Exalted: The Tale of the Three Fell Strokes

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Homecoming
As they made their way back home, they discussed what to do next. There was a concern that with the Wild hunt on their way, the best way to keep the city of Marull Vaar safe would be to lead the hunt away from the city. But the auditor assassins presented a new level of problems. Reeds and Hephastia were reluctant to leave, whilst Tokumei and Daxi were more open to the idea. However they agreed that ultimately they would need to talk to Belar about this first as she would likely know more about what threat they faced.

When they returned Marull Vaar, Daxi spent some time investigating the criminal activity in the city and found a conspiracy to act against the Exalts. Weapons were being smuggled in at a warehouse. Hephastia spent some time at her forge and with her apprentices. Whilst Tokumei visited the Dam and Reeds renewed his merchant connections.

Later the Solars returned to their newly constructed home to discuss what to do next and sent message to the Palace asking when Belar would like to see them. As the messenger came back far too quickly it turned out that the answer was "Immediately" as the messenger had met with a messenger from the palace coming the other way.

She and several of the Dragonbloods met in a chamber, Belar seeming much healthier than she had been, although one of the Dragonbloods had bee badly wounded recently.

The circle shared the news of the various enemies that they had encountered or knew about:


 * The Wild Hunt
 * Bal Sho and the Underworld enslaved exalts with their timetravel plot.
 * The Nulbarans beneath the ocean
 * The criminal conspiracy within the city with links to the Lintha.
 * The court of Flesh that was still at large.

The Dragonbloods shared their own information on this and when Tokumei offered to leave Belar was firmly against it. They were all Anathema now and the wild hunt would not be deterred, so they would need to make a stand. However the two immediate threats were the court of Flesh that had been abducting people from along the road to the North up the coast and the Lintha conspiracy. They agreed to divide the labour with the Dragonbloods facing the conspiracy in the city, whilst the Solars who had already bested the Marquis before, head up the coast to destroy them. With the plan agreed, they set off the next day.

Hunting the Marquis
Before departing Marull Vaar. Daxi wanted to make sure he was able to raid the waterfront smuggling operation that he'd become aware of.

The plan was for Daxi and Tokumei to get inside, whilst Reeds and Hephestia wait outside ready to spring in to action if needed.

Disguised, the infiltration team moved in taking out the outer guards without raising the alarm. Before passing by the guards at the entrance to go in to the warehouse, where a couple of dozen people were either loading and unloading goods from a boat that had docked through a hole in the floor, or were acting as guards.

As crates were unloaded they were being checked by a man named Po at a desk who checked the contents of each box.

Daxi split off going to the upper levels to take out as many guards as he could, whilst Tokumei followed Po out when he took a break, incapacitated him in an alleyway and used her robes and skill with makeup to impersonate him. Sitting down at his desk and inspecting the ledgers as people came to have the boxes inventoried. Each box seemed to be a kit for a single person to wage guerrilla warfare, with blades, light armour, rope and other supplies, in some cases even including some fire dust.

Daxi arranged the unconscious guards where they stood, making it seem as though they were merely resting their eyes on the job. However a few minutes later a figure burst in claiming that they had seen a silt strider just a few blocks away and that everybody should pack up their things and go, as they didn't know how good they were at infiltration.

Daxi dropped down on him and said "Surprisingly good as it happens" and the room erupted in panic. Most of the conspirators tried to flee, but one stayed and threw a lantern at a collection of paperwork in an attempt to burn the warehouse to the ground.

Tokumei leapt up out of her chair and flung herself across the room attempting to catch the lantern before it fell. She missed, but was able to gather the fire and turn it in to the sorcerous motes needed for Thousand Thunderous Birds which wreaked a swathe of destruction on the smugglers, but still a good quarter of them got away, although one of their leaders and much of the weapons caches and paperwork were captured by Daxi and the others.

The following day they left the city on Snails in search of The Marquis and the Court of Flesh.

Travelling up the coast through thick jungle, they stopped on the first night where Hephestia and Tokumei sparred a bit, with Tokumei primarily focusing on her own defence leaving both exhausted by the time Hephestia scored a hit. Reeds found some food which was cooked up, but before going to bed, Tokumei offered to check Daxi over for ay issues with his stance and circulation with a careful massage. He seemed to slouch a little, but was otherwise quite okay.

She offered the same to the others, Reeds had his chakras oddly displaced and slightly twisted, which Tokumei wasn't able to fix exactly, but she did straighten out the energy flows between them to give him a restful night for once.

Hephestia on the other hand was still tense, frustrated by the betrayal of the gods. Tokumei suggested that gods were not always as great as legends suggested and pointed out that the Dragonbloods believed heaven to be rife with corruption and even the Unconquered Sun had left his children in a perilous position. She drew a comparison between how Ninegala treated her worshipers and how Hephastia treated her tools with care and diligence to keep them safe and performing at their peak. They went to bed and continued the journey the next morning.

Travelling further through the jungle, Reeds began to smell a familiar scent of rot and Wyld energy. The Marquis was nearby, so Daxi dismounted and scouted out the area. The foliage began to sprout terrible fleshy appendages the further in he went. Rows of lower mouths stacked above each other resembling fungal growths, trees thick with hairs, fingers and mossy meat became increasingly common. Daxi even had to evade a tree on which grew clusters of wild flickering eyes. However he was not able to get close enough to make out further details before patrols of creatures similar to the hounds they had encountered earlier, came too close for comfort. These hounds were more bipedal and their skulls were not as deformed, but were otherwise grotesque and misshapen humans twisted in to these unnatural forms that would giggle in a creepy manner.

Returning to Snails they plotted their approach. Daxi suggesting that the best way to attack would be a frontal assault whilst Reeds thought that playing to its story would be best. Although Tokumei countered that we didn't know what that story was.

So Reeds charged up Snails and had him rush towards the Marquis's location. Strangely, rather than attacking, the creatures attempted to form themselves in to two columns to either side of Snails. but Snails barrelled through them too quickly.

However they were completely unprepared to find a large tent made of stretched living skin. Its highest point was equal to Snail's eyes.

Tokumei and Daxi got down and approached cautiously whilst Hephastia circled on her tornado and Reeds waited with Snails.

Heading inside, the ground beneath was a grotesque pink carpet that felt like the surface of a vast tongue and the flaps of the tent were disturbingly yonic in their imagery. At the centre of the dark tent the Marquis was waiting in a bow, but he rose infuriated that only some of the party had come. from the ceiling figures waited curled and attached to the top of the tent. Surrounding the central ring were sets of stepped seating in a ring.

He insisted that this was unacceptable and that he had made such lavish preparations for them. This was not how it was meant to go at all. To which Daxi pointed out that they can't follow a script that they have not been given, nor should he expect people to dance if they haven't been given the steps. The Marquis insisted that his Father come in. Thinking that this could only mean Reeds, Tokumei stepped out and persuaded Reeds to come in, which did not satisfy the Marquis either.

But then he referred to his Father as "She" and Tokumei asked Hephastia to come inside as well.

Once she did so, the Marquis's mood changed completely. His odious suit of flesh brightening in smiles and tears of joy welcoming his "Father" who had freed him (Presumably from the court of Flesh) as the blow from Widow's Steely Remorse was still a visible scar.

He had been visited by somebody (Bal Sho?) who had told him that to attract Hephastia's attention, he would need to do something that resonated with her. So he "created" things and now wished to show them off to her, to make her proud of him.

With a look of horror on her face, Hephastia stood in shocked silence.