SJE/Session48
Session 48
Damascene Conversions Part 1
13-14 Ascending Air
Returning from their desert sojourn to the Mahdi, the Watch Exalts are a little split on what to do. All have personal agendas and unfinished business to deal with, though perhaps it is the novelty of no one trying to invade Gem recently that has them unsettled.
Brand and the masons at last finish the re-building of the Granite watchtower and all its fiendish traps and mechanisms (razor sharp lintels, folding stairs and a pit oubliette at the bottom etc.) are a warning to never design architecture while Limit Breaking Deliberate Cruelty. And a curious black diamond stone coalesces out of the black chi in the bottom-most cell in the Tower.
Experimenting with it, Brand finds it easy absorbs essence and doesn’t refract or reflect light. But only when the Captain boisterously slaps him on the back with a Smashfist and Brand doesn’t go flying does he uncover its true power. With the watchmen taking their battering ram to Brand, and then a 1 man versus 20 tug of war contest, does it become apparent that no amount of force can move him if his feet are on the ground. Doesn’t stop him being wounded (the whole battering ram to the armoured chest still cost him a few cracked ribs) but he wont be going anywhere!
Meanwhile Shizu advances her theory to the rest of the Watch that perhaps Mimes were not always hated in Gem, and that perhaps something weird has affected the city to cause this mass-phobia of the white-faced, silent killers. This leads to the following conversation with Orchid
“Shizu, who told you this?” -Orchid
“My mother” Shizu replies
“Was she a noted scholar of the obscure?”
“No”
“Then what the hell what she know about it then! Mimes are evil, and that is that!” snaps Orchid.
Other stuff- Brand tries to find out more about the Lost City of Cinnabar, hoping to beat the Mahdi there. Unfortunately, other than learning it was the home of an ancient people, and most expeditions don’t return from it, he got nothing. Alana and Orchid are more interested in history of Solaria, but the books are silent on the identity of the Solar Lord and Princess who once ruled it in the First Age. So, they turn to the vast knowledge of Auntie, ( “I’m 73 don’t you know, dear?” ) who with some effort remembers the Princess name was once… Ranea.
Intrigued, Orchid decides to turn to the Abyssals for more information on the Dark Lady who now inhabits Solaria. Believing her to be the umbrella-carrying uber-deathknight whose presence they detected in the tunnels below Gem, she knows there is a connection to the Abyssal Circle.
So, Orchid prepares to impress. With Brands help she takes the Fae head she acquired on the Elemental Border battlefield and asks him to Goth it up. The elven face gets some mascara, and the glass hair is drawn into a bun and a miniature umbrella with bells on it acts as hairpin. Boxed and be-ribboned, Orchid at last has a gift for her housemates.
Visiting their half of the house, she finds the Lord of Silent Repose and the Maiden of the Mirthless Smile. Small talk with the Lord, reveals that his diplomatic efforts with the Despot are nearing completion, and soon it will be time for “Solars and Abyssals to unite against our common enemy” . Which one? “All will be revealed when the time is right….”</i>
But the Maiden once more practices her Irresistable Succubus Style and Orchid makes with the suggestive flappy robes and twining sleeves, and fairly shortly the Lord of Silent Repose has to excuse himself. Orchid invites the Maiden over to the white side of the house for a surprise.
Once in her boudoir, Orchid presents the Maiden with her gift of a slain Fair Folk head. Even as Orchid tries to explain its provenance, the Maiden is overcome with appreciation and begins kissing Orchid, making with the smoochies.
(Fade to Black)
Curled up in bed, the two Exalts have a post-coital chat.
“Orchid, I would kill …anyone for you” promises the satisfied (yet bloodthirsty) Maiden.
“Oh, that’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me” the sincerity in that particularly Abyssal though delights Orchid, her mind immediately turning to the Captain (but makes her Temperance roll. I think.)
”You really should join our Circle, I think you fit in really, really well” breathes the Abyssal.
“Maybe you could join ours?” counter-offers Orchid, considering a future Captain-shaped hole in the Watch. “But first we might have to see someone you know. That Princess lady, with the umbrella. What is her name again, love?”
“HER! That Bitch!” spits the Maiden “She is the Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers”
“You dislike her?”
“Oh, she is always trying to twist our Lord around her finger. Its pathetic to watch really. And she’s a real incompetent, always whining about how her latest failure wasn’t her fault, how some spirits told tales on her..” fumes the Maiden..
“There, there” soothes Orchid “I’m sure that bitch will get what’s coming to her…”
Meanwhile….
Shizu continues her quest to find her brothers killer, and visits the Temple of Rulen again, working on the theory that if her brother was meeting Sad Ivory here, then perhaps it was because there is a Celestial Gateway near the Temple to provide easy access for a Sidereal. Unfortunately Shizu doesn’t know what to look for in a portal to Yu Shan, and gets nowhere.
Alana’s followers tip her that the the Immaculate faithful are being invited to a special sermon at the Temple of 5 Harmonius Dragons tonight. The Solars decide to go, incognito and see what Tanaka is up to.
And what happens next, nobody could have expected….
(To Be Continued)
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