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Story Four: Chaos And Death

(Note: We are now on super-short summary. It may get expanded later.)

Session Thirteen: Welcome Home

IRL Date: August 29th, 2005
Start Date: 17th of Ascending Water
End Date: 27th of Ascending Water

Hayyoth returns, and chats with everyone about what happened. Lots of information is shared.

The characters decide to keep their new manse, but they want to modify it so that it doesn't have a dangerous and unreliable superweapon. With Dex's help, they seek an audience with the censor Fakharu, and trade with his librarian - stone books for manse work. They also get some new books to replace stone ones in their library. It is understood that they might owe Fakharu a favour.

Quotes of the Week:

"Shouldn't you give them proper burial rites, and not throw them into lava? ... Where did you get lava?"
"There was this place, with the stuff..."
"... I'll ask Inari."
- Hayyoth discovers Akee's skill at explanations.

"Crazy deathknight?"
"Yeah. He explained it. I wasn't listening."
Hayyoth learns more of Akee's skill at explanations.

"Based on the fact that they are DEATHknights, and they work for DEATHlords, how do we know that it suffered DEATH??" - Hayyoth questions Akee's certainty.

Session Fourteen: Something Smells Fishy

IRL Date: September 12th, 2005
Start Date: 28th of Ascending Water
End Date: 6th of Resplendant Water

In this session, Hayyoth explored the sewers, tracking rumours of a monster that was killing people. He offered help to the ratmen, and was politely turned down. The group met with Peldan and solidified their position - they wouldn't cause trouble, he wouldn't tell. They met Thran again, who was becoming a vigilante in his neighbourhood and protecting people from criminals. Inari learned that Cathak Jorus Relway was blackmailing Cynis Lyrial, and was annoyed. Silent Reflection informed the characters that the Manse was drawing power from another Manse, and gave them that Manse's connector.

Session Fifteen: Family Matters

IRL Date: September 19th, 2005
Start Date: 7th of Resplendant Water
End Date: 10th of Ascending Water

In this session, Deckard Galway decided to leave town, sailing out before winter set in. He promised to return some day.

Hayyoth tried to help the ratpeople. He met the ratpeople elders and chatted, winning a small measure of trust but no help, and a ratwoman named Suka, and chatted with her, but learned nothing. Meanwhile, Penu met with Harvester of Severed Shades, and got a bit of a crush on her. She said that the Unrepentant Sage of Vengeful Misery, her Deathlord, would renounce any claim to Zeretan as long as the Circle lived there, and offered a gift by way of apology for the incident with Sky - a scroll showing where the Fair Folk noble who had destroyed Penu's tribe resided, with her surviving tribesmen. She indicated that the Fair Folk there might be growing in number.

Silent Reflection lent the characters a Hearthsthone Compass with which they could find the second Manse. It was somewhere to the west.

Penu came home, and a massive debate raged about whether the characters could handle the Fair Folk alone, and who (if anyone) they should ask for help. The big fight was over whether the Deathlords could be trusted - Penu and Akee didn't see a problem, Hayyoth and Inari did. Ultimately, the characters chose to seek out Colonel Peldan, hoping that the threat of the fae could incite him to help. Surprisingly, it worked, and Peldan agreed to accompany the group.

Quote of the Week: "Citrios."
"No! No, no, and no! Well, maybe... no!"
- Hayyoth offers a suggestion for who to go to for help, and Inari responds.

Session Sixteen: Murky Decisions

IRL Date: October 9th, 2005
Start Date: 11th of Resplendant Water
End Date: 15th of Resplendant Water

The group set out - Hayyoth left with Peldan, and the others left by a different route to provide a cover explanation. Hayyoth met Suka at the town gates, and she offered her services as a guide up to the edge of the Wyld itself in the swamp. Hayyoth thanked her. Then she found out Peldan was coming, and was a lot more unhappy. Turns out that Peldan was around back in the days of King Boram, and the ratpeople consider him a traitor for not stopping the Relway revolution. Peldan himself, it turned out, was still guilty about that.

The final massive revalation was that Boram was a Zenith Solar, and that Peldan had known. That was why he didn't turn the characters in. Boram's nature was not known in Zeretan; he was believed to be mortal.

The characters pushed through the swamps, with Suka's help, and reached the edge of the Wyld. Leaving her behind, they found themselves at the gates of Sykorra. At the gates, suits of armour stopped them and said that visiting hours ended at sunset. Hayyoth explained that it was still mid-afternoon, confusing the suits into letting the group pass. Inside, they ran into a coat check, and were asked to leave all of their weapons. Most of the group avoided the problem, but Peldan was forced to act to protect a few with Chaos-Warding Prana when they didn't hand their weapons in, and the weapons began to dissolve into the air. Back in the courtyard, Hayyoth spotted a crow with a sharp-toothed beak, and was spooked.

Finally, the group went to the 'information group', discovering to their surprise that it was a bound demon. It spoke to Akee...

Session Seventeen: Ancient Ways, New Beginnings

IRL Date: October 16th, 2005
Start Date: 15th of Resplendant Water
End Date: 20th of Resplendant Water

Akee learned that he had been here many times before, and that he was the re-incarnation of both King Boram and Silent Whisper, Hayyoth's old master. The demon in the room claimed that Akee was a champion of the Yozi, and that the only way to defeat Sykorra was not to fight the lord at his own games.

The group continued on, finding themselves at a crowded bar. Inari was asked if she was the dancer, and agreed to dance. She stepped up on stage, and promptly lost track of time - she was nearly Ensnared. The rest of the group watched, enrapt, until a small, sharp-toothed lizard bit Hayyoth. His cry of pain shocked him out of it, and he quickly shook the others awake. They were annoyed at having been caught, and pushed on.

The group met the Fair Folk lord, and agreed to look around. He was happy to see them, as he was bored. He showed them how his Lady, the master of a 'crusade' against Zeretan, was using human slaves to breed powerful behemoths - they were still tied to the Freehold, but soon they would be done. Then Penu challenged him, and he agreed to fight Akee and Hayyoth in a duel. When they revealed themselves as Solars, he was annoyed, but fought regardless. He very nearly won, but ultimately failed, winning the slaves' freedom. He then tried to kill everyone with his behemoths, but the freehold abruptly began to dissolve, and a hobgoblin fell from the central tower with horrible bite marks.

Escaping, the characters found Suka waiting outisde, and Hayyoth noticed her oddly-sharp teeth. Guessing that she was a Lunar, he quietly thanked him. She smiled and winked.

Peldan took Penu's tribesmen back to Zeretan with Suka, and the characters continued westwards, searching for the Manse that their Hearthstone Compass was leading them towards.

The characters reached the slopes of a mountain, and learned that strange red light had recently begun to glow on the top. They started up the slope, and found an entrance that was odd, and in a script none of them recognized. Then they met a group of travellers - two humans, Atrus and Emma, and a group of cloaked midgets. A small argument broke out over who had the rights to the Manse, and the group agreed, more or less, to share. Atrus deciphered the script and got inside.

Inside, the group found a spirit who informed them that this was the 'gateway of the Maker'. Atrus got very excited, as did his group. The characters got confused. After some research, they learned that they were standing on the Seal of Eight Divinities, designed as a gateway to Autochthon. Atrus was actually a Solar, Emma was a Dragon-Blood, and their companions were Mountain Folk searching for information about their master. The gate no longer functioned because, back in the First Age, some Solars tapped the Manse's energy to power a weapon, collapsing the gate.

The group looked embarrassed.

Then trouble erupted, as a Deathknight named the Stalker of Severed Ghosts appeared, demanding the Manse. When he learned who the characters were, he got annoyed, apologized for the intrusion, and left with his mercenaries. The characters were bemused.

Everyone agreed to let the Mountain Folk have the Manse, and began to return to Zeretan - they were shocked to learn that Emma lived there, as she was Seven Emerald Shards, the Immaculate Monk. Mutterings were heard about whether any Terrestrials in Zeretan actually followed the Immaculate Philosophy. It was suggested that Andir, Citrios, Oliana, Samarus, Lyrial, and Kasmur did, at least.

Finally, Silent Reflection appeared, in a large boat springing from the river. He said that Fakharu needed the group urgently, and they brought Atrus and Emerald with them, wondering what the rush was.

Quote of the Week: "Damn it! God bloody cursed damn it! Is there anywhere that you people don't go?"
- Stalker expresses mild displeasure at the characters' appearance.

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