NikinkCityOfGoldcampaign/CoG769ResAir

Resplendant Air, 769

City of Gold

• Week 5 Beginning 1st :: [Leath Notes]
  • Kalara arrives in Stromberg Keep, begging King Stromberg for an audience. The King agrees and Kalara begins attempted negotiations.
  • Boroc Caleb realises potential of Kalara and dispatches an Infallible Messenger back to Chejop Kajek.

• Week 6 Beginning 8th :: [Leath Notes]

• • Stromberg and Realm forces invade Borovan kingdom, bordered on Stromberg and formerly Swidland and Bellum (Karess' former kingdom). Borovan soldiers fight back, supported by mercenary troops hired from Nexus.
  • Boroc Caleb sends three spies (sorcerously altered to resemble Albin'sharians) into Albin'Shar to report on the Solars, layout of the city and any other information or weaknesses.
  • Banyan enters Albin'Shar's small-but-growing criminal underworld. He quickly learns of Guild influence causing the rise in artifact smuggling and increase in crime.

• Week 7 Beginning 15th :: [Leath Notes]

• • Mettan's secret police uncover evidence of growing organised crime. They report it to the city guards who begin to route out criminal elements.
  • After a shaky start Boroc's spies begin to gather information. Their first item of interest is understanding the complex bureaucracy which almost proved their undoing.
  • Boroc binds Kalara with "Threefold Binding of the Heart" and interrogates her about the Solar's abilities and Albin'Shar in general.

• Week 8 Beginning 22nd :: [Leath Notes]

• • Banyan discovers one of Boroc's spies and kills her. He is observed by a member of the secret police and is forced to kill him as well. News of the disappearance travels rapidly through Albin'Shar. Banyan seizes control of the criminal network, operating secretly from rooms with the palace basements.
  • Boroc notes the absence of one of his spies.
  • Guild caravans arrive outside the city and camp in the merchant district.
  • Stromberg has pushed Borovan troops back to inner keeps and towns. The fortify their locations in preparation for the final siege of Borovan Castle.
  • Borovan diplomats arrive in Albin'Shar, begging for assistance.

Rise of Darkness

• 1st - 13th :
  • Lunar Game begins. Huzzah!
  • Road to Chiaroscuro
• 4th :
  • Attack on Caravan by strange sibilant silent men, and a Fae Noble. The enemy is driven off, after taking several captives.
• 13th :
  • "Shivering Rex" docks in Chiaroscuro
• 14th :
  • Caravan arrival in Chiaroscuro.
  • Beginnings of Investigations
  • Charity to Beggar Hacham
• 15th :
  • First sighting of Mesheshish's Pit-o-Carnage and Wordless.
  • Visit to Grandmother Bright - get the Words of Wordless
  • Visit to Wordless by Whispering-Vixen who gets but a whittled Sculpture.
• 16th :
  • Grandmother Bright isn't impressed
  • Visit to Mesheshish unsuccessful, but interesting
  • Tepett-Ka and Vixen sneak into Mesheshish's mansion and look around.
  • More gore in Pit, Dervish notices tangible Blood-lust
• 17th :
  • Lunars sneak into Mesheshish's mansion, find strange Blood-Bag Men, scuffle, manage to free Kor'Vax, Lord of Carnage from his Millenia old Bindings... oops...
• 27th :
  • Silver-Wind rashly aids a mysterious fleeing person from pursuit of 15 armed Mercenaries, and discovers hints of Female Night Caste First Age Wife(tm). Dervish leaps onto head of one thug, then sees the Full Moon, shrugs and says 'Fuck this shit, I'm going back to bed...' and climbs back to the Balcony.
• 28th :
  • Dervish and Wind begin finding Lissian's family - they head west along the road to Paragon, Dervish chows down on one of Twin-Fang-Dancers prize Horses (A Marukan Swift!!!).

Rings of Iron and Glass

• 1st :
  • The Abyssals arrive at the border of Pati, with 600 Troops [The Fire Dragon - I think]
  • The Water Dragon arrives at the border of Etheria
  • The Abyssals keep travelling to the Capital of Pati... also called Pati...
• 3rd :
  • The Abyssals talk with a local ghost about the Kingdom (one of Bubbles' Contacts or Spies?).
  • They learn :-
    • Roughly one hundred years ago the two Kingdoms were at war with each other;
    • The ruler of Pati at that time was Cathak Treval, and he is still alive;
    • Cathak Treval calls himself "Emperor" and is well over 200 years old and an exiled Dynast;
    • Cathak Treval has a daughter named Shinta who is only about 20 years old;
    • The King of Etheria is named Ildar the Fourth;
    • King Ildar IV has a son called Tine;
    • Prince Tine is travelling to Pati on a diplomatic mission;
    • Relations between the two Kingdoms has been stable but strained recently [Ok people, correct me where I'm wrong! - Nikink]
• 5th :
  • The Abyssals arrive at Pati-City, sometime after dusk.
  • Beast flies over the walls with Totem
  • Beggar and Bubbles attampt to sneak past the guards at the gates... Beggar fails... something about carrying a sword longer than his body on his back and trying to casually walk between them whilst wearing his "Thousand-Resentful-Links"... but at least Bubbles makes it through...
  • Beggar leaves at the guards' firm request, then, once out of sight, turns around and sneaks back in.
  • Once inside, Beggar smoothly and rapidly integrates into the local criminal culture (and hides "Whispering-Truth"), whilst Bubbles finds one of his Contacts and a local Safe-house for (the ever so inconspicuous) Beast and Totem.
  • The Safe-house is found, the mortals within are Dathnor agents.
  • A plan is formulated - wait until Prince Tine is leaving, then kidnap the Princess and make it appear as though the Etherians captured her.
  • Bubbles sets about getting a potent sleeping drug from his contacts, with which to drug the Princess.
• 6th - 12th :
  • Beggar and Bubbles begin scouting the City and the Palace.
  • Beast and Totem remain in the basement of the Safe-house.
  • Totem reads his Tomes of Lore.
  • Beast remains perfectly, utterly still, staring at Totem... Totem continues to read.
  • Princess Shinta's room is found to be nice and open to the elements of the highest floor of the Palace (the Fourth floor... pitiful...they call this a 'Palace'... I bet Cathak Treval was laughed out of the Realm... Nikink ;-)
  • Beggar disguises himself as a servant and infiltrates the Palace every night under this cover identity.
  • Bubbles sneaks into the Palace every day, hiding amazingly well.
  • Beast remains perfectly, utterly still, staring at Totem... but is, amazingly, one inch closer than Totem thought...Totem continues to read.
• 13th - 23rd :
  • Prince Tine arrives with a small contingent of guards.
  • Beggar and Bubbles keep a close eye on the proceedings of the diplomacy from their respective vantage points.
  • Beast remains perfectly, utterly still, staring at Totem... but is, again, one inch closer than Totem thought...Totem continues to read.
  • Beggar discovers Prince Tine sneaking out of the Palace one night and follows him to a non-descript house in the city.
  • At the house, Princess Shinta is waiting, and they exchange small talk, then pleasantries, then sweet nothings, then passions, then bodily fluids...
  • Beggar watches closely.
  • None of the Abyssals are overly surprised by this turn of events, oddly enough.
  • The plan is subtley altered - leak the knowledge of this dalliance to cause some unrest, especially to the Emperor who will hopefully be enraged into action.
  • The Emperor is surprisingly calm when the news reaches him, and he begins to hush it up a bit.
  • Beast remains perfectly, utterly still, staring at Totem... but is, yet again, one inch closer than Totem thought...Totem continues to read.
• 24th :
  • Prince Tine leaves the city.
  • Beast remains perfectly, utterly still, staring at Totem... but is, unnervingly, one inch closer than Totem thought...Totem continues to read.
  • The plan to capture the Princess is finalised - at midnight, Beast and Bubbles will capture the Princess (silently, of course!) and Beast will fly her back to Dathnor (as he can make the 200 miles or so in a couple of hours!!!), meanwhile Beggar, Bubbles and Totem will leave the City and catch up with Prince Tine, so as to make sure that when the Pati forces come to question the Prince as to the whereabouts of the Princess, a fight is started via a mysterious arrow-shot at one of the Pati men.
  • [Just before Midnight] Beast and Bubbles alight the Princess' open balcony...
• 25th :
  • [Just after Midnight] Bubbles sneaks into the room, and drugs the sleeping Princess before carrying her out to Beast, who then efforlessly carries her into the air and flies at full speed to Dathnor.
  • Once he spots Beast in the sky, Beggar lights a fire in the Palace Library as a distraction (the idea being that the Pati people will believe the fire to be started by the Etherians as a diversion while they kidnap the Princess).
  • Beggar and Bubbles then sneak out of the Palace and out of the City.
  • Totem casts a spell and enters the Labyrinth, and barely manages to get to Dathnor as Beast arrives.
  • Beggar and Bubbles run stealthily down the road in the direction of Prince Tine.
  • Beast chains the Princess within one of the Spiral's cells, making sure she is naked and uncomfortable and not hiding anything - anywhere, and organises a couple of guards.
  • Beggar realises he does not have a bow...
  • As Beast departs the Spiral, he just notices Totem, and - cursing into the wind - swoops down to pick him up and carry him back to Beggar and Bubbles.
  • Beast, Beggar, Bubbles and Totem await the Dawn near, but out of sight from, Prince Tine's entourage.
  • End of Game 1.
  • [Dawn] Start of Game 2.
  • A plan is formulated as Bloody-Prince-Annointed-By-Shadow appears... as if from nowhere... He has been travelling from Dathnor hoping to catch up, I think... Henceforth he shall be known as "Prince".
  • The Plan is : Beast, Beggar and Totem will run ahead and wait for the Etherian Diplomats, while Bubbles and Prince hang back to trail them... It's all so hazy now...? This is to be able to kill the Pati-ans sent to rescue the Princess, thus making the Emperor Cathak Treval, hopefully, declare war against the foul Etherian abductors... This plan is altered somewhat after Beast does some reconnaisance and notices that the Pati rescue party includes Cathak Treval. Beast suggests then that they wait until the Emperor and his people leave the Etherians, then kill the Etherians (including Prince Tine) and blame it upon the Pati-ans.
  • Beggar spots a farmhouse some distance of the road and sends Beast in to clear it for use as a hiding spot. The two parents and young son are quite surprised to find themselves dead after Beast smashes through a window...
  • The Pati-ans catch up with the Etherians, and a discussion occurs between the Emperor and the Prince, which is overheard completely by Beast and Prince, but I cannot for the life of me remember what was said, but it was probably pretty unimportant considering what was about to happen to the Etherians...
  • The Abyssals waited until the Pati-ans had left and gone a very long way, I'd say beyond the horizon, but that sounds a bit odd on a flat world, and then attacked the Etherians.
  • In a glorious bloodbath, most of the Etherians were slaughtered, including the Prince.
  • Unfortunately, there were a couple of complications.
  • First, the battle saw four Abyssal Animas flare Iconic for several turns. (Beast didn't even get close to showing a cast mark!!!) (Ok, he was the Dusk Caste taking on Eunuchs and Diplomats... but that's not the point B-)
  • Second, the Prince's Bodyguard, Jidar Tsir, was discovered to be a Solar... Dawn Caste to be precise, but it's unclear as to whether he Exalted at that moment or had been a Solar for longer than that... at least he wasn't carrying any obvious Artefacts (No Orichalcum shit, Armour or Daiklave... thank the Malfeans...)
  • Third, the battle saw a Solar Anima flare Iconic for several turns...
  • Fourth, it was made far more difficult to perpetrate the fraud of Pati-an attack when Totem opened up "Death Of Obsidian Butterflies" in desperation against a couple of Mooks...
  • Fifth, Totem "Obsidian Butterflied" Beggar and Bubbles...
  • Sixth, Bubbles retaliated against Totem with one of the Blades-Of-Hungry-Shadowsouls (which fortunately inflicted no damage!)...
  • Seven, the three Day Castes could not quickly take out the Solar... (This isn't a criticism, the Solar was being very lucky and they were taking out Mooks as well, just unfortunate and highlighting the difference between a Dawn soldier in open combat against Day assassins, thieves and spies...)
  • Eighth, the Solar managed to escape.
  • Ninth, Beast did not get to fight the Solar, he got one punch in then the Solar disappeared (into the ground???)... and this was at a point when the Solar had no Essence left (according to the mote draining ability of the Blades-Of-Hungry-Shadowsouls)!
    • [Jidar Tsir was definitly out of essence when he disappeared, but it wasn't into the ground. There was a blinding flash of Golden Essence that engulfed him and when it died down he was gone. - Bencyclopedia]
  • Tenth, the Solar managed to escape.
  • Otherwise, it went swimmingly!
  • In the aftermath, the battlescene was charred and burned (to try and throw suspicion upon the Emperor of Pati and his troops) and a furtherance of the plan was formulated. One of the bodies would be ridden by a nemissary and drive one remaining wagon with it's two remaining horses to the gates of Etheria, with the body of Prince Tine (and it's decapitated head), whereupon it was to blame the attack on the Pati-ans and then leave the body and retreat back to Dathnor, leaving the Etherians with strong hints that it was the Pati-ans who had done it... then the Abyssals realised that the Solar had (probably) survived and could tell the Etherians that the attack was from Deatknights, not Pati-ans, and they decided the Nemissaries message would state an alliance between Pati and the Deathlord.
  • So, Beast carried a body back to Dathnor post-haste to get possessed. While he was there, he reported to Resplendant-Vision-Of-The-Perfection-Of-Oblivion, and told her of the Solar, the battle and the plan to rouse the ire of the Etherians with the suggestion of an alliance between Pati and Dathnor.
  • Resplendant-Vision-Of-The-Perfection-Of-Oblivion stated that was a very bad idea and that she did not want to have either Kingdom know or suspect Dathnor's involvement, and that a better idea would be to blame the Solar as a hated Anathema.
  • Beast agreed with her whole-heartedly, kow-towed his ass out of the throne room, collected the nemissary and flew back to the camp with the new and improved plan.
  • The others agreed whole-heartedly with the revised plan as proposed by Her Glorious Magnificence...
  • Bubbles was also to travel with the nemissary, hiding as a shadow in the wagon, just to keep an eye on things.
  • The rest of the Circle (well, it's really more of an Ellipse) returned back to the farmhouse to await the return of Bubbles, or further news... Prince emptied a neighbouring farmhouse of mortals for essence.
  • The journey travel time was estimated to be about 2 weeks for the round trip, so Bubbles is expected to arrive at the farmhouse around the 11th of Descending Air. Which kinda places Pati and Etheria just over a weeks travel apart...? [Ben, is that a bit close? - Nik]
• Everything gets hazy from here...