Exalted 3E Solars of the Sky - IC

[Esbilon]

"Then perhaps," Lioness ventures with a good deal of uncertainty as her eyes drift around the various Exalts in the room, "we should ally with the Bull against the Lover. While he is doubtlessly not the best of men, he is no threat to Creation itself."

 

[Psychie]

Griffon gives off a snort. "Um, yeah. Let's just go flying up to the Bull and tell him that he has to go to war with this Deathlord on our say so. No offense to anyone here, but is there any way we can come up with proof that can be brought forth? Something more than the word of one Solar Exalt? Without that, we are looking at a very tough sell."

 

[Rykon]

Astian crosses his arms thinking for a few moments, "Well, the Bull isn't too likely to trust any word from me, Even if he would be willing to pick that fight, which I doubt. Either way, I'd like to request a detour to White Wall Icehome. I have somethings there I'd like to pick up before we commit course to the next venture, if that's not too much to ask."

[EDIT: correction on destination. Intent was to travel northeast a short ways and I mixed up the names =P]

 

[Esbilon]

"I'm not suggesting we go to him and tell him about the claims made by a man he has no reason to trust," Lioness counters, though she sends a single slightly nervous glance in Xilanada's direction, "I'm suggesting that we offer an alliance and push him in the direction of this Lover whenever we have the opportunity. Given the Deathlord's level of activity, I expect more than a few such occasions to occur in short order."

 

[Sherwood]

Axtis slowly nods, somewhat lost in thought. "We can swing by White Wall without a problem. It will give us some time to wrap our heads around all of this. We will have to deal with the Lover, either by waging direct war on her armies or by sneaking in past her guards and facing her directly. Or at least destroy her ability to make this disease. We will have to determine the best way to do that."

 

[Rykon]

"Our current saving grace is that the formula she has been working on isn't completed yet, to my knowledge. The types of essence it can corrupt thus far are limited, from what I saw it seems she recently learned to taint water aspected essence. Given the wood demesnes that fell prior, I'd say this is still a very serious and very dangerous state of affairs."

 

[Psychie]

Griffon looks over at Axtis. "I am in favor of a sneak approach. Just think about how powerful we are compared to a mortal. That is how much more powerful that the Lover will be over us, if not even more. If we can get a army to attack her and give her a distraction, that's fine. I just think that as it is right now we would stand no chance against her directly."

 

[Sherwood]

Axtis nods. "I agree that we can't defeat her. It will require more than what we can bring to the fight. Let's get to White Wall so we can get Astian his things first." She walks to the door leading towards the bridge. "Helm! Set a best speed course for White Hall." She then places her hand on the wall and spends a moment to focus her Essence into the ship to speed them along even faster than before.

Turning back to the others, she says, "Well, that is now done. We are underway."

Spoiler

Spending 4m on Ship-Sleeking Technique and will use my Gemstone of Fair Winds to boost our speed. The duration of the Charm is Indefinite.

 

[Rykon]

With the Captain at the helm, the ship's wheel rolls to starboard, directing the ship to their next destination in the northeast. Given the Righteous Indignation is making only a minor course adjustment to Icehome for Astian, the trip lasts only a couple days. It is noon on the second day when the proud fortess city comes into view beneath a frosty mist, airboat docks anxiously guide the vessel into port as an official makes his way to the gangplank off to the portside of the gondola.

"Good ladies and gentlemen of the...Righteous Indignation..." The slim man utters beneath a bushy manicured mustache. "Would the Captain please step forward so that we may address certain duties and inspections?"

Axtis can see her first mate look up from the lines he was tying off by the side sails. He approached the front but did not speak, ready to supervise the officials, should the Captain wish to disembark.

The crew and circle would be familiar with such routines, basic registration, inspection of possible contraband and if they were unlucky, a ham-handed shake down the paper pushers liked to call "fees". Still, this port is known to be far more civil to travellers as the central destination of all those wishing to do business with the League.

Lioness and others keen to observe the scurrying workers can easily sense the excitement at the prospect of trade. Given knowledge of current events, demand for food stores is likely high enough for a lax application of the rules when it comes to foreigners.

 

[Esbilon]

As they approach Icehome, Lioness is standing at the bow, looking down on the city where she was born. She had expected to feel her homecoming more keenly, but she does not. It is where she was born, where she was set on the path that has now brought her here, but it does not define her. Yet, there is a legacy here, some things she should deal with, if only to be free of them once and for all.

As the harbor master comes aboard, she too approaches him, just in case he needs to be persuaded to treat them fairly. Persuaded one way or another.

 

[Greenstalker]

Tiger stands at the watchpost for most of the journey when he was not on the post he was in his cabin resting. Icehome was somewhere he was only visited once and it was a very short stop where he took the job to escort a ship to Lawless than he met with Astian and rest was the history. Tiger never liked this city much but again there was very few places he liked in the north. He grew up in Nexus than spend his years in the eastern forests so he was in relatively warmer climates until he started bodyguard/mercenary route. According to his masters there was scorching hot places at south and water as far as eyes can see at west. He was not sure how he felt at those places though so far only thing he can think of is if they are as bad as norths cold than he would be pretty happy not going any further away than river providence once he gets back or get out of eastern forests.

 

[Sherwood]

"Good ladies and gentlemen of the...Righteous Indignation..." The slim man utters beneath a bushy manicured mustache. "Would the Captain please step forward so that we may address certain duties and inspections?"

Axtis steps forward and offers her hand in greeting. "That would be me. I am Axtis Jen." After all the time she has spent on airships, she knows the drill of the needed inspections and fees for docking, and has no worries that her ship and crew will have no issues with the officials as they do their duty.

 

[Rykon]

The man sniffles, leaving the graying bush of mustache to wave across his face for a brief moment. "For the sake of convenience, I will start with the hard hitting questions... Do you plan on unloading or trading any cargo here? If not, than I think we can skip any inspection of goods, so long as those that disembark are willing to pass through a brief search."

As the man speaks, a small drowsy canine slowly pads its way down the airdock and sits beside the inspector. With a huff, it sits and opens it's jaws wide in a yawn, showing pristine white fangs as the sleepiness seems to set in on the young husky pup. It blinks, looks to the Axtis, then to the inspector. "No signs of contraband here chief."

The crew seems to reel visibly, and murmur amongst themselves quietly in the background. The 'chief' turns to the pup with a smile. "If you're sure... You mind being escort for this party?" The pup wipes it's face with it's front left paw, swatting away fatigue. "Sure, they seem clean enough..." He looks back to the Captain, eyes much wider for the short walk and conversation.

"Clear to disembark, let me know if you have any questions." The pup adds, punctuated by a growling tummy and a light whimper of frustration. Regardless, the fluffy tail of the husky sweeps back and forth in anticipation, head cocked to the side to assess his charges.

[Read intentions is at 7 for the dog, so you would need to raise guile to 8 to conceal something major from the dog. I don't anticipate that being necessary from this situation, just mentioning it in case some of you wanted to do something creative here.]

 

[Esbilon]

Lioness looks somewhat skeptically at the talking dog, but it is hardly the strangest thing she has seen since Exalting, or even the strangest thing she saw before. So, she merely shrugs and considers it as she would any other person put into authority above her, though leaving the talking to Axtis for the time being.

OOC: Activating Motive-Discerning Technique for 3 peripheral motes, and assuming a rank 1 stunt. 8 sux

 

[Greenstalker]

Tiger was watching the events from a little distance. It was not his first time seeing a talking animal. He was trained by two lunars after all. he got more curious about the dogs origin though. It could be a lunar but a lunar this close to island? Nah a wyld hunt would already ravaged this city just to get it. A wyld mutation seems highly unlikely too sic they are not that close to borderlands and does not seem like pup is having trouble to be mixing with humans in this place. I city god perhaps? or maybe a god-blooded that does not warrant aa wyld hunt?

Öamy thoughts about pup's origin passed like a flash in Tigers mind as he landed on deck with a bag of beef jerky and he took a bite from it as he watches the dogs reaction. Tiger was not sure what was its origin but it had a dogs shape and if he learned anything from his lunar masters if you have a certain shape and acting like hungry that it almost universally means you are hungry. He approaches to dog and yanks the bag of beef jerky's mouth open as he kneels next to it and waits for pups reaction.