Act 2 Scene 1: Let them remember why they fear the dark [Walking with the Darkness]

[Haku1]

Ruby


As the silence dragged on, it was quite clear that no one was willing to speak up and possibly incur the wrath of the Deathlord.


"Once we had corrected the existence the red bitch's spawn, we encountered the minions of a solar," Ruby continued. "They were kind enough to clean up the mess. After we met up once more to pool together what we had discovered, which wasn't much from my group. We were fortunate that the others had found some traces of your priestess."


"One that led us to said cross-dressing solar," The red head stretched minutely here. "He proved to be a coward who spoke big, but couldn't back it up. It was the Rasheel 's animal instincts that helped prevented his escape by playing dead. He was the one who then pointed us at Soul Mirror."


"Constable would be the one who would be best to speak of what happened there as he dealt with the coward," Ruby finished by nodding slightly at the Day caste.

 

[cyl]

The Black Psychopomp was apparently satisfied with the Bride's report and turned to the Constablury of Silent Roads:


"Now, tell me Constable, what happened after you find out about this sword" he said, caressing the edge of Soul Mirror. At his touch the souls started to moan and a few desperate and angry faces appeared on the large blade.


The constable got up and spoke:


"Well my Liege, then we decided to use the solar to steal the sword and get it back to you. I infiltrated the palace with the solar, and we stole the sword, but the security of the palace of the Three was too focused on the blade to completely avoid detection as you may have guessed, and as soon as the alarm was given I ran to the port to meet with the others and leave Great Forks. There a great battle began against the forces of the city, and we lost our brother in arms Strike who got shot by an essence blast trying to protect our escape.


I must however underline the bravery and skills of our lunar friend, who fiercely charged the archers on the high walls and greatly improved our chances of escaping."


***


next update tomorrow

 

[Gulup]

Rasheel


Said Lunar scratched scratched his cheek idly, and glanced at the Abyssals. He was smiling his usual pasted-on grin, but it seemed a bit more nervous than manic at that moment. Recognition was all well and good, but...


These weren't 'well and good' people. Not that he was one to throw stones, but still. He wasn't one of them, despite how their overall goals coincided well enough. While he had some sponsorship from Walker, he wasn't as tied and loyal to the Deathlord as the Abyssals were. The fact that they were lauding him was appreciated, but one couldn't help but wonder why.


^ ^ ^ ^ ^


:twisted:


What's a little paranoia between associates in the fight against society/life?

 

[Atrius Night]

The scaly genesist looked on as the ones that had been on this previous mission, relevent he assumed to the reason he had been summoned here to the Walker's court, reported. He preferred to spend as little time as possible amongst the hairless apes, particularly when they too were sworn to the same being...thus off limits to experimentation or play. Too, his work wass interrupted here. Though it was true, he did not actually need a lab, the creation of life, even in the service of death was hampered in a shadowland ....An eye ridge raising as he heard confirmation of the rumors he had heard amongst his 'fellow' minions...The Walker had in fact found a new pet. One of the the human chosen, touched by the moon. Curious.......

 

[cyl]

The Deathlord raised an eyebrow:


"I guess it was harder to steal in the middle of the city of spirits, yet, your lack of discretion has cost us dearly, Constable. You shall answer for your mistakes !


Fortunately for you, your failure has served my purpose, so the sentence will be substantially lighter..."


He crossed his arm and spoke with malicious satisfaction in the voice:


"Since the gods of Great Forks have dared to try to bargain with me for your fallen comrade, I have now an excuse to march my armies to their gates and crush the vestiges of their pathetic forces.


Yet as you know, the gods have a tendency to shield themselves from deathlord's interference, which is why I made this plan using a natural catastrophy to wipe out their city."


He turned to his wife raising an open palm so she could put her small and delicate hand into his.


"My love has proven her loyalty once more and have delivered me the plans and instructions to cause such a disaster, which I will entrust to your present leader, Ruby, as soon as the operations will begin.


I have the utmost confidence in your abilities to slaughter the people of Nexus and create a shadowland there, which is why you are now all present.


There are more slaves, whores, servants and merchants than there are soldiers, and I will provide you with a quarter of my forces, though most warmachines will be sent to Great Forks to keep the Scavenger Lands eyes focused there.


The sole hazard in this brillantly designed plan remains the Council of Entities and their Emissary, who they are and whatever powers they wield is most unknown to us for now, but I doubt they would be more than a temporary delay in your uncompromizing conquest.


Now, do you have any questions or comments before I unravel the rest of my plan ?"


As all of you knew, one thing was certain with the master, once he had asked that question and cleared any doubts you could have, there would be no more room for mistakes.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Intrigued by the events unfolding befor him, the Dark Emissary looks across the room at the assembled Deathknights, sparing little attention to the Dragon King and the Lunar. At first when the proceedings began he briefly considered using his essnece to see whether anything in their report might be false, but he considered against it, certain that the Master would surely use the same means, or more powerful ones.


But by the Master's words he could see a possibility for the future, that should something fail, he could try and put the blame for it on the Constable. One less powerful Abyssal in the Master's service means a step closer to becoming the Master's favored servant...

 

[Gulup]

Rasheel


The Lunar nodded as the Deathlord waited for any of them to speak up at this.


"Just want to mention a little something we ended up running across in Great Forks, sir." He reached into his cloak and pulled out the package and letter that they had taken possession of. Opening them he displayed the contents.


"Picked these up from... what's his name... 'Dirty' something. Foul-smelling bastard. Anyway, they were mailed to Blood Pearl but she was gone by the time they arrived in the city. Guy was pretty scared, said some stuff about Blood Pearl doing some odd stuff, asking about Denandsor and so forth.


"No idea why, but some idiot stitched a set of paired scrying artifacts onto the doll," he said as he gestured at said object. "Caught some scents off the doll. A Deathknight who smells of jasmine and death... though the latter is pretty much a given... another human who smelled strong. Also something... not human." He shrugged, head lolling to the side. "Not very specific, but we figured it's demon. Scent is wild and feral and old, and definitely not of Creation, Wyld, or Dead.


"The jasmine and death is on the letter, too. Stormrider, I think it's from, though I'd need to meet the man in person or have a definite item of his to confirm. Then they end up talking about that 'Savage Wraith' Solar guy, and we go off to meet up with the others. Went to the home of some old lady who was supposed to have info on Wraith."


He pauses for a moment, remembering something. "Right. While we were there and the old woman had gone to another room, Constable showed some letters he had nabbed from where Blood Pearl had been staying. Got some stuff off that like the other items. The Constable, since he had them on his person for a bit. Savage Wraith for some reason. Pearl herself... she seemed nervous, by the by; a fair amount of sweat dried into the paper. A couple mortals, probably the ones who had been working for Constable. A different, wilder non-Creation scent, so likely another demon. Snow and pine. And someone really, really old who had written the letters originally.


"The others had payed more attention to the actual content beforehand. I was just finishing working out the different scents when the old lady comes back and ends up being Savage Wraith in disguise. The others bandy about threats and taunts with him, then he tries to do a runner. He gets beat up a bit before trying to run through me, and like Ruby Bride said he didn't make it. Tries to pull a 'oh look he's dead we might as well leave now' after I slash him up a bit, but he certainly didn't smell dead." Rasheel's grin turned into a snarl. "Bastard thought I was just some stupid muscle. Didn't think I was so stupid after I started twisting his neck." His hands twitch at the memory.


"He starts crying, begging for his life, brings up the Soul Mirror. Constable's already talked a bit about that. They planned, the rest of us split up to wait it out until we left. I went out for a fly when I spotted Artificer and Fallen talking with Typhon and some girl who turned out to be the daughter of Shield of a Different Day. After they all finish pretending being civil and head off, I followed Typhon and the girl, find out he's blackmailing her to steal Soul Mirror that night. Turns out his master had some Solar lover of the girl's hostage. Obviously it failed, as come midnight Constable was the one with the sword.


"So he shows up, tells us things have gone belly-up as far as getting out quiet. Enforcers and soldiers show up. Tell us to surrender, otherwise we're under arrest or something. had something like 40... 50 archers ready to fire on us, plus five guys with shoulder-mounted essence cannons. I was in the crow's nest, so I could see more coming from further in the city, plus more heavy artillery. They were coming for us. They knew we weren't about to surrender, so they were already coming to get us..." He began to growl in a low rumble. "They were going to blast us, try to keep us there..." He tilted his face up, smiling once more, light glinting off his green eyes. "They had to die for that..."


^ ^ ^ ^ ^


Dear gods that was long... ;;;

 

[nobble]

Juxtaposed Betrayal of Lineage


Jux giggles quietly as Rasheel speaks though there seems little correlation between what he was talking about and her sudden outburst. She quietens down once more afterwards and he continues to speak before standing up as he finishes.


"Here let us be inflexible, here let us be adamant. If we do this, we need not worry about the success of our labor. Even though it should seem to be in vain, it cannot then be in vain, for all does return to the Void. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the Void endureth forever."


"Who so shall know life? Those that know such sin against oblivion and know true pain, the pain of life it weighs heavy on the shoulders of mortals it is a weight that needs to be removed. There are those places Great Forks and Nexus they are vile pits of life, afronts to the holy sanctity of pure oblivion. We shall bring out the people that are in these places, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. For the Neverborn have spoken to me 'If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities'."


"We shall cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out arrows, and destroy them. Death's sword is filled with blood, and he fully intends to use it. He'll kill so many people with it that the "land shall be soaked with blood. "


"For behold, we will come with fire, and with chariots like a whirlwind, to render our anger with fury, and rebuke with flames of fire. Therefore will we also deal in fury: our eye shall not spare, neither will we have pity; and though they cry in our ears with a loud voice, yet we will not hear them. We will tread them in our anger, and will trample them in our fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon our garments, and we will stain all our raiment. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what we have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge our might."


"The sinners in Nexus are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Folly is close to the heart of these children, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from them. And when we raise our flashing sword, and our hand takes hold on judgement, We will take vengeance upon our enemies, and we will reward those that hate us."

 

[Gulup]

Rasheel


Having pulled himself out of wherever he had gone mentally while Jux spoke, Rasheel now looked relatively more normal than he had worked himself up to during his report.


"Fancy. Speaking of death and Nexus... will we have an agent or something to contact when we get there to put things in motion? Even with the sack of Great Forks going on, there's likely to be some people hanging around. I mean, besides the Emissary. Barring him... her... them... you know, and aside from some Dragon-Bloods... no offense Ogama... any Exalts that stick around are going to be the first to show up when we start things. Or at least the most significant ones to show up."

 

[Atrius Night]

The Raptok cocks his head in a avian gesture of inquisitiveness, listening to the disjointed moon-touched's recounting. As well as the deathknight in the obviously carefully fitted black silken dress waxing poetic about the forth coming carnage. As often occured the Dragon-king was disgusted by the beauty these beings tried to wrap death in. Even so he could feel a certain certainty in their up-coming victory over the mortals of Nexus in response to her words and felt a certain twinge of worry at that reaction......His inhuman features easily hiding such dangerous emotions as he once more reminded himself why he worked with such beings.....He had a goal, once it was accomplished all bet's were off but till then....


As the topic turns once more to the more practical aspects of the assault, he speaks up, his tongue skilled and capable of a number of languages, there was little accent or indication the speaker was anything other than human...besides his appearence of course.... "If I might humbly suggest, the serpent no longer strikes once the head is removed and the vine rarely twines once struck from the roots.....I would suggest an initial assault on this 'council of entities' to start with if such a thing is done and with some earnest, all remaining official guards and most of the typically overly curious wanderers whether god-blooded or exalted that tend to pass through should rush 'to the rescue'...That will leave the rest of the city relatively unguarded while all the unknown variables rush to the Council's chambers...."

 

[cyl]

The Deathlord smiled:


"Of course, before the beginning of the operations, I will share the pertinent intelligence I have on the situation in Nexus. We still don't know much about the Council and Emissary. I was planning on sending the Constable here to spy on them... but after the poor display of his skills and utter lack of efficiency, I guess I would better send the Disciple.


With the few reports I have on his activities, the Emissary could be either one, or several powerful spirits or an exalt of undetermined nature but great power. He has been seen enforcing law with an extreme efficiency and brutal display, slaying mortals with only but a sleight of his hand.


I strongly suggest you indeed focus some of your forces to deal with them... You may know more in the coming months."

 

[Haku1]

Ruby


"Of course, my master..." Ruby nodded her head at Walker's suggestion of concentrating on the Emissary.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Eager to hear more about the Master's plan, the Dark Emissary turns his full attention to the Walker in Darkness. "Master, can we get an outline of your marvelous plan, and the timeline for it? Knowing it we can make plans on how to deal with the Council, the Emissary, and any other Exalts who will choose to remain in Nexus, and serve it to you, for your glory, and the glory of the Neverborn."


---------------


a bit of sucking up to your Master is always good, and while the Dark Emissary is good with words, he knows that the WiD is liable to see through it, so no need to play his hand too soon with the rest of them.

 

[cyl]

"If you must..." answered the Deathlord


"Do not expect to fully understand the grasp of my plans right now, a short resume could not give justice to their depth."


He sat down and spoke with a crescendo, with each step of the plans his voice took a darker and more cynic tone, and his delectation was almost palpable.


"In about a week I will lead the negociations with the Gods of Great Forks for the ransom of the Equivocal and Eventual Strike of Eternal Silence, and send the Disciple to assassinate him.


His loss will be direly regretted, but his sacrifice will be necessary for the greater scheme in motion... but I will make sure my dear Strike knows this before his souls rejoins our dark masters.


Once he's dead, I'll accuse the gods of Great Forks of killing one of my knights, and betraying our trust, and will move my armies to conquer the city. Shard of Basalt will lead my troops for what I believe will be his most difficult challenge, holding back against the forces of the living. The battle for Great Forks should last at least 2 months, the time for the allies to gather and converge around the area.


Then when all eyes will turn towards Great Forks, about a month later, Bride of the Ruby Blades will lead a small contingent of deathknighs necromancers and war ghosts into the heart of Nexus to form a big shadowland from where I'll send a massive amount of hungry ghost to wreak havoc in the city while the exalts will take care of the Emissary and Entities.


Once the situation is under control, you will report to me, and I will have Shards of Basalt's forces fall back on our lands, while you will lower the dam, a necromancer will turn the Yellow into a pool of blood. Great Forks and her allies will be drown in a torrent of gore, and our realm will have expanded to a shadowland greater than anything the world has seen... and so the master shall be pleased."

 

[cyl]

Then he looked more seriously at Ruby.


"I hope you understand the responsabilities I am giving you, I am confident in Shard of Basalt's abilities to hold whatever the living will throw at him, but you will have the most important mission and I am expecting nothing but your most brilliant triumph in the name of the dead gods.


The staff before you will answer directly to you and you will answer to me."

 

[Haku1]

Ruby


"I understand perfectly, my master," She tilted her head in respect. "In your name will I serve without compromise. And you will have thy sea of blood and piss to throw the loathsome spirits of Great Forks."

 

[Atrius Night]

The Lone Raptok, watched and listened wide eyed as 2 great monkey civilizations fell, It was a start, and surely it would attract the attention of the Realm or Lookshy. He considered what he had learned as his new leader performed the toadying that simian so often did amongst themselves, at least they weren't trying to pick lice off one another..... His mind raced at the thought of three months to prepare, he had planned things to work with 1. 3 would give the world botanical horrors such as it had not seen in millenia....

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Dark Emissary


Drawing on rumors he's heard, the Dark Emissary draws his gaze to Juxtaposed Betrayal of Lineage. They say she's a Midnight, and is a very good performer. She'd do for when they need to deal with the god of the dam on the Yellow river, would be good to make contact with her after the meeting to discuss how to bring down the god of the dam without too much effort.


Humbly he turns to Ruby and says "My dear Ruby, before we all scatter, each to his own devices, would you be amendable for holding a meeting where we ca discuss how we are to approach the situation and form plans? I'm sure we can all find things to contribute, and I do believe it would be in all of our favor to do so beforehand, so we can better make use of the coming months." While he doesn't say it, his tone and pose easily convey that it would be better to work together to make it work, since none wants to suffer the master's ire.

 

[Chaka]

Ogama


The Terrestrial had little to add to the conversation. Though he had been against the theft of the sword from the start, he had little interest in antagonising the Deathknights with 'I-told-you-so's. He was unsusually stoic, the little tics and twitches not really present. However, when the plan for Nexus was under discussion, he grinned wickedly. He spoke out, forcing himself to remember the civility he'd once known in Lookshyan society.


'My Lord, your plan is bold and will devastate those who have been foolish enough to array themselves against you. It would be a great honour for me to be a part of its glory. I humbly request that I may join the contingent striking Nexus, under the command of the Bride.'

 

[Jukashi]

Constable


The Day Caste keeps his head bowed in a posture of dignified penitence throughout his masters' speech, though of course he hears - and remembers - everything. He would, indeed, have much to make up for over his failures...

 

[cyl]

Walker smiled, apparently satisfied with the motivation his plan had created in the dark hearts of his servants.


"Then I shall leave you prepare. Leave us now, my wife and I need to commune with the dead masters. Artificer of Fallen Bones, I shall summon you later, we have much to do together."


***


End of scene 1


+12 xp everyone.