LunaHidesHerFace/SessionSevenRaw
Luna Hides Her Face, Session Seven: Myriad Allegiance
Full transcript, minus out-of-character jabber, with only miscellaneous edits. Includes dice information.
Not played out: Shine and Jesya have a martial-arts training session. Those who haven't breakfasted on human flesh (and probably him too, honestly) also get something to eat. Then Shine, Weaver, and Jesya head to the Greyfalls capitol.
GM: The capitol building sits on a rise just a short distance from the base of the Falls. The roaring water makes both a visual and an auditory backdrop for the great walled, domed structure.
Shining Blossom Empress: "Wowwww." She's such a tourist.
Shadow Weaver stares too. He's not accustomed to such... grandeur.
GM: Guardsmen, bearing spears and helmets in the fashion of the Realm's legions, stand at the gate checking the visiting merchants and dignitaries. You see others on a careful patrol around the walls.
Shadow Weaver slows down. "Hey.... how are we gonna get IN?"
Shining Blossom Empress: "Do we need papers or something?"
Shadow Weaver shrugs, turns to Jesya. "Jess?"
Jesya: "I don't really know... I've seen people go in without showing anything, but I think they're regular visitors."
Shadow Weaver frowns.
Shining Blossom Empress: "We're new in town. Let's find somebody and ask."
Shadow Weaver: "Feck. Now wha- eryeah, was gonna say."
Shining Blossom Empress: "Being clueless isn't a crime, they must see that a lot." She selects a civilian at random and walks over.
Shadow Weaver hangs back a bit, doesn't want to intimidate the nice person. :-P
GM: It's a middle-aged tradesman just concluding a conversation with a woman clothed in a blue robe. The woman walks away as you approach.
Shining Blossom Empress: "Hello! Good afternoon, sir, I wonder if you might be able to help me." :-)
GM: Above, a strange flying creature--like a wasp with a carapace that glitters like a rainbow--alights upon one of the domed towers and creeps in a window.
Shadow Weaver spots it, what the-?
Tradesman: "Hmm, yes? What can I do for you?"
Shining Blossom Empress glances, but ignores it for now. Weaver will have seen it too. "I'm new in town, thought I'd have a look around the Capitol, but the guards are somewhat intimidating. Are visitors allowed?"
Shadow Weaver listens. He puts an arm around Jesya, to be less conspicuous. :-P
Tradesman: "Hmm, yes. The gate guards will usher you into the courtyard, where you can get a day pass for a bit of scrip."
Shining Blossom Empress breathes a sigh of relief. She gushes, "Oh, is THAT all they're doing? Thank you, kind sir." She smiles, bows slightly and runs back to the others.
Jesya: "Mm. Hey, is that..."
Shadow Weaver: "........What?" He turns to look in the direction Jesya's looking.
GM: She looks down past the western wall, where a young man strides into the streets. The captain of the guard? But not in his armor?
Shining Blossom Empress skips over, follows their collective looks. "Whatcha lookin' at?"
Shadow Weaver stifles a frown, waiting for Jesya to answer.
Jesya: "Looked like the guard captain. That hair of his stands out some..."
Shining Blossom Empress: "Let's follow him!"
Shadow Weaver smiles. "Yeah! Inconspicuously, ahem."
Shining Blossom Empress is thinking "know your enemy." Also, if we can perhaps squish him, that's a big blow against the governor.
Shadow Weaver is clad in black and gray, but is also flanked by two attractive grrls in swishy cloaks.
Jesya puts the hood of the cloak up. "Heh, I'm all mysterious, let's do it."
Shadow Weaver: "...You two walk ahead a bit, like grrls out shopping, I'll follow from a small distance."
Shining Blossom Empress heads off, stealthily, on sneaky tip-toes.
GM: There's a moment where you fear he's already lost you, but Jesya nudges to take a cross-cutting street, and you get him back in sight.
[*] Shadow Weaver rolls 5d6 Stealth scab: (2) (2) (1) (3) (3) = 3.
[*] Shining Blossom Empress rolls 3d6 Stealth scab: (5) (1) (4) = 5.
[*] Jesya rolls 3d6 Stealth scab: (6) (3) (2) = 6.
GM: The captain winds in and about through the streets. It's quite a walk! Weaver, you get an eerie moment of deja-vu about when the creepy-crawlies chased you that one time... but nothing seems awry.
Shining Blossom Empress is as stealthy as a housebrick.
Shadow Weaver's neckhairs stand on end.
Jesya whispers to Empress: "I know this neighborhood... this is near where Michael--"
Shining Blossom Empress listens.
GM: The guard captain pounds on a back door. After a moment, it opens, and he ducks inside.
Shadow Weaver briefly frowns, he's learned to trust his instincts.
Jesya (very puzzled): "...works."
Shining Blossom Empress stops, brow furrowed.
Shadow Weaver: "...Careful grrls, something feels... wrong. Stay sharp."
Shining Blossom Empress: "We should go in the front. Find Mike."
Shadow Weaver catches up. "...You go in front, I'll post out back." He smiles ferally. "...Catch any prey you flush out, eh?"
Shining Blossom Empress: "Let's go!"
Shadow Weaver takes up position near the back door, lounging, trying to look like a not-totally-honest nogoodnik.
GM: The place is a light metalworks, selling odds and ends of tools and building materials. The back's littered with bits of scrap, and heat wafts from a window to the forge area. The front has a crude shop area with miscellaneous samples--oddly unmanned at the moment.
Shadow Weaver keeps an eye on the rooftops and windows, hmm....
Shining Blossom Empress: "Jesya, have you been here before? Can we go in without drawing too much attention?"
Jesya: "Sure, I come in all the time, it's not a big deal."
Shining Blossom Empress: "...From the... where IS everybody?"
Muffled voice from near the forge: "How dare ya... you're no friend of ours!"
Shadow Weaver is close enough to the back door to faintly make out the voices, though not always the words.
Shining Blossom Empress thinks "trouble!" and hurries in that direction. She imagines she can make everything better.
A second voice: "Dammit, just because I'm not picking fights in the streets like your louts? Some of those were my men!"
Shining Blossom Empress skids to a halt.
GM: The door to the work area opens upon a scene teetering toward violence. Michael stands holding the guard captain to the wall, dangerously near the forge--one hand pressing to the guy's sternum, the other cocked for a punch. The guard captain seems defiant, looking handsome in spite of his apparent predicament.
Shining Blossom Empress turns to Jesya. "Should we go in?"
Jesya: "Yeah, jeez..." She darts ahead. "Mike! What's going on?"
Shadow Weaver listens, frowning, trying to form an image of the goings-on from only auditory cues.
Shining Blossom Empress follows.
Michael glances toward Jesya, then with a glint in his eye, follows through--*thud!* to the captain's cheek. "Jus' puttin' a cowardly Dragon-Blood in his place, Jess, nothin' to fret about..."
GM: The captain growls low. The flames of the forge seem to reach toward him, and his skin begins to glow like embers.
Shining Blossom Empress walks straight toward the pair. "Well, you can stop your squabbling now, if you like."
Shadow Weaver heard the blow, ghah. What's happening? With the flat of his hand, he pushes against the doorjamb, slowly increasing pressure until the bolt starts to give...
Shining Blossom Empress: "Would somebody mind telling me what's going on here?" She was about to poke the DB in the chest with a finger, but sees the flames and hesitates. "Do you know you're on fire?" O.O She thinks Mike's pretty brave, or the DB's pretty brave, or SOMEbody is.
GM: With a whoosh, the captain drops from under Michael's hold and slips impossibly between his legs, ending up behind him. He shoves at the back of Mike's head, pressing him to the wall instead. He then smirks and steps back. "Nothing at all, miss, sorry you had to see this."
Shining Blossom Empress watches the sudden movement, astonished. "Whoa!"
Shadow Weaver snicks the bolt free of the wood and opens the door a crack, to peer inside.
Michael: "Nnph! Bastard... thinks he can get the best of... both worlds, grr!" He slowly turns around, fists clenched.
Shining Blossom Empress employs Ditzoid Flattery Ingratiation Method. "That was... how did you DO that?"
Shadow Weaver listens.
Captain: "Blessing of the Fire Dragon, miss, a mere trick."
Shining Blossom Empress tilts her head. She expected something more... boastful.
Jesya: "Mike... what the hell?"
Captain (to Mike): "Shall we demonstrate further, for the good ladies to appreciate?"
Shining Blossom Empress: "Let's not, or I shall put you both over my knee and spank you." She folds her arms. Sniffs.
[*] Empress rolls 5d6 Presence scab: (4) (1) (1) (2) (3) = 4.
Michael: "So that's how 'tis from your new friends, eh Jess? Gods damned. Have fun." He goes to stalk out the back door!
Shadow Weaver takes a step inside and closes the door behind him, blocking the exit. "Where do you think YOU're going?"
Michael: "...Whuh? ... Out."
Shadow Weaver just raises a brow, ohyeah, make me.
Shining Blossom Empress: "Talk to me, Michael. Please? What's happening? Why is this man here?" She zaps the captain a smile, just to keep him off-balance.
Captain (in an amused drawl): "Isn't this becoming quite the party."
Shadow Weaver cuts a glance at the Dragon Blood, warily.
Michael: "And what'll you do, Weaver? Crack my head? To keep me from doin' just what we're all out to do in the first place?"
Shadow Weaver leans back against the door, doing his best to appear non-threatening "..... And what's that exactly, anywayz?"
Michael: "Takin' creeps like him"--thumb at the captain--"down a peg."
Shining Blossom Empress rolls her eyes, they're doing it again. She turns to the captain. "When I ask a question, people just argue among themselves. Do you ever find that?"
Captain: "Undisciplined subordinates. It's a plague."
Shining Blossom Empress: "In that case, I'll ask you. What is this place, and what brings you sneaking here without your armour and regalia?"
Shadow Weaver crosses his well-sculpted arms across his well-sculpted chest. "Subordinates? In what army? Rebel or Realm?"
Jesya scratches through her hair in exasperation. "Mike, Mike, isn't this difficult enough?"
Shadow Weaver raises a brow, genuinely curious. He's having trouble reading the mood here, what the heck is going on?
Captain: "I came to find out why the rebels have been so... antsy in the last couple of days. Trying to maintain a free exchange of information among friends."
Shining Blossom Empress: "You tolerate the rebels? You?"
Shadow Weaver drawls, "..... Y'maintain friendly relations with the rebels then..? I find that hard to believe."
Michael shakes his head and turns about. The walls of the room seem to crackle with tension, an oppressive claustrophobia.
Shining Blossom Empress realises the god-blood's got no control of his Essence.
Captain: "I mean to be free as well... if misguided haste doesn't slay me first."
Michael: "There'll be nothin' misguided if you'd show you want to be free! Think I'll feed you information while you sit grooming your face in the citadel?"
Shining Blossom Empress: "Free? Don't the Dragon-Bloods rule this city?"
Captain (ignoring Mike): "We--they--do. But it is not an organization I ever meant to commit myself to."
Shining Blossom Empress: "OR... the governor, who isn't who she seems?"
Shadow Weaver smiles, oooh, good one.
Captain (raising an eyebrow): "What? What do you mean by that?"
Shadow Weaver hmmphs. "What DO you want then?" he almost says. :-P
Shining Blossom Empress: "The woman you were sitting with this morning isn't Garnet Fortress."
Captain: "That's... fascinating news. Who, then?"
Shadow Weaver liiistens.
Shining Blossom Empress: "I wish I knew. You must know there are ways and means for persons of... influence... to masquerade as another."
Captain: "Surely, yes..."
Shadow Weaver narrows his eyes.
Michael: "Nngh! I won't stand by while ya parley and sell out! Weaver, get away from my godsdamn door!"
Shadow Weaver shakes his head, slowly.
Shining Blossom Empress thinks. "Wait... Michael, you know about this?" She didn't realise she was selling anybody out.
Shadow Weaver: "Mike, surely y'realise that all this is... mighty interesting, to us? ...Would be a pity to just... leave."
Michael: "Mighty interestin' to me too, y'all trucking with Dragon-Bloods without caving their faces in. Interestin' like a rotting corpse is interestin'."
Shining Blossom Empress is annoyed now.
Jesya: "Oh, for gods' sakes, Michael. Get the hell out if you want, let me hold the door for you." She does so with the front.
Shadow Weaver smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "As long as they're useful, why should we? And YOU seem to have built some kind of... relationship... with this one, eh?" He expects it's a mutually beneficial relationship, ergo, the DB has his uses...
Shining Blossom Empress also assumes there's more to it, else they'd have killed each other long ago.
Michael looks around the room, the faces in various states of irritation. Clamping his mouth shut, fuming, he goes toward Jesya's door.
Shadow Weaver pulls out his daiklave and rests its tip on the floor...
Shining Blossom Empress lets Mike go. Can always track him down later.
GM: The captain looks thoughtful, observing, tapping his finger on his lips. A lick of flame puffs from it from time to time.
Michael exits. Jesya rolls her eyes and closes the door behind him.
Shining Blossom Empress turns back to the captain.
Shadow Weaver: "...And then there was one." His words are meant to sound ominous, heh.
Jesya: "That should make things much quieter. Yeesh."
Shining Blossom Empress: "So, you, mysterious captain of the guard who's also inexplicably a rebel of some kind. ...Hi. Could YOU tell me what's going on?"
Captain: "My name is Landrin, if I may be permitted to introduce myself. Of the Cathak line, albeit... not by choice."
Shadow Weaver shuts up. Shine is good at this (grudging admittance, this, grr).
Shining Blossom Empress: "Just Landrin?"
Landrin laughs. "Do you prefer 'Cathak Landrin, Captain of her Excellency Garnet Fortress's Resplendent Guard'? For by all means, it's amusing to hear it."
Shining Blossom Empress: "D'ye know, I rather do. I'd know where I stand with a captain of the guard. But you look like a wildcard, and I'm not sure I like that."
Shadow Weaver waits, poised for action, or diplomacy, whichever way this goes.
Landrin: "And I'd know where I stood if I were a captain back in Lookshy where I belong. But this mess of a bureaucracy, tch!"
Shining Blossom Empress narrows her eyes. "How long have you been here?"
Shadow Weaver tilts his head to the side, what a peculiar conversation this is turning out to be...
Landrin considers. "I believe it'll be a year when the Wood descends."
Shining Blossom Empress: "Hm, so, have you noticed any change in the governor in the last, say, month?"
Shadow Weaver idly scrapes the point of his sword across the floor, scrrrrrrape.
Landrin: "Now that you mention... perhaps so. A bit more public show, a bit more traffic with sorts like that Auditor."
Shadow Weaver narrows his eyes.
Shining Blossom Empress: "Yeah, he's a creepy-looking specimen, what's his story?"
Landrin shakes his head. "A depraved Wood Aspected sorcerer. No restraint whatsoever, when the sun goes down... he was called in a short time ago, though why anyone would pick him is a mystery to me. I suppose his demonology skill outweighed his habits."
Shining Blossom Empress nods to Weaver. "That explains the bug thingies."
Shadow Weaver pulls a face, yeah. Hateful things.
Shining Blossom Empress: "Okay, Landrin, you say you want to be free? Free of what?"
Landrin: "Of this undisciplined, dishonorable lot. I have been nothing but disgusted and disappointed with their lack of care in governance. Had I not been ordered here..." He grits his teeth.
Shadow Weaver: "Who ordered you?"
Shining Blossom Empress has been very careful not to introduce herself.
Landrin's eyes show sorrow for a moment. "General Arteth of Lookshy. I... would not betray the spirit of his orders, but there are limits to a man's endurance."
Shadow Weaver: "...Why are you in contact with the reb- um, with Michael...? What's in it for you?"
Shining Blossom Empress: "I still don't understand why you're here, of all places."
Landrin: "Would that I knew better the why! But one does not question the order of a General save through proper channels, and none of my reports have received anything but standard orders to carry on as I am."
Shining Blossom Empress: "So which side are you really on? Are you supporting the governor, or not? You clearly serve the Realm as a whole... Make me trust you, Landrin." She lets a note of unspoken challenge creep into her voice.
Landrin: "You mistake me, miss. I serve the Realm only insofar as the Seventh Legion has bidden me do so. And if the rebels"--he glances to Weaver, answering his question--"can be made to lead better than the Realm, then that is my side." He looks toward the door through which Michael left. "Though it seems I have been misguided in my hopes there."
Shadow Weaver smiles, then softly interjects, "..... There are more than just the rebels who offer better prospects for the future..."
Shining Blossom Empress still isn't clear on this guy's goals, much less his loyalties.
Shadow Weaver: "...And also... if we're not sure about where you stand, boy, y're not leaving this room alive." He hopes the derogative epithet will elicit some meaningful response, heh.
Shining Blossom Empress feels the same as Weaver, but wouldn't have said it so bluntly.
Landrin frowns. "And I suppose you will not care to let me live unless I choose your side? Whatever that is... you came in with this girl, whom I recognize from among the rebels, but you mentioned another faction?"
Shining Blossom Empress quirks a brow at Weaver. "Are WE a faction?"
Shadow Weaver nods. "Hell yes we are."
Shining Blossom Empress: "Or do you mean letting the people rule themselves? We can't stay here, Weaver. Once we've put things right..." She realises she's saying too much, and shuts up.
Shadow Weaver nods, he understands.
Landrin: "Surely whoever shows true aptitude for leadership may...?"
Shining Blossom Empress: "Provided they're not evil, or oppressive."
Landrin: "I did say true aptitude, yes."
Shadow Weaver steps forward. "Okay you, time to show yer true colours." His posture is non-threatening, for now, but he wants answers.
Landrin's eyes flicker, and he draws himself up. "I shall not forsake my Daimyo, whatever threat you level against me. But I count myself a mere advisor to this governor, no matter what title she's bestowed on me. … And I see no evidence she shall ever listen to my advisement, as far as that goes."
Shining Blossom Empress: "I'm only going to say this once."
Shadow Weaver hrrrms, then cuts a glance at Shine, as if to ask, "Whaddayathink? Trust him or eliminate him?"
Shining Blossom Empress: "The governor, and quite likely her pet sorceror, are very bad people. Things are going to happen, and some bad people are going to die."
Shadow Weaver listens, with grudging admiration. The grrl has a way with words.
Shining Blossom Empress: "If your loyalties are going to get in the way of that, it's going to be now."
Shadow Weaver nods.
Shining Blossom Empress: "Otherwise, you can help us select a new governor." She smiles. "And then everybody'll be happy." :-D
Landrin: "Hah. Well, it is not unknown for the Legion's advisors to serve on both sides of a conflict, and so work at cross purposes. Though it may taint my honor to actively betray my advised, I see your position: she is unfit to rule. So be it, then. Let us see this mess of a government purged and rebuilt."
Shadow Weaver nods, slowly, hmm, this guy is showing some potential.
Landrin: "Upon one condition."
Shining Blossom Empress still isn't quite convinced.
Shadow Weaver raises a brow, conditions?
Shining Blossom Empress: "We're listening."
Landrin looks back and forth, taking in Shine, Jesya, Weaver--and the daiklave. "I remain in the dark as to who you are. Do you truly expect me to serve a nameless pair who cornered me by a forge, or will you share your names and goals as well?"
Shining Blossom Empress: "My friends call me Shine."
Shadow Weaver concentrates and silently lets his anima flare, silvery shadow-wolves pacing each other in a swirling pattern, enveloping his body. "......."
Landrin murmurs, "Sun and moon, then. These are times of tumult indeed. But let those fit to rule do so..."
Shining Blossom Empress beams a smile at him. "We're here to help, really we are."
Landrin nods silently.
Shadow Weaver sheathes the daiklave.
Shining Blossom Empress: "Please don't betray us, Landrin. I've been... mistreated by Terrestrials in the past. It'd be nice to have my prejudices proved wrong."
Landrin: "I could say the same of your kind. Lead with discipline and honor, though, and I shall see no need not to follow."
