Exalted 3rd: To Wound the Autumnal City

[Sarky]

Samesh:


"No objections here. I'll need to talk to someone in the city guard at some point; There's a good chance my quarry passed through Antoo. Or perhaps she's still here. But the plague is our priority, let us learn what we can about that first."

Spoiler

Are there guards peace bonding weapons on the way in? Samesh wouldn't want to stroll in and break the law!

 

[JayTee]

Yugo





"Agreed." Said Yugo. "Seeking the advice of the sages is our best bet, although I am curious to this 'Ramble.'" He said. "As there is more than one of us, we may be able to cover more ground if we divide our efforts."

 

[Vanman]

Echo's Lament





Echo's Lament tapped his finger against his lower lip as he considered Yugo's words. "I don't disagree, good Yugo," growls the bard, "that splitting up would more speedily facilitate our efforts. However, I am loathe to do that - at least until we consult the sages, and here is my reasoning - we each have different details as to what is happening with this plague. If we were separated, then we may not bring all of our resources to bear in discovering all we can in our endeavors.


"Let us not forget that Samesh wishes to inquire as to his quarry here in the city. Might not we all attend the sages and then, afterward, we split apart so that Samesh may pursue his interests and the rest explore the Ramble? In this way, we are all present when we interview the sages, and we still cover the ground we need to cover afterward. Let us perambulate our way toward the salon. If we devise an alternate strategy, we can alter our actions. Agreed? Excellent. Come, lady and gentlemen. Our adventure awaits!"

Spoiler

Again, I am trying to get to the salon so we can move forward. I am not trying to hijack the plans or anything. If anyone wants to do something else, please speak up.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

@Vanman


"Ah, ah, they gather at noon after a lunch of vinegar and greens. Honestly, you'll find them the same way all do: the stench of their belching. You'll hear the debates long after you smell them."


@Sarky


As you each pass through the gate, open arms are coated around the sheathes with blackened tallow. "All weapons unsealed at time of departure will be granted the city's boon and a hallowed reward. Few have claimed this in two centuries," the guard had intoned. A thin line of black tallow is spread across the blade's haft in elegant calligraphy.


@Skrakes


Even being situated in the midst of the endless sea of green that comprises the Crown midlands, Antoo knows Metropolitan doctrine by sword and missionary. If memory serves, there's even a token embassy here after the Antoo shattered the flower of the Metropolitan assembly during the last war.

Spoiler

Wits + Lore, please.

 

[Vanman]

Echo's Lament


A look of annoyance briefly flashes across Echo's Lament's face but it disappears quickly. "Well, thank you, good sir," the musician says in his discordant growl. "A place to start - even a direction - would have been helpful but, when all else fails, head to the center of the city. Shall we, gentlemen, perambulate toward city center with our eyes, ears and, apparently most importantly, our noses, open?"


Without waiting for a response, Echo's Lament begins walking toward the center of the city.

 

[Skrakes]

Whisper


Yes, this is where the southern expansion of the Church ended. All before Whisper's time; she had only heard whispers of it from the elders.


[dice]22113[/dice]

 

[Grey]

Radiant Shine





Shine is distracted; the murals and statues, the architecture, the gibbering prophets and heckling students. He should, he thinks, have visited Antoo long ago. For now, he remains quiet, following the group to find these sages and mentally preparing his arguments in case there's time to relax and enjoy the culture.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

@Skrakes


There is an embassy here. One of the largest in the Crown as per the peace accords. The city-lovers may proselytize only once per season, if recollection serves, and the rest of their time may be spent in building obscure edifices that face the direction of the dead city resting in the valleys of the Crown.


The distinctive organicist pagoda looms tall over the amphitheaters and mosaic-disguised rows of tenements and arcades and avenues. It's wind-swept balconies cling to a low cliff shelf rising from one of the city hills. There are searchlights here.


@Vanman @Grey @Sarky @JayTee


In perfect honesty, the man's "directions" are fairly solid in it isn't long until the aforementioned scent haunts your nostrils like a bloated, farty giant rests somewhere ahead. A sour stench by which locals are untroubled. The Processional flows backward through the centuries block by block, stench by stench.


There is tangible regression in everything, people's dress, dialects, and architecture.

 

[Sarky]

Samesh:


"Ah, the heady aroma of enlightenment. Let's hope our questions are answered swiftly."

 

[JayTee]

Yugo





Wrinkling his nose at the smell, Yugo could only need in agreement with Samesh. "Quite." He said, trying not to breath too deeply. "Let's hurry along. The sooner we get what we came for, the better."

 

[Skrakes]

Whisper


Whisper pulls her hood a little lower as she comes after the others. "Yes. Let us be away from this place quickly." In theory, the Orthdoxy should not be able to draw blades on her here -- but then, her head might by worth more than the embassy, at least to her enemies. Worse might be the reactions of her companions...

 

[Vanman]

Echo's Lament





"So," croaks the bard, "all we need do now is find a group of sages both eructating and pontificating...like those over there. Shall we, my friends?" Echo's Lament, seemingly immune to the malodorous waftings swirling in the area, walks vigorously toward the gaggle of sages...

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

@Skrakes @Vanman @Sarky @Grey @JayTee





The old dais is little more than a weathered table of stone covered in votives honoring dead minds and the scribblings of a thousand bygone poets. A dozen pipe-smoking elders linger near the dais, pondering old etchings. The famous pergolas winds around the dais in a circle, looking so much like a petrified lattice draped in bougainvillea and blood-red grapevine. Tree tunnel avenues branch away from the square in which the dais rests. Dusty fashions from throughout the centuries cling to the old men chattering here and there in soft murmurs. The entire city seems to quiet as you near.


Men with great copper urns upon their backs serve cold hibiscus tea to speakers and watchers alike. Throngs watch each clique in their debates and discourse, all in silence. Your approach is noticed and commented on by some of the groups. Most likely drawing toward the peacebound bench of alloy strapped to Samesh's back.


One of the hirsute philosophers raises a gnarled hand in greeting, breaking from his group to come to you. "Greetings, fresh faces! What says the whore to the man in the dark?"


He winks slyly at Echo.

 

[Skrakes]

Whisper


"Ah, yes, a sage. I am so glad we trekked here." Whisper pulls back her hood momentarily. "If you would excuse me, I would like to check and see if an old friend still lives in this city. I will not be far, and be back in an hour at the latest." She gives a meaningful look to Samesh, that can only mean 'and if I am not, expect the worst.' He will handle it wisely.

 

[Sarky]

Samesh:


Samesh raised an eyebrow, but gave a nod of acknowledgement and waved goodbye to Whisper. Turning to the philosopher, he said "Personally I've found they usually say 'Are you an Enforcer? Because you have to tell me if you are.' But I doubt that's the answer you had in mind." He looked askance at the others, no doubt more well-read than himself.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

@Sarky


The old man laughs, tips back his reeking bowl of posca, letting out a heady belch. "Pardon, pardon." He waves vainly to keep his rancid breath from washing over you. "You'd be surprised the answers I get back from that question. Reveals at times a lot about a person. One of the best involved the cattle god from the South and an Immaculate's prayer beads." He laughs again, wiping his eyes. "What brings fresh faces to this shaded discourse? What seek you?"


@Skrakes


Uphill, then, along an avenue covered in arches of angsana trees and richly frocked with hollyhock. Fragrance overwhelms. Nearby a park with dozens of children playing with colorful silk ribbons, adults at ease beside a lovely pond. All pointing to a bucolic world, this place. Though there seems to be a commotion up ahead, just beyond the covered avenue in a wide-open plaza.

 

[Skrakes]

Whisper


A commotion? Hidden under her hood, Whisper makes her way toward it. She must focus on finding Heterodox survivors, and yet this might be...

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

@Skrakes





"--HAS BEEN BUILT WILL BE RENEWED. It lies within not only the desolate valley but the desolate soul! YOU are the future foundations of withered stone and scoured salt! The CITY calls for all the walking children of Creation, beckons the soul to merge with its ancient mysteries. What those stones have told us is that all will come to ruin and all shall stand in monument to their own failures!"


Well, finding the Orthodox won't be so difficult. This harangue is much like the initiation of neophytes into a cloister. The crowd watches with a practiced boredom as the rector screams out his prophecy. Antoo is adjusted to such outbursts. Mask-clad adjudicators form a semi-circle before his lectern. Neophytes and masons construct a scale model of the Umbilicus, the ancient tower that looms in the center of the City.

 

[Vanman]

Echo's Lament





The musician proffers an elegant bow to the gentleman who posed the question in particular, but to the gathered conclave in general. "Each man, and each woman," Echo's Lament says in his beaten, broken throat, "seeks for the song in his or her own heart, for when he or she finds that song, his or her heart will take up that music, and that music will permeate his or her soul, enriching all he or she does, accompanying his or her dance through a life fulfilled.'


There is a pause and Echo's Lament bows again, though this time not quite as deep or intricate. "In searching for our song, my compatriots and I are looking into the plague that is gripping the Old Crown Lands. Our path has brought us here, in pursuit of weapons to battle this scourge. The greatest weapon in such a fight is knowledge. Where knowledge is concerned, the Antoo is unparalleled, a bastion of learning and scholarship. It is only natural, then, that we now stand before you, humble in our supplication: can you provide elucidation on this plague? Can you illumine our path?" Another bow. "We await with eager anticipation."

 

[JayTee]

Yugo





Yugo raised an eyebrow at the pontificating man at the Heterodox. In his kingdom, such wanton displays of zealotry were generally shunned and discouraged, often times by force. No doubt things had gotten even more strict since his departure. "I wonder if he has a point to this, or if he's just a madman?" He muttered to Whisper.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

@Vanman @Sarky @Grey @JayTee





"The plague? The plague...ah, yes." The man grimaces. "I myself am only partially known to it, but the Library," he turns, pointing to a hill in the center of the city capped by a sprawling fortress, "carries the annals of this realm dating back to antiquity. The Collegia shepherd that knowledge and do indeed know about the plague. And there may be some few here who too know of it." He finishes his drink and smashes the bowl on the concrete with a laugh. "Come! We'll see if Mantow is here in the gardens for now."


He brings you to several men nearby scrawling geometric equations into soft white sand. One is dressed sparely in a fine linen toga with great iron bands clamped around his biceps. "Greetings," he says, tracing a golden spiral, "There can be only two reasons you gentlemen have been guided to me, and you don't look like men who debate angles and Pythagoras." He stops to lean on his drawing stick. "You seek reference for the plague afflicting the marshlands."

 

[Skrakes]

Whisper


She pushes through to the front of the crowd. The missionaries, as ever, are the loudest and least reserved of the faithful. They always looked for those with silver tongues, yes, but sometimes loudness would suffice for their order. The Deliverers of the Faith are a diverse lot. They have many tools for many purposes. She hesitates, peering across them. Would a Heterodox preach openly here? Where they might be spotted by the cold eyes of the Executioners? She wondered, and waited, observing the performance.

 

[Sarky]

Samesh:


"Correct, sir," Samesh replied with a nod. "We have seen the damage it causes, but the healers and village elders we met on the way here could tell us precious little about its true nature, its history and origins. They all point the way to Antoo and say if there are answers, they are to be found here. And so we have been led to you." He bowed. "I am Samesh, and these are my companions Echo's Lament, Yugo Roh and Radiant Shine. It is a pleasure to meet you."

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

@Sarky @Grey @Vanman


"Have you seen the ultimate manifestation of the plague? The changes of limb and thought?" He leans upon the stick, looking down at all the angles upon the earth before him. "Are the people fleeing or trying to combat what is happening?" A swift stroke corrects something. "Fire is what we know combats those infected. As far as I know, there is no cure present, by god or by man.


"Have you seen the beasts?"

 

[Sarky]

Samesh:


Samesh idly looked at the man's drawings as he listened. He may as well have been a Barbarian observing the Realm's greatest art. It looked pretty and he recognised bits here and there, but the overall majesty was just lost on him.


"We saw a woman who was on the way to that stage. Sunlight caused her pain and fear, her limbs were elongated and clawed. She still had her wits about her, mostly, so I doubt it was the final stage, but it was grim nonetheless. She put me in mind of the beastmen one sometimes finds in regions touched by the Wyld. Is the final stage like that? Or stranger still?"


He considered mentioning Shine had indeed cured the woman, but decided against. The daiklave was probably garnering enough attention as it was, without claiming there was a cure on top of it. Besides, it was Shine's glory to claim, if and when he decided to.


"The people are mixed in their response, as ever. Some flee, some care for loved ones as best they can. Those staying to fight the sickness are often less than kind, if the stories of roaming mercenaries I've heard have any weight. I suspect not everyone burnt in the pyres was infected."


He shrugged. "We wish to see what we can do to help combat the plague. I imagine knowledge is the best weapon for that. Know your enemy, as a scholar of old once said."