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Essence of Dynasty	By : JohnDoe Category: +A through F > Exalted RPG Views: 766 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: White Wolf, Exalted and Exalted 3rd Edition are all trademarks of White Wolf Publishing AB, and official characters, names, places and text are copyrighted by White Wolf. I do not own Exalted and I'm not making money from this fiction.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Session 4 – Demons and Ghosts – (Melody: M0/0/0 M1/1/1 P3/3/3 E3/2/2; Jin: M0/0/0 M1/1/1 P3/3/2 E3/2/2, 314: M0/0/0 M1/1/1 P3/3/2 E2/2/2)

Two thirty-foot high plumes of lava spray the famed harbor of Chiaroscuro with molten rock. The demonic warstrider Thamuz, piloted by the Dragon-Blooded akuma Dragonsgift Saber Edge, ducks into the boiling stream and disappears.

“Did you know it could do that?!” Jin yells at 314 as her niece escapes.

314 looks grim, “I had hoped it would have taken her more time to activate that system.” Jin looks about to say something else, but 314 is heading towards the lava pools to haul their unconscious allies clear, “There isn’t time to argue about it, help me save the others!”

Jin and Melody pull the unconscious forms of Ophris Dansei and Klawthak from the flow of the lava, choking back on the toxic volcanic fumes and the smell of charred elephant meat. 314 grabs armfuls of Dansei’s mortal retainers and haul them clear of the rock flow. The lava makes a hissing noise as it flows over the edge of the docks and into the bay, as our heroes withdraw.

“In fairness, that could have gone worse…” 314 says, “Only two plumes: they’ll die out long before the lava has time to spread and destroy the city.”

The flames around Jin and her weapon die as their animas drop, “Alright, but where is Gifty? I’m going to go ahead and assume that wasn’t a suicide move back there.”

Melody gestures at the pillar of lava as it starts to die down, “What do you mean, she’s inside…” The level of the lava has dropped to 20 feet and is still falling, with no sign of the warstrider.

314 rubs the back of his neck, “Well… the bad news is that Thamuz can use the eruption points it creates to move within the magma flows under Creation. The good news is, they can only surface at a powerful confluence of Earth and Fire.”

Melody nods, “You mean a volcano.”

314 bows, “I do. And I haven’t seen a great many of them since you awakened me. Far fewer than in my time. Thamuz will be looking to surface, we can track them. Beat them to the volcano, be ready for them.”

“Great, where’s the nearest volcano?” Melody asks. Every stares at her expectantly, “Admiral. As in navy. I’ve campaigned with the Legions up and down the East and across the Blessed Isle. I don’t know every geographical feature in Creation!”

Jin points at the lava flow, “What stops them just resurfacing here?”

314 shakes his head, “Thamuz cannot exit where he has entered. That’s why it’s pivotal that we beat them to the volcano. They’ll be trapped.”

“Then we go back to Grandmother Bright,” Jin says decisively, “After that explosion, she’ll be recovering in her Sanctum. Oh, shit, Tinis!” Melody and 314 stare at her blankly, “Alinos Tinis, he’s here! He’s alive! He’s…” She looks over at the warehouse, which is now a smoldering, lava-melted ruin, “Crispy barbeque. Oh, Reya is going to kill me.” Jin buries her face in her hands.

Melody pats her Hearthmate on the back, “Well… yeah. But everyone thinks he’s already dead, right? And anyway, Ferad will be happy you let his brother die so…” She makes a fifty-fifty gesture.

“That tracks,” Says a deep voice from behind them, “Hello Melody, so the family thinks I’m dead? That explains why they never came looking for me.”

Our heroes turn and see the seven-foot two, muscular, blond form of Alinos Tinis looking down at them. He’s flanked by a dozen marines in Peleps uniforms, who have firewands trained on 314.

“You’re alive!” Jin exclaims.

Tinis extends a hand to shake Jin’s, “Shall we try this again: Mnemon Tinis, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Jin shakes, “Cynis Jinabar, I’m your sister-in-law-in-law. I’m Reya’s husband’s sister.”

Tinis’s jaw tightens, and he becomes slightly more stiff and formal, “Apologies, I wasn’t at the wedding.”

“I mean, I wasn’t at most of it,” Jin gives an easy chuckle, “I wasn’t invited for some reason and, well, I took the opportunity to get reacquainted with an old friend.”

Tinis relaxes fractionally, “You said something about the war being over.”

Jin shoots Melody a look that seems to scream ‘help me’. Melody looks over the vicious looking gang of Peleps reavers pointing their weapons at them and makes a ‘no way’ gesture back. Jin sighs, “Long story short, Peleps abandoned Cainan and set up their own empire in the West. Mnemon sits on the throne. Has done for a year. The Seven Great Houses are Berit, V’neef, Nellens, Ledaal, Tepet, Rulinsei and Alinos. I mean, technically, I guess you could declare as a Rulinsei, but I don’t think your mother would be pleased…”

Tinis snorts, “Hmm, I can’t believe that worked. The Western Imperial Protectorate, not Great Daimother winning.” He sighs, “I really wish you hadn’t let that Warstrider get away.” He looks over at his troops. It is obvious that he’s deciding whether to order them to attack.

“Hey now!” Melody interjects quickly, “War is over. Peleps and the Realm are allies. And, okay, we might have stopped you stealing a Warstrider, but, come on, we stole it first. It’s our stolen Warstrider.”

Tinis points at the morning sky, “When the sun sets, every dead thing in Chiaroscuro is going to descend on this place. And when they find the demons butchered and the cultists scattered, they’re going to turn on the survivors House Peleps is sheltering in the undercity, and without that Warstrider, we are going to be overrun. You’ve killed us.”

314 raises his hands and speaks with earnest emotion, “And if you kill us, that’s just three more Hungry Ghosts to fight tonight.”

Tinis pinches the bridge of his nose and screws up his frustration. He waves for his soldiers to stand down. “And just what is a ‘Jade Caste Alchemical Champion Unit’ anyway?” He asks, sizing 314 up.

“How familiar are you with ‘Autochthon’?” Melody asks, remembering Mnemon’s explanation.

Tinis nods, “More than most. So, you’re a type of Super Jadeborn then?”

314’s countenance goes dark, “I am human.”

Tinis shakes his head in disbelief, “I’ll deal with that later.”

“My companions thought you are dead. What are you doing here?” 314 asks, bluntly.

Tinis considers for a moment. An embittered looking mortal sergeant steps forward and reprimands sharply with a “Sir!”

Tinis dismisses the mortal woman and turns to our heroes, “What do you know about ‘Bliss’?”

Jin answers, “It’s a demonic intoxicant, spread by Salmalin assassins via dead-drops to disreputable underworld types, who in turn sell it on to Guilds merchants. It’s rare on the other side of Harborhead, but easy enough to get in Kirighast.”

(“Well, it was easy enough to get in Kirighast before we sent Sondok screaming back to hell and scattered her cultists like rats.” Melody fist bumps Jin.)

“Too easy to get in Chiaroscuro,” Tinis adds, “Sailors get bored in port. Before the civil war, the Fire Fleet was based here: sailors and officers would take their pleasure in the Tri-Khan’s city. Admiral Lundaer discovered that her fleet was compromised. Couldn’t risk taking that West, so she used the cover of the Civil War to come here and clean house. She wanted my help, so she shanghaied me in the Imperial City. We’ve been here since.”

Jin casts an eye over the ruined harbor, “Good job.”

Tinis’s jaw clenches, “We were in the middle of a civil war. Not all the fleet followed Lundaer. Of those who did, there were divided loyalties between Lundaer, House Peleps, and getting their next Bliss fix. These were women who’d spent most of their service is Chiaroscuro, who knew it as a city with dozens of small shadowlands – none of us were ready for this undead nightmare the Salmalin unleashed, or the Anathema who were drawn to a city of demons like moths to flame. By the time we understood the danger, it was too late. A warstrider could have changed that balance. Two more Exalted doesn’t.”

“Three.” 314 says, nodding his head.

Dansei coughs as he comes to, “Four. Though as we are speaking of the Anathema filth who have infested this city, I believe we have a pact for mutual aid.”

314 speaks slowly, “So, to be clear, we need to: race Thamuz to the nearest volcano, save the citizens of the undercity from hungry ghosts for Tinis, and vanquish one of the Solar Anathema for Dansei? Do we split up or… ?”

Dansei shakes his head, “I would advise against that: Dragonsgift was able to handle all of us and Silken Claw’s mastery of the mystic arts is no less formidable.”

Melody sighs, “So we hang together, or we all hang separately.”

Dansei smiles, it is not a comforting look, “Something like that.”

“Fine, could we cram everyone in the undercity into the Plaza? Forget what Grandmother Bright wants. Forget if the enchantments will hold. Can we get everyone to one defensible position?” Melody asks.

Tinis shakes his head.

“Okay, magic. We’ve still got hours before nightfall: what about sealing the shadowlands?” Melody looks between Tinis and Dansei.

“I don’t possess that kind of sorcerous power,” Tinis says carefully, “Maybe if I had decades to work.”

“What about Silken Claw? The Anathema wield dread magics of the forgotten age, could it be done?”

“Warding a city this size would take the greatest Solars of the First Age days, if not weeks. Faster than decades, but not fast enough.”

“Well, I’m out of ideas, Jin?”

“I’m guessing that just bugging out and leaving this lot to it isn’t an option?” Jin asks.

314 looks at her sternly.

“We can’t abandon these people!” Melody says indignantly.

“Well, what about that?” Jin throws a thumb over her shoulder at the harbor. The lava plumes have died down to mere five-foot high bubbling rock. The stones of the harbor glow red from heat, casting odd reflections from the enchanted glass of the bay, “Sewers run under the bay, right? So, we move the undercity people to the harbor, appropriate the defensive lines of the Salmalin – that barricade we smashed had salt wards and blood magics baked into it.”

Tinis screws up his face in disgust, “I suppose. Our salt wards are backed into blocks, we could carry them down to the harbor, double our defensive line.”

Jin nods, “Okay, that’s a start. Nearest volcano? Anyone?”

Dansei speaks up, “Montaña del Dolor, The Mountain of Pain, It’s a day’s ride to the Southeast. By horse. If I still had my elephants…” He rues bitterly.

Jin turns to 314, “Thamuz riding the lava flows, faster than a horse?”

314 nods, “Faster than a horse. It’ll be there before nightfall. Can we… match that?”

Melody smirks, “An average Shieldback moves at maybe a quarter of the speed of a horse. So, yeah, not a problem. We’ll beat her, but we need to leave now.”

“Alright, hear me out,” Jin mounts a pile of rubble to look down at the assembled heroes, “Dansei, check in with Grandmother Bright. Shore up the Plaza’s defenses. Tinis, move your people to the docks, double stack the defenses. Klaw looks like he could handle a ghost or two,” She strikes the palm of her hand, “The dead are going to hit the harbor first – either because their intelligence is poor and they’ll be expecting to fight the Salmalin or because their intelligence is good and they know that’s where Peleps will be. So, that’s where we want to concentrate our forces. The three of us will take down Dragonsgift, master the Warstrider, come back here to relieve you. You are going to have to hold the line until we get back.”

The Peleps troops, Tinis, and Dansei look unimpressed.

“Where’s your fire!” Jin chides, “Are you afraid of the bloodless dead? Is the thought of fighting ghosts for a few hours really so terrifying that you’d rather lie down and die? You are Dragon-Blooded! Marines of the Imperial Navy! Immortal champions of Creation! I do not ask that you fight alone, indefinitely without hope. I ask only that you dig deep, set yourself like Pasiap against the sea, and hold the line until we return.”

“And, you know,” Melody quips, “If anyone has a better plan, we’d be happy to hear it.”

“Oorah.” Tinis says unenthusiastically.

The lava flow in the harbor finally stops and the molten rock starts to cool. A small coastal trading ship is approaching the sweeping blue glass breakwaters of the harbor. Its purple sails show a familiar mon.

The marine sergeant tosses her head to one side, “Isn’t that your Mon, sir?” She asks.

“It’s my mothers,” Tinis says, “Friends of yours?”

Jin climbs down off the rubble, “That will be my archons.”

“Jin’s a magistrate,” Melody explains, “Reya’s sending her archons from the Lap.”

“Well,” Tinis points to the breakwaters, “There’s a chain across the harbor, your archons aren’t getting-”

Tinis stops mid-sentence as four of Jin’s archons drive overboard, swim up to the undefended ,
breakwaters and lower the chain so that the ship can pass through. The archons expertly steer the ship to the part of the vast harbor that isn’t on fire. Mott stands proud of on the keel of the ship. He throws Jin a salute as they put to shore.

“You took your damn time!” Jin chides, a smile on her face.

Mott bows, “Sorry m’lady, we had a little Lunar trouble in the Lap. We, uh, we had to burn down the Saber Edge manor.”

Jin looks about to ask for details when Melody steps in, “We really need to get moving if we’re going to beat Gifty to Dolor.”

Jin looks like she’s sucking on a lemon, “You’ll fill me in when I get back!” She shouts over her shoulder as she runs towards Clapper. 314 mounts up alongside Melody.

Mott runs up alongside Clapper and shouts out to Jin, “Lady Danireya has sent General Hin and his warstrider ahead to Montaña del Dolor! With luck they’ll meet you there in time!”

****

Our heroes don’t take the time to ponder how Danireya knew to send The Breath of Fire to Dolor as Melody races Clapper out of the city. The Terrestrial spurs the Shieldback Lizard through the ruined city with preternatural ease: Clapper’s legs hardly seem to touch the ground, and every stride seems to propel them through the air. Melody unerringly guides them through streets that seem too small at speeds which seem impossible. She glows in the soft green light of her Essence as they race over the vermillion glass roads that lead out of the city limits.

Melody drives Clapper east as the sun retreats to the west. The race against time is no contest, and our heroes arrive at the base of the mountain long before the sun disappears over the horizon. A group of soldiers are unloading wagons, Melody pulls in beside them and our heroes dismount and address the command team.

Jin throws a salute, “General Hin, good to see you again.”

Melody wags a finger, “How did you get here so fast?”

Saloy Hin smiles, “After our last meeting, my astrologer divined from the stars that we might find the weapon we need here at Dolor.” He waves up a woman who approaches humbly and takes a bow.

The woman shows no signs of having been blown up by a volcano a few hours ago.

Jin folds her arms over her chest, “Ylva Wataru. Varangian astrologer.”

Saloy Hin pulls a confused face, “You’ve heard of my astrologer?”

“We’ve met.” Melody says flatly folding her arms over her chest.

314 applauds, “Bravo.”

Ylva cocks an eyebrow and nods to the trio, “Gracious Pealing Melody, Cynis Jinabar, Three-Fourteen… I am surprised that such august personages as yourselves remember me.”

314 shrugs, “How could we forget. You’re Ophris Dansei’s astrologer. Surprisingly good at taking a plume of lava to the face.”

Saloy Hin looks confused, “Who is Ophris Dansei?”

Ylva smiles, “He’s a Prasadi Dragon-Blooded with a Varangian astrologer called Ylva Wataru.”

“That’s a very unusual name,” Saloy Hin says, wrinkling his brow.

“It’s literally your astrologers name!” Melody yells, pointing at Ylva.

“No,” Saloy Hin says slowly, “My astrologer is called ‘Ylva Wataru’. She’s from the Varangian City States.”

314 makes a face then he looks sympathetically at Ylva, “This must get very annoying.”

Ylva inclines her head slightly, “You have no idea.”

314 bows slightly, “Thank you for bringing the Warstrider, I was worried we’d not have the power to defeat Thamuz.”

Melody points up the mountain, “We still have to make the climb, right? I’m guessing she’s literally going to rise up out of the magma in the caldera?”

314 nods curtly, “Thamuz will rise, dripping with molten rock. Its surface super-heated. It will be even more dangerous than when we fought in Chiaroscuro.”

Jin grimaces, “But at least Gifty is wounded right? I know I got some good licks in. And Grandmother Bright is surprisingly scary.”

Ylva cuts in, “Dragonsgift Saber Edge is overflowing with the unholy power of demon-kind, and hard-wired into one of the most fearsome war-machines ever created.” She gestures at Jin’s armor with its inbuilt life support systems, “I would not be surprised if she is fully healed.”

314 considers for a moment, “Then again, maybe not. Thamuz is an engine of unholy fire and destruction. A vessel for containing the lesser spirits of the Primordials. It was built in a bygone age by one who never needed to consider the frailty of humans. It seems just as likely that it will consume her as heal her.”

Ylva is forced to consider this for a moment, “Perhaps,” she concedes, before adding wryly, “Bet your life?”

“We’re pissing away daylight,” Melody admonishes, “Clapper will take us up. Can The Breath make the climb on its own power?”

Saloy Hin nods the affirmative as the Warstrider stands upright and begins its ascent.

“Good,” Melody says and looks at Ylva, “Will you and the general be joining us?”

Saloy him cuts Ylva off with a wave of his hand, “We shall form the second line, here at the foot of the mountain. In case your akuma kills you all.”

Our heroes remount and Melody spurs Clapper on. Clapper ascends directly up the volcano: his giant feet find purchase that by rights should not support his bulk as they travel up an incline that would challenge the greatest human rock-climbers. Saloy Hin’s Warstrider climbs behind them, following the trails and scrambling over the rock. The sun sits orange in the western sky, casting evening shadows over the bubbling caldera as Clapper reaches the volcano’s upmost.

The stench of sulfur is in the air as our heroes look into the volcano’s heart. Heat radiates from the glowing rock, bringing blinding ash and billowing smoke up from the depths. 314 and Jin dismount. The alchemical stumbles on the loose rock, and slides a yard or two down towards the fiery depths before catching his balance.

He steadies himself and Jin extends Calumny, bracing herself as she offers the power pole for 314 to climb up. As 314 finds his footing, Melody’s keen eyes track movement in the molten rock below.

The surface seems to heat, then bubble. 314 and Melody train their bows on the ever expanding bubble of rock. Melody’s breath catches in her throat as the Warstrider Thamuz, pushes its way out of the volcano, and strides to the side of the caldera. Powerful hands smash into the walls of the volcanic crater at the top of the mountain, and the Warstrider begins to climb.

“Fire!” Melody yells, rounding Clapper to get a better shot. Her arrows which she has driven through solid stone walls shatter harmlessly on the shell of the hellish war-machine.

Thamuz pulls a chunk of rock from the wall of the volcano, and it melts to a thick slag in its hand. The demonic creation hurls the glob of burning rock in Melody’s direction. Her six-ton dinosaur moves with the precision of a ballerina, twirling away from the attack, but the scorching heat still sets Melody off-balance.

314 fires a barrage of arrows down on Thamuz as the war-machine continues its deadly ascent. His shots rattle against the Warstrider’s thick armor, probing for weakness but finding none.

The Warstrider reaches the top of the volcano, heaving itself up over the side. It extends a hand toward 314 and the air shimmies as if with a heat-haze. The world around the alchemical explodes: shards of broken reality smash against his artificial body.

Jin charges at the Warstrider, vaulting up onto its back as she did in the Chiaroscuro harbor. The heat emanating from the surface of the machine is unbearable, and she immediately leaps off, smashing into Thamuz as she dismounts. Unleashing a firestorm assault, she rains blows on the back of the warstrider and smashes her weapon against its ankles.

Thamuz lifts and foot and drives it down on top of Jin. Jin hurls herself to the side, but is unable to escape the massive foot, which smashes her into the rock and pins her to the ground beneath a super-heated foot.

Not wanting to be kicked into the volcano, Jin twists her body free of the demonic war-machine and scrambles back up to her feet.

Robbed of the chance to punt Jin into the volcano, Thamuz settles for a powerful kick, smashing into Jin’s armor with a bone breaking blow. Despite her power armor, Jin feels her body shatter under the blow, and she spits a thick glob of blood against the inside of her helmet.

314 charges at the Warstrider, lashing out with his sword. He skids between the great machine’s legs and strikes directly upwards, trying to breach the cockpit from below. The Justice Blade slips between the adamant armor plates of the giant demonic war-machine and slashes at the underside of the cockpit.

With 314 between its legs, Thamuz cannot get the leverage needed to land a decisive blow. Instead, it twists and drags at the alchemical, crushing him between the Warstrider’s thighs and dragging him on the rocks.

Melody can’t get a clear shot on the break 314 has created, so she spurs Clapper into a charge! The Shieldback Lizard impacts against the demon Warstrider, knocking it over the side of the caldera and back into the boiling magma below.

The Breath of Fire finally makes it to the top of the volcano. Aiming down at Thamuz, its pilot fires a ballista sized quarrel at the downed war-machine. The bolt drives Thamuz under the surface of the bubbling rock.

For a moment, there is quiet as our heroes hold their breaths, then Thamuz breaks the surface of the magma and hurls itself against the rock-face as it begins to climb free once more. The magma flow surges dangerously as Thamuz starts to climb – bubbles rise and burst, sending toxic fumes skyward. The entire mountain rumbles: Dolor is going to erupt.

“We need to finish this!” Jin yells, “Threef, get ready!”

Before 314 can ask what he’s getting ready for, Jin has disappeared from sight.

Thamuz clambers back onto solid ground and extends a hand toward The Breath of Fire. Fire explodes around the Red Jade Warstrider, which rocks back under the assault.

Jin clears her throat, “Behind you!” She calls. Thamuz turns and Jin throws a sarcastic salute, “Hi, how’s it going?”

314 takes advantage of Jin’s distraction to slide between Thamuz’s legs once more and exploit the gap in his armor by firing the Freedom Bow at point-blank range into the Warstrider cockpit. Gifty cries out in pain, and her screams are echoed by Thamuz’s inhuman voice.

Thamuz stoops and backhands 314, sending him hurtling over the edge of the volcano and into the lava below.

Melody spurs Clapper to the edge of the crater and leaps off of her mount’s back, rolls under the Hellstrider and fires another arrow into the cockpit. Thamuz slumps to one side. Fresh blood trickles out of the bottom of the Warstrider.

The Breath of Fire takes advantage of Thamuz’s weakness to stride over to the enemy war-machine. Powerful mechanical hands grip the hull of the demonic creation and the entry port to the cockpit. The Dragon-Blooded’s Warstrider pulls, wrenching and twisting.

Thamuz twists and writhes. It’s armor plates ripple as it shrugs its way free of the Breath of Fire. Chunks of rock spurt from the volcano and the tremors intensify. Thick black smog billows up, obstructing line-of-sight across the battlefield.

Plunging a hundred feet into burning lava would be a death sentence for a mortal. For 314, it’s just enough to piss him off. He half crawls, half swims through the molten rock and begins to scale the sides of the volcano. Clappers tail dangles down toward him, ready to haul him up once he is close enough. Lacking the size and strength of a Warstrider, 314 isn’t able to scale the sides of the caldera so quickly as Thamuz.

Thamuz drives a fist into the Breath of Fire, sending the other Warstrider staggering back. Thamuz’s entire posture changes as it swings its giant limbs with devastating effect. Jin is reminded of Gifty swinging Abrojo to keep enemies at bay.

Jin sizes up her oversized opponent. From below is the gap in the armor 314 created. From above the Warstrider’s entry port lies partially disconnected from the Breath’s assault. She slips into the thick smog of the erupting volcano, lining herself up to outmaneuver the larger foe.

Thamuz continues to hammer the Breath of Fire, ducking and weaving like a human boxer, keeping the Dragon-Blooded asset at bay.

Melody watches Jin disappear into the smoke and Thamuz’s single minded focus on the Breath of Fire. Realizing that the Breath of Fire is far more effective at stopping Thamuz than they are, she barks out orders to try and corral Thamuz and buy the Breath some breathing time. Her anima flares around her in a brilliant display of crown of thorns.

The Breath of Fire takes advantage of the confusion caused by Jin’s disappearance and Melody’s orders to counter-attack. Plunging fingers into the entry port the giant war-machine strains, ripping Dragonsgift out of the Hellstrider, and hurling her unconscious form into the lava flow below. A whine, half mechanical, half that of a wounded animal, emits from Thamuz as the Hellstrider powers down.

“Is it wrong that this was easier than I thought it would be?” Melody says, collapsing to the ground.

The volcano rumbles threateningly under her.

“Speak. For. Yourself.” Jin says, limping towards her, “Let’s get out of here before this thing blows us to hell!”

Thamuz suddenly surges back to life, places both hands on the Breath of Fire’s chest plate, and detonates an enormous explosion. The Breath is blown backwards off the mountain peak and sent careening down the way it climbed up, back to Saloy Hin’s base-camp.

“Oh! Bull! Shit!” Jin complains as the demonic Warstrider drives itself without a pilot.

Melody grimaces and reaches out with the healing power of her anima, closing Jin’s wounds, “If you hate that, you’re going to hate my plan for how to stop this thing.” She points through the volcanic smog at the gaping hole in the top of the Warstrider which used to house Gifty and the control cockpit.

Jin follows the line of Melody’s finger as she realizes what Melody’s plan is, “Yeah, you’re right. I hate that plan.”

Thamuz rounds on Melody and Jin, blasting them with another explosion. Without a pilot, and with the thick black smog, the attack is not as effective as it could be.

Unleashing a devastating burning pinnacle strike, Jin charges at the autonomous Warstrider through the smoke. She darts between its legs and twists Calumny through the gap in the armor created by 314. Thamuz staggers forward under the attack and Jin acrobatically flips over the giant machine to land inside the gaping hole where the pilot’s entry port should be.

The inside of the Hellstrider is filled with viscous, foul-smelling mucus. There’s no obvious control mechanism – that being inside the entry plug that was hurled into the heart of the volcano with Gifty still in it. But the inside of the machine is vulnerable: throwing her full weight against the inside of the Warstrider, Jin steers Thamuz back toward the caldera. The giant war-machine loses its footing and falls, plunging into the molten rock a third and final time, as Jin hauls herself free and jumps clear at the last moment. Thamuz disappears under the lava, reaching out with grasping hands, unable to find purchase.

314 reaches Clappers tail and the great lizard pulls the alchemical to safety. Standing on the lip of the volcano, our heroes gaze down and witness the remarkable transformation occurring beneath them.

Thamuz’s exposed entry port fills with molten rock, and the demonic Hellstrider sinks beneath the surface of the magma. Immediately the tremors of the volcano stop. The pending eruption is abruptly cancelled. What was red-hot molten rock cools in mere moments as the Dolor Volcano goes instantly dormant – perhaps never to erupt again. Only the last joint of three fingers on the hellstrider’s left hand poke up from the surface of the volcanic rock – the rest of the Hellstrider is completely encased in solid igneous stone.

314 nods, “That ought to hold it. From what I’ve seen of your time, I don’t think anyone will be retrieving Thamuz any time soon. And even if they did, it’s only the outside of the Warstrider which is proof against lava: the internal damage caused by,” He gestures “That would undoubtedly have left the machine inoperable.”

Melody nods sagely, “As I said, easier than I thought it would be.”

Jin and 314 exchange a look.

“You want to push her in, or should I?” Jin jokes.

“No,” 314 considers for a moment, “Although, retrieving Thamuz was instrumental to your plan to save Chiaroscuro.”

The sun sinks below the horizon as 314 speaks.

Jin grimaces, “Lets hope Saloy Hin will let us use the Breath of Fire?”

****

Our heroes make their way back down the mountain. Saloy Hin is waiting for them: Ylva and his technicians are already working on repairing the damage to the Breath of Fire: getting pounded on by a demonic Warstrider, suffering a point-blank pyroclasm, and being thrown off the side of a mountain has not left the Breath in good condition.

“We need to borrow that,” Jin says, pointing at the Breath, “How’s your pilot?”

Saloy Hin stares at her and gives a long blink, before stepping to one side to reveal a dead body covered by a sheet, “My pilot who drilled for years to pilot that Warstrider? The one who was thrown off a mountain?”

314 can’t help but let out an “Oof.”

“General Hin,” Jin says spreading her hands, “I am truly sorry for your last, but do you have a reserve pilot? We really do need-”

Saloy Hin cuts her off mid-sentence, “I only agreed to help you in this damn fool’s mission, because you convinced me I wouldn’t have to fight a war on two fronts! Now the only thing holding back the Locusts is damaged, perhaps beyond repair, I have lost my right hand, and you want me to start a new war on a new front? I have found no new weapons with which to drive back the Locusts, and the Realm has proved itself decisively to be too weak to fight its own battles, let alone mine.”

“That’s enough Hin,” Melody declares decisively, “Whether you a Realm General or a Warlord, you are still a soldier. You know that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. And you know that the Realm isn’t going to commit troops to a pointless battle. Whilst ghosts and demons control the Southern coast, there’s no hope of sending reinforcements to your men. But if we can take back Chiaroscuro, there’s a chance to get relief to your men. If the South is overrun with bandits, all you have is your damaged Warstrider and your rogue legion. If you help us take back the South for the Realm, then you return to the fold a war-hero with an ally in the merchant navy. Which the hell of those two options sounds better for you?”

Saloy Hin looks ready to argue, but then he grits his teeth and looks down at the ground, “I can’t drive it.” He says quietly.

Jin does a double take, “Are you telling me that you’re not armor certified?”

Saloy Hin wordlessly leads them over to the Warstrider. The inside of the cockpit is a mess of leather straps and ropes. “You need endurance, coordination, strength. You need an understanding of the First Age mechanisms, a preternatural awareness of the world around you, and peerless skill at arms.”

314 examines the mechanisms, “I think I’m too…”

“Clumsy?” Melody suggests, “Graceless? Inelegant? Bullish?”

“To pilot this.” 314 finishes.

“I mean,” Jin says uncertainly, “It’s not… too different from driving a siege strider, right? I mean, look you pull here to… and you sort of must have to wrap this around your waist here and shift that way to…”

Melody nods, “The difference is, you’re not throwing a switch. You actually have to lift and pull and drag.” She cracks her knuckles.

“You think I’m not strong enough to do it?” Jin bristles.

“Keep the power armor on. We’ll arm wrestle for it.” Melody says.

Jin sizes Melody up and looks back inside the Warstrider cockpit, before bowing out, “I’m good. You drive. But the Breath of Fire isn’t Thamuz. It’s not built for speed and it can’t gallop along magma flows. Plus it’s been battered to all fuck… can we even get it back to the city in time?”

Ylva Wataru rides up on the back of Clapper, “We can if we leave now. Strap in and follow me.”

****

The journey back to Chiaroscuro is a blur. Melody can run faster than any being has a right to, and can spur Clapper to those same blinding speeds, she is a master of navigation who knows every shortcut that exists to every destination in Creation. Somehow Ylva’s route back is faster, as they take shortcuts that don’t exist, passing at times through a haze of colors that don’t seem to even be a part of Creation. Even so, it is nearly midnight before our heroes tread the vermillion glass roads that lead back into Chiaroscuro.

The city seems to be on fire. Towers smolder. Watch fires burn. And eerie shadows are cast by the reflections of the flicking flames in the glass of the city. The smoke of a hundred fires fills the city with an acrid stench.

The city is alive with the sounds of the undead. The unnatural wailing of tormented ghosts. The sickening chittering noises of ghouls. The wet, sucking, hollow sounds of the walking dead. The ringing clash of steel (and other weapons) echo through the otherwise deserted streets. The far side of the city is lit up by a pillar of golden sunlight, shining like a bonfire against the night sky.

“We’ll deal with that later,” Ylva warns, as she smartly dismounts and turns to address our heroes, “I will proceed to the Plaza. Grandmother Bright’s enchantments won’t hold for much longer. You three,” She stops herself, caresses Clapper’s face in the motherly way that Melody often does as she corrects herself, “Four, need to get down to the docks: that is where the fighting is fiercest and the Warstrider most sorely needed.”

Melody looks down of Ylva from her massive Warstrider. She feels all powerful with Creation a plaything at her fingertips, “We’ll heed your advice, Sidereal, but you don’t give the orders here.” She motions for Jin to take Clapper’s reigns, “Move out!”

****

The Terrestrials make their way to the docks. They move quickly, but not quietly. The first zombies they come across don’t even register before Melody stomps them to paste beneath the feet of her Warstrider, but the undead grow thicker as they approach the besieged docks.

Melody levels the mighty crossbow on the Breath’s left arm and fires bolts into the zombie horde, pulping five or six at a time. 314 mops up the gaps, putting bolts into the brains of the ones who get past Melody.

“You could help,” 314 admonishes Jin.

“Trying to steer a six-ton death machine without erupting into a bonfire.” Jin replies tersely, “I have no idea how Melody gets this thing to move faster than a trot.”

Clapper stops and tips his head at an angle.

“Come on, it’s nothing personal, kiddo!” Jin implores desperately, “But you get that Melody is in that Warstrider, right? And you see her disappearing into the distance? We’ve got to catch up! Move your giant armored ass!”

Clapper snorts and ambles off at an increased pace, though not as fast as Melody can get him to move.

As the docks come into sight, the ranks of the dead appear endless. Hundreds. Thousands of shambling corpses press against the barricades. Hungry Ghosts, given form by the scent of living blood, fill out the ranks of the murderous dead.

“This is where the fun begins!” Melody grins to herself, aiming her crossbow at the sky. A devastating storm of oversized bolts rain down on the corporeal dead, smashing dead flesh and ectoplasm alike.

Jin extends a palm and sends a bolt of fire into the ranks of the undead. 314 looses with his trademarked revolving barrage of quarrels.

A chill wind blows over the battlefield. A dead rattle speaks in Flametongue, “Even in death, the conquerors of the Realm still despoil our home! Show them at the eve of our triumph will not be forestalled!”

The dead stop their assault on the barricade and turn as one towards The Breath of Fire. The dead swarm toward the Warstrider, clawing at it ineffectually as they slow Melody’s movements with the press of their bodies. Enough of the dead notice the giant lizard in their midst and make to attack Jin and 314, but their attacks are just as futile.

A shadowy figure appears, floating above the battle. Its eyes glow red with malice as it twists its hands in arcane gestures, weaving a spell of dread necromancy.

“Less of that!” Melody says, launching a ballista bolt at the shadowy figure. The giant projectile passes harmlessly through the immaterial Nephwrack but does crush a couple of zombies when it finally lands. Melody curses, being completely unable to harm the spirit.

Jin turns Clapper towards the immaterial ghost. She extends her arm and sends a bolt of fire at the Nephwrack. The flames blast the ghost, igniting it in a bonfire of Essence.

314 takes careful aim and sends a bolt hurtling into the Nephwrack. It hangs grotesquely in midair from ghost’s immaterial body.

“Brothers and sisters, we have driven the demon scum from our city. Now we shall purge the Dragon-Blooded, whose decadence allowed this evil to take root!”

Despite being impaled and on fire, the Nephwrack seems no worse for wear. The battlefield is plunged into the unnatural darkness of the underworld.

An unnatural presence is felt as all light is banished by the Nephwrack’s dread spell. Although they cannot be seen, the black tentacles of a long-forgotten ghost of a nightmare can be felt, rising-up out of the ground – pillars of solidified shadow, large enough to drag even a Warstrider or a Shieldback lizard to the depths of the oblivion, but hidden by the perfect black of unnatural night. A void kraken.

The physical laws of Creation are momentarily supplanted by the twisted logic of a nightmare, and it is impossible to tell if the void kraken’s tentacles are yards away or inches.

314 closes his eyes. It doesn’t help. He opens them again, but it makes no difference. He has witnessed, first-hand, the cosmic horrors wrought by the beings who made the gods. But he has never had to confront their dead nightmares. He wants to scream, but he holds back the urge.

“Drive me closer,” He says instead, “I want to hit them with my sword!”

In the darkness, the zombies claw at the Warstrider, trying to drag it down by weight of numbers: the dead cling to its legs and start to climb over the Warstrider’s back. The hungry ghosts find themselves drawn to the living mass of the Shieldback Lizard and its riders. The attacks of the dead are disquieting but do no real damage.

The giant tentacles of the void kraken are a different story. One massive tentacle wraps its way around the Breath of Fire. Melody feels the crushing chill of the grave as the void kraken pins the Warstrider in place. A second tentacle snakes its way around Clapper, but Jin, used to grappling with larger foes, fends the nightmarish creature off as she continues the drive toward the Nephwrack.

Melody twists her body straining against the straps that control the Breath of Fire. Contorting with an acrobat’s grace she pulls the Breath of Fire free from the grasp of the void kraken.

Jin continues to drive Clapper towards the Nephwrack, guided not by sight but by the palpable evil of the dead-thing’s presence. She lashes out with her wrackstaff as they plow through the hordes of the dead, battering away the hungry ghosts as her anima roars up as a raging fire around her.

314 leaps from the back of Clapper, out of Jin’s burning anima, and brings his sword slicing through the darkness. The Nephwrack gives a howl of pain as the blade pierces its ghostly form and drags it to the ground.

The Nephwrack is badly damaged, no longer able to fly. “I regret that I have only one death to give in the fight against the tyranny of the Realm!” The ghost screeches as 314 lands bodily on top of the demented ghost. The Nephwrack starts a new chant, building dark, necromantic power.

The zombies swarming over Melody’s Warstrider grapple with the access hatch, trying to force their way inside the machine.

“Oh, hell no!” Melody curses inside the machine. Tucking her body, she rolls, turning the Warstrider over with her with a pulse of Essence as she makes the impossible dodge.

The hungry ghosts make use of the bleak darkness to descend on 314. The lead ghost throws itself at the Alchemical’s back, but 314 bulwark stance is not so easily overcome: he turns at the last moment and blocks the blow. The other ghosts descend with howls of fury, throwing themselves at 314 from all angles, but they fair no better than the first. 314’s anima rises to its full iconic splendor – hundreds of tiny gears turning together in part of a giant cog. Unfortunately, in the absolutely darkness of the void kraken, no-one sees it.

The black tentacles of the void kraken lash out at our heroes. Unwilling to be grabbed again, Melody dodges with impossible grace. Her anima comes up into full bloom as a brilliant spray of crown of thorns, also unseen in the darkness. The tentacles wrap themselves around Jin: she fends them off using her wrackstaff, preventing the void kraken from gaining a decisive advantage. 314 hacks with his sword in wild strokes as he fends off the void kraken’s attack.

Jin hurls the giant tentacle away as she wrestles her way free.

Melody unleashes the full power of her arrow storm attack on the zombie army. The great bolts of her ballista smash the corpses to pulp as she devastates the opposing army. The mighty power of the Warstrider is unassailable – none survive the great machine’s onslaught.

314 turns with fluid grace that belies the bulk of his manufactured body. With the grace of a hummingbird he slashes into the incorporeal form of the Nephwrack, breading through its guard and taking its head before it can speak its final enchantments.

The hungry ghosts slam into 314 again, baring their flesh rending teeth, but the mighty Alchemical’s armor is proof against their attacks, which glance harmlessly off of him.

The void kraken reaches out once more, grasping at Melody and 314. Once more Melody’s Exalted prowess keeps her from harm, but the tentacles seize 314 and hoist him into the air.

Feeling the energy of the defeated Nephwrack’s spell start to ebb, Melody quickly finishes off the last of the hungry ghosts. The weight of the dead recedes, and with no creatures of death to anchor the spell, the void kraken collapses in on itself. The unnatural darkness lifts, to be replaced by the comforting moon and stars of creation – and the blazing anima banners of our heroes.

****

Breaking the back of the siege of the docks is not the last ordeal our heroes have to overcome, but it is the decisive battle. The rest of the night passes in a blur as they locate a whole in the defenses, race the dead to the civilians sheltering in the sewer outlets, smash apart a second offensive in the sewers, outmaneuver an enemy that can pass through walls, before finally coming to the relief of Ylva at the Plaza.

Even with the use of the Breath of Fire, the battle for Chiaroscuro is a grueling one, but when the sun finally rises over Creation, the bulk of the zombie army is destroyed, its leaders scattered, and the ghostly fiends are banished once more to the dark places.

****

Melody has an Exalt Event for piloting a warstrider for the first time – a new and exciting experience for her.
This triggers an Exalt Beat.
Jin has an Exalt Event for inciting Chiaroscuro’s defenders with her fiery speech.
314 does not have an Exalt Event.

Melody has a Personal Event for piloting a warstrider for the first time – a long time goal for Melody.
Jin has a Personal Event for finding out new information about Bliss and its connection to Sondok.
314 has a Personal Event for defeating Thamuz.
This triggers a Personal Group Beat.

The group hits a Minor Beat for the successful defense of Chiaroscuro from the army of the dead.

The group hits this story’s Major Beat for defeating Thamuz Saber Edge and encasing the Hellstrider in rock.

Melody spends a Personal Milestone to repurchase Ox-Body Technique x4.
She spends an Exalt Milestone to purchase Dragon Vortex Attack.
She spends a Minor Milestone to purchase Revolving Bow Discipline.
She spends her Major Milestone to gain Resources 3 – clearing the Chiaroscuro port has made it much easier to access funds.

Jin spends an Exalt Milestone to purchase Root-and-Hand Merging.
She spends a Minor Milestone to purchase Portentous Warding Defense.

314 spends two Personal Milestones to repurchase Ox-Body Technique x4.
314 spends an Exalt Milestone to purchase the Fortitude Charm Reinforced Chassis.
314 spends a Minor Milestone to purchase Portentous Warding Defense.
314 spends a Major Milestone to purchase Finesse 5.
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Essence of Dynasty