Session 11: The Final Session

Gallahad tries to calm the onlookers while Quixote looks over Beth and uses his combo so she'll heal most of her wounds at the end of the day.  Gallahad explains to the clerk and the two remaining councilmen that those men were Fair Folk who had replaced the people they looked like and were trying to ruin the town.  He adds that he and his friends are obviously... talented... and that he hopes that as thanks for saving them, the three of them won't make that fact public.  They agree.  Meanwhile, Beth is glowing slightly and Quixote is glowing quite a bit, so they ask for a small windowless room in which to rest.  They stay there until Beth wakes up, around 6.

The three of them have dinner and rest, and they have a quiet morning.  Beth and Gallahad go to a puppet show and enjoy themselves.  Beth notices again that she and Gallahad have the same color hair, and that it even curls the same way.  She mentions this to Gallahad, and he agrees.  A moment later, he explains, “I knew your mother.”  Oh... wait... OH!  She's pretty shocked, and wants to know why he didn't tell her before.  He explains that he only recently figured it out himself, and he thought Lyn would tell her.

They go to a schoolyard and sit on the swings for a while, talking about her mother, her sister, and more.  After a while, they head back to the inn.

Meanwhile, Lyn has been treating the former prisoners, and the burn victim has developed a bad case of gangrene.  She decides that she has to amputate, gives him a stick to bite on, and slices his legs off with her rapier.  (Roll Dex + Medicine!)  She then staunches the bleeding.  He's unconscious from the pain.  She helps everyone onto their horses, except the amputee, who she puts on a litter behind her horse, and they head for Little Forks.

They reach a small town partway through, and Lyn finds a doctor to look after the deathknight's victims.  She leaves him with some coin and then heads to Little Forks at a much faster clip, arriving there around 3.  She finds out that there's been some trouble with the mayor and his councilmen, so she heads to town hall.  Then she tries to figure out what inn her sister might have gone to, and she nails it.  She gets there and sees Quixote eating a late lunch.

Soon, Beth and Gallahad walk in, and Beth asks Lyn why she kept secrets from her.  Once Lyn realizes what she's talking about, she glares daggers at Gallahad, who deflects the blame, arguing that Beth figured most of it out on her own.  The two girls argue and Lyn heads angrily to her room at the inn.  

Later, the party decides to try to lay low, so they'll head to Great Forks to blend in with the crowd.  On their way out of town, however, Lyn spots a portrait of a woman who looks just like an older version of her mother.  She's shocked, and she asks the artist who the woman was.  He can't remember, but he does remember that she lives a bit south of there, in Baby Forks.  She buys the portrait and the party heads for Baby Forks.

Once they arrive, they ask someone whether he knows the woman in the portrait.  He says, “Mira?  Sure I know her.”  Mira?  That isn't one of her usual pseudonyms, Lyn thinks, but it's been a long time, so maybe she's picked up some more.  The man directs them to her house.

The group takes a deep breath and knocks.  The door is answered by a young girl.  When Lyn asks for the lady of the house, the girl yells, “Mom!”  A voice answers, “Who is it, Evelyn?”

“Wait... what?”

'Mira' comes to the door and welcomes them, and Lyn asks her if that's her real name.  She responds that it has been for the last fourteen or fifteen years, at least.  She explains that she woke up in this town about fifteen years ago with no memories of who she was.  Lyn asks if she recognizes them, and she says she doesn't.  Then she looks at their eyes and realizes who they are.  Lyn yells that she's disappointed that her amazing mother is now a simple housewife, and she stalks off looking for a fight.  Meanwhile, the rest of the group comes into Mira's home to chat.

Beth apologizes for her sister, explaining that Lyn has been looking for her mother for most of her life and it's been a real shock to actually find her.  She then tells Mira about herself and Evelyn, and Gallahad explains that he's the girls' father.  Mira says she's just a simple housewife, but they catch her in the lie.  She then admits that she does some espionage and information gathering.  Quixote ponders the situation and tells Mira that he might be able to cure her amnesia.

They hypothesize that she was drugged, probably by the same drug the party has used a few times.  If that's the case, Quixote can make an antidote.  However, he isn't sure it will work, and he doesn't know what it will do if the amnesia was caused by something else.  He adds that some people take the drug on purpose, in order to forget horrible trauma.

Mira considers this and decides that she wants to know about her previous life.  Quixote goes and collects the herbs-- asking for “a billionth of a cubic acre” of a particular herb, causing some confusion to the greenhouse keeper-- and mixes the medicine.  He gives it to her, and she takes a deep breath, drinks it, screams, and passes out.  Gallahad catches her and they take her to her room.  Beth, meanwhile, calms down little Evelyn and tells her that they're just taking care of her mommy.  Quixote thinks she'll be unconscious for several hours.

Meanwhile, Lyn heads to the shadiest part of this tiny town and finds three men attacking a fourth, demanding to know where “she” is.  Lyn, cloaked and hooded, intervenes, and the leader yells, “There she is!”  When they get a better look, one man says, “It's not even her!”  Regardless, she handily dispatches the leader and the second man, and she then talks to the third man.  He tries to run, and she catches him and tackles him, demanding to know who he works for and what he's doing.  He then reaches for his pocket and gets a knife through his hand for the trouble.  He gives little information, and after threatening torture, Lyn finally just kills him.

She then heads back to Mira's house, believing that the men were looking for her.  She warns the others and keeps looking in on Mira, though she won't admit that she's concerned.  Eventually Mira's son Ben comes home, followed by her husband John... awkward!  Beth is taking care of little Evelyn and Gallahad is fortunately out on a walk, leaving Lyn and Quixote to do the explaining.  He seems concerned for his wife but relatively okay with the situation, and he and Lyn continue to watch over Mira.  At some point, Lyn asks Beth to guard the perimeter.

Eventually, Mira wakes up.  Lyn tells John that she's been keeping secrets from him, and she tells about her information gathering job.  Lyn also tells the two of them about the men who attacked her and recommends they leave town.  Mira agrees, concerned for her children.  Lyn then asks whether Mira remembers her.  “Maybe... I'm not sure...”  Things are still a bit fuzzy.  She does remember John, fortunately, as well as Gallahad.  Lyn, upset at not being remembered as clearly, leaves and waits outside the house.

After a few minutes, Mira/Esmerelda goes outside and talks to Lyn.  She says that she does remember her now; things were just fuzzy the first few minutes after she woke up.  She's sorry that she didn't come back, and says she would have if she could have.  She says she's very proud of Lyn and that she did a great job raising Beth.  She even asks for Lyn's help in keeping her new family safe for a while.  Lyn agrees.  Lyn then turns to her mother, tears in her eyes, and gives her a big hug.

**The End**

Session 10:

After getting all the information from the Fair Folk that they can, Quixote makes up a concoction to make him forget everything.  They keep him tied to the bed and theorize about how they can tell which of the other councilmen are Fair Folk.  Gallahad remembers that they're highly allergic to steel.  They test this out on the unconscious Fair Folk, however, and it doesn't work.  The others think he might be on to something, however.  Maybe there's some metal that gives them problems?  They test oricalchum, copper, silver, and gold, and none of those do anything.  Then they decide to look at it from another view.  What metals has this guy been avoiding?

They search his house and notice that he hasn't been wearing any belts.  Belt buckles are often made of iron, so they test one of their own belt buckles against the Fair Folk, and he screams in agony and his flesh burns somewhat.  Bingo!  They then give the guy the mixture that will give him amnesia and tie him up and put him in the closet.

They decide to test the councilmen with iron.  They consider trying to replace the chairs in the meeting room with iron chairs, but that seems hard to do.  Then someone decides they could do an airborne test with iron filings.  Beth goes to the blacksmith and gets some spare iron filings and Gallahad and Quixote head to the town hall to check out the roof.  They meet up and buy a few pairs of overalls, and Gallahad and Quixote climb up and drill a hole in the roof over the meeting room.  Quixote then thinks it might be smart to drill a few more holes, so they can break in through the roof if they have to.  Beth tries to get in on her own to see the mayor, but is told she can't disturb the mayor.  She says she'll sit and wait for him to finish with his meeting.

The men file into the room and begin discussing business.  They notice that Section Chief O'Brien isn't there.  Quixote fears that they might send someone to go get him, so they blow the iron filings into the room.  The mayor and two of the other four men begin to cough and sneeze violently.  Quixote and Gallahad decide that's proof enough, and they break the roof and jump in.  Beth hears the commotion and runs to the meeting room as well, with the secretary trailing behind her.

Once the Fair Folk see their 'attackers', they initiate combat.  Beth takes the brunt of it, with Quixote also taking a small amount of damage.  Beth uses her combo twice, while Gallahad and Quixote keep their Essence expenditure down to not give themselves away.  The mayor goes down first, followed by another of the men, but Beth falls unconscious, as well.  The third Fair Folk, seeing what happened to the first two, jumps out the window and makes a run for it.  This leaves the three Solars with three very scared and confused witnesses.  Now what?

Session 9:

Quixote, Beth, and Gallahad make it to Little Forks without further complications.  Once there, Beth takes charge, trying to figure out how big sis would do things.  She starts by trying to meet with one of her sister's contacts... or at least, someone she thinks is a contact.  The conversation goes something like this:

Beth: Hi!  You look familiar.  Do you know my sister?

Guy: Uh, I don't know.  Who's your sister?

Beth: Her name is, uh, um, uh... (tries to remember her sisters pseudonym)

Guy: Is this some kind of scam or something?

Beth: No, no, it's just... her name is...

Guy: You really need to work on it.  (walks off)

Beth: Oh, it's Eve!  Her name is Eve!

Guy: (shakes head and sighs)

Slightly discouraged, Beth decides to try heading to the tavern instead.  She sees someone she might recognize, sits near him, and orders the strongest drink they have.  She downs it with no trouble and orders another.  She then double-botches and passes out cold the second she finishes the drink.  The barkeep puts her on a cot he keeps in back for these purposes.

Gallahad wanders the town a while and then heads to the tavern.  Quite coincidentally, he sits exactly where Beth was sitting, and he orders a beer.  He then hears snoring coming from a back room.  Very familiar snoring, in fact.  He asks the barkeep what happened, and he lamely explains that it's someone who works the night shift.  After a few more minutes of listening, however, Gallahad is sure it's Beth.  He asks, “Do you  happen to have a young blond girl back there?”  The man stumbles on his words a bit, and Gallahad heads back there.  He goes to Beth and tries to wake her up, but she's out cold.  He asks what happened, and the man asks how he knows her.  “I'm her father,” he says, figuring that he's safe since she's unconscious.

The man is highly suspicious and keeps an eye on them, but he lets Gallahad stay.  Eventually Beth wakes up, and he checks with her to make sure she knows Gallahad.  She says she does, and he says, “Well, I'm sure your father will get you all taken care of, then.”  He then leaves the room.

…

“Um... did I miss something?”

Gallahad replies, “I had to think of something so he'd let me back here.”

Meanwhile, Quixote decides to head to the temple.  He prays and asks the temple leader whether anything strange has been going on in town, particularly with the leaders of the town.  The man replies that they have recently raised taxes and significantly reduced penalties for crimes.  Quixote thanks the man and heads to the tavern to meet with the others.

At the tavern, they think about where to go next.  They don't think charging in and accusing the mayor is the best of ideas, so someone suggests questioning the mayor's secretary.  Beth decides they should dress appropriately, so she takes Gallahad and Quixote shopping.  She first picks out a sleek pink dress for herself, after ripping a yellow one trying to get it over her muscular arms.  Oops.  She then dresses Gallahad in a blue suit and Quixote in brown, which takes most of Gallahad's money.  Quixote turns his staff into a briefcase and they pose as two businessmen looking to get started in Little Forks, and a woman helping them.  She takes them to the mayor's secretary, a bored man who just sends them down to Transportation and Commerce.  Beth gets teary and explains that this is the first time she's tried to arrange things and she wanted them to go right, but he isn't at all moved by her plight.

At Transportation and Commerce, they try again and are asked what they sell.  “Uh... buttons,” Gallahad replies.  They're told that they should talk to the Tailoring Guild before they can get a license.  The group decides to try another tactic.  Quixote goes back to the temple to ask a few more questions, and Beth and Gallahad wait outside for someone to leave.  The first one out is the mayor's secretary.  Beth offers to buy him a drink, and he declines politely.  She and Gallahad insist, and he finally relents.

Once there, he orders his usual-- vodka with a spoonful of peanut butter.  Ugh!  They keep plying him with drink and with questions, and they find that the mayor and his council have been changing the a lot of rules.  Beth asks where they can see these changes, and the man explains that one of the first rules they changed were that they didn't have to post the changes anymore.  Great.  The man becomes more and more drunk, and his words flow freely.  He complains a lot about Section Chief O'Brien, a man who was recently promoted and has seemed very different since his promotion.  Apparently he let his promotion go to his head...  The funny thing about all these changes, however, is that they seem to only change the rules that are working, and they change them into rules that don't work.

Meanwhile, Quixote speaks again with the man at the temple, and he finds that the changes are even worse than he originally thought.  He knew taxes had increased, but he didn't know they went from 3% to 10% overnight, for instance!  Also, the man forgot to tell him about all the prisoners being let free for some sort of holiday of forgiveness.  Things are looking worse and worse for the town.

Quixote rejoins the others, and the man keeps talking.  Beth suggests that she try taking over his job for a day, as he obviously needs rest, but he says that no, his job is horrible and she wouldn't want it.  “Imagine dealing with people like you today!”  Tact... we need none of this tact!  He finally lets slip that the mayor and his men have secret meetings late at night.  He realizes he's just shared these secret meetings with them, panics, and leaves.

The three of them then decide to visit Section Chief O'Brien.  Now they just need to find where he lives.  Beth gets the brilliant idea of going to a brothel.  After all, if he's as corrupt as it seems, it's likely  he might be there.  She goes, with Gallahad and Quixote right behind her in case anything goes wrong.  She asks if Section Chief O'Brien might be available, and is told no.  She explains she likes men in uniform, and the head of the brothel finds her a soldier.  She goes into his room, and he's very excited to see her.  He isn't expecting her questions, however-- it seems that she just wants to know about Chief O'Brien.  Once he shares his location, Beth leaves.

They then head to O'Brien's house.  He answers the door and tells them to go away, but Quixote pushes his way inside.  They threaten the man slightly and he finally lets them in and tells them to have a seat at his table.  They then ask about his policies, and they soon accuse him of being corrupt.  Quixote asks whether he really deserved the promotion, and Beth finally puts him in a choke hold.  At this, he drops his disguise and they recognize him as a Fair Folk.

Combat ensues.  Quixote trips and misses most of the fight, and the Fair Folk, whose real name is Legolas, dodges all of Beth's attacks, so he only takes bashing damage.  Legolas goes after Beth and Gallahad, doing a little damage to each, but Gallahad eventually knocks him down.  They then tie him down, and Beth uses some of her new toys on him.  She puts the collar that prevents the expenditure of essence on him, not knowing that he's used all his essence trying to evade them, and she also puts on the lie-detecting ring.  They then tie him down and wake him up.

Beth leads the questioning and asks him to name his co-conspirators.  He says no, and she asks if he's sworn an oath not to.  After all, Fair Folk physically can't break oaths.  He says yes, but the ring says he's lying.  They try to get him to tell, with Beth threatening to break his leg, but he quickly says, “I, Legolas, swear to not reveal the identities of my collaborators.”

They take a break, with Beth going outside and Gallahad following.  She expresses her frustration that she didn't hit Legolas at all during the fight and that she wasn't able to get information out of him, and Gallahad reassures her that they all have fights like that.  He then suggests that maybe they can get him to clear some people, sort of skirting the oath.  They're unsure whether it will work, but they agree to try it.  Also, Beth gets an idea to prevent him from swearing an oath every time so they can't get information.  She tells him he can either swear an oath to never swear another oath after that one, or she'll crush his larynx.  What a choice.

He agrees and swears the required oath.  They then start by asking whether the mayor's secretary is in on it, and he says no.  They next ask about the Transportation and Commerce guy, and they're told he isn't, either.  After that, they switch to asking about the meetings.  He says he can't tell them where they are, so Beth asks him to tell them what days of the week they are not on.  He hems and haws, and finally decides that he can't divulge that either.

Session 8:

After Quixote does what he can for Lyn, he decides to explore the rest of the castle.  He finds a jeweled box upstairs but decides to leave it alone, since it might be trapped.  He looks for medical books, but the closest things he can find are how to torture people effectively.  On his way downstairs, he steps in an invisible trap and his foot sticks to the ground.  He turns his staff into a grappling hook and pulls his way out, and it makes a loud popping noise when he does so, alerting the others.  Once Gallahad is certain Beth will be okay, he comes down to investigate, and he gets stuck too, with both feet and one hand.  He pulls himself off, thanks to his incredible strength, and puts a curtain over the area, both to mark it and to prevent anyone else from getting stuck.

The two men then enter the dungeon, where they find four prisoners being tortured.  One is being stretched on the rack, one has pins stuck in him, one is being kept in ice water, and the last is being slowly lowered into a cauldron of boiling water-- he's currently above it, but the steam is scalding his legs.  They quickly remove the prisoners from the torture devices and Quixote treats them.  Gallahad then moves them upstairs, both so they'll be more comfortable and so they'll be closer in case something goes wrong.

Lyn regains consciousness and she and Beth and Gallahad search the castle next, and they too find the jeweled box.  They open it and it starts playing a lullaby, which puts Lyn to sleep and makes Beth and Gallahad very sleepy.  Gallahad shuts the lid while Beth catches Lyn.  They put her in bed, and then set out and find a small, leather-bound book in River of Angst's desk drawer.  They determine that it's trapped, and Beth flips the cover open and immediately dodges the lightning that shoots out of the book.  Looks like she's learning from her sister!  Beth then reads that River of Angst is from Edelton, and the town did not treat him well.  He set the disease on them as revenge.  Further, she reads that he had plans to replace several key officials from Little Forks, a suburb of Great Forks, with his allies, in an attempt to turn the city to one ruled by chaos and criminals.  She shares this information with Gallahad, and they then go talk to the doctor.

At this point, Beth suddenly can't speak Riverspeak, their common language.  She babbles a bit and then stops.  Gallahad is taking her to the doctor, but suddenly Quixote, too, loses Riverspeak, and then Lyn does, as well.  She begins speaking in Old Realm, which many of them speak, and loses that too.  She finally curses in Guildspeak, not that anyone else can understand it.  While the party stands around puzzled, they hear an unearthly, ear-piercing scream, dealing lethal damage that neither their dodge nor their armor can protect them against.  Lyn is knocked unconscious once again.  The rest of the group race to the next room and find another death knight, a woman with long black hair and dark eyes.

Combat opens, and she uses her combo to attack everyone at least once, and some up to three times, all in a single turn.  This makes her almost run out of Essence, and she uses the last of it to decrease Beth's attack so she misses.  Then Gallahad does a double punch that finishes her off.  The party didn't get much of a chance to question her, since only Gallahad spoke Riverspeak by the end.  An hour later, they all get their normal language skills back.

Lyn regains consciousness once more and decides that she should stay back with the injured people, since they aren't able to move but the party has knowledge of some urgency.  After a little debate, the rest of the party agrees.  Quixote shows her what to do for the injured people, and then the three of them head back to the Little Forks area.

On their third day of travel, they spot a strix-- a large owl with a 15-foot wingspan.  It swoops down and tries to carry Quixote away.  It gets about 20 feet off the ground when Gallahad catapults Beth up to meet it, and she lands on its neck and kills it.  She manages to cut Quixote free of its talons, so he can get of the way and not have a giant bird fall on him, and they land.  Beth is a bit shaken and hurt her shoulder slightly, but there were no major injuries.

Session 7:

After about six hours, the Dragon-Blooded survivor begins to wake up.  He cracks an eyelid and then pretends to go back to sleep.  Lyn notices and immediately 'wakes him up' with a hand clenched around his throat.  She questions him and finds that he and his partner were sent out to take care of a single Solar, Quixote, and that they were on their way to Edelton next, to take care of a disease taking hold of the village.  Apparently the citizens of the town are all coming down with some illness that slowly takes hold of a person and makes them very fatigued and feverish.

Rather than killing the man, Lyn wonders whether it's possible to wipe his memory.  Quixote knows of a concoction that will do just that-- it will take all of his memories, but there isn't a more selective way that he can think of.  He goes to gather the necessary herb that he doesn't already have in his medicine bag and returns two hours later with a few purple flowers.  He mixes the herbs and forces them down the man's throat.  He should be out for about eight hours and wake up with no memories.

The party then takes all Dragon-Blooded symbols off of the horses, cuts the extra horses loose, and leaves for Edelton.  The journey is mostly uneventful, though as they come near Edelton, they begin to hear rumors of a terrible illness paralyzing the town.  Apparently merchants have come through, but business from and in Edelton has come to a standstill.

About a mile from the edge of Edelton, Lyn spots a boy of about ten lying unconscious in the road.  He's pale and has a mild fever, and he's holding berries in his hand.  Lyn suggests Quixote make masks for them to wear out of bandages, to give the appearance that they're worried about catching the disease.  They don't expect to, since they're Exalts, but they don't want to advertise that fact.  While Quixote tries to figure out what's wrong with the boy, Lyn examines the berries.  She isn't sure about them, so she points them out to Quixote, at which point he figures out that that's the problem.  The berries are poisonous.  Quixote gives him some herbs to make him vomit out the poison.

Atallah and Urim decide to stay outside the town for a while and let the Exalts see the condition of the place.  Urim and Beth have a quick goodbye, and then the Solars go into town.  As they get closer, they find more dirty, hungry children picking berries, and they warn them away from them.  The only people they see are children under the age of 11 or 12, and they all look like they haven't been well cared-for.

Beth and Quixote head to the inn, where they find an unconscious man in the common room and a make-shift hospital upstairs.  There are nine bodies in the first room, two on each bed and the other five on blankets on the floor.  Three of them are dead from dehydration.  Other rooms are similar.  Quixote deduces that it isn't so much the disease that's killing people as the effects of the disease-- people are too exhausted to get themselves food or water.

Meanwhile, Lyn and Gallahad head to Corey's house.  They find him and his mother both unconscious, and his three younger siblings are hungry.  Lyn cooks them some food and plays Mom while Gallahad heads back to the inn.  They decide to get everyone together so they can tend to them more easily, so Beth and Gallahad start hauling bodies to the inn, while the older kids give the adults what little water they can handle.  Quixote has also dedicated a room to the dead bodies-- “Don't tell the kids!”

Beth thinks she might have read about something like this, but she can't remember where, and Edelton doesn't have a library.  Gallahad has a hunch that it's a natural disease, but Quixote realizes that this could be the result of an Abyssal spell-- one which has a limited radius.  This would explain why the disease didn't spread beyond Edelton.  Beth and Gallahad begin moving the people who are doing the worst a few miles out of the city, to where Atallah and Urim are, and they set about taking care of them there.

After a few hours, the people who have been outside the village borders begin to get better.  The plan is that people who have recovered will cycle in and help move others out of the village, as well as take care of the kids.  Then the party will try to track down an Abyssal who might have caused this.  It seems likely that he's in the Shadowlands about a week west of the town.  Quixote, Beth, Lyn, and Gallahad set out for the Shadowlands to search for this death knight while Urim and Atallah stay behind to help the town.

Upon arriving in the Shadowlands, they find that the entire place is misty and dark.  Quixote lights a lantern, and the light doesn't go quite as far as it should.  As the party comes to a small castle, Quixote puts out the light, and Lyn decides to sneak around to see what she can find out.  After all, they can't be sure an Abyssal Exalt lives here, much less that it's the right one.  They decide that Lyn should go in and search for clues, and the others will come in after 10 minutes if she isn't out yet.

Lyn activates her new Invisible Presence Meditation and Graceful Crane Stance and nimbly leaps up onto the wall and into a window on the upper floor.  She cautiously eases the door open... and it creaks.  A very handsome man comes up the stairs, and Lyn pulls a River Tam and braces herself near the ceiling of the hallway.  He casts a spell, and Lyn gets really worried.  Then she thinks about the movements he made and guesses that the spell has something to do with something happening if someone steps on the floor.  She walks herself along the ceiling until she gets clear of that area and then silently drops down and follows him.

Downstairs, the death knight sits and begins reading a book.  Lyn sneaks closer and realizes it's called A Treatise on Sorcery and Necromancy.  She then begins writing something... and he hears her pen scratching.  He charges over to where she was standing, and she quickly moves out of his way.  He casts that same spell and sits down, continuing to look roughly in Lyn's direction.  She quickly folds her note and sends it to him as a paper airplane-- it's a drawing of him that says “Bishie bad”.  He calls to someone to come down.  A horrible, scary-looking woman, a nephwrack, emerges and asks what's happening, and he explains that there's someone in their castle.  She walks over and steps in his trap, which leaves her stuck to the ground.  Lyn snickers silently.

Lyn then jumps up onto the chandelier and calmly reappears.  She begins talking to the death knight, trying to stall for time.  It's been about ten minutes by now, so the party decides to go in.  Rather than trying to climb up to the window, which would take time, they knock on the front door.  The man, named River of Angst, sends the woman to go answer the door.  Beth insists upon coming in, and tries to force her way in.  It takes Gallahad adding to it to open the door, but they make their way in.  Meanwhile, River of Angst starts attacking Lyn, figuring that he should get her out of the way before dealing with the rest of the group.

River of Angst opens by going into his form and forming blood chains, and Lyn comes at him with her awesome combo.  She gets four attacks in, and he's been wounded seriously, but he doesn't seem affected.  He then goes after her, and three attacks leave her unconscious and bleeding to death.  Rather than finishing her off, he runs downstairs, determined to take care of her afterwards.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group has opened combat downstairs.  The nephwrack has black goo pour out of her mouth and form itself into the shape of a person, which then pursues Beth.  Beth attacks it, and nothing happens.  She tries again with a charm, pumping some Essence into the attack, and kills it immediately with her grand grimscythe.  The other two handle the nephwrack, and then they charge upstairs.

They meet River of Angst on the stairs and Beth asks where her sister is.  “I've taken care of her,” he says.  She responds by throwing everything she has into killing him.  Then they all race up and see Lyn unconscious, cut up, and lying in a pool of blood.  Beth panics and Gallahad takes her to another room while Quixote looks over Lyn.  He stops her bleeding and uses his awesome combo, but even that doesn't do much for her-- she's stable, but unconscious and in bad condition.

Session 6:

The party follows the bootprints until Lyn spots a very large spider, about the size of her head.  She jokingly asks, “Are you Charlotte?”, and the spider responds, “No, I am not.”  Oh.  It actually spoke back.  Lyn then asks the spider whether she has seen two men and a woman walking down the trail, and she describes Atallah.  The spider responds that she saw one man and one woman walking down, and that the woman appeared to be in no distress whatsoever.  Hmm... was Atallah really taken against her will, or is she plotting against the party?

Beth and Gallahad both know that wood spiders tend to manipulate the truth-- they don't always lie, but they sometimes do, and they often speak in riddles.  However, Atallah does wear boots, and it's possible that the smaller of the two tracks are hers.  Beth then asks whether there's a shortcut so they can catch up with Atallah and the man with her, and the spider offers a place where they can get horses, about a half an hour's walk to the west.  She offers to take them there, and she leads the way.

About fifteen minutes in, two more wood spiders show up, and they begin to attack the party.  Apparently, wood spiders also like to get travelers lost and then devour them.  Oops.  The first spider goes after Beth, attempting to bite her, but she easily dodges out of the way and butchers it.  The other two spiders try mental attacks, but the party resists.  The spiders then blend in with the trees, giving the Exalts some trouble finding them, but Lyn spots one and Gallahad spots the other, and they go after them.  By now, the spiders have retreated to higher ground, so Lyn gets one with a flying tree-jump and Gallahad hits the other with a hammer-fist strike.  Quixote then finishes it off, using his staff to poke the spider.

The party decides that it probably isn't worth continuing on in that direction, as the spiders weren't very trustworthy.  They instead head back to the trail and continue to follow the bootprints.  They arrive at a small encampment with a single building, and they see a few men outside and Atallah strapped to a chair and slightly battered.

Beth steps out and tries to reason with the men, but after finding out that they know Atallah, they immediately initiate combat.  One man turns his skin to stone and soaks tons of damage, and the other major opponent has lots and lots of dodge.  The two men sitting around the campfire make their way over to the fight but stay out of the way to see what happens.

Lyn tries to focus on the dodging guy, but the stone guy keeps getting in the way and taking the blows instead.  His high soak and plethora of health levels keep the party occupied while the other guy uses a combo to shoot off four arrows at once, all with extra accuracy.  (Fifteen dice on each attack!)  Luckily, Quixote uses Iron Skin Concentration to soak all the damage for two arrows, and Lyn dodges the other two.  Lyn gets off an awesome attack where she runs up Beth's back and stabs from her shoulders, and Beth and Quixote plan a “fastball special”, where Quixote hurls Beth toward the enemy.  Unfortunately, Quixote isn't very strong, and this leads to a spectacular face plant several yards from the enemy.  Lyn takes a few hits from the stone guy and Quixote uses his awesome combo to heal her completely.

Once the stone guy is finally unconscious, the party focuses on the archer.  He dodges several attacks, but they finally manage to take him down and kill him.  By this point, Beth and Lyn are glowing like bonfires, and Beth's anima power scares away the rest of the men at the camp.  Gallahad carries the unconscious Dragon-Blooded inside, and Quixote stabilizes him and says he'll wake in about six hours.  The party rests and regains their Essence and Willpower.

Session 5:

Lyn opens the next door to find herself staring into the face of an automaton.  She immediately closes the door, and the automaton doesn't seem to respond.  Beth takes a closer look and notices that he has a key around his neck, but he doesn't seem to be moving.  Quixote gets an idea and turns his Staff of Illusions into a mechanical grabber thing.  He offers it to Lyn, who declines, so he uses it to take the key off the robot's neck.  Luckily, he does so without waking it.  Great... now what?  The automaton is still standing between them and the door.

Lyn uses Graceful Crane Stance to leap over the robot and get on the other side.  She works the door and opens it into another room.  Then Gallahad uses Travel Without Distance to transport the rest of the party into the room beyond the robot, saving them a fight, but costing him willpower.  The room has a pedestal with three buttons on it.  While Lyn unlocks the next door, Quixote and Beth analyze the buttons.  They decide that they aren't harmful, and that some of them probably control the lights in the room.  Quixote decides to push one, and the overhead light turns on.  Then Beth pushes the other two simultaneously-- causing a rapier to appear on the pedestal.

Beth quickly runs over to Lyn and informs her that there's a sharp shiny thing she might be interested in.  Lyn says she's busy, and Beth adds, “It looks like yours.”  Lyn quickly finishes picking the lock and takes a look.  She sees a very, very nice rapier, and in fact, she recognizes it as “Flashing Wind”, an extremely quick and well-balanced blade.  She grabs for it, and takes it... as well as three levels of lethal damage.  Oops; forgot to check for traps, for once.  Quixote quickly uses his awesome combo and fixes her up, and they continue on.

The next door again leads to a hallway with a robot; this time a larger, more defensively-oriented one.  Beth grabs the key from its hands, and it wakes up.  Lyn, Gallahad, and Quixote do a little damage, and then Beth finishes it off with her giant Grimscythe.  They go through and find a room with medical supplies.  Quixote takes some, as well as a recipe for something to do with moldy bread-- it looks like it could be useful in fighting infection in mortals.

The next door has some sort of puzzle on it.  There are various characters that nobody in the party recognizes, but with some time, they manage to put the pieces together and arrange the characters in the right order.  The door opens, and they find a mannequin in a wedding dress with a ring on either finger.  While Lyn heads to the next door, Gallahad and Beth examine the rings.  They get the feeling that they should put them on and channel essence into them, but they aren't exactly sure what they do.  Lyn takes the ring from Beth, wanting to take any risk herself, and she and Gallahad put them on that the same time and channel.  Nothing happens... Lyn says so, and Gallahad says, “Are you sure?”  Or at least, Lyn thinks he says that.  Nobody else seemed to hear it.  Gallahad has a bit of a smirk on his face.  She thinks about it, and suddenly realizes... “Oh shit,” Gallahad hears, and she yanks the ring off her finger.  They're Rings of Overcoming Distance, and with two motes channeled into either ring, or one mote in each, they allow two people to communicate telepathically.  Beth puts on the one Lyn had, and Gallahad thinks to her, “Maybe I'm not the best person for the other one.”  He smiles and hands the ring to Urim.  The two of them start flirting telepathically, and Gallahad smiles knowingly when they blush.

When Lyn opens the next door, she's greeted by another robot-- and this time, she looks past him to see two more.  The party decides that Gallahad, the strongest of the group thanks to a spell, will try to push the robots over, dominoes-style, and Beth will be ready with her scythe to hack them to pieces while they're on the ground.  Gallahad manages to knock the first one onto the second, causing the second and third ones to topple, but unfortunately the first one falls back on its feet, ready to fight.  Beth immediately slices its head off, and she then focuses on the other two.  One of them isn't moving at all, but the other is trying to make its way up.  She promptly slices into that one, as well, and she takes out the third just in case.  Gallahad clears out the bodies while Lyn looks at the other door.  While moving the bodies, he notices that instead of a hand, one of the automata has a large key.  Beth slices off the hand and hands it to Lyn, who puts it in the lock.

The next room has a flute on a pedestal and a four-year-old boy in a cage.  While the rest of the party looks at the boy and tries to free him, Lyn checks the room for traps.  She gets back to where she started, but something is a little off.  Checking again, she notices that the room is shrinking.  Oh, and also, the doors are gone.  Meanwhile, Quixote finds that the boy is actually a well-designed robot-- probably designed to keep the party interested while the walls slowly came in to crush them.

The party realizes that the flute is essentially the only thing in the room of interest, so Gallahad recommends they try channeling essence into it.  Beth does so, and the walls stop moving.  They then try to figure out how to get the doors back.  Finally, Beth tries blowing into the flute.  It produces a noise and the doors reappear.  Lyn sprints over, checks the door for traps, and the party leaves as quickly as possible.

They find themselves in a hallway with no obvious exit.  Upon closer inspection, they find a tunnel about eight feet high.  Quixote turns his staff into a rope, and Lyn uses her Graceful Crane Stance to leap up, rope in hand.  She then braces herself and holds it while Beth climbs up, and then Beth holds it for the rest of the party.  

In the next room, they see another mannequin-- this one with a golden tunic and black pants.  They also notice that the walls have some sort of metallic shielding, and the panic-inducing aura isn't present in this room.  While Lyn checks out the next door, Beth and Gallahad look at the tunic.  Beth tries it on and channels a little essence into it, and the tunic becomes really nice armor-- it still looks like an ordinary tunic, but it has excellent soak.  This looks like an excellent piece for big sister.

Lyn gets the next door unlocked, but it still won't open-- it looks like it's been boarded up from the inside.  Beth clears the door out of the way with her scythe, and they step in to find a skeleton.  That's probably a bad sign.  Lyn checks the room for traps while Quixote tries to determine a cause of death.  He finds that the man has been dead for centuries, and that there are no cracked bones or anything of that nature-- nothing to explain how he died.  Given that he was locked in the room from the inside, they theorize it might have been starvation or dehydration.  Lyn doesn't find any traps that might indicate how he died.

They then turn their attention to the letter, which is written in Old Realm.  Gallahad reads and translates it for the party.  Essentially, the author of the letter, whom they assume is the dead man, has been trying to break the spell on Denandsor.  His research is in Thorns, however, which has recently become a Shadowland.  The party isn't too keen on heading to Thorns, so they just take the information and leave.

The way out is mostly uneventful, and they come to where they left Atallah.  She isn't there, but there are two sets of large boot-prints leading off.  Oh yeah, and their horses are no longer there.  Raziel, Lyn's cat, says something happened while he was sleeping, and Atallah has been gone for at least six hours.  Lyn isn't pleased about this turn of events, saying she never trusted Atallah, but the party sets out in that direction.

Session 4:

The party heads back to Edelton, and Atallah congratulates them on dealing with the Lunar.  She is quite impressed that they were able to subdue her, and decides that the party is ready to take on the challenges of Denandsor.

The journey to Denandsor takes about two weeks, much of which is uneventful.  One night, however, they are attacked by three Hungry Ghosts and a Ghost-Blooded.  Luckily, they succeed in demolishing these four, and Quixote uses his anima power to dispose of the body of the Ghost-Blooded.  Beth gets some shiny new armor from the Ghost-Blooded; a white jade breastplate that's much nicer than her old one.

Upon arriving at Denandsor, the party notices that the city is mostly covered by a foggy shield of some sort.  The entrance to one building is sticking out of the fog, and Lyn picks the lock.  Upon entering, the party feels a deep sense of dread and fear.  Atallah starts screaming in fear, and continues until Lyn slaps her.  She then decides to go wait outside for the rest of the party.  Lyn, Beth, Quixote, Gallahad, and Urim continue in.

They find themselves in a sort of old museum, with various objects displayed in prominence in different rooms.  In the first room, they discover some jade figurines, which they decide to leave alone.  Lyn notices later that they are trapped, so that was apparently a good idea.  Many of the doors are trapped, in fact, and while Lyn is able to notice and disarm some of them, she sets off three, luckily managing to only take one level of bashing damage.  The party also finds a necklace that forms a pendant in the shape of the wearer's caste mark and grants additional presence and a Blanket of Comfort that keeps people warm and dry in any weather.  Urim wraps this blanket around himself and feels less threatened by the city.

The party then stumbles upon an interesting painting, much like a Magic-Eye painting.  Quixote, Urim, and Gallahad all become entranced by it, while Beth manages to recognize what it is.  She warns Lyn to not look at the painting, and then they set about trying to bring the others out of their trances.  Beth tries to attack the painting, but Gallahad throws himself in her way.  Lyn yells at the three of them, and Quixote snaps out of it, but the other two are still studiously examining the painting.  Beth and Lyn carefully knock it off the wall and knock it over, angering Gallahad and Urim.

The two men are obviously preparing to fight for this painting.  Lyn yells some more at Gallahad, and he snaps out of it, but Urim is still angry.  He tries to punch Beth, who nimbly dodges out of the way.  Lyn slaps him, and he finally comes out of his trance.  The three men have no idea what happened, and the girls explain it to them.

In the next room, an eight-foot-tall metal man stands holding a gleaming staff.  Beth and Gallahad both think the man might be an automaton, and Gallahad thinks the staff looks like it could be quite interesting.  The party decides that the safest thing to do would be for Beth to cut its hands off.  Beth, apologizing for destroying a First-Age artifact, does so, and the thing awakens.  It kicks at Beth but misses, and then Lyn and Beth finish it off.

While Lyn works on unlocking the next door, Gallahad and Beth examine the staff.  They find that it's a Staff of Illusion, and that it can be transformed into any solid ordinary object between the sizes of a cat and of a large man.  It's better than Quixote's staff, so he decides to use it.  The next room contains instructions for a charm called Temper-Soothing Attitude.  After carefully copying it down, in case the paper burns up when touched or something, the party flips it over to find... nothing.  Wait, maybe not.  Lyn takes a closer look and realizes there's something written on it in invisible ink.  Gallahad puts it in his notebook and they decide to take a closer look when they're away from Denandsor.

Session 3:

After the fight, Lyn and Beth fall to the ground, exhausted.  Quixote begins to come out of his stupor and sees the injured Dragon-Blooded lying on the ground, so he goes over to try to help him.  Lyn, however, is ready to finish off the last man.  She and Quixote argue a bit-- she feels that the man tried to kidnap Quixote and kill them, so he doesn't deserve to live.  Quixote thinks everyone deserves a second chance.  Beth is somewhat indecisive.

Meanwhile, Alyssa is on her way from Edelton to Great Forks, when she sees a giant pillar of golden light a mile ahead.  Racing there, she finds two glowing Solars, a very dead Dragon-Blooded, an unconscious Dragon-Blooded, and two men.  She warns them that there's a Dragon-Blooded base in Edelton and that they should be careful, and then she rides off.

At this, Lyn decides to kill the remaining Dragon-Blooded and be done with it.  Hearing no immediate objections, she does so and then takes his stuff, while Beth takes the other man's goods.  They then take the two Dragon-Blooded warhorses and the remaining horse that they had originally and travel to a small shack Lyn noticed about a mile down the road.

Once arriving at the shack, since Lyn and Beth are exhausted from their fight, they decide to rest.  Quixote is still getting over the effects of the mete leaf, so he rests, too, leaving Urim to keep watch.  He does so from about 6 until 2 in the morning, when Lyn wakes up.  She takes over the watch so Urim can get a little rest, and she plays with some of the new toys she found from the Dragon-Blooded.

The first is a pair of glasses that allow her to see in the dark.  She also has a dire chain made out of jade.  From Beth's stash, she quietly removes a cup with some jade inlaid upon it-- she isn't sure what it does and doesn't feel like finding out through experimentation right then.  Finally, there's an exquisitely crafted lance.  It isn't an artifact, but it's a very nice weapon.

At 4, Lyn wakes everyone up and tells them her plan.  They'll ride to Edelton and Beth and Urim will check with Lyn's contacts to see if they can find a buyer for some of the equipment they took from the Dragon-Blooded.  Meanwhile, Lyn and Quixote will try to find out some information about this Dragon-Blooded Headquarters.

Beth manages to find someone and asks him if he knows where she might be able to sell... 'special' equipment.  He at first says he doesn't, but with a little persuasion, he says that Tony might be able to help her out.  Tony typically shows up in the early evening a few streets over.  With that information, Beth and Urim head to the inn to get rooms for themselves and the others.

Lyn and Quixote talk to some of her contacts and find out that nobody knows anything about Dragon-Blooded.  One of them, however, asks if she got her information from a young woman with Alyssa's description.  When Lyn says yes, he replies that she came to town saying the same thing and claiming that some of them were after her-- she asked the town to hide her.  The town pretty much decided she was crazy.  While she's at it, Lyn asks about someone who might be interested in buying some rather exotic weapons, and is told that Greg is interested in that sort of thing.  His store is located two streets down.  Lyn and Quixote then walk back to the inn.

Urim and Beth are in one of the rooms, and Quixote and Lyn come in.  They share what they've learned and then Lyn and Quixote head out.  Urim gets some more rest while Beth watches over him.  Lyn checks out Corey's house and sees his mom happily cooking breakfast, and surmises that he made it home okay.  She then heads to the inn for some breakfast.

Quixote has been having a leisurely breakfast, and he ponders the sign calling for adventurers.  He inquires with the innkeeper and is told to talk to Atallah, a solid-looking blond woman.  She comes down fifteen minutes later, and Quixote introduces himself to her.  She explains that she's looking for volunteers to explore Denandsor, a city that's supposed to have many First Age artifacts, but is guarded by a curse of some sort.  Nobody can stand to be in the city for very long; they begin to go crazy and flee.  She wants to test these legends and try to extract some artifacts, but she needs people to go with her.

Quixote says he'll go and recommends she talk to two sisters named Elizabeth and Evelyn, who are also staying at the inn.  She then makes the same offer to Beth, and Beth somewhat reluctantly agrees to help.  In order to prove their mettle, however, Atallah asks that they investigate claims of an un-tattooed Lunar who may be going insane.  She says she'd like Gallahad, another adventurer, to accompany them.

Beth, Lyn, Quixote, Gallahad, and Urim set off to go find the Lunar.  Along the way, they come to a large tree blocking their path.  While they could go around, Gallahad points out that other travelers may not be so fortunate, and so he suggests they move it out of the way.  Lyn tells Beth to chop it up, but Beth protests, saying that would take too  much time.  Instead, Gallahad summons seven minions to push it out of the way.  Oh yeah, did we mention that he's a sorcerer?  And a Solar, as is evident by his glowing rather strongly.

Along the way, Gallahad feels an odd sense of familiarity about the girls.  He finally remembers that they remind him of someone he once knew.  He explains this to Lyn, and she responds that lots of people have her hair or her build.  He replies that it isn't that so much as her eyes.  This stops her cold.

She asks for more information, and he explains that he knew a woman with gray eyes very much like hers.  This was something like twenty years ago, however, so it couldn't have been her.  Lyn gets very serious and starts asking some questions.  She finds that he first met the woman about twenty-one years ago and saw her again some eighteen years ago.  She is in obvious shock.  Suddenly, Gallahad gets it.  (He really gets it-- 9 successes on 5 dice.)  He is the girls' father.  He is very surprised-- he says their mother had never told him about them, and that he knew very little about her at all.  She never liked to stay in one place for long, and so he didn't know her very well.

Not surprisingly, Lyn doesn't tell Beth about this new development, and Gallahad decides against it for the time being.  They continue their ride, and after a day and a half, they reach the approximate location of the Lunar.  Lyn does some investigating and follows giant lizard tracks to a wooden home in the middle of the woods.  Using Easily Overlooked Presence, she slips in, and she then activates Invisible Statue Spirit to be sure she isn't noticed.  She watches the Lunar cook and eat dinner, and she notices that the Lunar does everything in threes.  She shakes the salt shaker three times, eats three bites before putting her fork down, has three glasses of water, and so on.  She also remains in her Deadly Beastman form the entire time, even while cooking and eating.  From this, Lyn surmises that she is insane.

When the Lunar goes outside to rinse the dishes, Lyn stabs her in the back, hoping to finish her off in one stroke.  She is seriously wounded, but not killed.  Combat ensues, with lots of dodging and parrying, and Lyn finally knocks the Lunar unconscious.  The others show up and are somewhat surprised by what she's done.  Quixote explains that it sounds like she's beginning to go mad, but that she isn't beyond hope.  They decide to send Beth back to tell Atallah, who will contact the Lunars and have them take this Lunar away to be tattooed.

While waiting for the Lunars to arrive, Lyn and Gallahad spend time practicing kata.  At one point, Lyn begins looking at Gallahad in a challenging manner.  He responds and asks if she wants to do this.  She says yes, and they begin fighting-- her with the blunt side of her rapier and him with his fists.  He dodges her attacks and makes contact with his punches.  After two punches, she gets angry and switches to the sharp end of the rapier, with which she finally does some damage, but his third punch knocks her out.  He quickly catches her before she can fall and carries her inside, asking Quixote to heal her.  Quixote heals both of them and they rest.  Afterwards, she says, “No hard feelings.”  He thanks her for the fight and the tension between them fades.

After about three days, the Lunars show up, thank the party for taking care of the Lunar before things progressed too far, and take her away.  Beth arrives shortly afterwards, and the five of them rest before heading back to Edelton and Atallah.

Session 2:

Once Lyn and Beth get settled in their room, Lyn heads out, telling Beth to stay in the room while she looks for information.  Minor bickering ensues, but Beth agrees to stay.  Lyn then heads to the Guild for information.

Once there, she greets people and makes her way to the boss.  He says he hasn't seen anyone matching the description she gives, but with some monetary persuasion, he asks around.  He comes back saying that a band of slavers has arrived in town with some kids around that age, and there's a little suspicion about their methods of acquiring said 'slaves'.  She thanks him and promises a cut of her reward for finding the boy to him.  He says he'd appreciate that, and he adds that ACME Corporation has bought the most recent batch of slaves.

Meanwhile, Beth has been tempted into going back to the barn where she and her sister Exalted, and where she and her boyfriend Urim used to spend time together.  She asks the innkeeper to tell her sister that she has just stepped out a moment ago, whenever she returns, and she heads to the barn.  Once there, she reminisces for a few minutes and is interrupted by a familiar voice saying, “I didn't expect to find you here.”

It's Urim, and the two of them quickly catch up.  Urim asks what exactly happened those months ago in the barn, because he remembers the strangest things.  Beth asks what he remembers, and he says he remembers being thrown across the room and through the wall, then some fighting, some fur, and golden light.  He says it sounds crazy, and she answers that no, he remembers things pretty accurately.  She explains to him that the man who threw him through the wall and attacked Beth was a Lunar Exalted.  Lynn came in and Exalted and saved Beth, but the man went after her instead and overpowered her.  Then Beth Exalted and killed the Lunar, saving her sister.

From the little Beth says on the matter, Urim intuits that the Lunar was Lyn's mate in a previous life, at which point he asks if Beth has a Lunar mate.  She stops and says she never considered the idea, but that she loves Urim.  Urim then asks her to run away with him, and she explains that she needs to stay with her sister.  He suggests that he could come along, but she is worried for his safety.

While they discuss this, Lyn has returned to the inn.  Upon noticing that her sister isn't in the room, she storms down and asks the innkeeper if he's seen her.  He nods, saying that she just left a few moments ago.  Lyn immediately realizes where she's gone and storms down to the barn.  She arrives to see Beth in the barn, but the shadows are such that she misses Urim.  She berates Beth for having left and for coming back to the barn where everything happened.

Beth says that she loves Urim and it isn't fair to make her wander around for the rest of her life without her boyfriend.  She asks, “What about m--,” but is cut off by Lyn, who says that her sister was the last person she ever expected to hear such selfishness from.  Lyn notes that it's important to find their mother, but Beth remarks that she doesn't even remember their mother, and she doesn't see the point.  She then says that Urim can come with them.  Lyn points out the danger of their lives, and at this point, Urim speaks up, saying that he can help.  Lyn says that's preposterous, since what they do is so dangerous, and she storms out.

While Beth and Urim talk more, Lyn storms off and heads to the worst part of town, looking for a fight.  She sees two men harassing a third, and notices that the third is in the Guild.  She taps one of the men on the shoulder and asks him to stop.  He brushes her off, at which point she draws her weapons.  He tells the other man to continue robbing the Guild member, while he takes care of this lady.  He then rushes at her, trying to cut her arm, but she dodges nimbly out of the way.  She responds by cutting his belt, forcing him to use his free hand to hold up his pants, and his cheek.  He lunges at her again and misses, and she cuts the hand with the dagger, causing him to drop the weapon.  She then gets him in a hold, with her knife to the side of his neck and her rapier pointing up at his chin, and she recommends that the two of them leave the man alone.

She asks the other antagonist to drop his weapon and his money pouch, and he quickly complies.  She then tells the men that she never wants to see them infringing on Guild territory again, and they hastily agree.  She then lets them go.  She takes the coins from one of the purses and offers the remaining contents, various rings and other pieces of jewelry, to the man who was being robbed.  He thanks her and goes on his way.

Somewhat mollified, she heads back to the inn and locks the door, propping a chair underneath the knob as an extra security measure.  She then ties the windows shut with rope and falls asleep.  Beth, realizing her sister will need time to cool off, asks to stay with Urim's family for the night.

In the morning, Lyn heads to ACME and tells the secretary her suspicions.  The secretary says she wouldn't know anything about that, but she could take her to the manager, Mr. Smith.  Lyn asks to see Mr. Acme himself, and is told that she can make an appointment for next Thursday.  Lyn insists that she must see him sooner than that, and the secretary says she'll go see what she can do while Lyn talks with Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith says he knows nothing about the origins of the recent slaves he has purchased, but that they came from traders that he has known for some time.  Upon further inquiry, he admits that he hasn't known them all that long, and really, he hasn't heard anything good or bad about them.  Lyn says she'd like to see Mr. Acme with her accusations, and Mr. Smith says he's sure he can handle it.  She then threatens him with telling the town about this, and he accedes and takes her to Mr. Acme.

Mr. Acme seems less surprised by these accusations, but still insists that he knows nothing about these workers being enslaved illegally.  Lyn asks to see them, and the men agree that she can.  She heads down to the secretary again while the men begin arguing. The secretary is about to take her to see the slaves when Mr. Smith comes down and offers to take her personally.  He shows her the tent with slaves, and she doesn't see Corey.  However, she feels that something fishy is going on.

She strides over to a shack and heads inside, and Mr. Smith follows, insisting that she is going the wrong way.  She then closes the door and puts him in a hold, threatening him with her dagger.  He admits that the slaves he showed her weren't the most recent ones hired, and promises to take her to the correct batch of slaves this time.  He does so, and she immediately recognizes Corey from the description given.  To be sure, she calls out, “Adams!”, and he turns and says, “Yes?”

Lyn tells Mr. Smith that she wants all these boys to be allowed to go free.  He submits to her wishes, afraid of her blades, and Lyn tells all the boys except Corey to head to the orphanage, where someone would help reunite them with their families.  She informs Mr. Smith that she expects him to be more careful in his hiring practices and lets him go.  She then takes a grateful Corey back to the inn.

By now, Beth and Urim have arrived back at the inn and Beth is asking the innkeeper if he knows where her sister has gone.  Right then, Lyn arrives with Corey in tow.  Lyn makes an acerbic remark about how some of them were actually accomplishing what they set out to do, instead of spending time with boys.  She then sits down with Corey at a table in the common room and asks him about his kidnappers.  Beth and Urim quickly join them.  Corey explains that he was taken by three men, two with dark hair and one with blond.  The blond had a scar across his cheek-- interestingly enough, that's Lyn's signature move.  It's possible she's had a run-in with him before.  Lyn gives him two silver coins and tells him to rent a room at the inn and then hitch a ride to Edelton the next day.  He agrees and heads out.

Lyn and Beth then decide to go out for some more answers.  Lyn goes to the guild, and Beth follows along, staying out of the alleys and waiting for her sister to emerge with information.  Lyn asks about the three men and is told that she should check with Barry, who works that part of town.  She thanks the boss and also gives him the other coin purse, informing him that two men were infringing upon the Guild's territory, and she had a little something for him from one of them.  He says he appreciates the token and looks forward to seeing her again.

Lyn and Beth then head to Barry, who says that the slaves are typically brought in to the slave auction house around 2 in the afternoon.  It's currently 1, so they quickly formulate a plan.  Lyn decides to use Urim for inspiration, so she adjusts Beth's armor and adds money pouches so it looks like she's pregnant.  She and Urim will be looking for a slave to help with chores, since Beth is with child, and they'll make a fuss and keep people occupied.  Meanwhile, Lyn will sneak in the back and wait for the slavers to arrive.  Barry will help keep the gate unlocked to make sure they can all escape quickly if necessary.

Shortly before 2, Beth and Urim enter the slave auction and speak to the auctioneer.  Beth has turned her scythe upside down and popped the blade in, and she is using it as a walking staff.  Urim is indignant that there are no slaves immediately available, and he makes a big fuss.  He then asks for a chair for his pregnant wife, and as he sets it down by her, he whispers, “Break the chair!”.  She stealthily flips out the blade, nicks the chair legs, flips the blade back up, and sits-- and the chair breaks.  Urim flies into a rage, alternately screaming about the man giving them a defective chair and trying to help his wife up.

The manager is looking rather bewildered-- he offers them a stool, the only thing left, and Beth manages to topple off.  Urim asks for some time alone, and the manager dutifully leaves and waits outside.  Meanwhile, Lyn sneaks in the back and hides.  The slavers come in with a batch of 8 older children, and they pass through behind the counter.  One slaver leaves to go find the manager.  Lyn whistles, and another slaver goes to investigate the sounds, which he thinks are coming from the porch out front.

Lyn then closes the door, jams the broken chair underneath it, and slips by the last slaver.  He slashes at her and misses, and she leaps over the counter and starts a whirling, chopping move where she sets the children free.  Unfortunately, her timing is somewhat off-- (quadruple botch!) she manages to free two of them, and then she cuts off the hand of a third!  Telling the two able-bodied kids to free the rest and help the one who lost his hand, she turns her attention back to the slaver.  He doesn't give up, so she kills him.

Urim puts on a uniform shirt and stands at the front of the store, saying, “Nothing to see here... we're closed for renovations... please move along.”  By now, the first two slavers are investigating the noise.  They pound on the door, and Beth realizes Lyn is taking care of business, so she starts acting up.  She pretends to be in pain, and she starts to fall.  One of the slavers catches her, and she 'accidentally' knocks him over... several times.  This comedy of not-quite-errors continues for a while, and meanwhile, the manager runs around to the back to see what's going on.

The manager enters, sees the dead body, and asks Lyn what happened.  She explains that the slavers were actually kidnappers, and suggests he goes to inform City Hall about this.  She sends her cat Raziel after him to make sure he does as he should.  She then lets the slavers in.  They see the body of their comrade and Lyn invites them to turn themselves in.  Refusing, one begins to attack her... and is quickly overpowered.  She repeats her invitation, and they agree to come with her.  On their way to City Hall, one tries to make a run for it.  Lyn follows him, catches him, and knocks him unconscious.  She looks at Beth and says, “You're not pregnant.  Carry him.”  Beth quickly adjusts her armor, hands the money pouches back to Lyn, and throws the man over her shoulder.

Once the men have been taken to City Hall, Lyn runs to the inn to get Corey, who identifies them as his kidnappers.  The men are thrown in jail, and Lyn, Beth, and Urim head back to the inn with Corey.  Meanwhile, Beth is wondering what happened to Quixote.  Lyn goes up to her room to rest and Beth and Urim set out to find him.  She asks the innkeeper, who says Quixote said something about meeting a George.  He doesn't know a George, except maybe the one on Main Street in a blue house.  She thanks him and heads to Main Street, where there are two blue houses.  Picking one, she knocks and asks, “Are you George?”

Luckily, she has picked the correct house.  The man answers yes and asks how he can help her.  She inquires after Quixote, and he says that Quixote never arrived... but he's obviously lying.  She suggests he tell the truth, and he admits that Quixote came and then left with two men.  She asks if he resisted, and George hesitates.  He then says that they fed Quixote mete leaf, which is a physical stimulant but numbs the mind.  He didn't resist, but he didn't have a choice.  He explains that they threatened his kids, and so he had to turn Quixote in.  They'd free him as soon as they'd taken him for 'testing' and seen for themselves he wasn't a Solar Exalt.  They said something about going to Edelton first.

Beth thanks the man and leaves, muttering under her breath about what a bad friend George was.  She and Urim plan to go fight and get Quixote back... but her common sense says that the men are probably Dragon-Blooded, and she'll need her sister's help.  She sighs and heads to the inn.  They then take Corey and rent horses.  About halfway to Edelton, Lyn stops the horse suddenly, and Beth follows suit.  Lyn calls out, “I see you there in the trees.  What are you doing?”

It's Quixote, along with two other men.  Quixote doesn't say anything, but the two men come out onto the road.  One asks, “Beth and Lyn?”  Lyn quickly replies no, that they were Eve and Tabitha, and they were bounty hunters who had caught Quixote.  They demand him back, but the men insist that she lost him, so she didn't have a right to the bounty.  Finally, because she's so persistent, one offers her the bounty money in jade.  She then asks for extra, citing the trouble she went to for the man.  He grudgingly gives her more, and she says there's something wrong with the additional jade he gave.  She slips the extra jade in her pocket and draws her dagger.

Lyn then slices at the man's face, but does no damage.  Uh-oh.  These must be Dragon-Blooded.  Combat commences, with the red-haired man having flames burst out around him and the other man's skin turn to hard bark.  The sisters pour everything they have into the fight, using their signature combo moves multiple times.  They end up killing the fiery man and incapacitating the wooden man while taking only one level of damage between the two of them.  They have also, however, spent nearly all of their essence.  They are glowing like bonfires and can be seen from miles away.  But... they have Quixote back!

Session 1:

Elizabeth and Evelyn arrive in Edelton, a small town about half a day's walk from Great Forks, and Evelyn immediately gets to work.  She stops in the bar and asks for information about two “suspected criminals”, but she gets no leads.  To be honest, she didn't really expect any.  She also asks for a doctor, and is told the town doesn't have one.  Evelyn then heads finds a shady-looking character and asks him the same questions.  She is given much the same information, but she's told that there is a traveling doctor in town.  She might be able to find him in the inn.

Evelyn heads to the inn and notices the “Help Wantd” sign in the window.  She inquires and is told that she and her sister can stay for free and have free meals if they help with serving, cleaning, and cooking chores.  She agrees to this, and then heads over to the large man sitting at a table.  He offers her the bench opposite him and introduces himself as Quixote, a traveling doctor.  She informs him that if he is who she thinks he is, there are friends of a certain lord who are not happy about his unfortunate fate.  He thanks her for the information, saying that he should probably move on from this town.

Right then, they hear a child's scream.  They rush out to see what happened.  Elizabeth, who had been enjoying the marketplace and getting admiring glances from passersby, also hears and runs to the scene.  They find a boy caring for his cat, who had just been run over by a carriage.  The cat's leg is broken, but Quixote is able to splint it beautifully.  The boy notices Raziel, Evelyn's cat, and asks to pet him.  Raziel is not pleased, but Evelyn says yes.  He then overhears her saying she doesn't want to be found, and loudly asks why.  He adds, “Are you playing Hide-and-Seek?”  She tells him she is, and that he can play, too, if he goes and hides.  He leaves his cat and runs off to go hide.

The sisters then head inside, followed by Quixote.  Evelyn goes straight to bed, but Elizabeth notices a woman crying in the corner, and goes to comfort her.  She asks what's wrong, and the lady shows her a letter from her son, which says he has run off to Nexus and not to worry about him.  The letter seems awkwardly written, but Elizabeth can't quite figure out why.  She gets permission to take it to her sister, who immediately notices that the first letters of the words spell out “Kidnapped to Great Forks”.  Meanwhile, Quixote tries to console the woman.  Evelyn comes down and breaks the news rather bluntly to the woman, who sobs even more, and Elizabeth offers to help find her son.  Evelyn agrees, and Quixote asks to come along, as well.

The party leaves immediately, heading straight to Great Forks.  Along the way, they meet with five bandits.  Evelyn tries telling them that those two are her marks, but the leader says he'll take from all three of them.  Quixote explains that they have very little of value, so the leader replies that Evelyn and Quixote can go... as long as they leave the blonde.  Evelyn asks, “You think you can handle her?” and pulls Elizabeth's cloak off, showing off her muscles and her grand grimscythe.  “Then fight her one-on-one.”  The leader instead calls for his boys to come out and help, and he shoots an arrow at Quixote.  Quixote activates Iron Skin Concentration, causing his skin to gain an iron sheen and the arrow to bounce right off.  The leader then panics, curses, and runs-- the rest of the bandits scatter, as well.

The party isn't troubled by anything else on their way to Great Forks.  At an inn, Elizabeth and Evelyn take a room while Quixote checks with one of his contacts, George.  It turns out, a group of slavers came in with some recently acquired slaves-- the boy might be in one of those groups.  The slaves were sold to ACME Corporation.  George offers Quixote a place to stay for the night, as thanks for Quixote fixing his boy's arm a few weeks ago, and the party rests.

Cast of Characters:

Elizabeth – A 17-year old Dawn caste played by Will

Evelyn – A 20-year old Night caste played by Will

Quixote – A 50-year old Zenith caste healer played by Tiff

Session D:

Return to the Tomb of 5 Corners

With the party back together and all four keys in hand, they activate the emergency measure and go through the Eclipse gate.  They're immediately hit with icy, chill wind in a field of snow... red snow.  There are skeletons of various creatures and there's a decrepit temple about 500 yards ahead.  The party starts to make its way to the temple, but is ambushed by a large skeletal cat.  Rinan runs to hide in the skull of a large unidentifiable creature.  Then two more cats join the fray, including one who goes for Rinan, and next a giant skeletal Tyrant Lizard shows up.  Morning Breeze wraps his serpent-sting staff around the neck of the Lizard, ready to pull its head off.  However, it's a little too hard to do, so he settles for kicking it in the jaw.  He then pulls himself up into the mouth to dodge a blow from one of the cats, and the Tyrant Lizard tries to attack him.  After realizing he can't bite him or effectively claw him, the Lizard runs off with Morning Breeze as its prize.  Oops.

Luckily, Naria sends off a few arrows and takes the Tyrant Lizard down-- leaving Morning Breeze stuck in its jaw and having to try to get out.  The party takes out the rest of the cats and then Kade helps Morning Breeze out of the skeleton.  They then make their way to the temple.

Once in the temple, the party hears quiet laughter.  A woman's voice begins taunting them, asking them why they didn't come to save her sooner.  Morning Breeze apologizes, explaining that they didn't receive her letter until recently.  During this exchange, the party tracks her down into a large room with a huge spiral staircase.  She lets slip that she has a new master now, the Mask of Winters.  He's a very powerful Deathlord and has made great promises to her.  She says the rest of them can join her and reap equal rewards.  However, they try to convince her that she should join them instead.

Meanwhile, Naria uses her Spider Foot Technique to climb up the wall and get in position behind the (former?) Eclipse caste member.  She says she has her in her sights and that the Mistress, as she is now known, should drop her weapon.  Angry that she has been betrayed, the Mistress whirls around and attacks with her reaver daiklave, narrowly missing Naria.  The rest of the party begins racing up the stairs, and the Mistress rants about how the party cannot be trusted.

Morning Breeze and Kade attempt to calm her down, and she give them two minutes to decide whether to swear allegiance to the Mask of Winters.  They keep talking and get a slight extension... meanwhile, Kade finds her stunningly beautiful and stumbles around, wanting to ask her on a date.  Finally, she agrees to a temporary truce-- they put down their weapons together and talk.  She is convinced that the Mask of Winters is evil and the party will stand by her, even if he comes after them.  She says that she wants proof that she can trust them, however.

Morning Breeze asks what she has in mind, and she responds that she wants to be able to pick up her weapon while they remain unarmed.  He hesitates, but thinks she's being honest... meanwhile, Kade is torn between thinking, “It's a trap!” and thinking she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen.  Morning Breeze allows her to pick up her weapon, which she then carefully sheathes.  The party breathes a sigh of relief and all five of them leave together.

Session C:

Return to the Tomb of 5 Corners

Upon returning to the main hall, Morning Breeze notices that the two unconscious bandits are no longer there.  They've been gone for about eight hours, but the party is still surprised that the bandit with broken arms has woken and left on his own.  They find one bandit dragging the one with the broken arms up the stairs.  Upon cornering him and scaring him witless, he is allowed to go.  He drops the broken-armed man and flees, even though the party said he could take the guy with him.  Morning Breeze carries the man back down to the hall and Rinan splints his arms and cleans him up as best he can.

Naria, Morning Breeze, and Rinan then enter the Night portal to find themselves on a small island surrounded by are many other small islands.  Ahead, they see a much larger island that looks important.  The islands are too far to jump to easily, so they begin swimming.

Once they start making progress, they are attacked by hideous amphibious creatures-- they look like a cross between fish, frogs, and men.  Their attacks aren't strong enough to really damage the party, but there are a lot of them-- by the time 25 show themselves, Rinan decides to cast Death of Obsidian Butterflies just to clear the air a bit.  That takes out about 10, but the rest keep swarming, and the party decides to retreat to think this over a bit more.  As soon as they begin retreating, the mutants stop attacking.

Morning Breeze reasons that this is the Night portal, so maybe stealth should be involved.  He and Rinan step through and stay by the portal, while Naria uses her Monkey Leap Technique to leap from one island to the next, alternately landing on her hands in a handstand and on her feet.  She reaches the main island without being detected, but is immediately zapped by a golden forcefield.  She takes one lethal level of damage and decides to pass through the forcefield to the center, where she isn't shocked anymore.

Once there, she sees a coffin.  The lid seems light as a feather to her, and she removes it to find a mummy clutching a golden bow, with a gate key around his neck.  She sneakily removes both without disturbing the mummy at all, replaces the lid, and backflips back to the rest of the party with her loot.  They leave the Night portal and rest up until Kade joins them, completely recovered.

Session B:

Return to the Tomb of 5 Corners

The party decides to rest a bit before entering one of the portals.  They begin resting around noon-- Kade casts Body-Mending Meditation and Morning Breeze just plain meditates.  Meanwhile, Naria takes first watch.  Nothing interesting happens during her watch, Rinan's, or Morning Breeze's, but when Kade takes over, he spots something shiny on one of the bandits and pockets a gold ring.  Meanwhile, Morning Breeze's meditation has yielded some interesting results.  He had a vision of himself going through one of the gates in a past incarnation and leaving something important there.

The next morning, with the party at full health and Essence, they argue about which portal to enter first.  Rinan suggests they go through the Twilight portal, while Kade wants to go through the Dawn portal.  Naria shrugs and says the rest of them can decide.  Morning Breeze reasons that the Twilight portal will be the least dangerous, since the Twilight caste is more erudite, so the party agrees to try that one first.

Rinan walks to the gate and opens it, then jumps through headfirst.  He lands in a pile of skulls and panics a little.  The other three follow him through.  They see a large cathedral of gold, ivory, and brass, with the entryway blocked by a giant redwood tree.  They also see a rope ladder leading up to the trees, and they notice that the trees have many platforms on them and rope bridges and ladders connecting the platforms.  Primitive huts adorn many of the platforms.  They hear no signs of life, including animal life-- even the wind is completely absent.

Kade realizes that this looks like a Haltan settlement.  He tells the others that the Haltans are perpetually fighting the Linowans, and that the Haltans look down upon anyone on the ground.  Rinan adds that they often spend their entire lives in the trees.  The party decides the ground is a bad place to be, so they investigate the platforms in the trees first.  Naria activates Graceful Crane Stance and scampers up the side of the tree for a better view, while the rest of them use the ladder.

Once on the platform, or the side of the tree in Naria's case, they see that this village looks as if it has been abandoned for centuries.  The trees have grown slightly and some of the ropes have decayed.  The bridges no longer look very safe.  The party also realizes that the air is permeated with a smell of decay... perhaps of decaying bodies.  They agree that Naria should go ahead and check it out, as she's the lightest and most athletic of them.  She finds three corpses, somehow preserved in a state of eternal decay... and their bones have been completely removed somehow.

Naria reports back to the group, and Rinan says he's heard of demons doing such things.  The village seems as it if will yield no more clues, so most of the party goes down the ladder, and Naria backflips down the tree.  They decide to investigate the cathedral.

Kade decides that the best way in is to chop down the giant redwood.  He realizes that this will take days, but he's prepared to go ahead and do it.  He begins to activate charms to add to his power, when the others stop him and suggest there might be another way in.  Walking around the cathedral, however, the party finds nothing... but Rinan has a feeling that they're missing something.

Morning Breeze irrationally decides that the rest of the building is underground, and that they should attempt to dig down until they reach the rest of it.  However, he then meditates on this problem and is told that he should think more about the society in which this cathedral existed.  He then reasons that the entrance may be on the roof, rather than on the ground floor.  Naria scampers up the side of the tree, while the other three head back to the rope ladder to try to get a better view of the roof of the structure.  Both Naria and Rinan see a pulsating purple circle.  After Rinan points it out, Morning Breeze sees it, too, but Kade doesn't.

They then head over to the giant redwood.  Kade attempts to climb the tree, but with his armor, it proves to be impossible.  They circle the building, looking for an easier way up, and find a tree that looks like it might be more easily climbed, but Kade can't make that one, either.  Rinan and Morning Breeze head up while they ponder how to get Kade up there.  If only they had some rope... suddenly, Naria realizes they do have a rope ladder.  She scampers down, heads up the tree with the rope ladder, cuts it down, and heads over to the redwood blocking the entrance.  She then climbs up and ties the rope ladder to a branch.  Kade makes it up, and they investigate the purple portal.

Unfortunately, Morning Breeze makes another major error.  He has heard of a portal just like this that was invariably lethal to all who touched it.  Rinan, however, says that the portal is just an illusion used to mask whatever is inside.  To prove it, he sticks his arm through... and luckily, he's correct!  He then jumps through, heedless of what may be through the portal.  Kade immediately follows, landing on Rinan and inflicting a level of bashing damage.  Oops.

Morning Breeze sticks his head through and sees that it's about a twelve-foot drop.  He waits for Rinan and Kade to move out of the way and then drops down.  Naria realizes that it might be good for them to have a way back up.  She cuts the rope ladder down and hooks it onto a sharp piece of cathedral near the hole.  She isn't sure if it will hold, but it's better than nothing.  She then leaps easily down.

As they explore the room, they hear a woman's voice calling for help.  She guides them down the staircase to the first floor, with Kade and Morning Breeze leading the way.  Along the way, Naria and Rinan both notice a plaque by the entrance.  Rinan thinks it's more important to rescue the woman, but Naria feels the plaque may be important.  Unfortunately, she can't read.

Kade and Morning Breeze are ready to cut through the bars, to the woman but Naria insists that they should think about it.  The woman argues that she's a fellow Solar, and she even ignites her Twilight caste mark to prove it.  Naria isn't convinced, and says she'll agree to freeing the woman once Rinan reads the plaque.  The party consents, and she and Rinan head out to the plaque.  Meanwhile, Morning Breeze turns to Kade and says, “Do it.”  Kade responds that Naria said to wait, but Morning Breeze insists that rescuing the woman should be done as soon as possible.  After all, she's been waiting there for weeks, and she's very hungry.  As a compromise, Kade decides to give her a ration of food.

As soon as his hands touch the bars, the woman smiles and vanishes.  Suddenly, five demonic warriors wreathed in flames pop into existence.  Hearing the commotion, Rinan and Naria run back.  Combat ensues-- the warriors go down easily, though punching one of them causes Morning Breeze a level of lethal damage... the fire is definitely real.  Afterwards, the party decides to go check out that plaque.

It turns out, Naria had good instincts.  The plaque is written in Forestspeak, but Rinan is able to read it using his spell, the Eye and the Mouth.  It tells of a demon who terrorized the villagers before a sorcerer was able to capture her and imprison her behind metal bars with an invisible shield.  The shield would hold her, and would stay in place as long as nobody touched it.  Oops.  The party realizes they have just unleashed an unspeakable evil on this place.

They then examine another room and find a journal, a gate key, and a large orichalcum-laced coffin with a shattered lid.  The coffin contains orichalcum hearthstone bracers that Rinan remembers wearing in a previous life, and the journal is by the previous incarnation of the party's Eclipse caste.  It details how this demon impersonated their Twilight, and they imprisoned it in this place for eternity.  Maybe that would have been helpful to know beforehand.

The place is already deserted, so the party decides to leave this place and trap the demon inside.  They leave and wait by the portal for it to close.  After about 55 seconds, the demon appears with a look of terror on her face.  She races for the portal, and Morning Breeze throws his sword at her.  She ducks and dodges right into a very well-aimed arrow from Naria.  This slows her enough that she is caught in the middle of the portal right as it closes.  She is chopped cleanly in half and dies instantly.

The party decides against resting-- nobody is badly wounded, and while Rinan is glowing like a bonfire, it's unlikely that the Wyld Hunt is nearby.  They go for the Zenith portal, figuring that it will be less likely to involve combat than the others.  Morning Breeze leads the way, and they find themselves on a mountain slope.  Specifically, they're on the Imperial Mountain, in the center of the Blessed Isle.  A city lies in ruins around them.

A little exploring, and Kade finds a large pair of golden feet.  The statue is broken off roughly at the ankles, but even the little that is left is still six feet tall.  Morning Breeze realizes that the statues still contains power.  He leads a prayer to the Unconquered Sun, and the party regains all lost Essence.  Additionally, a door opens between the feet.  The party examines it and finds that it's a stairway down, but the stairs are guarded by golden bolts of Essence arcing through it.  Morning Breeze meditates and is told, “You can pass if you use the gifts that I have given you.”  He activates Iron Skin Concentration and enters the tunnel.  As the first bolt hits, he uses Durability of Oak Meditation and suffers no damage.  The amount of Essence in the corridor visibly lessens.  He continues through, is hit by another bolt, uses Durability of Oak again, and again, the Essence lessens.  This continues five times, and Morning Breeze's caste mark begins to glow.  Finally, the Essence storm has stopped, and the rest of the party is free to join him.

At the bottom of the stairs, they find a simple room with mosaics of the Unconquered Sun.  There is an altar, upon which there is a plain white robe, a pile of ashes, a plain wooden alms bowl, the gate key, and a golden seven-section staff.  Morning Breeze puts the silver he got from the bandits into the alms bowl and prays.  The Unconquered Sun says, “You have done well, my son.  Take what is yours.”  Morning Breeze takes the key, the robe, and the staff, which is an Artifact oricalchum serpent-sting staff.  The party then leaves this place.

They finally decide to humor Kade and enter the Dawn portal.  Kade proudly leads the party through, and they enter an intensely hot desert.  They are at the beginning of a path of white stones, which they realize has been protected so that all who walk upon it are protected from the weather.  The party follows the path to an opening in a large rocky outcropping.  They go down the stairs and enter a large circular room, about 100 feet in diameter.  It is wide and very open, and Naria comments that she doesn't like it.  A spiral staircase is in the very center of the room.  Kade goes up, followed by the rest of the party.  They enter a smaller circular room filled with columns.  A little exploring yields a large corpse standing upright between two columns, with the gate key on a chain around its neck.  Kade reaches for it, and the corpse's eyes open.  It does not look happy.

The party enters combat, and Morning Breeze pulls of an amazing stunt-- he uses his staff to grab the chain from around the corpse's neck, yank it off, and bring the key back to him.  He yells, “I've got the flag!”  Naria shoots a few arrows into it, and then it goes after Morning Breeze, trying to retrieve the key.  Morning Breeze dodges, and the corpse's sword is embedded in a column.  Meanwhile, more zombies appear from behind the columns, attacking each of the characters.  Luckily, these zombies aren't very accurate, so they don't actually hit anyone.  Kade yells, “This fight is between you and me!  Everyone else stay out of it!”  He then gallantly frees the corpse's sword, intending for it to be a fair fight.

Unfortunately, this corpse is well-armed, well-armored, and angry.  While little skirmishes happen all around, the corpse goes after Kade.  Kade attempts to parry but is unsuccessful, and the corpse hits.  Reaver Daiklaves are actually quite powerful-- the attack cuts deep, leaving Kade bleeding heavily and completely immobile.  Kade asks, “Is that all you got?” and promptly passes out.  Naria finishes the corpse off with a few more arrows of pure Essence, while Morning Breeze grabs 'his boy', picks him up, and heads down the stairs, fighting off zombies on the way.  Rinan heads down to look after Kade and try to help him, and Naria fights off more zombies, with a cool backflip, shoot-them-from-the-air move.  Morning Breeze sets Kade down and heads back to the fray, and Rinan helps stabilize Kade and make him more comfortable.  Naria and Morning Breeze finish off the last of the zombies, and then come down to Kade and Rinan.  They leave Kade to rest-- thank goodness for Body-Mending Meditation.

Around 2 AM, Kade wakes up, asking, “Did I kill him?”  Morning Breeze responds that he did, and that it was with a head-butt, which explains Kade's splitting headache.  Morning Breeze takes Kade upstairs and shows him the goodies on the corpse-- nice, articulated-plate armor and a Reaver Daiklave.  Kade is pleased.  They finish resting the night, and then decide that Kade should stay here and recover while the other three take on whatever awaits them through the Night portal.

Session A:

Return to the Tomb of 5 Corners

We began our role-playing with a pre-made campaign, to introduce everyone to Exalted, 2nd Edition.  The campaign is free and can be found at http://download.white-wolf.com/download/download.php?file_id=509 .  Will is playing Kade, the Dawn Caste character, and Morning Breeze, a Zenith.  Tiff plays Rinan, Twilight Caste, and Naria, a Night Caste.

The four characters have previously defeated the army of Barrow Black.  Upon returning to town, they receive a letter from a woman who appears to be a fellow Solar.  She claims to be the Eclipse character missing from their circle, and wishes to meet them.  However, she has found a tomb with many ancient relics, and she worries that it will be looted if she leaves.  Thus, she sent a note with the messenger and awaits them at the tomb.  The messenger says she is a beautiful, pale woman with dark hair.

While Kade insists, “It's a trap!” the characters decide to go ahead and check it out.  They follow the messenger to a hill with a wagon, a tunnel, and a mount of dirt, at which point the messenger leaves.  Rinan decides to check out the wagon.  He sees something white and shiny and grabs it.  It turns out to be a piece of a rotted zombie, and the party enters combat.

The zombie attempts to punch Rinan, but misses.  Morning Breeze then punches a zombie... and punches straight through him, leaving a zombie stuck on his arm.  Kade spears another on his sword, and Rinan responds by vomiting.  Ah, the wonders of having Valor 1.  Naria shoots another in the head at point-blank range, and Kade finishes off the last of the zombies.  Thus ends the most one-sided fight ever, with only one punch thrown by the opponents, and that missing.

After verifying that the wagon contained nothing of much use, besides an old rag Morning Breeze used to wipe his arm off, the party descends into the tunnel, with Rinan lighting himself up with Essence so the party can see.  They hear noises and Rinan investigates... after ending the lighting trick.  He sees five bandits and decides to cast Death of Obsidian Butterflies.  Unfortunately, he taunts the bandits first, so he isn't able to get off the spell.  The rest of the party rushes in to save him, and they realize that there are actually twelve bandits-- Rinan couldn't see the other seven from his perspective.  Much fighting ensues, including a point where Morning Breeze snaps a bandit's arms over his thigh, rendering the bandit unconscious.  One other bandit is left unconscious and one hides behind a pillar.  The other nine are killed by the party.

Morning Breeze calls to the one behind the pillar, who throws his sword out to the Solars and surrenders.  They allow him to leave, after he says he knows what will happen if he is caught acting against the Solars again.  He then wakes the unconscious bandit without broken arms and pumps him for answers.  The bandit quickly spills all that he knows: The ghost of Barrow Black has returned and is working for a pale woman with dark hair, known as Mistress of Pacts Sealed in Blood.  Hmm... that's rather suspicious.  Also, she and the ghost of Barrow Black have been seen going through a large metal hoop with the Eclipse symbol on it.  There are other hoops for the other castes.  The characters realize that they can each cause a vortex at their own hoop, which stays open for about a minute before closing.