Prologues

Darker Days Ahead...
Wayfare to an Uncertain Asylum

Summary

(I may have altered things unintentionally because I forgot them. If you remember differently but like the alteration, sweet. If not, lemme know, and we'll straighten shit out. Also, if there's stuff I straight up forgot, that'd be good to know, too.)

The story began with the mixed-Exalt circle re-convening in Great Forks. Arellious and Aktuelle had traveled South, through the Marukan plains, where they ascertained that the blight plaguing their lands was, in fact, the work of necromancy. Their suspicions were further confirmed after a brief attack by the Seven Seasons Widow, who had ventured far into Marukan territory, though the battle was short lived, as the Deathknight had other matters on her mind, and wished not to create such an obvious disturbance outside of Thorns's territory. Lazarus had just returned from Greyfalls, after conducting a series of several successful guerrilla attacks against the Imperial stronghold. Steel Heart's Fury had been attending to his tribe, though was drawn back to Great Forks after he learned that a series of newly arisen, and particularly brutal ancestor cults had been threatening both the welfare and membership of his growing barbarian federation. He deemed Aktuelle best equipped to consult on such a matter, as he feared the involvement of the Deathknights in these cults, as Fury had already slain one nemissary in protection of his tribes.

Once they met up, Aktuelle informed that group that the Council of the Concordat would meet to address the growing incidence of plague in Marukan Alliance - all members of the Council were concerned on such matters, given its proximity to the Mask of Winters' stronghold. The group decided this was the best route to pursue. Though they were strong in and of themselves, protecting the Marukan Alliance would be much easier if they were able to garner the support of the kingdoms within the Confederation of Rivers. Aktuelle planned to ask the Council for the kingdoms to organize help for the Marukan alliance, lest they be made slaves to the Guild, the only other organize who could hope to support the range towns in their famine. Fury, though less interested in the affairs of urban governments, agreed to accompany the group, as he had reason to believe the cult had its origins in the wild area around Nexus. Thus, the group set out to travel to Nexus, and though their journey was free of peril, it would be the last time the Exalts would have such luxury in the months to come.

In Nexus, the councilor and astrologer Takeshi Irugawa was known as a diehard nightlifer, and had as of late been courted about the city by Taguhla, a wealthy Guild investor. He'd been grooming Takeshi for market information, and, as the main organizer of a potential caravan outing to the Marukan alliance, hoped to find out whether the investment was a good one, or if official help from the Confederation of Rivers would make a Guild outing in Marukan a worthless venture. Little did he know that Takeshi was in fact a rogue Deathknight, Whispers from Beyond, already with a set of troubles of his own (see Wayfare to an Uncertain Asylum for more about that). Thus, it was unsettling to Takeshi when he encountered Typhon, the Mask of Winters' foremost agent in Creation, at an upscale Nexus casino. The meeting was short lived, however, as Typhon dropped a few ominous witticisms and made his way out. Though the encounter was unnerving, Typhon's presence in Nexus was to be expected, as he was the Voice of Thorns, a representative to the Council of the Concordat.

The group's first night in Nexus was already frought with peril - tracked and cornered by agents of the All-Seeing-Eye, Lazarus and Typhon teamed up to slaughter the unsuspecting, would-be assassin. It was unfortunate for Lazarus, however, that the scuffle was in dire proximity to his lodging for the evening. Typhon, who had more spacious accommodations, fled the scene quickly, and the group was left to deal with Takehsi's investigation into the eight murders that had occured. Remus, who had some clout with the Council of Entities, was able to bargain for some slack, and things proceeded ahead.

Fury, in the meantime, had been looking into the origin of the newly formed ancestor cults, and seemed to have been able to trace them back to an old, grey-bearded man, who shall henceforth be referred to as The Grey Man. The Grey Man, nearing the end of his life, had approached the Deathknight White Bone Sinner, an ambassador to Sijan from the Deathlord Walker in Darkness, in hopes of obtaining a proper burial in the grave city. When the White Bone Sinner obliged, people claiming to be Grey Man's friends and family soon began to flock to White Bone Sinner, beseeching him to lead them in praise of their dead ancestors. Always eager to encourage recognition of the dead, the Deathknight, though puzzled, agreed to take the reigns of the cult. It is unknown whether it was at his urging or random impulse that the cult soon began to turn to ritual rape and human sacrifice, but its affairs became increasingly more widespread and brutal, which is what had drawn Fury's notice.

The meeting of the Council began, and it was soon apparent that a sharp divide was beginning to form. Arbogassu Remus, the ambadassador to the Council of the Concordat from the Marukan Alliance, delivered an impassioned speech condemning the Council's acceptance of blatant evil in its lands by continuing to grant Thorns membership. Not at all hesitant to abuse his powers as an Eclipse Caste Solar, he easily won the favor the council with his initial proclamation.

Typhon, an Abyssal Exalt himself, was equally ready to use every trick up his sleeve, though he scarcely needed it. The silver-tongued ambassador remained calm, turning Remus's fiery passion against him and painting a picture of the Voice of Marukan as a warmongering tyrant. His words hit home with a number of Confederation leaders, most of them tired of incessant combat within the Scavenger Lands. Remus retorted with another admonishment, this time against the nation of Thorns itself, attempting to illustrate that it had no place in the among the Confederation of Rivers. Typhon was again ready, illustrating that while Thorns had its faults, most of the major kingdoms within the Scavenger Lands were no better when examined under the looking glass. The back and forth continued throughout the day among other issues, but Typhon had come prepared for just an assault, and while Typhon could answer for Thorns, Remus could not do the same for every nation in the Council, and it appeared that at the end of the first day of meetings, the Council was not yet convinced they had an enemy in Thorns.

That night, Fury and Lazarus, who had been tracking down the ancestor cult and learned earlier of a meeting this night, brought the group to the meeting spot. Sure enough, the cultists began to assemble, hoping for the first time to hold an audience with their revered leader - The White Bone Sinner. Along with him had come the ghost-blooded ambassador from Sijan, Tadeusz McKallintz, a close ally of the White Bone Sinner, somewhat oblivious to the Deathknight's true nature.

Fury and Lazarus had disguised themselves as members of the cult, and when the White Bone Sinner began his mass, the pair did not mince words. Full-out combat quickly ensued as the two Chosen cast aside their disguises. While Fury staved off the crazed hordes and dealt with Tadeusz, Lazarus engaged the White Bone Sinner. Though the Deathknight was able to deal Lazarus a crushing blow with his soulsteel goremaul, Lazarus, a warrior by trade, made short work of the Walker In Darkness's diplomat, unleashing his swordsmanship skill to its fullest extent. Night briefly became day as Lazarus brought the wrath of the Unconquered Sun down upon the Abyssal, rending him messily in two pieces with a series of well placed strikes from his orichalum daiklave. Tadeusz McKallintz proved himself to be a dubious ally during the fight, and his life was spared by the attacking Exalts. Takeshi Irugawa and his escorts were able to reign in and stop the fight before things got too out of hand.

The next day proved to be less auspicious. During the day, Saros left to investigate Typhon's residence in Nexus. After sneaking in and finding the house to be a semi-populated place, he remained hidden via charm use. Saros broke into Typhon's office, finding a number of written records suggesting that he may be connected to the blights rising up in various parts of the Marukan Alliance. The find came moments too late, however, as Typhon had decided to make a pit stop at his home before the Council of the Concordat convened for the day. Typhon, a powerful Abyssal and veteran spy, was able to easily pierce Saros's disguise. Before Typhon was able to act on his discovery, however, Saros called upon the threads of the Loom of Fate, whisking himself to moments before the time he entered the Deathknight's house.

Things were even worse elsewhere. As Aktuelle travelled to the meeting, he was cornered and attacked by the Bronze Faction Sidereal Domino, leaving him irreparably crippled and suggesting that Domino may have connections to the Mask of Winters. The group made every effort they could to get Aktuelle in shape to pitch his aid proposal to the council, but Remus was forced to call on Silver Faction Sidereal ally Ky Vox, who mentioned the presence of a Solar healer in the Scavenger Lands. Saros was then assigned to transport Aktuelle to safety, outside of Nexus.

In a bold turn of events, Fury used his shapeshifting ability to assume Aktuelle's shape, and proceedings continued. Typhon and Remus continued their social battle, though this time around, Remus made more ground as he pointed out increasingly suspect correlations between Thorns' actions and the recent famine in Marukan. As Remus's arguments grew increasingly effective, Typhon adopted a new tactic; he quickly unleashed a mountain of evidence that it was, in fact, the Walker in Darkness who was planning to attack the Scavenger Lands. Given that the White Bone Sinner was, at that time, the only Deathknight who had caused real trouble in Nexus, the Council was easily convinced that the Walker in Darkness was an opponent worth, at the least, suspecting.

Remus was a bit taken aback by the tirade, but pressed onward with the idea that regardless of who was planning this specific attack, the council was foolish to allow a city such as Thorns into their ranks. He was frustrated by the lack of progress he was able to make, though the two of them stood on even ground in terms of support.

That night, Remus gathered the mixed circle, inviting them to a private meeting. There, he voiced his frustration with the clumsiness of such a large council, and further lamented that a council run largely by mortals was easily controlled by the powerful social abilities of the Exalted. The group agreed, from that point forward, to swear an oath that they'd attempt to unify the Scavenger Lands into a coherent alliance, ruled efficiently by Exalted kings who would be able to mold the nations into a fortuitous entity able to oppose the Realm and serve as a reminder of the First Age.

The next day, news that the Immaculate Abbot of Nexus had been attacked reached Takeshi Irugawa's ears. The abbot had been investigating an attack on the graveyard's groundskeeper by an unknown creature of darkness. Takeshi took the Hooded Exeuctioners to investigate that night, along with Lazarus and the other characters, expecting trouble. They met Typhon at the graveyard, who seemed all too willing to guide them through Nexus's undercity, hoping to find whatever had attacked the abbot. Nevertheless, his presence was valued, as his ability to control creatures of darkness saved the characters much unnecessary turbulence. The characters found nothing matching the description of what had attacked, and left the graveyard without any further leads.

Still suspicious of Typhon's motives (particularly Remus), the group decided to conduct their own interview with the groundskeeper the next day. To their surprise, the instructions he gave them for accessing the mausoleum were not the same followed by Typhon to gain entry.

Meanwhile, just before the meeting that day, Typhon and Lazarus encountered one another in a Nexus market. Typhon convinced Lazarus to join him for lunch, taking him to be brazen fool, easily manipulated. Typhon tried to convince Lazarus that Thorns could offer him everything he wanted (conquest, bloodshed, riches) in greater amounts than he'd ever had. He underestimated Lazarus's conviction, however. Lazarus heartily renounced Typhon's offer, responding with an impassioned retort that condemned Typhon's cowardly reliance on the power of his lord as bargaining chip, forcing the deathknight to fall back on Essence-fueled mental defenses to keep his cool.

The meeting that day saw another round of social back-and-forth between Typhon and Remus, in addition to a few pleas for aid from Fury (as Aktuelle) for the Marukan Alliance. They were met with mixed success. That night, the characters returned to the graveyard, this time accessing the mausoleum vault using the method given to them by the groundskeeper. They were surprised to find an entirely different scene before them. It was what appeared to be a portal to the Underworld, along with numerous undead ritualistic trappings. At that point, Typhon stumbled upon the group, expressing his distaste for their meddling. He made the true extent of his necromantic abilities known, summoning a bone lion within the tomb and locking it from the outside, setting the colossal beast against the characters. The group barely managed to defeat the foul beast, and during the course of the battle, Takeshi was forced to drop his disguise and reveal his true identity: The deathknight Whispers From Beyond, known to the group as Arkanian. Though shocked, the characters had more pressing matters at hand. Quickly remaking his disguise after the battle, Arkanian and the group scurried back to Takeshi's apartment, planning their response to the attack.

Everyone in the group was a bit surprised to see Typhon at the next day's Council meeting.

The group calmly stated what had happened, their voice given an extra layer of credibility by Takeshi's presence at their ambush. Typhon was quick to address the accusations with a largely untrue, albeit reasonable explanation -- he said the beast was guarding his personal sanctum, and was trained to attack any intruders. He subtly hinted that the group had overstepped their bounds by invading it, but did not push the issue, realizing he was treading on thin ice. After some deliberation, neither Typhon nor Thorns was formally charged with blame for the incident, though Typhon was asked to leave by the Council for the remainder of the meetings, which he did with his trademark civility. With Typhon on the way back to Thorns, the council had to consider all possibilities.

Despite much insistence by Remus that Thorns was responsible for the famine in Marukan in its entirety, the Council could not ignore the possibility that the Walker in Darkness was planning an attack. It was decided that the Council would send representatives to both kingdoms to investigate the possibility of an oncoming attack.

Remus was chosen to lead the team heading to the Ebon Spires of Pyrron, much to his dismay. He chose Mayhiros Raygar, son of the Marukan High Elder, Lazarus, and Fury. Takeshi would also come along as a representative of the Council of Entities.

The group heading to Thorns was to be led by a high ranking official from Lookshy.

Before they departed, the group decided it would be best to reveal Arkanian to Remus under their own terms, rather than have such a thing come as a surprise to the Solar. This led to extreme tensions at first, but Arkanian was able to pacify Remus before the group departed, convincing him that Arkanian was not the most imminent danger Remus had to worry about. With that, they set off as soon as they could.

The trip to the territory of the Walker in Darkness was surprisingly smooth, and aside from intrapersonal tensions (with which the group was very familiar), the first real danger the group encountered was their stumbling upon a nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe of humans and ghost-bloods loyal to the Walker.

When the story came to its close, Remus, Arkanian, Mayhiros Raygar, Lazarus, and Fury had just arrived at the barbarian camp. On their first night, Fury had requested an audience with their leader, while the group tried to pry whatever information they could from the locals. It was agreed that the group would stay in the camp, as Fury had earned the good will of the tribe's chieftain by lauding their hunter-gatherer ways, and agreeing to join them in one of their ritual hunts.

During his meeting with the tribal leader, however, Fury was made privy to some disturbing news (corroborated by what the group had heard from the tribesmen they spoke to) - The Walker in Darkness, who the tribe referred to as "The Great Hunter", was planning a Great Hunt.

Characters

Player Characters

Arellious Kalar (Dragon-Blooded, Air Aspect) - Tony
Lazarus (Solar Exalt, Dawn Caste) - Drue
Ledaal Sarefine (Dragon-Blooded, Fire Aspect) - Brian
Saros (Sidereal, Chosen of the Maiden of Secrets) - Brian
Steel Heart's Fury (Lunar, Changing Moon Caste) - Dan
Whispers From Beyond (Abyssal Exalt, Day Caste) - Tony

Storyteller Characters

Solar Exalts

Sidereal Exalts

Lunar Exalts

Seven Devils Clever

Abyssal Exalts

Terrestrial Exalts

Mortals

Tagula