Exalted - The Tale of the Mirrored Hall

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The Next Step
During a lull in their construction projects, while the aqueduct awaited a shipment of stone and the correct lunar alignment for the priesthood at the dam would not be for some time, the Circle met up in Crystals bar and decided on their next course of action.

Reeds had heard that people were going in to the area that hosted the first age research outpost and coming out with strange abilities. The sort of abilities that would be of great use against the oncoming storm of Rakshasa. With stories of a man who swore an oath that allowed him to fly and a magic bow that fires secrets.

Agreeing that they needed every edge against the Wyld they could get, they agreed to set off on Snails heading up river to the South.

Travelling past Sweet Tea village that was being rebuilt, they reached Stilt-Walker village, where they were greeted by horns and armed villagers.

The new Priestess came out and offered them hospitality of a nearby island, which they used for metalworking, on the condition that they not go anywhere near their new village. Hephestia presented the statue that she had made with Moonsilver details, Agappo its self raised a tentacle to get it down from snails and the Priestess said that he was satisfied with the gift and they would continue to be friends as long as they never again came back in to the village its self.

With food provided, they set off again taking a form in the river towards Miraculous Union village. As they approached, they saw a diverse range of twisted wildlife hybridised between different animals. Arriving at Miraculous Union village the circle was met by a group of priests wearing flowing robes and each wearing a mask and carrying another. Each mask had the left side of one animal and the right side of another with their second mask being the reverse.

They announced that they were expecting the Solars and bowed.

The Ambassadors
Crystal stepped forward and to the priest's surprise, reciprocated ritual greeting with all the nuance and flare of one of their own.

They offered the circle hospitality and bought them in to a large cone-shaped building with ribbed internal arches that reminded them of a snails shell.

On the floor of the meeting hut was an ancient and elaborate mural of a dragon-like creature with 5 heads worn with antiquity, it showed at least one figure in the regalia of the first sorcerer.

The priests asked what the circle sought and Crystal let them know that we were looking for a way to prevent ourselves from being corrupted by the Wyld when we entered its domain.

It was noticed that whilst everybody had a mask, only the priests wore them religiously. There was also colourful paper wards hung from rope, with much of the villages industry going towards creating and maintaining these wards against the Wyld.

They wanted to dissuade the circle, as nobody had passed the trials in over a hundred years, but they were heartened to find out that they were Exalts.

They offered people an evening meal, and purification rituals in the morning to prepare them for the vision quest.

Tokumei and Hephestia got up early and joined the villagers in a slow and relaxing martial art ritual to greet the sun. Then they, Crystal and Daxi had a ritualistic bath in warm water with a herbal bath bomb.

Once prepared, they walked along the road towards the ancient research institute. Their guides explained that the road led towards the institute but would never reach it, eventually anybody walking towards it would end on the other side without passing through the institute.

Reeds had volunteered to be their anchor for the group. staying behind the keep the gate open.

They were instructed to announce their challenge to "That which preceded Nolquieth" or " That which quests in the mirrored hall." and Crystal decided to ask for "a token that will repel the wyld's ability to reshape things around itself".

They arrived at the ancient marble gate that spanned over the road. Reed's caste mark glowed and grew. until it filled the gateway and the circle stepped through. finding themselves in a forest clearing filled with hybrid creatures and the trees decorated in bunting that resembled that of the village.

There was only one path and as they followed it, although Daxi became disturbed by apparent changes in his fur.

Arriving at a cluster of buildings they were greeted by two people Heron and Kingfisher who bickered among themselves and introduced themselves as ambassadors of union between the Wyld and creation. Although their embassy was in a terrible state and they explained that the nearby Rakshasa lord of [Something] Strategies refused to visit until the embassy was clean.

Tokumei volunteered to clean the embassy whilst Hephestia restored the structural elements. The others investigated the people and the area, Crystal finding a strange library filled with versions of only a handful of tales.

Hephestia did well with her repairs, but in the Kitchen Tokumei had a shelf of ingredients collapse on her. By the end of the day they had managed less than 15% of the total work, but the next day they found that their work had been undone by various vermin.

Daxi decided to stay up late at night to find out what was going on. He couldn't find their hosts, but the next morning he challenged them both to compete with each other.to see who could clean the most. That night when he looked around, he found the animals were equally tired.

The next day Tokumei cooked food that would energise everybody and continued to work. Crystal played music to lure the vermin away and Daxi scared some of them off. That night the vermin had gained vast reserves of energy. But Crystal's lure worked at in the morning, the vermin turned back in to Heron and Kingfisher.

Their curse was revealed showing that they would transform every night in to beasts to ruin the embassy so that visitors could never progress and would be forced to give up. So they urged the circle continue on their way to the next challenge a warrior Rakshasa that lived further down the path and whose knight rode a horse-slug hybrid.

The Elemental fight
Arriving at what they assumed to be the research station, a vast building in the shape of a letter T that appeared on the surface to have been shattered at some point in the past. However Hephestia pointed out that there were none of the marks that would indicate strain or warping prior to the damage. For some reason, it seemed that the building was constructed in a way that appeared already damaged. Its surface was a smooth silvery structure, but the front had a simple granite door as wide as the road with a knocker.

Tokumei took it and knocked on it three times, with loud echoing booms that shook the door its self and a slot on the door opened, revealing many eyes of small humanoid creatures with odd animal parts. They looked out and after some furious speaking and the door swung open on its hinges.

Hesitating a moment uncertain if they should wait for an invitation, they moved inside, where the central corridor took them on a straight path. The rooms to either side filled with books, the tiny creatures moving between them and consulting one, putting it back and moving off to a different shelf to consult a different volume.

They were taken in to a large hall where one of the tiny figures addressed them, reading from a small handbook. They didn't seem to speak Sea Tongue, but read it phonetically from the book, inviting them to go to a nearby table where they would be given the challenge and three out of five tokens that they can use.

The table contained a drawer with five tokens in it, each corresponding to a different element. Atop the table was a book, neatly labelled as the Lucent Stratagem and it listed a volume number somewhere in the 6 million mark. The Rakshasa seemed to be the sum total of all of the books in the institute.

Crystal went and looked at another book nearby which detailed one of the many tens or hundreds of thousands of fights that the Rakshasa had hosted over the millennia. The elemental tokens were a key part of the battles.

The circle debated over which tokens to take eventually settling on Earth, Water and Wood. Eschewing Air and Fire, reasoning that Tokumei had enough fire and that they could take better advantage of the other elements.

Eventually they were led to the battle chamber, where on a plinth stood a piece of parchment with space for the names of all the combatants and mentioned that if they lost, the host would save their lives, but would take something else in turn.

Everybody signed, although Tokumei seemed to have trouble putting her name down, she eventually managed it.

Once they did the platform lowered down to an arena filled with jutting stones, marshy swamp, crystals and other elemental features. The whole area was surrounded in walls and at each end was a door and above it the symbols of the five elements.

There was some uncertainty about what to do, so Tokumei took the lead and directed the circle in a cautious approach towards the other end of the arena, with Daxi going ahead to stealthily scout. Whilst Tokumei sent her Familiar to scout as well incorporeally.

Daxi went in to the trees and found a six legged person with numerous insect-like qualities sneaking around, presumably an enemy scout. He tried to leap on it and followed it back to its side of the arena. There he found a large menhir and attempted to sneak around it, managing to accidentally collide with an armoured bear-like creature with a patagia of skin between its limbs. The two of them clashed and Daxi grabbed the strange adversary as it began to howl, to draw in its team-mates.

The rest of the circle arrived as did several of the enemy, although the Fire embodiment was at the far edge of the arena for some reason.


 * Air was represented by the Bear
 * Earth by the rider of the Horse-Slug that had been reported visiting the embassy.
 * Water by a lamia-like person
 * The six-legged individual in armour.

The Lamia attempted to ensnare Hephestia with its coils, whilst Daxi threw the Air-Bear at it, stunning them both for a moment.

The melee went back and forth, but eventually Hephestia managed to cut the lamia to ribbons with her Naginata. Crystal nailed the armoured figure in the head with an arrow to the temple (Which caused numerous tiny monkeys to come jumping out of the hole it made) and as the previously unseen Centaur charged, Tokumei drew upon her essence, and deflected the charge with a very simple but highly practiced move, using the enemies momentum to push her harmlessly out of reach, as she drew in the surrounding flames and sent out a spell of Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. The spell incinerated the surprised centaur leaving nothing but ash.

The Air-Bear surrendered eventually, leaving only the now-dismounted knight and the insectoid person.

The insectoid leapt out and the Air-Bear threw the helmet of the knight at them, which left their attack floundering.

After Tokumei tried unsuccessfully to talk the others down, Crystal was far more successful forcing them to yield.

As the last members of the enemy team surrendered, the symbol over the enemy door dimmed indicating the circles victory.

The victory complete Crystal noticed that the Air-Bear was in distress, Daxi was able to manage a degree of communication, though the Air-Bear couldn't speak.

They were distressed because the bear-form was not their own, so Tokumei offered to try and help, she observed the flow of magic through him, but the environment was entirely made of complex magic, causing an intense pain and distress. She realised that she could do little there. So she invited them to travel with the Circle until they could help.

They went out to the opposite elevator as the way became clear, but as they ascended the air-bear's form began to tore apart. Tokumei tried to unravel the curse that affected them. Although by the time she did there was only a fraction of them left. So she and Hephestia bound the remaining essence to the jade armour. they found. The armour was first age, but so old that exposure to the wyld had caused serious decay.

At the top of the elevator its screams of pain became screams of confusion as they came across 5 pedestals. One for each of their caste marks and covered in texts of various types.

However what they contained would need to wait...

A Heaven made from Plaster
The Air-Bear remained distressed, and looked at the pedestal containing its air mark. On it was a large but simple scroll, showing 5 elemental mons and the air being plucked up by a cruel looking figure with a twilight caste mark that seemed familiar to Tokumei. The bear looked at Tokumei with Horror and she backed away. Crystal went over trying to comfort them.

They all look at their books, finding them to be texts on strategy detailing their recent fight. Daxi's contained an entire extra book based upon him surfing on the body of his enemy, whilst Tokumei's spoke about the techniques of the Suzerain of Endless Flame and compared it to warriors of old. They also picked up blank books that appeared to have been left as a gift for them, although Crystal cautioned that they were likely dangerous to use in this place.

Seeing no other exits except back the way they came they go forward and find a gate that looks like it's to heaven.

As they approach it and go through Daxi considers stealing it as it is made from a fortune in Orichalcum and Moonsilver. However on closer inspection he found the fantastic venire of woven starlight and diaphanous moonbeams to be a very detailed but entirely surface level deception, hiding plaster beneath.

However the Bear would not be persuaded to join them. It pawed at the scroll indicating to the four other elemental mons. Presumably its sworn brothers and sisters. A powerful bond that prevented them from abandoning them casually.

Arriving there, they are accosted by a maskless being called Thruzd a would-be god and former bean-counter. They need help with their thesis defence.

He seeks to present to the bureau of Amalgamation a Salamander/Crow Hybrid that can shed its wings if needed and regrow them in a few weeks.

However to do so Thruzd needs help. Their creation needs approval of at least some of the Djinn. Furthermore when he presents his creature he will need to make his way to the court and is likely to be waylaid by any of the Djinn that actively oppose his project, so will need defending.

The Djinn in question are:


 * Nulvuq - The Djinn of Thematics (Who had their own recently developed pet and would not look kindly on anything that threatened to out-do or tread similar ground)
 * Rek the Djinn of Novelty (Prone to flights of fancy)
 * Axe-Eater the Djinn of Monstrosity (Who didn't seem to actually care about the beasts themselves, but did care about the quality of the arguments involved.)
 * Stacy the Djinn of Unassuming things. (Who just wanted a leg-up on her opponents)
 * Flamberand the Djinn of Technicalities.(Who wanted justifications, rules and reasons before approving anything)

The ranking spirits all had masks, whilst the lower ranked spirits did not.

Daxi, Tokumei and Crystal all took different approaches.

Daxi went to Nulvuq's sub-court and fast-talked the creature on the door, distracting it for long enough so that it could pick out an invitation from the pile and see the other papers. inserting another document that said that there was a problem with the number of arms.

Crystal talked to a band that was going to be performing a brunch tomorrow for Rek the Djinn of Novelty. She showed off her artistic prowess and was eagerly invited to join the band tomorrow. Although she was asked to write poetry about Monotremes. Hopefully she could insert details about the Crow/Salamander Hybrid in to her music and inspire Rek to think about the concept favourably catching and guiding their whims.

Tokumei meanwhile did what she does well and sought out the people actually doing work and not getting noticed in the process. A small gathering featured a figure who didn't appear to be wearing a mask, but the mask was just so detailed that it appears to be flesh.

This unnamed figure who she suspected to be Stacy spoke with Tokumei and asked her what she wanted. Tokumei replied that she had a friend who required a successful thesis defence and that she would be willing to make herself useful to ensure it happened noting some of her skills including that of a cook. The figure gave her a Vole asked her to poison all those with coyote, dog, wolf and other canine masks at tomorrow's brunch. Tokumei agreed and took the tiny animal.

Meanwhile the invitation Daxi had acquired was for that evening's entertainment. An animal fighting contest. Tokumei made them appropriate costumes and outfits to disguise themselves with, and made herself an inconspicuous outfit from the fallen robes around the place that seemed to have come from unsuccessful spirits.

Tokumei snuck in whilst Crystal and Daxi were announced as His Magnificent Malevolence and guest. Working in the kitchens and animal pens she saw the various fighting animals including the catfish-horse hybrid from the arena.

Upstairs the host was known as the Commissioner of Predatory Disputes. It was the only person wielding a serious weapon, whilst a few guests had weapons, they were purely ceremonial. Nulvuq was also present and commanded the greatest respect from the assembled guests. Nulvuk wore the form of a many armed creature with a thick shell. and got to talking with Daxi and Crystal, impressed by the appearance of the many arms and shell that Daxi's costume indicated.

They talked and compared the various creatures. Meanwhile Tokumei seeing the catfish-horse decided to attempt to bolster its energy with foods rich in fire essence that would bolster the Catfish Horse's martial prowess. She also noticed that it was the only creature that seemed to have martial training, whilst the rest were simply wild beasts. She bet a pretty ribbon from Marrull Vaar that she had intended to use with Crystals formal clothes, but decided against it. winning the first round and then putting a long-odds bet on the Catfish-horse to win the entire tournament.

It fought and wrestled but it was victorious, showing the intellect of a well-trained battle-steed. One able to think and act strategically. However in the final round it fought a powerful octopus-like creature which filled the tank with dark ink and lashed with poison stingers.

Noticing that it had been badly poisoned, Tokumei quietly approached the owner and asked for permission to treat it, which the Commissioner conceded was a wise idea and she bled the poison from it. Hoping that it would recover from its other wounds naturally in time.

With an evening of successful social influence and with Tokumei having managed to multiply her wager considerably they departed back to the inn, preparing themselves for tomorrow's ominous brunch, in which Tokumei planned to poison whilst Crystal wished to inspire. They also urged Thruzd to submit their paperwork for their thesis tomorrow, as they should have their pieces in place by then.

Don't drink it!
Hephestia had gone to visit the court of Flamberand, whilst the rest of the circle were away.

In that court she found a Bureaucracy of the worst kind. Where people exchanged forms for other forms and the slightest deviation from procedure was grounds for restarting the new process or worse, adding further forms to the pile. After several hours she left with a stack of partially completed forms and re-joined the others at the tea house.

Tokumei admitted she may have gotten in over her head with this and asked Daxi to deliver the poison. She tested a minute amount and found that a tiny droplet exposed to skin made her almost lose the ability to form coherent sentences either in her mind or aloud. As she fell asleep she had a vivid dream, she was wearing skimpier clothing and standing before a vast set of gates. Filled with confidence and power she snapped her fingers and the doors flew open at her command. She interpreted this as perhaps being a vision of a past incarnation.

Meanwhile Daxi decided to scout out the venue for tomorrow's brunch meeting in the guise of an inter-departmental messenger and found that the canine masks seemed to be functionaries who all prominently wielded brushes, marking them as scribes of some sort.

Tokumei realised that if the poison made her inattentive and unable to form words, the reverse might be true for an antidote, so she took a tiny measure of the poison and using the beverages available began to concoct something unique that might help Thrudz with any performance anxiety.

Tokumei used the time to firstly get a measure of the forms Hephestia had picked up and visited Flamberand's court to understand the process before returning.

They next morning they got dressed up with Tokumei again working behind the scenes with Crystal in the band and Daxi posing as the messenger again they went to the brunch.

Crystal performed her song about Monotremes. whilst the bureaucrats of the various groups drank and smoked from communal hookahs.

Daxi managed to take command of distributing the hookahs and rearranged them with careful and ceremonial-looking actions giving each out to an assistant who would move them to each table. As he did so he added a tiny quantity of poison to each one bound for one the canine-masked figures tabled.

Rek the Djinn of novelty arrived and the meeting proceeded but as the brunch progressed those who had been poisoned began to act oddly. Seeming to start melting and the resulting liquid dripping upwards where it congealed in to a tiny storm and after a few moments exploded violently. However once it had died down Rek seemed ammused.

Tokumei fled whilst Hephestia was present and revealed herself to be an applicant, which caused a great deal of attention and excitement.

Crystal did some last minute coaching of Thrudz to help with his presentation.

The next stage was the proposals, they only had a few hours to visit each Djinn and secure their case so they decided to visit each Djinn in the order of easiest to most difficult so that if they wouldn't end up spending too much time on the most difficult cases.

Nulvuq was first as we knew his design wouldn't conflict and Daxi had built up a rapport. So they visited him at his court. With his mighty shell and many arms he was sceptical, but the creature did have a strong theme and so they signed off on it as a simple formality.

Rek was harder but approved on promises that the creatures replacement wings would have more exotic plumage when new wings grew in.

Stacy was too risky, so Tokumei reviewed the paperwork (Making sure it was all done by Thrudz's she only told him what to put) and they instead went to Flamberand. Flamberand was unhappy about the loss of several of his people and disputed the categorisation, but eventually put it down as an avian chimera. They wanted to find fault, but the paperwork was in order and so stamped off on it.

Then came Stacy, her offices were adjacent to Flamberands and the hardest thing was finding them. However moving through Tokumei soon found that the papers were indeed stamped already and the vole had gone missing from her bag.

Finally was Axe-eater, the most challenging in the Bureau of Monstrosity. Thrudz had been coached to approach this with aggression and confidence and did so to the best of his ability thanks to Crystal's coaching.

He argued that the creature was both venomous by skin contact and that in swarms it would be terrifying and resilient. Although he only had the one to demonstrate with at the moment. His boldness was the key and axe-eater signed off as well.

Finally they made their way to the Queen's hall where the final presentation would be made.

However on the way they were ambushed by more of the canine-masked figures. Hephestia, Crystal and Daxi fought them off, Daxi throwing Thrudz clear of the fight to avoid him getting killed and Tokumei went with him to defend him.

However reaching the gates Thrudz discovered that his creature, in the violent motion had shed its wings prematurely and now looked quite pathetic and would be a poor presentation.

He didn't have the skill to re-weave the creature on the spot in so short a time, so Tokumei suggested that the antidote should be given in the hopes of bolstering him significantly.

To Tokumei's horror however the poison seemed to take effect, causing Thrudz to start to melt and his being to pool upwards. As he did Tokumei panicked and tried to undo what she had done, but there was nothing effective she could try.

However the storm above him broke and first became two and then three storms and there was a strange implosion as Thrudz came back together, taller, more regal and effective somehow.

He re-wove the creature in the cage with casual ease, snapped his fingers and the doors to the hall (that Tokumei had earlier seen in her dream) flew open at his command and he strode in giving a flawless and passionate address almost certain to impress.

The man in the Mirror:
Thrudz gave their speech as others clambered over each others for a seat on the pedestals. However none dared approach the newly resplendant Thrudz. He gave his oration perfectly and with general approval.

As his speech was concluded a huge lion mask individual opened a door at the rear of the chamber and as he walked forward through it, he gestured for the Solars to follow.

Beyond was a long room filled with tapestries and an omnipresent smell of mold. Masked courtiers and courtesans looked out from behind the tapestries and one by one they called the Solars over offering to help them. To Hephestia they tempted her with the knowledge of how to weave life. Daxi was offered the location of treasure and Crystal with unique stories from long ago that no being in creation knew. Each dismissed them until Tokumei, who considered the offer of aid to help liberate the souls of the Dragonbloods. However despite her being receptive, they only offered nebulous help and could not offer certainty. Given their lower rank than the Stratagem, she reluctantly declined.

Finally they reached a Pagoda where an ancient-looking corpse sat still dressed in state finery. It was seated upright with its mask askew and for the first time since his elevation Thrudz looked concerned.

The corpse spoke with familiarity. It knew of our past incarnations and told us that the Dragonbloods Tokumei was so keen to rescue had originally been sent to kill the members of the circle. The corpse expressed fondness for these past incarnations and confirmed that Tokumei's dreams were true events.

It then turned to Thurdz and said that there was really no place for him in the court. His elevation made him without a place here. They talked of possibilities and Tokumei suggested going out in to the Wyld and founding his own domain, but warned that Creation was both hostile to his kind and vigorously defended against them.

He left, his destination unknown to the Cirlce.

Saying polite farewells to the Fae corpse, they passed out of the halls of rotting tapestries and in to a vast cavern bisected by a vast river.

Here masked creatures pulled bodies from the river, which was not liquid, but assorted body parts of all shapes and sizes flowing freely.

From the Fishers the circle learnt of the Gallag bird. A mighty beast that changes its form each time it dives in to the river. They were told that the beast would surely rip anything that tried to cross through the air from the sky and pull it beneath the waters.

Not wanting to risk it, they observed the Fishers, who were each fishing by the shore and then carrying body parts back to the caves and using tools of gossamer to warp, knit and meld flesh in to specific forms.

The Fishers interpreted images from the stalactites and stalegmites to inform then of what the Gallag bird desired of them.

They learned that one of the Fishers named Quentin was due to making an offering to the Gallag bird soon and that if it was granted, it would ferry them to the other side of the lake.

The great beast burst from the river and rose up to inspect Quentin's creation and devoured him on the spot.

Fearing that it might have the strength to fight even against the tornado of Hephestia's magic, the Solars resolved to build a creature of their own. But not as an offering, but a rival, capable of defeating or at least distracting the bird long enough to cross.

To do that, they would need tools, the Fishers would not lend or give up their own as they were deeply personal.

In each room there was a riddle and with each riddle solved a tool of gossamer appeared.


 * The first room:
 * Riddle: I was carved from a hard, flat seed, and my hands are the beaks of seed eating birds. My legs were stolen from a spider, and my eyes came from a snail.
 * Answer: A Crab
 * Tool: A Clovel - a type of press that joins flesh together.
 * Second room:
 * Riddle: "I have the head of a kangaroo, and my body is the body is that of a bear, my tail is a snake, but my real prize, are similar hands to a man. - Rat"
 * Answer: "A rat"
 * Tool: A Mulalok - for enlarging and shrinking body parts seemingly without limit.
 * Third room:
 * Riddle: The child cried "Oh Master, From what do I make a bat" What did the Master say?
 * Answer: The webbed hands of a water dragon, the body of a rat with the tail removed and the head of a cat.
 * Tool: A Sengeling Knife from separating flesh and bone cleanly from each other.
 * Final room:
 * Riddle: The old master thought to himself - My rival's chameleon has vanished, but I think I can make a better one - how does he make it?
 * Answer: A body not just shifting in colour but transparent. The Flesh of the Jellyfish, the skin of a mimic octopus and the shape of a lizard
 * Tool: A Vangalgague - A tool for mixing the properties of two things together together.

With these tools Daxi went to the lake to gather raw materials, Crystal went to the fishermen to gather excess bodyparts, whilst Tokumei and Hephestia worked together to craft the resulting creature. Using the head of spider merged with the head of a snake, it was equipped with deadly venoms, it had the body of a bear with thick bristling hide hard to penetrate and it had the wings of an immense eagle.

When the creation was complete they climbed aboard with Hephestia controlling it and flew across the river.

Mid-way there, the Gallag bird flew up from the water and struggled with the creation. Tokumei unleashed magical spells on the bird, Hephestia controlled the mount to spit its venom and Daxi and Crystal held on and kept the others safe.

Together the drove the Gallag bird back in to the river holding it at bay, but it returned, reconstituted from different parts when it left the river and hurled its self in to the Solar's creations.

Crashing on the far shore the two beasts were entangled. With the Sengeling knife in hand Tokumei unmade and separated the ligaments of its wings and Hephestia tore the flesh apart with the Solar secrets of unmaking construction.

Eventually they succeeded in their struggle and the core of the beast was broken, flowing back in to the river.

Sensing that they needed to leave the beast behind, Tokumei urged Hephestia to name it, as it was something she created. She named it Talos and bid it farewell and hoped for its victory in the future before leaving it behind.

Continuing on, they saw a vast pit of Fisherman corpses, presumably those who had succeeded in the trials of the Gallag bird. Above them, was a Mirror.

They saw their own reflections, but subtly different and when Daxi approached his reflection reached out to pull him through the mirror. One by one, the others followed suit. Seeing various distortions of themselves.

They found themselves in the centre of the Hall of Mirrors, with a question. They had completed the test, now what did they want as a reward.

Tokumei and Crystal wanted to save the souls of the Dragonbloods who were trapped. Even though the voice said that they could not be restored to life and it would give no advantage. Daxi and Hephestia however wisely pointed out that their mission to find protection from the Wyld would potentially save many more souls than the 5 ancient ones that had been lost here. In the end Daxi suggested a compromise. They tossed a coin. On one side was a throne and on the other a gate. Tokumei chose the Throne, but it came out as Gate, so they resolved to take the token and regrettably they would not be able to help the Dragonblood souls today and would need to return at a later time.

As the focus for the token, they chose the coin that they had just flipped. As they chose it, the designs changed subtly and a passage opened to the realms of bunting where they had first emerged. They passed the embassy and gave their farewells to the ambassadors who would also be stuck in their eternal torment.

Eventually they retraced their path back to the gate being held open by Reeds. Emerging on the other side, they found him exhausted and drugged in to wakefulness with several priests, many of whom were asleep.

They had their rewards from the journey. The blank books, Tokumei's Magical quill (That makes anything it writes appear official at first glance) and their new coin token the Daxi became the caretaker for.

Returning to the village, with a now unconscious Reeds, they let him recuperate for a few days.

Whilst they did so, the priests said that a figure with an Ibis mask had left the gate and they were alarmed to find out this was a lord of the Wyld.

He had purchased a new mask and discarded their old one back in the village. Tokumei asked that the party purchased Thrudz's old mask

Hephestia held a memorial Ceremony for those left behind and Tokumei partook in drugs to enhance her recollections of her past lives. She had a vision that she couldn't clearly recall: She was there for something, is personal and emotional, but lots was on fire. The visions refused to resolve.

Now they prepared for the return journey to Marull Vaar.

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