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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 47 – Ganan (115XP 92DX, 115XP/89DX spent; 2WhP 13GP 12SP), Melody (115XP 92DX, 115/92 spent), and Jinabar (115XP 92DX, 75/60 Spent) – An Iron Fist

The Dynasts fly through the night and arrive in Harborhead with the morning light.

The air is rich with the scent of cow.

“Where do we start the search?” Melody asks, pulling her agata up close.

“Harbor district.” Jinabar calls back, “Look for a large mud hut, with an elegant garden.”

Melody nods and races ahead, as Jinabar swoops into town heading for the harbor. Melody quickly races back and leads the way directly to the building.

It’s a large, single story building made of thatch and mud bricks, built around a garden with lake with an ornate waterfall at its center. They set the agata down outside, Jinabar wincing slightly as it jars her wound. They dismount and Ganan commands the demons to go immaterial and follow.

“This isn’t the right establishment.” Melody nudges Ganan.

Ganan shrugs, “I have no idea where Brightsky’s brothel is. Do you?”

Melody makes a protracted whinging noise as they enter the building. The interior is tastefully decorated. Attendant slaves wear the bear minimum needed to entice the imagination. An immaculately groomed attendant stands behind a plinth, she smiles warmly as the trio enters and comes out to approach Jinabar.

“Cynis...” Jinabar pauses, just a long enough for the attendant’s smile to falter, “Alanta.” Jinabar embraces the clearly mortal cousin and they kiss cheeks.

“Well he’s certainly handsome enough.” Alanta comments, nodding at Ganan.

“That’s my dumb brother.” Jinabar says offhandedly, “And this is Mnemon Melody. Unfortunately, we’re here on business, not pleasure. We’re looking for one of your competitors: an establishment called the Velvet Glove? I believe it’s run by a particularly disreputable woman by the name of Murat.”

Alanta’s face twitches slightly, “The Elegant Lotus has no competitors, but I’m aware of Murat and her… ‘establishment’.” She gives the Dynasts directions.

“Ganan, pay our cousin.” Jinabar says, as she turns to leave the brothel without so much as a ‘good-bye’.

Ganan fishes out a silver coin, which Alanta discretely pockets.

“It was lovely to meet you.” Melody says with a curtsy.

The trio proceed to the Velvet Glove. The establishment is a dive hole: a large wooden lean-to against a stone warehouse. They enter the building, and are hit by an overpowering stench of human bodily fluids and misery. Three girls lie on mattresses.

“Urgh… where’s Murat?” Jinabar asks.

One of the girls looks up sleepily, “Basement.” Jinabar looks up and relays that to Ganan.

Ganan lays a hand on the ground and concentrates, “Access is probably the warehouse next door.”

The Dynasts nod and make their way round to the stone warehouse. A pair of well muscled guards block the entrance.

Jinabar folds her arms over her chest, “We’re here to see Murat.”

The guards don’t move.

“Ganan, move these delightful people out of my way.”

Ganan puts his fist in the gut of the first guard, and crosses the second in the jaw. They both fall to the ground, and Ganan steps over their crumbled forms.

Jinabar sweeps her eyes across the room and points out the basement access. The Dynasts descend into the basement. Opium smoke washes over them: Jin blinks a couple of times and shakes her head.

The basement is carved out into a twisting maze of alcoves. Opium addicts from all social stations – the poorest beggar to what are clearly Dynastic tourists – partake, reclined on comfortable cushions in the soft lighting from overhead lamps, fogged with smoke.

“Murat?” The trio asks, inquiring around the drug den. The locals seem disinclined to answer them, wrapped up in their own habits. Eventually, they spot someone they all recognize: someone none of them expected to see here.

“Aharon Saber Edge?” the trio say in unison, incredulously.

“Winglord? Jin! And the Cripple?” Aharon blinks away his opium haze, “My friends, what brings you to Kirighast?”

“Spit a verse, Edge!” Melody implores.

“You are the worst, Edge.” Ganan berates, his eye’s narrowing.

“We will address how the two of you know my ex-boyfriend later.” Jinabar says, looking sideways at Ganan as she does so, “Aharon, we’re looking for a dealer called ‘Murat’.” Aharon happily points the woman out and goes back to his ‘dragon’.

Murat is puffing on a hookah and passing out small parcels of opium to what are clearly customers.

The Dynasts approach, Murat wears a similar kind of clothing to Brightsky – the ostentatious garb of a successful peasant. Her eyes linger on Melody’s bow for perhaps longer than could be considered polite, “Dynasts?” She asks in High Realm as the trio approach.

“Good eye,” Cynis Jinabar says as she approaches, “I am Cynis Jinabar, these are my companions: Mnemon Melody and Cynis Ganan. We are trying to get in contact,” She drops her voice, “With the Salmalin.”

Murat blanches slightly, and takes a long draw on her hookah to compose herself, “Very well, give me the name of your… obstacle, and I’ll see that it’s… removed.”

“We don’t want anyone assassinated.” Ganan says bluntly.

Jinabar shoots him a look, and turns back to Murat, “We’re actually after… a book.”

“A book?” Murat echoes dumbly.

“‘A Lover Clad in Blue’.” Melody chimes in, “Fearsome assassins roaming the desert is no concern of ours.”

Murat nods slowly, “I can get you-”

“A meeting.” Cynis Jinabar interrupts, “We don’t want some tawdry copy printed on reeds. We want to speak with the Salmalin’s leader or leaders.”

Murat takes another long draw on her hookah, “There’s a reason that assassins use intermediaries,” She says bluntly, “And I’m not going to give up the names of my contacts to three strange Dynasts.”

Ganan cracks his knuckles, “Oh I cannot express how happy I am to hear you say that.”

Melody lays a restraining hand on his shoulder.

Jinabar’s eyes narrow, and her demeanor changes from that of a sailor at port to that of a terror of the seas, “Presumably, this is because you’re worried that the Salmalin will slowly take your life apart piece by piece, killing everything you love with meticulous precision, before picking your body apart like a carrion bird, making you beg for the sweet release of death.”

Murat reaches for a flame piece, Melody puts an arrow through the mortal’s hand. She screams, but the scream causes barely a ripple among the opium addled occupants of the basement. Murat clutches her impaled hand to her breast, and Ganan reaches down to retrieve the flame piece. The weapon is oddly shaped, like an over-sized belching frog with a hand-crank jutting from the side.

“Sorry,” Melody says sheepishly, “I can patch that up for you.”

Ganan points the flame piece at Murat and places one hand on the crank. Her eyes go wide.

“Don’t!” Murat begs.

“Where can we find the Salmalin?” Jinabar menaces.

Murat tears her eyes from the flame piece to look at Jin, “There’s a dead-drop at a nearby warehouse. I leave names and payment there.”

Ganan gives a nod to Cresta, who sets off invisible and immaterial.

“Uh-huh. And who supplies you with bliss?” Jinabar asks.

Murat clenches her jaw tight.

“Ganan, retrieve Melody’s arrow.” Jinabar commands with a smirk.

Ganan steps forward, wrenches Murat’s arm away overpowering her as if she were a child, he stretches it out in front of her and grab’s the arrow.

“Please!” Murat begs pitifully.

“Bliss?” Ganan questions, one arm locking Murat’s in place, the other holding the arrow.

Murat clenches her jaw tight. Ganan shrugs and wrenches the arrow free.

Murat screams something that Jinabar recognizes as a Firetongue profanity.

“Ganan, you baka!” Jin admonishes, “I told you to retrieve Melody’s arrow, but look at it! It’s covered in Murat’s blood! Put that blood back in our host’s body.”

Ganan holds the arrow like a dagger, “Shoulder or knee?” He asks Murat.

Murat looks up at Ganan uncomprehending.

“He’s going to jab that arrow back into your body. To return your blood. He’s asking if you want it in the shoulder or the knee.” Jinabar sneers.

“Dead-drop!” Murat chokes out, clutching her bleeding hand.

Jinabar picks up Murat’s hookah and offers it to her. Murat gratefully takes couple of long, slow puffs.

“Am I to understand,” Jin says slowly, her countenance softening, “That the Salmalin assassins are the ones providing the drug ‘bliss’ to the South?”

Murat nods the affirmative. Ganan hands over the arrow back to Melody, who takes it with a grimace, and moves forward to bandage Murat’s hand. Murat shoots her a look of defiance, but allows her to bandage the hand.

Ganan passes the queer flame piece to Jinabar, “I’m keeping this.” She announces, as she turns to leave. “Next time a Dynast asks you for something: give it to them.”

The trio pick their way through the opium den and back out of the warehouse above.

In the open air Jinabar shows Melody the unusual flame piece, “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

Melody turns the brass frog over in her hands, examining the crack. “Never.” She hands it back.

Jinabar points the weapon and turns the crank, a small harmless spark of static crackles through the air. The lightning is bright red. Jinabar shrugs and pulls the trigger, a cloud of blue dust fills the air. She turns the crank experimentally and immediately the entire cloud erupts into purple flame.

Jinabar is taken aback by the power of the device, “There’s a mortal smith who specializes in fire wands. Quite famous. I know him only by reputation. Master Sakai. His workshop is between the military district and the academy.”

Ganan commands the agata to materialize and gestures for Jin to lead on.

A short flight away they come to a grand building, Ganan commands the demons to stay, and they go inside.

A wise looking man with a top knot addresses his three students in a grand hall.

“What is the very heart of a firewand?” He asks in Riverspeak.

The first apprentice speaks, “Accuracy.”

Master Sakai sneers, and moves to the second apprentice who says in a faltering voice, “Is it reliability, master?”

Sakai shakes his head and moves on to the final apprentice, “Striking down your enemy from a distance is the soul of a flame weapon. Thus the answer must be range.”

Sakai sighs, “Too short for a kimono’s obi but too long to simply tie the sleeves.”

“A firewand is a weapon.” Ganan interrupts, “It’s only purpose is to kill your enemy.”

Sakai strokes his chin, “I see you are a man of culture.” He says in High Realm, pointing a finger at the Dynast, “From this all else follows: accuracy, range, reliability, stopping power, quick to load, easy to carry. The concern is how to kill the most enemies, most efficiently. A true master smith must always strive to improve the efficiency of the weapon, not for gaudy ornamentation. That is today’s lesson. Go and think on what I have said, and return with your improved designs tomorrow.”

“Master Sakai,” Cynis Jinabar bows, “Even on the far shores of the Blessed Isle, your skill with a firewand is spoken of with the highest respect.” She lies easily, having heard the master’s name at a drunken party the last time she was in Harborhead, “We were wondering if you could shed some light on this...” She produces the frog-shaped flame piece.

Sakai makes the sign of Ahlat’s horn’s to ward away misfortune, “A weapon of the Salmalin. A hell piece. It fires demon dust mixed with metody venom, lit by a spark. Potent but inferior to a flame piece.”

“Inferior? Are you kidding me?” Melody guffs, “Have you ever seen one get used?”

“A weapon is used to kill your enemies.” Ganan says, “A weapon that can only be reloaded by the forces of hell is of somewhat limited utility. Please, tell us what you know of the Salmalin.”

Sakai pauses for a moment, “They have deep pockets. Assassins. Their fortress is hidden somewhere deep in the deserts of the south, but no city between here and Gem is safe from their deprecation.”

“Do they have a base in the city?” Melody asks.

Sakai shakes his head, “I know not, but occasionally these weapons are seen in the warehouses in the harbor district. Usually the rich and powerful come to me with crude sketches and rude demands, asking for answers when they seen people with these weapons skulking around their warehouses. I am pleased that this meeting has gone differently.”

“Thank you for your time Master Sakai.” Cynis Jinabar nods respectfully, and turns to leave.

“Master Sakai… would you be willing to teach me the fundamentals of your school?” Ganan asks, earnestly, “We have business to deal with in the city, but I would be honored to receive even basic instruction. I could pay.”

Sakai seems to consider for a moment, then he rises, walks to a chest laid against a wall, and comes back with a block-printed book, some simple tools and a firewand. He gives them to Ganan, “Come back when you have made a worthy improvement to this weapon.” He bows, respectfully and Ganan returns the gesture.

They return to the agata, who are circling the smithy.

“Get down here and take us back to the warehouse district.” Ganan yells to the demons who obediently swoop down and pick them up.

They circle back round to the harbor and discretely make their way to the dead-drop location. There’s nothing waiting for them except Cresta who reports that no-one has come to the dead-drop. Jinabar scopes out the scene, and the Dynasts break into a warehouse overlooking the drop point.

Melody settles in to get some rest as Jin watches the drop and Ganan fiddles with his new toy, taking it apart and sculpting a stone bayonet for the weapon (5SP).

As night falls, Jin and Melody swap places. Ganan takes his firewand apart and puts it back together again (10SP spent; 4GP 2SP gained).

Melody tosses an arrow at Ganan, and Ganan gives Jin a kick. They go to the window and Melody points out a pair of shadowy figures armed with the same kind of esoteric flame weapons as Murat.

“We only need one right?” Ganan asks.

Jin nods, and Ganan bursts through the window, and wrestles the closest figure into submission. Melody looses from her golden bow and drops the other before Jinabar can climb through after Ganan.

Jinabar scoops up the hell pieces and puts them on her hips. Ganan keeps the mortal locked in a hold as Jinabar questions him.

“Who do you work for?”

The Salmalin stays quiet.

“Are you carrying bliss?”

Again, nothing, Ganan wrenches his limbs, eliciting a small moan of pain but no answers.

“Where is the Salmalin headquarters in Kirighast!” Frustrated, Jinabar turns to Melody, “Melody, do you want to take this?”

Melody gestures into the air, “I think we may have a more pressing concern.”

Perched on a beam jutting from a warehouse wall is a dark skinned woman. Small framed, with a gymnast's body. Her black hair is tied back in dozens of beaded braids. A black metal breast-plate worn over gray shirt and pants… and a orichalcum powerbow in her hands.

“Don’t let me stop you.” The woman says coolly, in Riverspeak, “Just pretend I’m not here.”

Ganan stomps on the Salmalin’s thigh, hearing the satisfying cracking of bone. He tosses his quarry to the ground and gazes up at the newcomer, “That’s an interesting looking bow.” He growls, his voice dangerous as he coils ready to pounce.

“Right back at you.” The stranger says, nodding at Melody’s orichalcum weapon.

“I took mine from a dead Anathema.” Melody says casually. The woman has made no hostile move, but has a palpable aura of menace.

“Snap.” The woman says. She tumbles from her perch, landing gracefully on her feet, “My name is Harmonious Jade. What do three Dynasts want with the Salmalin, and what’s ‘bliss’?”

The Salmalin with the broken leg spits out “Traitor!” As Harmonious Jade approaches.

“Traitor?” Jinabar questions, “You’re Salmalin then?”

“Are we just going to spend the night asking each other questions and not answering them?” Jade teases, “And clearly I’m not one of the Salmalin any more, if they’re calling me a traitor.”

“We’re tracking the demon Sondok. We’ve linked her to the Salmalin.” Melody confesses.

Jade nods, “I suggest looking in hell for her. But yes, the Salmalin worship her.”

“She’s not in Malfeas anymore. An infernalist loosed her on Creation – she’s here, in the city.” Jinabar says flatly, gauging Jade’s reaction.

Harmonious Jade grimaces, “There has been increased activity. I’ve been investigating unexplained murders here. I thought the Salmalin were behind it, imitating Sondok’s weapons, and that they had increased patrols to try and catch me. I never dreamed that Sondok would actually be loose here...” She pauses, “And what’s ‘bliss’?”

Ganan turns to his sister, “Yes, what is ‘bliss’?”

Jinabar lays out what she knows. “It’s a drug… a new form of heroin perhaps? It’s black like opium, but it seems to be… worse. I’ve linked it to the south, and to the Salmalin, but I know precious little else about it.”

Jade shakes her head, “It sounds like something new. After my time. Any you’re jumping these two because...”

“We’re trying to find Sondok. She’s in the city but we don’t know where.” Melody answers, slowly circling round, “Which means either we wait for her to kill someone, somewhere in the city, then search for a needle in a haystack, or...”

Ganan tenses. Jinabar’s fingers twitch, itching for the hell piece at her hip. Jade cocks her head to look at Melody, but keeps her body squared off against Ganan and Jinabar.

“You find the Salmalin base and take the fight to her. So you jump a couple of fools with Salmalin weapons and torture them into telling you what you want to know. Big strong Dynasts.” Harmonious Jade mocks, keeping Melody in her eye-line, “There’s a better way you know?”

“If you’re going to suggest we bow down and worship Sondok, you’re going to be disappointed.” Ganan says, his eyes narrowing.

“I was going to suggest you find someone who knows everything about the Salmalin, who can lead you directly to their base so we can destroy it together in a full on assault.” Harmonious Jade takes a moment to read Ganan’s reaction, and smiles in satisfaction, “I take it that appeals to you more than skulking around in the dark looking for clues?”

“Yes.” Ganan and Melody say in unison.

“We are perfectly capable of finding the Salmalin on our own.” Jinabar folds her arms over her chest.

“Yes, but can you do it before Sondok finds out you’re here and either moves on or kills you in your sleep? And don’t you have some kind of civil war to go fight in?”

“What’s the matter?” Jinabar asks, “You can’t kill the Salmalin on your own?”

“No.” Jade giggles, “One or two at a time, I can pick off patrols like this one. But assault the head-quarters, on my own? It’s suicide. And that’s before I knew Sondok would likely be waiting for me. But with three Princes of the Earth… the four of us stand a good chance.”

Ganan and Melody look imploringly at Cynis Jinabar.

“Fine. Lead on Harmonious Jade. I hope you can use that bow of yours. Ganan, clean up.”

Ganan brings his foot down hard on the wounded Salmalin’s neck, snapping it like a twig, and the Dynasts run through the streets after Harmonious Jade as she skips effortlessly across the rooftops.

****

Melody spends 8XP to train Untethered Pegasus Spirit, 16DX for Wits 5, 8DX for Strength 3, and 8DX for Stamina 3.
Ganan spends 3DX to train Craft: Woodworking, 3DX to train Craft: Weapons, 8XP for Pasiap Preempts Haste, and 8XP for Shaping Hand Style.
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Dynasty of Dovak