God-Kings of Lotus: Heroes of the Unconquered Sun

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

"Then it seems we have a plan. And perhaps we can spread the word for young Lunars to reach Lotus' doors, with all we have to offer I'm certain many would love to be citizens."

[The Demented One]

Lytek smiles weakly, clasping his hands together. "Excellent! There are surely none more versed in Wylderness lore than the Lunar Elders; I have no doubts of your success. The Unshaped are dangerous, of course, very dangerous, but you will of course prevail. I only wish I could offer you entrance into the manse-home of Raksi or any of her peers, but any invitations I may once have had were long since rescinded. Best of luck, God-Kings."

Doctor Brass leans over, testing the slack of the starmetal fetters that restrain him. He is pale and stretched, worn weary by Lytek's experiments, but his vim seems undiminished. "Ivory Eyes, you must provide me with the full details of how you banished Cecelyne! It's astounding, a whole field of shinmaic science yet to be explored. I will, I suppose, await your report with as much patience as I can muster." He laughs feebly at the joke, his voice choked with a thick clot of phlegm.

[GryffonDurime]

"It is not so hard, Doctor. We shall discuss it at length when we return from...wherever this damned wild goose chase leads us," Ivory says, mixing a stern tone with a soft smile. She gestures towards one of Lytek's many doors and knocks three times. It opens with a creak to reveal the Cathedral of Lotus.

"We've work to do, then, I suppose. Rumors to spread and Unshaped to lasso."

[The Demented One]

The gates of Lytek's sanctum open into the Cathedral-Manse at the heart of Lotus, a doorway of white jade suddenly manifesting within the Palace of the God-Kings. As the four of you step through it, you find your manse filled with bureaucrats and couriers, the usual abundance of functionaries who have become a necessary burden to ruling Lotus. Jubilant Dawn approaches you as you manifest, taking the sudden appearance of a cosmic portal within his workspace in good stride. He bears a folder so overfilled that he would be better served if it opened up into Elsewhere. He wears a new regalia, now that the finest of luxuries can be conjured up with impossible ease from the Wyld. His robe is of shimmering prismatic threads, like opals spun into silk. The edges are embroidered with a hem of gold and silver, the heraldic colors of the God-Kings. He lays his overburdened folder down on a desk, looking up at you with a sigh.

"God-Kings. The ambassadors from Halta and Linowan have been placed under house arrest by Captain Transval for simultaneous attempted murders, their is a sorcerer-engineer from Lookshy trying to install a massive adamant contraption in the State Ministry, and a diplomat from Thorns has sent word that he wishes to visit Lotus and treat with you." The first of the Mighty unheaps his dignity to match even Rising Echo's, for all that the countless imbroglios must fluster him. "And...since you just came back through Lord Lytek's sanctum, you clearly didn't have time to fly back on the Flower. I shall handle these matters at your instruction. Some day, God-Kings, I hope there will be no more demon princes and elder gods for you to worry over. It is most worrisome."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko puts her hand gently on Jubilant Dawn's shoulder and smiles at him, "I have all the confidence in Creation that you can handle these things with as much skill as any God-King, save our friend Echo. We do have a task at hand that unfortunately only we can handle now, but if there are any snares in these matters here at home, we will certainly not delay our efforts to return." She gives him a kiss on the cheek and begins to walk to the door, where her wings of fire flares with her golden anima and she flies to collect her daughter.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"Hold the ambassadors for as long as you can." Watcher says to Jubilant Dawn, once again annoyed that mortals were still trying such things. He had spent so much time trying to remove criminals from Lotus, that he had almost forgotten that such threats could come from outside as well. "I am going to want to find out exactly who put them up to this."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr snorted. "From what I heard, Halta and Linowan don't need reasons to hate each other. Still, best you deal with it - Given Halta's rulers, it's best if I not interfere. Besides, I'd best start spreading the word. We Lunars are an elusive bunch at best, and I doubt the new Empresses' words of peace will placate them, least of all the Elders - It will take centuries for some of them to come around, if they ever do... and that's only the one's sane enough to listen to reason." Zephyr smiled wryly. "I wonder what place my kinfolk will find in this new world we are building? I suppose we shall have to see."

So saying, Zephyr simply grabs a sheaf of loose paper and begins to write in his clumsy, scrawling strokes. I can kill an army with my bare claws. He mused wryly Yet I'll be damned if I can form my letters properly. His instructions were straight and to the point - messages were to go out to every corner of Creation as soon as they could. Openly, it would simply be another declaration of welcome for all Lunars to find a place in Lotus' new kingdom - but the words were laced with hidden codes and subtle shades of meaning in a private language known only to he and Resplendent Tails of Shadow, urgent whispers and a plea for help. He only hoped that they would find her, and that she would come. If she didn't... He supposed they would have to chance the hospitality of the Queen of Fangs.

[GryffonDurime]

"Inform the diplomat from Thorns that my stance has not changed," Ivory Eyes says to Jubilant Dawn. "If he wants to treat with us, I am more than willing to exchange Infallible Messangers, but I will not speak with subordinates. The rumors of Thorns are too grisly to allow me to do otherwise."

[The Demented One]

Between the dragon-rails and the flourishing sorcerer-courier industry of Lotus, Zephyr finds his message swiftly disseminated throughout all Creation. Fractious and hidden as the Silver Pact is, flight after flight of infallible messengers eventually reach their intended recipients, calling them all to a grand moot. While the Sword of Luna calls out to his brethren, the remainder of the God-Kings attend to diplomatic matters. After a thorough investigation by Watcher and O-Mizuchi, the Haltan and Linowan ambassadors are found to be guilty of little more than overindulging on rice wine, and soon released to their embassies, albeit not without some embarrassment. Ivory Eyes' message is sent out to the envoy from Thorns, and a despairing letter is soon returned, conceding to sorcerous negotiations only. Yomiko oversees the installation of the magitech console in the State Ministry, poking and prodding at the sorcerous communications relay until she has figured out the intricacies of its operation.

After only scant weeks, Zephyr finds his call answered in full. A four-winged keppa bird flies above the skies of Lotus, dodging the giant hawks that patrol the windways, and alights before him and the other God-Kings, it strange pink feathers proclaiming it foreign to the verdant East. Before their eyes, the bird shifts and changes shapes, until it is a man of about Zephyr's age, wearing a rustic tunic that is poor cover for the jagged lines of moonsilver that adorn his body. Zephyr recognizes him despite the passage of years, a fellow student under Tails of Resplendent Shadow. Ardent Destrier, the fastest man and biggest braggart of all the South–and now, he has come to Lotus. What he lacks in stature over Zephyr he more than makes up for in hair, his shoulders shaggy with dusky hair, his grey coif a mane to outdo even Yomiko's, and his silver-braided beard a thing worth boasting off.

"By the Baara, Scales-of-War, what a city you have!" he roars, slapping the God-King heartily on the back. "I'd heard stories, of course, all of us have, but I'd never imagined it'd be this impressive. All the people, the magitech–and the beasts! Yeddim and giant hawks as far as the eye can see! Count that as a tally against those Thousand Streams string-pullers, am I right?" he says, his boisterous lack of tact perhaps explaining why he was never accepted into the Winding Path. "But I cannot only stand here and lay laurels on your brow, you old brute! I've been sent in advance, as a herald. Old Tails got your message, lots of us have. We've decided to hold a moot on Lotus. She'll be hear tonight, as the moon rises, and a dozen other Lunars with her." A moot was not exactly what Zephyr had planned on, but sure enough, his mentor would be coming. "I told her I'd fly back with your word, but I'll be damned if I do before I've had a take of the city! Have one of your Solars cast an infallible messenger over to her, old friend."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr grinned broadly at the shaggy man. His fellow Lunar's appearance sent a shock through him - he remembered when he had dressed in simple desert white, or in the rags of a slave - and look at him now. But had he gained? Or had he lost something, the essential savagery that defined the Lunars and made them what they were?

He shook off the feeling. After all, was he not returning Lotus, nay, Creation itself to the first age? Were the savage mannerisms of the Lunar courts not the product of their long exile from their rightful place beside the throne? He was not turning his back on his cousins - he was leading them in glorious rebirth. He took Destrier's arm in a warrior's grip, pulling him into a fierce embrace. He looked him up and down, showing his long white teeth.

"Ah, gods but it's good to see you, and good, too, to hear the news that you bring. It will be an honor to host so many of the Silver tonight - and it will be good for them to see what we have wrought. We are changing the world here, old friend - changing it for the better. The East rises, and the banners of silver and gold flutter again. The new Empress herself has recognized the Chosen of the Sun and Moon - it is a good time to be alive."

He turned and introduced his circle mates, one at a time. "Watcher, our Night Caste. Master of shadows, master of whispers, he keeps the peace, and makes sure no one need fear the streets of Lotus, even in the dark of the night." He smiled at the Invincible Maiden. "Yomiko - Lady of the Zenith. Her beauty is surpassed only by her love and her eloquence, and her fierceness in battle." He turned to Ivory, and his smile softened as he looked at her. "Ivory Eyes. Our Twilight, a Solar Queen reborn, and the greatest wonder-worker of this And my bonded Solar." he only stopped himself at the last moment from calling her his mate - he did not want to presume, but his heart ached for it. He had been patient, but it was not in his nature - and every day her distance from him worried at his heart.

"Ivory, if you would be so kind as to send a message to my Mistress? I will need to show Destrier around the city, and to make arrangements for the moot. You will all be invited, of course." His tone made it clear that opposition on this point was not an option.

[GryffonDurime]

Ivory snaps her fingers at Zephyr's request and a small bird springs to life at the sorceress' shoulder, a miniature replica of her own anima.

"A message for their mistress, then. Ardent Destrier has arrived and been welcomed, and the city of Lotus awaits this Moot. All airspace is open, as is any gate to a Lunar bearing their castemark," Ivory says, motioning. The construct alights all at once, rising into the sky before streaking off like a comet, trailing motes of light.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

"A dozen Lunars all coming here at once?" Watcher looks to Zephyr, completely ignoring the new arrival. Sure, he knew that his circle-mate's open invitation would eventually be answered; but not so quickly, and not by so many at once. He almost opens his mouth for his thoughts to e heard, but the gleam in Zephyr's eye stops him cold. This was one he couldn't win. "Hrrm." he mutters, sizing up Ardent; his motions making it clear to the others that he was going to have his Syndicate keep an eye on the new arrivals.

Spoiler

Show

Using Courtier's Eye Technique on Ardent just for the hell of it.

Perception+Investigation: (7d10)[5][1][8][3][5][6][9](37)+5 successes

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko seems a bit surprised at the Lunar's arrival, but smiles once it's clear he and Zephyr are old friends, and her smile only widens once she is introduced. She curtsies elegantly, "It is a pleasure to meet another of Luna's children in our city, and surely that pleasure will become tenfold once your moot arrives. Surely if you would like a tour of Lotus, you musn't miss a show of song and dance I and many of the artists of this place would love nothing more than to put on."

[The Demented One]

Within but hours, the first of the Lunars have come to Lotus, their caste marks burning brilliant silver on their brows. The first arrive in a pair, a weary scavenger lord stooped low beneath a massive sack of shiny baubles and a merchant-princess whose skin is striped with vibrant yellows against black. Short after follows a beautiful, silver-haired woman whose belly bulges with the curve of pregnancy, carried up to the walls of Lotus on a palanquin borne by a troop of spiderbrood, all the carapace and spindly legs of a spider sewn on to the stature of a man. There is a young maiden whose hands are rough with shimmering carapace, a wild-eyed barbarian of truly gigantic size, a hoary old mercenary with a peculiar cant to his ears, and many more to follow.

Yomiko soon calls for full festivities, the finest enlightened musicians and troubadors of the city lining its streets as the moot begins. The Lunars are not the only ones in attendance, though–more than a few of the Mighty come to welcome them and enjoy the revelry, and O-Mochi himself appears, a young girl at his arm. Soon the moot is ringed with a street festival, the people of Lotus spontaneously devolving into celebration. Uneasy as the new guests are at this sudden raucous festivity, they soon find it growing on them–the exotic meats and spirits, the heart-soothing songs, and the crowds of citizens shouting praise for the Chosen of Luna. It is a celebration of the Silver Pact, and yet it is missing only one thing. Tails of Resplendent Shadow has yet to arrive, though not at all to Zephyr's surprise. His mentor would be loathe to make her arrival obvious in the least.

And so it is that while his fellow God-Kings and Lunars celebrate the moot, Zephyr watches the wildlife of Lotus, the countless animals that thrive in the city. Doves, cats, foxes–there. A black squirrel, perched innocently atop one of the banquet tables, nibbling at a platter of sauteed ricefruit. Zephyr approaches with a grin, and as he draws close, the squirrel looks him dead in the eye. "Okay, okay, you caught me." In a single fluid shift, the squirrel becomes his mentor, Tails of Resplendent Shadow. She is beautiful as only Luna's Chosen can be, skin the creamy brown of Chiaroscuro coffee, hair so dark a violet as to be almost black. Clothed in only the silver tattoos that trace clover-leafs and starbursts across her skin, she sits on the feasting-table, legs casually dangling down.

"Got your call, little Zeph. What is it that you could possibly need an old soul like me for?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr smiled, and he looked at his old mentor with reverence. He bowed, palm-in-fist, in the style of student to teacher, bending at the waist. He seemed completely unconcerned by her nakedness - as, indeed, he was. He had only rarely seen her don clothes - like many Lunars, she had done away with such concerns as modesty, leaving them behind as concerns for mortals and those who had to deal with them.

"Mistress... it is good to see you. I have been busy... and now I must beg your aid." He gave Resplendent Tails of Shadow a brief summation of what Lytek had told them, concluding by saying. "... You always taught me to trust no one - but of all the Lunar Elders, you are the one I know best, and distrust the least, as you might say. We must do the undoable - bind the unshaped and shapeless, and drag it bodily into creation. I did not know who else I might turn to..."

[GryffonDurime]

"Other than the 'Queen of Fangs' that Lytek spoke of," Ivory offers flippantly. "Dragging an Unshaped across the boundaries of Creation should Calcify it, rendering it useless. I am still uncertain as to how he even expects us to physically move something that is less an entity and more a place that likes to think of itself as one."

[The Demented One]

"Luna's grace, why?" asks Resplendent Tails, a single fang jutting out from between her lips. "Why would you ever need to take a Prince of Chaos into Creation? It's impossible, it just doesn't work–I'm not the savant that Raksi is, but I've a century and a half on her, youthful though I am, and I know my lore just as well. The Unshaped cannot be brought into Creation, it's why they're unshaped at all. The Lawgivers and the No Moons tried, back in the First Age, and they never succeeded!" The Moonchild springs to her feet, incidentally purloining a plate of candied figs. She pokes one slim finger into Zephyr's chest, once more a teacher chastising a foolish student. "So if you want my help, you're going to have to tell me more than that. What does Lytek have you up to, hmm?"

[GryffonDurime]

"What about the Bordermarches?" Ivory asks, uncorking a pretty blue bottle to scent the wine within. She avoids the question of why with a practiced informality. "You seem to have an idea of how an Unshaped could be moved. Could it be taken as far as the Bordermarches? Or land crafted through the use of Wyldshaping?" she adds, accepting a goblet happily from one of her sorcerous attendants. She pours the wine into the glass slowly: it, too, is blue, and smells of winter. One of the newest products of Petal developed by a sorcerer-chef after her own heart: Twice-Distilled Water, a wine made from the same stuff as a season.

"If we can take it that far, Lytek can assess the creature from the safety of our enclave on the Wyld."

[The Demented One]

"Oh, you can manage to wrangle one of them in the Bordermarches, although it'll be all hell on you. Just having a Chaos Prince so close to Creation feeds the Wyld, lets its borders wax out for miles. Tainted lands wouldn't work, though, the storm would bleed out in seconds." Resplendent Tails sniffs the air, as if savoring the scent of Ivory Eyes's superb wine. One caramelized fig has been lodged in her puffed-out cheeks all throughout her explication, and she takes the pause to swallow it. "Now, you could probably manage to drag one of them around the Wyld. They're as much waypoint as people, maybe even more, but they still have Emanations, the masks they put on to play nice with the world around them. Bind them, break them, bargain with them, and you can manage to force the Unshaped to move where you want them to. Without a grace you can't deal with them on their own terms, but the Lords of Chaos can still be put to the blade, or seduced, or whatever you have in mind for them."

[GryffonDurime]

"So, then. It's a matter of subduing one's Emanations and then convincing it to march as close to Creation as it can go, then bringing Lytek to it's side while we conduct our experiment," Ivory says as she offers Tails the bottle, downing her own glass in one great artful gulp. "I was worried that this was going to be difficult."

[The Demented One]

Resplendent Tails graciously accepts the bottle, taking a breath-burning gulp from its tapered flute. "Oh, you make me laugh, little Lawgiver. I think you've got it. Just leaving out cutting a bloody swathe through whatever behemoths and slave-raksha the Chaos Lord has conjured up. Oh, and finding one of them, that's tricky tricky." she explains, playfully teasing Ivory Eyes. "An excellent wine, though. Decadent as this whole city is, at least it's the good kind of decadent."

[GryffonDurime]

"A decadence built on the ideals of civil service," Ivory replies with a calculated smile that betrays her pride. "Service, not out of a lust for things but out of an ideal of common welfare. What goods we import from our Far-Flung Petal are wrung from the Wyld by the finest minds and quickest wits. Lotus flourishes under that very model: that decadence has given rise to over half a million Enlightened and countless sorcerers. I hope you'll forgive any coldness in my tone, but decadence is such a dangerous word to bandy about. Decadence choked the First Age from the inside-out when the Exalted--Lawgiver, Steward, and Vizier--forgot that their first and greatest responsibility was to the world and to their fellow men, not just to their Exalted peers." Ivory's expression is that of stone and restraint, but her eyes drift into the haze of the horizon. Somewhere in her mind, she can hear the objections of the phantoms in the White Room.

"Regardless!" Ivory says, shaking herself to her senses. "As the eldest member here, we extend our welcome to the Silver Pact, with the hopes that Lotus may prove itself a worthwhile object of your attentions, decadent or not." She smiles at this last proclamation, wiping away all trace of bitterness.

[Ellas Aramond]

Watcher

Watcher sots in his chair, leaned back with his arms crossed across his chest. The golden plate before him was still shiny and clean, never having been loaded with food. Though his glass had been filled out of courtesy, it too had not been touched. Those that served the circle had long since learned that the nightbringer never removed his mask in public, not even to eat. To ask had brought a polite, but gruff explanation of this.

He had known Zephyr for quite a while now. But that had not prepared him for the shear energy that the Lunar's allies possessed. Not all of them made it obvious, but he could read it in their body language. They had trained themselves to survive in the Wyld, that fact was all too clear to Watcher's enhanced eyes. Pity his powers of observation didn't help him understand half of what Ivory and Tails were talking about.

"Emanations? Tainted lands?" Watcher says in a rare moment of weakness. "I admit, many of these terms you are using are going right over my head. Would it be possible for the two of you to dumb it down?"

[The Demented One]

Resplendent Tails smiles graciously, turning to Watcher. "My apologies! The savants of the First Age codified an entire vocabulary for discussing the Wyld, esoteric for the sake of esotericism. You know the Fair Folk, of course. Alien monsters that come out of the Wyld, ravishing the peoples of Creation and feasting on their dreams. They are the least of the Fae, the Shaped Raksha. Each one of them was once a thing far greater, an all-powerful prince of chaos that diminished itself into the bounds of shape and form that it could enter Creation. But not all of them are diminished." Resplendent Tails seems far more comfortable with such casual terms than the formal vocabularies of occult lore, all formality dropped out of her voice–and all contention with Ivory Eyes apparently forgotten, for the moment.

"The Unshaped Raksha...how to put it. They're strange. They exist, more or less, as waypoints in the Wyld, stories as much as spaces. Once you enter the bounds of an Unshaped, you're playing out whatever plot it wants to tell. The characters in the story are the Emanations, constructed figment-selves that let the Prince of Chaos pretend to be a sane normal person. Pretend poorly, might I add. The Emanations are what you want to hit. The Unshaped only thinks, only acts through the interaction of its Emanations–which means if you can seduce or persuade one over to your side, you've got that much of it behind you. And if you can't...they still bleed. Killing an Emanation isn't easy, and it won't do pretty things to the way the Unshaped thinks, but you can do it."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zephyr

Zephyr listened, struggling to understand. While not stupid, per se, he did not have his teacher's head for esoterica - he was a warrior and a general, first and foremost. He instinctively understood the dance of battle, the dance of armies, how to fight and win, no matter how strange or fearsome the foe - but when it came to understanding them, then it was a different matter.

This battle, however, was one fought with words and ideas and a battle he was less equipped to deal with. He could not stand by, however, and say nothing.

"Ivory Eyes speaks the truth - Lotus is built on the idea of strength for all, not just a few. Mortals are not chattel - they are raw potential. We train them to fulfill it, just as you trained me. Nothing can stay constant - even Lotus cannot last forever as it is. But we will be here to make sure that whatever changes take hold will be changes for the good. As to this... Raksha-thing... these Emanations sound like demon-souls to me."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

"Then surely it would be simple enough for any of us to coerce one to our needs. It's unpredictable though, so even the most well executed diplomacy has a random chance of failing, doesn't it?" Yomiko says, looking at the unclothed Lunar woman. "That, and with the unpredictable nature of the Wyld, how will we traverse it? If we know of a location where we might find the Unshaped, it may very well be countless miles away once we reach there. It would take a guide capable of navigating such a place, if there even are any."
She blinks for a moment as if surprised at herself, "My dearest apologies. I am the Invincible Maiden Yomiko. I am pleased to meet you."

[The Demented One]

"Oh, perhaps." demurs Resplendent Tails, as Zephyr protests the virtue of Lotus. "I see that you have not forgotten the lesson of the Thousand Streams River, even if you have abandoned its methods. Maybe your Lotus will succeed where the Era of Dreams failed. You have a start, at least." She speaks her criticism unabashedly, as is the way of a stern schoolmaster lecturing his pupils on their errors. "But that's a different conversation. You'll find the Emanations to be quite unlike the demonic souls of the Yozis, save in the broadest of similarities. And, my ever-so-fair Invincible Maiden, you will find that they are not easily swayed or slain. They wield raw chaos as their own will, and even the unshapings of your Lady Twilight will not be offer sanctuary against all that they do. I'd be damn impressed. Now, you will be needing a guide to the Wyld, and that–"

"Means you'll need me!" The voice is vibrant music, a euphonious aria that prevails against Resplendent Tails' own. The Lunar saunters out into the midst of the moot, the Changing Moon glistening silver flame on the honey of her skin. Countless veils of indigo silk swathe her voluptuous lunar flesh in diaphonous finery, shimmering in the sunset. Her hair dangles down to her waist, and it coruscates through strange cold rainbows, brilliant cobalts giving way to lucent emeralds and violets. "I can find you a Chaos Lord, in any direction you look for it. Trust me! she beams, a graceful smile lighting her face.

But for all her beauty, beauty to shine as the moon to Yomiko's own sun, it is not what your eyes fall on. Seven ribbons of moonsilver lie in her hands, twisting and coiling into an unbreakable fetter, a chain that collars the abomination at her feet. It is a feeble attempt at humanity, a body carved out of passion and acrid lust. Acid pinks, sunset greens, and earthy violets stain its false flesh, the gnarled assemblages of limbs that dangle down from its torso. It does not move, but flickers–with every step, a leg disappears, and another coalesces into being elsewhere, moving the monster forward. It is a raksha tamed, bowed before its Lunar mistress.

"Astra Seven-Feathers, Courtier of Luna, Princess of the Wyld, at your service. Sorry I came late!"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Yomiko smiles at the new arrival, despite the nearly-imaginable horror that resides at her feet. The black, red and gold dress she wears seem a perfect counterpart to all the cool colors the woman features and adorns. "I can tell by your leashed wyld-thing your boasts are not without merit. As I told Resplendent Tails, I am the Invincible Maiden Yomiko and I am pleased to meet you as well."

[The Demented One]

Astra grabs Yomiko's hand in her own, forcing her into an over-exuberant handshake. The enslaved raksha slavers horribly at her feet, a dozen different tongues lashing out and drooling bitter poison, but cautiously avoiding the Invincible Maiden. "His name's Joyous Provocation. I beat him in a riddling game, and stole his heart away." She leans towards Yomiko, exposing a medallion that hangs low from her neck, a shimmering opal set in a ring of iron. The heart of a faerie. "I can guide you past the dangers of the Wyld, treat with the raksha, and tell you where to find at least a dozen of the Unshaped. Your very own smorgasbord of elder things!"

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

She takes the opal gently in her palm to examine it, and expression only seems to brighten, even after a surprisingly excited handshake. "It's beautiful..." She looks up from the pendant to her eyes, "Have you tricked other creatures this way?"