Editing Chapter Two: A Journey into Penitence

''This page is part of a series on the game sessions for [[Orichalcum Handbasket:Main Page|Orichalcum Handbasket]]''

== Gulliver's Ascent ==
The Circle began their journey together in the South, toward [[The Penitent]].  As they journeyed through The Lap, the presence of a [[The Mountain That Devours|Tyrant Lizard]] walking through the city accompanied by a group of what could only be Solar Exalts drew the attention of the local authority.  While Rover's agile gait was enough to evade the mortal guardsmen, the Circle soon found themselves being followed by a group of Terrestrial Exalts.  Thus began the [[Battle of the Bulge]].

With their enemies either dispatched, half-buried, or punched entirely off The Penitent, the Solars continued their climb up to the head of the giant statue.  Once there, they did a rather cursory search for entrances to what they believed would be a hollow inside the statue.  However, when their search revealed nothing, [[Feyth]] suggested a somewhat more direct approach.  [[Sirokos]] and [[Duricorre]] took turns melting and punching, respectively, through one of the eyes of the great monk, and after three days of this 'excavation', were able to breach the inner rooms.

What the Circle found within was intriguing.  Apparently, someone or something used to live inside the head of The Penitent, and while no records but the dust of eons passing remained, one room seemed to be of great importance, and centrally located within the series of rooms.  As the room appeared to be designed for meditation, Duricorre was selected to simply meditate in the room and see if there was a greater purpose behind its design.  What Duricorre found was that the room allowed him to become aware of all the Geomancy for the South, including uncapped demesnes and Freeholds.  More than that, however, it seemed the room gave him the ability to affect these things, to some degree.  Knowing this knowledge was dangerous, Duricorre was conflicted on whether to reveal the information to the rest of his party.

== When Armies Collide == 

Having discovered a Freehold rather nearby, [[Duricorre]]'s stoic monk blood was stirred, and he enlisted the aid of his Circle to dispose of the FairFolk.  They cleaned up the mess they'd made of [[The Penitent]]'s eye, and Duricorre used his epic crafting skills to create a door, and the illusion that the eye was unbroken.  While the illusion-hologram was a bit iffy, he crafted one hell of a door.

Once the Circle had descended The Penitent, they discovered there a Wild Hunt had gathered to hunt them down. (It's so hard to be Anathema.)  With a wild glow in her eye, [[Arisa]] leaned down and whispered something into [[The Mountain That Devours|Rover]]'s ear that sounded angry, and also mischievous. Hauling the circle in close, Arisa barked a word at Rover, who ran through the Wild Hunt, carefully avoiding stepping on any of the army, but also catching the picket lines of the Horses to stir them up a bit.  From there, he ran at a pace that was just fast enough to stay ahead of the hunt.  This actually turned out to be much faster than he anticipated, because with the Wild Hunt there was a Fire Aspect Terrestrial Exalt charming the host into faster speeds. 

Where were they leading the Wild Hunt, you may ask?  Well, the answer is simple.  To the Freehold.  In fact, when Arisa and Rover, with The Circle in tow, reached the Freehold, instead of pulling themselves to a halt, they simply ran through the Oasis at which the Lion-headed Fair Folk were camped, causing them to boil out of their tents, like ants.  Ants with sharp pointy weapons. [[The Battle of You and What Army?]] then ensued.  With both the Wild Hunt and the Freehold taken care of, The Circle gathered what remaining items of value existed (a double handful of hearthstones, and some other shiny things that [[Ebon Hand of the Dragon|Ebon]] wanted) and headed back to The Lap to see what other mischief they could get into.

[[The Lap]] is one of the major crop producers of The Realm.  Our Circle being indisposed to care much for The Realm, and in fact some of its members having a direct dislike for it, disrupting The Lap's shipments became a priority.  Also, [[Feyth]] had interest in sending the population out to the former Freehold to build him a Manse.  After much manipulation of the population, and the corruption of the Satrapy for The Circle's purposes, The Circle was confronted by [[Granias]], the local Goddess of wheat and grain and crops.  She was a bit miffed that they were ruining her life, and so an agreement was made that the crops would be grown, harvested, and then sacrificed to her in great bonfires of goddess-loving fire.  For Granias and the Satrapy's willingess to cooperate, The Circle agreed to go take on the roving 17th Legion, and their leader, [[Saloy Hin]], who would be the biggest problems for their subterfuge.

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[[Chapter One: A Circle from Many Parts|Chapter One]]  |  Chapter Two  |  [[Chapter Three: Assault on the Tower|Chapter Three]]