[The Lost Shards Return] [Scouting North by Northeast] Water Water everywhere.

Night Without Moon


"Naturally, I would prefer to avoid any losses, but I give to your point. We'll follow your plan." Hati seriously doubted that if their troops could get to the manse in working order she had much to worry about. She was not her brother, but she wasn't delicate either.
 
The Dragon blooded go a bit higher to get full speed from their wing blades as they begin the decent. The skimmer and one of the dragon blooded on the chariot all shoot at the water. Evaporating chunks of it even as the three dragon blooded change how they are diving so that they are holding the wing blade even as it enters the water. You see them rapidly close with the entrance of the manse.


Once they get out of your sight. “My Lady the entrance is clear of water. The acid burnt us but we are patching up the damage. There does appear to be tubes of it running through out the compound at least from what we can see.â€
 
Night Without Moon


"Excellent, I will be right down." Hati was a shark before she hit the water's surface. She sped towards the entrance and the shark's skin brushed off the acid's effects.

As declared by the GM, a shark has a stamina of 8, and the difficulty of the stamina + resistance roll is five. Thus the roll is 8+4 and with

six successes rolled, I made by one.
Thus she rose from the water unharmed. Before the shark's form sank below once more, she stepped forward in her war form.




Need to remind myself that shifting costs essence. At this point Hati has spent a total of 12 motes.
 
The inside is resplendent. You see what your men meant by the water as it appears the acid is flowing through a thin membrane hanging overhead. As you continue down the corridor you see the side entrance to what appears to be the factory cathedral, another entrance to what looks like rooms and barracks finally a door that if your reading the sygils right leads to the main controls.
 
Night Without Moon


Hati frowned at the membrane. Another part of the manse defenses? It wasn't such a strange thought. She shrugged and walked towards the cathedral factory. Time to see if any completed stingray and unused magical materials were about. After that she could go the main chamber and claim the manse.
 
The factory Cathedral is in amazing repair even as you notice that one of the tubes of tainted water leads into a vat. In one area you see three completed Stingrays, in a further one you see a small stack of blue jade blocks. Glancing about it looks like whoever was manning the cathedral was forced to stop as it ran out of the other required materials. As you walk around you see slight puddles of tainted water as if it had splashed down from on high. Looking up you see no leaks or membranes to tell where it could of came from.


Behind you the three dragon blooded stay on watch and look around. The leader speaks up. “If those are what I think they are then we can likely take them with us back to the Enterprise. Unless you'd rather us just leave them or break them down for salvage?â€
 
Night Without Moon


"The easiest way to get them to the ship to salvage -if that is their final fate- would be to drive them back, wouldn't it?" A corner of her mouth quirked. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have some on board if they were going to be staying in the West for awhile. She gestured to the blue jade, "We will also want to take that, but for now, let us go to the main chamber and claim the manse and all that is in it as ours."
 
A nod as the follow you out to the door. The door stands before you resplendent and beckoning.


As you cautiously open it you are relieved that no traps where triggered. Within lays a very elaborate command center. You see a human body encased in crystal with a sword sticking through her chest. As you get closer you know this women. Vermilion Shores, twilight solar exalted that was in charge of a series of research facilities. The blade in her chest appears to be made from jade and obviously made for a human to wield. Stacked in one corner is a pile of jade weapons and armor most shattered. None of them of Blue Jade. There seemed that there was a battle of some sort. Within that battle one of the Dragon Blooded killed the Twilight.


As you look around you see a large canister that had that membrane and what looks to be a summoning circle within. More then that the circle is glowing slightly and is slowing filling with essence. You guess at the rate it's going it'll do what it intends to do within two weeks time.


Turning your attention from the circle you go to the control panel. Oh dear, you perhaps lucked out as you see the runes that would of controlled the defenses. Tapping a few buttons to get the status report you see that it is connected to six other manses. Three of them are reporting in but the other two of the other three are red while the last one is black. You notice that there is a personal log, that date can't be right. According to it this was made over a thousand years after you left.
 
Night Without Moon


Hm. It looked as though the machine was damaged during the attack committed against Vermillion Shores. It was shocking to see the results of a successful murder or a Solar, but Vermillion was young when the ship left and there for capable of being overwhelmed. The Deliberative likely hadn’t let her murderers go unpunished, though why they had not cleaned up and given her a proper burial was beyond Hati. To leave her body like this risked her vengeful ghost to wreak vengeance. Not much trouble for it to fall upon her persecutors but if in her fury she attacked innocent Dragon Blooded, it wouldn’t due to have the ghost wandering.


“Check to see if the materials in the armor and weapons are still sound. They may make an acceptable sacrifice or be able to wrought to their base components.†Hati stated as she continued to click through the records. What was happening before this attack, and what did the two discolorations mean? She also wanted to know if it’d be wise to allow the manse to finish its acid-water work. It was a shame that Lieh was not down here. She might be able to tell from looking at it.
 
Salutes as they head to the pile of armor and weapons. Quickly sorting it into three piles. One for usable, one for scrap, and one for garbage. The records on the other hand. Those have to be faked. According to the date on the last entry it happened in the year of 4026. With a flick you activate the last flagged security video.


Vermillion is working on a project in the room. She is talking to herself as she works. “Glad I skipped the feast. Would of wasted my time. I think I've figured out how to make a constantly reoccurring summon. Right now it's on a weeks timer with my little water sprite. I'm sure I can get it down to an hour. Then it'll be truly entertaining to throw them into the areanas.†You see what you think was the demon hovering in the back as she works.


You see about thirty dragon blooded enter. She glances at them. “I didn't ask for more experiments, what are you doing here?â€


The leader looks at her. “For your crimes your fate has been sealed. We will see justice done tonight.†With that they lunge forward. Yet even as that happens a slightly blurry shape detaches itself from the wall and attacks. The battle is fast and furious. The blurred shape is struck down by Vermillion as she orders the demon to kill all disloyal dragon blooded. It surges out and even as it does that one of the blades finally got through her guard to pierce her chest.


The recording shuts off as the demon turns off the recorders. It almost cradled the body as it moved her to the seat.


Near as you can tell the symbols represent the manses. Green means active and responding. Red seems to mean active but not responding, while black seems to be disabled some how.
 
Night Without Moon


Hati frowned. Well, Vermilion fell to Dragon Blooded, that she already had figured out. The words held no real meaning since trotting out the 'your crimes' covered a great deal of real and imagined acts. The feast was an unimportant factoid, another it could be anything from important gala to that night's dinner. The real information, Vermillion's experiment, would be better given to Lieh.


"It looks like this manse was connected to several others, including three fully operational, two operating but non-responsive and one completely shut down by this data. It might be damaged, so I would go in expecting trouble regardless." Hati reported as she tapped at the controls. The murder was not a recent event, so this pooling of essence was probably triggered by something afterwards. She still wanted to know what the purpose of it was.
 
It could be a left over from the testing she did. You remember her mentioning an earlier success.


“We can take the information and easily find the others. In fact we can likely disable any defenses are left over from here.†The leader of the Dragon Blooded chimes up. “We did find something strange. It looks like a suit of the Unseen Assassin as well as a Star Metal Serpent Sting Staff. The armor is basically scrap but the lance is intact.â€


“I think I found a pump system to pull the tainted water in to allow the rest of the squad to enter.†Pointing the button out to Hati.
 
Night Without Moon


“If that’s the case, go ahead and push it.†Hati didn’t need to be the center of all actions, particularly the minor ones. “Lieh will be better to assess the exact intent of all this.â€


In the meantime, she went to investigate the armor and the weapon. Why would a dragon blooded have a star steel weapon? It wouldn’t serve them as well as jade. Perhaps to implicate one of the Sidereal? Slaying a Solar and drawing the loyalty of a Sidereal into question, my, the cult were ambitious.
 
As the dragon blooded presses the button you hear the water starting to rush around. On the surface you see the tainted waters slowly withdraw into the manse.
 
Night Without Moon


"Excellent." Hati stated distractedly as she attempted to use the counsel to locate the Hearthstone room. If it was really so long since Vermilion's death, then a new stone should have formed and Hati could claim it for the ship as well as the manse itself.
 
According to the schematics the hearthstone room is through her bedroom. Which are located to the east of the main hall. It is the very last door after you turn the corner of the hallway.
 
Night Without Moon


Hati tapped on the arc-shaped communicator, "Lieh? Hati. We should have the manse's defenses neutralized and ready for the rest of the unit to come in. There's some things I think you should take a look at, and we've yet to claim the hearthstone."
 
Lieh


"Heard and understood, my dear Hati."


Lieh stood, shouting to the Dragon-Blooded to prepare to enter the manse on her mark. Now, she need only wait and see what curiosities her comrade had uncovered...
 
The dragon blooded left above get themselves into position. All except the pilot of the chariot. “On your command my lady.â€
 
Lieh Tzu


As the path drained, she motioned for the Dragon-Blooded to advance. She followed behind, Jiro clack-clacking beside her. She had learned long ago: always make the fire-aspected Dragon Blooded go on ahead.
 
They move forward with a comfortable lope. Heads scanning from side to side as they move to the entrance. The insides are not the most impressive you've seen but part of you are glad you didn't try to come down into the demon's lair. Getting to the command room you instantly get a feeling of revulsion when you see the ring. That should not be. You can already feel a spell forming around it. Oh it'll take time but it should not be possible to re-summon any second circle demon that quickly.


Looking at it you see it's multiple spells woven together. One of them drains minorly the surrounding essence. That in turn powers the other spells. The largest one is terrifying. It is changing the reality of creation within. For within it is the peak conditions to summon a demon. Such a thing could cause problem for creation if it ran wild. The second is a simple summoning spell tied to a specific demon. The third is a binding for said demon. The final ring is another thing that seems like a foolish thing. It purifies the demon's essence to make it seem as if it was of the sun and not the Yozi.


Replaying the last entry you can see that this wasn't an accident, this was planned. Someone purposely started to figure out a way to summon any demon any time. Why would they do such a thing.
 
Lieh


Time to seize control of this ill-conceived contraption.


[ Doing a roll-off in chat ]


[success!]
 
Sorry thought you were going to do a description of what exactly you did.


With a few hours of work you carefully untangle certain aspects of the circle. it is amazingly complex work yet you recognize certain patterns within. Removing the parts that could be a risk to creation you carefully rework the loyalty part to bind the demon it summons to you.
 
Lieh Tzu


Through long hours she had dismantled the device, turning it into a not-quite-as-pernicious engine of destruction. More importantly, one that served her. Little did the Solars expect, she would soon flood them a legion of darkness's creatures, spreading out at her behest to unite all Creation under her iron boot.


Gahaha. Bwahahaha. AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!


Ahem.


That would also be a great deal of effort, so instead she rests nearby, by a pair of Dragon-blooded soldiers, to wait for her good comrade Hati's return. This would require extensive thought and reflection... this strange new world they found themselves deposited in them? One of her friends, the good Solar known as Displaced Uncertainty Stratagem, had posited that the shinma create not just one Creation, but imply the existence of countless additional Creations beside their own. Could they have arrived in that one of those alternate worlds?


Nah. Stratagem might be a great lark to talk to, but he was a crock through and through.
 
The two dragon blooded soldiers exchange looks for a moment. One shrugs as the other sighs before returning to attention.
 
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