JustAddWater/Session8Sum
Session 8 Summary
Snakes and Ladders
Session 8 begins with Our Fearless Dysfunctional Fate Ninja Heroes preparing to battle the Damn Serpent That Eats Elemental, Ka-la-desh. They are joined by the Chosen of Battles, Moment Between Dreaming And Waking, who, as has become routine, is woven in by the Loom of Fate as always having been there. Deep below, in its dark, surprisingly warm undersea lair, Ka-la-desh waits...and, as the Circle is soon to discover, is not alone, but has a brood of children, waiting to hatch.
Knowing the Necessity of such an action, the Circle sets to work: however, the Wyld has twisted the snake, making it's hide so hard, that it cannot be pierced! Moment and Hidden Crystal's attacks, while valiant, do not pierce-nay, while they almost scratch the great beast, their weapons simply bounce off! Furthermore, just as Silent attacks from behind, the serpent is infuriated, believing that the Circle has come to eat its young: she attempts to swallow an unfortunate Moment whole!
Platinum Sky Lover instead shoves Moment out of the way, and allows herself to be eaten by the serpent instead, for she has a Cunning Plan: ignoring the acid inside Ka'la'desh's mouth (did we forget to mention the little detail that it spits acid?) as best she can, even as it burns away her clothes and her compassion, she goes to work, tearing away at the serpent's insides, where its hide may not prevent her attack!
Outside of the serpent, the hatchlings begin to hatch, and it is only in the nick of time that Silent manages to avoid the rain of shrapnel from the shells! Crystal and Moment continue their largely futile attacks on the serpent, even with the power of the Lesser Sign of Saturn aiding them: the Chosen of Endings is slightly irritated to find that even the eyes are invulnerable to daiklave-point. Silent, who has managed to evade certain Eggly Doom, confuses the serpent with a gesture, wiggling one finger in front of its eyes, before stabbing it fiercely: at the same time, Platinum seeks out and finds the creature's heart, crushing it. While she is sprayed with acidic blood, her Water Dragon Style protects her from the worst of it, even as her spirit and virtues continue to wither away.
In the meantime, a dozen of the young snakes have hatched! Moment and Platinum finish the job, while their fellow brethren look on.
Later, on the surface, while eating omelettes (or NOT, in the more tender-hearted party members' cases), resting, and recuperating on a handy rock, the Circle discusses what to do about the Fleet That Still Won't Die. The plan appears to be to take Yolan out of the picture, and then have one of the Sidereals-Jiang, with his Master of Disguise capabilities-impersonate her. But, first, they decide to do recon on Coral, and set off...
...and wander right into a Mess, as only Sidereals can do. Not only is Coral rather...warm...considering it is in the middle of winter, storm clouds are brewing ominously overhead. Something is very, very, very Wrong. Jiang steps outside Fate, while Moment, Crystal, and Silent don resplendent destinies.
As Tepet Lisano, a high-ranking officer of the All-Seeing Eye, who is himself in disguise, Silent wanders around the deserted streets, and sees evidence of how fate-snarly Coral has become: not only is lightning flashing and not flashing in the sky, there is a boy throwing a stick to a reptile dog...and then not actually throwing it. He also realizes that, oops, he totally dropped the ball on preparation: he has no idea of spies or All-Seeing Eye contacts, for he neglected to make a dossier! Sighing, he decides to eavesdrop on conversations: after a little of poking around in a bar that is still open, he discovers that Yolan has a bodyguard, a full circle of Immaculate monks! Once he discovers this, he leaves and without his Resplendent Destiny, trails around, making notes of all the fate snarls. And, unfortunately for our poor, overworked, very underpaid heroes, there are many, many of them.
Moment, unfortunately, is having much less luck. Her resplendent destiny as a soldier who came with the fleet is getting her nowhere with the Coral natives, who are less then pleased to see her: after being thrown out of places, she takes herself off to the Immaculate mission, to find out what is going on. She manages to talk her way out of being regarded as a complete idiot with a story about being trapped in the ship's hold, and manages to find out about a LOT of fate-snarls that have been happening. No word of any demonic breaches...yet. Finally, she leaves, to familiarize herself with the city's layout and such, as well as looking for covert entrances and exits.
Crystal, as the Coral native Grey Heron, does not have Moment's problem: in fact, he is fairly dragged into an inn and scolded roundly by an old woman, as a young lady (as he is currently masquerading as) should not be out when things are so bad. Looking worn, tired and sad, and armed with a story about how "she" had been taking care of "her" old mother for days and had little idea of the troubles, Crystal managed to get out that it was believed that this was the end of the world, and more reports of fate-snags: and as he is leaving, another fate snag manifests itself, in that all the people he was talking to were really only one person!
Jiang has the best luck. While Walking Outside Fate, he manages to find out where the admiral has quarters, and also discovers where she has her food prepared-perhaps of use? While wandering the halls of the palace in Coral, he eavesdrops upon a meeting of the Sea Lord and his privy council! What luck! Shifting his body chemistry, he poisons the guards: not enough to kill them, just enough to incapitacitate them, before sending his slime thing to open the door for him. Knocking on the door, to make his presence known, he puts on his mask for his Resplendent Destiny while still Walking Outside Fate.
Needless to say, they are not happy to find the poisoned guards, and freak out. Jiang walks into the room, still under stealth, and is somewhat pointed out by a man in the center of the room...alright, well, his general location anyway, they have no idea where he is specifically. He drops his Stealth charm and puts on his Resplendent Destiny-needless to say, no one in the room is pleased to find an assassin in the room! Quickly, before they decide to shoot him full of holes (and while this is the man that can be burned to ash and then come back, still being shot full of holes HURTS. A LOT. And Jiang Chou certaintly wouldn't like to be shot full of holes: because, really, WHO WOULD), he starts speaking, getting their attention by mentioning that the Realm Third Fleet is a matter of mutual concern.
He tells an edited version of the story, about how the fleet is NOT where it is supposed to be, and he and the people he works with, as well as the Coralites, share the common goal of Making It Die Already, Damn It. The entire room, except for Jiang of course, is Absolutely Confused: while it looks like a few people may shoot him anyway, the vast majority of the room is just confused. Finally, the Sea Lord demands to know who he is and who he serves.
Jiang simply bows, and in the finest Sidereal manipulative tradition, says that he cannot reveal who he works for, and that he is known as "Nusquam": Old Realm, for "Nothing".
And thus do Sidereals operate.
