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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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Session 27 – Ganan (65XP 52X, Spent 58XP, 46DX; 18GP 11SP) – “He Loves Only Doomed Things”

Ganan and Whim push through the crowds to the ring of establishments near the center of the Conventicle Malfeasant. Harpist play songs of homesickness and forbidden love, but the streets are no louder than those of the Imperial City – in stark contrast to the noise outside the tower.

Unlike in the outside world of Malfeas proper (where the Green Sun sits ever directly over-head in the zenith of the sky) inside the Conventicle, green light spills out in a long line from the dead center of the tower that runs from floor to ceiling.

Ganan remembers Reya trying to explain quaternions to him, and how Malfeas can be thought of as (not merely a Dyson-sphere but) a hyper-sphere intersecting with the Endless Desert along the infinity axis… it doesn’t help.

The Chirurgery of Black-Blood is surprisingly easy to find: an ugly building of black Malfean iron, crudely fenced off from the surrounding buildings. It’s obvious that the Chirurgery is principally a drinking establishment rather than any place of surgery. Or, at least that would be obvious were there not a large pile of corpses heaped out the back of the building. Whim makes a beeline for the corpse pile and Ganan follows after him.

“You probably don’t want to watch this Breaker.” Whim hesitates, holding himself back from falling on the pile of corpses like a ravenous man on a pile of food.

“You’re talking to a Heptagram trained demonologist standing in the middle of Malfeas. Call me curious.”

Whim falls on the corpses, Essence loosening his own body, grotesque stitches appearing to come loose as blood red Essence as his body seems to tear apart at the seems. Razor sharp nails start tearing apart the corpses into limbs and strips of muscle, which he works between the loose flaps of skin on his own body as he rips away the parts of his body ruined by the blood apes. It is a grotesque and profoundly disturbing sight. Eventually he starts pulling the stitches shut again, pinching and biting as the flow of Essence subsides and he returns to a normal, human appearance. He licks the last traces of blood from his fingers and places where his Essence stitches disappeared.

“Better?” Ganan asks.

Whim looks away shyly, “Oui.” He admits quietly.

Ganan nods towards the Chirurgery, “Let’s go.”

Whim unsheathes his scythe and the pair burst into room. The bar is full of obstacles: tables both for drinking and for surgery litter the area in random order, blood and booze soaked rags litter the floor, along with bottles (both intact and shattered). Two men, one large, one slight sit at a table glaring at each other over drinks. Behind the bar is a woman dressed in leathers adorned with silver skulls. Whim points at her, “That’s the Deathknight.”

Midnight Flamebough smiles a wry smile, then two flame pieces are in her hands. Something starts to shine on her brow, but it isn’t precisely the mark of the Anathema, but a stranger symbol which Ganan does not recognize – though it reminds him eerily of a penumbra. The bar patrons look on amused, and seem to be placing bets.

Flamebough: 10i (13/19m, 6WP, 1a), Short Range, Aim Bonus
Whim: 8i (16/17m, 6WP)
Ganan: 11i (13/20m, 3WP, 1a, -1(4B))

“I did’nea start this, but I’ma finish it!” Flamebough calls out (14i, 13/17m), it’s clear Ganan and Whim have started this fight.

She sights on Whim and lets roar with a blast of flame (0/10m, 5WP, 2a), and Whim does his best to Parry the flame, spinning his scythe (16/13m, 5WP, Parry 7). The flame hits, roaring past any defenses and knocking the wind from the Liminal (30i/-2i).

Ganan runs headlong into danger, vaulting the closest table and rushing at the ‘Deathknight’ (13/14m).

Whim pulls himself together (figuratively). Bones break and reform as he leaps to the ceiling, clinging to it like a spider, neck popping and dislocating to keep sight of his prey as his limbs contort (14/9m). Flamebough gives a look that might be wry amusement or might be abject horror and starts to back away (4WP) as Whim scurries across the ceiling towards her. Ganan springs over the bar, almost keeping pace as she dives out a back door, pursued by Whim.

Flamebough: 30i (0/15m, 4WP, 2a)
Ganan: 11i (13/19m, 3WP, 2a, -1(4B)) Short
Whim: -2i (14/14m, 5WP) Close

“Burn.”

All Ganan sees is a gout of flame spurt out from the doorway as Flamebough (0/0m, 4WP, 3a, 3i) lets loose on Whim (14/10m, 4WP, 12A(Incap)).

Ganan bursts out of the back door, Whim has been burned to a crisp – surely nothing could survive that. Ganan runs past the unmoving Liminal to chase down Flamebough. He sees her, shining in the green light of her anima banner is a totem – a faceless Bisclavaret. Ganan doesn’t stop to wonder what manner of creature he faces as he hurtles headlong into danger, his own anima flaring iconic (13/13m).

Ganan: 11i (13/18m, 3WP, 3a, -1(4B)) Short, Rush
Flamebough: 3i (0/5m, 4WP, 3a)

Ganan closes the distance, pulls his tetsubo from his anima (13/15m, 2a), and strikes as the Hammer with the Force of the Mountain in a Withering, Smashing attack (10i, 13/6m, 3a). His anima briefly sputtering out before roaring back resurgent as he brings the tetsubo down (24i/-5i). Flamebough is knocked prone at Ganan’s feet.

Flamebough looks up at Ganan, “Thou art a monster!” (0/0m). For a moment Ganan’s heart-swells with overwhelming desire, touched by her innocence and frailty, but he quickly crushes the thought (2WP).

Easily reading the expression on Ganan’s face, Flamebough snarls and lunges at Ganan, but the Dragon easily holds her off (13/12m). For a moment Ganan’s sand-man and Flamebough’s Bisclavaret seem locked in combat, wrestling with each other until sand prevails.

Ganan: 25i (13/17m, 2WP, 3a, Earth Aura,-1(4B))
Flamebough: -5i (0/5m, 4WP, 3a)

Ganan’s anima lashes Flamebough, sand stripping away skin (1L, -0)

Ganan launches a decisive blow against his prone foe (clearly some form of Anathema), and he strikes true (13/8m). He blow lands with a sickening thud, smashing in Flamebough’s doe eyed face. The blow surely kills her… surely? Ganan banishes his tetsubo back into his anima, then summons a Dragon-Graced javelin (7/8m, 1a) by hardening the remaining sand swirling around him. Still glowing with the elemental power of Pasiap, he hopes to be mistaken for a shining bronze demon as he makes a beeline back for the exit to the Conventicle.

Flamebough uses Nothing But Shadows to go to ground, lying still and letting the ruin of her face do the talking for her (0/0m, 3WP).

Ganan: 3i (7/13m, 3WP, 1a, 4B(-1))
Flamebough: -4i (0/5m, 3a, 1L10B(-4))

Ganan runs past the corpses in the back of the Chirurgery, and pushes his way back onto the main street. Demons, and now that Ganan cares to look, an odd number of humans, throng the streets but pay him little attention. Ganan is acutely aware that both his and Midnight Flamebough’s animas must have been visible from the entire Conventicle as he makes his way through the crowds.

Ganan catches snippets of conversation as he moves at full speed towards the gate:

“So who was it?”
“Must’ta’bin new meat f’Cecyline. All tha’ sand, ye ken?”
“There’s not been anyone new for weeks!”

“Where’s thee going in-a rush!”

“I’m telling you! I think he was a real Deathknight. Might have had a score to settle.”

“New dance hall just-”

As Ganan approaches where he thought he came in, he notices there isn’t just one door: all around the edge of the Conventicle are doors, at least fifty. He picks the door he thought he emerged from and walks through…

Emerging from the gate where he came in, between the two flanking blood apes from earlier. They snarl at him and Ganan quickly moves away from the fleshy gate.

Ganan’s hell-watch rings faintly, before he can check it, he hears cursing from the demons behind him “Oh shit a cat!”

The blinding light of Vitaris, the Brilliant Wind lights up the furthest blocks of Malfeas but draws closer and closer at an impossible pace. Ganan and the blood apes shield their eyes: an easier task for the demons standing guard than for Ganan who has to navigate the unfamiliar demon city without a guide or his own eye-sight.

Having no-where else to go, Ganan resolves to struggle through the blinding light to try and make it back to Whim’s tent on the adjacent layer. Covering his eyes, Ganan blunders forward.

Eventually Vitaris passes, and Ganan blinks to clear his eyes, looking round to get his bearings. He doesn’t recognize where he is. He sights the green sun (directly overhead, as usual), and tries to make his way back to the sewers that he and Whim emerged from… without success.

Ganan thinks back to his first conversation with Whim:

“You know where to get food, water, shelter?”
“I’ll get by.”
“No, you won’t.”

He curses himself for not paying more attention when Melody explained the principles of tracking. The sand javelin in his hands dissipates into sand and Essence.

Ganan thinks back on his school days. The Endless Desert touches every layer of Malfeas at the edges, and stretches out to infinity. He could head Sand-wards until he reached the boarder, then turn Forge-ward again and walk back into Malfeas… but it seems unlikely that he’d have better luck navigating that way than simply trying to find his way in the streets of the Demon City.

Ganan wanders the city as his anima recedes. The streets he walks and the buildings his passes do not look familiar. Eventually he comes across a vast building made of glass. Emblazoned over the door is a simple invitation “Enter All Ye Who Seek Knowledge”. Knowing that the glass library’s are the domain of Orabilis and that interfering with its patrons is an affront to the mighty demon, the exhausted and hungry, Ganan enters the library, finds an out of the way corner and sleeps until the Tomescu scream in the morning.

Ganan sets out to explore the library: studious demons pour over the texts, devouring knowledge for their own purposes. Ganan resolves to seek out his own knowledge, finding what lore he can on Sondok… and on the mysterious Anathema he fought in the Conventicle.

By the time the Tomescu scream in the night (ending his second day in Malfeas), Ganan has consumed what little food and water he had left, and found a great deal of information about Sondok’s history and exploits. None of it reassures him. Of the Conventicle Malfeasant and its inhabitants, no scrap of writing can be found. When Ganan accosts a naneke to ask for information, it becomes clear that this is forbidden lore. Knowing that pursing forbidden lore in the domain of Orabilis is likely to result in a swift and painful death, Ganan departs the library at haste.

Ganan wanders the Malfean streets at “night”. The green sun still shines, unabated, directly overhead. The streets are still filled with clamor and noise. Ganan still doesn’t recognize any landmarks.

He does, however, find another abandoned shack. The roof caved in by stone rain, and the building long abandoned. Ganan spends a couple of hours repairing the shack and securing it against intrusion (4SP). He checks his hell-watch for danger, and beds down until morning (5WP).

The cloud arsenals scream Ganan awake, beginning his final day in Malfeas. He casts Invulnerable Skin of Bronze, and sets out to find food and water.
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Dynasty of Dovak