Lunar Fury - Exalted 3e IC

[Sherwood]

Slowly advancing into the first inner chamber, Gwen's Anima glow provides enough light to see that this is a long, wide room measuring one hundred feet long by thirty feet wide, with the ceiling just over twenty feet high overhead. At the end of the room is a large opening, but before you can get there, you see that lining the walls are thirty statues, fifteen on either side, all armed with a variety of melee weapons and armor, made of what appears to be brass; a strange choice for a statue to honor the fallen Priestess.

As you enter the long room, all thirty sets of eyes turn to look at you, but none make any aggressive move towards the Circle. For those that are interested, you can try a Int + Lore roll to try and identify what these are.

 

[Psychie]

Int + Lore roll of six dice

4 successes

 

[D. Rex]

Int + Lore, 9 dice.


4 successes

 

[Rykon]

Toun scans each of the statues soaking in the minute details of each figure. His mind pictured himself in their armor, wielding their weapons, fighting on the fields of the earth.

Then he stepped forward, checking any engravings, whether they be in his native skytongue or the old realm standard dialects. What purpose did these people serve in life? What duty has been entrusted to them now?

Stunting the roll to add 7m for int + wits.

6 successes.

 

[Sherwood]

Looking at the strange animated statues, you quickly realize that these are actually First Age Artifacts known as Brass Legionnaires. Rather rare in this day and Age, a few have survived over the centuries and are still functional guardians. You believe that if you had not deactivated the defenses of the Tomb with the proper placement of the Keys, these automations would have been one of the many lines of defense to the resting place of Renna. At the moment, however, these silent guardians seem content to let you pass unmolested.

 

[Psychie]

Gwen looks at these watchmen with relief that they are not attacking them, and says to the rest of the Circle, "Do not touch these automations, and they should let us through to the inner chambers of the Tomb. Let us hope that the rest of the defenses are as easily overcome as we have been told."

 

[jaydude]

Selket nodded, more than happy to just follow Gwen and Toun further into the tomb.

 

[Aranfan]

Gwen looks at these watchmen with relief that they are not attacking them, and says to the rest of the Circle, "Do not touch these automations, and they should let us through to the inner chambers of the Tomb. Let us hope that the rest of the defenses are as easily overcome as we have been told."

Two Mornings just nods, and follows Gwen.

 

[Sherwood]

Passing through the opening in the wall, you now come across another chamber, this one much larger than the first. It is two hundred feet across, circular, with a domed ceiling that reaches up one hundred feet. Across the room there is another opening with a dull red glow coming from the opening. The most notable feature about the room is that there is no floor to it, and it drops down into the darkness far beyond the reach of the light of Gwen's Anima glow.

 

[Aranfan]

Passing through the opening in the wall, you now come across another chamber, this one much larger than the first. It is two hundred feet across, circular, with a domed ceiling that reaches up one hundred feet. Across the room there is another opening with a dull red glow coming from the opening. The most notable feature about the room is that there is no floor to it, and it drops down into the darkness far beyond the reach of the light of Gwen's Anima glow.

Two mornings shifts into a gecko, and begins climbing the wall across.

 

[Psychie]

Gwen looks across the wide open span, leaning over to look down as far as she can. "Well, so far, Raksi's information has been right on the mark. Looks like we fly from here, then it would seem that the next room is the one with the lava floor where we will have to take to the walls."

 

[Rykon]

Toun gave an appreciative nod to the brass legionnaires as his own anima illuminated to light the dark. Shrugging off the curiosity for now, he moved back to the front of the pack with a quick jog forward. If any traps were to spring on them, he'd prefer the others not get hit.

"Just to be safe, I wouldn't risk flight here either. Saves us the time and essence of shifting for the next trap too." Toun replied when they entered the empty chamber. He shifted into his own lizard form and made his way along the walls at a hurried pace to bypass the pit.

 

[jaydude]

Selket shifted into her spider form, following Toun along the walls, putting her trust in him.

 

[Psychie]

Taking a page from her fellow Lunars, Gwen will shrug back into her spider form to make the trip across the room.

 

[D. Rex]

Following in turn, Hazel takes the form of a tree frog. Climbing along the walls after the others.

 

[Sherwood]

It takes a while for the group to go along the walls, but at this point, you are in no major hurry. Safety is key.

Just as Gwen had suspected, the next chamber is the one with the lava covering the whole of the floor. But in the current forms you are in, you can easily continue to crawl along the wall and stay out of the heat of the burning rock below you.

Once you are past the lava filled room, you find yourselves in a smaller room, this one just thirty by thirty square, with a sarcophagus sitting on top of a small platform towards the rear of the room. Behind the sarcophagus is a life sized statue (statue, not a Brass Legionnaire) of a woman standing with her arms outstretched, as if to embrace someone.

The walls of the chamber are covered in murals depicting the major events of the life of Renna, showing her as she helps to rebuild the shattered remains of Creation after the Primordial War.

The final thing of interest in here is that you can see that you are being watched by the ghostly figure of the Lunar Priestess herself, as she is currently sitting on top of her own sarcophagus. She says nothing as you come into the chamber, but watches with interest to see what you will do.

 

[jaydude]

Entering Renna's chamber, Selket would shift back to her human form and look towards the others, trusting the more talkative of them to handle things with the priestess.

 

[Rykon]

Toun shifts into his normal human form at the exit of the lava chamber and attunes his eyes to detect immaterial spirits. When the pack comes upon Renna, he bows with a grin. He speaks in Old Realm, the mark of the full moon serving as a sufficient introduction of what he is. "Honorable Renna, thank you for waiting on us. We've come to plead our case regarding a Fae plot and how we might counter their schemes..." He pauses, both to understand if Renna can understand him and allow another to speak if they wished to lead the negotiation. If not, the Ice Walker seemed confident enough to speak on behalf of the circle.

 

[Psychie]

Gwen also returns to her normal human form, and offers up a deep curtsy to the spirit, painfully aware that if all that Renna can speak is Old Realm, she is going to be unable to offer her own help in convincing the ancient ghost to acquiesce to their need to take the Shawl.

 

[Sherwood]

The ghost of Renna slowly slips off the sarcophagus and steps forward towards you, looking at each member of the Circle in turn as she walks. Finally, she pauses several paces in front of Toun. Also speaking in Old Realm, she says, "It has been a long time since anyone has been here to speak with me, and now I am faced with several visitors. Why have you come, Chosen? For what purpose are you here?"

 

[Rykon]

"In the interest of keeping a long story short, we learned that a court of Fae gained access to an Artifact that let them summon and bind demons known as Erembor and Ligier, but we only guess the identity of the latter. The Artifact used to summon and bind them into spherical prisons has since been destroyed, but the demons remain bound in either Creation or the Wyld. As you may or may not be aware, most of our Solar brethren were cast from the earth nearly a millennium ago. While many have started to return, none of them have reached the heights of sorcery they once knew."

Toun took a breath having finished enlightening Renna of the context of their request. "We need your help to cast these demons back to Malfeas and slaughter these vermin that dare encroach upon our world again. Surely in all your life of fighting and breaking these living plagues upon our land, you can see the need for their removal and that the act of doing so is no small feat."

 

[Sherwood]

Renna sighs. "You are here for the Shawl, then. I knew that this day would come. But before I give you my blessing to take it from my resting place, first I would like your promise that once you open my tomb, you will take nothing else besides the Shawl. Second, I would like to know what you plan on doing with the Shawl once this demonic threat is over. Are you planning on keeping it, to put it to use once more? Or will you be returning it here?"

 

[D. Rex]

(She is speaking Old Realm, correct?)

 

[Sherwood]

(She is speaking Old Realm, correct?)

Correct.

 

[Sherwood]

With your knowledge of Low Realm, you are able to catch about one word in four.