AlecAustin/SessionThree
Session 3: The Tlak
Being a record of the Lunar game being run by Hplovescats.
By AlecAustin
Back toAlecAustin/LunarLog
Upon reaching the Tlak, our bold heroes hand over the unknown elder to Greenclaw, along with his orichalcum wedding ring, and split up, following their own interests and inclinations. August takes to the trees as a bird, in an attempt to avoid trouble, while Amala assists Greenclaw in final preparations and Ruin goes hunting for food. Seeta, feeling bored, persuades a Lunar craftsman to give her a mandolin so she can perform later on in the Tlak.
Upon returning from Hunting, Ruin finds that many Lunars are being hoisted high above the clearing in which the Tlak is being held on a webwork of ropes connecting the trees. Allowing his body to be pierced with the hooks at the end of said ropes, Ruin is lifted up into the air as well, and outlasts all but two Lunars as the contestants strive to use the hooks to tear each other apart and force their opponents to show pain. For his great endurance, he is awarded respect by the onlookers.
August, witnessing a contest of shapechanging skill, swoops down to observe it, as various Changing Moons take turns showing off the strange forms of various wyld mutants that they have collected and added to their libraries. The most impressive demonstration, however, is by Task, a member of the Skinchangers, who dissolves into mist and temporarily possesses the body of another Lunar. To applaud Task, August returns to human form, and continues circulating until he comes across a circle of Lunars exchanging information about Songlines. At an appropriate pause, he recounts his pack's adventures in the Majestic Emerald Basin, and earns the approval of those present.
After finishing his presentation, however, August encounters a Lunar who is clearly an icewalker, who challenges his right to bear Brilliant Ice. After pausing to think, August responds that his master, Grimfang, made it, and recites his recent deeds, challenging the icewalker to match them. August is on the verge of being assaulted when the icewalker (whose name is Everett) is hauled away by a drunk but powerful companion.
Soon enough, the Tlak proper begins, and Greenclaw informs the young lunars that the Silver Pact and their mentors strongly suggest that they stay together as a pack and think about a name for themselves. Then the pack is introduced to the Tlak, and Seeta sings a bawdy song that recounts their deeds in the Majestic Emerald Basin but attributes all their successes to her. August, somewhat bemused, follows up with an accounting of their actual deeds, and much reknown is showered upon the pack.
In the wake of Seeta's song and August's boasting, however, Seeta Senn is called to face Lazlo as it is announced that Orlando is needed to train Full Moons instead of her. In a fury, Seeta denounces Lazlo as incompetent, accuses him of lechery, and then flees into the woods, shaming herself before the Tlak. Lazlo pursues her, and the two have a confrontation in the woods, in which it is made plain that Lazlo intends this to be part of his revenge for Seeta humiliating him in the past.
At the same time, back at the Tlak, the topic of discussion turns to the Chosen of the Sun, but before much is said, one Lunar tears off the mask of a member of his entourage, revealing a Solar caste-mark underneath. The Night Caste is pinned to a tree and much abused as the Tlak argues over what should be done with him, before they decide to put him through the initiation tests, with slow, agonizing death as the penalty for failure. Before the tests begin, however, August takes pity on the Solar and washes him clean of the filth that was heaped upon him, while Amala barters knowledge of the form the tests will take for knowledge about the Solar Exalted on the off-chance the Solar survives.
Meanwhile, Ruin and Seeta (returned from her sulk) are setting up a betting pool on the Solar's survival, which will pay out for them regardless of his success or failure.
The Solar, forewarned of the dangers he will face, survives the tests, though not without significant injury. As his reward for victory, he is granted his life; as his punishment for insulting and dishonoring the Tlak, he is savagely beaten, then healed, then beaten some more. On the last day of the Tlak, Amala tattoos him as a Lunar, fixing his form against the energies of the Wyld and cementing their informal alliance.
As the Tlak winds down and various Lunars head home, the pack is called before the Empty Moon Cabinet, who inform them that they are to be sent into the unknown elder's soul, to realign his essence and thus allow him to awake from his sleep of ages. The characters variously hem and haw, but after a time Ruin is reassured by the fact that he will be able to hit things in the spiritual realm. The pack is then given half a day to prepare themselves for what is to come.
Comments
4 xp and 2 totem xp for all, as well as reknown awards.
