Legacy-002

Resplendent Earth, RY 766

• 7: After hearing about a mysterious sickness that had struck a nearby village, Tobias and the Abbot left Mahanaga in order to lend their abilities to those in need. The remaining Solars were summoned by Potrimpos and he informed them that Father of the Pale Embrace, the god of ghost pythons, was currently researching and searching for the manse located in the Black Chase, where ghost pythons are native. He discusses Ascending Abyss, a bat totem and of the beastmen that dwell in the forest and about beastmen in general, descendants of Lunars that are able to breed. He then discusses with them the power and potential importance of sorcery and offers his skills to those who seek them. Finally he spoke with Alabaster Mountain about the Zenith Caste and their priestly roles not only as the only true priests of the Unconquered Sun but also as priests of all gods and the rights and powers that they are due.
• 9: Two days passed since the Solars had met with Potrimpos. Tobias and the Abbot were still away tending to the sick. The others were spending their time training (Alabaster Mountain learning about his Zenith powers from Potrimpos), exploring or else finding new ways of entertaining themselves while saying in Mahanaga (Aapo started a night time fight club with some of the locals & visitors).
  • While out exploring the areas surrounding Mahanaga, Crimson Slate discovered two human corpses that had been mutilated and looked as if some of their organs had been missing. Crimson Slate summoned some of the others and some monks and moved the bodies into the monastery. While the procession was passing through town, Aapo was passing by and Whispering Bear lept from...whatever unseen place tree-people like to lurk and perched on the litter holding the dead. Aapo and Whispering Bear identified the missing organs as their hearts. Aapo continued on to the pub and Whispering Bear joined the ohters. The White Fields Steward(ess), currently a female due to the season, was summoned in hopes of being able to identify them, though she was unable to do so.
  • While the others concerned themselves with the dead, Aapo, after trading Kanji to Ginger for a bowl of cherries and then having to rescue his companion from being king of the local children's marble competition, was enjoying a drink with a man he had just met earlier that day named Trout...just Trout, who kept going on about some grand wedding party the day before. Aapo listened to him and continued to feed him drinks in the hopes of getting laid.
  • That night, the Abbot returned to Mahanaga and spoke with the Solars about the deceased. Crimson Slate took a sampling of cloth & hair from one of them and Alabaster Mountain used his priestly powers to cremate their bodies and release what remained of who they once were into the universe. The Abbot received the hair and cloth from Crimson Slate and took them to Potrimpos to see if he had any wisdom on the situation.
  • Later that evening, while Aapo was enjoying a drink with his feet up on a table, Trout returned to the bar and shambled up to the bar. The barkeep spoke with him and looked confused, but not as confused as Trout seemed to be. Aapo went and sat next to his new friend to check and see what was wrong with him. He was barely responsive and seemed very distant. Then suddenly he bent towards Aapo, obviously intent on kissing him. Well Aapo, not one to turn down the advances of other men, let him. That's when he felt the leggy crawly thing trying to enter his mouth through the kiss. Aapo bit down, severing the vile thing in half and spat it out. In an instant, he had grabbed Trout flipped him about and threw him out through the window into the street. Leaping out after him, he choked him into unconsciousness while sending Kanji to fetch Crimson Slate, thinking this something more in her field of knowledge.
  • Kanji reached Crimson Slate who quickly translated his frantic appearance minus his lumbering companion to mean trouble and followed him. The others who had been with her also followed and they arrived to find Aapo sitting atop Trout's body, fighting to keep a great many insects inside his body that were trying to escape.
  • As soon as he saw what was happening, Alabaster Mountain identified the threat as heart wasps. Crimson Slate and the others convince the locals to return to their homes, but seeing as they all continued to watch the spectacle, Aapo channeled his essence to fuel a command that sent them all fleeing into the recesses of their homes, away from windows. Just in time, as animas were about to begin to flare up in the street. The Solars looked around and saw that eight people remained, unaffected by Aapo's charm. Eight people, obviously infested and controlled by heart wasps. Alabaster Mountain quickly set Trout's body on fire, destroying the wasps infesting him and the eight charged the Solars to attack.
  • The fight was brief. Aapo had cleaved some of the villagers in half, releasing a swarm of wasps into the air and Whispering Bear plugged some with arrows, killing them, but not spewing forth their buggy contents. Alabaster Mountain reached THROUGH the wall of the tap room and grabbed a keg of rice wine that he knew was there from previous visits and hurled the container into the fray where he had already lobbed some flaming lanterns and the conflagration of flaming wine consumed the airborne wasps, singing a still grateful Aapo in the process. Whispering Bear emerged from the tap room with large grain sacks, bagged & tied up the remaining survivors.
  • The Abbot arrived and led the glowing Solars with the surviving infected villagers to the cloister where they were to be treated. More of the victims die from the heart wasps inside their bodies and when Alabaster Mountain goes to perform their final rights, he discovers that his anima is also capable of destroying the wasps.
  • Meanwhile Sapphire Veil was out in the streets and overheard some gossip about the indiscretions of a certain recent bride who was currently in the barracks kissing everyone. She quickly returns to the cloister with this news and the Solars with the Abbot quickly rush towards the barracks before the problem is allowed to spread further. Crimson Slate remained with the alchemist who was speedily working on the tea-based treatment for the heart wasps.
  • The other surrounded the barracks and everyone but Aapo entered. The guards were taken aback at the sight of Whispering Bear with her anima glowing and the bride, Jasmine, quickly began to kiss more men in an obviously desperate attempt to further spread the heart wasps as much as she could before being apprehended. Many of the guards came to Jasmine's defense and then Sapphire Veil stepped forth and spoke to those gathered, convincing them that Jasmine was dangerous and being controlled by an evil force and that they had come to capture and save her from this threat. The guards stepped back, allowing Whispering Bear to bag Jasmine. The Abbot explains to the guards about the heart wasps and they are all led from the barracks to the cloister where they would receive treatment.
  • While Alabaster Mountain and the Abbot treated those infected in the cloister and Aapo and Whispering Bear hid out in the cellars while waiting for their animas to stop glowing, Crimson Slate and Sapphire Veil left and began to travel about the town doing damage control. They were spreading rumors and talking to the people, explaining away the strange lights they may have seen, claiming that there had been a fire, and about the heart wasps. They asked that any and all people visit the monks at the cloister in order to receive treatment so that the danger would not spread.
  • While traveling the town, Crimson Slate and Sapphire Veil came across the very same woman who they had found dead earlier that same day, up and about and very much not dead. The two of them pursued this woman, called Mable by the humans present, upstairs where a large mastiff composed of elemental air materialized and attacked them while Mable made her escape. Crimson Slate's aura flares and goes fully totemic as she draws upon massive amounts of essence to fuel a powerful sorcery that pulls the elemental creature apart and unravels the magic that bound it to Creation. The two women speed past and catch up to Mable, who transforms into a horrid centipede beastman.
  • Meanwhile, Kanji who had been enjoying the Abbot's shoulder perch, giving him advice on how best to treat his patients and what he likes best about fish and the proper way to shoot marbles, happened to notice and recognize Crimson Slate's totemic anima light flaring from a distant building window and immediately alerted Aapo through their bond. Aapo informs Whispering Bear and the two bolt from the cellars, joined moments later by Alabaster Mountain who had also been alerted by Kanji. The three race through the streets (or roof tops in the case of Whispering Bear) to aid their friends. The Abbot and Kanji remain in the cloister to tend to the sick.
  • The fight with the centipede beast continues inside the house and Sapphire Veil is terrible wounded and poisoned. The creature transforms and escapes onto the rooftop where it shifts into the form of a man. Those rushing towards the building see the man atop the roof begin to release a massive amount of essence that he begins to shape into sorcery...
  • The centipede beast completes his spell and summons forth another air mastiff. Just as he completes his spell Whispering Bear closes the distance and plugs him with arrows, knocking him off the roof and he crashes to the street and lies there. Just at this time Tobias, who had returned to Mahanaga and was drawn by the commotion, comes across the fallen man and immediately goes to his aid. Once he reaches the man and recognizes the arrows as his companions, he instead raises his foot to stomp the mans head into the ground. The supposedly unconscious man suddenly rolls out of the way of Tobias' lethal foot as it crashes upon where his head was seconds before.
  • Crimson Slate picks up the terribly injured Sapphire Veil, who clings dramatically to the coils of life, making sure to remind Crimson Slate of this fact, and gets her out of the building.
  • Whispering Bear fires another volley of arrows at the air mastiff and it explodes in a burst of raw elemental air that assaults her, though she dodges it with ease. Crimson Slate hearing the sounds of battle behind her, sets the poisoned and battered Sapphire Veil, who swoons and coughs most dramatically, down and races back to the fight. Crimson rushes around and sees Tobias fighting the creature and hurls her sky cutter through the air and pins him to a wall. The beast transforms into a small centipede and escapes her weapon and then shifts back into his horrific beastman form, now encompassed by a strange silvery aura and a queer silvery caste mark shining brightly upon his brow.
  • Tobias decides to attack the beast with a building and effortlessly levels the building, dropping it right on top of him. Crimson Slate rushes back to find Sapphire Veil staggering and leaving a trail of aesthetic and artfully planned bloody hand prints and streaks of blood as she slowly moves towards the cloister. Crimson Slate catches her up and they begin to race towards the cloister, passing by Whispering Bear as she speeds towards where Tobias and the creature were fighting. Sapphire Veil is dropped off with Grace and as soon as Crimson Slate is out of sight, she drops the facade of weakness and begins to command her servant around, demanding immediate medical attention.
  • At about this time, Kanji was enjoying a nice bowl of fish provided by a young monk named Moving With A Cranes Grace Under the Moon when he witnessed a panther-woman appear and attack the Abbot at the same time another monk shifted into a horrid goat-man and flanked him from behind. Within seconds they had assaulted and taken out the Abbot. Kanji sent an immediate distress to Aapo and a view of what had happened. The assembled monks quicly overcame their shock and attacked the bests who fought back.
  • Aapo, pissed at this diversion and alarmed that his defenseless Kanji was now virtually alone with these monsters, found his center, the Red Dawn and he drew forth power and knowledge from a previous life, granting him new abilities. He grabbed Alabaster Mountain and sprang forth towards the cloister where the monsters were, where the Abbot laid dead or dying and most importantly, where Kanji hid waiting for him. Taking impossible leaps through the air they arrived in seconds and came crashing through a cloister window to attack the beasts.
  • Aapo dropped Alabaster Mountain near the goatman, while he faced the catwoman. While Aapo and the catwoman do a lethal melee dance with each other, Alabaster Mountain is troubled when the goatman leaps out of range and draws forth a bow and fires on him. Alabaster Mountain uses his tetsubo to deftly parry the arrows aside. Suddenly Crimson Slate comes riding in upon her magnificent mount and hurls her sky cutter towards the goatman. Then it's two sky cutters. Then four, then eight, then eighty zillion...or so it would seem. They swirl through the air like a swarm of deadly silver bats and converge upon the goatman. Outside Sapphire Veil easily determines that more fighting is happening within the cloister and decides that it is in her best interest to seek aid elsewhere and begins the trek up the mountain towards the manse and Potrimpos.
  • Suddenly the catwoman roars in victory as she takes Aapo down and runs from their personal arena to join her companion. Whispering Bear comes into range and fires a volley of arrows at the goatman, who counters by shooting his own array of arrows, taking each of hers out. Then the goat does something strange, he sings, and Alabaster Mountain and Crimson Slate find that they are suddenly overcome with a horrific fear of goats and seek to flee him. Then Crimson Slate is taken by a second need, a powerful urge to...have sex? The goatman then shouts, "This is done!", transforms into a bird and vanishes from sight.
  • While Crimson Slate, her mind filled with carnal needs and desires, rushes and alarmed Alabaster Mountain, the catwoman makes good her escape and transforms into a bird and begins to fly away. Whispering Bear has other plans, though, and fires another volley of arrows, crucifying the air in midflight and ending it's life. The bird crashed to the ground and transformed back into the lifeless creatures true form.
  • Tobias arrived and immediately tends to Aapo and the Abbot, both of whom still lived. First thing Aapo asks upon being revived is whether or not they killed them. Upon hearing that Whispering Bear took out the catwoman, he hugged her, much to her shock.
  • Sapphire Veil, who had been making the trek up to see Potrimpos, reached the manse and informed him of what all had come to pass that she knew of. Potrimpos sensed that her poison had already been broken down and informed her. He identified the creature as a child of Luna, a Lunar not unlike the Abbot himself. Sapphire Veil continued to speak with and convinced Potrimpos that he should help them and he agreed to leave the manse and accompany her. He vanished from sight and began to travel alongside her as they descended from the mountain. Crimson Slate and Alabaster Mountain left the cloister and were headed towards the manse when they came across Sapphire Veil, Grace and the serpent god that they could both see with their sight beyond sight. The two of them catch Sapphire Veil and Potrimpos up on what all else had happened.
  • Potrimpos bids Crimson Slate to gather her Circle and meet him at the Mahanaga platform. He then commands the multitude of white fox spirits that had come forth to observe him in awe to go forth and summon all the people of Mahanaga to the platform. Once the Solars, all the residents, visitors and gods of Mahanaga are present at the platform, Potrimpos manifests for all to see. The sight of him and the light emanating from his being calms and soothes the gathered crowd. He speaks to them all, explains that for 200 years they had whispered and prayed to him, though unsure that he truly existed and that he has come to thank them all for enduring the recent events that had befallen them. He stated that tonight their sovereignty was attacked and the beloved Abbot betrayed. And that it was these, the children of the Unconquered Sun, who had come to their aid. These strangers had risked their all to save them. And that the people of Mahanaga would repay this kindness with their silence. Mahanaga has enjoyed a wonderful peace and prosperity for years. But if they were to speak of what they now know, it would definitely come to and end. Potrimpos then addressed those visitors gathered, informing them that he can hear wherever in the world serpents exist and that if they were to betray the people of Mahanaga...
  • And left it at that. Potrimpos dismissed the gathering and sent them all home. Before retreating to his manse, Potrimpos shares one more thing with the Solars. He states that they had asked who had replaced him as the herald of the Unconquered Sun, and now he remembered. It is a god called Glory to the Highest. He then vanished and returned to the safety of the manse.
  • Sapphire Veil called a conference and the Solars discussed a great many things and plans. Some felt it was time to go. There was fear for the Abbot and fear for the well being of Potrimpos who had come out from the safety of his manse. But they couldn't stay and play babysitters for gods and Lunars forever. They had things that must be done. And these things would require them to leave Mahanaga. They decided they would meet with the Abbot and then Potrimpos to discuss their plans with them and seek their wisdom and guidance.
• 10: The following day, the Solars performed a public spectacle, where Alabaster Mountain used his Zenith powers to destroy the heart wasps and cure all of those who were infected, giving praise to the greatness of the Unconquered Sun while doing so. Tobias watched in disgust from afar, not sharing his companions new ideologies that they were the true rulers of Creation. He still clung to his humanity and felt that they had allowed their new powers to go to their heads. Sapphire Veil shared the stage with Alabaster Mountain, giving praise to him and his kindness and pressing upon those cured to spread the word. Aapo, now being constantly tailed by the inquisitive Ginger, decided to entertain himself by selling sausages on sticks to the crowd. He donated the proceeds, as well as the bag of silver he had gained from the defeated slavers, to the White Fields Steward, who he rather liked and he supports any cause that involves alcohol.
  • Later that morning, the Solars met with the Abbot who had been further tended to by Tobias' healing powers. They discussed the attackers, who he stated were locals. He had seen them before at Silver Pact moots. He did not know why they had attacked him, though he suspected it may be because he belonged to a pro-Solar faction called the Sun King Seneschal, a less than popular group with many Lunars. He wagered a guess that they probably belonged to the Crossroad Society faction, though was unsure. When they Solars discussed plans to leave Mahanaga, he expressed his desire to go with them rather than stay, an offer they accepted.
  • Leaving the Abbot to his rest, attended by Nurse Ginger (who Aapo had decided to claim as his official squire and apprentice) and her assistant Kanji, the Solars traveled to the manse to meet with Potrimpos again. The serpent god suggested that they remain in Mahanaga for now until the location of the Sun Spire, a tomb to a whole circle of Solars, was confirmed and they could be properly equipped. At that point they would go forth into the world to do whatever it is they are meant to do.
  • They discussed the Lunars with him. He suggested that any moonsilver the had gained, especially that gained from the fallen catwoman, be given to the Abbot so that he could return it to them. The Lunars feel that moonsilver is their birthright and do not like others to possess it and it may go a long way in calming them if they were to honor this claim. He explains that the Silver Pact are barbarian in nature. That after the Usurpation, many Lunars fled to the wilds and that overtime they had absorbed much of the barbarian culture of those regions.
  • Potrimpos also wished to not that during the First Age, every Solar had a Lunar mate and that it is possible to encounter a Lunar who may very well "resonate" with them, with strong emotions connecting them. He warns that this bond may be very one sided, though. That while the Solars may feel admiration and affection towards the Lunar, the Lunar may be battling a sense of loss of self as they fight the urge to serve the Solar, which could turn ugly. Potrimpos, wishing to remain in contact with them once they depart, states that he shall teach Alabaster Mountain the prayers that will allow him to speak to the serpent god and that he shall be able to respond to him in dreams.
  • The Solars descend from the manse and return to a different Mahanaga than what they had come to know. The people know who they are, what they are. Many love them for what they had done, but many will fear them and some will hate them. None of them can be invisible anymore, none can pretend to be another nameless person in the crowd. And now the Solars also know that dangers may lurk unbidden in any corner, in any face amongst the masses. The Solars had been pushed out of the closet and amongst the humans they were destined to rule over, whether they wanted it or not.
  • And so now they wait for news of the Sun Spire.