SJE/Session17
Exalted Session 17
Ok, decided to house-rule that Dreaming Pearl Courtesean Form gives you a limited (Essence no. of parries), destructible (non-combat props are ruined unless 3m spent on Lethal Fan Attack to �harden� them) persistent parry equal to your Martial Arts pool. That is about on par with Air Dragon Form.
We begin with Jaqs obsessive quest to uncover the fate of her brother and to unmask the �false� Black Mouse who has beaten her to the Fire Ruby of the Dragons.
But Jaq believes the false Mouse to be the rake and lothario, Dashing Hare, a ne�er do well who seduces other mens wives and always skips out before the bill.
Jaq enlists Orchid�s assistance in a somewhat vague plan whereby Orchid would seduce Dashing Hare and learn his schemes with post-coital pillow talk.
Orchid dresses to impress with a daring dress. Jaq dresses as a slightly dowdy �Plain Jane� sister to Orchid and the two hit the town and find Dashing Hare holding court in the elegant and fashionable Emerald Bower restaurant. A few significant looks later, Orchid soon has Dashing Hares attention and soon the two are hitting it off. Orchid tries to seduce the more than willing Hare, but she finds herself falling for his rascalsih charms. He suggests an assignation in the gardens, she accepts. Jaq (or Jane) has faded so far into the wallflower scenery that no one notices she has gone, changing into her ninja-garb.
Dashing Hare (ducking the restaurant bill) kisses Orchid in the Garden and invites her to see Gem from the Peak in his Palanquin (actually he bribed the Circla Palanquin bearers for a �joyride�). Jaq follows ninja style and witnesses the slight rocking back and forth at the top of the Peak where the bearers park them for a private view.
Post excitement they have the slow descent back down the mountain and murmuring sweet nothings to each other (and Hare stealing her jewelry) Orchid tries pumping him for information. The rake is cagy, claiming to be a close friend of the Black Mouse , �closer than you think� (Jaq nods, clinging to top of the palanquin, ear pressed to the canvas. Dropping Orchid off (she is to canny to invite such a thief back home), the palanquin makes it way back to the restaurnant, ninja-Jaq still clinging to it, eager to trail Hare back home and confront the false Mouse.
But when it stops and the bearers approach �We are here sir! Now about our mone� OH BLOODY HELL!� for once more Dashing Hare has skipped out before the bill!
Brand and Rav are meanwhile interrogating Five Knives in the Watchhouse, who has adopted faux-innocent �I-know-my-rights attitude� . They try a few tricks on him such as leaving a piece of soulsteel around the corner from him so the constant whispers, screams and moaning of the damned preys on his mind. Rav turns into a cheetah and patrols the cell corridor, frightening him with sinister animal noises.
Five Knives eventually agrees to deal, offering Quiet Fox�s location in return for his freedom. Quiet Fox is apparently hiding in a weapons warehouse in the lower Shades, near the City Wall.
So the team drag along some Watchmen and raid the place, Rav infiltrates with Gecko form and Jaq tries to slip through a barred window but gets a bit stuck. Brand takes the door down in 3 swings with his Soulsteel direlance and Orchid bursts through (fans waving) to exclaim �City Watch, gentlemen, you are under arrest!�
The 6 bodyguards and Quiet Fox respond with lethal force- axes and javelins are thrown and batted away with direlances and war fans. Jaq and a thug jump from high shelf to shelf, till the thug commits to a kung fu kick which Jaq nimbly dodges resulting in the thug flying through the air, off the 7 yard high stack of packing cases and to his doom below! Orchid looks sternly at the 3 closest villains, fans and robs rippling to an invisible breeze and calls upon their surrender or face a force far more frightening. (11 successes!) the 3 thugs turn and look at each other, cowering before Orchids wrathful visage and surrender to the Watch!
The battle continues with the other thugs though! Barrels are spilled and rolled, leaning towers of weapon cases levered onto approaching watchmen, but still the raid advances. Rav uses Lunartic speed to cut off Quiet Fox from his escape tunnel into the sewers and desperate battle starts between those two. As the two struggle to make and break clinches, Orchid and Brand have at last fought their way through. A badly injured Fox dives into the sewer hole and implacable Ravitsu follows into the effluent, catching the fleeing Guildmaster with a resounding blow to the side of his head. Unconcious, skull fractured (went from 6 bashing boxes filled to 6 lethal boxes filled!) Fox falls under the liquid sewage level before being fished out in time to avoid joining the fate of the rest of Gems crap.
After Fox�s capture he is sent up to the Palace for the Despots judgement. Five Knives is released, having turned Despots evidence and warned that the Watch will be keeping an eye on him. Brand figures that if Five Knives takes over the Guild remnants, he�ll be easier to manage with all the dirt the Watch has on him.
Orchid is summoned once more to the Palace by Mother Sahlak and Lady Rankar (Aunty). There she is warned that a grave threat to Gem is looming and that only the summoning of an Aranea, a spirit of secrets and hidden truths will save Gem! But such a spirit could see into her own souls and reveal truths best left unsaid�
Will she summon the spirit?
4 days to Calibration.
23:59:58
23:59:59
Beep- Beep- BEEEP!
Return to SJE
