TenThousandBrokenDreams/Session06

Mother Cypress speaks:\\

"Hello, my little sparrows. It is a fine night, a night for tales and stories. What tale would you hear tonight? Would you hear of the sorcerer Bagrash Köl of the frozen Northern lands; of how he found the Eye of the Celestial Smith, and wielded it to forge an empire that spanned the northern and eastern Threshold despite all the might of the Realm, and how the power of the Eye corrupted him? Or the tale of how a nameless mortal dreamer conjured the city of Cozen out of empty desert in a single night, of how a thousand dreamers flocked to that city to dream strange wonders into the world, and of the doom of Cozen: how the dream turned to nightmare, leaving ruins thick with hungry ghosts that still cry out amid the desert sands? Or would you hear more of the tale of the children of the Sun and the end of the Second Age?

"Then come closer, my children, and spread ears like elephants, that you may hear the tale of how the Sun’s bright children came to Tul Tuin and the Tower of the Winds, and what they found there."

Our heroes spent several more days on the road, passing along the wooded cliffs that ran along the west bank of the River of Willows. One evening, as they made camp upon a rocky terrace overlooking the city of Longcorner on the river’s far shore, where Guild barges docked to sell goods and take on grain and slaves, Aekino addressed his fellows: he had learned a few interesting things from the astrological charts and notes they’d obtained from the Imperial courier... most notably, that the Dragon-Blooded had ascertained the existence of a fifth Solar, one whose horoscope was not present in the stack. It pleased the Circle to know that there was another one like them out there, though it seemed likely that the Realm had captured that fifth Solar.

Aekino went on to discuss his plans for their arrival in Tul Tuin. He intended upon presenting himself honestly to the city’s prince, the Dragon-Blood Ledaal Vir, along with the notes and the sealed message that the courier had borne, in the hopes of winning Vir’s cooperation and trust. He also proposed to arrange for Zera’s confinement in Vir’s dungeons for the death of Amaya, for he said that one might learn much of a ruler’s character and policy from the nature of that ruler’s prisoners. Surprisingly, Zera proved agreeable; he called Aekino brother and said that he had come to trust him, and that he had faith in the Dynast’s understanding of intrigue. Li, however, was not so easily convinced. How could they be certain, she argued, that Zera could escape once imprisoned? And even if he escaped, would it not be dangerous for Zera if the Dragon-Blood knew him for an enemy?

Choosing to hold any decision in abeyance until their arrival, the group continued on their journey. Soon they reached the tumbledown town of Brinlack, where they found a half-deaf old ferryman who proved willing, after a lot of shouting, to take them across the river to where the small city of Tul Tuin lay upon the slopes of a rocky hill, beneath a promontory where a castle sent up a high tower of blue stone. As they crossed the river, a seaweed-draped spirit poked its head out of the current. As it observed the passengers, its eyes filled with shocked recognition as they lighted on Zera and Thorwald. Recognizing the shape and flavor of their Essence, it uttered the names “Kuro the Raven” and “Blessed Wind” in the tongue of the Old Realm (for it knew them of old, in other lives), then vanished beneath the waters. Only Aekino knew the Old Tongue, but he chose not to enlighten the others as to what he had heard. At last, they reached the far bank, and their destination was close at hand.

Mother Cypress speaks:\\

"These heroes had seized the message that would have delivered them into the hands of the Dragon-Blooded prince of Tul Tuin. But the folk of that city did not go entirely without warning. For in a small chamber of the Tower of Winds, three servants of the prince met in secret council.

"First was a bright-eyed old gentleman whose long beard and silken robes were of the same clean, pure white. They called him Ikari the Astrologer, for he knew the ways of the stars and planets, and the prince kept him close to call upon his wisdom.

"Next a slender woman armored in black leather, her face as hard and sharp as a bird’s, who moved with the grace of the crane arising at dawn from the reeds. Her name was Shield Willow, and she ruled the prince’s guard with a fist of jade.

"Last was a small man, a plain man in servant’s garb, of the same Realm stock as all the prince’s loyal servants. His face was ordinary, his stance unassuming. They did not know his name, so they called him Spy, for that is what he was.

"’Who are these strangers of whom you speak?’ asked Shield Willow of the astrologer. ‘What signs shall we seek?’

"The old man shook his head. ‘There is nothing I can tell you,’ he replied. ‘They come in secret, and a power moves with them. The rest, we shall see.’

"’Have you informed His Majesty?’” the woman inquired.

"’And what shall I tell him?” asked Ikari the Astrologer. “That bad times are ahead? My dear Shield Willow, bad times are always with us. I have warned him of the coming inauspicious hour; there is nothing more I can do.’

"’Very well,’ the captain said with a nod. ‘We are his loyal servants; it falls to us to weed his garden.’ And to the spy she said, ‘Find these strangers. Learn their names. Watch them well. Learn what you may, and bring that knowledge to me.’"

The river had swept the tiny ferry a ways downstream, and so they walked for a while past farms and orchards to reach the city’s docks at nightfall. The dock district was still thick with workers finishing the day’s labors, reeking of sweat and fish. Strangely, in addition to Easterners and a smattering of Realmsfolk, many of the citizens proved to be of blond Northern stock, a strange sight here in the Scavenger Lands.

Zera vanished into the diverse crowd to gather information, while the others looked about for the Dayshield’s Daughter. Soon they spotted that noble vessel, nestled among fishing boats and grain barges. Before they could board the barge to seek out and speak with its captain, a boy came up and tugged at Li’s cloak, saying that he had been sent to find her. Telling the others to wait, she followed the boy through the lower city to an alleyway between warehouses. There, Li’s finely honed senses caught the whiff of danger, and she concealed herself in the shadow of piled crates to see what happened next.

Unable to find Li, the boy called out, begged, even wept; but Li remained hidden, and so the boy brushed false tears aside, knocked on a door, then vanished into the warehouse. Li could faintly hear the sounds of voices; then the boy re-emerged with a tall hooded figure, followed by a dozen thuggish dockworkers armed with sticks, poles and gaffs. Realizing the nature of the trap, Li carefully opened a door to slip into the warehouse and escape, but alas! The hinges creaked abominably, and the thugs charged in her direction.

Ducking through the door, she waited until the first dockworker came after her, and kicked him backward into his fellows, knocking several of them to the ground. Essence swirled invisibly around her as she assumed the Five-fold Bulwark Stance. She moved through the crowd like a cyclone, her sheathed swords breaking knees and cracking skulls. Within moments, all of the thugs were crippled or unconscious. As the fallen men moaned in pain and the boy vanished down the alley with a pitter-pat of bare feet, the cloaked man stepped forward, a hooked gaff spinning lazily between his hands. Casting his hood back, he revealed a bone-pale visage, bruised beneath the eyes: the face of a corpse.

The two fought, the man mocking Li all the while. He lured her in with a deceptively weak stance, taking punishing blows that would have incapacitated a normal man, then sending her flying with a powerful blow. She drew her swords then and struck, but he twisted so that the blades would lodge in his body. He laughed, until she filled her swords with blazing Essence that burned him from within. Screaming, he spat corrosive black blood that burned her face. She responded with a blinding barrage of cutting blows that severed his limbs one by one. At the last, she cut the head from his body; but his spirit fled the corpse before the last blow landed, and his mocking laughter followed her as she departed the scene.

When she returned to the docks after dark, she warned her fellows of danger. Fearing that the Deathlords had sent the nemissary and that further attacks might follow, they left the docks without speaking to the captain of the Dayshield’s Daughter, and sought out a tavern where they might converse discreetly about what had transpired. And as they spoke, Zera found them there; for he had been moving among the taverns of that part of the city in the guise of a merchant’s guardsman, gathering rumor and gossip that might prove useful to the Circle.

Zera learned much, and he shared what he had learned with his fellows. The northmen, it seemed, had come to Tul Tuin generations ago, led by their ageless queen, Cessair of the Fair Folk, to conquer the native folk and rule from the Tower of Winds. Each year, she took a prince in marriage, and at year’s end she would slay him. But then the Dragon-Blood Ledaal Vir came and married the queen, and either by choice or by necessity, she did not slay him. They ruled together for a time, and brought several children into the world. And then, fifteen years ago, Ledaal Vir usurped the throne and locked Cessair away in a tower in a nearby village, where she has languished ever since. Now he rules by right of both marriage and conquest, surrounded by Realmsfolk who now control the city’s guard and bureaucracy, their authority undercutting that of the indigenous nobility and merchants.

The Night Caste shared what other tidbits he’d ascertained: that the Easterners claimed that the Northmen worshipped the Fair Folk, while the Northmen said the Easterners prayed to demons; that the prince had no overt ties to the Scarlet Realm, receiving few visitors and sending no known tribute; that the monk Shima had founded a shrine to the Immaculate Dragons in the countryside; that strange wild beasts and demonic creatures haunted the wilderness nearby, against which the prince sometimes rode, and which the swordswoman Rei of Nechara had gathered a band of warriors to hunt; and that the nearby kingdom of Longcorner, an ally of the Guild, used its superior military to raid the nearby kingdoms for slaves, and only spared Tul Tuin because one of Ledaal Vir’s sons had married Longcorner’s queen.

Our heroes continued their conversation for a time, despite such distractions as carousing dockworkers and a drunken city guardsman who tried to get into Aekino’s pants. Rebuffed, the man turned his attentions first to Thorwald, and then at last to the tattooed Li - apparently the fellow was entirely catholic in his tastes. Eventually Li said she would get jiggy with the fellow if he could knock her down. Being twice her size, he agreed and stepped outside with her; this being followed by a loud thump and a crash, and Li returning none the worse for wear. Wanting no further unwelcome incidents, the Circle retired for the evening.

The following morning, Aekino dressed himself in his finest Dynastic garb. Fully attired, radiant in silks and satins and jade, his eyes rimmed with kohl, he strode forth on the high road to the Tower of Winds, escorted by his bodyguards: the towering red-bearded Thorwald and the small, tattooed Li. They passed through the city’s bazaar, where strange wares unearthed by scavenger lords were hawked alongside cloth and silver and sweet bean buns; they passed among the high houses of the city’s oldest, wealthiest families; they passed through a large plaza where workers scrubbed filth from statues of the Immaculate Dragons; they passed through the wall of wind that forever encircled the Tower of Winds; until at last they reached the gates of the castle. Zera was to have met them there, but alas! He could find no safe place to wait under the gaze of the castle guard, and was nowhere to be seen.

Aekino gave his own name at the gate and easily intimidated the Realmsfolk guard-sergeant into allowing them passage. Escorted by guards, they entered a large courtyard brightened by gardens and hanging vines, where two large shrines to Hesiesh and Sextes Jylis stood. Aekino quickly earned the attention of Heaven Turtle, the prince’s officious seneschal, who kowtowed before this visiting Dynast and offered him the hospitality of the Tower of Winds until such time as the prince granted an audience. As Aekino demanded a luxurious suite for four, Li took her opportunity to leave the castle and seek out Zera.

Zera, as it happened, had returned to the bazaar to wait. By the time Li arrived, Zera had encountered an old acquaintance, a friendly traveling peddler of curiosities by the name of Bamboo Purple. As they caught up on old times, Zera spotted another familiar face in the crowd, though this one was not at all friendly; it was the merchant Darien Tal, whom Zera had mistreated on the barge, though not without cause. Taking their leave of Bamboo Purple, Zera and Li slipped away down a side street in hopes of avoiding the merchant. But they got lost, and soon found themselves in the warehouse district... in the same alley, in fact, where Li had fought the night before. There, Tal sent forth his bodyguards to teach Zera a lesson. The lesson learned, however, was that a handful of mortal guards are no match for a pair of Solar Exalts. Within seconds, the bodyguards lay strewn and groaning, while Tal whined with an arrow stuck through his knee. Before Zera and Li could take further action, however, they heard the approach of guards who’d heard the commotion, and once again made themselves scarce.

Back in the Tower of Winds, Aekino relaxed upon a silken divan and enjoyed the extravagance to which he was accustomed, there in the apartments reserved for visiting Dynasts. Eventually, his sipping of wine and nibbling upon dried fruits was interrupted; the prince’s captain, the eminent Shield Willow, came to fetch him to audience. So he made his way up stairways and down corridors to the hall where the prince sat enthroned amidst his courtiers. Calmly he made his way forward, his eyes subtly gleaming with Essence as he traced the threads of politics and conspiracy from courtier to courtier, reading only the broad strokes of intrigue with that one swift glance… and then he stood before the prince himself, the Dragon-Blood Ledaal Vir, garbed richly in golden silks embroidered with dragons of green and red. The man's thin sharp features bore the inimitable stamp of the Ledaal line, but his hair, though gray at the temples, was for the most part Cathak red, and his eyes shone Mnemon gray. The two Dynasts, one of Fire, the other of the Sun, greeted one another amicably. Then Tepet Aekino began his tale…

... but Mother Cypress would say no more that night, leaving the rest of the tale for another telling.

(Each player received 8 XP for this session. XP totals to date: Aekino 39, Li 44, Thorwald 41, Zera 37.)

Comments

If I may ask, why did the characters receive so little XP in the previous sessions, and more in this one? ^_^ -- BrokenShade

A fair question. I reduced the session award to 3 because I give a 2 point award for providing a campaign contribution, like a First Age dream write-up or a drawing of a character, and I didn't want to allow players who regularly gave contributions to have an excessive advantage. The extra XP this session came from the 5 XP story award for successfully reaching their destination of Tul Tuin. - Quendalon