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Exalted: Dreams of Exaltation - Prelude: Meeting


Krul

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"You may look at our weapons, blacksmith, we shall see what you can do with them." The Shaman gestured for the three of you to follow him.

"No, I can only read that within you lies both salvation and destruction. Perhaps for us, perhaps for the world, perhaps it is one or the other, or perhaps it is for all." He pauses, then turns to look at the three of you.

"One to represent the past, and the power of the sword." He points to Saiya. "One to represent the present, and the power of the pen." He points to Mei-Ying. "One to represent the future, and power of hope." He points to Daiya.

"Three to walk in the light and shadow, to bring destruction and salvation, chose wisely, for your choice shall make the difference." He gestures to all three of you.

"Destiny rests heavy upon all of you, perhaps the prophesy doesn't refer to our choice at all, but to yours."

He leads the way to the forge. "Our blacksmith died a month ago, his apprentice is finishing his training in a village a 1/2 days travel to the east. He returns twice a week to do what he can for our warriors."

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Seiya nods, though his expression becomes guarded as Daiya is mentioned as part of the prophecy.

He nodded as he was led to the forge. His practiced eye inspected every detail of the tools and the nature of of the forge. "You desire weaponry or shields, or armor?"

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"If you can repair the broken weapons there, it would be appreciated." He gestured to about a dozen broken spears and swords. "A few knives would also be appreciated."

The shaman turned to speak with the chief again, for a few moments, then back to the three of them. "If you do this for us, the Chief extends the village hospitality for the week."

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"That is very generous, thank you." Seiya nodded, and looked to Mei-Ying and Daiya. "I will go to work then, Mei Ying, if you would, please look after my daughter while I am here in the forge."

Click to reveal..
Spending essence (3 personal, 3 periphieal) for 3 successes on craft 2nd excellency, 1 wp, 6d10 for craft roll

(11:06:58) (Seiya): 6 essence for 3 success

(11:07:05) (Seiya): 1 wp for 1

(11:07:10) ChatBot: (Seiya) rolls 6d10 and gets 5,5,5,3,9,9.

6 successes total.

Seiya worked furiously, the essence of all things coursing through him as he worked. He hummed a tune he didn't know, yet did, and corked through most of the day, reforging the weapons the Shaman had indicated, smelting out their impurities, and overall increasing their durability and sharpness. He even managed to forge a good number of knives, seeming to have it down to a veritable science after the first one.

Everything he forged was pressed with a tiny "SSS" somewhere inconspicuous upon it, Something Daiya had told him was his mark in this life. It was better than what he felt he should put, the crest of the Unconquered Sun, but he wished for no harm to come to his hosts because of him.

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Mei-Ying nodded and took the girl's hand to escort her on a walk around the village. She found herself impressed, and a little unsettled, at the young girl's equanamity in the face of effectively having lost her father. She was careful not to press that point though, or phrase it in those words.

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The little girl looked around the village as she was guided around, pausing a moment here and there to say hello to the villagers in their own tongue. The village mostly was made of grass and wood huts, though some of the places in the center were a bit better, such as a stone temple to the Golden Lord, the god of Justice and Order, and no doubt somewhere there was a hidden place where one could make offerings to the Pale Mistress, goddess of pain and misery, but such things were not out in the open in this land.

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Daiya turned to the woman leading her around, and looked at her a moment, and for a moment she seemed unusually perceptive as she looked Mai Ying over. "Was there something you wanted to ask me, Lady?"

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The girl looked at her directly "He lost his memory defending me, and now remembers being someone else, and partly is someone else, but he's still my father." The last was said very strongly, before she continued, and she lowered her voice somewhat. For a nine year old, she seemed unusually articulate and intelligent. "He has to hide some of what he is now, because it will scare people."

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Mei-Ying nodded, then made a decision.

"That's very good, you understand the basic situation. If you'd like to hear it, I'll tell you the specifics though. The story of what's happening now begins a long, long time ago, when this world was different. When it was...new."

Assuming Daiya is interested, Mei-Yig shares as much as she knows of the true history of Creation, with some emphasis on the Solar Exalted, and how they work.

Finally she finishes by saying, "What happened to your father isn't how it's supposed to work. We keep our memories, and the memories of the previous self are remote, coming up only seldom and half-remembered, like dreams. I don't know why it was different for him."

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"He made a palace rise from the ground, it was amazing." There was a hint of excitement in the young girl's voice as she spoke of it. "But there were bones inside, and he said he remembered it, maybe something there can find out?"

She actually had been listening fairly closely to Mei-Ying's words, and then suddenly she turned her head sharply.

"Somethings wrong, lots of shouting, and it sounds like.. fighting." She frowned. "Have to get daddy, he knows all about fighting."

Mei-Ying could hear what the girl was talking about, it sounded like it was coming from the other side of the village, but she couldn't see it from here.

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Mei-Ying stood up, heart quickening.

"I'm going to see what's going on. Stay here, all right? I'll find your father too, so don't worry. Whatever happens, stay here so we can find you and protect you."

She got swiftly to her feet and ran towards the sound of shouts and clanging metal.

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As Mei-Ying ran toward the sounds of fighting, the girl looked around a moment unsure, then headed toward the smithy, where her father was at.

Sliding around several buildings, Mei-Ying saw a most unusual sight, folks with rather advanced weapons, and goggles around their forehead, rounding people up, taking captives and fighting the village warriors.

Meanwhile, as Seiya pounded upon the anvil, someone just throws open the door to the stone hut, as the smithy was somewhat better built then the rest of the village. "Daddy, there's fighting outside!"

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Seiya nodded, setting down the tools of his trade, picking up the implement that he knew could keep his daughter and friends safe, the great Dawn's Wrath.

"Alright Daiya, stay near me, I will protect you." He nodded and looked towards the sounds of fighting, knowing for certain he would shed blood if the need arose, and that he would let no harm befall this place if it was within his power.

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In a flash, the prophecy appeared in Mei-Ying's mind.

We will save them from these raiders. We will destroy them by revealing ourselves as anathema in the process.

Her body felt heavy as she realized the trap Fate had set. But...mightn't there be another way? If the battle took place -away- from the village, then they might escape the penalty for harboring anathema. They could track the raiders back to their camp, then liberate those they took. It was a long shot...the Hunt wasn't known for its discretion or precise targeting...but it had to be better than going full anima in the middle of a simple hamlet like this.

"Seiya," she murmured, and whirled around, looking for the warrior. He wouldn't understand!

The sorceress ran for the village smithy, hoping that she could catch him before he started raining glowing essence-arrows upon them.

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As Mei-Ying ran back toward Seiya, a dozen men, wearing some sort of strange looking shiny leather armor, goggles that made their eyes glow red, and carrying what appeared to be crossbows. Speaking to one another in sort of broken Old Realm, you can barely make out what they are saying.

One of them brings up his crossbow and fires at a fleeing villager, the arrow fired turns out to be a net of sorts, that tangles the woman up as she flees, falling to the ground. Several of the warriors move forward to collect her.

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"Seiya!" Mei-Ying burst into the smithy and confronted the hulking Exalted. "The village is under attack! They're capturing the people though, not killing them. They may be slavers."

She held out her hands, as if to ward him off. "Please listen though. If we fight them, we'll expose ourselves as Anathema, and open this village to charges of harboring us. We could destroy them all by trying to save them that way. I think we should let the raid finish, then track them back to their camp and attack there. Then we can freely use our powers without it reflecting back on the village."

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"You are proposing to slay the entire slaver camp then, you realize this?" There was no judgement in his tone, just a statement of fact, and intent. "I will abide by your wisdom, as I don not wish this place harm for their hospitality."

He looked at her and then at Daiya. "Then the two of you should hide."

"We won't fail these villagers. I trust you have a means to follow them?"

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Choosing to withdraw and follow the invader's instead of facing them directly at this moment, the two exalts began to make their plans. They would have to be careful to withdraw without being noticed by the enemy however.

Click to reveal..

Need a Dex + Stealth roll from each of you now, you need at least 3 success to avoid being noticed.

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Seiya wasn't by trade a quiet man, but he tried, and almost succeeded. At the last second though, he backed into a table, and a hammer fell to the floor, generating far too much noise to his ears.

Click to reveal..
(20:28:19) ChatBot: (Seiya) rolls 4d10 and gets 8,1,7,2. 2 successes= fail
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Mei Ying, far from clumsy, but completely untrained in the ways of stealth is simply impossible to miss in her flowing robe and scholar's garments. Though she tries to take cover, she's far too obvious in her attempts to do so and merely calls attention to herself in the process.

((09:26:07) ChatBot: (SalmonMax) rolls 3d10 and gets 2,2,3.)

(No successes :))

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Despite all the noise they made, the two of them did manage to get partway out of the town before they were noticed, considering how much other noise was being produced, Daiya, being smaller, was able to be quieter then both of them. However, about midway though leaving, they had attracted enough attention that a group of about 4 of the strange invader's stopped them, and one of them lowered a crossbow like object, firing a net at all three of them.

Click to reveal..

Up to the two of you now, you can fight here.. or Mei Ying can try to persuade Seiya to go with her plan, from inside the invader's camp as captives..

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Mei-Ying went for her weapon to make it look good, but moved slower than she had to, allowing the net to tangle her arms and hands before she could draw. She watched the slaver approach with trepidation and whispered to Seiya, "I hope so too. It will be tricky; they'll take our things. We'll have to be alert for the right moment to act."

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As the two of you speak, you both flash back a moment, to another time and place, somehow, you know both of you stood together during something... though Mei Ying doesn't know it, Seiya remembers it as the Aftershock War. His words were almost identical at that moment, as they were in this instant.

"I hope this goes as you plan."

"It will be tricky, but it should work." Said the sorceress at his side..

*** *** *** *** ***

Of course, remembering that much clearer then he should, but not quite having mastered all the capabilities he had then was somewhat frustrating. As the net wrapped around the three of them, pushing all three of them together, Daiya gave her father a quizzical glance, she knew he could fight, why wasn't he doing so.

In a low voice, almost a whisper, though with remarkable self-control for a girl her age, she asked a question. "Daddy, why aren't you fighting?"

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"If I fight hear Daiya, we could win, but it would reveal what I am. That could get this entire village slaughtered. vetter that I bide my time. Have no fear, It will all work out."

the look in his eyes told Mei Ying two things. He wouldn't let them be harmed, and that there was a stark certainty in his words that when he drew his grand daiklaive again They wouldn't stand against him.

"We can't let them suffer for showing us hospitality."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Daiya relaxed at the explanation, and in the trusting voice of a girl whose confidence in her father was strong as iron, she responded. "Ok."

As they were taken captive, together with a number of other individuals within the village, they were taken just outside the village, to a strange metal wagon of sorts, it didn't appear to have any horses pulling it, and a bit of smoke was escaping the front. As they were placed inside, a sleeping gas of sorts filled the air, sending everyone inside to sleep, though the exalts could fight the effect if they chose too.

The wagon was just outside of the village, so they were still too close to act without inviting the peril that Mei Ying had identified.

Click to reveal..

You may roll a stamina + resistance roll to stay awake from the effects, though it's only a sleeping gas, it won't do any harm.

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Mei-Ying murmured, "Try to...pretend..." as she let herself collapse to her knees, then fell over in what she hoped was a reasonably plausible interpretation of the gasses effect on people. Horribly, she could feel herself getting dizzy and slightly nauseous, even holding her breath. Even as she faked being knocked out, she struggled to avoid the actual fate...

(roll!)

(22:32:03) (SalmonMax): MeiYing Stamina + Resistance. 4 dice.

(22:32:09) ChatBot: (SalmonMax) rolls 4d10 and gets 6,10,3,8.

(2 successes...I can never remember if 10's get rerolled in Exalted...)

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Struggling to stay conscious took an enormous degree of will from both of them, for Saiya, he managed to recall certain ancient methods long forgotten, meditations, even as his daughter fell asleep beside him, he managed to remain conscious for the time being.

Mei Ying also called on certain ancient meditations, though she didn't know them as well as Saiya, what she had discovered was though reading and practice.

Faking it worked for the moment, as both of the exalts fell beside one another, just close enough to whisper, with Daiya between them, even as every mortal loaded into the metal wagons were affected by the gas.. and suddenly the wagons began to move with great speed.

Click to reveal..

Sense 10s count for two successes, each of you undercounted successes by one, you got 5 and 3 respectively, and you needed 3. On a different note, these wagons are very strange looking, think of a train on wagon wheels.. that's the look of them, there shouldn't been anyone like this, so far south.

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"It could be some kind of relic," Mei-Ying speculated, "Though I haven't seen anything like it in the books I've read."

She surreptitiously glanced around, but they were still ignored for the time being.

"This could be a problem though. They seem better equipped than simple wasteland slave raiders. If there are too many where we're being taken, it might be very difficult to defeat them."

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"We'll face it when we get there."

For the first time since she'd met him he smiled. "I don't plan on dying anytime soon. I'm sure between the two of us, we'll find a way to survive and get away."

He nodded. "Perhaps you can tell me a little more about yourself. Though it's abit unfair of me to ask, since I can't really do the same."

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The train wagon was moving rather quickly, even more so then either of you would have imagined it too, and the gas which had put everyone else to sleep was dissipating. There was however, a bit of time for the two exalts, who had fallen down right next to one another, a bit of time to talk before they arrived wherever they were suppose to be going.

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  • 2 weeks later...

"Me?" For some reason the question set Mei-Ying back. She was so used to assumed names and fake stories...and there was still the question of how much to tell. Should she reveal the Library to him?

Maybe just start at the beginning.

"Well...I'm originally from the heart of the Realm," she tells him. "From the Blessed Isle itself. My father was curator and head librarian of one of the smaller annex libraries not far from the north coast. He was a very gentle man...scholarly. He loved history. In the end, he died for it."

She trailed off, surprised by how much it still hurt to think about.

"The Immaculate Order came to take him, and his forbidden collection, away. I didn't have the power to save him. There were too many, and there were Dragon-blooded among them. My father sent me away, with as many books as I could carry, using an artifact from the vaults. It sent me to a safe place, but he couldn't follow."

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He nodded. "I'm sorry for your loss."

He looked a little curious. "What sort of knowledge would people kill over? It doesn't strike me that a book in and of itself could be that dangerous. Perhaps if it made complex workings simple and mundane it might be dangerous, but only if applied by those with impure motive."

He spoke with great conviction. "Knowledge is good nor evil, just as technology is not."

He looked to her "Sorry, Daiya tells me I go on at length when it comes to Knowledge or Technology being labeled one way or another."

"What happened after he sent you away?"

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"You really don't know," Mei-Ying said as she turned her head to look in wonder at Seiya. "The Imperial Realm, the Immaculate Philosophy...you don't remember any of it." She shot a cautious glance at their captors, then went on.

"I found myself in an old building...a building from the First Age, the age of wonders. The artifact father had me use was some kind of one-way transportation. It wasn't safe there...there were, puzzles. Tests, I guess. Traps. The first one I tripped, and it...well, it hurt me. So I was careful after that. But I had the books that I'd carried with me, and as I managed to solve the rest of the puzzles..."

She took a deep breath. "Well, that's when the roof opened up and a ray of light was shining down, and I felt like a giant eye was looking down at me, actually seeing ME. And it happened. I was touched, and changed, and when I stood before the doors, they felt the Essence in me and opened."

A note of regret entered her voice. "I sometimes wish that it had happened before, when I was trying to stop the soldiers in the library. But the gift waiting for me was not the gift of a warrior. At least, not that kind of warrior. And becoming Anathema right on the Blessed Isle...I probably wouldn't have survived long enough to use the mirror."

"Anyway, I stayed in the Library of Mysteries for some time...learning about what had happened to me and the truth of the past. Undoing the lies I'd been taught. Finally, I collected what I could find that would help me, and went out...I'm looking for more places and things from the First Age. Tools and knowledge I can use to try to restore the world someday. The old scrolls suggested this would be a good place to start looking."

Mei-Ying snorted at that. "Maybe not as good as I'd hoped though."

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"I wouldn't say that." He nodded. "We came from my Home, before we began our journey. I saw my old body, who I used to be and buried it. The Manse is in a state of disrepair, and sadly, I am not yet skilled enough to bring all it's functions to life again."

"I built it, the Me before, the one I remember, built it, at the height of the First Age."

His eyes had a faraway look, like he was lost in memory. "I remember the primeval war, and the glory of how things were beneath the Deliberative. I Forged wonders when there was no longer battle to be won."

He looked at her and smiled. "I will show it to you, when we are again free. Perhaps there is something there that can be of aid to you."

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As the two exalts spoke with one another, with Daiya sleeping between them, the strange vehicle picked up speed, though it was difficult to see it from inside. After about about 2 hours of accelerated travel, plenty of time for them to talk and discuss, when the vehicle finally came to a stop.

Once the it came to a stop, the doors were opened, and the captives began to wake, surprisingly enough, or perhaps not Daiya was the first one to wake. However, as they exited the car, what they saw was not at all what was expected.

In the center of a swamp, a great mechanical head rose, looking like it was made of trace amounts of jade, it was the size of a huge multi-story building, and around it dozens of other expansions to the location. Most surprisingly of all, was the woman made of red jade standing outside of the vehicle, looking over each of the captives as they exited.

A very strange version of Old Realm was being spoken to the woman, by some of the captors.

Click to reveal..

Going to need an Intelligence + Linguistics roll to understand the dialect, only need a roll of 1 success though.

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Seiya guarded Daiya protectively, though with his size, even Mei could hide behind him and not be seen. He was ready to call for his weapons, yet he tried to make out what they were saying. A language that sounded all too familiar.

Click to reveal..
(19:59:42) ChatBot: (Seiya) rolls 8d10 and gets 8,9,7,1,9,2,5,5. 4 successes
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Mei-Ying, in contrast perked up a little, squinting and moving around in the cage to try to get a better look. Nothing she'd ever read about prepared her for this. The jade figure...was that armor of some kind? A Dragon-Blooded? But no, it moved like flesh, and the eyes stared out of its head directly, not through slits or holes.

She strained her ears to hear, confused at first but quickly realizing what it was she was hearing...it was a strange, old-sounding dialect, but still recognizable with effort.

(3 successes on Int + Linguistics.

(15:35:57) (SalmonMax): Mei Ying rolls to understand funky talky stuff.

(15:36:03) ChatBot: (SalmonMax) rolls 7d10 and gets 2,9,3,3,4,9,8. )

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