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Dynasty of Dovak	By : JohnDoe Category: +A through F > Exalted RPG Views: 4983 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Session 13 – Ganan (30XP 24DX, Spent 26XP, 24DX) – Your Grace

The assembled Wyld Hunt is a fine sight. Gracious Pealing Melody kisses her husband and mounts her mighty lizard in a single bound, the great beast swiftly stomping after the Dovaki outriders already making their way toward the Anathema’s shadowland. Five Terrestrials remain, in full battle regalia at the head of the column of infantry, Tepet Agoram counseling them as three mortal Immaculate monks move amongst them extolling the virtues of the Dragons and handing out iron knives and bags of salt. Eletha the Broken stands by, but apart from them, also dressed for battle yet still clearly injured. Some four-hundred soldiers, the best of the Dovaki Royal Guard, stand ranked-up and ready to march as the first rays of dawn begin to illuminate them. Yet more monks move among the troops, instructing them to put their faith in the Dragon-Blooded’s magics to carry them swiftly into battle then to victory.

As Reya and Ganan enter the camp, Tinkara breaks from ranks to herald them “Briseuse de Eletha, the Champion of Dovak!” A great cheer comes up from the assembled Dovaki, and Tinkara rushes the pair to Agoram’s war council.

“Mnemon Alinos, Bekara and the Old Bear will stay in the palace with the Dovaki King. If we should fail in our holy mission, they will be all the stands between the Satrapy and its destruction. Mnemon Danireya and Cynis Ganan will ride ahead: Ganan will have the first glory from engaging the forces of death, in an effort to get them to commit their reserves to the fight early, meanwhile Danireya will circle the demesne -- it is certain that the enemy knows we are coming and likely they are holding forces ready to encircle us. If Danireya finds troops waiting in ambush, Winglord Melody will be in position to engage them in order to keep them from the real battle. If the troops pounce upon Ganan, Winglord Melody’s forces will hit them in the flank – ambushing the ambushers. Either way, the Deathknight will be committed and have no choice but to emerge. At that point, Mnemon Nula will use sorcery to bring myself, Dragonlord Ferad, Talonlord Vidad and our Rakshasa ally directly into combat with the Anathema, then she shall return to the column to bring in the Immaculates and Princess Tinkara, and once I am satisfied they are not walking into an ambush, as many of the mortal troops as she can carry. Mnemon Muli shall stay with the column to guard the mortal troops, then come across once we have established a front. Mnemon Danireya and Melody will keep their distance to cut off the Anathema’s escape, and cover our wounded.”

The Immaculates hand Ganan and Reya their knives and salt as Tepet Agoram concludes, “Any questions?” Agoram glares hard at Muli, who clenches his jaw but says nothing.

A pregnant beat of silence follows as the assembled Terrestrials consider the gravity of the task before them.

“A fine plan!” Ganan bellows, happily, as he clasps his brother-in-law mightily by the shoulder, he gestures broadly at Agoram and Eletha as he pulls Ferad in close, “I shan’t be too jealous if you kill the demon whilst I’m bogged down by its minions: you can count on me to hold the line until you arrive. I haven’t quite mastered how to send my Voice on the Wind yet, but I’m sure my beloved will signal for me.” Reya nods tersely in acknowledgement.

“Good,” Agoram gives a somber look at the assembled Princes of the Earth, “Then we move out.”

Reya gestures for her children to come to one side and rounds on Muli, “Is your lover trying to get my husband killed?” She asks coolly. Ganan blusters but is silenced by a sharp look.

“Garrison Commander Agoram,” Muli intones irreverently, obviously upset with the Tepet, “Wanted to take the van himself. He wanted grandfather in the main attack, with me and the invalid,” he jerks at thumb at Ganan, “At home with grandmother and the Satrap.” Despite his skin of bronze, Ganan flushes, obviously flustered, “I told him that I wasn’t going to let him march into a shadowland on his own, and would accompany him in the vanguard and il a disjoncté! He said he wouldn’t put me in danger, as if I were a child. Your g- Princess suggested the compromise of father as the vanguard and me in the rear. He wasn’t happy with it, and neither am I! I am a solider mother, not a nursemaid. Melody is a medic, and she gets to fight in the front! Just because she’s a-”

“Winglord.” Ganan cuts his son off, “Mnemon Alinos Gracious Pealing Melody, your Aunt By-Imperial-Law, is a Winglord with two decades service to the Realm. And I support Tinkara’s plan. I am wounded, in no shape to fight an Anathema, but I am strong enough to tear through a horde of zombies. The mortals might get ambushed and we need someone strong enough to stop this necromancer turning our own troops against us – that’s you son, you may have to duel a Nephwrack… alone.”

“The four of us should swear.” Reya cuts in.

Nula nods, “Yes mother.”

“Agoram and I are already sworn,” Muli sulks, then grinning slyly, “But I’m sure he’d welcome you to our Hearth.”

Ganan looks ready to strike Muli, but Reya keeps her composure and gestures the Garrison Commander over, “Of course, only a great fool would underestimate an Anathema, or ask you to break faith right before a battle.”

Ganan, Reya, Agoram, Muli and Nula swear kinship as Tinkara and some of the Dovaki look on in awe and wonder.

As soon as the words are spoken, Reya whips up a Stormwind and ferries Ganan and her elemental bodyguard to Eletha’s haunted copse. They quickly overtake Melody’s outriders and arrive well ahead of the main column. Dead bodies hang from trees as gruesome markers of the demesne’s boarders.

Without pause, Ganan leaps from the Stormwind, landing by the giant bolder where he’d dueled Eletha. Reaching into the rock he pulls forth Thunder’s Crash, and edges slowly into the grove towards the twisted heart-rot tree.

Reya races off, circling the area in a broad sweep.

The trees block out most of the morning light, and Ganan’s eyes strain as they dart back and forth, covering his cautious advance... but there is no sign of the dead. His eyes sweep the trees above him, the ground beneath him. No sign of the dead, or the fey. The strange magic of the woodland is pervasive, yet somehow more oppressive than the last time he was here – the influence of death left unchecked. By the time he reaches the heart-rot tree, Reya has completed her circuit and sets down beside him.

“There’s no-one here. Do you think-”

Suddenly the tree begins to pulse. A sickly black… not a light, but not a shadow either, a radiance of anti-light seeps from the tree. The trunk makes a sound like tearing flesh as it rips open vertically, and from the black-light steps a figure.

“What have we here?” With a mirthless smile a young man, barely more than a boy approaches from the black-light. He’s tall, with pale skin the color of snow. His hair is spiky and jet black, for the most part, but the tips of the spikes are red, like flames. His lips are as black as his hair, and he brings his hands together in mocking applause. From his black leather belt hangs a cruel looking club, the head of which is a screaming face: the polished steel reveals smaller faces, writhing in agony within the metal. Crown of Laurels lowers its head and raises its hackles as it tucks in between its mistress and this unnatural threat. Ganan shifts his grip on his tetsubo, body tightening like a wound spring. Reya is immediately struck by how much the Anathema looks like Princess Tinkara and King Darios. The Gift of Merciful Silence continues, “You must be Cynis Ganan, I owe you a minor debt of gratitude.” The Gift gives a large theatrical bow, and raises his eyes up to Reya, still bent at the waist, “But Ragara Haseti’s killer… you I owe a debt which can only be paid with the greatest gift of all. I will repay you with merciful death.”

Reya unslings her axe and shield, “Ganan, we need to go.”

Ganan sets drives his rear foot into the ground, “Yibambe.” He intones quietly.

Reya, urgently now, “We can’t take him alone. We pull back. Now.”

The Gift raises from his bow and theatrically puts a hand to his ear.

“Yibambe!” Ganan roars, and the Gift unslings his own war club with a casual contempt, twirling it in the air before pointing it over Ganan’s shoulder at something approaching from behind.

Ganan’s eyes do not move from the Anathema, but Reya turns to see a Stormwind rider approaching at speed. The dust devil gutters and dies as it draws close to Reya. Tinkara leaps from the dying winds, war club in hand to land at Reya’s side, whilst Nula remains at the core of the winds until they collapse around her. Nula is clearly wounded, black arrows jutting out from her armor, piercing her in half-a-dozen places. She falls to her knees in the dirt. Tinkara starts to speak:

“It’s a trap! We were ambushed-” She catches sight of The Gift and the words die in her throat, her arms drop to her sides, her mouth works up and down but no sound comes out until she chokes out what could be a name, or a question, “Oka?”

The Gift of Merciful Silence flinches back as if slapped, lip curling in disgust for just a moment before regaining his composure and giving another wide, mirthless smile, which seems to reveal too many pearl white teeth. “I am The Gift of Merciful Silence. But you, Princess, may address me as ‘Your Grace’.” The grass beneath the Deathknight’s feet withers and dies, extending the blight around the heart-rot tree. The taste of death is pregnant in the air.

Reya tries again, “Ganan, the column needs us. The children need us. We pull back. Come on.”

“I. Do. Not. Run.”

For the first time, The Gift’s eyes glint with what could be mistaken for genuine joy… and battle is enjoined.

Ganan: 8d (12/18m) 10i 1a Short Range -1 Wound Penalty
Tinkara: 5d 6i Medium Range
Crown: 8d (80m) 6i Medium Range
Reya: 4d (13/26m) 5i Medium Range
Nula: 4d (8/17m) 4i Long Range -2 Wound Penalty
The Gift: 16d (13/26m) 14i

Round 1

The Gift actives The Eye of the Tempest (12/22m, 5WP) 14i.

Ganan activates Earth Dragon Form (12/9m) 2a 10i.

Tinkara imposes herself between Ganan and The Gift, flurrying a Defend Other on Ganan with Social Influence “Oka, don’t do this! I’ll talk to the Dragons! I’ll convince them!” With no applicable intimacies, the influence fails.

Crown of Laurels uses Defend Other on Reya.

Seeing no other way out, Reya moves up to Short and launches fire at the Anathema, contemptuously turned aside by the cold, soul-steel of his warclub.

Poison-stiffened fingers working through the mudras she learned at the Heptogram, Nula begins summoning a Stormwind Rider, gathering 3sm.

Round 2

The Gift: 5WP (16/18m) 14i
Ganan: 5WP (12/14m) 10i 2a Earth Aura Short Range -1 Wound Penalty
Tinkara: 5WP 6i Short Range
Crown: 6WP (80m) 6i Medium Range
Reya: 5WP (13/26m) 1a Air Aura 5i Short Range
Nula: 4WP (12/18m) 4i Long Range -2 Wound Penalty

The Gift Delays to Clash. 12i.

Ganan explodes forward, bringing his tetsubo down in a mighty overhead swing (Smashing, Become the Hammer, Force of the Mountain, Willpower, Two-Handed, Stunt, Wound 12/8m 4WP 3a (22d+2) 14 success, Bone Shattering Deflection cancels 1 success). His anima flares into a faceless man of sand bringing a mighty two-handed smash down with the tetsubo. The Gift waits until the last moment before lashing out with his own weapon (Excellent Melee, Willpower, 9/14m 4WP, (24d+1) 11 successes). The Gift’s look of self assured confidence turns to rage as the Dragon-Blooded’s crude attack smashes aside his expert strike to know him bodily to the ground. (Ganan 18i, Gift 4i)

Crown moves up to Short and Defend Other’s again.

Tinkara flurrying a Defend Other on Ganan with Social Influenceagain “Oka, just… just stay down.” With no applicable intimacies, the influence fails.

Reya uses Hidden Secret’s Whisper (13/21m) to throw the Burning Name at the Prone, post-Clash Deathknight, who defends with Elegant Flowing Deflection (Parry 7, 9/19m). Effortlessly, the Deathknight moves in a manner quite unnatural and disconcerting as he deflects the flames. (Reya 4i, Gift 5i)

Nula gathers a further 3sm.

Ganan’s anima whips at Tinkara. (Tinkara 5i)

Round 3

Ganan: 4WP (12/13m) 18i 3a Earth Aura -1 Wound Penalty
Crown: 6WP (80m) 6i Short Range
The Gift: 5WP (14/13m) 5i
Tinkara: 5WP 5i
Reya: 5WP (13/26m) 2a Air Aura 4i Short Range
Nula: 4WP (12/18m) 4i Long Range 6sm -2 Wound Penalty

Ganan attacks the prone Deathknight (Smashing, Become the Hammer, Force of the Mountain, Stunt, Wound 11/8m (20d)) who defends with Elegant Flowing Deflection and Excellent Melee ((14/9m) Parry 9). But misses (Ganan 17i, Gift 6i)

Gift Flurries a Rise From Prone (4WP, 14/7m, Success) with a Withering Attack. Easily regaining his footing, he drives his warclub down on Tinkara with a snarl, no trace of hesitation in his heart, Smashing at her (4i). The blow connects (5i), driving Tinkara to the ground. (Tinkara -2i CRASH, Gift 17i)

Following its mistress’s last command, Crown Defends Other.

Reya directs her Elemental to attack!

Nula gathers a further 2sm.

Tinkara Flurries a Rise from Prone with an attack, but misses.

Ganan’s anima lashes at Tinkara (1L, -0)

Round 4

The Gift: 4WP (16/10m) 17i
Ganan: 4WP (11/13m) 17i 3a Earth Aura -1 Wound Penalty
Crown: 6WP (80m) 6i Short Range
Reya: 5WP (13/26m) 2a Air Aura 4i Short Range
Nula: 4WP (12/21m) 4i Long Range 8sm -2 Wound Penalty
Tinkara: 5WP -2i Crash

The Gift activates Hundred Razor Circle (15/6m) as Ganan launches another full power Smash (10/8m, 16i). The Gift responds with an Excellent counterattack, backed by Savage Shade Style (12/2m). Ganan Becomes the Hammer (6/8m Parry 7) and turns the Anthema’s blow aside even as The Gift of Merciful Silence uses Bone Shattering Practice (10/2m) to turn aside Ganan’s attack. (Gift 14i, Ganan 16i)

Crown of Laurels leaps in with a tail slam, which Gift turns aside effortlessly. Gift responds with his own attack backed by Savage Shade Style (8/2m), bashing it into its -1s (5B).

Reya throws flame at the Anathema (8/26m), hitting but failing to damage him (5i). Her aura flares up as a pouncing snow cat before it dissolves into a flurry of hail.

Nula gathers another 3sm.

Tinkara attacks! She misses and Gift’s counter attack hits for 4B.

Gift resets to 3i.

Ganan’s anima does not damage his allies.

Round 5

Ganan: 4WP (6/13m) 16i 3a Earth Aura (3B) -1 Wound Penalty
Crown: 6WP (80m) 6i (5B) -1 Wound Penalty
Reya: 5WP (13/26m) 2a Air Aura 5i Short Range
Nula: 4WP (12/21m) 4i Long Range 11sm -2 Wound Penalty
The Gift: 4WP (13/2m) 3i
Tinkara: 5WP -2i Crash (4B) -2 Wound Penalty

Ganan launches his trademark attack (5/8m, 15i), but is Bone Shattered into a miss (11/2m).

Crown tail slams, and Gift puts a little too much faith in his resting parry. The blow connects, slipping past the Anathema’s guard. (Crown 8i, Gift 2i)

Reya throws out the Burning Name again, hitting for 1 damage. (Reya 7i, Gift 1i)

Nula gathers a further 3sm, the spell almost realised.

Gift gives a bitter chuckle, “It doesn’t matter. By now you’ve already lost Dragons. Your little Wyld Hunt is slain, Eletha is dead and Dovak will be mine.” He lashes out at Crown (Crown 4i, Gift 6i). The blow sets Gift up for Five Shadow Feint (One Weapon, Two Blows) (10/0m) and the Anathema attacks again, Crashing the elemental. (Crown 0i, Gift 15i)

Tinkara closes in again to strike with her warclub. The Gift responds with Broken Toys Riposte (we used Table Turning Reversal to model this) (4/0m). “You don’t deserve that!” The Gift snarls, spittle dripping from his face. The screaming mouth of his warclub catches Tinkara’s mid-swing, and with a twist of the wrist the princess’s warclub is torn from her grip and flung in the air. As a look of horror crosses Tinkara’s face, the Gift of Merciful Silence’s free hand lashes at the air like a serpent to snatch the weapon.

Ganan’s anima lashes Tinkara and Crown but deals no damage.

Round 6

The Gift: 4WP (9/0m) 15i
Ganan: 4WP (5/13m) 15i 3a Earth Aura (3B) -1 Wound Penalty
Reya: 5WP (13/26m) 2a Air Aura 7i Short Range
Nula: 4WP (12/21m) 4i Long Range 14sm -2 Wound Penalty
Crown: 6WP (80m) 0i Crash (5B) -1 Wound Penalty
Tinkara: 5WP -2i Crash (4B) -2 Wound Penalty

The Gift (1/0m, 3WP) and Ganan Clash again (4/8m, 3W, 14i) – 15 successes to 10 sees the Deathknight breeze past Ganan’s attack. His warclubs strike the Dragon-Blooded before the mighty tetsubo can connect, badly winding him. (Ganan 8i, Gift 22i)

Reya throws fire at The Gift, hitting but dealing no damage to his unnatural form. (Reya 8i)

Nula’s Stormwind Rider whips into life, lifting her and her mother into the air. Gritting her teeth against her wounds and the poison coursing in her veins, Nula wills the Stormwind toward the Anathema.

Crown lashes out at the Anathema again, but its attack is deflected.

Tinkara Resets to Base, and Flurries Drawing the iron knife the Immaculates gave her to fend off the fey with an attack. Again the Anathema turns aside the blow.

Ganan’s anima slows Tinkara (2i) and rubs sand into the Elemental’s wounds (1L, 5B, -1).

Round 7
The Gift: 3WP (6/0m) 22i
Ganan: 3WP (4/13m) 8i 3a Earth Aura (3B) -1 Wound Penalty
Reya: 5WP (13/26m) 2a Air Aura 8i
Nula: 4WP (12/21m) 4i Long Range -2 Wound Penalty
Tinkara: 5WP 3i Crash (4B) -2 Wound Penalty
Crown: 6WP (80m) 0i Crash (5B) -1 Wound Penalty

As Tinkara gains a second wind, and another Terrestrial closes in on him, The Gift of Merciful Silence gives a theatrical bow, releasing his commitment to Tinkara’s warclub (which drops to the ground with a clatter).

“I must say this has been fun. We must do it again sometime. You can bring whatever is left of your army, and I’ll bring the puppetted corpses of your family members.”

The mark of The Unclean appears on his brow, and shadows seem to crawl like a wave of filth over his body. The nightmare creature disappears, melting as an immaterial shadow into the cracked earth.

The Dragon-Blooded and Tinkara waste no time and race to Nula’s Stormwind and they tear off back to the column at break-neck speed. Ganan banishes his weapon back into his anima. (1/13m)

When they reach the column the situation looks dire. The mortal troops have been slaughtered to a man, cavalry and all. The Dragon-Blooded have been corralled into a tight formation, animas blazing, as zombies flank them on all sides. Eletha is dead, standing astride a pile of corpses, yet impaled on their spears, defeated at last. The remaining Terrestrials look clearly tired and wounded.

“Take Tinkara back to the palace.” Reya roars above the noises of battle, “This is for Dragons.”

Ganan and Reya leap from the Stormwind. Ganan looks for a moment, but there’s no expressions of Earth suitable to reclaim his weapon: he reaches back into his anima pulling the tetsubo back into his hands (0/11m 1a). Nula and Tinkara blaze away into the distance, as Ganan and Reya face off against the army of the dead.

The Keening Shriek of Mother’s Love Lost: 8i 59m 8WP Dawn of Dead Stars, Nemissary’s Ride, Short Range
Zombie Horde: 4i Size 5 Might 1 Magnitude 16 1WP
The Dragon-Blooded: 11i Size 1 Might 3 Elite Drill Magnitude 18 7WP
Reya: 5WP (13/26m) 2a Air Aura 8i Short Range
Ganan: 3WP (0/11m) 8i 1a Earth Aura (3B) -1 Wound Penalty Short Range

Round 1

On seeing Reya and Ganan arrive, the Dragon-Blooded are invigorated. Disciplined soldiers, Ferad and Melody fight on, moving just a little quicker, hearts just a little lighter. Muli gives a great cheer, which Agoram turns into a rallying warcry. Mnemon Vidad looks on deaths door, sandwiched between his Melody’s lizard and Ferad, but even he surges forward to hack at the nearest zombie. The dead fall left and right as the Terrestrials cut them down. But the horde presses forward regardless. (Zombie Horde Magnitude 8).

A dead woman at the rear of the zombie mass, wreathed in the ghostly outline of plate armor turns towards Reya and Ganan. From nowhere she pulls a spectral blade which coalesces into a soul-steel daiklave. She moves like ice on hot steel, moving with a fluid grace unmatched by the rest of the zombie hoard. She smiles at the Terrestrials, mouth full of congealed blood. “Bad children must be taught a lesson.” She intones with a beguilingly gentle voice as the battle-field is plunged into unnatural darkness. (Shriek 4i 54m 7WP Dawn of Dead Stars, Nemissary’s Ride, Short Range to Battlegroups, Close to Reya)

Even plunged into darkness, Ganan hears the movement of the dead around him, and lashes out at Shriek’s false form (Smashing, Become the Hammer, Stillness-of-Stone Atemi, Wound Penalty). The blow drives Shriek to the ground, and dispelling the unnatural darkness. (Ganan 17i 2a, Shriek 0i Prone)

As Ganan swings, Reya is guided by the hidden secrets of the world to scorch the Nemissary’s form with fire. (Reya 10i, Shriek -1i)

The Dead rake at the Dragon-Blooded, but without Shriek to guide them they fail to gain any ground against the Exalted who start to push them back.

The Dragon-Blooded’s collective anima lashes the zombies.
Reya’s anima rages but deals no damage to Shriek.

Round 2

Ganan: 3WP (0/11m) 17i 2a Earth Aura (3B) -1 Wound Penalty
Reya: 5WP (13/26m) 3a Air Aura 10i
The Keening Shriek of Mother’s Love Lost: -1i 54m 7WP Dawn of Dead Stars, Nemissary’s Ride

The Dragon-Blooded: 11i Size 1 Might 3 Elite Drill Magnitude 18 7WP
Zombie Horde: 4i Size 5 Might 1 Magnitude 3 1WP

Ganan shakes off the nightmarish visions filling his mind (2WP), and strikes at the Prone Shriek (Become the Hammer, Force of the Mountain, Spirit Grounding Shout 0/2m 3a). With an amazing 15 successes on 17 dice (reroll 6s, double 10s), the Nemissary’s physical form is cut down and the disembodied ghost reduced to her -4s. (Ganan 3i, Shriek 15B, -4 wound)

Reya follows up with a devastating back-hand from Perdurant Vault, which puts the spirit on its last -4.

The Dragon-Blooded and zombies clash, the Dragons cutting a swath through the dead, animas blazing as the dead fall on all sides.

Shriek copies The Gift’s trick of disengaging into the earth.

Reya and Ganan rally with their kin, and united the Dragons fight the daylight hours away battling against the re-animated bodies of Dovak’s finest troops. By evening the last of the zombies are slaughtered and the Dragon-Blooded set the corpses on fire.

They trek back to Dovak in silence. Vidad walks with Melody and Ferad, who half-support, half-drag him home: the three exchange glances, and smiles, happy to be together. Melody’s lizard lumbers beside the Dragons.

Once back in the palace, Nula is waiting for them and the hearths split, Ferad, Melody and Vidad going one way, and our heroes the other. There is no heroes welcome.

Reya confronts Ganan, “You should have pulled back.”

Ganan’s eyes narrow at the new attack from an unexpected quarter, “My role in the attack was to attack. To engage the Anathema’s forces to draw him out, and hold him there until,” he points at the others “This rabble arrived to cut him down. I did my part, I held the line. They should have advanced.”

“WHAT!” Nula explodes, “You saw what we faced! I was barely able to fight my way through! The Mortwrights! The zombies! You should have helped us! When I left, over half the mortals still lived – you could have saved them!”

“I could have saved them! Because I am not weak like you! I do not run! I do my duty. Yet at every turn you fail your House. I will not be blamed for your weakness!” He accusingly points at all of them. “I followed the plan. I did my part.”

Tepet Agoram breathes heavily, barely keeping his anger in check, “Cynis Ganan. Plans change. We must adapt our strategy to the prevailing conditions of the battle. Stubbornly sticking to a plan as the situation changes is not a virtue. You should have pulled back.”

“You’re wasting your breath.” Muli adds, “Father wouldn’t know tactics if his lack of them slaughtered an entire army. Oh. Wait.”

“This is rich!” Ganan bellows, “I’ll not be lectured by a whelp fresh from his first real battle and a Tepet. I should have known better than let a Tepet plan a battle against Anathema.”

“Let?!” Nula cries incredulously, “Agoram is in command her father, not you!”

“Yes, the mighty Tepet Agoram who soils his britches at the mention of an Anathema. I fought the Deathknight and the Nemissary. What did you do? Weep on your knees? Watch as mere zombies slaughtered your men? House Mnemon is truly in danger if you are its future.” He looks at Muli, “You may as well marry the Tepet with my blessing and kill this Once-Great House all the faster.”

“That’s enough Ganan.” Reya’s voice is like ice, “You have no idea what they can achieve. You are so small-minded and lacking in vision you can’t even see what is plain in front of your face.”

Ganan raises a fist, then lowers it. He opens his mouth, then closes it. The others breath a sigh of relief and visibly start to relax, finally allowing the day’s battle to take its toll. Muli and Nula close their eyes and turn their faces upwards, making identical expressions. Agoram looks at the ground, remembering the losses of the past. Reya’s expression softens as she looks at her husband.

Eventually Ganan speaks, “I see it.” His voice is low and measured, “The Hearth is shattered.”

[Day 7, Night]

Ganan spends 10XP to learn Voices on the Wind, and 8DX on Ghost-Grounding Blow.
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Dynasty of Dovak