Slender Willow Swaying indulged, if one were to ascribe a word to it, with Liana as they walked. The innocent questions met with more in kind and slowly turning the perfunctory conversation into a subtle duel of pleasantries to see what might be rung free of the other woman for no other reason than purest amusement. It was only in brief lulls of conversation that her attention seemed to drift at all to their surroundings with the keen eye of the predator that lingered beneath. Her shadow, all the while, dancing and twitching as it chased after their guide's own when the light twisted to allow them to touch for even a moment. Those darting, twitching motions so subtle and sudden as to make one question what they may have witnessed.

There was something to congregation of students, professors, and the lecture halls beside that scratched at the edges of the mind and dragged forward hazy memories from the depths. It was enough to cause the Changing Moon to slow just for a moment as she watched the mudras with an almost nostalgic smile dulling the edge of her usually wicked grins before the young woman was dragged to the present once more. Her very step taken with nearly perfect grace and balance... and each nearly silent save for that same tell tale click that implied more a finely wrought shoe or sandal than the hooves that actually dwelt beneath the hem of her festive skirts.

The journey through the hall of Scribes brought with it a moment of quiet consideration even as the Changing Moon continued to walk. This place of hoarded knowledge, locked into forms that could not freely flow, knew more than she might ever and yet... It was all so very useless to her. The secrets of letter and word had never been something that there had been a chance to learn despite those memories that churned within her well travelled soul. Each speaking to years of time spent in places like this and yet nothing of how to draw meaning from the printed word... Yet still, the glimpse of tribal relics upon Stained Finger's overflowing shelves brought a warm edge to her smile as their meanings and nature were easy to comprehend from the painted figures and forms upon them.

At his bidding, she settled herself in one of the offered chairs with the motions of legs clearly crossing beneath the flow of her skirts. Only an instant followed as she fussed with the straightening of shirt and shawls even though any perceived disarray did precious little to detract from the handsome nature of her aspect and the dangerous magnetism behind it. The acknowledgement of her talents earning a youthful brightening of her smile that did little to imply a loss of faculty in how that light reached those cerulean eyes.

"There aren't many with a better grasp of what is and isn't in the little treasure trove of knowledge the Academy calls it's own. Or better preference in tea." she offered in kind as she produced the small bag of jasmine tea with a cheeky grin before continuing. "I've taken in more than a few stories of my people and the other tribes but I've been asked to... satisfy a curiosity and find something with only visions, not much more than star dust, as my guide." the Lunar continued as she let her gaze settle back on Stained Fingers. Her mind carefully balancing the extent of which to share. "I'd hoped you might know something of a great mount that may was carved by ancients to look like a great serpentine monster... The Gods and Spirits of Rain and Wind are unkind to these kinds of work... So I have to hope it's memory has found it's way to parchment since I don't know of any songs of such things." Slender Willow Swaying offered with what might have been dubbed an amused note to the admission of her failing of expertise. The truth was it ground against her pride but only reinforced what she might already know of herself.

Seeks What Is Forgotten was entranced.

He'd always enjoyed being a student at the feet of Slender Willow Swaying in this regard, observing the ways in which she viscously maneuvered through the ebb and flow of social interaction. While the skills he had cultivated would have given him an impressive baseline from which to foray into the unending intimacies of such, it was simply not a skillset to which he had devoted any time and attention. It was a world he was simply blind to, though utterly fascinating to observe.

At least, most of the time.

Today though? Today he was utterly captivated by the esteemed halls of learning though which they now passed. He had been denied such, in his youth, a combination of poor blood and even poorer finances. He would have excelled in a place like this, had he been permitted to attend. He might still excel here, though perhaps not in the pursuits the wise masters of the halls might approve of. Their charges? Well they might enjoy a bit of mischief. Still, he kept his swift fingers to himself for now. While he on several occasions thought to chance a quick cut from the hair or robes of a passing Master, he already had more than enough of a prize to keep his baser instincts content. He would not risk such a thing now, when they were a guest of the evidently esteemed Master Stained Fingers.

What he would do instead would be to remain silent and still, carefully watching and observing every little detail of this place. Every door, every window, every nook and cranny through which he might creep. These halls of learning were an oyster to him, and he fully intended to return someday and drink deep.

Master Stained Fingers glows with pleasure as the paper package of tea is revealed. "Excellent choice! Liana, would you please prepare us four cups?"

Liana nods affably and takes the package. She turns to the table along one wall bearing a fine old tetsubin, a cast iron tea pot. With a skilled hand she prepares the tea. For heating the water she passes a hand under the tesubin and steam starts to rise from the spout. Stained Fingers turns back to his guests, seemingly blase to his assistant's magics.

"A serpentine monster?", Stained Fingers ponders the request for a moment. "Statues of snakes are not that uncommon here in the East, downright mundane in the beastman empire of Ixcoatli far to the East of Azrego."

He nods finally, "While I wouldn't exactly call it 'serpentine' there is statue said to be carved out of a mountain in the Creeper Peaks." Stained Fingers turns his chair to run a finger along the scroll shelf behind him, finally drawing one of them out. He unrolls it dramatically across his desk revealing a map of the Eastern Frontier. He plants a finger in the southern Creeper Peaks. "There was Sage Bright's expedition of some twenty years ago that discovered it here. A mountain carved in the likeness of a centipede thing curving in a serpentine pattern miles long. The head had been smashed by some titanic force."

He points to a drawing in the margin. A mountain carved into a segmented body in an S-curve but lacking the many limbs of a true centipede. Instead it had eight or twelve, the exact number hard to determine from the drawing, and some of them seemed to have hands? The head is indeed nothing but a crater, all but one vertical pupiled eye smashed away. It was generous to call it a centipede or a serpent, instead seeming like some thing between. The curves and angles are subtly unsettling, inhuman, in their craft.

At this point Liana presents a tray of hot tea, lemon, and a cup of sugar. Soon Stained finger, Liana, and their guests are enjoying a very flavorful tea. Stained Fingers continues to speak.

"An interesting tale goes along with it. Its said during the Divine Rebellion these peaks were inhabited by an alien empire that was devoted to the Enemies of the Gods. They supposedly carved this mountain, enchanted it so it could walk and fight. The things called upon their creation to fight the gods' armies and it became an unstoppable terror. That is until the hero Brilliant Sapphire Mantis took the shape of an immense beast and wrestled it to a standstill. While he pinned it his wife the Ten Thousandth Warrior leaped miles into the air and brought down her massive hammer on its head killing it. With the animated mountain's fall the thing's creators fled in disarray or were destroyed."

Stained Finger notably makes no reference to what exactly the heroes of the tale were though the Lunars with their Exalted memories can make some inferences.

"Anyway the mountains later became the preserve of Anathema. Their estates were built over the ruins of the enemy race's cities in the First Age. Of course the Usurpation and the Dragon-Blooded put an end to their evil ways."


Also interesting is the lack of a price for this sudden spurt of information from Stained Fingers.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:21, Sat 22 Jan 2022.

It was almost a knowing smile at Stained Finger's delight with the tea but it was also one of genuine delight as he was quick to capitalize on the moment.

"I'm glad to know I've still got something of a nose for such things." she offered with a pleasant delight that masked any hint of wickedness that so usually infected her tone. Small pleasures were something she rarely found fault with in a world she so detested.

There was a specific grace and awareness of etiquette that seemed to flow through Slender Willow Swaying as she carefully arranged the tea with sugar and gentle twists of lemon as it was placed between them. The work done with all due decorum, she rested gently back into her seat as Stained Fingers began to speak of the Mountain they sought. She had taken care to omit anything of their purpose but to have that singular landmark pinned down was more than enough to allow them then to search the mountain ranges surrounding as Seeks What is Forgotten wished to do. Of course, they still needed to delivery within the lifetime of the august Shaman.

Old memories churned beneath the surface, filling in the subtle details of nuance that may have been lost to the ages and fragilities of paper and the disaster of conflict. That wicked smile shone with a curious light as she was tugged between past and present but no so much so that she did not pick up on the fascinating fact that no price had been demanded for such a price. It was only fair but she suspected if she asked to see maps of the Creeper Peaks, there would be no small fee and there was something else that burned at the back of her mind as she felt the cold fang of Sleet pressed continually resting against her side.

"I have to wonder what I might need to do to have a further look at his notes of the peak and the surrounding area? Or, for that matter, some of the fine craftsmen here regarding a curious little fang I happened along." the Changing Moon asked with a thoughtful note as she delicately balanced the tea cup and produce Sleet's fang from one of the hidden pockets of her festive shawls and skirts to rest in her lap. Gentle wisps of condensation rising from it attesting to the wrathful cold that suffused the terrible incisor.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:52, Mon 24 Jan 2022.

Seeks What Is Forgotten's thoughts played over the Master's words like flickering shadows, devouring concepts and themes with an almost feverish intensity. The tale was largely immaterial, despite its vibrancy, but the maps and the knowledge behind them was of profound importance. Here was the lead they sought, and no reason that he could see for any deception. It was what they had been looking for, down to the picture scrawled into the margins. Yet many questions were left unanswered, and as he sat in Slender Willow Swaying's discordant and ever flickering shadow, he contemplated their significance.

The tea made such silent moments all the better.

He took a sip, making only the barest of slurping noises as he did so. A tiny little whisper that could just barely be discerned. He appreciated that, despite the appearance the Cursework had wrought upon his body, despite all of Luna's fire and the endless allure of Mara's shadow, he still had the ability to appreciate a descent cup of tea. He wouldn't have been sure that immortality would have been worth it, otherwise.

"Makes you wonder what Sage Bright was hoping to find, and if they found it, doesn't it?"

He could do little to keep the eagerness out of his voice, leaning forward over the map as his dull grey eyes scanned the map. The smell of burst flesh accompanied him as he did so, and while he hoped the lemon he'd spritzed into the air would cover it, he knew deep down it wouldn't. If the smell was one of Luna's jokes, or just the side effects of the plague ravaging his body, he doubted he'd ever know.

Stained Fingers taps his cup with fingers speaking of the truth of his name. A somber frown crosses his face as he studies his guests. His initial enthusiasm giving way to a more calculating glance.

[19:57, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Stained Fingers, rolled 5 successes using 5d10 [read intentions] with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 ((10,7,6,8,7)).]

His sharp eyes stare for a long moment before he nods, seemingly satisfied at whatever he was looking for. "You are right that there would usually be a price for the use of our archives. Bright Sage is one of our more honored academics whose expeditions are still used as an example of doing things right. At least until his disappearance almost a year after this particular trek. Its a dangerous business sticking your nose into First Age ruins."

At Seeks What is Forgotten's words he tilts his head, surprise evident. "Yes it does make one wonder. Master Bright Sage was a secretive man."

"It is impolite of me not even to ask your name. Do I detect a hint of Sijanese accent in your words?" , Stained Fingers asks Seeks.

Seeks What Is Forgotten made a horrible rasping noise, that eventually resolved itself into a self effacing chuckle.

"You are well learned to detect it, as it's been more than a few seasons since I was home. I am Seeks What Is Forgotten. In my younger days, my responsibilities within the Mortician's Order ensured that I have exactly the background that Slender Willow Swaying will require in order to treat the subject of our venture with the delicacy and respect it deserves."

The cowl he wore was certainly appropriate to one of that esteemed Order, though ratty enough that the owner had clearly fallen up hard times. He had not let any trace of his wrists show as he had sipped the tea, but Stained Fingers would likely suspect that they were not bound with heavy silver bracers. He had never spent a day within the ranks of the masters of funeral rights within Sijan, but he had spent his youth shadowing and copying them in every way he could.

"Sadly, my duty has carried me far away, and I have lost much of who and what I once was. It brings me some joy that you recognized that little part of myself."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:57, Fri 28 Jan 2022.

Stained Fingers chuckles, "It takes no great feat of learning on my part. Every year there is always some aristocrat or rich merchant who wishes to be interred in the storied tombs of Sijan. Though uncommmon the Morticians cause a stir when their funeral barges are sighted upon the river. There is no other sight quite like it. My family has paid for their services for my grandfather as a matter of fact."

If Stained Fingers considers Seeks as a failed Mortician, disgraced or exiled, or simply an imposter he gives no sign. He continues on with a heavy sigh. "I think this may be a sign from the Maiden of Endings since your expertise pertains to our problem."

It was an interesting turn to find herself as something other than the focal point of the conversation or altercation. It was even more so that her shadow had been coaxed so thoroughly out of lurking in her wake to engage directly with Stained Fingers in the instant. All because of one astute observation born from a place of knowledge and experience. Slender Willow Swaying, as a result, allowed herself to fall into silence and sly attentiveness as her mind and intuition hooked all too readily upon that final turn of phrase.

'Our problem.'

It was something so delightfully loaded with potential as she lifted the tea once more to her lips and took a delicate sip with all the fine manners of a woman of far different birth and inclination than what she was and appeared to be in that moment. She was anathema, demon, face stealer and far worse things besides yet her soul was a well traveled one and it had been many things beyond what she was now in this decrepit age. The lunar let the tea cup hang there, obscuring her expression, as she asked a simple a pointed question. There were times for finesse and times for cutting to the heart of the matter and it seemed all too apparent that candor was the best path forward in that instant... Or so those hazy memories and half remembered instincts of skilled courtiers and politicians that she had once been might have thought.

"Our problem?" Slender Willow Swaying asked with a hint of that gleeful wickedness in her tone that never seemed to truly leave the handsome aesthetic of her features or the cast of her expression even when she strove to behave by the measures of men. There was something in her tone that cut to the bone with the invitation presented by that question and was, perhaps, a reminder that she might be more than merely a wilderness guide. After all, the fang in her lap gave rise to some excellent questions if one might be brave enough to ask.

All the while her shadow continued as it always did... Stalking, darting, and twitching with insectoid grace and ferocity.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:35, Sun 30 Jan 2022.

Despite Willow's flickering shadow the Master of Scribes seemingly fails to notice it. Meanwhile Liana reaches for the icy fang with a polite look of inquiry. Given permission she takes the translucent fang and raises it to the light. She studies it from one angle and another.

At Willow's prompting Stained Fingers nods unhappily. "You are not the first to inquire after Sage Bright's papers. He spent some months studying that colossal statue, sending home his conclusions in a series of papers and maps, with more details then is in this scroll."

"A man and a woman visited here and came to me. They introduced themselves as Iron Soul and Ivory Blossom. They paid well. The woman however was demanding and her companion felt off...there were signs of spirit possession, the scent of decay under perfume. I found myself distrusting their intent. They wanted Bright Sage's papers but I felt we could not risk them with these two. I refused and sent them on their way."

A momentary flash of anger crosses his face, "That should be the end of it. But we experienced a break-in that night. Bright Sage's work was stolen."

"I'm willing to help you in exchange for recovery of Bright Sage's papers. Keep them safe and you can even use them in your explorations, though in that case I want first crack at any valuable finds, relics, artifacts, or interesting gew-gaws you may find."

[Seeks What Is Forgotten may activate Secret Sense Intuition vs Difficulty 4]

Seeks What Is Forgotten had been so distracted by Slender Willow Sway's unfounded glee that he had hardly noticed when the Master of Scribes had resumed speaking. Of course, for one as generally perceptive as he, "hardly noticed" was a complex tangle of truths and half truths that needed to be unraveled. He'd heard the man, and even absorbed the meaning behind the words, but his mind was spinning around a dozen thoughts. Even more troublesome, he had never been particularly good at detecting the finer nuances of the human soul, and his long decades of isolation had only worsened the problem. He was, if he was being frank with himself, somewhat socially inept. Oh, he could spin webs of deception decently enough, but that was built on a foundation of natural acumen rather than refined talent. He'd become overly reliant on Mara, and on the secrets she could grant him. Why bother to learn what a tremor of the lip while detailing a relationship with a former bondsman suggests, when he could just interrogate their shadow afterwards and ask it directly? It meant he'd sharpened his perceptions to a razor keen edge, but had allowed the blade of empathy to grow dull. Adding to that, the trouble with being keyed into every flickering shadow was that the world was just so full of them, and it was so easy to be distracted by the irrelevant while the vital was just under one's nose.

So it was that he sat in silence, his senses fully extended, yet so fully primed to miss what was right in front of him.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:49, Tue 01 Feb 2022.

The Changing Moon was by no means reluctant to allow another to inspect her prize and offered it up with a delicate hand a flair. It was a keen eye that might deduce the means by which she came into possession of such an item if only for the rigid cracks and imprint of a hand that seemed rather like in dimension to the pair she possessed. The hint of coy pride in her smile never admitting to a more forceful happenstance of acquisition nor merely luck of finding it upon one journey or another. A learned enough eye could deduce it's providence and origin in either case as to the unlucky creature that might have once possessed so fearsome an incisor. As Stained Fingers spoke, however, he demanded the whole of the Lunar's attention.

Slender Willow Swaying leaned gently back into her chair, the tea cup resting once more on it's saucer, as she considered both the deal proposed and the nature of these other seekers. The spirit ridden and the freshly and unquietly dead stood foremost in her mind and the hazy churning of ancient memory. That wicked smile dimmed to little more than a frown but there was a thoughtfulness and a redirection of what malicious intent was forming in the depths of her mind. There were many spirits that could ride the body of a mortal or possess the dead. Some greater, some lesser... but she needed more than what was given. Aggressive could apply to anything from the greatest of Incarnae to the lowliest of hound, smelling of decay beneath perfume was peculiar but did not speak to the character of whatever they might be. That frown only deepened that much further before twisting into a cautious, clever smile as she spared a glance towards Seeks What is Forgotten and giving word to thought.

Those blue eyes alive with that violent energy and will to shape and break the world.

"Was anything left of the scene? Or has it already been picked over by students and greater minds? Can you tell me more of this man and woman? A drawing of their face? Any mannerisms beyond odd smells and the specific signs of possession? Anything and everything beyond the form of men have so many tells that without knowing just a little more... Though obviously if they felt they could not take what they wanted by force and had to break in, well, it wasn't anything too fearsome. Or so pride would tell me." the Laughing Demon offered with a laugh that did not convey humor but deadly commitment to the questions laid out even as she continued to comport herself with the airs of one so very unlike her tribal origins in the little quirks of body language that spoke to refinement and knowledge of etiquette.

"Regardless, if it's one more step on the journey ahead... We can find what was lost but every good hound needs a scent." Slender Willow Swaying concluded pointedly, a small gesture of the hand making the negotiation of what was and wasn't due about the use of the map a discussion for later when they returned with the Sage's materials. She had to wonder just what else these beings might have done to secure the lead or simply were content to wrest what they needed in dead of night. That there was apparently physical evidence at all was all to intriguing an element in it's own right but felt both red herring and vital clue.


19:05, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 1 success using 5d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Occult 2 + Intelligence 3.

19:18, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Spirits specialty .

Two successes, hopefully some stunt die are in the pipe but I doubt it lol.

[Seeks What Is Forgotten's Charm fails to detect anything.

Slender Willow Swaying knows that spirit possession can be nearly undetectable or give identifiable signs depending on the nature of the spirit and its cunning. A scent of decay could indicate possession by little gods of decay or illness, of that the person is dead his body animated by ghosts of the dead, or things from deeper in the Underworld. Perfume could indicate an attempt to hide the stench. It's known that the inhabitants of the Twilight Bogs both worship their ancestors and occasionally make use of ghosts and ghostly powers. ]

Stained Fingers is pleased by the intense interest of his guests and supplies some answers.

"The woman, Ivory Blossom, was a barbarian. One of the Twilighters. Pretty enough but pale, slender, black hair streaked with grey, trouble breathing. Like somebody suffering the effects of a longterm ailment. You see that with idiots...um...I mean people who live near Shadowlands" , Stained Fingers shrugs apologetically to his Sijanese guest. "Had Twilighter clan markings. Four vertical bars on her chin. She was in charge. Did most of the talking. "

"The other, Iron Soul, was the stinker. Looked like a local, ruddy skin and green hair, but his features kind of sagged. One eye was white and staring. Barely blinked. He didn't do much talking but looked around. What he did say had a mushy sound like a Twilighter accent though. He felt off...his breathing was slow and steady until it seemed like he forgot to breath at all. Barely twitched a muscle. Like a corpse. It just had the feeling of being spirit-ridden."

He leans back in his chair setting the tea cup down with a CHING!, "The break-in itself went undetected. Bright Sage's journals were in the secured archive but its not particularly hard to break into. But it has...did have a demon guardian that would deter thieves. It was simply gone when the archivist arrived in the morning. Whoever stole the journals had the skill to enter quietly and destroy or banish a guardian demon without alerting anyone."

Suddenly Stained Fingers eyes bug out as he stares at something past the Lunars. Turning they see bloody words scrawled across the wall with bloody letters. Drops of blood dripped down the wall and onto the floor.

"You were warned to stay quiet, old man. Time to die."

A stink, like the rot of a forest floor, envelops the room. A lone, black fly as big as a man's thumb flys overhead with a horrible buzzing. Fear grips the heart as swarms of the big black flies start to pour from between books upon the shelves, crawl out of the tea pot, erupt from sleeves and pockets in an endless stream.

[You can both roll Join Battle (Wits + Awareness). Your initiative equals the successes rolled +3. Don't forget you can use Excellencies to add dice and/or Stunt for more dice.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:29, Tue 08 Feb 2022.

Seeks What Is Forgotten had not risen to the bait of the insult. Given how long it had been since he'd had a good bath, he wasn't exactly in a position to say anything on the nature of Twilighters and their aromatic auras. He had quirked an eyebrow at the mention of the guardian demon, but as his face was obscured by his cowled hood the gesture wasn't really for anyone but himself. He had questions he wanted answers to, like who had bound the demon, and if anyone had attempted to bind it again it after the theft. The thing would likely have valuable information if it had been banished, and learning that it had been destroyed wou...

Where there had been a teacup, Flying Silver Dream was in his hand.

The temporal mechanics of it being there were convoluted, the math more complicated than calculating the velocity of the air that both had and had not been displaced by the Daiklaive's sudden appearance. In one reality, he had not even thought to have reached for the bundle he bore on his back, the teacup still clutched in his hand. In another, the sleeping matt was only now beginning to realize that the blade it had been tightly wrapped around had cut itself free, gravity beginning to assert itself upon the now slashed chords and the falling cup. In a third he had called it to his hand a full minute before, preparing himself for the conflict he now faced. In a forth he'd been carrying the naked blade of the legendary artifact since they had arrived in town, drawing stares and hushed whispers from all who saw its gleaming edge. None of it was true, but none of it was false either. Reality condensed on a single point of agreement, that the Daiklaive was in his hand. The two moved in perfect concert with one another, neither impairing or interfering with the other's motions despite the fact that they occupied the same space. He was not sitting with a  cup of tea in his hand, his back turned to the threat. He was on his feet, he was moving, he was turning with serpentine swiftness to face this new threat and cut it down. His feet danced upon the floor as he entered the battle stance, prepared for all of Hell's Demons to come battering at the door. Ready to fight every single man, woman, and child within the village should they all be possessed by spirits seeking his blood, laughing with madness as he cut them all down.

Seeks What Is Forgotten did not think of himself as a legendary warrior of myth.

In that, as in so many things, he was wrong.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Tue 08 Feb 2022.

There was almost a hint of disappointment in the rich blue eyes of Slender Willow Swaying as the insult slipped free of Stained Finger's mind and past his lips. Still, that wicked smile endured and seemed to even broaden as the Laughing Demon came to the fore for just an instant as mental scales shifted and recalibrated. So many were a product of this wretched, fallen age but to see a mind so steeped in what knowledge could be claimed only reinforced that. If it had but been an enemy to receive that barb she might have laughed and goaded and taunted until the cracks became too glaring to ignore but that was not the case. So with restraint one might have found impressive given her exploits and manic nature... she merely let it lie and continued to listen. The delicate china coming to rest now at the edge of the scholar's desk with the last of the tea drained.

Barbed words danced on the tip of her tongue but they died silent as she saw Stained Finger's eyes bulge and the colour drain from his face. With the speed and distressing flexibility of the centipede, she twisted rapidly in her seat to follow the lines of his eyes. She couldn't help herself in the instant then but to laugh at the irony of it. Letters written in blood. She knew that they were letters but for all the speed and sharpness of her mind and tongue... The message was only clear by the context of it's presentation. The scent of rot hammered swiftly after into her nose as she noticed the first of the flies. Instinct carried her from there as she twisted once more in the seat, legs coming in and down to launch the chair away and launch herself up and back with all the grace and dexterity that she might claim as her own. It was near perfection to witness as her skirts and shawls writhed around her in the instant as she righted her course and landed abreast Stained Fingers with the harsh click of those deadly hooves upon the hard wood of his office floors. The subtle splintering as they bit in lost in the drone of the flies that swarmed into the chamber.

The growing drone of the buzzing and the sickly sweet stench upon the air only deepening that maddened grin that now etched across her features and the light they brought to her eyes. It would not cure the disease that plagued this age but it would excise one more tumor from it's tormented hide. Such agitation only stirred yet more memories from the depth of her three tiered soul and with them a deepening of that hate coupling with the indignation of one having dared to meddle so in her affairs and misadventures.

Her stance swayed and shifted then as muscle memory as much as refined fighting instinct took over and declared, without care for her audience, how dangerous she might truly be if one only recognized the opening forms of the Laughing Monster's style. For Seeks What Is Forgotten, it was only a reminder that he traveled in the company of a dangerous predator shaped as much by madness as deliberate will and drive to survive. The underlying eagerness only promising a deadly ferocity as she took in the situation and wondered how she could turn each of these beasts upon each other with cruel word and wicked barb.

"The rots settled deep into the foundations of this place." she quipped with only a sidelong glance to Stained Fingers and his assistant who still held Sleet's fang.



As it's officially time to go loud:
Stunting on Join Battle to be able to add my 4 dots of dexterity, between this and my 4 in wits I'm using 8 essence to add 8 die to my Join Battle Roll (Base 7). Essence'll come from personal for the time being the Join Battle boost.

23:04, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 10 successes using 15d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Join Battle (Wits + Awareness + Excellency/stunt).


23:14, Today: Slender Willow Swaying failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Stunt dice (+2).

And +1 success.

Total 11 successes, +3 for total of 14 initiative.

Essence ticker:
Personal 9/17
Peripheral 42/42

This message was last edited by the player at 04:15, Wed 09 Feb 2022.

20:59, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Mystery Assailant, rolled 9 successes using 10d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Six Plague Summons roll.

21:01, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Mystery Assailant, rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Initiative.

Mystery Assailant rolled 9 successes for his Six Plague Summons Charm to bring forth the swarm of carnivorous flies. [Size - 5, Drill - Poor, Might - 0]

1st round initiative order:
Slender Willow Swaying - 14
Seeks What Is Forgotten - 10
Mystery Assailant - 6

Willow is first!

Swarm
Bite - 12 dice, 8L damage
Stinger - 17 dice, 6L damage + possible poison
Soak - 6
DV - 6 Evasion
Magnitude - 8



This message was last edited by the GM at 03:15, Thu 10 Feb 2022.

The laughter was, perhaps, the only warning of what was to come next and Seeks What Is Forgotten only understood it for what it was because they had seen it before. It was all a grand and wretched joke to Slender Willow Swaying as all that was deemed great and good struck as pale shadow and imitation to the memories that churned and twisted from lives better and past within her. Still, there was something all too amusing that they were now accosted by the scent of rot, disease, and the ceaseless buzz of flies drawn to carrion in the making.

"The great defenders of your secrets? The executors of your wrath? Flies? All this says to me is the maggots have been left a little too long in the wound!" she jeered as she moved forward with gleeful abandon. The essence burned through her as she set into motion a plan that was only really dimly understood by the highest seats of her mind. These were beasts, after all, mindless and driven by instinct and why should she be anything but in her efforts to combat them? They understood only them and not them and those stingers would find purchase for that fact... Less she might convince them that there were no friends among their ranks and that was a task she was all too suited to.

It was frankly madness to an outside observer as she darted forward with the erratic and rapid movements of the centipede to clear the desk once more and dive into the center of the coalescing swarm. It laughed in the face of reason, conventional strategy and tactics yet she needed them to be near her... To surround her so that she could guide them and show them that everything they knew was a farce, a lie, and that they were not a swarm but a thousand sad and lonely individuals with no queen and no cohesion. Summoned solely to die to things greater than themselves and be nothing more than shattered husks upon whether by her hand or their stingers.

What came next was a blur of motion as silvery fire raced across pale skin and formed into the wretched form of the centipede holding aloft an ever changing moon before subsuming into an aura of purest silver, the scent of damp evening air mingling unhappily with the pervasive sweetness of rotted flesh. An endless variety of arms seemed to curl away from her slender form, each hand forming part of an endlessly evolving mudra that seemed to be the lost intonations of some great evocation that only spoke of wicked glee and utter derision for the foe that the unveiled lunar now faced. The dim notion of the risk she took churning somewhere in the depths of her soul and accompanied by memories of alarm, fear, and anxiety but each was washed away in the glory of the instant as her now endless hands and her own two legs and feet lashed out to strike at those insects she might reach, taunting, battering, pushing, and shoving so that they might collide and interfere with each other so that far baser instinct than the instinctive drive towards the cooperation of the swarm might override what passed for reason in such a wretched creature. The purity of her argent aura streak with the hateful red of fire as the hearthstone burned with essence and leant it's wrathful energies to each of those strikes. The air filling as readily with the wet slap of splintering exoskeleton and pulping flesh as the hissing pop of insects given over to the flame.

Each step, each strike, each action taken with that relentless grace of the predator that lingered behind the ever grinning, ever laughing face. The motions as unsettling as they were beautiful in their utter ferocity and seemingly limitless variety as if it was part of some twisted dance that was never meant for the human form but for something... more segmented and many limbed. All the while her shawls and skirts whirled in a riot of endless colour that blurred as she seemed to move faster and faster in her violent dance amongst the swarm.


OOC:
ESSENCE TIME!

Activating Burning Coal Fist (Exalted PG 607), 3 motes from personal.

Activating Laughing Monster Form (Lunars: Fangs at the Gate PG 303), 10 motes from peripheral.

Finally, using Thieves Fall Out to attack the swarm (Lunars: Fangs at the Gate PG 304). 6 motes pulled from personal, 2 initiative.

4 motes for excellencies (Dex) for Decisive Attack, committing all 13 remaining init

16:35, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 8 successes using 12d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 ((7,8,10,7,5,7,4,5,9,6,8,6)).

16:35, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 8 successes using 12d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Dex 4 + Martial arts 4 + Excellency (4).

16:36, Today: Slender Willow Swaying failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Rerolled 10 (Burning Coal Fist).

16:50, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 6 successes using 12d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Decisive Initiative Roll.

Should total out to 12 total levels of damage with Thieves Falling Out.

Per DM: 2nd level stunt; +2 Dice and +1 success on attack roll
16:59, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Stunt Dice.

Total of +2 successes to attack.

Essence ticker:
Personal 0/17
Peripheral 28/42

This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Fri 11 Feb 2022.

If it was possible for a mindless swarm to become confused the blazing silver firestorm in the center of the room raining down blows like a thousand armed goddess of legend seems to have made it so. The coalescing arms of the swarm seeking to engulf the room's inhabitants break and writhe in mindless directions.

Meanwhile the eyes of Stained Finger and his assistant grow wide at the sudden displays of supernatural power. The raging silver light leaves paints stark shadows behind them both as they cringe, raising their arms against the endless biting flies with white skulls emblazoned upon their backs.

Out in the surrounding halls can be heard agonized and fearful cries as the true size of the swarm becomes apparent.

[The Swarm takes 12 levels of damage, reducing it from a Size 5 unit to a size 4 unit.

Swarm
Bite - 12 dice, 8L damage
Stinger - 17 dice, 6L damage + possible poison
Soak - 6
DV - 6 Evasion
Magnitude - Size 5 - 0
............Now Size 4 with 4 Magnitude left.

Willow's Initiative re-sets to 3 for next turn.

Seeks turn! ]

Seeks What Is Forgotten was swift as silver lightning, his muscles and instincts heightened by lifetimes of training barely forgotten, and a living sword born of myth and story whose extrasensory perception had mingled and blended with his own soul. Yet even he had barely risen before Slender Willow Swaying had hurled herself into the swarm. Even bolstered by magic and essence, he could only just keep up with the the deadly dance that she unleashed. She was something else altogether, a searing column of flame upon which ever eye there would focus.

Silver fire, she had ignited her anima banner as she had drawn upon the reserves of her soul!

Luna's argent light pierced the room, dancing a mad dance with the million shadows the swarm threw out as it encircled her. Time slowed for him as he watched the interplay of light and dark, his own body beginning to move in concert to the flickering waves. She danced, and he danced with her. No, not with her, with the shadows cast by the swarm as it encircled her burning anima banner. He was of the shadows, and the songs they sung called to him, pulled him, shaped him, guided him. He did not even need to think to lose himself in it. It was such a simple thing to call up his own power, not to join her in the chaos of battle, but to slip from sight as he ducked and wove and twisted his way through the ever shifting shadows. It was not the division and splitting of fate as he had done when he had summoned Flying Silver Dream to his hand, this was something else. The blending of Mara and Luna's power, Mara's instincts enhanced by Luna's gifts. Simply one moment he was there, and the next a wave of shadow washed over him, and as it skittered and cascaded about him he was a part of it. A thousand eyes on him, a million, it did not matter. Perhaps the swarm was possessed of a linked intelligence, each set of segmented eyes and each set of skittering nerves linked to the larger consciousness, and all it would take was one to see him for the rest to know. He did not care, even if that were the case, he laughed in the face of the odds. What was this swarm of insignificant insects to challenge him? If the hand that had summoned this swarm thought it could blot out Luna's light, he would let them, and from the shadows make them pay for their hubris. The Shadows twirled, and he spun with them.

With little more than a flicker of will, he was gone.

4 motes from Peripheral and 2 Willpower to use

4) Noonday Shadow Tread - P. 191
Cost: 4m (+1wp); Mins: Dexterity 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords:Mute, Totemic (Perception)
Duration:Instant
Prerequisite Charms:Skulking Rat Spirit
The Lunar weaves between beams of light, hiding
in the thinnest shadows. She ignores penalties on a
Stealth roll from any source of illumination other than
her anima banner. This may render it possible to attempt concealment in locations that would otherwise
be inadequate hiding spots.
This Charm costs an additional Willpower if the Lunar
is currently visible to any enemies. For an instant, she
flickers and blurs, receding into the shadows.
Totemic: A Lunar whose spirit shape has the Night
Vision Merit may learn this as a Perception Charm, with
Sense-Sharpening Change (p. XX) as its prerequisite.

20:45, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 7 successes using 11d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Dex 5 + Stealth 3 + Specialty 1 + Stunt 2

8 Successes on Stealth
This message was last edited by the player at 04:45, Sat 12 Feb 2022.

Evading the ten thousand eyes of the hungry insect swarm proves no match for a power forged in ancient times to fight the creators of the world. With deft steps and timing Seeks steps from twisting shadow to twisting shadow, unseen and unheard.

22:53, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Insect Swarm, rolled 3 successes using 6d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Sense Roll.

Suddenly Stained Fingers regains enough composure to raise his eyes, fingers twisting in arcane mudras, voice strained by nearly unpronounceable syllables. The world seems to shiver as sorcerous energies take hold and Stained Fingers shatters in a white light. A moment later a flock of birds circle rapidly to the high open window and escape the murderous swarm to the outside. His assistant is not so lucky as she crouches against a bookcase, frantically swatting at herself as the huge flies cover her. Red begins to drip down upon the floor as she cries out in pain.

Slender Willow Swaying is not spared the swarms attention as they recover from her disorienting attack. The frantic buzzing of a feeding frenzy begins as they dive in, biting and stinging. Under clothes, in hair, flying into eyes and open mouth, the flies prove a deadly menace to the Lunar.



[Swarm
Bite - 11 dice, 7L damage
Stinger - 16 dice, 5L damage + possible poison
Soak - 5
DV - 5 Evasion
Magnitude - Now Size 4 with 3 Magnitude left out of 7.

23:26, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Insect Swarm, rolled 6 successes using 16d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Stinger Withering Attack.

23:36, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Insect Swarm, rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  stinger damage withering.

I assumed that Willow activated her Impenetrable Beast-Armor Charm. She takes a point of Withering damage so loses 1 point of initiative.

Seeks is hidden from the Swarm so no attack on him.

2nd round initiative order:
Seeks What Is Forgotten - 10
Mystery Assailant/Swarm - 6
Slender Willow Swaying - 2

Reminder: recover 5 motes of Essence starting with Peripheral.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:11, Sun 13 Feb 2022.

Seeks What Is Forgotten was a whisper, a wraith, a flickering breath of wind upon the back of the neck of the unwary.

He stalked through the shadows cast by the swarm, heading in the direction from which the foe came with Flying Silver Dream in hand. It mattered not at all that there was no place to hide, no cover from which he could slip. The cascade of Slender Willow Swaying's burning Anima banner against her flickering assailants was all that he needed. He cast a glance at his companion as she fought, and did not pity her the experience. He was all to familiar with the experience of a pestilence ravaging his body, and did not wish to participate in recreating the experience here.

No, better instead to stalk out in the direction from which the foe had emerged, and find the source of it. Slender Willow Swaying was the warrior, he was the hunter, he would hunt the summoner and put an end to their sorcery. They would be distracted with their working, and even if they were not they would not see him coming until his blade had pierced their throat. It didn't matter if it was open ground, or if they were hidden. They would not escape his searching eyes, his thirsting blade.

They thought themselves the hunter here, he would show them that they were merely prey.

Recover 5 motes, use 4 from the Periphery to use

6) 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

21:52, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 4 successes using 5d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Perception 5 + Awareness 3 - Flurry 3.

21:50, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 4 successes using 11d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Dex 5 + Stealth 3 + Specialty 1 + Charm  3 - Flurry 1
This message was last edited by the player at 05:52, Sun 13 Feb 2022.

Seeks What is Forgotten slips through the room's door into the hallway beyond. The scene here is no less grim then in Stained Finger's office. Buzzing swarms flex and split, stinging clouds engulfing screaming students and staff. A man runs screaming by, his face purpling from their venom. A bloody heap sprawls against one wall so covered in biting flies its identity is impossible to make out. Cries of horror and pain can be heard in other rooms. A flash of fire to the left shows some are resisting.

15:56, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Mystery Assailant, rolled 4 successes using 8d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Perception roll vs Seeks.

Success on it's opposed perception roll.

Seeks quickly spies the perpetrator of this horror. A...bird perches upon one of the chains supporting the glow stone holders dangling from the ceiling. The soft white light paints reveals it as a rotted raiton, feathers broken and missing, one eye hanging from its head. The other is a milky white yet seems to see all too well. It caws seem almost joyous as it takes in the carnage beneath it. Yet for all the decay of its body its head twitches and the pale eye fixes upon Seeks What Is Forgotten, piercing a stealthy prowess that walked through a wall of insects unseen. With a braying, contemptuous call it takes to flight. In a matter of moments it will reach the double doors, now open, and flee into the outdoors.

[The Mystery Assailant is taking a Disengage action (Exalted page 198). If it succeeds it breaks to Short Range with its movement. Otherwise you stay within Close Range of it. Seeks can make a Dex + Athletics roll vs the Mystery Assailant's roll.

16:12, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Mystery Assailant, rolled 6 successes using 9d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  disengage Combat Movement roll.

Six Successes! ]

The swarm muddles and spins madly as it seeks to feed upon the nimbly moving Willow. Despite their stinging fury no significant damage is done to Willow as she laughs and dances madly among them.

16:16, Today: Silver Bhoddisatva, for the NPC Insect Swarm, rolled 9 successes using 16d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Stinger Withering Attack.

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:20, Mon 14 Feb 2022.

That aura of silver flame continued to burn in the wake of every motion of arm and leg, the endless mudras of her unleashed essence striking and pushing against the swarm that threatened to engulf her. Yet in the midst of this she felt precious little of fear or dismay. There was regret that she might not do more for the souls condemned to death by the malice of an unseen hand and such only fed into the anger that burned within her at so wretched an age as her well travelled soul found itself in. That anger burning through her in the laughter that rang out above the relentless drone of wicked wings a plenty and carrying into the haul behind. It was a sound of animated madness more than true mirth as memories lurched and twisted in the depths of her mind as brutal instinct carried her from instant to instant.

She knew, after all, that so beleaguered and out numbered... Her fury would only hold them at bay for so long. That she balanced upon a razor's edge with but a single misstep setting that same edge to biting deeply into her flesh and casting her into a downward spiral that could not be allowed. So she did only what came naturally in the moment and so many like it... She lashed out. Hands, phantom and otherwise, struck out in every direction as she spun with the grace of a seasoned dancer whilst pivoting quickly upon one leg, bending ever so gently at the knee to bring herself lower to the ground as her other leg swept widely outwards.

Against something that did not fly, it might have claimed such a being's footing but that wasn't the purpose of her strike. No, it was to generate as broad a surface that she might buffet and confound as many of the nuisances that surrounded her as she may. Her attention darting only briefly to the attendant as she considered what might be done for her and find that, for once, she was without an answer to that in all her mean spirited contemplations and so could only redouble her efforts and hope that the woman was forged of stern enough substance to do as Luna demanded of all who bore her spark; survive.



Launching a withering attack against the swarm:

20:48, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 5 successes using 12d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Withering Attack (MA 4 + Dex 4 + Acc 4).


08:04, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 3 successes using 2d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Stunt die (Withering attack).

+1 Success

If a hit:
Strength  + 7 (Unarmed attacks count as light weapons) + 4 threshold - 5 = 8 total damage dice

20:55, Today: Slender Willow Swaying botched using 4d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Damage if hit.

08:05, Today: Slender Willow Swaying rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7.  Additional damage dice (Threshold).

Essence ticker:
Personal 0/17
Peripheral 30/42

This message was last edited by the player at 13:05, Thu 17 Feb 2022.

Seeks What Is Forgotten fashioned himself a careful plotter, never taking action without analyzing a dozen means of escape, a dozen approaches to take. He thought himself patient, thought himself clever, and thought himself wise. A patient spider, he would sit, and wait, and watch, and learn. These were the parts of himself that he knew, the parts that he understood. Yet traveling with Slender Willow Swaying, he had found himself exposed to new ways of thinking, both of the world, and of himself. He was not attuned to the impulsive side of his nature, barely aware of the instincts that drove him. In truth, he likely thought himself above such base desires. Yet as sure as the length of braided hair which rested now about his wrist, he was at his core a creature of instinct. He was blind to that side of himself, and it was all the more powerful for his blindness.

He surrendered to that instinct now, his iridescent black eyes locked with the possessed Raiton's milky glare. First a single pair, then two, then four matching sets. A flicker of the true Spirit Shape beneath. Caught in his stalking approach, he froze, utterly motionless except for the flow of his dividing eyes. Then the prey was moving, and he was lost, instincts many lifetimes older than he taking control. In a supernatural explosion of speed, his spindly legs hurled him over the ground as he surrendered to those parts of himself that he only barely acknowledged, and could not truly hope to understand. The shadows which he had cloaked about himself fell away, too slow to follow him as he burst into light and life and violence. All that existed behind him, the swarm, Slender Willow Swaying's mad battle dance, Stained Finger's hapless assistant being devoured. All of that melted away as he became what he truly was, what he had so frequently denied himself. That fundamental truth of the core of his being.

The Prey ran before him, and with Flying Silver Dream held high, the Hunter chased.

7) Instinct Driven Beast - P. 189
Cost: 2m; Mins: Dexterity 2, Essence 1 Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Protean
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lunar moves in a blur of superhuman speed. She adds a success to a movement action or an interval of a speed-based extended action. Succeeding on an op- posed roll in combat grants one Initiative.
Protean: In animal shapes with Speed Bonuses, the Initiative awarded to the Lunar for a successful opposed roll is stripped from one of the characters opposing her (her choice).

Rolled 5, + 1 for stunt and 1 for Charms

08:22, Today: Seeks What Is Forgotten rolled 5 successes using 12d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 ((5,10,4,8,1,8,2,9,3,6, 1,6)).

Total of +7

This message was last edited by the player at 16:23, Thu 17 Feb 2022.

Seeks What Is Forgotten draws upon his inhuman speed and dashes forward. The undead fowl squawks angrily and circles above as Seeks blocks the exit, Flying Silver Dream gleaming with menace. An angry buzz rises as the swarm begins to gather about Seeks.

Meanwhile the swirling swarms continue it's futile assault on Slender Willow Swaying as she slashes back in a hope to disrupt them.


3rd round initiative order:
Seeks What Is Forgotten - 11
Mystery Assailant/Swarm - 6
Slender Willow Swaying - 4

5 mote regen reminder!


Swarm
Bite - 11 dice, 7L damage
Stinger - 16 dice, 5L damage + possible poison
Soak - 5
DV - 5 Evasion
Magnitude - Now Size 4 with 2 Magnitude left out of 7.

This message was last edited by the GM at 04:28, Fri 18 Feb 2022.