Legacy-001

Chapter One: Ancient Heroes

Resplendent Air, RY 766

• 27: Aapo arrives in Mahanaga and meets the rest of the Solars.

Descending Air, RY 766

• 4: Abbot Uncompromising Viper returns to Mahanaga and meets with the Solars, explaining why he's offered them sanctuary and training. The Abbot leads them to an ancient Solar manse in the mountains above the monastery to further discuss their circumstances and teach them how to attune their essence to that of the manse.
• 6: Abbot Uncompromising Viper and twelve of his Serpent Monks lead the Solars to a secluded area of the mountains to test their control over essence through combat sparring. The twelve monks pair off and fight the Solars. The sparring goes relatively well until one of the monks is severely injured by Crimson Slate. The sparring session is called to an immediate halt to tend to the monk's wounds, when Tobias approaches and uses his powers of medicine to heal the fallen monk. After the battle, the Abbot calls the Solars to an instructive session to discuss the power of combos and guides them in developing these powerful skills.
• 12: Abbot Uncompromising Viper and the Solars return to the private sparring grounds in the mountains to continue their training. This time the Abbot paired the Solars off against each other. Aapo vs. Alabaster Mountain, Crimson Slate vs. Whispering Bear and Sapphire Veil vs. Tobias. After a dramatic light show of animas and essence powered attacks the sparring match was concluded and the Solars returned to Mahanaga to rest and heal, having learned a great deal from this single match of how their powers work and react to other supernaturals.
• 21: Harvest Festival of Mahanaga, a day of revelry and celebration when the people of Mahanaga fill the streets & public places of the town to praise their local fertility fox god, the White Field Steward. Alabaster Mountain honored the people by participating in the ceremony by helping bear the holy shrine in its passage amongst the people. The other Solars enjoyed and/or observed the festival in their own ways.
  • Everyone was surprised when a number of foxes emerged from the shine carried by Alabaster Mountain and other locals. The foxes scurried about in threes and each set came to rest in front of each Solar. Then the White Field Steward himself emerged from the shrine. He bestowed blessings upon many of the locals and then retreated back into his shrine. One of each of the three foxes then invited the Solars to join their master in his home.
  • The Solars all accepted and followed the fox guides through a portal to another place where food & drink awaited them. They were bid to eat & drink and shortly after they were joined by the White Field Steward. They spoke of many things and the small god asked for their forgiveness for having accrued followers of his own in order to maintain his domain and the wellbeing of his people. The Solars commended his actions and discussed the power of faith and followers further with him.
  • The Solars and White Field Steward returned to the celebration in Mahanaga and spent the evening enjoying the festivities as the god spread more of his blessings amongst his people. Many of the Solars spent time and shared conversation with the Steward and the Abbot. Eventually the White Field Steward, Aapo and Alabaster Mountain retired back to his realm to enjoy each others company in private.
  • Late in the evening the other Solars, save for Whispering Bear who had fallen asleep during the celebration, and the Abbot were alerted to a non-Guild caravan that had recently arrived that had been attacked. Crimson Slate, Sapphire Veil and Tobias questioned the caravan, specifically Iron Crow, the leader of the guards, and discovered that the caravan had been attacked by a pair of simian demons and men intent to capture slaves. The Solars agreed to investigate the situation and Sapphire Veil volunteered Alabaster Mountain's name as their leader.
  • Sapphire Veil had Alabaster Mountain and Aapo retrieved from their carnal pleasures in the Steward's realm and informed Alabaster Mountain of what had occurred and he immediately took to championing the task.
• 22: The next morning the Solars receive an invitation to parlay from Guild members, Sandusk Mantir and Emerald Heaven. The party is gathered together and manages to escape the Alabaster Mountain Fan Club Parade long enough to meet with the two esteemed Guild members. The Guild suggests a business venture regarding those kidnapped by the slavers the previous evening. The Guild offers to pay the Solars a tidy sum of money in exchange for the rescued slaves to be taken into Guild custody and then sold. Many of the Solars, who do not support slavery, are appalled by the notion and decline their offer, after Whispering Bear manages to relieve one of the Guildsmen of some of his personal effects. This is followed by a general discussion amongst the Solars regarding each others viewpoints on slavery.
  • The Solars depart and prepare for their journey. While Alabaster Mountain and Aapo exercise & spar amongst a throng of Alabaster Mountain's pet children and admirers, Whispering Bear speaks with White Fields Steward about the fate of the victims of the slaver attack. The two of them come up with a plan for those who would be homeless upon rescue. The Steward will send one of his children with the Solars that will mark the freed slaves, immunizing them from Guild interests. They will be given the option to serve the Steward by tending his sacred field, normally manned by the families of Mahanaga. This will benefit the Steward, the families who will no longer need to spare workers to tend his fields and provide a home, to be built, to those rescued from the slavers. The Steward sends Taruzake, a sassy three-tailed fox god of rice wine, with Whispering Bear. Crimson Slate haggles a bewildered horse vendor out of some horses at a very neat price and is kind enough to provide horses to Tobias, Whispering Bear and Sapphire Veil as they did not already possess one of their own. The companions gear & mount up with some delays...primarily due to Sapphire Veil's terrible dislike for the smell of the horse, and depart Mahanaga in search of the slavers and to rescue their captives.
• 24: Halfway through the third day of travel, the party comes across the site where the caravan had been attacked. The slavers had obviously covered their tracks well and the party searches for hours and are unable to find any clues as to where the attackers went afterwards as if they had simply vanished. Kanji eventually awakens from his nap and immediately points out the terribly obvious & poorly covered tracks that the silly Solars are too dim witted to notice.
  • The Solars follow the trail and are suddenly ambushed by monkey demons who descend from the trees above them to attack. The party makes quick work of them and continues tracking their prey and soon come across two sentries. One begins to run away and is immediately dispatched by Whispering Bear as she riddles him full of arrows in less than a second. The other sentry seeing what had become of his companion immediately surrenders. Crimson Slate interrogates the surviving sentry and receives information about the slavers and their camp. After being oath-bound by Crimson Slate he is allowed to depart and flees, much to the disappointment of Aapo who was looking forward to cutting him up.
  • The Solars soon come across the slaver camp around a cave and come up with a plan of attack and quickly engage the enemy. While Alabaster Mountain and Aapo move towards the camp openly with animas flaring for all to see, the others move in stealth. Alabaster Mountain's Zenith anima frightens one of the demon monkeys off, leaving one more for them to deal with. The mortals prove to be little to worry about, but there are two Dragonblooded and one quickly dispatches Tobias who falls to the ground dying...
  • The battle was scattered about the gorge but happened in a flash. Whispering Bear after dispatching a human slaver with a wielded arrow to the face, faced off with the air aspect dragonblood woman who surrounded herself with a storm of sleet. At that time two more demon monkeys manifested, one with each of the dragonblooded. During the battle Taruzake slinked up to Tobias and used his powers to heal the fallen monk, first enough to become conscious, though he continued to feign unconsciousness so as not to draw unwanted attention to them. Taruzake then expended the remainder of his power to heal Tobias well enough to join his companions.
  • Aapo drew on the power of his anima and sent the demon that was attacking him and Alabaster Mountain back beyond the boundaries of Creation. Crimson Slate and Sapphire Veil both assaulted the fire aspect dragonblood with a hurricane of twirling boomerangs and flashing fans. Suddenly the air aspect began to run. Whispering Bear determined not to allow her to escape and call down a hunt upon them all began to spring after her, releasing an arrow with each jump. Three arrows were knocked and released into the fleeing dragonblood's body. Whispering Bear then drew a forth and fortified it with a massive surge of essence and released it, the arrow struck and passed through the woman like a lightning bolt, killing her instantly as she exploded. As soon as she fell, the two remaining demon monkeys looked towards each other, grinned & vanished, liberated from her control.
  • Suddenly Alabaster Mountain hefted Aapo up in his mighty arms and hurled him through the air like a catapult stone towards the fire aspect, leaving a highly annoyed Kanji sitting atop Alabaster's head. The dragonblood countered the living, swearing projectile by jumping into the air, using the flying Aapo's head as a stepping stone to vault over him & came to land lightly upon the ground on the other side of him with a smile as a halo of intense heat sprang forth around him. Aapo on the other hand landed not quite as gently on his head, his hair & beard singing from the fiery aura emanating from the fiery exalt. The fire aspect made a feeble & pointless attack on the upside down Aapo that set him spinning on his head like a top. Aapo used this gift of momentum to make another anima backed attack that sent the man once again flying through the air. No smiles that time. He landed in a heap, dying, but not dead. Crimson Slate picked up a rock from the ground and unceremoniously chucked it at the fallen man. Dead.
  • The battle was won, and the surviving humans dropped their weapons and immediately surrendered to the Solars, most of whom were radiating intense light at that point. They were interrogated and Crimson Slate, her anima flaring brightly extracted god-sealed oaths from each of them that they would never speak of what they had seen that day. They submitted to her will and took her hand, with the light of her anima bearing down upon them like judgment, leaving each of them shaken, bound by the gods and with pure white hair and garments.
  • A white flag signaling from the cave revealed that another party was present and requesting parlay. A Guildsman named Prosperous Standard and his employees emerged from the cave. He explained that he was there on simple business and nothing more. When demanded to submit to an oath from Crimson Slate he refused to be bound by her sorceries. When threatened he smirked and asked if they would fight a god. Crimson Slate looked into the unseen and saw that Prosperous Standard and his men were warded by a god, who was also present, though invisible to normal sight. Prosperous Standard stated that he would not speak of current events nor of them to anyone, that it would benefit him in no way, especially as he was sure that if he were to do so, they would hunt him down, something he would much prefer to avoid. As for his men, he was not going chance his own well being to their flapping mouths and allowed Crimson Slate to oathbind each of them as she had the slavers.
  • Prosperous Standard and his crew depart and some of the Solars began to explore the caves and free the terrified and confused slaves, happy to have been rescued by these brave...and kind...anathema??? Sapphire Veil made sure that Alabaster Mountain was first seen of the rescuers, praising his greatness and kindness as he released the captives, making sure that everyone of them knew his name and how brave and valiant he was. The other Solars searched the bodies of the dragonblooded, claiming their artifacts and then entered the caves and gathered up further artifacts that the dragonblooded had been collecting. Amongst these mysterious treasures was a letter from one Torfalhen-Dar that was addressed to Winter Star. The letter, written by a Savant in Nexus explained much about the artifacts the dragonblooded were carrying with them as well as hints to further information about untapped dig sites that could contain more of such treasures. The slaves were freed and the ex-slavers were made to prepare the many goods & supplies in the cavern for future retrieval.
  • The Solars, ex-slaves & ex-slavers spent a night in the cave, with two people on watch at any given time during the night. The letter and the prospect of further dig sites was discussed as well as the fate of the captured slavers. The Solars discuss and distributed some of the artifacts they had claimed amongst themselves.
• 25: The following morning the Solars, the grateful, though bewildered ex-slaves and the far more bewildered white haired ex-slavers departed and made the trek back to Mahanaga. The journey took much longer with this larger group, with wagons and some on foot. Sapphire Veil took this opportunistic time to further seeding the glory and virtue of Alabaster Mountain amongst the people.

Ascending Earth, RY 766

• 3: After several days of travel the Solars return to Mahanaga with the light of the new day rising dramatically behind him, carefully timed and orchestrated by Sapphire Veil, with the rescued captives and captured bandits, Alabaster Mountain boldly leading the way into the town. They are greeted with exited cheers and a throng of people, curious citizens, Alabaster Mountains fan club and overjoyed survivors of the caravan attack as they are reunited with loved ones they had thought lost to them forever. Sapphire Veil wasted no time in spreading the tale about how the magnificent Alabaster Mountain and his friends had stormed into the camp and struck down the villains like a hammer of justice, smiting their leaders, liberating the captives and showing mercy to those men and women who had been led astray so that they could do good in the world in his resplendent name.
  • Abbot Uncompromising Viper arrived and took the Solars aside to discuss the captured slavers. With the permission and attendance of the Solars he took the slavers within the monastery and explained carefully and calmly to them as a group that they had been given an opportunity to start anew. A fresh start that not many would get and that they should take some time to reflect upon their lives and their futures. The Abbot's silverly tattoos then began to shimmer and slither about his skin as he transformed into a massive snake beast. In a cold snaky voice he told them that if they did not heed his words and embrace this opportunistic gift of a new start that the Solars had blessed them with, and that if they ever did any harm to anyone in his city that there would be nowhere in the world that they could hide that he would not find them and kill them. The Abbot resumed his human form and had the ex-slavers taken to private quarters where they were to be given food and drink and time to think about their futures.
  • The Abbot informed the Solars that his master, Potrimpos: The Vermillion Serpent had awoken and wished to speak with them and that they should go immediately as he would not be awake for long. The Abbot and Solars began to ascended the snake filled stairs of the monastery, taking care to avoid stepping on any of the sacred serpents. He explained that his master was not only the god of Mahanaga, but the god of all snakes in Creation and that they are normally drawn to him, but even more so when he is awake. This did nothing to soothe the panicked fox dancing atop Aapo's head, but the others, while impressed, took it in stride. As they walked the Solars discussed with the Abbot the letter from Torfalhen-Dar, the rumors of a Lunar manse, artifacts and the Savant in Nexus himself. The Abbot was intrigued by all of this, but felt that the manse would more than likely be an Abyssal manse, not Lunar.
  • The Abbot led them into a massive chamber shaped like an inverted pyramid with a platform that led out over a pit filled with thousands of slithering snakes. The Abbot introduced his master, Potrimpos: The Vermillion Serpent, God of Mahanaga, god of all serpents and Herald of the Unconquered Sun. A massive serpent with shimmering scales and quills of orihalcum materialized and rose from the writhing sea of snakes, uncloaking his massive serpent hood, he came to gaze upon those gathered before him. Some bowed, some threw themselves to the ground, some averted their eyes, while others continued to stand before him gazing upon his majesty.
  • Potrimpos spoke to them, explained his tale. That he had been the Herald of the Unconquered Sun in times passed. That the Unconquered Sun had at some point turned his face from Creation for reasons unknown and that he himself had been betrayed and gone into hiding here, where he is protected and unseen, but at a cost - being here makes him sleep for very long periods of time. He asked of their exaltations and was intrigued to find that the Unconquered Sun had spoken to each of them. That they had been given a destiny. He explained that many over the years since the Unconquered Sun had turned his face away had exalted, but none had heard his voice. Until now. He was sure that this meant something. That the Unconquered Sun had taken an interest in Creation once again and that they were his sign, they were given a destiny from him and that he would help them to see it through. The Solars asked what he would advise them to do first and he stated that they first needed to be equipped. That they needed artifacts and tools that would aid them in the coming times and trials they would have to face. In addition to the letter they had found and it's promise of potential dig sites, Potrimpos stated that he knew of tombs and lairs of previous Solars from the ages before. He would share this information with them so that they could go forth and seek the treasures they would need in order to fulfill their destinies given to them by the Unconquered Sun.