Sunday 5 June 2011

[actual play] Exalted - Forge of Souls

Aberration-prime-001-54578

Exalted - Part 3

At the bottom of the stairs the circle found a locked door. The door was more of a portal, sealed by a metal iris. Rain, Light and Aisha examined the door and found a panel next to it. This was the lock. It bore Old Realm runes and a circular slot. Realising it would fit the jade disc that Light was given by Sapphire Talon.

The jade disc came to life, and the rings of the jade disc began to more freely on their own axes. It was then that they noted that each of the rings bore stylized symbols for the sun, moon and the 5 maidens. They set the position of the rings o match the date and the door opened.

Within was a circle entrance hall. At the centre was a curved desk. The desk was topped with a dark glass which was cracked. Along the edges of the glass were ivory like runes. At the desk in a seat was a dessicated corpse. The corpse had some form of mechanical eye augmentation, and metal grills replacing the mouth. The group searched the chamber, with Red Echo uncovering a silver, light weight, bone saw. Aisha found a drawer in the desk and within in some medical scaples, and a sheet of glass. The glass responded to Aisha's touch and Old Realm script scrolled across it.Kheralin touched the desk and found it to came to life, but only for a second as it also displayed some Old Realm script. Rain realises that he must learn this ancient language if he is to better understand how he, the others, the jade disc, the raiders on the village, and this place, fit together.

As Rain looked at one of the three net doors he found the lock responded to his essence. The iris opened and there was a corridor beyond. He and Echo and the others went down it to the next door, which also responded to their essence. Inside was a room that looked like a barracks. There were bunks that were over turned, and more bodies. They were also dessicated. Then the temperature dropped and the spirits of the dead revealed themselves. The group backed out and closed the doors behind themselves. Rain hen realised something. The doors only react to essence, and worse, anathema.

Dorn, on his own, checked another door, tracking the beast. He went down the next corridor and then down a branching corridor, finding a room filled with equipment that made no sense to him. In the centre of the room was some form of glass tank that was cracked and empty.

The others checked the the last route out of the entrance chamber. They found a large room filled with pipes and tanks. The tanks had contained some variety of fluids and chemicals, but were now empty. The chamber however smelled caustic and foul. It was while investigating this chamber they noted that Dorn had gone off on his own, and Kheralin questioned why Rain thought he could give the group orders.

The group followed after Dorn, and found him and he explained the room he had found. They went to the next room and Light was able to pick out some surgical tools, some vials filled with a pinkish fluid, and some sort of syringe gun, and what looked like scrolls that described the essence nodes of a person. he tank in this room was filled with a dark fluid. Light lifted a limb from out of the fluid, and it was studded at the joints with some sort of sockets.

The group continued down the corridor, they found a large room filled with over 2 dozen tanks large enough to contain an ogre. the tanks were not all filled, but those that were contained a green fluid. Running above the tops of the tanks was a gantry, and high above were numerous pipes, cables and hanging equipment more than likely used to operate the tanks and fill them.

Rain went forward to look about while Dorn did the same, but made his way down the nearby stairs and to the main floor of the room. It was then that Echo spotted up above in the pipes a large figure moving. It dropped towards Rain as Echo called out to alert him.

Rain glances up at the shout, his eyes widening. Barely hesitating, he crouches before leaping upwards to meet the monster. He uses his twin shortswords like ice-axes to push himself up and past the creature, his attacks do no damage however, and he starts to fall back to earth. Dorn is on the lower level, walks towards the stairs whist stoking up his battle fury focus. Echo attacks with his sword, dashing past the creature, fails to get past its defences. Kheralin hits it with a charm-enhanced flurry of three arrows that bounced of its hide. Light leapt off a gantry railing striking down with a series of rapid blows. His spear is able to do damage, causing green blood to erupt from the beast's hide.

It was now that it was clear the the creature was hunched over and would be some 10 foot tall. One arm ended in long, sword long metal talons. Its face was concealed by a metal cap, revealing only the lipless mouth of razor sharp teeth. Its body was heavily modified with metal replacements for joints and bones. Luminous green blood could be seen running through the vein of the creature.

Rain lands on the creatures back, grabbing hold with one hand and striking with the sword in the other at the monster's neck. He channelled all his might into the attack but the monster parried with its claws, sending sparks everywhere. In response it lashed out, with Rain using his supernatural speed to dodge out of the way, and Light being lucky not to have been hit. With essence being channelled many of the group were now experiencing anima flares, and the room was lit up. Aisha rushed off to find the child that the monster had taken, and Dorn began to channel his essence, entering a beserker rage. Aisha eventually finds that there are three children suspended in the tanks, with tubes entering their bodies. She breaks them out and began to use her healing charms upon them.

Echo has another go at the beast. Even magically enhanced his great sword is rebuffed. Light starts to shape terrestrial sorcery, with the intent of casting Death of Obsidian Butterflies. Rain realises that he can't hurt the monster with his limited weapons, but also that Light's spell would be prone to disruption, and so makes himself a tempting target. He gets up close to their opponent, dodging its claw strikes, and keeping it in place. Dorn gets up the gantry charges at the melee. Attempts to grab the monster to damage it with his steel guantlet and his spiked harness. But it stays out of his grasp. Keeping out of the melee Kheralin's arrow hits the monster in the neck. The monster lashes out at Echo he barely blocks the claws before using his inhuman ability to leap far out of the way to the ground below the gantry, skidding to a stop.

Light finally unleashes the Death of Obsidian Butterflies, the shaped orb of black stone exploding in the direction of the monster. Dorn is forced to shelter behind the beast's massive, armoured, but rapidly shredded body, whilst Rain again uses seven shadow evasion, leaping up and somersaulting backwards over the clouds of razor-edged death. He lands on a relatively stable part of the now collapsing gantry as the others steps to safety.

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