Forgotten Suns: House Rules

previous chapter

Fakharu

26th day of Ascending Earth, RY 769
Fakharu’s Island	11 February 2004

The group took a great interest in the five women (Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Jade, Starmetal and Soulsteel) who greeted them, though much of it was prurient. The meeting with Fakharu went well. He received the gift of the jade talent politely, curious that it was uncut. We was extremely impressed by the circle’s reaction to his proposal: rather than go on a greed orgy, their requests for items were all extremely practical with thought put into what they would need to accomplish the mission.

They asked for underwater transportation (similar to the way Mikani brought them downriver), some sort of proof against poison and some way to recharge essence. Fakharu offered to allow one of them attune to a local manse for the duration of the mission and carry its hearthstone. Varden was chosen to do this, and as Jade escorted him down to the manse, he said that “she had the best name” of the five greeters. The rest of the party were led to a lower room where they were given necklaces that allow them to breathe water and small rock bottles containing a liquid. When half the liquid is mixed in a drink, the drink will counter any poison already in the system. One quarter mixed with water will slow the effects of poison significantly.

With Varden needing at least three hours to attune and Moonsilver off finding the spirit to take the circle underwater, Guen asked Soulsteel for an island tour, and she led him away. Gutts offered to give Orichalcum “tips on her human form”, and she accepted, leaving Cruixs alone with Starmetal and Moonsilver.

Fakharu’s Island

18 February 2004

After the dalliances with the “material girls”, the circle was introduced to Tidal Influence, a spirit looking like a human with a seahorse head, who provided their transportation. After getting provided with black birds to appease Sikunare, the circle traveled to meet her. Having been warned about Siknare’s aversion to beauty, Cruixis asked Gutts to punch him in the face, which Gutts did without a moment’s hesitation.

Offering the birds, they told Sikunare the truth about their mission, and she helped them as best she could. Guen seemed peculiarly disturbed by Sikunare and gave her Jarvick’s moonsilver box. The circle spent the night there and Guen discovered Dancing Emptiness’s involvement with the rest of the group ate and drank, served by a salamander named Steev. Seeing evidence of Sikunare’s mistreatment of her subjects caused Cruxis to have to make several limit checks, but he held his tounge.

27th day of Ascending Earth, RY 769
Western Ocean	18 February 2004

The next day, they were given a crude map to the islands and went there. They bypassed most of the islands, concentrating on islands that had structures shown on the map. On these, Guen performed aerial reconnaissance while the others trained. The eventually decided to land on the Island of the Broken Masks, after Guen talked to a scarred man there that seemed to want to escape. Gutts decided to launch a rescue mission.

Exiles

28th day of Ascending Earth, RY 769
Island of Broken Masks	18 February 2004

The circle walked onto the island in broad daylight. As the walked towards the central tower, inhabitants gathered behind them, following in a growing group. Once inside, the city doors were sealed behind them. They were met in the street by guards who escorted them into the main tower, into the Hall of Promiscuous Justice, and guards tried to shackle them. Combat quickly ensued, killing a number of guards and several spirits, including Starved Tiger. During the process, the actions of the crowd forced Guen into making a limit check.

Island of Broken Masks

25 February 2004

The fight continued for a few more rounds, with more spirits and a number of bowmen showing up. The king, Silver Robe, called for a halt. Though wary, the circle and the king began to talk. Again, the circle told the truth of why they were there. The king claimed that they knew nothing of Amarel and insisted the group leave. A deal was struck, allowing the group to escape the law of the land (getting scarred) if they left immediately and never returned. The group agreed to leave.

Seventh Amethyst and a number of other spirits escorted the circle to the coast. Once there, surrounded only by her trusted soldiers, Seventh Amethyst made a deal with the circle, admitting that Amarel was held in the highest tower. The disruption of Starved Tiger improved Seventh Amethyst’s position greatly. She also understood the situation, fearing Fakharu’s wrath, as well as that of the circle. The circle indicated they would make a night raid and she agreed to post trusted sentries that would look the other way along the direction of their approach. She also agreed to keep a messenger ready on the beach in case of last minute plan changes. The circle withdrew to a small island nearby to heal and plan.

1st day of Resplendent Earth, RY 769
Island of Broken Masks	25 February 2004

After midnight, the circle returned to the island with a plan involving a lightning grab for Amarel. Seventh Amethyst left a toucan, who informed them of an eagle spirit guardian on top of the tower and asked the circle if they had any message for his mistress. They suggested a loud diversion be created, as if Amarel’s room was to be stormed from below. The toucan returned indicating his mistress needed an hour to set it up, during which Tidal Influence took Gutts and Cruxis to the other end of the island.

Guen changed into a karmeus, took Varden in her talons and flew at speed to the tower. Varden, already powered with strength charms, used the hearthstone lent him by Fakharu to try to make the eagle spirit desire a rock that Varden threw behind him. This didn’t work, and the eagle let out a loud alarm cry. Guen propelled Varden through the window into Amarel’s room, then flew around to meet Varden on the other side.

Inside the room, using charms to increase speed, Varden picked up Amarel and leapt out the opposite window. The spirit guarding Amarel, Grey Wrath, did get one strike in on Varden and used Words of Power on both he and Guen, who caught Varden on the other side of the tower.

Struggling with the extra weight, Guen made some Willpower-backed rolls to clear the outer wall of the city, and Varden used more speed increasing charms to run away.

Pursuit was limited to a pair of air elementals, whose bashing attacks could not bring Guen down, as he invoked Calling Luna’s Favor to regenerate.

Island of Broken Masks

3 March 2004

Not long after Tidal Influence took the circle away from the island, the sirens attacked, nailing most of the party with obedience charms. Because one of the sirens neglected to command Gutts to avoid attacking, he sliced into two of them, cutting one in half and incapacitating the other. The third (Chamae) attempted to steal Amarel away, but Varden and Guen interceded, leading to a standoff. Chamae negotiated for a promise of mercy from Fakharu in exchange for releasing control of Gutts and Cruxis. The party reluctantly agreed.

During the battle, one of the sirens gained control of Tidal Influence and commanded him to “move away as fast as possible”. He used his Hurry Home charm to return to Fakharu’s spire in the middle of the combat. Thus, once it was over, Tidal was two days journey away, forcing the circle to move under their own power. After a brief shark attack, Guen carted the circle most of the way to the abandoned island they used before, with the idea being that if Tidal returned, he would check there.

Archipelago of the Exiles, uninhabited island

3 March 2004

After long hours swimming, the circle made it to the island and trained, rested, scavenged, fished and ate all day.

2nd day of Resplendent Earth, RY 769
Archipelago of the Exiles, uninhabited island	3 March 2004

Another day of training, eating and waiting.

3rd day of Resplendent Earth, RY 769
Archipelago of the Exiles, uninhabited island	3 March 2004

In the morning, Tidal Influence showed up, after having traveled non-stop. He picked the circle up and moved traveled to the spire the rest of the day.

4th day of Resplendent Earth, RY 769
Western Ocean	3 March 2004

The journey back to the spire continues, with the circle mostly training.

Shemaru

5th day of Resplendent Earth, RY 769
Fakharu’s Spire	3 March 2004

Eventually making it back to the spire, the circle snuck Amarel into the spire and got cleaned up. After more dalliances with the material girls and a much needed bath, the circle was invited to dinner with Fakharu and Amarel. The circle recounted the story during dinner. When dessert came, Fakharu indicated that each member of the circle would find “tokens of gratitude” in their rooms when they returned. He also asked if there was anything he could help them with. The following information was conveyed:

Repairing manse: Fakharu has sent spirits to view the manse, and they indicate that the First Age construction eludes them. Fakharu believes that repairs might be made with a magic item called a Singing Staff. He knows of two of these, though at least six were created. The Empress holds one. The other was in the possession of a solar architect and sorcerer named Kal Bax, who created the first one. Bax was known to retreat to the far North during the Usurpation with a handful of other solars, where it is believed he died, though no one found his last resting place. Fakharu presents them with the pages of Ozandus indicating that is only clue his librarian could find.

Finding Regret: Spirits have reported the following:

• A spirit in the southern desert tracked a strange man who traveled at night and smelled of death; when the sun rose, his long shadow had monstrous features.
• Later, the normally clear skies at the edge of the desert beyond the mountains south of Chiarscuro grew dark and overcast and black lightning crackled from the earth to the sky. Fakharu believes this to be the result of a deathnight shedding a great deal of resonance.
• About a week later, a thunderbird spotted the large tent village of firedust gatherers in the south desert whose inhabitants had been slaughtered. Amid the carnage, the spirit saw a lone Day caste deathnight, anima shining brightly. Covered in blood and apparently having drank much of it, the abyssal alternately laughed maniacally and sobbed uncontrollably. The spirit flew away when the deathnight attempted to attack it.
• A month ago, in a small settlement to the northeast of Gem, a white haired stranger was seen to be crying blood in a local tavern. A few days later, the local militia broke into this man’s room in an inn after other guests reported strange noises and muffled screams coming from his room. The man was nowhere to be found, but within the room was a man who had been tortured to death, with a strange hole in his forehead.
• The spirit of a graveyard in the Lap indicates that for the last week or so, a pale man with white hair has offered tribute of a strange gem to it in exchange for permission to sleep in one of the graveyard’s crypts.

Restoring Regret: Fakharu instructs his librarian Shemaru to report his findings. Shemaru seems pleased with the challenge, and report that, as deathnights have not existed long, not much information exists on restoring them. The only analog he could find was the legend of Baradine, one of the first solars who, according to legend, had her nature twisted by the touch of She Who Lives in Her Name, a Yozi Baradine helped defeat. The legend has it that, because she had been corrupted, the gods refused to help her but a group of solar and lunar exalted who had fought with her refused to abandon her. Various stories mention that that they managed to restore her, including one story that refers to a device that aided them as the Three Gated Cage. Shemaru has been able to piece together more information about this device, though much of this is guesswork. The device consists of four main parts:

• The first gate somehow ejects the exalted soul-shard from the body of the exalted. Though some stories hint that this is an artifact of some kind, Shemaru believes that the first gate is actually a potion created from a magical plant called cunaria, which grows only in Yu-Shan. This plant evidently takes a number of days to take effect, and once the soul-shard is ejected, the mortal body must be maintained magically or it will die.
• The second gate strips the corrupted portions from the soul-shard, which coalesce into a malignant being that must be defeated in combat. The exact make up of this gate is unclear, but one reference suggests this gate may have demonic origins.
• The third gate merges the purified soul-shard back into the mortal body. All of the references mention that at least one sorcerer capable of harnessing solar circle magic plays a large role in the entire ritual and most references infer that this sorcerer is absolutely critical to the operation of the third gate. This leads Shemaru to postulate that the third gate is a specific solar circle spell. The solar circle sorcerer who most likely participated in the ritual to restore Baradine was a Twilight named Wyr’palja. She died not long after the dawning of the First Age and was buried in a lavish tomb in the eastern forests; however, this tomb is known to have been overrun with Fair Folk during their invasion after the Great Contagion.
• The cage performs the critical function of preventing the loose soul-shard from escaping during the ritual. Left to itself, the shard will comb Creation for a new, worthy mortal to inhabit. The references are unanimous in referencing an orichalcum cage “surrounded by darkness”, held within a deep mountain, with a channel carved straight up to allow the Unconquered Sun to observe the proceedings more easily. Shemaru is uncertain if this means a specific cave or any cave at all, but does know that if channel was indeed carved straight up, the sun would only shine directly down it at noon and likely only on a certain day of the year. Some commentaries written on the reference material suggests that the reference to darkness indicates a shadowland or the underworld itself.

Shemaru indicates that he will continue researching.

The material girls took members of the circle back to their rooms individually. Each girl was allowed to choose a mundane gift (resources ••••) from Fakharu’s hoard and present it:

• Orichalcum to Gutts: 5 tiny hand crafted gold sun sculptures, of incredible detail, looking almost like they move. Provide good gifts/bribes for spirits.
• Soulsteel to Guen: 5 small figurines with carved from alabaster, each detailing an animal (panther, hawk, mammoth, bear, crocodile) in incredible detail, almost down to individual hairs. Their value comes from the artistry of the poses, which make the animals look almost sad somehow as if waiting for something. Would be highly prized grave goods or bribes for the dead.
• Jade to Varden: An extremely rare jade coin, forged before the Great Contagion.
• Moonsilver to Cruxis: Spirit shark hide buff jacket.

Within their rooms, they found boxes containing the gifts Fakharu mentioned. Each contained a figurine of a dragon that can animate and spy. Each also received a more potent gift:

• Gutts: A pair of sandals called the Boots of Descending Thunder
• Guen: A moonsilver bow known as Aborinox
• Varden: A note allowing him to keep the hearthstone and an essence containing gem
• Cruxis: An orichalcum reaper daiklave known as Incandescent Razor

next chapter