Act 2: The Unseen Hunter [The Hidden Truths]

Red Shadow Claws

Red Shadow Claws

Six Thousand Club
After a few intensive weeks, Father-Afloat has decided that you've learned enough, for now, and he send you on our first mission: to find Silver Tusks, and his band of ragtag mortal cultists.


Before you go, Nine as One comes to you, her face mirthful, but not as scronful as she appeared in the first two weeks of your training, as you struggled to come to grips with your new powers, and your status as an Anathema. "I'm glad you've adjusted well to your powers, and I do wish you best of luck." She quickly glances around, and when she's certain no one else is around she whispers to you "I have cast some fortune for you, and I believe you might find more than you bargained for, and possibly more than Feather-Afloat, or any of the Lunars have bargained for. Be on your guard, and keep a close watch on the Realm." A rustling from a distance alerts you both that Feather-Afloat is approaching, and Nine as One quickly shakes your hand, and moves away.


"Ah, I see you are all set to go. Make sure you skirt any Realm troops you see, if possible. They have begun a campaign of conquest, and it's best not to run into a troop of Dragon-Blooded." Feather-Afloat says to you, his head cocked slightly to the right, as is his usual manner when he seems to contemplate something. "Give my thanks to Silver Tusks for whatever he managed to salvage or learn about the cult of the Lady of Whispers. I hope we shall meet again soon, but pressing matters are calling me South."
 
Yeddiv bowed low as Feathers-Afloat dismissed him. He turned and smiled as he flexed his arms. Essence flowed down his arms and a single spark leaped from his fingers and rippled up his arms, leaving behind the feathered wings of a Stryx. Sound slowly came to dominate his world, and his feathers twitched as he looked around the clearing. He clacked his beak at Nine as one, before crouching and launching into the air with a rush of wind.


As soon as Yeddiv hits the upper air a voice echoes in his mind, "Turn a little farther north."


Yeddiv beak clacked again. He had been haunted by a voice since his exaltation. Not that the voice had been helpful, it just demanded that Yeddiv find some other Exalt.


Yeddiv's mind strayed back to his training, the brutal time of testing his wits against tests set up by Feathers-Afloat, the Martial Arts training he had been given, combined with the voice, which whispered constantly of leaving and finding this person, the songwriter, as the voice sometimes referred to the Exalt as.


And he might actually need one, he thought dryly. Yeddiv displayed an odd aptitude for the performing arts, though Feathers-Afloat had said his voice was still very rough. It had actually led Afloat to teach Yeddiv a style of Martial Art that was based on the power of the voice. It had been...luxurious. Ripping apart bark with the overtones of a scale had felt so natural that it was almost stunning, especially given how much Yeddiv still struggled with the basic tasks involved in most essence manipulation. While Feathers-Afloat had announced himself satisfied with Yeddiv progress, the abilities Yeddiv had mastered were very small, especially when compared to his progress in the Nightingale style.


And even there he had strayed somewhere wrong. After his weeks of practice under Feathers-Afloat there had suddenly been a shift of attitudes. Feathers-Afloat had told him that he had learned nothing in his time, and that he was too focused on hatred. The words rang through his head again, You must find the heart of what you fight for.


So there would be no Silver Tusks, or cultists for him. He would find this Exalt, and, hopefully, he would find his heart.


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


That was probably more of what you were talking about before, but I felt the need to set up that Yeddiv has a 3 dice penalty to Compassion and Temperence Rolls until he learns some of the other basic charms in the Nightingale roster (which I was hoping you'd let me puzzle out with the light touch of the faceless voice's pull). And a note: Yeddiv is headed for Silver Tusks, but he wouldn't know that.
 
-------------------


No worries in this case, as long as you refrain from doing it while NPCs or PCs are around :mrgreen:


BTW, can you PM me with who is your Solar Bond?
 
After days of flight, days in which Yeddiv forgets the feel of the ground, the voice whispers in his ear again.


"They are close."


Yeddiv hovers and then lands on a nearby tree, which bends alarmingly under his weight, "You got any better directions than that?"


The voice refuses to answer, and Yeddiv sighs as he shifts to human form, only to catch himself as he overbalances. Yeddiv swings down to the earth below in a graceful curve of feathered form.


Once he lands and dusts himself off, he tilts his head. The owls keen hearing catches the faintest of noises. It sounded like...bones breaking.


Yeddiv closed his eyes and shook his head as he thought of the succulent marrow he had crunched into only that morning filled his head. He set off toward the noise still shaking the image away, completely unaware of how his feathers had risen in a crest above his head.


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


Awww...I remembered that I had experience, but I read the book and I'm going to have to wait for three essence to do the occulty thing. Much sighing.
 
Something on the wind catches your attention. A piece of cloth seems to be drifting on the wind, coming from the north-north-west.


The land is relatively flat, with the occasional grove of trees, though it's covered mostly in grass and bushes. You notice nothing stirring in sight, except for some small animals.
 
Yeddiv's eyes narrow down to slits at the piece of cloth hanging so dutifully aloft in the wilderness. He leans into the wind, and is suddenly running, bouncing off the ground with steps that seem to almost defy gravity, as if the world holds just a slightly looser hold on his feet as he heads north-north-west.
 
The journey takes a couple of hours, after which something seems to be tingling at yeddiv's back.


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


Roll Perception + Occult


BTW, PM me wih any requests you might have for Manse, Artifact, or Tattoo Artifact
 
Yeddiv slows, and glances around, his lips peel back, and he finds himself wishing for his senses as an owl again.


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


10 10 7 6 4 3 2 1


woot five successes.
 
The tingling doesn't stop, but now you can put at the back of your mind, for you realize what it is: There is a Manse or a Demesne in the area.


Feather-Afloat has covered this when he taught you. Obviously you are still a bit of a distance away from the place, but it is somewhere nearby.


Nevertheless, a movement somewhere in the distance catches your eyes. It's too far to make out what it is, but something is moving further afield, before the hills you can see in the distance.
 
Yeddiv licked his lips. Feathers-Afloat had expounded at length about how useful the tools that nature had given in the form of demenses and manses were.


His eyes flickered back to the movement again. The songwriter was too near to wait. Even though he heard nothing, a tug at his chest suggested that it he needed to keep moving.


But I will return, he promised silently, the power that I sense will not go unused.


With a last glance around, Yeddiv left, with a cloud of grass the only thing to mark his sudden passing.
 
The tug that pulls you forward seems to get closer, but the road is seemingly still far away when you spot a strange scene. On a road you can see a group of some 4 large carriages, but all the people and the animals have been charred to the bones almost, yet they still remain standing. Suddenly the wind's direction changes, and the smell of decay and burned flesh is almost overpowering.
 
Yeddiv covers his with a hand that tries, almost unconsciously, to twist into a talon. He forces it back with an effort of will, and steps toward the tableau.


It could be one of the Dragon-Blooded, Yeddiv thought as grass crunched beneath his feet.


He almost reaches the road before he realizes that it could also be the uncontrolled energies of creation. Yeddiv gulps and glances at the land around.


Jeez, I hope not.
 
There is something strange you see. One of the corpses seems to start moving.


Furthermore, the scene of carnage looks too neat to be the work of one of the Dragon-Blooded. It is as if someone went to great lengths to create an art out of the carnage.
 
Yeddiv squinted as ash blew into his eyes. He slowly walked to the edge of the road, eyes searching the caravan for any clue as to what happened.


Could have been a trick of the light, he thought


A brief flash of ice flashed down his spine as he thought about being held to life, while dessicated and burned lungs screamed for air.


I hope it was just a trick of the light.
 
The light keeps playing tricks on you, but you see nothing definite. A few moments after reviewing the scene, a blood-curling scream can be heard from ahead, soon followed by other, lesser, screams.
 
Straightening from his examination, Yeddiv looks to the noise, pulling at a kink in his arm.


A battle so close has got to be related he thought as he accelerated into a run, flying over the ground with uncannily lifted feet.


Something in his heart was singing, and the dirge it was pouring out made his eyes feel as if they had caught just as much fire as the men he had just a moment before been examining.


It was time, he thought, to let some of that music out.


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


I was wondering if I could (if this turned into a battle) use a variant of Essence Crisis to "find the heart of the music" by protecting his Bonded (or, to be more clear, learn Inspiring Battle Hymn using Essence Crisis)?
 
Just ahead of you, afte a short run, you see a steep drop, and down there, hidden from any path, is a sight the likes you've never seen...


The small valley enclosed there was probably magnificent before the battle, and still some of that remains. At the other end of it stands a huge door, with various images on it, but the door itself, or more to the point, the material it's made of, captures your attention, for it wrought of a combination of Moonsilver and Orichalcum.


Yet despite the wonder of it, your eyes drift back to the battle that takes place in the valley.


Two groups are fighting there. On the one hand a large group of hobgolins, led my 3 cataphractoi, but the other army is no less of a menace, for it consists of a large group of war ghosts, led by 5 monstrosities. Each of those creatures is about 13' long, and though they look like centipedes on first glance, it is son evident they are stitched together from various corpses, with a large number of human legs serving as their legs, and stitched to torsos of various animals to form the body, with the head seems to be stitched from several animals as well, with large pincers as their mode of attack.


The creatures move very fast, striking hard and fast, their pincers easily going though the armor of their opponents. The battle seems to be going badly for the Fair Folk.


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


I might allow it, but right now he hasn't been Exalted yet, he's not in need of protection, and he's not nearby ;-)
 
Yeddiv narrowed his eyes at the sight of faerie flesh being torn asunder. Something dark in him smiled at the thought of the creatures of dreams suffering.


But, almost despite himself, he had to admit that a legion of undead would do far more damage than any faerie could. Which meant he would have to help the fey out of this mess, and hopefully push them on their way. But, then again, he thought, if I could weaken both sides...I might be able to send them home with their tails between their legs knowing that they would have died without an exalted's interference.


That would be worth quite a lot.


Yeddiv looked up at the sky, and almost before he was aware of what he was doing, he was flapping for altitude. His claws flexed as he stared down at the massed creatures beneath him. Yeddiv had none of an eagles vision, but even he could still make out the winding threads of human sinew that made up the caterpillar like things.


Without giving it too much thought, he stooped on one, and reached his claws forward to grab at one of the things middle sections. If he could somehow bring it to a height and drop it, there would be calamity. And if not, just dragging the creature back through the undeads ranks couldn't hurt anything.


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


Not sure what to roll for this thing


Dex+accuracy= 12 dice


10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 4 4 2 1


7 successes with a grab attack
 
Initially unaware of your presence, one of the insect-like monstrosities notices you, and warns his fellows, his mouth making hideous sounds, unlike any you've heard before. The creature you attempt to grab uses its speed to jump away from the path of your dive, while it's pincers grab a hold of an hobgoblin standing next to it, and shearing through the armor it wore, slices his body in half.


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


Join Battle
 
Yeddiv curses, in his head, and tries to swing around like the eagle he isn't. The wind seems to slip out of his wings, and he flails for a moment before flapping back up to a higher altitude. Even as he hears the wind whistling past him, he feels absurdly pleased to not hear his wings. The master had been right, even as big as a Stryx was, it's wings were virtually noiseless.


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


Join Battle:


8 8 7 5


3 successes
 
------------------------


Undead Beasts rolled the following in his 9 dice:


9, 4, 6, 2, 2, 9, 6, 7, 1


Using 7 as the target number, the roll resulted in 3 successes.


T0 Yeddiv, Undead Beasts


go right ahead, and when you post note your action speed.
 
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