little he knew.

He tried what magic he had now, pulling the shadows to him, and felt the rush of relief as the magic obeyed his will.  His shadow was so far below him as to be invisible, and yet as he pulled the power from the raw motes of existence his silhouette seemed to darken and twist beneath him.  A black streak from the tiny form of the Harpy Eagle, a solid line that descended from the heavens to the earth below.  From that darkness?  Power.  The temperature around him dropped, a chill sinking deep into the bones, as the wind began to whip and crack.  The dark purple lines of Mara's power inscribed upon his flesh burst to glowing life, humming a mockery of his still hidden Lunar tattoos. Geometric lines of eldritch energy, surging as he pulled from the shadows below.  Whispers filled the air, the distant echo of ecstatic screams and cruel laughter.

He called, and power came.


Investing 1 WP and casting Death of Obsidean Butterflies, collecting 9 of 15 motes.

15:51, Yesterday: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 7 successes using 9d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Intelligence 5 + Occult 3 (Sorcery).

10:09, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  2 Point Stunt.

Spending 3 Peripheral Motes to use Unwavering Predator’s Eye - P. 238

Join Battle with Perception + Awareness, double 9s.

07:28, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 6 successes using 8d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 ((4,9,1,9,6,6,6,10)).

Initiative is 9.


This message was last edited by the player at 00:33, Mon 19 Oct 2020.

The monstrous ice spirit turns on ponderous wings of ice toward the falling Willow. For the moment it is distracted from Seek's eagle form surrounded by its phantasms of shadows and purple light, maddened by Willow's taunts. Sleet drives upward, its massive beak of ice filled with jagged icicles reaching out to snap the falling Lunar out of the air. Despite Willow's wild, laughing twisting in the air the monster's flashing ice teeth strike home with a spray of crimson blood and red ice.

[Activating Icy Beak Strike against Willow for a Withering attack. 15m + 3i.
Activating Brawl Excellency for +4 dice. 4m.

Vs. Willow's DV 6 (including applicable Charms, Cost 3m)

09:11, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Sleet, rolled 10 successes using 16d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Beak Attack.

Willow's Soak 5 (with Impenetrable Beast-Armor, 3m.)

09:17, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Sleet, rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Withering Damage.

09:20, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Sleet, rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Freezing ice DECISIVE damage.

Willow loses 3 Initiative and takes 1 level of Lethal damage. Spent 7m.
Sleet gains 4 Initiative.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:25, Thu 22 Oct 2020.

Turn 2 Initiative
Sleet 11
Willow 9
Seeks 7


Sleet continues to torment the falling Willow with cruel snips and cuts. A mocking eye watches with delight even as she twists and turns in her fall, narrowly avoiding the thing's icy fangs.

Sleet misses bringing him down to 10 init.

New Turn 2 Initiative.

Willow 10
Sleet 10
Seeks 7

Willow and Seeks can take their Turn 2 actions.

Sleet: DV 6 (spending 4 motes on Excellency for a +2 DV)

This message was last edited by the GM at 15:49, Thu 22 Oct 2020.

Essence burned, churned, twisted and danced around Slender Willow Swaying as she wove and twisted as the relentless wind and the no less relentless Sleet snapped and bit at her. Her skirts, shawls, and hair twisting and dancing as if possessed of a life all their own beyond that of the woman who bore it. Her voice piercing in it's mocking laughter as she felt the pain of the grazing blow draw blood and send it rocketing away upon the breeze, crimson crystals forming. It wasn't a blow given freely though as the force of the blow spun her in the air and one of her many phantom limbs managed to snatch outwards, latching onto one of the spirit's teeth and tearing it free of it's gums. The force and momentum steadying her as she fell and another barb jovially shrieked in the face of the beast as the game continued and memory along side adrenaline surged through soul, body, and mind.

"Such pride for nothing more than a hen peck! Is this the might of Sleet? Little nibbles and numb cuts? What a sad child you are of Rain and Snow! Not even worth the fire I've set around us!"

It was impossible to not see it now as she fell and fought and struggled, existing purely and utterly in the moment with a raw and wicked glee even as life times played out within her mind. Her tattoos twisted and writhed as the held aloft the glowing form of the ever changing moon and all around her the air seemed alive with the silver radiance of Luna herself, reaching into the heavens and far below as it twisted and writhed like a living flame... Twisting, reshaping, reforming into the rearing form of some great and terrible centipede, it's eyes alive with moon silver as it's mandibles the size of elephants dripped twilight flames in anticipation of the feast before it.

It was in that moment, that terrible, hideous moment that she twisted and turned in the air once more. She bided her time in the instant, her heart beating in her ears even as her laughter drowned it out. Her endless arms swaying, dancing and churning around her in an endless sea of madness and infinite mudras as she slowed her descent and waited for the spirit to charge her once. Endless arms and hands seemed to launch outwards then, slapping, elbowing, and spinning her around with such ferocity as to strike once more with a sweeping leg before she fell too far to reach it once more. Her body spinning for an instance as she tucked in her limbs with another taunting trill of laughter before spreading out once more to slow her fall.

She was insane. It could be the only conclusion that one might draw as an observer... and yet she was alive in that moment. All was her oyster and she was the great and terrible trickster of legend, the laughing Demon.


WHAMMY TIME!

As Furiously Stalling Destiny was used to dodge, I gain an automatic success on my first attack. So first order of business, the counter attack I get from Laughing Monster Form. It only deals one dice of damage on the hit because that's all Sleet lost but that's better than nothing.

Activating Deeper Into Trouble Technique for 3 Motes (Periphery).

4 Motes (Personal) for Dexterity Excellency to counterattack roll.

19:30, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 7 successes using 14d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  MA + DEX + OCCULT + 4 Excellency.

19:32, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  1 Initiative Dice + 3 Bonus DMG from DITT.

So that's one lethal straight to the HPs.

Time for more HP!

4 Motes (Periphery) towards Dexterity Excellency.

3 Motes (Periphery Towards Deeper Into Trouble Technique (again) adding +3 damage die and double tens for decisive attacks.

19:51, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 9 successes using 14d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  DEX + MA +  OCC + Excellency (4).

19:55, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 9 successes using 13d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Init + 3 from major negative intimacy.

That resets me to 3 initiative.

This message was last edited by the player at 11:41, Fri 23 Oct 2020.

Seeks What Is Forgotten's eyes went wide as he watched the Changing Moon Caste unleash her assault upon their foe, her form rippling as Luna's fury was set loose upon Creation. He had thought he had known fury when he had realized what Outstanding Contribution to the Historical Process had intended. Yet now he realized his unleashed rage had been but a pebble's shimmering disruption upon the surface of a still pond before the towering cyclone of shadows and chitinous limbs that was Slender Willow Swaying's wrath.

Within him, Mara's whispers filled his mind, congratulating him on finding such an excellent companion. Was she not the brilliant thunderstorm to his cold fury, the beacon of Luna's divinity to create the shadow he needed? He pushed such thoughts aside, suppressing a shudder as he refocused and sought to shape the sorcery he had already partially unleashed within his mind.  The very air about him  dripped with Mara's power as he drew it into himself, his beating wings feeling like they were powering through molasses.  The light was seemingly drained from him, his feathers going black and reflective against the clear sky.  There was a great silence, the pause after a great inhalation of breath, and then the world exploded.

The obsidian that had encased his feathers exploded outwards in muffled howl of magic, a boom almost beneath hearing, and yet still a roar.  Each shard shattered into a thousand more, coalescing into a dense cloud of butterflies each gleaming black as midnight.  With preternatural speed and accuracy, the swarm of deadly obsidian streaked away from him and towards Sleet in a deadly, a thousand brutal cuts in an instant.

Action:  Shape Sorcery

09:57, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 7 successes using 9d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Intelligence 5 + Occult 3 (Sorcery).

10:10, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 10 successes using 11d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Perception 5 + Occult 3 (Sorcery) + 2 Point Stunt.

That's 11 hits with an undodgeable decisive attack.

Not sure what that does to my initiative.

[Seeks, DoOB doesn't reset your initiative so it would carry over into the next round unchanged. A benefit. Also a hit like yours does your Essence of 2 + extra successes damage dice. In this case 8 dice after Sleet's Parry defense is factored in. We can consider it a kill since he was down to his last wound level from Willow's attacks.]

It isn't unusual for spirits of storms to be insufferably arrogant about their power and standing. Today this attitude costs the elemental beast once known as Sleet dearly as his challenge to two Celestial Exalted goes terribly wrong.

Willow's taunting and tricky contortions in the air leave Sleet bleeding reddish ice water from its veins and ice scales cracking from its hide. Sleet's wings beat feebly in anger but its voice cries out in distress as it is engulfed in Seeks cloud of black glass butterflies with razor wings. "Mercy!" is the last word heard in the fluttering mass before only a tumbling morass of broken ice and black glass remains to fall to the earth below.

Willow has time to study the broken ice tooth in her hand as she falls heedlessly toward the river rocks below. Its an interesting thing. It seems to whisper of biting winds and winter cold. Some remnant of the spirit's power inhabits the tooth. Suddenly Willow remembers where she is and a quick transformation into a raiton arrests her fall. She rejoins her companion in the sky.

Slender Willow Swaying let Sleet's cry of mercy die upon the winds that bore it. Her eyes watching the elemental fall away with a strange war of emotions as the fervor of battle and hate abated in the instant. It perhaps had not deserved all that she had done to it but it was a symptom of a diseased age. Just as she was a symptom of a diseased age, burdened with memories of past and better lives that shone like jewels. Her introspection was, by necessity, cut short as she spun and twisted, essence reshaping her into a form once more capable of flight as her wings spread and rocketed her upward upon the relentless wind.

Sleet's fang still clutched in her talon as a macabre trophy of the fury she had unleashed. The echo of power in it's depths a curiosity that she would have to explore when she could find a moment of peace for such thinking.

The Changing Mask let out a piercing cry then as she soared towards Azrego.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:45, Sun 22 Nov 2020.

Seeks What is Forgotten watched Slender Willow Swaying with wariness as she drew near. Not that this sudden display of power had made him afraid of her, in a way he had already been so. It took a certain mindset that, when granted extraordinary power by not one but two patrons, chose to hide rather than to be visible.  It wasn't that he was a coward, he was simply focused inward.  Luna's favor and Mara's promises had been an intensely powerful internal experience for him, two conflicting energies causing him to turn his mind's eye inward.  He burned to understand himself, as well as the divine and infernal within. That sort of mind would of course be drawn to understand Slender Willow Swaying with the same passion that he sought to understand himself.  He had always been afraid of her, and this demonstration of her rage had done nothing to either lessen or dull that fear. It was his nature to seek out that which others desired, and never had he seen her make her desires more clear than in that moment of battle lust. She was more dangerous than anything he had encountered before, and like a moth to flame he could not help but be drawn to her. A burning desire to understand her, to understand what had brought about such fury.  Not for any amorous intent, but merely the sheer exhilarating joy of comprehension.  He would never summon her shadow self, never truly grasp what it was that she was, he'd never dare.

Moments like this then were the closest he would come to true insight.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:58, Sat 21 Nov 2020.

The aerial voyage proves the advantage of wings as Seeks and Willow follow up the Meander River. Two hundred miles pass in the span of a day's flight. The sky is clear if cold under the pale winter sunlight. Below can be seen the occasional flat bottom boats on the river carrying trade to the far distant River Province. To the South lies expanses of broad leafed trees and plantation fields, gleaming white Guild houses presiding over them like lords. To the North the Creeper Peaks rise in daunting slopes to white capped peaks. A bird's eye picks out the occasional upthrust of mysterious ruins on broken slopes.

To the East can be seen the upthrust line of cliffs passing north to south. Beyond is the gleam of the vast Greyscale Lake. As the last miles are eaten away by the Lunar's wings the first signs of Azrego become visible. The shores are strewn with the tents of new arrivals, immigrants and nomads interspersed with sturdier log constructions of long term residents, inns and warehouses. Beyond the city rises crawls up the cliffsides with a great waterfall pouring between its arms from the heights above.

[Some possible destinations:

House Cliffside employs numerous mapmakers. They tend to live and work in Rivertown or Lake-Town.

The Broken Straw Academy in Up-Falls is a small school of sorcery patronized by House Startreader. They are known to be eager for information about the 1st Age ruins located in the region but tend to be mercenary and arrogant.

Of course numerous tribesmen of all sort, guides, and whatnot can be found in Rivertown.]



https://www.deviantart.com/ace...rfall-city-336441011

Slender Willow Swaying turned and spiraled with all the playfulness one might expect of her form as she began her descent. Still, there was something there beneath it that spoke to the wrath and fury that burned within her divinely touched spirit. A grim reminder of the essential and mercurial nature of the being as she played and twisted upon the breezes of her native home, her wings beating mere feet from the ground before wicked claws dug into the soft earth in the shadows and cover offered by the receding forest at the edges of Azrego. The glint of her prize from the vanquished sleet still clutched greedily in one talon.

Essence burned within her once more as she shook, silvery motes of soul stuff falling away as her form twisted, grew, and feathers fell away to reveal first pale flesh followed quickly by the falling curls of her dark hair only to flow into the festive hues of her skirts, shawls, and tunic. She shook for a moment then as her hand tightened about the tooth before placing it in a pouch and letting her mind churn. Old memories of different lives scratching at the corners of her mind and drawing her gaze ever further into contemplation. Eventually, she entwined her hands and gently stretched as she waited for her companion to join her.

She knew of a man or two that might help them in their search. One was a scholar, Stained Fingers, from House Startreader. She knew him well enough and how he could be convinced to help them without the tedium of money and trade... It was only a question of if she had the patience for the scent of ink and vellum... and the feeling that all that was hoarded in their halls was not better served in the hands of the many, given freely and without condition. Her lips pursed into a frown at the thought as flickers of memory burned to the fore... The feeling of quill in hand, of texts laid out before her. The letters meant nothing to her mind, a skill that had long eluded her in her ruminations and passion pursuits.

She shook her head then and considered the other that she might know. If she were in town, they might find better purchase with them. A fellow tribal though not of the same mother or gods. Raven's Eye was an outcast and a strange one but Slender Willow Swaying felt a certain kinship as they both sought something that eluded them in the world. She wished to find her city of pillars and to reclaim some grain of a far greater past... Raven's Eye... sought purpose or so was her impression but what she might find it in was a teasing mystery. Still, there were few more knowledgeable in the strange places and lost secrets that might lie here and there as she had roamed far and wide, only really returning here every cycle or so for supplies.

Lost in her thoughts, the Lunar almost began her trek towards the city proper but stopped and glanced skyward for her companion. She had to wonder what they had thought of her display against the spirit. Few were comfortable around a woman like her, was he afraid now? Or were they still intrigued? Or was it both? She remembered that feeling when Luna had spoken to her... Fear, Intrigue, a desire to survive and grow stronger... to destroy an ugly, twisted shadow of past greatness so something could blossom again. She sighed softly, sadly as she waited for Seeks What is Forgotten to rejoin her so they might plan.

Seeks What Is Forgotten flew in silence behind the one they had chosen to weave their destiny to, pondering the steps that had led them here.  Over and over, the concept of free will entered into their mind.  Did they truly control their own destiny, or had the path always been laid out before them?  They could see the chain of causality, see how each choice had led to the next, and for the life of them they could not discern what they could have done differently.  Oh, they could have been cleverer for sure, more perceptive there, quicker there, but would any of their choices had changed?

They doubted it.

They came down next to Slender Willow Swaying in a shower of brown robes and cracked flesh, looking with iridescently shimmering black eyes at the strangest choice they had made. The Changing Moon Caste was so utterly strange, and yet so much truer to Luna's purpose than they had ever been.  They were a creature of shadows and secrets, torn between two Goddesses.  Or close enough, in Mara's case.  Luna's rage burned within them, but it was a terrifying thing, and the source of much of the current woe within them.  If not for that bane, they would still be a traveler among the cities of the East, lost in tombs and tomes as they searched for a cure for the Contagion which even now devoured them from the inside.  Instead they were here, standing beside this manifestation of the Goddesses fury made flesh. What would happen if that fury was ever directed at him?  It felt like it would achilleate him in an instant, sear him from his bones and render him down to fat and tallow. He didn't even understand what drove her, what caused it.  He needed to. For he knew deeply what guided Outstanding Contribution to the Historical Process, and he knew that he would need Slender Willow Swaying's aid if he was to ever be free of that huntress.

"That was... rather terrifying truth be told."

He said at last, pulling up his hood to hide his alien features.

"Not Sleet, you.  I've never seen any other touched by Luna's gifts before. My spell weaving is a slow thing, not really suited for battle.  I've trained some in arms over the decades, but I'd never considered myself a warrior.  What are the other Lunars like, are they also prone to dive headfirst at the enemy like that? Am I the freak yet again here?  You were..."

He shrugged, not sure what to say.

"... intimidating."

He said at last, shrugging.

"You've seen me Bind Demons to my service before, if we have time to spare I would do so again. I have a binding in mind that will cause us no grief within Azrego.  A subtle thing, a hidden thing, my sort of thing.  Yet something that... well... if another fight such as that occurs..."

He seemed either frightened or embarrassed.

"Well, so I can be a little more like you."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:18, Wed 09 Dec 2020.

Slender Willow Swaying seemed to consider the question for a moment as she turned away from Seeks What Is Forgotten, her form seeming to shake for an instant as a fist balled at her side before relaxing and the laughter becoming audible to the ear. It had such sweet notes but there was an almost mania that lingered beneath it as it stabbed at the ear with some strange hint of melancholia and old wounds that hadn't healed right. A hand brushed gently at one cerulean eye as if banishing tears as she turned back toward her companion who now hid their ravaged features behind the shadows of no more than a hood. That crooked grin crossing her features but never quite banishing the darkness of whatever thoughts or memories lurked within her mind.

"Some, maybe. We wear many faces by our nature. I don't think they see the world like I do... Not any of the younger ones anyway. Old... old memories come and go in my mind. I see things from better times... better places... through the eyes of better people... I like what I see from then than what I see now." the Changing Moon offered with soft rise and fall of her shoulders once more as she curled her arms about herself and turned her eyes towards the city beyond once more. That crooked smile turning into little more than a frown before falling into what could be thought of as little more than melancholic rumination, that air of mania seeming to circle around her like a storm as if it were more than just glimpses of memory but fragments of something other floating to the surface, influencing this young woman's thoughts and actions... and guiding the terrible power at her finger tips. It was insanity if nothing else to a more grounded observer.

"We're not in a hurry so long as Fulgar and the Gods can remain patient so... Summon your demon but I don't think you'd like to be a little more like me. You've pain enough on your own with what's eating you away from within." Slender Willow Swaying offered with a glance back towards Seeks What Is Forgotten with a wicked but warm smile now brightening her features which only really served to inspire a gut deep suspicion that there was far more trouble to be had in the company of a seeming lunatic. "Once your done, I know a few people who might be able to point us in something like the right direction though they'll naturally want something in exchange. They always do."

Seeks What Is Forgotten ducked his head down low at his companion's comment, though deep within his shadowed hood he bore a smile.

"I brought this upon myself."

He extended his hands from his robes, the skin withered and dry.

"And in truth?  If I were given the chance to do it all over again, I don't know if I would choose to do much different. Perhaps I would, and there were certainly points where it was hell on earth.  Yet the whole picture?  The places I've been, the things I've seen? The indulgences I've taken?"

He shrugged, withdrawing back into his cowl.

"I can't even say.  I just don't really understand what I am.  I'm not just Luna's, Mara has her hooks in me almost as deep. Am I even truly a Lunar?  Did you ever hear in all your travels of another like me, or meet one?  I don't even truly understand myself.  The moment I try and give myself to one, the other sweeps in to steal me away.  I can't... lose myself like that, like you did with Sleet. Or at least, every time I've tried it's gone spectacularly wrong."

He chuckled, beginning to head towards the town.

"I will need to wait until sundown to begin anyways.  So let us start with your people, and then we can switch to mine."

Slender Willow Swaying offered a softer smile as Seeks What Is Forgotten spoke, there was a wickedness that lingered in the eaves but there was no hint of it's bite... No sign of that laughing demon who slew the will as readily as the body with poisoned word and terrible blows. She seemed to fuss with words that danced at the tip of her tongue for a moment before offering what thoughts she might have in the moment. The gesture as near perfect and graceful as ever when combined with the nature of her aesthetic. Beautiful and terrible as always with hints of wickedness and melancholy lingering in those blue eyes.

"I'd think Mara would have more to fear of Luna than the opposite but she's not a jealous goddess unless it plays to the face she's wearing. Survive and live, do so without regret... That's always the lesson I've taken away." the Changing Moon offered before glancing back to the city and turning her mind to the matter at hand. Memories roiled and churned beneath the surface, relics of bygone loves and eras... That sense of bitterness, disappointment, rising like unwanted bile for a moment before she drew a breath and placed both hands at her hips as her gaze drifted downward to the earth at her feet.

"Two names, two people. There's Stained Fingers. He's a scholar that's pledged himself to House Startreader... So for a price we can use him to get to the knowledge they've hoarded and kept from all. Which might give something up of what we seek; reports... locations... Something. He'll ask questions though to satisfy his own curiosity."

There was something in her tone that implied such stores of knowledge might be inaccessible in another way to her and that... It annoyed her in some fashion to acknowledge it but she gave away no more than that as she moved to the next person she might know to lead them on the right path.

"The other is Raven's Eye. Another tribal. I like her better. She wanders and seeks purpose in the act. The problem with that is she is rarely still for more than a few days. I know a few of her favorite places and people though. If she's in town, I'm certain we can cross paths quickly and she might have a tale or legend to share that can guide us just as well; old knowledge from one tribe or another." the Laughing Demon offered with a grin that spoke of nostalgia and fondness to match her words as she turned and glanced back towards Seeks What Is Forgotten. The unspoken question of which path they preferred implied with just a little arch of brow and twist of the ever present smile.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:42, Tue 22 Dec 2020.

The stink of thousands of people packed together drift sporadically on a playful breeze as the two Lunars approach the city on foot. The muddy road following along the north bank of the Meander fills with morning traffic: wagons of goods bound for the city, farmers looking to trade, local trappers hauling their furs, and the braying of donkey teams used to pull river barges toward the city docks. Tents in many styles, from local barbaric and practical hide tents to rough canvas tarps heaved up by immigrants unable to afford housing, range around the feet of log buildings and warehouses. The cold of the western swamps is replaced by a modestly warm climate moderated by the vast lake to the East.

The people are a colorful collection of the exotic pushing and shoving through the growing crowds as the morning sun rides higher in the sky. Makeshift and spontaneous markets form along the road as sellers call out to passer-by to sample their wares. Children cut through the distracted crowd with playful yells, mothers calling them back to order. Here and there beggars call out for alms and a procession of monks sing and clash cymbals while dancing in their bright yellow robes.

The two Lunars draw little notice at first until the crowd notice Seeks What Is Forgotten and draw away, afraid of disease or curses. A bubble forms around them and stall-keepers warn burnt Seeks away so as not to frighten their custom. Not that the two Lunars pay the minor disturbance much heed as used to it as they are, deep in their conversation.

Up ahead lies the old fortress, known as the Block, that dominates River-Town. Crude logs and earth embankments have long since been re-purposed into offices for the various companies that operate out of the rough and tumble neighborhood. Those seeking work, like laborers and guides, cluster here. A good place to find Raven's Eye.

The eye draws up to the vast falls that bisect the city and feed the Meander River. The cliffs, known as Up-Falls, are dotted the fine mansions of the merchant-houses and others who made good in the chaotic capitalistic free-for-all of Azrego. Elevators of lumber groan under the big loads of goods and produce being shifted up to or down from Lake-Town. The falls themselves tumble and spray out gorgeous crests of water and rainbows. Even from here Seeks and Willow can feel the untamed flows of Water Essence that marks a demense (a place of untapped magical power) amidst the falls. A beautifully fluted tower rises between split water falls, the Tower of the Eight Directions, and the site of the minor sorcerous school that operates in Azrego. Stained Fingers works here as a scribe and tutor.

What do you do?

Seeks What Is Forgotten was moving faster than he had in decades.

He was typically a slow and methodical soul, sometimes observing a settlement for weeks (and even months) before he showed so much as his hooded cowl to the occupants.  If he bothered to show himself at all, for the gifts of Luna meant he could walk the streets cloaked in the form of whatever lesser animal he wished. It was not that he disliked people, quite the opposite in fact. He found them endlessly fascinating, with all their little quarrels and dramas. He liked to know everything about them before they even knew he existed, and his twinned patrons meant he had endless means at his disposal to do so. Be it teasing their deepest secrets from stolen shadows, sending bound demons to sip though their dreams, or just crawling through their baseboards as a rat to eavesdrop on their arguments and conversations. He delighted in learning all that he could, from the most petty disputes to the deepest conspiracies.

This though? Just walking through the streets as easy as you please?

It was madness, another ridiculous lunacy for him to endure, one of the countless he had encountered  since deciding to align his fate to that of Slender Willow Swaying. Not that he begrudged her the act, it was exciting to have such a simple thing be so exhilarating. He had never passed through this place, as far as he could recall.  He would certainly have remembered the Tower of the Eight Directions. It was possible that Mara had gotten... indulgent... with his memories, but he doubted that Luna would have allowed such indiscretions.

"I mean, from the name alone I'm liking Stained Fingers."

He chuckled, ignoring the heated stares from those about him. He didn't like having such an impact, but found some mild amusement in the fact that he was the one drawing such a strong reaction, and not the partly mad avatar of destruction he found himself traveling with.

Slender Willow Swaying merely bent and swayed with the flow of all she did, that same almost perfect grace pushed into every motion and step she took as the crowds noticed and parted around them in revulsion. It had a familiar sting that etched at her soul like a thorn and brought out the cruelty that lingered in the shadows of that lovely eternal smile, cerulean eyes watching each of them with the wariness of a beast long wounded and poorly healed even as one hand danced and fluttered with the animated glee of conversation.

Her every step taken with preternatural care as to hide the distinctive imprints of her cloven feet and impressing, despite all evidence to the contrary, of serenely floating upon anyone that paid her particular mind... Each contradiction seeming to build upon each other and reinforcing the memory of everything she had done to Sleet with such terrible glee. Those hints of melancholy and wicked humor present in the echoes of each word and glance as civilization swallowed them into it's embrace once more. Old memories from before the spark of divinity that now rested upon her soul swirling in the muddied waters of lives present and past as she considered her companion's upon with but a moment's hesitation.

She did not care for the learned men of the Tower as they lorded wisdom over others who might bear greater minds than them. One more symptom of a fetid age that, upon recognition, gently stirred the ever trouble waters of her mind and brought that same distant melancholy to her eyes in those moments where the fire of her spirit was not roused and unleashed with wicked barb and fist upon the world. She offered that same softer smile to Seeks What is Forgotten as one she regarded as friend and agreed with a certain measure of that same wickedness in tone and ever present smile. The thought of a sheathed knife leaping all to readily to the quicker of minds.

"Then we'll pay Stained Fingers a visit, maybe over tea? He does so love tea, jasmine particularly, from when we last met and talked." the Changing Moon offered with a wistful note of recollection that seemed to invite the impression of some joke lost upon a sounder mind.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:30, Fri 10 Dec 2021.

It had taken Seeks What is Forgotten more time than he was comfortable admitting to realize that Slender Willow Swaying considered him a friend.

He was, above all, perceptive of his surroundings. It was the defining trait that had kept him alive as long as he had survived. He did not consider himself a great fighter, no hero of ancient yore. When he had found others touched by the powers of the universe, he had always watched them from afar, or fled entirely. She was the first he had dared approach directly, and was wild enough that he was never quite sure what to make of her. It had meant a startling lack of introspection and insight for him, something he chided himself on regularily now that he realized it was true. He simply hadn't thought of himself as someone who was allowed friends. He'd accepted his fate as a conquest for Mara, and was trying to figure out what it meant to be a lost soul for Luna. Demons were easy, bound centuries ago to his will. They had no deepest mysteries to him.  A friend to another though, particularly another Lunar? It had taken him a while to see what was right in front of him, let alone come to terms with it.

He smiled beneath his cowl, and followed in hew wake.

"Jasmine it is then."

He croaked, not bothering to hide his amusement in this newest predicament he found himself in.

"I know just the place along the way. The tea is always the hard part, water and fire barely ever when it comes to the Scholars of the Straw." the Changing Moon offered with a cheerful note and a hint of a barb in voice and smile as she continued on with that near perfect grace. Thoughts and memories far more recent in their origin churning within her mind as the crowd continued to part around them before she paused in that near floating stride to glance back towards her companion with a conspiratorial grin.

"Oh, don't call them the Scholars of the Straw... They really do hate that. Unless you want to get a rise out of them... which can be fun too from time to time." Slender Willow Swaying added with a laugh that seemed at odds with itself in it's tone and notes. As if both good natured and cruel in it's demeanor and intent yet lovely all the same. With no more a thought to the matter, she took up her skirts and set the riot of reds, blues, greens, browns, and golds to dancing with each step yet somehow never breaking the illusion of that near ethereal grace and never revealing what lurked beneath.

The flow and play of each color almost demanding the attention of those around her as the crowds parted and watched. There was a method to the act though if one paid specific mind... As if daring someone to recall her, to remember her, and to find some wound or thorn still set in the flesh of memory and not yet mended right. She knew well, after all, that there were still dragons making their roost here and other things beside... but she knew well enough that there was a specific task at hand and so did no more than this passive taunt at those faces that loomed up from more recent and vivid memory of the girl that she was rather than those that she had been. The fog of many lives and many memories parting for just an instant to allow that clarity and brighten and twist that ever present smile just a fraction more.

Pushing further into the older sprawl of River-Town clustered around the base of the Falls sees a change in the buildings - logs and tents are replaced with planed planks and rough red brick. Geomentrical facades add a touch of elegance among the more affluent buildings. Overhead spray and mists form arcing rainbows as the morning sun climbs higher and the shadow cast by the bluffs recedes. The people likewise see a rise in prosperity and order compared to the chaotic outer camps.

Here can be found the Block - place for official business of the lower city, the Fastness - a charity for the mad and forgotten, Samguin Shrine - almost a temple to the Immaculate faith, a temple row to the city god Eorla, and the family compounds flying the symbols of both House Quagmire and Cliffside. But its a little shop tucked away along the side of a square that draws Willow's attention. It lacks the geomentric facade of its neighbors. Instead the brick wall is painted in bright colors of workers in a tea field with a bright cheerful sky overhead.

As you draw near the open door you hear the voice of Old Fenshin, owner of the shop. It sounds strained and placating, "Of course. I understand. Please send my regards to Master Ten Wheat Sheaves and this packet of our finest teas as a gift."

A steely, bored voice responds,"Then we are done, shopkeep. May the gods favor you."

A string of three men exit the shop, burly sorts that might work as laborers except the tattoos and easy arrogance of their stride say otherwise. In the middle is a man in better clothing with herons marking the sleeves. He thumbs a package in his hands absently. They pay no attention to the crowd scattering before them as the walk the opposite way.

As he had on so many occasions, Seeks What Is Forgotten found himself flowing along in Slender Willow Swaying's wake. It was a place that he had grown comfortable in, shadowing her both figuratively and literally as she moved the world about her. He preferred it when the people's eyes were on her, and not him, and she was so good at occupying center stage. For who would look upon him when she was in the same space? There was so much to notice if anyone had, secrets to be pried from every moment. Perhaps it was the ways in which his shuffling limp somehow still managed to flow almost like water, eating the earth beneath his feet despite the ungainliness of it all. It was a study in contradictions, the appearance of gracelessness a ripple upon the otherwise still pond of the truth.

She was speaking, giving him secrets and weapons should he wish to employ them against Stained Fingers, and he was devouring the words. He wondered what the scholar's shadow tasted like, and if Slender Willow Swaying would took offense if he tasted it. He wouldn't harm him, there was no need to do such a thing. Just a lock of hair, taken when none were watching, or perhaps a ring or trinket he was attached to. Then Seeks What Is Forgotten and the shadow of Stained Fingers could have a long conversation, and much could be learned.

He was getting ahead of himself, too eager to taste secrets buried and forgotten. It was his nature, it was his name, he could not be faulted for those things that Luna herself had chosen to seer into him, could he? It was a question he had asked himself many times over the last three decades, and yet still not one he had an answer to. He had been this way before he had drawn Luna's gaze, before he had drawn Mara's even. This was just what he was, he had always been this, an unbroken chain passing back through each of his past lives.

Thus it was that the steely voice drew a turn of his cowled head, his gaze stripping through the man's soul to reveal the secrets held within.

Profile Character on the man with the herons

17:49, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 7 successes using 7d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 ((10,10,10,8,1,2,3)).

[I'll give Seeks a 1 dot stunt. A Profile Character action takes about 5 minutes of interaction or observation! Because Heron Sleeves and his men are unaware of being observed their Guile is penalized two points.]

A questioning look crosses Willow's face as Seeks suddenly diverts from their destination to follow the group of men without a word. Heron Sleeves shakes his introspection and briskly continues his rounds. He stops frequently at shops and market stalls around the perimeter of the square before turning down a busy side street. Two city watchmen nod to Heron Sleeves and turn away as he passes.

Seeks shadows them through the busy streets as they put together the pieces. It becomes apparent the group are enforcers for the local crime cartel. A quick question to Willow would identify them as the Blue Gong Society from their tattoos. Heron Sleeves himself is the senior enforcer of this particular band of collectors working for the Blue Gong bosses. He is intent on efficiently collecting tribute from the shops in the square. His manner and accent suggest he was once one of them and is polite if stern, keeping his men in line. The shopkeepers are sensibly polite in return, not overly threatened as long as they cooperate.

All in all they seem a perfectly mundane facet of city life in the Second Age.

[Feel free to roll Stealth + Manipulation (Diff. 3) to shadow them without notice.] 

One moment, Seeks What Is Forgotten was trailing in Slender Willow Swaying's shadow. The next, he was a shadow himself, ethereal and ephemeral as he slipped away in pursuit of his new prey. His mind opened up to the infinite as he walked, calling upon contracts and bargains sealed lifetimes ago. It was a simple matter, really. The language had all been codified in bindings arcane and divine, all he had to do was apply it. Manipulate a clause here to pull just a bit more shade down from nearby wall, twist the interpretation of a paragraph there to make his prey blink just a fraction of a second long enough for him to slip from view. Bending and manipulating the laws of the universe with his power as he needed. He was a ghost, an invisible shade.  He might as well have not existed.

Had he just thought of Heron Sleeves as prey? He supposed he had. Funny that. He wondered if that had come from Luna, Mara, or himself.

All he needed now was to slip in, knife out, and pluck a single hair from the man's head without him or any of his companions noticing, and then he would be away.


OOC: Spending 4 motes from my Peripheral to use

Midnight Phantom Movement - P. 192
Cost: 4m; Mins: Dexterity 3, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mute, Protean
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Instinct-Driven Beast
Movement, Skulking Rat Spirit
The Lunar slips unnoticed across the battlefield, weaving out of sightlines and into blind spots. She adds (higher of Essence or 3) dice on a Stealth roll to maintain concealment while moving, and ignores the increased penalty for crossing wide-open terrain (Exalted, pp. 203-204).
Protean: In animal shapes with Ambush Hunter, the Lunar can use this Charm to rush from concealment. She adds its bonus on both the rush and her Stealth roll

09:51, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 5 successes using 10d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 ((3,9,5,10,3,9,3,2,9,5)).
This message was last edited by the player at 18:19, Tue 21 Dec 2021.