The Ghost/Under the Sign of Mercury

This is the first Chapter of the chronicle This Exalted Thing We Do it is followed by The Details of Gods and Fairies

At The Elephant

We first meet our heroes in a caravansary by the name of "The Elephant" where they are planing their next move having found each other through the connected strands of fate woven together for their exaltations ere the ending of the last age. Their names are Golden Harmony a gifted surgeon and medical practitioner, of the twilight caste and Reverberating Catechism an occultist, alchemist, and scribe of the eclipse caste. They comment on the fact that Chiaroscuro is too firmly in the grip of the Immaculate Order and seek a place of greater freedom where they can grow into their power. Following up some rumors they learn of a city deep in the southern desserts near the summer mountains called Iskandar where the hold of the Immacualtes is weak and a Solar Anathema might find some respite from the Wyld Hunt. Deciding to seek out this place of refuge they leave The Elephant to make preparations for a trip into the deep deserts.

Meeting the Night Caste

While going through the city in search of supplies and beasts of burden to carry them for their trip Cat and Golden come upon River a young southern woman who now bears the shard of their circle's Night Caste. The three oath bound companions strike up a conversation but are accosted by a group of thugs seeking to take the scandalously dressed night caste captive to sell to slavers. Things manage to come off without violence, this time, but the slavers will reappear, with reinforcements, in a few more hours.

At the Sign of the Rooster

Our newly expanded circle continues on their way to secure provisions and finds themselves at a dry goods emporium called The Rooster's Nest. While going about their business they uncover the fact that the place is a front for guild drug sales in Charoscuro but do not do anything about it at the time. River steals several pieces of equipment they will need for the journey.

Enter the Artisan

Moving on, having secured the dry goods to be delivered once they have camels and other things lined up the team finds themselves at a purveyor of traveling clothes for deep desert expeditions. There they meet a Djala slave woman who goes by the name of ++Redacted++ who helps them with their shopping, but when the shopkeeper is called away addresses them as 'Princes of the Earth' a clear sign that she is more than she seems. They secure the shopkeepers agreement to have her help them with the rest of their shopping and go along their merry way.

The Slavers Return

Their Djala guide leads the party through an ally as a shortcut to reach their next destination. This proves to be a mistake as the slavers from earlier block off the exits and this time they are not alone. A team of 10 thugs wearing acid green buff jackets cut off the ally and demand the parties surrender. Cat uncovers his pair of perfect blades and tells them "I have fought many times, but never wounded anyone." about a third of the thugs think better of fighting but the rest charge. The Djala flattens against the walls and kind of vanishes from everyone's memory while the rest of the scene explodes into motion. The thugs attack and within the space of a few seconds are cut down like wheat before a threshing crew. Two of them survive and are striped of their gear then sent off to warn their gang or other organization that this group of people are not to be trifeld with.

At The Camel Trader's Stable

The party winds up at the main market area for camels. Their Djala guide leads them to a large but seemingly unused stable where they meet with a man of somewhat strange provenance that the Djala appears to threaten into giving them good camels at reduced rates. While the two are dickering River uses her gem of clear thought to read the Djala's mind and receives a shock: the Djala can sense the mental intrusion and rebukes her for it. She also read's the cameleir's mind and receives the final clue to the Djala's true identity: "...obnoxious interfering little bessm. This had better not show up in any reports in Yu-Shan..." Ping, we are dealing with a Sidereal.

The Situation is Explained and Plans are Laid

Having discovered what the Djala truly is the heroes confront her and she explains what she truly needs from them. Somehow, she is not sure how, she has become trapped in one of her resplendent destines and needs them to get her out of it. To do this they must secure her release from her present master and destroy the bills of sale that are the only record of this resplendent destiny's existence.

Cat Run's a Hustle

Putting out a sign of a scribe and legal counselor (With quite a bit of charm use behind it.) cat starts working on people's legal problems as a freelance consultant. Several people come to him with contracts and other legal matters that they want him to resolve.

First off is a person contracted to do street cleaning by the city: who has a problem with a group of vagrants that 'own' the right to use part of the area he is contracted to clean as a sleeping place. He needs them out of the way in order to clean the street on time as he is contracted, but they need to sleep there as long as possible to have strength to work through the day and earn their living. With Cat's guidance the contractor is led to hire the family which proves mutually beneficial to both them and him. Cat's fee for this service is an obol of Black Jade.

Meanwhile another contract is negotiated: A Baba has come to Cat with a seemingly unreasonable marriage contract between a member of the realm garrison and the family of a local girl of exceeding beauty. Through probing questions and extensive charm use he discovers that the case is not as doomed as it might seem. Firstly: the young garrison officer and the woman he pursues are actually in love. Secondly: not only her parents but HIS as well disapprove of the match, and anything that is going to piss off a pair of dynasts is all good in Cat's book. Third: the young man is frugal and has quite a bit of money saved. He is not prone to any major vices with the exception of being a braggart and show off, which typically mellows with time and in his case is somewhat justified since he genuinely is an exceptional individual in many areas, rivaling some of the Exalted... Fourth: though the contract is written to be exceedingly difficult to fulfill it is not written to be impossible. The contract is more by way of a test: IF the young paramour can pull this off then the family will admit that he is worthy to be their daughter's husband. Cat sets some wheels in motion to pull off that exact feat and while those wheals run their course solves another legal dilemma.

An independent merchant factor comes to cat with a contract that he cannot read and does not trust his normal lawyers with for reasons of his own. The contract stipulates that he is to be delivered 20 tons of Charoscuro Glass by another merchant for export: but the merchant was right to be suspicious because it says NOTHING about what size, shape, or condition the glass is supposed to be in! Cat receives several jade bits for revealing this little piece of duplicity.

Back with the Baba Cat has used his extensive network of contacts to find someone willing to sell several dozen of these prized cows that the contract specifies and arranges with the Baba and the young man in question to purchase them. Though there is a bit of hemming and hawing the deal comes off splendidly and Cat receives the young man's thanks and a promise that if he can ever repay this great favor he will do so.

With Money to Burn

Now in possession of sufficient funds to secure whatever they may need the Solar trio buy up the last of their supplies and make a stop at the merchant that they have borrowed their traveling companion from. Cat has spent a few hours brewing valuable potions and writing a thorough little UMI tract with which to bamboozle her 'owner', and finally toward the close of the day they come back to his shop and do a bit of haggling. The Djala's price is exchanged while in the background River robs the man blind, and well satisfied with the arangment both groups part company.

Outside the city the Djala explains the the process by which her resplendent destiny must be expunged and the bills of sale are burned in a small campfire at which point the Djala ceases to be, replaced by a tall and athletic ++Redacted++ named Artisan Faust who ready's herself to be about her business, and follows the party out into the wastes on her camel, in search of unknown and wondrous vistas as yet unanticipated.

Continued in The Details of Gods and Fairies