StalkerofShadows/WyldIce

This is a mixed Exalt game run by StalkerofShadows set to start on August 20, 2006.
This is very preliminary as I like to design a game around characters, not force characters into my story.

Rules

• 2nd edition
  
• Converting charms for the Abyssal character as Abyssals 2nd edition is not in print
  
• Merits & Flaws are allowed
  
• Custom charms, artifacts and hearthstones allowed with Storyteller approval
  
• Dragonblooded characters start with the Dynast point buy as there will be at least 2 Celestial Exalt PCs
  
• Low Realm will be the lingua franca
  
• Sorcery or Necromancy circle charms give the appropriate countermagic spell for free.
  
• Weapons with the Overwhelming quality do a ping damage of essence+overwhelming rating.
  
• Improvements to combos can be purchased at a cost of (sum of minimum abilities of new charms) + (total number of charms already in the combo)
  
• Backgrounds can be increased by roleplaying, or by purchase at a cost of (3xp x current rating), or 3xp for the 1st dot.
  
• Although unlikely to come up, Adamant and Obsidian countermagic can dispel the opposite magical and necromatic circles.
  
• Learning circles of sorcery or necromancy takes active roleplaying effort, not just xp and a week of training!
  
• Learning Sidereal Martial Arts for non-Sidereals is absolutely forbidden.
  
  • Caveat, now that we have Alchemicals, they are allowed to purchase SMA.
• The Whispers background can be added as a bonus to a roll once per day per dot

Setting

In this Time of Tumult, the savage North has become even more dangerous. The Fair Folk have stepped up their raids, and the restless dead wander from their lands of darkness. The Syndics of Whitewall know that it is only a matter of time before the Fae launch a truly massive attack on the city. Thus they have recruited all Exalts that they could contact to Whitewall. The goal is to seize the initiative and at least buy the city some time. The Syndics remember the First Age well, and hope that the Exalts will be able to find a long-term solution to the situation.

Game begins on 15, Descending Earth

Character list

Tenshi, Dawn warrior of the North
Soul Cleaver, servant of the Silver Prince
Emerald Wind, Twilight, savant of lore
Sesus Victoria, Fire Aspect explorer (inactive, now NPC)
(Tuul) Air Aspect of House Ferem, Northern power broker. Deceased
(Cassandra) fox-totem Changing Moon Lunar (inactive, now NPC)
Christian, Zenith martial arts hero (inactive, now NPC)
(Cerulean), Chosen of Secrets

Important NPCs
The Bodhisavatta Anointed With Dark Water, known to mortal men as The Silver Prince
Liege to Soul Cleaver. He has recently expressed great interest in Mamara's Fell. He has gained the trust of Emerald Wind and often is in contact with the circle.

Lumizent, Fae Queen of the North
A faerie queen of unbelievable beauty. She apparently is in charge of things around the North in the Wyldlands. Has toyed with the party many times.

Gre'tech Essence-binder, God of Essence-forging.

Vanileth, Shogun of Artificial Flight
The party has brought Vanileth a few pieces of a 1st age airship to examine. Unfortunately, Vanileth has lost much of his sanity along with his power. He might help, as soon as he can figure out where he left those darn blueprints...
Recently, the circle has recovered his thinking cap from the Fair Folk, and his mental condition has greatly improved.

The Syndics of Whitewall
The Syndics have given the circle their blessing to remain in the city, as long as they don't bring the Fae or the Dead down upon them all.

Rune of Whitewall, Eclipse Caste
Rune is the personal emissary of the Syndics and controls the Whitewall Solar manse. Although he was away for an extended period negotiating with Yurgen Karenko, he is now helping the circle in their negotiations with Yu-Shan.

Talmarr, Twilight Caste
A young Twilight that the circle recently rescued from the Wyld Hunt near Cherak. Talmarr just recently exalted, and is happy just to be alive.

Rain
A sorceress of some sort that lives in Cherak. She helped the circle rescue Talmarr and several other anti-Realm refugees. She knows Terrestrial Circle Sorcery, but the circle doesn't know much else about her.

Whispers of Endless Night, Moonshadow caste
The Silver Prince's favorite diplomat, and apparently quite an accomplished sorcerer.

Embrace of Obsidian, Midnight caste
Beautiful, deadly, and in command of a powerful shadowland manse. What more could a man want?

Fury of the Earth, Full-Moon Badger totem Lunar
A brash young Lunar found unconcious in Tzalti. Apparently seeking glory in fighting the undead, he bit off more than he could chew. He thanked the party for the rescue, and went on his way.

Nellens Railona, Air Aspect
Runs a high-end brothel in Diamond Hearth. She has gotten to know Victoria very well.

Yushoto Marso, Wai Tun-Tunai of the Lookshy Fourth Field Force
An Earth aspect that was prospecting in Diamond Hearth. Emerald Wind gained his trust when he used Harmonious Academic Methodology to teach his men.

Thrice-Dead Achiba
A ghost that apparently hates Mamara's old manse and Terrestrials in general. In any case, the party killed him and he's more dead now than ever.

General Xykan, Brass Legionaire
Commander of the Brass Legion. Was found deactivated in Mamara's Fell. He has a bit of a time anachronism due to being deactivated since shortly after the Usurpation. He is currently in Whitewall representing his remaining troops.

Baz, Brass Legionaire commando
They only advanced legionaire fortunate enough to escape the Terrestrials. He spent the last age trying to find a Solar to free his compatriots. Has a bit of an obsessive hate of all things Terrestrial.

Orin, Celestial Lion
A Celestial Lion guarding the gateway from Whitewall. He is rather bored with his post, as the gateway is almost never used. Emerald Wind owes him a favor for "allowing" him to bring Abyssals through the gate.

Zur, Bringer of DOOM!
A ring-based Fair Folk living west of Vanileth's palace. May or may not have been in possession of Vanileth's thinking cap. Has many project including the snowman army, the Chicken Cannon, and the Chicken of Doom. The circle defeated him and stole the Chicken of Doom.

Scratch Fury
Another ring-based Fair Folk living west of Vanileth. Scratch appears to be a cat. He was in possession of the Thinking Cap, but traded it for the Chicken of Doom.

McNeil, dawn caste
Commander of the Gethamane guard. Polite, honorable, and one true bad-ass
(Note: based on a friend of mine named the same, not the Stargate character)

Crystalline Strand of the Underways (Stan to his friends)
He's a...something, that lives in the Underways of Gethemane. Maybe a god, maybe an Exalt, who knows? He's friendly at least.

Kadali, Guild factor
Contact of Tuul's within the Guild, recently introduced to Tenshi.

Ocean Pearl
A Zenith pirate captain, operating near Wallport

Nefvarin Summer Breeze, sohei of the Lookshy Sky Guard
A beautiful Zenith priestess. Now rules the wind people of Rezalkan.

Tepet Ejava, the Roseblack
Leader of the Vermillion Legion. A brilliant and honorable general.

Amilar Kraig
Commandant of the Lookshy Academy. Has replaced much of his body with mechanics to fight a rotting curse.

Thirsts for Blood
A giant flying demon-of-war. One of the secondary souls of Adjoran.

Pedro
Pedro is one of the many gods who found themselves unemployed after the Usurpation. He was once the god of trade in Tzalti, but a dead city has no trade. He currently sells dreamstones in Yu-Shan.

Solace, Orichalcum Caste
The head of the Yugash Alchemical Circle and diplomat to Creation.

Multitude of One, Southern Fair Folk
An unshaped Southern Fair Folk, mostly taking the form of an endless wave of Fair Folk nobles.

Circle Resources

• 20 talents in silver of credit with the Guild.
• The Suncrest Desu, skyship
• The resources of the City of Denandsor

Some distances for reference

• Whitewall to Wallport: 300 miles
• Whitewall to Cherak: 1000 miles
• Whitewall to Gethemane: 300 miles
• Whitewall to Icehome: 900 miles
• Whitewall to Diamond Hearth: 1500 miles
• Airboat cruising speed: 15mph
• Suncrest cruising speed: 30mph

August 20, 2006
Character creation

September 3, 2006
The story starts in Whitewall in the chamber of the Syndics. The Syndics inform the party that there has been a recent increase in Fair Folk attacks as of late. More troublesome, the Fair Folk have been using loopholes in their treaty to attack travelers along the Holy Road.

The party set out to investigate in their airship. Victoria decided to observe with the airship while the rest of the party traveled on the road as bait. Encountering a Guild caravan headed for Whitewall, the party (including Victoria) stopped to converse. In the distance, they observed a disturbance. It proved to be a pair of ice wyrms charging towards the road. The party managed to dispatch one while the other smashed a Guild wagon and fled. The Guildsmen were quite happy to survive and continued on their way. The ice wyrm attack was followed by an attack by 2 catactphroi off of the side of the road. The party dispatched them with some difficulty.

After again speaking with the Guildsmen, they learned the Fair Folk take captives to a pockey of reality about half a day's journey from the road. Not ones to hesitate, the party launched a full-out assault. Victoria and her crew, along with Emerald on his demon mount assaulted from air while the others traveled by land. Several shaping attacks were made against the party, although these caused nothing more serious than some cosmetic changes to the demon mount and the loss of some temporary virtues. Several bursts of blizzard and ice slashed the party, but this damage was soaked for the most part. The ice crystal and giant moth hobgoblins offered minimal resistance. A small village of slave pens was found in the reality pocket. About 50 mortals were being held there, and they were evacuated to Whitewall by airship.

In-game time passed: 2 weeks

September 17, 2006
Unable to resist the temptation of the stable pocket of the Wyld, the circle returns to investigate. They have various adventures fighting catactphroi and involving the slaughter of Hushed Ones. Detecting some sort of essence use underground, the circle begins to excavate. It soon becomes apparent that the wreckage of a 1st Age craft of some sort is below ground.

Meanwhile, the less patient members of the circle ventured into the Wyld. There they met Lumizent, Ice Princess of the North. The intrepid adventurers resisted her siren song and she soon became bored and left. That night, Emerald summoned a hopping puppetteer to help dig. It, the blood ape and Victoria's crew made some progress. Tuul send a Wind-Carried message to Gre'tech for help. He pulled through for the team by asking an earth elemental friend to help dig. Among the wreckage, the circle found a wondrous orb that repels the Wyld. However, it took many ship flights to load the pieces of the ship into the airship and take it back to Whitewall. When the circle took the last of it away, they saw the Middlemarches of the Wyld reclaim the area in the distance.

In-game time passed: 1 week

October 1st
Unsure what to do with the airship wreckage, the circle asked Gre'tech for help. He searched his sanctum for designs, but came up with nothing. He suggested that they speak with Vanileth, Shogun of Artificial Flight. This would involve a two-week journey by airship.

Emerald and Victoria noticed a disturbance in the essence patterns of their hearthstones. As the manses are on the way north, the circle stopped to investigate. Stopping first at Victoria's manse, they found corrupted Wyld energies enroaching down the dragonline from the north. Travelling along the dragonline, they found a group of lesser Fae. Although they looked weak, the Fair Ones managed to inflict some damage before they were destroyed.

Next the party travelled to Emerald's manse. There they found the same energy corruption. This time, the northern dragonline led to Lumizent and some of her court (a diplomat and two warriors). They parlayed with the party for a bit. The party asked the Fair Ones to leave, but the Fae wanted something in return. Aside from this, the diplomat offered to forge one of Victoria's graces for her finest mortal followers. However, Soul Cleaver and Tenshi grew bored and attacked the fae. The diplomat turned into a horrible....thing....and attacked the party with the two warriors. Meanwhile, Tuul was enraptured by Lumizent and ensnared by her. Eventually, the diplomat and one warrior were cut down and Lumizent, entertained for the day, left.

The circle stopped at Diamond Hearth on the way north for supplies. Reaching Vanileth's sanctum, Victoria found it a wonderland of abandoned 1st age devices. Vanileth was not as impressive as his reputation, but he offered to help these friendly Exalts that brought a functional, if unimpressive airship. However, he needed access to his Celestial manse and workshop to work on such a large project. The circle decided to return to Whitewall to ask the Syndics for assistance. On the way back, they stopped at Diamond Hearth for a short break.

In-game time passed: 4 weeks

October 15, 2006
The circle decided to stay in Diamond Hearth for awhile to do some exploring of the ruins of Tzalti. Victoria found an area that looked promising, but glacial ice made going slow. Emerald summoned a pathatu to melt the ice, and progress sped up. While bored, Christian and Tenshi found a small side passage. Inside, they found a Lunar in war form badly wounded. Although he was stable, the Lunar was in bad shape and gave the party a warning about going further before taking his leave. The party found a huge ice chamber encompassing party of old Tzalti. Most of the buildings were in complete ruins, although one manse remained. The party did notice an exceptionally devestated area of the city had the hearthstone lying on the bottom of it. Emerald Wind attuned to this gem and found it to be a Key of Air Mastery. The party found a few artifact-1 trinkets, and returned Diamond Hearth for the night.

In Diamond Hearth, Emerald met a Dragon-Blooded officer from the 7th Legion. Apparently more interested in relics than killing anaethema, the two spoke for awhile. Emerald agreed to train the officer's troupe in the ways of lore. Meanwhile, Victoria had a very interesting encounter with a local inn owner. The owner happens to be Nellens Tallona, a very beautiful air aspect. Apparently taken with each other, the two excused themselves for the night. Soul Reaver decided to test his mettle in Tzalti during the night and dispersed several hungry ghosts before leaving in the face of overwhelming numbers.

The next day, the circle decided to again explore old Tzalti. They decided to stay after nightfall and try to destroy some of the hungry ghosts. Although they destroyed several, they too had to leave in the face of overwhelming odds. During this battle, Soul Reaver caught and expecially powerful hungry ghost in a gem provided by his master.

In-game time passed: 3 weeks

October 29, 2006
The circle decided to look into moving the skyship pieces through the Celestial Gateway system. Unfortunately, none of them know the spell Opening the Spirit Door and the only other Solar that the know, Rune of Whitewall, is away on a diplomatic mission. Somehow knowing this, The Silver Prince sent Emerald Wind a message that he would provide an able sorcerer for a small favor: recovering a Shadowland manse from Mamara's Fell. The rest of the party agreed - this interested them with the possibility of killing ghosts and taking their stuff!

The manse is located several day's walk from the Holy Road. Victoria was unwilling to take her skyship into a shadowland so it was left (with guard) in Creation. After 2 days of walking, the circle found the ruins of a large fortress. They prudently left before nightfall, but this left them unable to enter the Underworld. Thus they returned, and stayed at the manse till nightfall. With the passing of the sun, the area translated into the Underworld. In the Realm of the Dead, the manse was once again whole in its glory. Interestingly, a wall of green flame surrounded the outside of the manse. Even more interestingly, the hearthstone layed unclaimed in the center of the manse. Several dozen brass constructs were also found in a basement, deactivated.

As night passed, a large commotion was heard from outside. A veritable army of ghosts surrounded the manse, firing siege weapons. However, the weapons were unable to penetrate the flame shield. The circle heroically left the manse to fight the ghosts. The flames did not seem to harm the Exalts or their demon minions. While the rest of the party engaged the army, Victoria used her boost overchargers to reach the ghost commander and engage him in a duel. Victoria managed to wear down her opponent and drop him, while Soul Cleaver and Tenshi cut through the horde. Seeing the fall of their leader, the ghosts fled. One prisoner was questioned. He said that their leader was "Thrice-Dead Achiba" and that he wanted to raze the manse and kill Terrestrials. Unimpressed with the amount of information received, Soul Cleaver tossed the ghost into the green flames, where the ghost disintegrated. After this, the party returned to the manse and Soul Cleaver attuned to the manse.

Time passed: 1 week

November 12, 2006
Returning to the manse, victorious, the party realized that another being was present. While investigating, a figure stealthily approached behind Tuul and drew two repeating plasma tongue casters on him! Tuul screamed out, and the figure informed him that it would just make this sweeter, he had been waiting a long time to kill a Terrestrial in the manse. The rest of the circle arrived and the figure was willing to speak with the Solars. After a tense debate, Emerald Wind talked the man out of shooting Tuul. He drew back his hood and revealed that he is a brass legionaire!.

The construct introduced himself as Baz, commando of the Brass Legion. He had been living in hiding since the Usurpation when the other sentient brass legionaires were deactivated. When the Solars returned, he had stalked about the manse, hoping to reactivate his compatriots. Piecing together Mamara's journals, Emerald Wind was able to discover the code and reactivate the legionaires. They were quite confused - having been deactivated since shortly after the Usurpation. The general of the Brass Legion, General Xykan, spoke for the unit. They were quite anxious to once again help their Solar brothers defend Creation. However, one small detail stood in the way, they were completely unarmed! At this point, the legionaires were anxious to leave the horrible manse and shadowland. The group returned to the airship and planned their next move.

It was decided that the circle (minus Tenshi) and a few brass legion representatives would fly to Wallport and purchase weapons from the Guild. The rest of the legionaires, led by Tenshi, would march towards Wallport, helping those that they could on the way. The circle arrived at Wallport without incident. Due to their limited funds, they had to do some bargaining to get weaponry. Tuul managed to convince the Guild that the price of a few weapons were worth caravan guards that would actually stand and fight the Fair Folk. The circle picked up their weapons, and ordered the legionaires with them to guard the caravan waiting to leave town for Whitewall. The circle flew back to Tenshi's group and armed the legionaires. At this point, the Silver Prince was getting impatient for his new manse and politely asked Emerald Wind and Soul Cleaver to return to the manse to surrender the hearthstone.

The circle sent a portion of the second group of legionaires, now armed, south to meet the caravan. Meanwhile, the circle again entered the shadowland to trek to Mamara's Heart. After reaching it, they awaited nightfall for the deathlord's troops to arrive. A blast of black lightning streaked through the night and hit the ground, creating a dark portal through which the troops of the dead entered. These consisted of two deathknights, troops in a dozen suits of Ossious Shell armor, a lightning ballista, two light implosion bows and various other ghostly warriors and supplies. The male deathknight introduced himself as Whispers of Endless Darkness, a moonshadow caste and the Silver Prince's hand-picked diplomat and one of his top sorcerers. Whispers appeared to be quite and attractive and charismatic man, followed by a small retinue of beautiful (surprisingly) living women. The female deathknight introduced herself as Embrace of Obsidian, a midnight caste warrior. Embrace of Obsidian explained that she would remain to guard the new fortress while Whispers traveled to Whitewall with the party. Taking their leave, the party returned to the airship. They, Whispers and the remaining twelve brass legionaires flew back to Whitewall.

Whispers left to have an audience with the Syndics while the party regrouped. Emerald found that his troublesome student had been missing classes! He went to investigate and found the boy exhausted from spending too much time with his new girlfriend. Emerald invited himself and Tenshi to supper to meet this mysterious woman. During the supper, Emerald asked his hopping puppetteer to Measure the Wind of the woman. It turns out that her essence is greater than Emerald's! Emerald and Tenshi drug the woman outside the wall without causing too much commotion. They gave her a choice: leave for good or die. She laughed and dissapeared into a flurry of snowflakes.

The next day, Emerald and Tuul decided to meet with Rune. The defenses of the Solar Manse grew quite agitated in Tuul's presence, so the meeting moved to Emerald's house. Rune agreed to use his diplomatic persuasion to get them into Yu-Shan. The circle, Whispers, Rune, and 12 brass legionaires met at the Syndic hall and Whispers opened the gateway. On the other side, they found a bored celestial lion. He demanded an unspecified favor in return for allowing the brass legionaires and Terrestrials into Yu-Shan, to which Emerald agreed. However, Emerald was not allowed to have his demons enter so they remained in Whitewall. The party (brass legionaires with skyship pieces in tow) then boarded a ferry on the quicksilver canal and traveled to Vanileth's gate. The celestial lion at the gate seemed happy to see them leave.

Back in Creation, Vanileth was happy to have a new project to work on.

Time passed: 1 week

December 10, 2006

The circle was eager to get away from the crazy old god and have their legionaires deliver the rest of the ship. On their way back through Yu-Shan, Victoria discovered her hearthstone compass was missing. Soul Cleaver caught a glimpse of the thief and tracked him to a less vibrant section of the city. Inside of an old mansion, the party found a number of unemployed gods. The thief quickly gave back the item when confronted. Tenshi also traded his shield bracers for a nice dreamstone. The circle listened to the pleas for employment by the gods, but eventually left.

Tenshi received an Unfallible Message from a sorceress named Rain in Cherak. She informed him that a young man recently Exalted as a Twilight and needed help escaping from the area. The circle and a band of Tenshi's best warriors left in the airship to a field north of Cherak. After a day of waiting, they observed a ride of the Wyld Hunt chasing a Solar with full anima barrier. After a fierce fight, the circle felled three Terrestrials and the rest fled. The young Solar, Talmarr, was grateful for the help and eager to leave the city. Another message from Rain informed Tenshi to wait for several other refugees. A day later, several of Emerald Wind's missing followers and a few martial artists who had philosophical differences with the Immaculates arrived. This crew then returned to Whitewall.

Time passed: 1 week

January 7, 2007

Emerald Wind received a message from Orin that he had a method in mind to repay the favor. Speaking with Orin, the circle learned that they would be fulfilling the favor by fulfilling a favor Orin owed Lytek. The circle received permission to visit the "high-rent" area of Yu-Shan where Lytek's manse is located. It was an experience of overwhelming splendor to visit that part of Yu-Shan. Lytek was most gracious in greeting the Solars, but seemed to consider speaking with a Terrestrial below him. After answering some questions about Exaltation, he asked if Soul Cleaver would be willing to stay for some "experiments." Not trusting the god, the circle volunteered to capture another Abyssal (ALIVE!) to bring to Lytek.

Although Soul Cleaver would have liked nothing more than to remove one of his rivals working for the Silver Prince, the party realized they needed to capture an Abyssal not under his control. They determined that the simplist way would be to steer for the center of Mamara's Fell and take whoever they could by force of arms! Entering the eastern portion of the Fell from the north, they found a site of a recent battle and several dismembered zombies. Following a trail, they found a man near death. He explained that his village was massacred and he unwisely decided to take revenge. After having a stomach bottle bug heal him, the party took him in as a guide. After a few days, they caught up with the patrol the man had skirmished with. The circle easily defeated most of them and pursued the rest to their fortress. A wild fight broke out at the fortress in which Tenshi was almost killed by a flesh-sloughing wave. The party almost obliterated the necromancer in their zeal but some heroic efforts by the stomach bottle bug kept him at the edge of death.

The circle then returned the captured Abyssal to Lytek. He offered rewards for the work well done. Most of the circle were undecided and decided to take future favors into consideration. Lytek then used his powers to raise Emerald Wind's essence, both as a reward and because Emerald Wind is one of his favorite projects.

Time passed: 1 week

February 18, 2007

The circle traveled through the heavenly portal to Vanileth's abode. He was more disturbed than normal, swatting at a flock of mechanical birds and claiming they stole his "thinking cap." Although really not interested in listening to a madman, the circle realized that they would never get the airship fixed at this rate.

The circle followed on of the mechanical birds into the nearby Wyld. In this strange place, snow fell up out of the ground and snowmen worked on getting a tan. Eventually, the circle was confronted by a pack of angry snowmen. While they easily butchered the snowmen, a Fair Folk on a flying ice platform rained shaping attacks upon them, although most were stopped by Emerald Wind's Chaos-Protection Ward. Soul Cleaver fired a crypt bolt at the platform, but it easily evaded. Eventually, the snow was shaped into a giant made of ice, who then attacked the party. Emerald Wind took the worst of it, getting pummeled with a giant icy fist. While the rest of the party carved into the giant, Tuul threw javelins at the Fair One. He connected a few times, but then his next javelin turned into a steak (the meat kind) in mid-air. The steak then turned into a reindeer which fell to the ground. Tuul then decided to throw a javelin at the reindeer, and missed. Showing a lack of restraint, he then punched the reindeer in the eye. Meanwhile, the party literally carved the ice giant's legs out from under it. When it fell, it exploded into an igloo which enclosed the party with the reindeer, leaving them stuck in the dreaded ROOM WITH A REINDEER! Most of the party lost their self control and attacked the reindeer. Every time it fell, it was quickly replaced by another. Eventually, Tenshi threw the reindeer through a wall, ending the curse. However, one reindeer was left alive. Using amazing skill, Tuul mounted the reindeer and named in Herbert. With a smirk he rode off towards the ice palace.

The circle then reached the Fair Folk's icicle palace. Although he tried to deny them entry, they beat down the gate. Inside was an amazing collection of reindeer and chickens in glass tubes, and a strange little green man at a control system. When the party asked for the thinking cap, the Fair Folk claimed they were only after his chicken cannon, which he demonstrated by firing a chicken through the roof at some distant target. He claimed to be firing chickens at his nemesis, Scratch Fury, who was both a cat and the owner of the thinking cap. The circle quickly grew bored and Soul Cleaver pinned the Fair One to his chair with his grand daiklave. After it refused to cooperate, Emerald Wind removed the Fae's head from its shoulders with his wood dragon claws. The circle then freed the reindeer and chickens. Having skill at riding, both Soul Cleaver and Emerald Wind took their own reindeer steeds. Using skills that are only possible in the Wyld, Tuul fashioned a sled for Tenshi and they took off to Scratch's palace.

At Scratch's palace, a giant hologram of a cats head (ala Wizard of Oz) confronted the party. Due to Emerald Wind's chaos-protection ward, Scratch's attacks could not hurt them. He demanded something in return for the thinking cap. With the party growing impatient, Scratch finally noticed the chickens. Claiming that the circle possessed the Chicken of Doom, he gladly traded the thinking cap for the chicken.

The circle then returned to Vanileth's palace. With the return of the thinking cap, he regained his sanity. Although the skyship repairs were not finished, he gave them a shielding device to help protect their current airship. The circle then returned to Whitewall.

While recuperating in Whitewall, Tenshi received a message: the Guard of Gethamane was in need of the assistance of a great warrior. Seeing a chance for honor and glory, he readily accepted. The circle then flew to Gethamane to meet McNeil, leader of the guard. McNeil in actuality was a dawn Solar, and a great warrior. Apparently the creatures of the Underways had stepped up their attacks recently, and the Guard needed all the help they could get. Tenshi then had a great idea: why not raise the moral with a great party to welcome the heroes? The party turned out quite well, and many members of the circle learned interesting information. Among these was the lack of Dragonblooded, Guildsmen and ghosts in Gethamane, and the suspicion against the Celestial Exalts.

Feeling refreshed the next day, the circle set off into the Underways. Several hours in, the party encountered a group of cthirrae, which they easily slaughtered.

Time passed: 2 weeks

March 4, 2007

Continuing their trek, the party encountered a strange being carving runes into a wall. The man appeared very perfect and god-like in appearance, but was not a spirit. He introduced himself as "Crystalline Strand," or Stan for short, and seemed to be expecting them. After calming Soul Cleaver's bloodlust, the circle spoke with Stan. He revealed that a great evil lurked in the Underways, and nobody who had ever seen it had survived. He seemed to know that the party would ignore him, and he also said to expect to meet another being on their way. The circle indeed laughed off his suggestion and continued on.

Later, Tenshi's keen warrior instincts revealed the presence of a figure hiding in a side passage. He appeared to be a greatly built man in full armor, armed with a spear. The creature could not speak Low Realm, so Tuul translated for Tenshi. Finding the conversation boring and not very informative, the circle continued on.

Eventually, they reached a great cavern with a lake. Tenshi unwisely kicked a rock into the lake. Moments later, a giant tentacle burst out of the lake and attacked the circle. The party was made great progress in damaging the thing, but another tentacle and two large bat-like creatures then burst out of the lake. Tenshi was quickly pummeled to unconciousness by the tentacle. Fortunately his stomach-bottle bug patched him up, and he was able to call for a retreat. About this time, the lake started to rise quickly. Soul Cleaver tried using Crypt Bolts on the liquid, but there seemed to be little effect. The circle then fled back up the tunnel in terror. After much running, they passed Stan and his runes. This seemed to stop the wave of death. After explaining again that the circle can't hurt the thing, he scolded them and the circle went on their way.

Several plans were discussed. These included building some sort of weapon, talking to gods of steam or magma, and finding a Zenith Solar. The circle realized all of these things would be easier in Whitewall and returned to there. Tenshi then had Rune grant him access to Yu-Shan and help him speak to various gods. Several gods of steam spoke with the pair, but did not have enough power to help. Tenshi decided to try talking to a god that knew more about destroying cities, that being Azmoth City-Smiter. Tenshi's attempt to make Azmoth jealous of the Vodak failed, but the god found the attempt amusing.

Time passed: 1 week

March 18, 2007
Feeling a bit dejected, the party regrouped in Whitewall. Later, Emerald Wind received an exciting message: the skyship repairs were complete, all it needed was a crew. "Borrowing" a portion of Victoria's crew, the party traveled the Yu-Shan network back to Vanileth's palace. Vanileth was returning to his old self: he was starting to appear as an angel made of adamant. He presented the Starspire: more or less in one piece. He lacked the time and materials to make it a proper skyship for a Solar, but it would fly (and much better than the airboat). However, he had one more request: find him a workshop in a more civilized part of Creation! The circle agreed to try and left to find him a new home.

Many options were discussed. Denandsor was thrown out as too distant and dangerous, and Lookshy as possibly hostile. Emerald Wind had heard of a lost First Age city called Rezalkan located in the north, possibly it still had a workshop? Using his VAST knowledge of lore, the skyship captain's expert sailing, and the protection of the Globe of Stability, they found the city within a few days. It was located in the Bordermarches, far to the northwest in a valley. This city had many interesting things, including; surviving in the Wyld, being populated by humans with wings, and having Dragonblooded that did not attack the Celestials on sight. The Rezalkians were confused as the circle was not the stray Haslanti explorers that occasionally found their way to the city. However, they were friendly and the party wined and dined with the citizens that night. The ruling council warned a Wyld Storm was coming, and to stay indoors. Most of the circle did this, but Tuul took a contingent to the Starspire to show its prowness against shaping. Much impressed, the council had further discussions with the Exalts. They agreed to house this "Vanileth" of theirs and allow him access to the remains of the Factory Cathedral in return for repairing their city and protection from the Wyld. However, the party was unable to discover exactly how the city had survived the Wyld that long. They then returned to Whitewall.

After a few days they received a message from a messanger spirit: please accompany him to the manse of the Beast Lord in Yu-Shan. With not much else they could do for Gethamane at the moment, the party traveled to Yu-Shan.

The Beast Lord's manse is located in the finer area of Yu-Shan. Graciously introducing himself, he offered hospitality to the circle. He explanied that he would love to have a Behemoth in his collection to impress the neighbors. More precisely, one that is somewhat manageable. He suggested the Behemoth of Jackalopes! The circle felt it was a tall order, but promised to return with it in exchange for help defeating the Vodak. The Beast Lord gave them an ear tag to place on the unconcious creature, which would shrink it to the size of an ordinary rabbit for transport.

Tuul volunteered to use his "contacts" among the Fair Ones to find some hunting partners. Lumizent decided it would be a delightful diversion, and agreed to lend some cataphracts. Using the Beast Lord's directions, they quickly found the beast. The jackalope of lore was indeed a mighty foe, a beast the size of a yeddim capable of knocking down an army with one of its jumps and biting a man in half. After a long struggle involving two unconcious members of the circle, several dead demons and much sword-fu, the beast was subdued and tagged. The Fair Ones responded by throwing popcorn as no Exalts had died.

In return for the behemoth, the Beast Lord gave the party a crystal sphere full of motes of fire. He explained to shatter this on the Vodak, and it would greatly aid them. On the way back to Whitewall, Tenshi stopped to purchase another dreamstone. This dreamstone was of a great aerial battle in the First Age. Happy with this new item, he gave the old one to Emerald Wind's apprentice.

4/1/2007

Globe of Fire in hand, the party headed for a showdown with the Vodak. And this time, it was personal! Soul Cleaver made a quick stop to Mamara's Heart to get some zombie reinforcements. They didn't find McNeil within the city as he and most of the guard were fending off spawn from the deep the best that they could. Setting out for the central lair of the Vodak, the circle encountered a group of Gethemane guards. They volunteered to help and followed the party out. However, when the circle least suspected it, the guards attacked! Although hopelessly outmatched, the guards would not back down and many were put to the sword. Emerald Wind knocked one unconcious and had his demons do the same to others. After all the guards were incapacitated, he questioned one of them. The guards seemed to be under some sort of mind control, and did not have much to offer. The circle left them bound and continued onward. In another room, metal spikes shot from the walls and damaged most of the party! Although the circle was able to bypass this area, the spikes incapacitated many zombies. In yet another chamber, a wave of Vodak flesh devoured a summoned blood ape. Once again the circle had to re-route.

Then it happened, the big showdown. Soul Cleaver rushed in and started flaying about. Fortunately for him, his Abyssal dodge skills prevented the Vodak from hitting him. Emerald flew towards the center of the Vodak and dropped the fire seed, taking damage in the process. His demon minions engaged the Vodak. The Vodak retaliated using pillars the size of redwoods and creatures of the vilest nightmares. Eventually Tuul had to retreat, heavily wounded. Soul Cleaver finished off one tentacle, and eventually McNeil appeared to help. With the fire seed preventing regeneration, the circle cut down the attacking tentacle-pillars. Soul Cleaver then used a soul orb given to him by his master to imprison the rest of the beast.

April 22, 2007

Meanwhile...
Tenshi took some time to get to know the extended members of his tribe. The basic units of friendship being ale and whores. After a night of debauchery, Tenshi paid his respects to the old medicine man. The old man gave him a quest, "To enter the Wyld and seek the tallest place, which may not be climbed." Although Tenshi could not decipher this puzzle, he took a group of his best men to find this place. After much adventuring in the Bordermarches, Tenshi stepped on a completely ordinary patch of snow and found himself transported thousands of feet into the sky. From the point, he could see all the way to the Blessed Isle. Recovering his composure, he noticed a woman meditating on the platform. She introduced herself as Scarlet Ice Artisan and said she had been expecting him. After some conversation, Tenshi decided he knew her from somewhere and she was probably not a Fair One. After discussing some of the finer points of raising a barbarian army, she informed him it had "taken him long enough" to find her after he "never called." Puzzled, Tenshi decided he could gain no more information and returned to his tribe, then to Whitewall.
(some missing adventure to come)

April 29, 2007 Our adventure continues with Soul Cleaver sending Tenshi back to Rezalkan with the first air orb (Tenshi's player was absent). Soul Cleaver and Tuul then go in search of another air orb. Finding an inverted mountain in the Wyld is easy, getting in is harder. They found another mountain with an enormous gate across the bottom. Two cataphracts stood guard at the base. Soul Cleaver managed to quickly slay the Fair Folk archer while dodging the other's attacks and Tuul took shots at it with his javelins. Eventually, the remaining cataphract began begging for his life. Finding little remorse from the two Exalts, the Fair One fled. The two tracked him, but were struck by arrows from an unseen assailant. An insidious Wyld poison soon rendered them unconcious...

Soul Cleaver's dream
Soul Cleaver awoke to find himself on an endless, featureless plain. In one direction, a shining figure appeared. Soul Cleaver cautiously approached. It soon became apparent the man was a Solar clad in golden plate. The Solar did not move to attack Soul Cleaver. The Solar awaited Soul Cleaver, then spoke, "I have been waiting for you, Soul Cleaver." Soul Cleaver was surprised the Solar knew him, but also found that he knew the man, a man named Maximus. Soul Cleaver, however, insulted the Solar, trying to goad him into a fight. The Solar ignored his insults, and asked, "what more do you seek, other than endless conflict?" Soul Cleaver replied that he did not know. Maximus then showed Soul Cleaver a seen from the past:

The Unconquered Sun shown brightly on a new day. Maximus left his shining kingdom to again fight the tides of the Wyld. His friends and family waved him tearful goodbies. The scene changed to a vision of the Deep Wyld. Maximus fought a horrible behemoth with a shining blade. On and on they fought. Although the battle appeared to take but a day, when Maximus left the Wyld, he found much time had passed. Perhaps a hundred years. All of the mortals in his kingdom he knew were long dead. His heart broke, and Maximus took out his frustration on the descendants of those he once knew.

Soul Cleaver again found himself on the endless plain. Maximus then told him to seek a manse to the northwest that would answer his questions, if that is what he wished. Maximus bid him farewell, and Soul Cleaver awoke.

Ferem Tuul's dream
The party was opulent as any Tuul had remembered. He was truly honored to be invited to THE Cynis festival of the year. He floated from cliche to cliche, impressing them with his wit. He then took a pleasant diversion with a beautiful serving maid. After returing to the ballroom, his uncle Lucius stopped him and asked why he was wasting his time. Tuul was confused - was it not the goal of House Ferem to gain influence with the Great Houses? Lucius pointed outside, where a great storm approached. As it floated over the land, the landscape was destroyed...and it steadily approached. Tuul tried to warn the party-goers, but they ignored and chided him. Lucius then told Tuul that there were others that he knew that would provide far greater resources than the fops at the party. Tuul decided to take matters into his own hands and opened the door to leave...and then awoke.

Little time had actually past, and the Fair One had disappeared. Soul Cleaver and Tuul returned to the mountain gate, to find the cataphract had returned. They asked him what he was guarding, only to receive the answer, "I am forbidden to speak it." The cataphract was badly wounded, and let Soul Cleaver enter while he talked to Tuul. When Soul Cleaver entered, an amorphous blob of chaotic shapes enveloped him. He lashed out with crypt bolt and blade, but his bolts passed harmlessly through it for the most part. Seeing his distress, his ghostly guard appeared and began to assist. Between their efforts, they fought off the creature, although Soul Cleaver was wounded. The blob turned into a flood of scorpions, which the Abyssal and his minions attempted to exterminate. After they fled, Soul Cleaver removed the airstone from the mountain core and returned to the gate.

Soul Cleaver and Tuul demanded some sort of payment from the Fair One for the troubles. He gave them an antler from his brow. Unimpressed, they butchered the creature. Lumizent then appeared and thanked them (verbally) for the entertainment. Not interested in stopping, the pair moved on towards a new mountain.

Although Soul Cleaver's wounds did not pain him, they did present a problem. Deciding to try his hand at demon summoning, he waited for sunset and summoned a stomach bottle bug. Finding this demon summoning thing extremely easy, he ordered his new minion to fix his wounds then Tuul's.

May 6, 2007
Soul Cleaver and Tuul set off in search of another air mountain core. The next mountain they encountered ended up being a sentient being! It attacked them with fists of stone, swarms of locusts, and avalanches. Soul Cleaver quickly put out the thing's eye with a blast of crypt bolt. The pair then fought their way to the crater formed to storm in to retrieve the core. While Tuul was waiting in the cavern, the mountain put a finger into its own eye socket to squish him. Although badly wounded, his flesh bottle bug quickly fixed him.

May 13, 2007
Tenshi returned his air mountain core to Vanileth, but was itching to get back into battle. However, he was tired from his journey and rested for the night. Resting with his dreamstone, he delved deeper into the dream than before. Once again Ruby Gleam stood on the flagship of the Northern Air Armada, flying into the Wyld. Skyships of all shapes and sizes followed him. Looking back over the deck, he saw Crimson Artisan wink at him. The Terrestrial crew prepared for battle, several donning their warstriders. Below, a new behemoth smashed its way forward through the troops of his allies. Another Solar in gleaming plate watched and waited. Activating his grand daiklaive, a series of golden essense blades started to rotate along its edge. Nodding to his friend, the Solar lept off the deck to float downwards towards the battle. In the distance, Ruby Gleam could see another horror approaching. Not so much a thing as a place, it swept over the landscape. Whirlwinds of bones, bits of metal, ice, and things swept through it. Ruby Gleam drew his grimcleaver, and.....morning broke.

The Rezalkans were preparing for some sort of celebration the next day, but Tenshi did not stick around to find out what. After returning to the Wyld, he encountered a party of Wyld mutants. Oddly, when questioned they spoke perfect Old Realm. They also happened to be returning an air mountain core to their mistress! Deciding to use brute force, Tenshi slaughtered the band and took their air core. A while later, Crimson Artisan stopped him and asked why he took the core. He engaged her in combat, but quickly burnt out much of his essence. She grappled him, but let him go after extracting a promise to stop working with the Fair Folk near Whitewall.

With the required air cores in hand, the circle returned to Rezalkan. Vanileth told them this would only work once, and to decide where to move the city. The circle chose east of Whitewall. With an enormous hum and whine, the city successfully lifted into the air. This strange transportation moved through the Wyld to Whitewall without incident and landed gently. The citizens of Whitewall were in a panic, not thinking perhaps the Fair Ones were attacking. The circle took a delegation from Rezalkan to Whitewall and discussed the situation.

(Time Passes)

A general meeting of the beings of power near Whitewall was called. The circle was informed the advance guard for several Realm legions would soon be landing at Cherak. Several options for preparations of battle were discussed. McNeil volunteered to train troops. Tenshi inquired about finding more Solars. Obviously, the place to find this out was the home of the God of Exaltations! Lytek greeted Tenshi warmly and listened to his inquiry. He informed Tenshi that a charismatic Zenith named Summer could be found near Lookshy. Tenshi thanked him and the circle was off. In the meantime, Tuul's uncle Lucius had requested evacuating a store of weapons in Cherak before the Realm arrived, so the circle decided to stop there on the way. They found a store of 1st Age weapons in a bunker and began loading the ship. At this time, the party was ambushed by a cloaked warstrider and several archers! Tuul decided discretion was the better part of valor and ran from battle. While Tenshi faced the warstrider, Soul Cleaver attacked the archers. Tenshi was getting the worst of the battle, and Soul Cleaver arrived to help. Together, they cut a leg off the war machine and felled it. They then pulled out the pilot and subdued him. The circle now had a store of weapons, a disabled warstrider, and a warstrider pilot to return to Whitewall.

June 3, 2007
An eventful session!
The circle returned their swag to Whitewall. This consisted of a damaged warstrider and air aspect pilot, several dissassembled warstriders, and various flame spears and other Shogunate era infantry weapons. Tenshi asked Gre'tech to fix the damaged warstrider. This was extremely easy for the god, who just held the leg to the strider and healed it. Tenshi then requested a flying warstrider. Although Gre'tech suggested just using the one that was captured and the parts from the armory, he promised to work on the request. Meanwhile, Tuul tried to manipulate the local Guild factor into supporting the Anathema. Although this failed, he did learn that the Realm invasion force would be headed by Sesus legions. Tenshi then spoke to the Syndics about the current military situation. He learned that McNeil was training the city guard, and that the Syndics could probably defend the city itself. However, if they lost, Whitewall would become another Realm satrapy. They again requested for Tenshi to recruit a Zenith to help with their geomatic defense plan.

Tenshi and Soul Cleaver then left Whitewall to speak to Tenshi's tribe. Tenshi performed a demonstration of his prowness by having Soul Cleaver blast at him with a crypt bolt, then deflected it with Heavenly Guardian Defense. When the tribe was not suitably impressed, he had Soul Cleaver crypt bolt one of the barbarians! This effectively impressed the tribe. That night, Soul Cleaver summoned a small demon and had his ghosts socialize to impress the tribe.

The circle then flew for Lookshy. Soul Cleaver took this opportunity to start summoning an army of tomescu. At the edge of Lookshy airspace, the Suncrest was intercepted by the Skywolf. The circle agreed to let the Suncrest be boarded and then followed the Skywolf to the Lookshy skyport. At the port, the circle was asked to leave their weapons and basically not cause trouble. A guide then agreed to show them to their destination. They found Summer Breeze meditating with her followers at the edge of the Mourning Field. Tenshi explained the situation to her. Although she did not understand why geomancers would want her, she agreed to come along to look into their request.

The next day, Tenshi had an urge to explore the city. He found some sort of sewer/vent/tunnel on the side of the terrace and entered it. As he and Soul Cleaver went further, the area became extremely hot and arcs of lightning and heat shot from orichalum plates. They returned later with Tuul who prepared the party with his survival skills. The heat was almost unbearable, but the circle worked their way in further. Soul Cleaver's pet demon could not restrain itself and touched an orichalcum spire, electrocuting itself. Old pieces of machinery and rubble abounded, but the circle worked their way in deeper. Tenshi found an altar with a small orichalcum figure of the Unconquered Sun. Also not resisting his impulse, he touched it and felt part of his life force become drawn away. The idol opened its eyes and started to raise its arms. Tenshi held on until he almost couldn't bear anymore and then was released. Throughout the cavern, gears groaned and sprang to life as an earthquake struck, lasting several minutes. The circle then found that several of the jade seals on the tunnels were released. Returning to the surface, they found the citizens in near panic. Several orichalcum spires jutted from the ground. The circle was placed under house arrest at the inn while Summer tried to smooth things over. The circle then sent a message to Emerald Wind to get to Lookshy ASAP to help them figure out what exactly happened. About a week later, Summer returned and told them the Legion was allowing them to leave. Emerald Wind also arrived via Yu-Shan and was completely puzzled as to what happened. The circle decided to get while the going was good and boarded the Suncrest (with Summer) for Whitewall.

Finally, the circle made it back to Whitewall. Summer spoke with the Syndics then left for Rezalkan. While visiting the central manse with Tenshi, both he and the citizens noticed Summer looked exactly like the main statue in the manse! The citizens then began worshipping her enthusiastically. For some reason she was rather disappointed.

The circle spent about 2 months travelling to and resting at Whitewall due to Tenshi's wounds. His stomach bottle bug was unable to heal the spiritual wounds, and Tenshi was forced to rest and recover. Eventually he felt like himself again and the circle set out on the Suncrest to find Ocean Pearl, a Solar pirate in the northwestern ocean. Flying far past Wallport, the circle observed a ship being chased by two others. The one fleeing carried the banner of the Unconquered Sun, the other two that of the House Peleps navy. After observing for a pass, the Suncrest came about. Soul Cleaver strafed their mainmast with a crpyt bolt, causing severe damage. An implosion bow bolt hit the Suncrest in response, but caused little damage. Tuul requested that he be landed on the Solar ship, and he swung down on a rope. On the next pass, Soul Cleaver felled the mast. Not to be left out, Tenshi swung down on a rope on the next pass. He quickly butchered a few mortal sailors and then faced off against a water aspect, neither opponent doing much damage. On the next pass, Soul Cleaver joined the fray. Both Solar and Abyssal seemed to have bad luck, and the water aspect miraculously survived a round. Deciding the odds were against him, the water aspect jumped overboard and disappeared. The mortal sailors then surrendered to a man. Meanwhile, Tuul met with Ocean Pearl and her navigator on her ship. He convinced them not to kill him on sight. However, he could contribute little else other than a message from Tenshi and was told to stay out of the way of the crew.

6/17/07

Tenshi and his merry band of pirates took over the Realm vessel and gave it to Ocean Pearl. She then asked them to assist in finding a manse for which she had the hearthstone compass. This led them to an apparently empty patch of ocean. However the compass pointed straight down. Ocean Pearl then gave them some air-breathing seaweed to eat and suggested that Soul Cleaver remove his heavy armor as they would be swimming.

The visibility beneath the surface was low. However, after swimming awhile the circle saw a manse in the distance. Between it and they, a shark demon and many smaller shark-jaw demons appeared. The shark demon took a terrible toll on Soul Cleaver and Tuul, while Ocean Pearl and Tenshi fought the smaller ones. Although Soul Cleaver wounded it horribly, the shark demon, as a last act, bit deeply into Tuul. He quickly lost conciousness while the circle struggled to get him to the manse. Removing the demon's jaws only caused more damage. Although the interior of the manse was dry, it was too late for Tuul. Ocean Pearl offered to say a few words and burnt his corpse with her anima. The party then gathered Tuul's gear and explored the manse. Ocean Pearl spent the time attuning to her new manse. However, she could not determine its powers, so the circle returned to the surface. On the surface, they learned a terrible waterspout had appeared suddenly then disappeared while they were gone.

Ocean Pearl thanked the circle and promised to raid the Realm ships supplying their base in Cherak. The circle then returned to Whitewall.

7/8/07

The citizens of Whitewall spent a long winter preparing for the siege they knew was coming. The Syndics promised they had prepared assistance, but would not go into details. Soul Cleaver spent his time trying to piece together Celestial Sorcery from Emerald Wind's library. This was a long frustrating task with little success. However, one of Emerald's young students offered to help, a man by the name of Cerulean. He seemed to have a knack for finding exactly what Soul Cleaver needed. After much study through the season, Soul Cleaver prepared to summon Thirsts for Blood, a warlike Second Circle demon. Spending most of his essence, a huge Abyssal anima flare darkened the night outside of Whitewall. Thirsts for Blood rose from the summoning circle, and after a short battle of wills, bowed to Soul Cleaver.

Tenshi continued to look forward to his flying warstrider, even learning to read Old Realm in order to operate it!

In Lookshy, Emerald Wind lectured as a guest scholar. He met with the commandant of the academy, Amilar Kraig. Long ago, he had fallen victim to a supernatural curse and was slowly rotting away. He fought off death by replacing body parts with machinery, and was now more machine than man. Emerald Wind took Kraig into the Wyld to reshape his body, to remove the disease. After several trials, he succeeded in breaking the curse. Emerald Wind also studied lore of the 1st Age Solars for that of Maximus, Soul Cleaver's prior incarnation. He discovered that Maximus was a great warrior against the Wyld. However, one time he returned from the Wyld a changed man and single-handedly destroyed his own kingdom. This earned him infamy as one of the worst god-kings of old, and the Terrestrials hunted him into the Wyld and slew him during the Usurpation.

In Whitewall, preparations for the siege continued. A few "observers" from Lookshy arrived to organize the resistance, but no more aid would be forthcoming. Soul Cleaver summoned agata and instructed the air people to train the Whitewall Guard in aerial warfare. Emerald Wind and Cerulean Void returned. They spoke with the Syndics, who promised cryptically that they would aid in the coming battle.

Then the unexpected (well, somewhat unexpected) happened; communications with Gethamane were cut by the Realm Legions. The Legions had marched north around Mamara's Fell without alerting the lookouts. The Legions encamped a few miles from the city. The banners of two Legions were spotted. The next day, the general of the expeditionary force, Tepet Ejava, arrived under a flag of truce. She informed the city that bloodshed could be avoided if the Anathema left the city and Whitewall joined the Realm as a protectorate. The circle politely declined her offer. Emerald Wind then requested to speak with her further. The Whitewall circle met with her and several other officers at a neutral site between the armies. Further negotiations proved fruitless.

That evening, Emerald Wind received an Infallible Messenger from a Vermillion Legion sorcerer: The Roseblack would like to again meet with the circle, but without officers from the Sesus Legion. Emerald quickly agreed, and the two parties met outside of the walls. Ejava recognized that Whitewall was not a threat to the Realm, despite her personal losses battling The Bull of the North. However, she did not have the authority to recall the Sesus Legion. She proposed that during the fight, she let the Sesus Legion take the lead and take the brunt of the casualties, while she "disposed" of key personnel. She would then rally the leaderless legion and work out a truce. The circle agreed to the plan. She also told the circle to beware of special airborne troops being brought in from the Blessed Isle.

The next few days saw Realm engineers backed by Earth Dragon armor construct field fortifications. The fortifications would mysteriously fail during the nights (due to earth elementals summoned by Cerulean Void). Despite this, after several days the troops had constructed good fortifications.

Several mornings later, trumpets blared as the Legions surged forward to attack. They seemed focused on Whitewall and only cut communications with Rezalkan. The circle kept a low profile until their presence could be most felt. Then in the distance, they saw three manta-shaped skyships approaching. Cerulean Void and Emerald Wind mounted agata, Soul Cleaver took a ride on the shoulder of Thirsts for Blood, and Tenshi tried out his new warstrider. While approaching the skyships, an escort appeared. Two Terrestrials in Air Dragon armor enganged Tenshi while the rest of the circle continued to their objective. Suddenly, Thirsts for Blood shuddered as a blade cut into him. He and Soul Cleaver turned to see a starmetal warstrider appear that had taken them by surprise. While Thirsts for Blood and the warstrider fought, the circle (minus Tenshi) blasted a hole in the skyship hull. They leapt in while leaving their mounts to fight the warstrider. Meanwhile, Tenshi fought the air armor. One suit peppered him with lightning bolts while the other distracted him. He had little luck, missing much then sending one suit (although not heavily damaged) cartwheeling through the air. Finally he connected solidly, cutting one suit of armor in half.

Inside the ship, the circle found themselves in a cargo bay. Several common warstriders were crammed in the bay. In the close quarters, they managed to kill one of the pilots. However, the cargo doors then opened and the rest of the warstriders dropped into the city. The circle then forced the door to the cockpit. Soul Cleaver quickly cut down the captain and several mortals, forcing the rest to surrender. Suddenly, the ship shuddered. Looking out the cockpit, they saw an armada of wind whales approaching! The circle demanded that the pilot land in Rezalkan to warn the others. The instruments had been damaged, but the pilot managed to guide the ship over Rezalkan.

The circle abandoned ship onto their agata mounts as it made a crash landing. Soul Cleaver ordered his mount into the air as Cerulean Void and Emerald Wind searched for Vanileth. They found him at the controls of the Wyld Shield. After some quick modifications, it was jury-rigged to overload. Vanileth activated the device and a pulse of purple light spread throughout the region, across the battlefield. Fair Folk struck by the wave were enveloped in a slight crystalline shell, which quickly crumbled. However, they found the portion of the Wyld they drug into battle had been returned to Creation! Meanwhile, the Wyld Shield generator melted into a pile of slag.

July 29, 2007</br> The circle decided to use the oldest trick in the book; they split into teams of one to assault the enemy!

Tenchi's Day
Tenchi was incredibly frustrated, it seemed the air armor was all over the sky and impossible to hit while he was being pummeled by lightning bolts. They were making him angry, and they wouldn't like him when he's angry... After disposing of the pests, he looked for a more worthy foe. An air whale prepared to blast him with a sonic wave, and Tenshi flew towards its open mouth. The blast did no damage to Once-Frozen Phoenix, and Tenshi fought through it into the whale's mouth. He then smashed the roof of its mouth with his warstrider mace, causing a torrent of gore. The whale then managed to spit him out, but he fought his way back in. Fighting his way back to the wound, he smashed upward through it toward's the creature's brain. Fighting his way through the innards to the top of its head, he found the whale quickly falling out of the sky, and very near the ground. He tore himself from the carcass just before it impacted. An Infallible Messenger from Cerulean Void appeared, requesting aid in repelling warstriders at the main gate. Tenshi burst across the battlefield, swatting down inferior foes as he went. He flew over the gate and came upon the back of two common warstriders attacking the gate guardians. He traded blows, neither side doing much damage. Angered, Tenshi summoned a massive burst of energy and used his mace to smash one warstrider from head to groin. The other attacked, causing some damage and further angering Tenshi. He retaliated with a solid blow to the chest, felling the second warstrider.

Emerald Wind's Day
(His player was not at this session, thus he helped Vanileth defend Ryzalkan.)

Cerulean Void's Day
Cerulean hopped on the first wasp for Whitewall to rejoin the battle. Avoiding the fray below, he flew over the wall and found several brass legionaires fighting warstriders near the gate. The brass legionaires (veterans of urban fighting) were having surprising effectiveness against the warstriders, and destroyed one with his help. However, at least 2 more warstriders were headed for the gate from their drop zones. Cerulean sent an Infallible Messenger to Tenshi and hoped he could hold out. He continued to assist the legionaires until Tenshi arrived and finished the warstrider menace.

Soul Cleaver's Day
Soul Cleaver only liked one kind of air whale - a dead one. He flew a wasp to the nearest one and leapt onto the parapet holding the reins. He quickly killed the cataphracts guarding it. He saw another whale in the distance, giving him an idea. He steered his commandeered whale towards the other one, slashing it with his daiklaive to make it use its sonic blast. The two whales then collided violently. Soul Cleaver was thrown off of his feet, but recovered and took the battle to the second whale. After slaughtering its drivers, he noticed the ground was getting quite close. He then summoned his agata steed and took off shortly before the whales impacted.

With this, the fight seemed to leave the Fair Ones and they melted away. An unspoken truce occurred between the armies of Whitewall and the Realm, and each left the field to regroup. The next day, the Roseblack approached town. She said that the Realm would accept Whitewall as a "Protectorate" while the Fair Folk threat was assessed. Soul Cleaver had some rude remarks about this and Cerulean explained to him how this was a face-saving gesture for everyone. The Realm legions then started their journey back to Cherak.

The circle and other major players of Whitewall then met. The Lookshy observers informed them that they might ally with Whitewall, but were stretched thin as it was. The re-awakened factory was barely functional and only producing one gunzosha suit a week. Could the party look into finding a way to fix it? It was agreed the best way to fix the factory would be to find a functional one and use it as a template. And the only place anyone knew of a functional unclaimed factory-cathedral was Denandsor.

After the meeting, General Xykan met with Cerulean. The General explained that he lost irreplaceable men during the battle, who could only be restored by the Denandsor factory-cathedral. He implored Cerulean to repair the factory, and reform the brass legion. The circle then spent a night on the town with some of Emerald's more sociable (and better-looking) students. Tenshi implimented a plan to impress a pretty young scholar to serve as his personal advisor. In the end, he decided he was heading to a far-away dangerous place soon and decided to leave her safely in Whitewall. He then told his remaining tribe to increase their numbers while he was away.

The circle then boarded the Suncrest and headed for Denandsor. On the way, they dropped off Emerald Wind at Lookshy. The circle decided to do some aerial recon of Denandsor. Approaching the city, several of the characters noticed a few glints of light streaking towards the clouds. Seconds later, three flying robots attacked the Suncrest with implosion bows! The robots would make strafing runs then break off and circle around for further attacks. Tenshi boarded the Phoenix and took the fight to the clouds. After destroying one and damaging another, the robots broke off. The Suncrest (slightly damaged) and the Phoenix then landed at the outskirts of the city.

8/5/07
The circle had no grand strategy for approaching the city - they would simply march in. The crew examined the damage to the Suncrest and Cerulean Void discussed lore of the city. Being the time of a new moon, at midnight, Soul Cleaver attempted to summon another bloodthirster. The towering demon appeared and after a few seconds of intense struggle, broke free of the circle and rushed Soul Cleaver. Fortunately, he managed to banish the beast. However, he wouldn't be able to try again for another month.

The gates of the city lay in broken ruin as they had for hundreds of years. The layout of the city was quite impressive (other than the weeds) - shimmering marble buildings with impliments of magitechnology. Victoria decided to loot a mansion on the main street. Unable to open the door, she had Tenshi kick it open with the Phoenix. Inside, she found little other than a stand of fruit preserved in a cargo preservation spindle. While she was looting the residence, a humanoid robot as large as a warstrider approached from up the street. It asked the group if they knew anything of the disturbance. They informed him that they didn't. Eventually, Victoria emerged from the building. The robot demanded an explanation. She explained that she was a prostitute hired by the mansion's owner. Pondering this turn of events, the robot requested the circle to accompany him to the local magistrate's office. The circle saw nothing wrong with a robotic escort and followed him. The robot stopped at the courthouse and politely stood guard while the circle went inside to make a statement. While inside, they searched for records about the owner of the mansion and Victoria concocted a further explanation, which the robot accepted.

The party then went to an abandoned inn, finding some alcohol that was still palatable. They watched the guardians patrol the streets for awhile. They then set off for the central manse. Along the way, Cerulean was drawn to a side street. At the end of the street was a massive blackened area, as if it had been blasted with essence weaponry. He also found several tall black pillars, and a piece of a jade bracer in the debris. Finding nothing else of value, he continued to the manse. Six guardians stood outside of the manse. In the center of the plaza was a statue. The circle found that the guardians did not even seem to notice them if they stepped into the plaza. Upon closer inspection, the statue was that of a great brass man, weilding a hammer, with which he was forging a small replica of Creation. However, the map showed only the barest features of the world. Inscribed in the statue were the words, "In honor of the Great Maker, the faithful await the day of his return." The door to the manse was sealed, and a small control panel was inset in the wall next to it. Cerulean tried to manipulate the controls, but was warned by the guardians not to pursue the action.

Quickly creating a plan, Cerulean had the circle return to the magistrate's office. A painting of the Daimyo of Denandsor hung in the courtroom. Cerulean then used Disguise of the New Face to appear as the daimyo. The circle then returned to the central manse. The guardians stood motionless as Cerulean operated the door controls. However, his code-breaking was poor and the guardians awakened. They didn't seem to accept his excuse of "I forgot my code" and attacked. Cerulean was grabbed by an enormous brass hand as Victoria, Soul Cleaver and Tenshi attacked. The guardian holding Cerulean was destroyed before it could crush him. Soul Cleaver then set his demons loose upon the guardians. Several exclaimed, "Unlicensed demons detected, EXTERMINATE!" and raked the area with flame weapons repeatedly. Few tomescu were left standing. The guardians also attacked the group with enormous swords and essence cannons. The guardians seemed to be unable to strike Soul Cleaver consistently, and their weapons did little damage to Once-Frozen Phoenix. For the most part they ignored Victoria and Cerulean as they were far less deadly to the automatons. After several guardians fell, the airborne guardians made a return appearance. One blasted a lightning bolt towards Tenshi, but he used Heavenly Guardian Defense to parry it. Soul Cleaver took to the air on an agata, but had it blasted from beneath him. Tenshi finally had enough and took to the air. He managed to get on the tail of the guardian with the lightning cannon and smashed it repeatedly until it fell from the sky. By this time, the remaining ground-borne guardians had been destroyed. The remaining aerial guardians broke off and disappeared.

Inside the manse, the circle found a well-appointed lobby. Travelling further inside, they found an enormous factory floor covered with machinery and bits of brass legionaires. This discovery was amazing, but the circle decided that they had lost enough essence to combat and willpower to the Curse to retire from the city for the night.

8/12/07

The the circle returned to the factory cathedral. On the first lower level, they found long hallways with some sealed doors and some open doors. The open rooms held little. Soul Cleaver tried to smash down a door, but was zapped by the security system. He then blasted it with a crypt bolt, which made a hole large enough for Cerulean. Cerulean found some book-sized rectangular crystals, but nothing else interesting. While Soul Cleaver, Tenshi and Victoria explored, Cerulean Void went to the next floor below. He found a control panel on a balcony in an enormous room. However, the controls were inactive. After several hours, Soul Cleaver's and Tenshi's stomach bottle bugs went spaztic. Tenshi decided to destroy his. Soul Cleaver grabbed his and decided to return to the Suncrest with it. The rest of the circle also decided to return to once again rest.

Victoria's technicians offered to maintain Once-Frozen Phoenix, but Tenshi decided if it wasn't broke, not to fix it. He also decided the factory was extremely boring, and stayed behind at the Suncrest. Cerulean took Soul Cleaver and Victoria to the sealed third sublevel. A beautiful automaton warned them not to enter as the daimyo was conducting important business. Ignoring her, the circle forced the door. Inside they found two trank-like guardians, two squid-like guardians and two scorpion-like guardians surrounding an amhyst statue of the daimyo. Cerulean went forward to investigate, and the guardians showed no reaction unless he stepped between them and the statue. Victoria and Soul Cleaver decided the guardians were best destroyed, and attacked. Victoria badly damaged a tank guardian but was quickly knocked unconcious by concerted attacks. Soul Cleaver and Cerulean then fought a prolonged battle with the guardians and were victorious in the end. After the battle, they found nothing of interest other than a white jade circut board on a necklace around the statue's neck. They picked up the necklace and the unconcious Victoria and returned to the second sublevel.

Cerulean activated the main computer with the command key. Large holographic screens appeared in the enormous room. The main one listed:
Power restored
Rebooting all functions
Establishing connection to Realm Defense Net...
Establishing connection to Realm Defense Net...
Establishing connection to Realm Defense Net...
....connection not found

A woman's voice then said, "Contact with the Realm Defense Net could not be established. The system is indicating widespread power outages and sensor anomalies throughout the city."
"What is your command, daiymo?"
Cerulean asked to restart production of brass legionaires. The manse informed him that production would be limited without supplies of new components. Cerulean confirmed to restart production. The computer then said, "An uncompleted program is compiling. This program was not recorded in the database before the power outage, and cannot be terminated. It is draining a large amount of essence from the system. Would you like to complete the program?"
Cerulean confirmed that the program should be completed, and the computer went silent.

Cerulean, Soul Cleaver and Victoria returned to sublevel 1. Using the command key, they opened the sealed rooms. They discovered stores of raw materials, and mass-produced essence weapons such as flame lances and gunzosha armor, enough to equip a small army! On the factory floor, they found 50 new brass legionaires awaiting orders. Cerulean informed them they would be working for General Xykan, and that transportation would be arranged.

During this time, Tenshi was trying to entertain himself. He performed the traditional Dance of Boredness, naked, but failed to entice any divine intervention. He then had the Suncrest crew fly around the city to recover some weapons from the destroyed guardians. He used Once-Frozen Phoenix (ungently) to tear the weapons loose, trusting the crew could eventually repair them. He also stopped at the scorched area to explore. He found what appeared to be half a skull made of orichalcum, but nothing else interesting.

Cerulean decided to stop in at Yu-Shan to check on affairs, and Tenshi wanted to tag along. While Cerulean went to the Manse of Forbidding Ivy, Tenshi stopped in to see Pedro. They spoke for awhile, but Tenshi had nothing to trade for more dreamstones. Cerulean caught up with him and the conversation turned to how much Pedro thinks Sidereals are jerks. Although interesting, it was not a productive exercise and the two Exalts left. Tenshi requested to be taken to the god of trade to find Pedro a job. Cerulean dropped him off and went to take a nap. Tenshi spend endless hours waiting in the lobby, until he got bored and threatened the clerk. A celestial lion appeared and worked out a deal with Tenshi - he would come back later for an appointment.

October 7, 2007
Back after too much work!

Tenshi decided to lead an expedition back to Whitewall to pick up some of his tribe and Emerald's scholars to resettle in Denandsor. Cerulean decided to stay behind and study the city. Soul Cleaver occupied his time by summoning more 1st Circle Demons. Although Tenshi's tribe was happy at the moment, he convinced them to move with him. Victoria stayed behind to sell some of the weapons she scavanged. Unfortunately, her session with the Guild went poorly. Thus she sold the weapons to the Syndics. Victoria then took her airship to Nexus, to "prime" the market with a few low-end wonders.

Yugash, Autochthonia:
The ruling council was desperate. They were quickly running out of materials, and unknown to many, souls. Their last chance was to open the Seal of Nine Divinities. They assembled a circle of their most promising Exalts and channeled all the essence of the city into a gate scavanged from the far reaches. With a massive cracking noise, a shimmering barrier appeared. Summoning their courage, the Alchemicals stepped through...

Meanwhile in Denandsor....
The sky darkened and massive strikes of lightning played about the clouds. The pillars and symbols in the flame-blackened area of the city began to glow. The soulsteel and starmetal leapt into the air to form an enormous circle, within which a shimmering barrier appeared. The sky then returned to normal and the gate ceased to glow, although the barrier remained. Footprints appeared in the dust as Sis, invisible in her cloaking module, scouted the city. Her fellows soon followed.

In the Central Core of the Factory-Cathedral, a message appeared on the display:
PROGRAM SUCCESSFUL

Sis and her companions continued to explore the city. Hearing movement in the distance, Sis investigated (invisibly) and found a 20ft tall construct of bronze approaching. She followed it for a bit and messaged back to Solace of its approach. The Alchemicals took cover, other than Solace who awaited its approach. She attempted to communicate with it unsuccessfully, and after a few minutes, it attacked. She easily avoided its clumsy attacks and the Alchemical circle quickly cut down the construct.

Cerulean noticed activity on the central core grid, and directed another Guardian to investigate. Tenshi and Soul Cleaver decided to follow along. They found the shimmering gate, along with a woman half made of orichalcum. She asked them questions in a foreign tongue and showed them a strange map. Tenshi and Soul Cleaver were unable to communicate, and thus decided to wait for Cerulean. Cerulean was then able to begin a communication with the woman. She invited them to discuss the situation on the other side of the gate.

Solace, Sis, Cerulean, Tenshi, and Soul Cleaver stepped through the gateway into Autochthonia. However, the city defense grid of Yugash did not take kindly to Soul Cleaver's demonic minion. An essence cannon tried to blast the fiend, but Soul Cleaver grabbed him and dodged nimbly. The Alchemicals were as stunned as the Creation Exalts and indicated to quickly leave by means of the gate. Fortunately a diplomatic incident was avoided and Cerulean and Solace continued negotiations in Denandsor.

Outside the city
Harry was curious. The cursed city had supposedly been cursed for generations, and empty of even gods. However, he was able to approach right to the city gates. He decided that he should claim the glory of being the first Lunar to visit the forsaken city. Entering, he was confronted by a guardian. After a brief conversation, he told the Guardian that he entered the city looking for work. The Guardian directed him to speak with Daimyo Cerulean Wind in the central city. Harry encountered the mixed circle on their way back from Autochthonia. He quickly struck up a friendship with Tenshi.

The next day, Cerulean explained that the Autochthonians would help restore the factories of the city, but the processes still needed impossible reagents. The primary of which was golden fire from the southern depths of the Wyld.

Thus the newly expanded Circle took the Suncrest into the southern Wyld. Eventually, they stopped to land and assess their route. A lone Fair One approached and demanded a toll. Specifically in pain and suffering. Tenshi slew the upstart, only to see him split into two identical foes. Then an entire army of identical Fair Folk. The circle fought valiantly, but there was no end to their foes in sight. Thus they retreated to the Suncrest and beat a hasty retreat.

October 28, 2007