Exalted 3rd: To Wound the Autumnal City

Radiant Shine





Shine shakes his head, hands swinging gently with his steps, passing by the handles of his flamepieces in a way that is not coincidental.


"If we might parley, perhaps we would find unlikely allies..."

Would Craft Geomancy or Lore be more appropriate for getting a feel for this old place?


I'd also like to make a Lore roll to identify the chanting, if possible.
 
@Sarky @JayTee


Senses sharpen like knives and the whole scene unfolds like fleshy fireworks have exploded in front of your eyes. Every minute thrust of hip and hands and what ARE they doing with that rope of bells? is painfully present. And the less said about how the texture of the air tastes the better. And the smell. Ugh. Luckily, those fade away for a moment as you scan the shadows of this titanic room. No movements, no sounds, save old suits of armor and heraldry consumed by ivy overgrowth.


@Vanman @Skrakes @Grey @Sarky @JayTee


Beyond the arrayed masses of orgiastic madness sits an orchestra of self-playing instruments thundering out a brassy tune. Dancers cease their merriment when you walk in, glancing toward the other end of the room. A great fire roars in the fireplace and two figures recline in soft chairs nearby, watching the event. The voice speaks again, "Welcome! Welcome. So rare that we receive guests in this lonely stretch of the Crown. Often we have only ghosts and whispers of the ruins around us." A figure with sticklike, graceful limbs unfolds from the chair and looms into the light. A smiling Fae lord if ever you've seen one.
 
Echo's Lament





A smile spreads across Echo's Lament's face but, before he begins walking or speaking, he whispers to his companions through the smile. "Parley, as our friend Shine suggests, seems the most sensible choice. As long as we maintain a courteous mien, the Fae cannot attack, not while I am here. If you attack, that protection is lost. They will most likely attempt to goad you. Do not rise to their prodding. I will speak but, please, add your own thoughts as necessary."


The musician walks six paces into the room and executes a flourished bow. "I thank you for your hospitality, noble lord. We are but weary travelers, seeking surcease from the brewing storm without. Please forgive this travesty of a voice. I know its timbre can be offensive to some, but I hope you will find the words underlying it dulcet and euphonious."


Echo's Lament pauses and a look of slight consternation shows on his face. "I ask pardon again, lord, for my lapse in cordiality. You have welcomed us and I have yet to provide you with an appellation for myself. I am known as Echo's Lament, and my path has brought me here as a Quicksilver Falcon born upon a Solar Wind. I would introduce my companions but I dare not presume to take that honor from them. I will allow them to make their own introductions as they see fit. But to you, sir, if it is not such a presumption, by what shall we address you, our host who has welcomed us to his hall? It would be my honor would you grace us with your eponym."

I am making an Occult roll to see if I can identify the rank(s) of the Fae who are speaking to us. I am spending 3m on an Occult Excellency.


[dice]19133[/dice]


That is a success!
 
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@Vanman @Skrakes @Grey @Sarky @JayTee


The fae returns your bow with shocking grace in such a rigid and withered frame, "I am, was, and forever will be Thicket's Shepherd." His chiming voice is but a whisper, but rings true in each of your ears. The one sitting next to him is limned by the fire, a powerful silhouette glowing dull rose. "Strange. I have not seen one of you Sun-Children in a season. Dreadfully dull this world has become without you. These lands are steeped in your ruination, your failures, among older things. How like you the mortals here? I find them an intriguing species."
 
Samesh:


Samesh folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "I find them more intriguing when their minds are their own." He had little patience for raksha. Their legal status in Great Forks was most certainly not on the list of things he missed about his home.
 
@Sarky





It smiles an imperfect, wide human smile. Far too many teeth. "As do I! I am one of the freebooters who doesn't really enjoy the dreamless. The ambient passion in the air is enough to glut me and mine for months. Also, be dears and watch your feet. There's fluid everywhere."
 
Echo's Lament


The smile on Echo's Lament's face is perfect, being at once inviting and conciliatory but, at the same time, holding something dangerous only hinted at. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Thicket's Shepherd. Your hospitality on this tempestuous night allows us respite from those storm spirits who search for those upon whom to play their prankish tricks. As for these lands, they hold the ruination and failures of all who came before - man, spirit, demon and...fae." There is a pause, just long enough to make the point, before Echo's Lament continues. "But that is history. I like to think every day the beginning of a new history, one that we write, with our words and our actions. History can be the back drop to the glories awaiting in the future, no?" Another one of those smiles creases the musician's face.


"As for passion," the Quicksilver Falcon continues, "I echo my companion's thoughts here. If it is passion naturally come by, then yes, it is glorious. If that passion is forced, though, can it still be called passion? There are some who would call for a retronym, for to name it passion would be a misnomer, yes? The revels here do seemed inspired. Again, one wonders if this inspiration is natural. There are stories of creatures, ravishing and beguiling, who inspire those who see them with such fervency those so infected give their lives pursuing that ardor. Have you heard of these stories? Do you find them fair? Folk...folk can spread such tales. One can claim such an apologue is a tall tale, to be sure, but even the most outlandish tarradiddle can carry a grain of truth, no? Tell me, this passion, good host...is it natural? Is this what you believe?"

I am doing a Read Intentions on the Fae Lord, looking to see if he's essentially raping these participants. I am activating Harmonious Presence Meditation using Personal Essence (5m), and then I'm using Motive Discerning Technique employing Peripheral Essence (3m but reduced to 2m because of HPM) and spending another 2m of Peripheral Essence for a Socialize Excellency.


[dice]19396[/dice]


So. Five successes.
 
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@Vanman


Inscrutable as fae are often described, this one...not so much. Offense is baldly written on that face like a silk rag gathered in a man's fist. He drinks passion like a lush in the gutter, spins tales as he watches his subjects. He would do anything for his lovely wife, who sits still behind him, and these 'events' are hoped to arouse her quieted soul. He sups only from his bondsman, Hedig, and carries in him a mindless hunger kept at bay only for love of his wife. It's there in the tightness around his eyes and his emaciated frame, unnaturally lithe even for fae. It hungers, but walks a fine line all for the sake of his wife and Autumn's End.
 
Echo's Lament





Once again, Echo's Lament proffers a deep bow to Thicket's Shepherd. "Forgive my pertinence, sir. My caution - and my words - are based upon centuries of...contentious relations between those of Creation and those of the Wyld. It is these relations that I based my initial inquiry on. Yet I see there is more here than those tales told in storybooks. It may be presumption that drives me here, but it pains me to see someone in distress. What it it that ails your...wife?"
 
@Vanman


"Mortality grips her. The same damnable affliction that whispers in the ear of all shaped things." His voice a whisper, but clear as a volley of flamepieces over the bacchanal's din. "Long ago wounded by an askari with two iron arrowheads. His was a penance heavily paid, but these'--he gestures to the orgy--'events are merely something to keep the heat and emotion and life stored within her. She can no longer hear my tales, but she sups on their passion. For forty years, we've done this. The surrounding villages will send their elders and priests to bless the coming month. The only deception is the believe us to be an ancient line of nobility, given to decadence and are priests to an ancient god of love."


@JayTee @Grey @Sarky @Skrakes
 
Yugo


Yugo thought for a moment, an idea coming to him. "If I may, we have with us a physician of no small skill. I am sure he will be able to heal your ailing wife." He said. Ideally, the Fae would then withdraw from Creation and leave the mortals, or could be bargained to agree to those terms in exchange for such healing.
 
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Whisper


Whisper fixes Yugo with a dark look. And what, praytell, would happen to them if Shine could not heal the Fae's wife? Truly, royalty is all alike.
 
Echo's Lament





"We do, indeed, have a healer amongst our midst, and I will allow him to present you with his credentials - should he wish it - " Echo's Lament says in his scratchy croak, "but I imagine the diseases he fights - while tangentially related to the the curse of which you speak - is not the same quandary faced by your illustrious wife. For, if the malady of which you speak is mortality, then the mission of curing her is infinitely more problematic. That is not to say, however, that - should the good doctor wish to examine your wife - efforts will not be made to alleviate this sickness. Should our physician decide to take your wife as patient, I'm sure every endeavor will be taken to ensure her return to eudemonia. I cannot speak to whether your bride will be taken as patient, for the skills in question are not mine. I leave it to my companion to decide if he will attend your spouse; I only want to clarify that, if the ailment of which you speak is mortality, I would refrain from heightened expectations. Or heightened demands."
 
Radiant Shine





Shine takes this moment to step forth, and offer a bow that implies a martial-artists grace; a gesture of his hands that displays the lithe and graceful fingers. He speaks before he straightens.


"I, Radiant Shine, am the physicker of whom my companions speak, o gracious host," and with that, he returns to full height. "For a mortal lifetime I have studied the secrets of blood and Essence and the place where these intersect. My learned companion speaks truth - mortality is an ailment for which I have no ready cure..." he offers a slight grin, a glance at Echo's Lament that ruffles his moustaches. "...Once it has run its course. To return the dead to life is an art beyond my ken, but with His light as my guide might that final passage be barred."


He holds his doctor's bag like a talisman.


"I would request time and space in which to examine the patient, if you and her ladyship are amenable."
 
@Grey





"Done." The fae slides aside as if being pulled by wire, revealing his wife sitting by the fire. She is limned only in orange light, the rest of her lovely figure is hidden in shadow. "I had not expected so many of the Sun-Children this day. It has been a very long time, eldersouls."


Approaching her shows the course of this mortality. She is frozen in state, half alabaster and half faespun flesh. Deep cracks under her bosom show where the arrowheads burrowed home. Slowly, her eyes draw up to look at you, the room, everything, then back to you as if she'd never seen any of it before. Her face seems painted white with corruption. She's turning to stone.
 
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Samesh:


Samesh frowned, but stepped back to let Shine do his work. The fair folk might be nightmares made flesh, but... Compassion was useless if not shared with everyone, surely? Often it was what separated heroes from monsters. And even monsters deserved a chance. He sighed inwardly. Being a hero was hard, sometimes.
 
Radiant Shine





Shine bows, low and formal. He utters a prayer to gods of medicine and cleanliness as he kneels beside the lady. He speaks the seven names of the Sun as he lays out his tools; scalpels and sprigs of cleansing herbs, tiny mirrors and dream-catchers, polished stones and painstakingly carven runes.


Gently he touches her skin and examines her wounds, moves her hands and tilts her head, and for a long discomforting moment seems to be seeking something in her eyes.


His caste mark glows softly in the dim light as his ministrations continue.


[dice]20807[/dice]
 
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@JayTee @Sarky @Skrakes @Vanman


The riotous celebrations of flesh going on around the room are slackening off. People curling up with their lovers and falling into sleep, worn out. As Shine works, the host Fae approaches your group like a wraith. "Forgive me my lack of accommodation, but what little food and drink is left in this room is for my...very exhausted guests you see around you." It even smiles, showing fused teeth made of pearl. "Tell me, what has brought a cadre of Sun-Children to these lands?"
 
Whisper


Whisper steps forward. "Fae lord, have you heard of a plague in these lands? Perhaps from your followers? It is an ailment of the blood..." The man could be a source of information.
 
Echo's Lament





Echo's Lament bows to the fae noble once again. "This plague, indeed, is what brought us together. We, each of us, was brought here for our own reasons, but when faced with what is now afflicting the Old Crown Lands, afflicting the people living herein, it was as if the Sun shined his light so that his Children might find their way. Once here, we thought it opportune to bend our wills to defeating this most insidious of enemies."


There is a pause as the musician considers his next words. When he continues, his face is thoughtful. "You say you have been here for forty years, attending to your wife. Have you had an opportunity to look outside these walls in recent days? At this pandemic moving as the Horse Lords' herds? I have spoken to some who say this contagion is old - elder, in fact, was the word used to describe it - and that it comes from without. Does any of this sound familiar? I echo the words of my esteemed colleague - have you heard of this plague? Do you perhaps have insight that may prove beneficial in our quest? Any aid would be greatly treasured."
 
@Skrakes @Vanman


"Ah, I'd heard rumor from my adherents." He glances at the heaps of slumbering revelers. "The plague has kept to the salt marshes, if I'm not mistaken? I've seen little beyond the usual sicknesses among them. The Crown has been home to many strange plagues since the end of the Crusade, er--the Contagion in your parlance." It hunches those angular shoulders in a shrug. "There has been talk of a plague in far gone years that ravaged this land before Men tread upon the grass seas. A terrible malady. There were once terrific lingering dreams near shadowlands of the Crown."
 
Yugo





"So this isn't the first sickness to infect the lands." Yugo mused to himself. "I wonder if there is a source for all this disease? I find it hard to believe that this is all a natural occurrence."
 
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@JayTee


"Very wise." The fae smirks. "Nothing here is a natural occurrence. This land is saturated in the magical and mythical. Other parts of this Creation adhere to your abominable sense of order and reality. The Crown bends a bit more."
 
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