Nikink/PromiseOfAges

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Cast

  • Phinnae Juggernaut of the West
  • Jade Wisdom Scavenger lord in the making. AKA Cynis Kitaro.
  • Scarred Drunken Solar with a hidden past
  • Savvy (Beauteous Lunar with a debt to repay) Repaid! Yay!!!

Extras

  • Taros Petasi - Enigmatic Elipse Scavenger Lord, maybe with ties to House Ragara?
    • Ragara Tanro - Servant of Taros
    • Madame Wang - manager(?) of the 7000 Pleasures Teahouse.
  • Baos Gap - Dawn Caste Solar, Circle mate of Taros Petasi
  • Incomparable Hammer - Twilight Caste Solar, Circle mate of Taros Petasi
  • Madam Wu - Owner of a cheap Teahouse in Nexus...
  • Pirule Kugimo - hapless mortal Nexus labourer trying to earn a quick coin by spying on Exalts... (and a dwarf)
  • Cousin Rosa of Tolinya (ex-slave, branded with the brand of the Wujin Shi Tea Company)

Deceased and or Unknown

Places

  • Nexus (d'uh!)
    • Madame Wu's Teahouse of Infinite Courage
    • The Seven-Thousand Pleasures Teahouse
    • The Drunken Carp Tavern
    • Salt of Creation Tavern (in Sentinel Hills)
    • Nexus Pool
    • Dakura's Mansion
    • The Shining Pearl, Dakura's yacht


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Year 768

17th Descending Wood : Quartet meet in Nexus by happenstance. Mooks die, meet Taors, learn of Golden Bow of the East.
18th Descending Wood : Visit Nexus library, learn The Tale of Shu Zhou, Meet Ragara Tanro
19th Descending Wood : Taros says Sijan! Savvy says Dakura! Jade Wisdom says Oaths! Phinnae says Pirates! Scarred says Drink!
20th Descending Wood : Mystery abounds, Pirule Kugimo caught, Scarred lost in Nexus with all the money


22nd Descending Wood

The Jadeborn once again makes tea for the assembled misfits. Scarred snubs it to fall asleep loudly next to his gourd, but Savvy accepts. Jade Wisdom and Savvy engage in a conversation about slavery and the nature of civilisation. Unwittingly the Artisan greatly upsets the Lunar girl from a tribe raided regularly for slaves. Savvy throws a punch in frustration at the Enlightened Ubermensch and storms out. The Jadeborn is perplexed and puzzled by the erratic behaviour by the Exalt, Chosen by Luna and granted powers far beyond mortal men, but figures slavery had something to do with it. He makes a note of it as a valuable lesson learned by both parties, and goes to bed.

Savvy flies out of Nexus and hunts as a Simhata for a couple of hours, before flying back at about 4am and collapsing, calmer, into bed herself.

Morning arrives.

Scarred and Jade Wisdom awake. The Jadeborn informs the Solar about Peleps Dakura, and then the two decide to spar against each other to pass the time. The Solar clearly outmatches Jade Wisdom, who takes careful note of the Solars technique in an effort to improve himself.

Savvy wakes at the sound of scuffling, and upon seeing this, Jade Wisdom intermingles the sparring with brewing and pouring a cup of tea for her. As he ducks and weaves to avoid the Solars blows he bows low to the Lunar and apologises for causing unintended offense and reaches out to hand her the cup. Scarred slyly whips his hand out to snatch the tea cup away and drink it. He pauses for a moment to express his admiration for its quality. Everyone likes Jade Wisdom's tea! WIth good humour and respect for the Solars skill at martial arts, Jade Wisdom makes Savvy another cup.

Over this liquid breakfast, the three discuss Dakura some more. Scarred mentions that he believes the Dragon-Blood is third in line to the Scarlet Throne! But the others are... unconvinced.

The trio decide the best plan is to head to Dakura's mansion in Bastion to find a servant or slave willing to inform them of Dakura's whereabouts and habits. This agreed to they walk there over course of the morning.

They find Dakura's mansion, and quickly spot a servants entrance. Jade Wisdom is tasked with keeping watch for a likely servant. The Solar and Lunar realise they aren't exactly well kept or clean. Blood spatters and more mysterious stains cover them both... they decide to bathe...

The two filthy Anathema find a nearby canal and wash some of the grit and grime away. The Solar uses a Charm to render himself effectively invisible and gets a cunning plan - since he is so clever and awesome and can make himself invisible, why doesn't he sneak into the mansion?!?!?! OMGWTFBBQ! And he has larceny-fu enough to break into any locked room!

He mentions this to Savvy and Jade Wisdom, who agree it's a much better plan to send in the spy to do some Spying. Even if he is drunk.

So, shortly thereafter,Scarred enters the mansion though the servants door. Sneaking unobserved like a breeze past the single guard. The high walls of the mansion hide a serene and secluded garden of cherry blossoms, hedge rows, pristine gravel paths and fountains. In the centre lies a grand, yet elegant house. He sneaks in, casually disregarding the finery in his search for Dakura, or information about him. He overhears two guards talking about the yacht being prepared for launch the next day, after 'stock' has been acquired. Upon gleaning this information the Solar uber-spy leaves as he entered and informs the patiently waiting Jadeborn and somewhat less patient Lunar.

The trio decide to go to the Nexus Pool. At Jade Wisdom's suggestion they travel by Canal Taxi, saving a lot of walking and time. He is so wise...

Upon arrival the scale of the problem becomes apparent as the frontage is miles long, and there are thousands of water craft docked and coming and going. A cunning plan is formulated. Jade Wisdom will impersonate a Dragon-Blood lord with slave girl Savvy and retainer Scarred. They will then travel to the Dockmaster and enquire as to the whereabouts of Dakura's yacht. Scarred uses his knowledge of the Dynasty to provide a plausible name, Cynis Kitaro. Jade Wisdom indentifies where the Dockmaster would be and leads his new 'retinue' there.

The Dockmaster's headquarters is crowded with people clamouring for attention and standing in queues to present their docking slips or pay their fees. Taking no heed of these lesser individuals, Cynis Kitaro strides past them all in his mighty Jade Power-Armour. The small bureaucratic man behind the counter attempts to charge a small fee, but is quickly cowed into giving directions and waiving the fee entirely. Cynis Kitaro then turns and strides out gesturing his retainers to follow.

The SHining Pearl is about a mile away. An easy walk through the stench and crowded piers. Stopping within sight of the yacht they see it is being loaded by lines of slaves. Cynis Kitaro walks up to the guards and informs them of his delivery to Peleps Dakura of one fine slave girl. The guards appear uncertain, but unwilling to argue they accept Savvy and take her into the holding cells within the yacht.

Cynis Kitaro and his retainer walk away from the docks a short distance, and discuss getting food. They eat at a nearby pub and then go to keep a stealthy watch over the yacht. Inside the boat, Savvy experiments with changing shape to escape her shackles and is relieved to find the shackles do not change size to keep her held.

Some hours pass.

Savvy gets bored, and impatient, and turns into a cat to explore the ship. Scarred is bored but refraining from drinking as he watches from his position on the next boat. Jade Wisdom is calm and observant from a position further away.

The Lunar-as-cat discovers a bedroom with old blood between the cracks in the floorboards - obviously Dakura's main pleasure-room. Then goes to hunt rats to pass the time. Making a sacred hunt of it to expand her library of forms.

Nightfall.

Jade Wisdom walks carefully to Scarred's position. A small discussion takes place about how best to get themselves aboard. Scarred reinforces his awesome Solar might by bragging about his stealthy prowess, and ability to just walk up the gangplank past the guards. Jade Wisdom is suitably impressed, but counters that that doesn't help getting him on board. Scarred agrees, and then skips down to the pier and up the gangplank anyway. Shrugging to himself, the jadeborn noble takes a giant leap onto the yacht, and stays stock still to avoid notice.

Jade and Scarred scout out the layout of the yacht, and find Savvy in the holding pen. Scarred uses his larceny-fu to open the lock and free her, before she leads them to a quiet, hidden place in the hold.

23rd Descending Wood

Dawn breaks...

The trio awake from their uncomfortable positions... ok, Savvy was a cat, thus quite comfy... to the sounds of a ruckus filtering through the decks. They assume this is due to the guards finally noticing Savvy is no longer in the pen. This ruckus dies down eventually and the yacht lurches and rolls under their feet.

Scarred discovers that lurching and rolling motions plus copious alcohol makes for a bad combination. Jade Wisdom innocently enquires why the Iron Wolf does not have some kind of perfect balance fu, so representative of his kind, and Solars in general. Scarred looks green in his direction.

Midday.

The trio discuss whether Savvy is rewuired to kill Dakura herself, or if any of them could do it to free her from the blood debt. They conclude that any of them could do it if needs be, but that the 'honour' should be Savvy's, and they will only step in if the young Lunar appears to be unable to carry the out the deed.

Scarred uses his stealth-fu to scout out where the Dragon Blood is located, and finds him in his pleasure-room with a slave girl. The trio sneaks up to the main deck...

Savvy leaps towards the door of the pleasure-room, changing into a deadly beastman of horse, lion, human, awesome and pure win as she does so. The door splinters under her hooved feet and glass from the windows shatters into glittering crescent moon shapes as it falls. Getting her Fury up, Savvy rushes towards Dakura with fangs bared and anima flaring. The Wood Aspected Dynast is surprised, but manages to avoid the savage bite. He twists and writhes away from the rampaging beastman to grab his Jade Powerbow. Two arrows embed themselves in Savvy's shoulder and chest as his anima explodes into life. A whirling cascade of thorns and vines tears at the furniture and is closing in on the chained slave-girl, who looks remarkably similar to Phinnae. Neigh-roaring in rage Savvy whips out her two war-fans and deftly cuts through the naked Dragon-Blood's defences, sending his head rolling to the floor, his face forever to remain in open surprise.

On the main deck outside the room, Guards race up and spot the not-quite-as-invisible-as-he-thought Solar, while Jade Wisdom remains still and unnoticed, keeping a watch over the two Exalts as they fight. Scarred smashes aside the first guard with his giant gourd while the other guards surround him.

Savvy calms down and changes back into human shape, the two arrows remain embedded and painful, but she rushes to the aid of the slave girl, trying to speak to her.

As the guards attack Scarred, he manages to roll, stagger, flip, punch, trip, bump and kick himself out of harms way. His castemark starts to shine forth in warning. The Jadeborn is fascinated by the Drunken Martial Arts style practised by the Solar, but seeing that the Scarred does not need his help, runs to assist Savvy.

Recognising the Anathema before them, the guards decide to flee! This is a wise move, but one unfortunate soul gets caught before he could jump into the river below.

Jade Wisdom applies some medical treatment to the slave-girl and then removes the arrows from Savvy. He congratulates her on fulfilling her debt and looks around the room for something with which to make a celebratory cup of tea...

...---^---...

Meanwhile Phinnae is flying high above Nexus, looking for Pirates and slave markets and long lost family members, when she notices a bright silvery glow, as if the moon had fallen to the ground, coming from far out in the river. Intrigued, she alters course and floes out towards it.

Savvy asks Jade Wisdom to search for other slaves aboard the boat and his heavily armoured tread reverberates loudly as he does so. Scarred looks at the man he has locked in his arms and asks if the man can sail the Shining Pearl. When the terrified man shakes his head he is summarily knocked unconscious, and then he and the other guards are tied up.

The Jadeborn finds another six slaves imprisoned below decks. He informs them that they have been emancipated by the Lady Savvy and that they should go above and present themselves to her. They do so, and upon seeing their attractive, semi-naked and terrified forms, Savvy does her best to put them at ease by asking after their well being. Jade Wisdom is fortunate that his face and raised eyebrow are hidden by his helmet! The slave girls are wary of the glowing Anathema, but after some social-fu begin to calm down. Jade Wisdom volunteers as interpreter for Savvy as the girls do not understand any of the Lunar's languages. Savvy asks Scarred to go below and look for food and water. The Solar asks one of the girls to accompany him (as a second pair of arms) and she does so after a moment's hesitation. She refuses to put her lips anywhere near his giant Gourd though.

Savvy (through the interpreter) asks the girls what she can do to help them be free. Her naivety shows when the response "take us home" confuses her.

Scarred finds the galley and notices the galley staff fleeing upon spotting him. He and the girl bring as much as they can carry to the girls above deck.

Phinnae, after recognising Savvy as the cause of the moonlit glow, cries out. Savvy turns and spots the giant Condor swooping in. Probably recognising it as Phinnae. A lunar at least.

The heroes on deck begin to eat with the ex-slaves as Phinnae lands. The giant moonsilver bird waddles below decks to transform out of sight of the girls. When she comes back up Savvy points her towards the unconscious and injured girl in Dakura's love-nest. The one that looks Tolinyan.

"Cousin Rosa!" cries Phinnae, rushing to the girls side. She starts examining her cousin for injuries and concludes that Rosa is in a critical but stable state. Phinnae produces a small package of her Mother's Medicinal Ointment from the folds of her clothes and rubs Rosa's injuries with it, muttering a small chant to the Tolinyan gods as she does so. As she does this, Phinnae notices a branding mark upon Rosa, but cannot quite understand what it means.

Savvy and Jade stay politely out on deck, and start to work on building an intimacy towards Savvy in the girls. This works mostly and Savvy organises the yacht to be fleeced of cloth to clothe the girls in. Dakura's closets prove useful here. Savvy then asks if Phinnae can sail the yacht, to which the Western Juggernaught replies, oh yeah, probably.

Savvy takes Jade Wisdom below decks to search for the hiding galley staff and any others. The Jadeborn easily finds six hiding sailors and the two galley crew. Yay for 11 successes on 10 dice! Savvy, through Jade Wisdom gives the found men a choice - aid in sailing the yacht, or go to the cells. All the men choose the cells rather than taint their souls forever by helping foul Anathema. So then Jade Wisdom offers to pay them double what Dakura was, just to sail the yacht back to port, and all the men agree readily. So wise to the greed of men... what a guy! :)

Phinnae looks over the yacht and assumes Captaincy.

The Lunars and Jadeborn spend some time discussing how best to dispose of Dakura's body without causing an angry ghost. Scarred, as the only Dynastic representative, is consulted on Realm funerary techniques, and burial rites. The drunken Solar mumbles incoherently about knowing just what to do. He then pisses on Dakura's lifeless form and then drags it onto the deck and throws it overboard. Yay for Botches!!! The others are somewhat taken aback by this inauspicious action but are too stunned to argue. After all, he seems to know what he's doing... right?

Savvy then cleans the blood from the room as best she can, earning more odd looks from the Jadeborn Artisan, and tells the newly freed slaves they can go in there if they wish to avoid the sun. The quartet discuss what to do about the girls when they get back to port. Jade Wisdom points out that just setting them 'free' into Nexus is not likely to actually help any of them get home, even if enslavement itself isn't legal. After some thought someone - maybe Savvy? - comes up with the idea of getting help from Taros. This seems to be the best idea for the girls as he can provide employment and / or transport to get the girls around Creation. Savvy then starts trying to get an idea about what skills each of the girls has. A resume , so to speak.

Around early evening the yacht pulls into the Nexus Pool and is docked. Jade Wisdom pays the agreed amount to the sailors and galley staff, with a warning to not tell anyone about this day's events.

Interestingly the guards, tied up still, are forgotten about entirely. Oops.

Jade Wisdom requests to be given Dakura's Jade Short Powerbow, to which Savvy agrees. All of Dakura's other belongings will be used as payment for Taros' aid, and maybe if possible, sold off to get some more money. While collecting the bow (and arrows!) from Dakura's room, he notices the brand on Cousin Rosa. Inspecting it closely he can tell it is the mark of the Wujin-Shi Tea Company.

Savvy and Jade Wisdom travel to the 7000-Pleasures Teahouse to see Taros.

A couple of hours later, they arrive. Savvy asks Madame Wang to let Taros know they have come to see him. Shortly thereafter, they are led to a room containing Taros and a red-headed young woman. Her hair is tied back, she is grubby, slim and quite buxom. She laughs a ditsy greeting as she leaves the office and Jade Wisdom and Savvy both notice Taros surreptitiously hiding a note or letter among his clothing. They politely do not mention it for fear of inadvertent offence. They inform him of the untimely disappearance of Peleps Dakura, and offer Taros the yacht(and tell him of the newly ownerless mansion in Bastion that will soon be available for the quick witted) in return for his help in emancipating the girls. He agrees to help the girls find employment if they wish it, or their way home otherwise.

They note that the yacht will be a great help in getting the quartet to Sijan to look for the Golden Bow of the East, but that they will need a crew. Taros agrees and states that the Jade Breastplate of Dakura's will be sufficient to pay for a crew for the duration.

As Savvy and Jade Wisdom bid farewell to Taros, he hands them a note to give to Scarred.

A couple of hours later, the Lunar and the Jadeborn are once again at the yacht. Jade Wisdom hands the note to Scarred, who reads it and looks a bit surprised. The note asks for Scarred to meet with Taros. The hungover Solar leaves immediately.

It is midnight.

24th Descending Wood

Jade Wisdom makes all those still awake a lovely cup of tea, and then they all bed down for the night after a long exhausting day.

Scarred, however, trudges through the streets of Nexus, trying not to get lost. As 3am rolls around he staggers into the 7000-Pleasures Teahouse. After a brief talk with Madame Wang, he is led to Taros, who explains that the morning would have been sufficient, but he has some people he would like Scarred to meet. Scarred then asks for lodgings and is granted a small but comfortable room. He then drinks himself into a stupor...

Morning comes along bright, warm and muggy.

On the yacht the trio feed the ex-slaves. They decide that building a stretcher for Cousin Rosa would be the best idea to transport her to Taros. Once this is done, they begin the long walk to the Teahouse.

Jupiter only know what's happened to the tied up guards... d'oh!

Scarred is woken by the dulcet tones of Madame Wang announcing that Taros will see him now. He groggily gets himself ready-ish, and has hair of the dog to wake himself up. Taors is in a well appointed office with a man and a woman.

The man is about 5'10", lean and well muscled but with plain features. He has short, darks hair and a stubbled face. He looks as though he's from the Realm and is wearing quite reasonable clothing. He carries himself with confidence.

The woman is red-haired, wearing grubby clothes over her slim, yet buxom frame. She seems a bit ditsy.

Taros greets Scarred as Cynis Adoc, and introduces the man as Baos Gap and the woman as Incomparable Hammer. A Dawn and Twilight Caste respectively. Taros invites Scarred to join their incomplete Circle. Scarred is, however, slightly horrified at the sheer concentration of Aweso... I mean, Anathema in the room, and chooses to think it over. He then takes his leave.

On the way back to the yacht, Scarred runs across the Lunars, Jadeborn and ex-slaves all heading to the Teahouse. Saying nothing of his offer, he turns around and joins them in delivering the girls to Taros.

Upon arrival at the Teahouse, they go to the rear entry (giggity) and are met by Ragara Tanro who leads them inside. Phinnae and Jade Wisdom are directed to take the still unconscious Cousin Rosa to the Infermary. The Physician there, welcomes them and examines Rosa.

They bid farewell to the girls. Savvy is somewhat saddened by this.

Jade Wisdom decides to get the rest of his belongings from the warehouse. He switches off his White-Jade Tree Gemstone and becomes supernaturally fast. He races to the warehouse through the crowded streets.

Phinnae decides to stay with Cousin Rosa, so Taros allows her to stay in return for being an on-call security guard for the duration.

Some hours later Jade Wisdom returns with his meagre belongings. He finds Taros and asks what the Solar knows about the Wujin-Shi Tea Company. Taros can only say that they operate mainly out of the South of Creation from An-Teng through to the the Lap and along to Harbourhead. This is an extensive area for one company, thus they must have Guild ties, and an interest in slavery is not unexpected. After reporting this to Phinnae, he runs back to the yacht, catching up with Savvy and Scarred before they get there themselves.

Midday-ish...

At the yacht, Savvy recalls that she is still quite injured herself, and figures she will need many days of rest to recover. While she is healing, and bored, Jade Wisdom offers to teach her about Creation in an effort to keep her entertained.

Soon thereafter, Cousin Rosa awakens from her coma. She is surprised to see Phinnae standing over her, all covered with silvery tattoos and bearing a giant silver bow.



Comments

Added links to the first age exalts and linked other NPCs to my pages. - Bencyclopedia

Trying some organisational changes. If anyone has a better idea, I'd love to see it! :) Will leave the last couple of days in game time (or game sessions) up on this page and archive off the others on a rolling schedule (alternatively, one of you lot can do that too if you feel so inclined, just copy how I've done it. Each Archived day will usually be fairly short to read, has it's own comments section and should be easy to build off, but one thing I'm wary of is losing exactly what the party of misfits has learned. If it's archived away who's to say what day they learned the specific bit of info you're looking for to recall... hm... wordy sentences for the win tonight! Maybe each date should have a reminder about that day? So like: 16th Descending Wood - Nexus, quartet met, alley thugs, Taros intro. - nikink

Perhaps you could just have this page be a timeline with a brief rundown of each day + the calander with the links off to the more detailed descriptions. Possibly just have the most recent game or two on here as well, to act as a memory tickler if needed. - Bencyclopedia
I'm pretty sure you just said what I said... :) nikink
Quite possibly, I just did it less wordy :P Bencyclopedia
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