[actual play] Exalted - Forge of Souls #whitewolf #exalted @white_wolf_fan

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Episode 2 - River of Stars - Part 3

On the deck of the boat, Falling Rain and Kheralin were unaware of each other as they were both cloaked by their own respective charms and anima banner. Rain could see inside of the captain’s cabin that there was one man sat doing paper work. He was middle aged and was calculating things on an abacus. Rain made his way inside. He drew his hood up and concealed his features as best as possible. He walked up to the captain’s desk and informed him that the delivery is delayed. The captain had a look of worry on his face. But Rain had failed to notice that there was someone else present. Behind, Rain heard a large book close, and turned to see a man who was somewhat younger,

 

with a bald head, pale skin, spectacles, dark blue robes with white detailing, and a left hand that was gloved in cruel metal talons. The man adjusted his spectacles and asked how Rain knew of this, while also holding the door open for Rain to leave the cabin. Together they walked back out onto the deck and exchanged a few words. As they exited the cabin Kheralin watched them, before deciding that she should go down below deck.

Back near the west gate, the yeddim were still in chaos. One had toppled over and men were being trampled by the oafish creatures. Cargo fell from their holdings, and a crate smashed open revealing the metal octahedron - the ancient weapon. Immediately it began to glow into life, the runes illuminated with essence, and the temperature around began to drop. Aisha ran forward, hurriedly trying to summon the whirlwind in the vain hope that she might get the weapon away. Dorn was behind one of the yeddim unable to see what had happened, and Light and Echo witnessed one of the guards sling their prone horse to one side. The guard was no ordinary man, as they saw him replace his helmet where his head should have been. The helm filled with cold air and vapour was exhaled from the armour. But it was all too late. The weapon activated.

Back on the boat Rain and the man with the taloned gauntlet looked on as the town was illuminated by the weapon being activated. The man sighed and pushed up his spectacles on his pointed nose.
'So it seems that weapon was late as you said. No matter. At least it works. Saves me the trouble of raising this place to the ground.'
Rain made to leave, but this was to lure the man in to a false sense of security and turned just in time to see the bald headed man reach into his cloak, revealing a ring of pure black steel. The surface of it flowed with agonized, screaming faces. In a swift action the disc was hurled at Rain.

 

The weapon activated as Light and Aisha fled for cover. Aisha leapt off, hurling herself away and into the river, reaching up just quick enough to grab her familiar, her companion kingfisher. Light however was able to outpace the blast. The weapon sucked in all the essence before hurling it all out once more. A growing field of whiteness rushed out. All flesh, all life touched by it was immediately nullified, transmuted, turned into the lifeless white chalky substance. Yeddim and man were killed alike. The ghostly soldier was unharmed by the field, but Dorn was still in the blast. The wall of energy surged towards the hulking barbarian. Dorn braced himself, and forced essence through his body, just as the energy wave hit and flowed over him, leaving his skin briefly smouldering. The wave then died away after 30 or so yards, leaving people standing still, now changed into lifeless material.

The taloned man activated his black chakram. Serrated blades extend all along the edge of the ring, making it resemble a buzz saw. With little effort the chakram was hurled indirectly towards Rain, with the blade moving impossibly to strike at him. Rain is just able to block it and send it up into the rigging of the boat, causing the chakram to slice through the ropes and wood, causing the sails to fall towards the deck.
Rain activates his charm, Thunderbolt Attack Prana. Crouching, with essence coursing through his body, he leapt forward, his twin swords lunging forward like the fangs of a tiger. Golden essence rippled along the blades and cut into the robes of the taloned man. In response the anima caste mark of the man showed itself. It was a bloody representation of the same mark that Light bore, that of the sun at twilight. A wall of bloody streamers erupted up around the blood marked man, and this wall repelled the force of essence from Rain. However, Rain found his mark and took first blood. The death knight before Rain seemed impressed before launching another attack.

On shore, Dorn noted the weapon was powering up once more. He could not risk the weapon once more activating and killing more people. He summoned all his power and charged forward to the weapon. His large, essence crackling fist landed upon the metal octahedron in a vicious uppercut. The impact caused an explosion of power, a shockwave of air being displaced as the weapon, with an ear splitting clang, and the weapon was launched up and away into the sky, quickly becoming a shining star.

 

Light raced to Echo and pulled him along as he made his way to the docks. Along the way Light spotted that all around the town's people were being attacked. The dead had come for them. Echo laughed it off as just his imagination, a manifestation of his fractured mind. But Light told him it was not imaginary, and to get a grip. He sent Echo off to help the others while he engaged the hordes of zombies to save the towns folk.

Below deck Kheralin found that the ship was crewed by the dead. Zombies and the animated dead shambled around, tending to the ship or simply loitering. But then she heard above deck the ringing of metal. She knew a fight had broken out. She raced back up and called upon her essence to send her leaping at the death knight, bringing her sword down at him. But he effortlessly dodged away, and Kheralin's sword cut into the wood of the deck. The death knight launched the chakram again, causing it to ricochet between Rain and Kheralin. Kheralin dodged under the buzz saw, while Rain darted about, fuelled by essence, so that he was nothing but a blur. Rain leapt back, over the chakram, f
orming an arc of golden essence, grabbing the sails and throwing them to the deck. The chakram sought its target and sliced through the sails, rending them apart. From this cover of shredded material Rain burst forth, swinging viciously at the death knight. Though the death knight moved as if composed of a cloud of shadows and bats, Rain's swords struck home, revealing the soul steel armour beneath the robes of the death knight.

'I can do this all night, and my friend hasn't even broken a sweat!', Rain taunts, causing the knight to growl and launch the chakram again.

Kheralin used her Monkey Leap Technique to vault upwards into the rigging of the ship, finding a vantage point from which to stand. She fired off a volley of arrows which burst into flames, lighting the sails. Below the undead crew came out onto the deck, moved to go ashore. But as the dead shambled off the boat while Rain once more dodged the soul steel chakram. Rain again and again called upon his Seven

 

Shadow Evasion technique, moving his head out of the way of the flying buzz saw. Anima banners had flared to full life, Rain's banner

 

manifesting in the form of a perfected androgynous golden humanoid [looking somewhat like da Vinci's vitruvian man], and the death knight's as a bloody mandala of screaming runes. Rain again strikes, channelling his willpower through his conviction, knowing that his opponent, a callous murderer, striking at Rain's own people must be stopped. Only the recently acquired soul steel blade in his right is able to reach past the death knights defences, and even then the damage is mostly turned aside by the death knight's sanguine shield.

Meanwhile Echo ran to the docks, and along the boardwalk to the boat, now on fire with and with the undead shambling around ship. Echo let loose his short sword, flinging it towards one of the undead, before lunging forward with his great sword, scattering the undead and retrieving his sword from the immobile corpse.

All then looked up as the sky was illuminated once more. Almost a mile away the weapon activated. A great sphere of essence expanded and then retracted, causing an earth shattering implosion, tearing the hillside apart.

Many miles away the light of the blast caught the attention of another. In the blackened ruins of Wai'hl a lone priest looked up to see the star light of the weapon. With a small action he summoned  a lone drake like spirit that flittered about.

'Send a message to my friends. I know where the Anathema are heading towards. The hunt must move to Khacin.'