Exalted - The Tale of the Seven Devil Seal

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Note - We weren't taking session logs during this story, so these are just a broad outline

Shortly after the Monsoon season in Marrull Vaar a ship arrived in port much like any other. On it, however, were three people who would go on to shape the small city's destiny immensely - Tokumei no Sensei, Crystal Breaks-the-Waves and "Dirty Bull" Meng.

Unbeknownst to these three, there was a malady affecting the city. The great step-pyramid at the centre of the city was in fact a manse that had fallen into disrepair; the essence channels were clogged due to the stagnating waterways (a problem that would later be fixed by the construction of the Golden Finger Hotei Aqueduct), the goddess of the City had been MIA for decades, and the Seven Devils that had been bound to guard the city (and, unbeknownst to the Circle at the time, seal in the entity trapped underneath it) had abandoned their posts and begun variously preying on or being worshipped by the inhabitants of the city.

All this was explained to the three at the top of the pyramid by a strange man. The stranger was in fact Hawk, one of the seven Seal Devils, who told the party of the others - Deer, Turtle, Wolf, Tiger, Shark and Spider - and how they could reopen the manse by subduing them and returning them to their duties.

The Deer Seal Devil they found prowling the streets where it was luring the unwary into drinking its poison. After Meng reversed the Seal Devil's trick by simply drinking the poison with no ill-effects, the circle chased Deer down and slew it, returning it to the Seal.

The next Seal Devil would prove to be more complicated. Tiger was posing as a god worshipped by Thales, who ruled one side of the pyramid and its inhabitants with a theocracy powered by slavery and human sacrifice. With the aid of a faction of underground poets the group infiltrated Thales' temple, slaying him and many of his priests and defeating Tiger. This would eventually come back to haunt them.

During a few days' rest, Meng broke into the manse through its lower levels. As the three explored, they found the essence channels clogged, a surprising amount of treasure laid as it had been left, and three bottles of blood that Meng purloined to aid in the coming battles.

The fourth devil, Spider, would prove to be even more of a problem. Working with the Dragonblooded king of another side of the pyramid, Bellar, the Solars discovered that this devil was bound in the blood of the third ruler, Heartsong. This Demon-Blooded woman also ran a cruel dominion built on slavery, but her interests lay more in hedonism and aesthetic pursuits than worship. A great martial arts tournament was to be held in her domain, and while the initial plan had been for Meng to handily defeat the mortal competitors he struggled more than he'd expected, causing him to imbibe some of the blood and nearly destroying the entire battleground in the ensuing chaos. Wishing to avoid further bloodshed, Tokumei and Crystal convinced Meng not to attack her, but instead secured her co-operation in exchange for helping finish the great Eastern road to Anaathalay Heartsong had begun.

The three Solars, now an impromptu circle, still had much work to do however before the city was free of the Seven Devils' influence.

The story continues in The Treasure of Fang Zan.