On the Run [Dude, where's my daiklave?]

Jenai Orlais


Adjusting his new gear, Jenai takes a deep breath, "I somehow doubt that will be enough to dissuade the zealots. Shall we prepare a welcoming committee to greet them if they make it through the gauntlet? I'd rather not give them time to catch their breath if they make it in."
 
Kayla balls up her fist in a fierce gesgure that is not in character for the meek goddess. "I have waited too long for the Chosen to return to let some interlopers ruin it now! Even if it is not in this place, I know that my place is at the side of the Exalted. Please, let me help you! If you must run, there is a very special ship in the hangar bay. It is a light warship that is equipped with a teleportation device. That is the only way in or out of the hangar for it. It requires two hearthstones to operate, which will require this place to be powered down and the stones from both manses taken. If I must give up the garden, I will, just don't leave me alone again!" She buries her face in her hands and tries to hold back a flood of tears with little success.
 
Knaff moves towards kayla, his claws gently caressing her , without leaving any marks. "We will do our best to mark sure these Dragon-Bloods are dead, so none may come here and disturb this place. I think they need a lesson in humility." His face then turns serious as he turns to Mordant "Is there any way you can make sure the defenses of this Manse don't turn on us? Maybe we can draw the fools out."
 
Mordant Xane


Mordant looks to Knaff, "I don't know about specific targetting of the manse defenses. I can turn off the external guns and we can go meet them in battle, if you'd prefer. They might get brave and advance."


Mordant turned to the goddess, "Is there any way to seal this place up? If we do fall back, I'd rather not simply hand this place to the Wyld Hunt."
 
Kayla thinks for a moment, then suddenly perks up. "Yes! It was done only once before, but the buildings can be sunk into the ground to protect them from attack. The only downside is that it will trap you in here, too. But, using the airship in the hangar, you can come and go as you please even with the entire manse below the earth. Sink it, then take the hearthstones and escape in the airship, taking the stones out as you need them."
 
Turning to Mordant, Knaff says "I'd rather not leave them here without some fight. Those mysterious servants of the Maidens are not something I'd trust, and attuning to their manse might be fraught with it's own dangers if even one of them is there."
 
Crimson Dove


Somewhere in her mind, Dove sighs slightly at Knaff. Beyond herself, it was a Servant of the Maidens that had seen to them - and by extension him - surviving at long as they had. It seemed he needed more lessons in separating his friends from his foes.


She steps beside Mordant, a hand on his shoulder. "Show me what I must do to deactivate the defenses. Go join your Circle in battle, and I will keep the defenses on as long as I am able." She smiles grimly. "And keep an eye on the goddess, should it come to that."
 
Mordant Xane


Mordant shakes his head. "As much as it would be fun to try out these new toys and blast at the Wyld Hunt with this facility's gun batteries, it is unwise to charge headlong into unknown odds. Even with this facility's gear at our disposable, it is still quite likely the hunt out equips us, and I think it very likely they outnumber us even after that little show of pyrotechnics.


Mordant presses the command sequence to lower the manse below ground. "There shall be a day when we meet the Wyld Hunt in battle, but that day is not today. Let us complete our survey of the facility, and then fall back. With a teleporting warship under our command, I think we can engineer a more favorable set of circumstances for our fateful engagement with the Hunt."


He smiles slightly, "Besides, we can always come back to this facility later, once the hunt has given up the chase."


With the manse sinking into the ground, Mordant turns the screens inward once more. Working quickly, he notes down the location of the nearby manses the system displayed earlier, then relocks the console with his password.


As he turns, he avoids rolling his eyes at Knaff and Rowan still doting on the goddess, "Kayla, if you'd be so kind, we need to go find that other Hearthstone and this ship, in order to make good our exit."
 
With a mutter under his rat's snout "Who would think some solars wouldn't even have the guts to scout the opponent before making their escape.", Knaff resumes his human form, and with a bow to Kayla, he turns on his most charming face and says "It seems milady that we must give thy farewell, and we not too long ago just met. Alas, it seems that destiny did not intend this meeting to be more than a brief one, and I would have loved to stay around and get to know you better, for thou art radiant indeed, almost as Luna herself. But mark my words, I will find the time to come back here to thee, and have he pleasure of watching your garden in bloom yet again." With that, he kisses the back of her hand, and gives her a bow like in those cheap fiction you can find in Nexus. Probably would have looked a lot more awkward if he wasn't a lunar.

Most of what he said to her is utter lies, except the desire to come back, and the sadness to leave so soon. Oh, and I figured since he's not really that familiar with high society he's allowed to make something ridiculous, even if his lunar nature might lend it some credence. If you don't like it, sue me :mrgreen:
 
The color drains from Kayla's face, well, as much as is possible for a green skinned woman to lose her color. "Y-you're leaving me? <gulp> I understand." She looks down, and you can see tears running down her face. "You will want someone to watch over the manse until you return. That is my duty for the Exalted. I must remember my place."


At the control console, Mordant goes through the sequence that lowers the pyaramid into the ground. A rumble can be felt deep in the ground as the buildings slowly sink, and a red light comes on the panel, showing a picture of the Judgement Hall and saying that the wall has been breached and the room will be partially filled with earth as the builidngs sink, but other than that, it seems to work just fine. Once the facility has been completley submerged in the earth, you are able to retrieve the hearthstone. The large data displays go dark, along with many of the lights. The facility is going into stand-by mode until the stone is returned. You can now go recover the second stone and make your way to the hangar bay and your escape.
 
Lifting kayla's facr, Knaff says "Don't worry, we'll be back for your beauty. And then we'll be able to make our time here more enjoyable." And winks at her.
 
Mordant Xane


Mordant sighed. Of course the Lunar was just playing with her; he didn't actually care. As he pocketed the hearthstone from the panel, along with his hastily scribbled notes for the locations of the other nearby manses, Mordant turned to the plant-woman. "You are free to come with us. It is the least we can do in return for your helpfulness in deciphering this facility." Mordant gives her a reassuring pat on the arm, "Come now, let us find that other hearthstone, and this wondrous ship, and be gone from this place. I can only presume you are tired of being here after so long." Mordant gives directs a scowl at Knaff, "I'm sure Rowan and Slip would be quite happy to have you come with us."


Mordant was eager to be gone. At this rate, Knaff might soon find some children to steal candy from if they weren't careful.
 
Kayla's smile returns when Mordant tells her that she can come with you, and she directs a glare over at Knaff. "I would be honored to come with you. It is my place to serve the Lawgivers."


Moving quickly through the halls, Kayla guides you once more to the room with the gateways. Going through the proper portal leads you to the second of the manses in the facility. You can feel the power of the place is not nearly as strong as the first one, but it is still signifigant.


In game terms, you now have two hearthstones, one level 5 and one level 3. The first is a Gem of Perfect Mobility (Odenols Codex, p 107), and the second increases your Int by 3, and gives you a 3 dot specialty in Bueaucratics.


Reaching the airship hangar, you come across a marvel of First Age engineering. Loosely based on the design of a Swift Midday Brilliance-class light warship, this is slighty larger and is flight capable. With a length of 35 yards and a beam of 7 yards wide, it is capable of holding a crew of up to 20 people in relative comfort, and in the cargo bay it has room for up to two common warstriders or a talon of infantry. Armaments include two light implosion bows, one mounted in the front and one in the rear in armored turrets, and two lightning ballistae that are forward firing in limited turrets. The ship is capable of making a water landing, or it can lower struts to land on the ground. Just like the naval vessel that it is based off of, it has both propellers and sails that can be used in water travel, or the more expensive and difficult to maintain Essence drive to make it airborne. To use the propellers, it requires a commitment of 5 motes from the pilot station controls. Air travel is sizable more expensive, requiring four Essence users to commit 8 motes. The final movement option is the teleportation device, that requires the insertion of at least a level 4 hearthstone to function and a deposit of 20 motes of Essence. It has a range of 100 miles, and can be used up to 3 times in one day.


Other than what is stated, use the same stats for armor and health levels as the Swift Midday Brilliance-class ship on pg 39 of WotLA.
 
Knaff gives a slight bow to the goddess, and helps her aboard, and then gives a friendly pat to Mordant's back before saying. "So, Mordant, any idea where we're going next? I kinda like being together, and not wanna teleport into some rock." His smile wide under his moustache.
 
Crimson Dove


Dove gives Knaff an even glare as well, considerably more venomous than normal. Previously dismissed thoughts, pushed aside as uncharitable, come back to the surface. The woman who accompanies them makes her both sad and uncomfortable - she has seen girl's like her before, pretended to be one more than once. It leaves them vulnerable, easily discarded, and more easily shattered.


And the Celestials meant her to be that way.


It is an uncomfortable thought, especially with how easily at least one of them slipped into his old role with her.
 
Mordant Xane


Mordant strokes his chin, "Why, Knaff, I have many ideas. Think of what a teleporting skyship could mean? Why, we can go anywhere we like, do just about anything we like."


He stops for a moment, and claps Knaff on the back, "And I agree on both this counts. I have grown rather fond of you fellows, as well as rather fond of not being stuck inside some rock."


The zenith leans forward, hands on the railings of the forecastle. "A better question would be, what all do we want? If you ask me, Creation has been chaotic for too long. It requires new bonds to unite it. The merchant pulls an ancient old book from his bag, and flips it open to a familiar page, "Bonds like the Order-Conferring Trade Pattern once provided."
 
"Jenai, I think our kind friend here is back to his scandalous ideas" Knaff says with a smile, and a wink to everyone. "We might need to give him some booze to calm him down."
 
Mordant Xane


Mordant waves one hand and stabs a finger into the diagrams in the book with his other, "Claim it is rubbish all you like, but this kept much of Creation safe, happy, and prosperous for a long time. Thousands of years, it made people's lives better. Not to mention it helped keep Creation safe from the Wyld."


Mordant paused for a moment, "Think about it. People able to live their lives free from the fear of whether or not there will be enough food come winter, whether the shipments from the next city will arrive in time. And the side benefit of less fair-folk encroachment and predation. We live in an age of a thousand tiny kingdoms, each fighting the next for the scraps left by the mighty Realm and its opponents. And jackals gnaw at whatever they can get their jaws around. It is all a game of resources. Who controls the precious metals, who controls the food supply, neighbor against neighbor. But we can change all that. "


Mordant stops for a moment, "Sorry, I get carried away some times. Our next stop, I think, is some of these manses. If we're going to play against the Wyld Hunt, we need more pieces on the board. The better equipped we can get, the stronger we are." The merchant smiled deviously, "And I think we can liberate some of the doctor's illegally confined victims. You said his asylum was built on a manse, so I'd say that's our first stop. And maybe give those Dragon blood a bit of a scare while we're at it."


Mordant dropped the old book back into his bag, and began to feed essence into the ship's terminals. "Mr. Orlais, if you'd care to take the wheel, I think it is time to prepare this ship to jump."


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


Since it takes four of us 8 motes each to enable flight, I'm going to go out on a limb and hope that 3 others will join Mordant in temporarily activating the flight drive.


Beyond that, Mordant is jumping the ship into the air a couple hundred feet above the manse. (Mordant will pay for the first jump. Somebody else can fuel the second. :-P)


Personal: 18 | 18


Peripheral: 11 | 39
 
Approaching the controls for a second, Knaff feeds the contorls with some of his essence, as his anima begins to burst in a silvery and black light around him.


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


Spending 8m peripheral into the controls.
 
Inside the control room, there are four seats arranged in a diamond with hearthstone sockets in front of each one; pilot, co-pilot, and gunners for the lightning ballistae. As you insert the two stones into the control panel, green lights come on across the board. A testament to the skill of the First Age artificers that the ship is ready to fly after so long abandoned inside the hangar. A low thrum can be heard as power levels slowly ramp up to full. With a soft touch on the controls, the airship once more takes flight.


As Mordant chanels his Essence into the teleporter, arcs of blue-white lightning begin cascading off the hull of the ship, growing in intensity as more power builds up. Finally, power levels show a full charge and the coordanates of the first transition in nearly three thousand years is about to take place. A flash of light fills the viewscreen and then you suddenly realize that you are now floating several hundred feet in the air above the hangar.


Kayla looks around in wonder with her first flight in ages. "Tell me, where is this city we are going to first?"
 
Jenai Orlais


Jenai seems ready to snap at Mordant for his suggestion, but calms visibly when asked to take the helm, "I would be glad to. A return to the Asylum, it is." There was no way to reestablish the trade pattern with only one ship, and trying to do so would only serve to line Mordant's pockets and turn the relic into a tool of oppression. But as long as Jeani was piloting, there was no worry of that happening.


Flashing a satisfied smile to Eiran, he takes the wheel and feeds some of his own essence into the controls. Turning to Kayla, he elaborates, "There is a manse that has been twisted to dark purposed in Great Forks. We are going to liberate it, it would seem." Behind the wheel of a ship again, he can barely keep the excitement out of his voice.

Familiar: 5/5


Personal: 15/15


Peripheral: 18/25 (11 committed)
 
Crimson Dove


Remaining at Mordant's side, Dove contributes her own essence to the ship, knowing there are others who, if called to the weapons, will require their energy more than she. As she draws from the power Hesiesh, she is surrounded by an aura of brightly colored flames dancing around her, the flames remarkably...sensuous, with flickers of dancers, or inviting curves within the bright light that surrounds her.


She looks out at the manse as they flee, her tone thoughtful. "I would like to have seen where they lived. To perhaps find some joy there." She shrugs softly. "Perhaps another day."
 
Slip


Slip's demeanor has been dark since the manse was powered down. He mans one of the ballistae and wonders how many are ready for the shift that is to come. The proclivities of his companions were slowly becoming more clear and not all of them to his liking. Soon, they would have manses to go with the artifacts in hand. With all this power he was eager to move on his ambitions.. so too would the others be.
 
Mordant Xane


Mordant gave the dragon-blooded woman a smile, and took her hand in his. "I am sure we shall return here one day soon. As soon as we are no longer being pursued by the hunt, I'd like to see what more we can discover from that place. Between the quarters for the terrestrials and other celestials of the time, I'd think we could glean much about that period. And I'd be quite interested in spending some time in that library as well."


He had to admit to being momentarily distracted by the flashing anima flames. Well, admit to himself at least. He wasn't mentioning it to anyone else.


Rubbing his eyes momentarily in the light, Mordant looks to Knaff and Jenai, "Mr. Orlais or Knaff, shall we jump again? Give the Wyld Hunt a bit of a light show, throw off our pursuers, and put us into a convenient waterway or other landing point from which to approach the city. I'm not sure I have the puissance available at the moment for a second jump." The merchant slumps back slightly in his seat, feeling a bit drained.


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


Mordant *could* fuel the second jump, but he really doesn't want to, since he's already pretty drained.
 
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