2025-02-07 Stocking & Exploring Metagalapa
General Summary
Scene: Caravan negotiation
The Metagalapans value their riding hawks more like pets than replaceable beasts of burden.
Seline mentions there was damage on Little Cloud that was consistent with attacks by a Five-Metal Shrike, an artifact battle platform legendary even among the legendary.
We made a deal for the necessary supplies and bringing on additional fighters.
Scene: Reporting back to the Ar-Duke’s command tent
Stelsor, Dreamflower and Anavi report back about the deal.
The Ar-Duke points out that he noticed this Rohan is a fellow Eclipse Caste Solar.
Ar-Duke flares his Eclipse caste mark and as do his Zenith companions, Duguay-Trouin de Surcouf and Vexillan Cavillo.
Anavi wonders about Ar-Duke’s Malfean brass armor and consults his Unwoven Coadjudicator.
Anavi’s internal imp recognizes that suit of armor as Nine Edict’s Dominion. Worn by The August General of the East when he challenged the Primordial Theion, the empyreal chaos.
Ar-Duke’s armor seems to glow a little, as if it knew it was being analyzed.
To list our assets to the Ar-Duke, Stelsor displays the Oblivion Spear and Da-Ni-Ka’s Net, two artifacts especially useful in defeating the undead.
Stelsor asks Ar-Duke if he ever met Filandro, an extremely old Liminal we know.
Ar-Duke is unfamiliar with Filandro, but mentions being acquainted with Setesh.
Anavi discerns that the Metagalapans can’t seem to lower the mountain below about 1000 feet.
Ar-Duke’s dispute with Deathrose Pot-pourri is that they were hired to siege Point Sunder.
Stelsor suggests making introductions if Ar-Duke wanted to join the Confederacy of Rivers.
A messenger arrives and the Ar-Duke is called away.
Scene: Cut to Rohen on the mountain, overseeing the shipments of goods and quartering of his people
Rumors: Volivat and Ysir are saber rattling lately and Y’dana is effectively in the middle of those.
Vexillan Cavillo, the Ar-Duke’s third-in-command, asks Rohen about where he was bound before this.
Rohen had been leading his caravan to Kamthahar, capital of the Prasadi Empire, and perhaps eventually Nexus after that.
Vexillan warns Rohen about the danger to Solars entering lands that believe strongly in the Immaculate Order or Pure Way.
Fortifier enters, helping move supplies, and asks Vexillan about his moment of Exaltation as Fortifier recalls that Zeniths hear directly from Unconquered Sun.
Vexillan mentions that Unconquered Sun set him on his path of redemptive revenge against the Orchid-Court Raksha.
Fortifier envies Vexillan’s direct interaction with the divine, and Vexillan asks Fortifier if there is something inhibiting the communication with Autochthon.
Fortifier explains he met other Alchemicals who had kept Autochthon’s shrine and continued the rituals, but with no response. Fortifier wonders if Autochthon sleeps in a stasis similar to how some Alchemicals do.
Vexillan says he has heard speculation that Autochthon maintains a separate existence from Creation, similar to the Yozi Malfeas.
Fortifier asks Vexillan how he met the Ar-Duke?
Ar-Duke found him after he had just Exalted in a small island on the edges of The Dreaming Sea. Vexillan had been running away from nightmares of a great black siaka.
All his prayers to the Unconquered Sun had gone unanswered.
One day, he was on a small raft and saw the creature heading toward him. That was when the Ar-Duke, in his magnificent armor, walked forth upon the waves between the creature and Vexillan, and shouted it back into the sea.
This was roughly 4 years ago. (So Vexillan exalted post-Jade Prison break)
Fortifier asks if Vexillan ever found out the nature of this great black creature.
Vexillan has seen similar creatures like this guarding the Orchid Court.
Vexillan asks Rohen for the story of his Exaltation, though Rohen declines to share at this time.
Scene: Rohen goes to find his two subordinates, Malka Stormstep and Terek Coil
Malka is with Duguay-Trouin de Surcouf and these two agree to spar with practice cutlasses.
The match is rapid and ends in a draw with both women simultaneously stopping just short of lethal blows.
With that, Duguay-Trouin and the man-at-arms, who had refereed the match, exit.
Rohen discusses with Malka what they noticed from the fight.
Duguay-Trouin moved extremely quickly, as if she was propelled by light itself.
Malka normally uses Crane Style, which isn’t compatible with cutlasses.
Rohen and Malka review some forms that they might use in a future battle.
Scene: Dreamflower wanders around, inspecting the magic of Metagalapa
The artifact of the mountain seems to be a pentagonal pyramid.
The mountain is shaped like a large teardrop.
(Meanwhile, Anavi is in his room, noticing similar things.)
Dreamflower finds many prayers to the Unconquered Sun inscribed alongside algebra.
Dreamflower uses Sagacious Reading of Intent on the writing to infer Intimacies of the author.
Detects Unconquered Sun (thankfulness)
Detects Ambition: desire to prove sorcerous supremacy
Whoever wrote this is the one who raised the mountain.
Dreamflower surmises there might even be an intelligent spirit of the floating mountain.
Examining the essence flows, hoping to locate a spirit sanctum, the flows seem to converge somewhere underground.
She will need the help of someone who can dig.
Scene: Stelsor digging to lead Dreamflower and others to the heart of the mountain
Stelsor assumes his Devil-Body Incarnation, which is like a gigantic beetle with digging claws and razor-sharp scales.
Instead of being able to make a tunnel like normal, Stelsor finds the rock of the mountain forms back up behind him, encapsulating the group in a sort of stoney bubble. The mountain’s artifact-ness is healing itself.
Stelsor is digging down for almost 10 stories.
We reach a place with an echo.
A being addresses us: Mana-Tui the earth mantis of Metagalapa.
Its master is “the Golden One” who speaks to it with his mind.
The master tells it of dangers the island must respond to and places they must go. Also where on the surface food is left for it.
Has served the master for over 769 years, ever since the mountain first floated.
Dreamflower describes the Ar-Duke’s appearance to verify if this is the “Golden One”
The description doesn’t make sense to Mana-Tui because Mana-Tui doesn’t see like we do.
Mana-Tui produces a mirror-like rock and projects its view of us on the rock: Mana-Tui sees the spark of our Exaltations directly. Also Mana-Tui cannot see non-Exalts.
Mana-Tui remarks that Rohen seems to most resemble the master’s light.
Rohen asks about why Mana-Tui uses “we” a lot.
Mana-Tui sees itself as one with the island, the master and itself.
Stelsor asks if Mana-Tui could land the mountain.
Mana-Tui’s master has never asked him to land it, and isn’t entirely sure it is something the creature can do.
Stelsor tries to lullaby the creature with Soul-Stirring Cantata. Trying to instill the value of rest and the perspective that comes with a pause in work.
Counter-intuitively, the singing causes the creature’s creepy murder-appendages to unfold, as if relaxing causes the creature to stop holding back.
AESS reveals that the flow of essence into this creature resembles the flow of essence at the heart a manse, where a hearthstone would form.
Dreamflower asks the creature if it could return us to the mountain’s surface, but Mana-Tui explains that it is not supposed to leave this spot and isn’t supposed to go to the surface because it would frighten the Ar-Duke’s people.
Scene: Back at the surface
There’s a strange sound when we get back to the surface. It’s a small earthquake.
The Ar-Duke’s people are running to put on armor.
We overhear people shouting that this hasn’t happened before, even when the mountain was attacked.
Stelsor suggests half of us go back down to Mana-Tui and half go to find the Ar-Duke.
Team Gold (heading toward the Ar-Duke): Fortifier, Dreamflower, Rohen, Malka
Team Green (heading toward Mana-Tui): Anavi, Stelsor, RoS, Yurumi
Scene: Heart of the island
Mana-Tui is gone.
The sound of sobbing echoes from all around them.
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