Editing Dawn of the Third Age/IC Logs/Session 18

[[Dawn of the Third Age]]

Session Start (Anshu:#celestialdeliberative): Fri Jan 28 10:51:30 2011 -0700
<br />[10:51] *** Anshu has joined #celestialdeliberative
<br />[10:51] *** Topic on #celestialdeliberative is: Exalted 2nd: Dawn of the Third Age / IC Channel
<br />[10:51] *** Topic set by dakkareth (2 hours ago at 9:18 AM)
<br />[10:51] *** ChanServ sets mode +q Anshu
<br />[10:51] *** ChanServ sets mode +o Anshu
<br />[11:02] *** Virgil has joined #celestialdeliberative
<br />[11:31] *** dakkareth is now known as Nomoe_Hideaki
<br />[11:31] *** Virgil is now known as Bright_Snow
<br />[11:32] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "There are five," Nomoe repeats Bright Snow's words for Brazen Sand's benefit. "Five Deathknights." As so often he carefully avoids showing what he himself thinks about that.
<br />[11:33] <Brazen_Sand> "WHERE ARE THEY?!" He snarled
<br />[11:34] <Brazen_Sand> Fire burst from his pores
<br />[11:35] <Nomoe_Hideaki> */Five .../ Hideaki's conviction does not waver, but there is a undercurrent of unease. /Do you think we will be enough for the task?/*
<br />[11:36] * Nomoe_Hideaki shakes his head. "Not so fast. A blind charge has rarely benefitted any army."
<br />[11:37] <Brazen_Sand> "DO I LOOK LIKE I NEED AN ARMY!!"
<br />[11:40] <Bright_Snow> */ With Rain and Harmony perhaps, though it will still be a close thing. / Unease fills her too */
<br />[11:41] <Bright_Snow> The bird lands in a nearby alley and moments later Snow walks out in her own shape.
<br />[11:41] * Nomoe_Hideaki tilts his head slightly looking at Brazen Sand with sky grey eyes. "No. However if you go alone you will die."
<br />[11:42] <Brazen_Sand> "IF I LET GEM DIE BECAUSE I WAS TOO AFRAID, THEN I DESERVE TO."
<br />[11:43] <Brazen_Sand> Brazen folded his massive burning arms in front of his chest.
<br />[11:43] <Bright_Snow> "And if you die fighting five and Gem is destroyed anyway what does that accomplish?"
<br />[11:43] <Brazen_Sand> "A CHANCE OF SUCCESS IS BETTER THEN DEFINITE FAILURE"
<br />[11:43] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "Welcome back," Nomoe nods seriously.  "Now there might be as many as three against five."
<br />[11:44] <Bright_Snow> "We are not saying not to stop them Brazen. We are saying to do it more subtly than running up to them and letting them kill us."
<br />[11:44] <Bright_Snow> "They are creatures of Death, they are very apt at it."
<br />[11:44] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "A miniscule chance of success is worse than altering the circumstances to favor us instead," Nomoe agrees.
<br />[11:45] <Brazen_Sand> Brazen growled and ground his infinite fangs together. "What do you suggest?"
<br />[11:47] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "We might, for example enter negotiations ..." *distaste to the point of nausea*
<br />[11:48] * Brazen_Sand stomped on the ground hard enough to leave a small crater. "NEVER! NOT A CHANCE!"
<br />[11:49] <Bright_Snow> "I would suggest against that, more sensible would be to divide the her... group and destroy them in managable groups."
<br />[11:50] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "Or we might go through with declaring Gem a Deliberative administrative dominion and then file a petition for military aid." Nomoe shrugs lightly.
<br />[11:51] <Brazen_Sand> "THAT WOULD TAKE MONTHS. THEY'D HAVE KILLED EVERYONE BY THEN!"
<br />[11:51] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "Divide and conquer," Nomoe grins. "Classic. If the contact reacts to the message we might get to start on that."
<br />[11:52] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "Opposing vote noted," Nomoe says dryly. "Do you have any options of your own to suggest?"
<br />[11:53] <Brazen_Sand> "I GUESS WE DO THE DIVIDE AND CONQUER THING. BUT I WANT THEM ALL DEAD."
<br />[11:53] <Bright_Snow> "Aren't they already dead?"
<br />[11:54] <~Anshu> Meanwhile, the sand owl flies down to deliver its message.
<br />[11:56] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "Sadly tainted Exaltations are just as hard to keep down as the real thing. But a few losses might convey the right message."
<br />[11:57] <Brazen_Sand> "WHOEVER SENT THEM IS NEXT."
<br />[11:59] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "That would be ... the First and Forsaken Lion, if I remember my intelligence reports correctly? I have no intention of trying him in person."
<br />[11:59] <Brazen_Sand> "THEN DON'T."
<br />[12:01] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "The precise status of Abyssals is a matter of debate, as I recall. The current consensus seems to be 'half-dead' - which leaves room for promotion to 'fully dead', which I personally consider a vast improvement."
<br />[12:04] <Brazen_Sand> "DAMN RIGHT!"
<br />[12:05] * Nomoe_Hideaki merely nods to Brazen Sand's 'suggestion'. */Obligation only goes so far ... if the Infernal wants to commit suicide by Deathlord I think I'll let him./ a fatalistic sigh / ... if we even survive that long./*
<br />[12:06] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "Do you know whether that mortal's 'contact' will react to the message, Bright Snow?"
<br />[12:09] <Bright_Snow> "Let us go find out shall we."
<br />[12:10] <Brazen_Sand> "Lead the way"
<br />[12:10] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "Without burning down his house and leaving fiery footprints all the way there, preferably," Nomoe adds.
<br />[12:11] <Bright_Snow> "Do you have a form that is less... obvious Brazen?"
<br />[12:11] <Brazen_Sand> "None worth mentioning!"
<br />[12:13] <Nomoe_Hideaki> */Not everyone is as adept with different forms as you ... and he doesn't even know the word subtlety./*
<br />[12:13] <Bright_Snow> "So nine foot tall burning behemoth or nothing. How awkward."
<br />[12:14] <Brazen_Sand> "I AM HARDLY A STRANGE SIGHT IN GEM."
<br />[12:14] <Bright_Snow> */ True but I had hoped he was learning. /*
<br />[12:14] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "It would be wise for you to stay at a distance, then."
<br />[12:14] <Bright_Snow> "That is precisely the point. They will see us from miles away. Perhaps we don't want people realising the King is afoot and up to something."
<br />[12:15] <Brazen_Sand> "THEN JUST CALL ME WHEN THE TRAP IS SPRUNG."
<br />[12:15] <Brazen_Sand> "DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR ESSENCE OR SOMETHING."
<br />[12:16] <Nomoe_Hideaki> */He is slow at that where he does at all ... though he has managed to learn at least one or two proper forms of address within half a year or so./ A long-suffering sigh.*
<br />[12:17] * Bright_Snow shrugs. "Fine." She holds out her arm to her mate. "Hideaki?"
<br />[12:18] <Brazen_Sand> "I'LL JUST HANG OUT HERE AND BE AWESOME." He reminded them.
<br />[12:18] <~Anshu> gah
<br />[12:20] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "You may take any more than trivial expenditures of celestial essences as your sign." Nomoe nods to Brazen, then takes Bright Snow's arm. */We're off to see the wizard .../* he quotes.
Session Close (#celestialdeliberative): Fri Jan 28 12:20:55 2011 -0700


Session Start (Anshu:#celestialdeliberative): Fri Jan 28 12:28:52 2011 -0700
<br />[12:28] *** Anshu has joined #celestialdeliberative
<br />[12:28] *** Topic on #celestialdeliberative is: Exalted 2nd: Dawn of the Third Age / IC Channel
<br />[12:28] *** Topic set by dakkareth (3 hours ago at 9:18 AM)
<br />[12:28] *** ChanServ sets mode +q Anshu
<br />[12:28] *** ChanServ sets mode +o Anshu
<br />[12:29] <Bright_Snow> "Destiny is the work of Sidereals and as such I will have none of it." she manages with just the bearest hint of a the growl she develops everytime they are mentioned.
<br />[12:34] <Nomoe_Hideaki> Hideaki bows his head slightly, a small smile on his lips. "To interesting times then, together." *Emotional symbol = seen the other way around crises aren't entirely a bad thing if it means meeting Bright Snow*
<br />[12:37] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "So much cobwebs and dust to us in any case, destiny. Let them try, we won't so much as notice."
<br />[12:41] <~Anshu> Soon enough, the two Celestials reach the thaumaturge's apartment/laboratory soon; the door is closed, but the light of oil lamps shines around the edges.
<br />[12:43] <Bright_Snow> Putting a finger to her lips, Snow changes, where one minute there was a woman there is now a mosquito who pushes its way into the building.
<br />[12:44] * Nomoe_Hideaki is about to flick a small ribbon from his sleeve to open the door for him but halts at Snow's gesture
<br />[12:47] <~Anshu> Inside, the thaumaturge has received the sand owl and is reading the message.
<br />[12:49] <Brazen_Sand> Meanwhile, Pusher faced teh direction that Snow and Nomoe had travelled in, and tensed himself
<br />[12:49] <Brazen_Sand> Ready to rush forward at a moments notice no matter what obstacle was in his way
<br />[12:55] <~Anshu> The message states that the contact will arrange to return with the small amount of the substance he still has, but that more will take several weeks for him to acquire.
<br />[12:58] <Nomoe_Hideaki> Standing outside the mortal thaumaturge's house Nomoe busies himself keeping the area under observation. Not that he is likely to spot an Abyssal that managed to escape Bright Snow, but it can't hurt to be careful.
<br />[13:00] <Nomoe_Hideaki> With a light, white hooded cloak over his normal clothes he doesn't even looks all that much like Nomoe Hideaki - although Bright Snow might well laugh at the idea that this constituted a disguise.
<br />[13:02] <Bright_Snow> She settles on a beam above the table and waits, weary for the Abyssal and weary for the inevitable fly swatter
<br />[13:02] <Nomoe_Hideaki> */Is he coming?/*
<br />[13:05] <~Anshu> The thaumaturge goes and opens a lockbox half-full with gold and gems that glitter and gleam in the lamplight. He fills a small pouch from it, and then turns to leave.
<br />[13:06] <Brazen_Sand> Brazen continued to sit with his blazing spear in front of him, throwing wild shadows across his surroundings. He looked more like a tiger eager to pounce on it's prey then someone calmly waiting for anything.
<br />[13:07] <Bright_Snow> With a tiny push of effort she is in flight once again. */ He moves, hide yourself. /*
<br />[13:09] <Nomoe_Hideaki> */As you wish./* It takes no more than a casual step backward for Nomoe to be somewhere else, a sidestreet two corners away. */When you see the Abyssal tell me, show me, and I'll be there./*
<br />[13:19] <Nomoe_Hideaki> This whole stealth matter is getting annoying, he contemplates. It's demeaning to have to hide one's identity. Far better simply to leave no survivors ... but then that would defeat the purpose right now. A small part of that thought leaks into the bond as well.
<br />[13:20] <~Anshu> The thaumaturge heads for the same darkened corner where Snow first found him. Once there, he waits, peering into the shadows.
<br />[13:22] <Bright_Snow> */ Stay close... but not to close. We after all do not know if he is foolish enough to make this journey alone. /*
<br />[13:24] <Nomoe_Hideaki> */Close enough./ the impression of a utterly self-assured grin*
<br />[13:29] <Bright_Snow> */ You will know when to strike /*
<br />[13:31] <Bright_Snow> Some distance from the man, Snow tries to look everywhere at once, aware that she is vulnerable and there will be only one chance to spring the trap. Even in the moonlight this plan is risky. It entirely depends how many her sharp eyesight catches.
<br />[13:39] <~Anshu> Snow's eyes catch movement; a man appears in the shadows out of nothing. He hisses to the thaumaturge: "I'm here. You can pay me for these last two vials?"
<br />[13:43] <Bright_Snow> From low on the ground mist creeps into the alley, slowly at first, as if blowing in off the new lake, bearly noticable, the light of the moon flicking oddly off of it. Quietly Snow returns to a more natural shape for combat aware that she is all but invisible.
<br />[13:45] <Brazen_Sand> Brazen's two normal eyes snapped open, Snow's essence mist as easy to see as new white paint on a black background to him
<br />[13:45] <~Anshu> The thaumaturge tosses his small bag of money into the darkness. "There it is."
<br />[13:46] <Brazen_Sand> He leapt into the air and soared towards the source of it with the speed of a diving falcon
<br />[13:46] <Bright_Snow> Her stances changes on the ledge she is perched on, her Dire Lance now in hand.
<br />[13:46] <~Anshu> "Thank you. And here are the vials." A small, padded pouch skids across the street to the thaumaturge's feet. "A pleasure doing business with you, as always."
<br />[13:46] <Bright_Snow> And with a leap she strikes
<br />[13:47] <Nomoe_Hideaki> Essence races like invisible lightning through Nomoe Hideaki's limbs magnifying his speed and strength to utterly inhuman heights. A rainbow shimmer in the air and he is gone.
<br />[13:47] <Bright_Snow> Suddenly the mist thickens and a shape appears just for an instant, crystal and fractured moonlight and death all in one. She strikes once and vanishes into the mist once again.
<br />[13:49] <Bright_Snow> */Now/*
<br />[13:49] <Brazen_Sand> The thaumaturge felt a massive, almost burning talon race across his back and then grasped his shirt. Before he had time to call out, he was tossed a few blocks away, into a coveniently placed pile of hay.
<br />[13:49] <Brazen_Sand> Leaving the massive blazing titan that was Brazen Sand in his place
<br />[13:51] <Nomoe_Hideaki> Without so much as the sound of rustling clothes or moving air Nomoe Hideaki appears next to the target. This would be the time for a good put-down, but he lets the chance pass in favor of bending space all around the likely Abyssal so that there is no way to move anywhere that doesn't require him to get past Nomoe.
<br />[13:53] <Nomoe_Hideaki> */I will attempt to hold him in place,/* he thinks.
<br />[14:01] <~Anshu> As Bright Snow comes down on the Abyssal, he twists as if he'd seen her coming, and her dire lance cuts only the darkness.
<br />[14:05] <Brazen_Sand> Brazen saw the flash of Snow's lance and willed his wing muscles to work harder, his effort expressing itself in bursts of green flame like a combustion engine.
<br />[14:20] <~Anshu> Soulsteel short daiklaves blossom in the Abyssal's hands and he glares through the mist, trying to find his attacker, raising his weapons to a guard position.
<br />[14:21] <Brazen_Sand> Brazen's voice crashed through the city of Gem as he flew towards the battle far faster then anything his size should've been capable of.
<br />[14:22] <Brazen_Sand> "LEAVE THIS PLACE! FLEE TO SAFETY UNDERGROUND! YOUR EMERALD MAJESTY COMMANDS YOU!"
<br />[14:23] <~Anshu> Throughout the city, Brazen's subjects heed his words and drop what they're doing to flee.
<br />[14:30] <~Anshu> His eyes dart back and forth, and a grudging smile twists the Abyssal's lips. "A trap. Well-sprung. Unfortunately, not well-sprung enough." His anima blazes awake, pushing back the mundane shadows and sparkling fog with a deeper blackness, and a swirling vortex of utter darkness opens in the air behind him. "Till we meet again!" He salutes with one moaning blade, and leaps backwards into the vortex, which begins to close behind him.
<br />[14:34] <Nomoe_Hideaki> Essence races like invisible lightning through Nomoe Hideaki's limbs magnifying his speed to utterly inhuman heights. A rainbow shimmer in the air and he is gone. Without so much as the sound of rustling clothes or moving air Nomoe Hideaki appears behind the Abyssal, snaking an arm around his throat even as he throws himself into darkness. There is moment of unmitigated surprise in the bond as th
<br />[14:36] <Bright_Snow>  "Do not follow. He most likely joins his fellow" Snow yells. "Better instead to attack his fellows at the camp before he can warn them."
<br />[14:36] <Nomoe_Hideaki> ... appears behind the Abyssal, snaking an arm around his throat even as he throws himself into darkness. There is moment of unmitigated surprise in the bond as the Abyssal takes him along into ... whatever it is.
<br />[14:38] <Brazen_Sand> Brazen shot forward like a rocket "NO FORGIVENESS, NO MERCY, NO REST FOR THESE ATROCITIES!" He literally roared, and then shot into the portal like a cannonball without an ounce of hesitation
<br />[14:39] <Bright_Snow> There is a shriek but soon enough it is cut off somewhere in the mists. "Fine then. Brazen we pursue your plan. Follow me and try to keep up."
<br />[14:50] <~Anshu> Nomoe feels the deathknight's cool flesh under his arm as the darkness swallows them. Then the blindness begins to infiltrate his other senses - sound, smell, touch - only his bond to Snow remains untouched by the numbing grasp of this ultimate darkness.
<br />[14:56] <Nomoe_Hideaki> *Surprise turns into fear, then panic. Hideaki may give himself that appearance but he is not immune to human weakness, and he is not at all used to not controlling the situation or knowing what is going on.   /What is this? Where ... why ... Bright Snow?/*
<br />[15:02] <Brazen_Sand> A supernova goes off in the Abyss
<br />[15:02] <Brazen_Sand> All of Creation trembles for a brief moment
<br />[15:03] <Brazen_Sand> The Shinma shift to accomodate a new principle.
<br />[15:03] <Brazen_Sand> The Devil-Tiger is born, and this nameless Abyssal has made a terrible mistake
<br />[15:09] <Nomoe_Hideaki> He can see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing. Or is it nothingness he feels? Hideaki isn't sure which would be worse. But the nothing is not complete. There is still the bond forged by the Most High, a small light in all-encompassing darkness. With one thing to turn himself toward, if only in his mind, he is not entirely without orientation. *with an enormous effort to control himself /Bright Snow?
<br />[15:11] <Nomoe_Hideaki> *with an enormous effort to control himself /Bright Snow? I ... might have a problem./*
<br />[15:11] <~Anshu> As Nomoe tumbles through the emptiness, phantom images flash across his mind - Anshu and a Lunar woman he has never before seen lying asleep together in a tent; Anshu deep in meditation in that same tent, suddenly transformed - skin pale as death, his caste mark black and bleeding. Long, flowing black hair sprouts from his scalp, his clothes darken, and his eyes open, glowing red.
<br />[15:12] <Bright_Snow> */Anger suffuses her, anger born of worry / I told you not to follow. You just entered the dreams of the neverborn. He most likely heads to the where his companions await. It should eventually drop you there./ Worry for both her mate and herself/...
<br />[15:13] <Bright_Snow> */I will meet you if I am able.../*
<br />[15:14] <~Anshu> Then the Lunar woman from before, in a birdlike warform, landing from flight, her silver tattoos suddenly turning to sharp-edged obsidian, cutting into her suddenly monstrous body, until only her face is recognizable.
<br />[15:15] <~Anshu> And then her face shifts, no longer that of a stranger, but of Snow, and she howls in pain and rage as the razor lines of obsidian crossing her body cut gashes in her roiling, mutating flesh.
<br />[15:23] <Nomoe_Hideaki> *ruefully /I moved too fast .../* At the explanation of his non-location he hardens his will - paradoxically it makes it easier to know that. He, or another bearing his shard, has defeated the Neverborn before. */Thank you./ for being there /I will see you on the other side./*
<br />[15:27] <~Anshu> Brazen tries to push back the darkness with the green flame of his anima, but the darkness drinks the light, allowing no illumination to dilute its purity. Before his eyes, he sees his city, people dying, some rising as zombies to kill more.
<br />[15:27] <~Anshu> Overhead, the sky grows dark with unnatural clouds and the clear waters of the lake turn brackish, and then the armies of the dead begin to march through the city. Corpses not already walking by themselves are made to, Brazen sees his own head fly from his shoulders, struck clean off by a mighty blow from the First and Forsaken Lion's daiklave.
<br />[15:29] <Brazen_Sand> "IT WILL NOT BE!" He shouts at the darkness
<br />[15:29] <Brazen_Sand> "I CAN'T FAIL...NOT AT THIS!"
<br />[15:29] <Brazen_Sand> He tries to defy the darkness
<br />[15:30] <Brazen_Sand> But it's so very big
<br />[15:32] <~Anshu> The darkness presents him with one last  vision, his own body, head stitched back on, leading the Lion's armies north through the desert to the fertile lands on the shores of the I(nland Sea.
<br />[15:33] <Brazen_Sand> At this, Brazen stopped in shock...then the essence within him banked until he roared loud enough to break the darkness
<br />[15:33] <Brazen_Sand> *NO!*
<br />[15:34] <Brazen_Sand> *OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
<br />[15:34] <Nomoe_Hideaki> As strange visions impress themselves upon Nomoe's mind there is confusion in the bond and sudden revulsion. Instinctive reaction turns to analytical contemplation, and then back to emotion as the hallucinations change. Horror then and pain, again quickly controlled. Discipline. Control. Even in the face of an outside context problem.
<br />[15:34] <~Anshu> And for Nomoe, a glimpse of himself, deathly pale and red-eyed, his own caste mark black on his brow, a cruel smile on his lips as the capital of Sanken is engulfed in flames.
<br />[15:35] <Brazen_Sand> At that moment, something inside his broken Exaltation shifts...and transmutes into something more
<br />[15:35] <Brazen_Sand> And his body is engulfed in pure shifting fire with it
<br />[15:38] <~Anshu> The the darkness retreats and feeling returns, and they spill out onto the sand next to a banked campfire, Nomoe's arm still loosely hooked around the Abyssal's throat.
<br />[15:40] <Bright_Snow> The campfire flickers. The Abyssals still linger amongst it. Near the lake fog looms. There is a flash of light like a thunderbolt just before the Day Caste and his two hitchhikers reappear. With a boom and a shocking gale, the fog is amongst them as the fire gutters and dies. And around them the chittering starts.
<br />[15:41] <~Anshu> Brazen lands on his feet, roaring his defiance to the heavens as his anima towers in the sky, a green sun overhead shining through a silver sandstorm.
<br />[15:42] <Nomoe_Hideaki> Successive attacks against that which is most important to him. Nomoe emerges into the light of Creation scourged but unbroken. He has long ago reforged himself into something that cannot be damaged or twisted ... only shattered entirely. But this was not yet sufficient to accomplish that.
<br />[15:46] <Nomoe_Hideaki> "No," he whispers to himself, looking up at the night sky. "Never." Old Realm Symbols suddenly glare all around him as if brushed into the air in white-hot metal and iron bells ring on high to witness.
<br />[15:51] <~Anshu> Attacks come out of the fog at the gathered Abyssals, savaging them, buying time for their new visitors to gather their wits. The Day Caste scrambles to his feet and away from Nomoe to stand with his fellows, five deathknights facing three heroes of Heaven.
<br />[15:54] <~Anshu> *tries to get away
<br />[15:54] <Brazen_Sand> "YOU ALL MADE A BIG MISTAKE WHEN YOU DARED TO ATTACK MY PEOPLE." Brazen snarled
<br />[15:55] <Brazen_Sand> phantom shields and spears formed and disappeared repeatedly in his anima..."AND YOUR MASTER IS NEXT" He clenched his talons and lightning poured out between them.
<br />[16:00] <Nomoe_Hideaki> Nomoe incidentally assumes the Fist of the Daystar Form. "Your methods of movement are inferior to my own by at least three orders of magnitude. Of your pathetic kind I'll need at least three to count as a single enemy kill."
<br />[16:04] <~Anshu> Nomoe's arm tightens around the Day Caste's neck, and his head pops off like a grotesque cork.
<br />[16:05] * Nomoe_Hideaki counts, his tone bored. "One ..."