Creation is a big place. Huge, anchored in the center and the four directions by the Elemental Poles. And a lot of things can happen in Creation. People live... and people die. Until yesterday, you did the former.

Your name was Mere. Now, though, it is Blood Stained Pearl. Native to Western Creation, you grew up in a little no-name village in the Neck, making your living as a pearl-diver. You were canny, and careful, though, and saved up your pearls. You were going to buy a boat, and live a life of adventure.

You were stabbed in a dark alleyway between two huts by the son of your chieftain. You bled to death, slowly. But you were offered a second chance. And you accepted it.

That is how you find yourself here, in Onyx, capital city of the Skullstone Archipelago, where the dead walk among the living, and all serve the Silver Prince--your new, undying master. He is the one who gave you the second chance. The chance to walk among the living, to serve him as an Abyssal Exalted. You accepted. You are Blood Stained Pearl, Dusk Caste. You are a warrior, a general, an admiral. Your duty is to lead the armies that shall wipe the living off the face of Creation. Whether you follow that duty to it's end or not is up to you.

You arrived in Onyx late yesterday, in the company of the Moonshadow caste--they are ambassadors, you were told, between the dead and the living--and the dead and the dead---Crowned Son of Darkened Waters. There, you met the Silver Prince--or, as he informed you, more properly The Bodhisattva Anointed By Dark Waters, Deathlord. You did not talk with him long, but did eat a small dinner with your new liege before you were guided to your personal chambers.

The room was huge, but the events of the day seemed to catch up with you, and you were fast asleep. Now, though, you are awake--the dim light of dawn in the Shadowlands of the Skullstone Archipelago coming through your window. There is little noise greeting it--no island birds, no yelling children--but old habits die hard. You are laying in a huge four-poster bed with sheets of black silk and a frame of black iron. Your room has a great number of things--dressers of fine clothes, armories of weapons, a personal washroom. Today, according to The Bodhisattva Anointed By Dark Waters, your training was to begin, at least with weapons and the etiquette of the dead. He did not say excactly when, so presumably you have a bit of time before such training begins.

What do you do?

>>18842183
Inspect the stuff in the room.

>>18842183

Make sure we are ready. It wouldn't be good if we were to be unready when it was time.

You slide out from the bed--easily the most comfortable you've ever slept upon--and set about getting ready, and exploring your room. The bath has running water--something truly amazing--and exotic soaps. The clothes in the various drawers and dressers are all various blacks, reds, and greys, in a great many styles, all perfectly sized to fit you. The armories contain weapon styles from all over creation--the familiar spears, knives, and swords that you've used or seen used before, and slings and bows, but also stranger things that boggle the mind.

As you look over the weaponry, you feel the hairs on the back of your neck prickling, as if someone was watching you. Or... preparing to attack you. You hear a slight whispering, as if cloth was moving behind you. Time seems to slow.

What do you do?

>>18842288

Grab a pair of swords and back up to the weapons.

>>18842288

Turn. Don't quite raise our hands to block anything but keep our stance loose enough that we COULD defend ourselves if we have to. Seems the best middle ground between defense and 'Not smacking someone in the face who came to talk with us.'

>>18842305
Well, whoever is there could at least have knocked on the door before entering.

>>18842312

Perhaps. But the just might be rude. Or think they are a ninja.

Turn, take a step back to give us room to defend ourselves if need be...but don't go for weapons just yet.

I grab a five-pointed shield and Soulsteel Daiklave from the rack, and twist, shield facing my would-be opponent as the blade waits, bloodthirsty at my side

>>18842320

Seconding. If they are an Assassin...they got way too far to not be able to likely kill us. More likely someone wanting to talk to us. Still, a bit of room to work isn't bad.

You step to the side, hands raised in a defensive position. You hear, more than see or feel, something fly by your cheek--a five-pointed throwing star impacts the wall behind the weapons stand. You see no one there, but hear the whistling of silk-on-steel again.

There's another whistling noise, and you barely dodge out of the way of a another throwing star, but this time you catch the sight of your attacker--a small humanoid figure, jumping from the top of one dresser to another.

What do you do?

Grab a shield and a sword, and charge the dirty fucker.

>>18842445
Tell it to stop.

>>18842445

Charge him. Don't give him time to move. Catch him and grab him and smash him to the floor.

Quicky, you draw a sword--a wicked, curved example made of dark iron, with jagged spikes--and a shield--a round boss of steel with a wicked spike on the top--and charge the figure, leaping into the air to catch it mid-leap.

And you do, crashing into it and into the wall behind. You and the figure come crashing down, and it barely manages to slip out of your grasp to stand before you. Seeing it clearly, it is a short, bald man wearing a simple black robe. He motions at you, and shimmering webs of darkness and silver arc between his hands. Another motion--very much like a kata--and a sound rings out, not unlike a song you heard once before, distant on the sea. You see the same strings arcing between your shield and sword, and as they move, they make music as well, joining the tune, providing a deep bass beat from your shield and an intense string solo from your sword, joining with the chorus and woodwinds of your attacker's empty hands.

What do you do?

>>18842582

Break the tune. Slam our sword against the shield to cause discord and then slam the shield into his face.

Gonna bump my own thread for more votes here. Is now proving to not be a good time? It worked fine last week. I'd like at least three or four more votes before I continue on.

>>18842681

Sorry distracted by playing dwarf fortress, but I pretty much agree with >>18842628

>>18842628

Sounds like a decent plan. I know nothing about Exalted really.

>>18842694

That's fine, Blood Stained Pearl knows very little of the world outside her tiny little village in the Neck, anyway, and the mechanics can be handled entirely by me. Just say what you want and I shall say how it happens.

Allowing five more minutes for voting.

>>18842582
Drop the sword and shield and give him this expression:
ಠ_ಠ

You tire of the music, and slam your sword against your shield. The moment of discord ring loud, the webs of shadow and silver breaking and snarling. The man winces as he tries to regain control of his threads, and is distracted enough that he does not sidestep as you charge, impacting his face with your shield, driving the spike into his cheek. He screams, and blood starts to drip down onto the floor, but quickly regains his composure and strikes you three times in the blink of an eye--once in your mind, sending you reeling. Once in your heart, sending you crying. Once in your soul, sending you to your knees. You are shocked, terrified, a jumble of emotions filling your body as the man picks you up, cursing, slinging you over his shoulder while you are stunned. He opens your window and leaps out, jumping from one darkened roof to another, heading towards the dawn.

You recover swiftly, however, after his second jump. You can see behind him, and it is apparent that you are being pursued--two dark-clad figures, and one glad in slightly-tarnished gold, all bearing swords and marks of the Princes favor, leaping from roof to roof after you.

What do you do?

>>18842796

Smash him in the side, try to wind him. It's unlikely he can run as well as another exalt when he's still struggling.

Shout at him 'Who are you' while we struggle.

>>18842796

Ask who he is and why he's kidnapping us...I was expecting him to try and kill us.

Oh wow, I thought this would be later today. Glad I checked now.

>>18842796
Tell him he could have simply asked us to come with him.

Keep after the guy who attacked us, when we get close enough attack his legs. Also call him "pig fucker".

You start thrashing at the man's lower back and legs, screaming out your question--"WHO ARE YOU?!"--as you do so. The man grunts in pain, slowing down. The three exalts following you manage to catch up a bit, perhaps a single jump behind your would-be kidnapper now.

"The man trying to save you from an unlife of slavery and darkness, you underfed excuse for a Dawn!" he snarls around the hole in his cheek, diving down to the street to run across the waves of profit produced by a wakening marketplace, sending the merchants scattering for cover. "Now quit thrashing and when we're safely away I'll explain more!"

What do you do?

>>18842907

Call him a pig fucker and a dirty scoundrel, but don't really do anything else.

>>18842907

Stop struggling...mostly. Worst comes to worst we could always stab him in the back later and return.

>>18842907
Hm, I doubt he's actually a threat to us, and this is highly entertaining. Act like you're still unconscious and let him do his thing.

>>18842907
Well, I don't suppose slavery sounds very good to Mere. Then again, I don't suppose she'd just trust a guy who wants to kill her.

Since we are outnumbered, however, talking might be the best option for now. Just don't let them get us in a situation we can't get out of by hitting things really hard or running away.

>>18842907
He ambushed us, beat us up and is now kidnapping us, keep trying to break loose, not like he's given us any reason to trust him.

>ooc knowledge
So he punched us in the mind, body and soul... fukken sidereal martial arts.

>>18842936
We're not outnumbered, the two pursuing are servants of the Prince.

Break free, if he really had our best interests in mind he wouldn't be going about 'rescuing' us this way.

>>18842941

>fukken sidereal martial arts.

Just be glad we are not a duck.

I vote for finding out what he wants. Newly exalted in the most morbid way or not, I can't see how someone who was just a peasant two days ago wouldn't be having doubts about joining forces with what is basically sauron.

>>18842907
Life has really turned weird in those last few hours/days. Just wait this out.

I'll adopt a trip for this thread because I change my mind and vote a lot and I don't want to be confusing or cheat.

You struggle for a moment more, but fall still. "What do you want from me?" You ask, snarling.

The man leaps over a cart, reaching out his free hand to rip out the vehicle's movement to aid his speed greatly. He's sprinting towards where you know the docks to be. "Wanting to save a girl from a life of darkness by any means necessary isn't enough?" he asks, leaping up onto another rooftop to continue his journey. You hear yelling behind you--"STOP, IN THE NAME OF THE SILVER PRINCE!" "PUT THE GIRL DOWN! YOU KNOW WHO I AM! I AM MORAY DARKTIDE, AND I WILL END YOU!"

Your heart skips a beat. Moray Darktide is one of the most famous people of the West--a pirate captain, a lord of Skullstone, a follower of the Silver Prince, and a Solar Anathema. He's fought his entire life against the evil demon-pirates of the Lintha family, and is famous--loved, even--almost universally across the west, pirate or no, skullstone national or no. "Skullstone is terrible," as your old Chieftain would say, "But the Lintha are far, far worse. Be glad we live far enough north that they rarely venture to us."

You are nearing the docks. You see a ship--a strange one, no sails, with a silver-and-gold... machine at the stern, rumbling and sparking with what you now know is Essence discharge. A man clad in golden robes waves at your kidnapper, who shifts his direction towards that ship.

What do you do?

>>18842966
could worse

we might be thinking that we're a duck

or very much in love with the sid, as in "we got punched, now I love this joker and only wish to please my new master"

>>18843074
Go with him. We were able to draw blood when we fought him. We should be able to escape him easier than the whole of skullstone.

>>18843099

This is a very good point.

>>18843074
>"Wanting to save a girl from a life of darkness by any means necessary isn't enough?

Well, that doesn't rally sound that bad. And if he tries anything funny we can probably either outrun or defeat him.

You stay silent for the duration, and soon your kidnapper leaps onto the strange ship. The gold-robed figure rushes over--you see now it is a woman, rather pale, larger than yourself in basically every way. Your kidnapper puts you down, gently... and the ship rumbles, and lifts off--it starts to fly!

"I thought you weren't going to make a scene of things, Dove," the gold-robed woman asks your kidnapper. He grunts out a reply, "Because nothing ever goes to plan, Iceheart." He nods over at you. "This is Iceheart. She's a Solar, a Twilight caste--mostly a craftswoman. I'm Dove Tailed Runner, a Sidereal--not that you probably know what that is, but I'll explain it when we don't have Skullstone's fleet chasing after us."

The boat rocks as an explosion sounds out from below.

"Speaking of, best we get ourselves strapped down. Captain's probably going to run us ragged." The man, your kidnapped, Dove-Tailed Runner, offers you a hand. "What should we call you, girl?"

What do you do?

>>18843197

Derp, I forgot to trip up for that post. But, uh, yeah, that's me. No one's trying to kidnap the quest.

Sorry about that.

>>18843197

"Blood Stained Pearl I guess"

...can Abyssals shrink their name down or does the same effect that prevents them from using their own name prevent them having short, sensible names too?

>>18843197
I don't know, we haven't actually been told it's a very bad idea to give out our real name. Would we know this instinctively? If yes, say "Blood Stained Pearl". If no, say "Mere".

>>18843099
>>18843117
Except that we don't know how many others there are on the boat, or how many others there will be wherever he takes us.

Rescuing us by any means necessary may well mean utterly mindfucking us into a loyal servant of whatever his cause is. He's already shown the ability to punch us in the mind, so mind-affecting powers are not out of the realm of possibility.

I still say we try to break free before we're trapped on a boat with no means of return.

>>18843216
Oh, and get strapped down I suppose. Flying would pretty scary for someone who'd never done it before in a medieval setting.

>>18843217
Too late.

>>18843197
"Before any of this happened to me, I was Mere. Now it is... wait, am I supposed to get a new name every few days now?"

>>18843197

Tell them to call us pearl. They don't need to know any more than that.

>>18843215

You can use a shortened version of your abyssal title without any problem, yes. Or made up names. Basically anything but your birth name is fair game, to be quite honest.

>>18843244
I know that, I don't know if our PC would know that before botching it up the first time.

>>18843244

Kinda surprised more don't actually take normal names then. It just has to be not their normal birth name...

>>18843244
Pearl's okay in that case.

>>18843265
The rebelling abyssals do take them. It's mostly the ones who revel in their nature who throw around their whole name all the time.

So we skipped out on Skullstone before learning even the basics of how to use our newfound powers... Super.

"Just call me Pearl," you say as Dove gets you strapped to a bench just belowdecks. Another explosion rocks the ship, and you grit your teeth. Dove nods, and straps himself in next to you--you notice the wound in his cheek has healed entirely. "Pearl it is, then. We'll give a round of introductions once we all can, but... thanks for not fighting to much. Makes this easier on all of us. Figure we have a few minutes until we've outran Skullstone's fleet. Until then, anything you want to talk about? Questions you want to ask? Obscenities you want to scream?"

He smirks a bit. The boat rocks again--cannonfire and worse things. Iceheart did not follow you belowdecks, and is presumably doing... something up top.

What do you do?

>>18843307
Hey, we got a sidereal and a solar in exchange. They should be able to fill in, if we choose to hang out with them.

>>18843320
We aren't a Day caste, so we won't be learning any non-Abyssal charms, so no, there's a lot they can't teach us.

>>18843310

"Sure I'll call you pig fucker, you didn't even say hello you just attacked, jerk."

>>18843332
You mean moonshadow, right? I haven't been through the rulebooks in a while, so excuse me if I'm wrong.

>>18843310
"You know, you could have simply knocked at the door and ask me if I'd come with you... So, what's this whole kidnapping thing about?"

>>18843332
Can we change castes or is that impossible?

>>18843310
What am I, what are you, what the fuck is going on?

>>18843310

"What in the name of creation is going on?"

>>18843355
It is impossible.

The only possible change would be into a solar version of the same cast we are now. But that's basically the same thing, just golden instead of black.

>>18843346
You're probably right, either way we're Dusk, so no go on that.

>>18843355
Can't be done... Outside of certain very rare and very powerful Infernal charms which we can never learn, and those make you a unique new caste, rather than exchanging them.

>>18843368
Hm, bummer-

>>18843368
The only way to become a solar is to die after having purified our exaltation, and have our exaltation reincarnated as one, so we won't be doing that in this lifetime...

>>18843377
Nope, you are wrong. What you described is how an infernal shard is changed back into a solar one. An abyssal shard can be permanently changed back into a solar one without the host dying.

"What am I? What are You? And, what's this whole kidnapping thing about?" You ask.

"You're an Abyssal Exalted, chosen of oblivion, destined to herald darkness into creation, et cetera, et cetera, I'm going to presume you heard that spiel before. As far as my point of view goes, what are you are is an Abyssal Exalted, which is to say, you bear a Solar Shard that was inverted from it's original purpose. That is to say, saving creation. But the shard dosen't make the bearer. I am a Sidereal Exalted, one of the Chosen of the Five Maidens, guiders of Fate, et cetera. Specifically I am a Chosen of Jupiter, Maiden of Endings. Think of me as a combination assassin and tax collector, only I'm actually a nice guy."

Dove's face splits into a grin. "And I kidnapped you because if you just dissappeared, they'd have no idea who did it. As it stands... well, our little group is a bit known to the Bodhisattva. He's gonna send people after us, which means gear for you to use when we kick their asses. And sometimes I like making a show. It's a living, you know?

He pauses for a moment. "No offense meant. And maybe it was a stupid idea. But we can handle it. We've handled it so far, we'll keep handling it in the future, only now we have another ally on our side. I figure a Sidereal, a Solar, an Abyssal, three Dragonblooded and a Lunar can take on all of Skullstone a bit at a time."

Dove grins again. You get the feeling he may be a bit unhinged. You also haven't heard an explosion in awhile. "Speaking of the gang, it sounds like things have calmed down. Want to go meet your new Circle?"

>>18843419
We'll they're being awfully friendly and comfy with us. Might as well meet them.

In no way am I implying that we have decided on joining them at this time.

>>18843419
"Sure."

Also give him a mild slap for intruding on a lady in her room.

>>18843419

Go along with him...being overall more than a little stunned.

>>18843419

Sure go with and be friendly.

>>18843390
Well, I stubbornly opened up my Abyssal manual to prove you wrong, but you're right, guess we have a shot at redemption after all...

Redemption as a Solar free of the Great Curse no less.

>>18843419
Did we actually have the time to dress properly this morning? If not, have him get us something to wear.

>>18843454

Yeah, Abyssals really have the best endgame option. Solars can never be free, Infernals can never really be free...Abyssals go through HELL getting there...but can be free in the end.

>>18843466

You did manage to get a quick sponge-bath and dress in a basic tunic and pants. It's about as much clothes as you were used to wearing before.

>>18843467
Solars can technically change twice.

You nod. Dove gets unbuckled, and helps you get the same. He leads you back out to the deck--Iceheart is standing there, looking a bit soot-stained as if she were doing something mechanical. "You've allready met Iceheart, of course... she's our Gear Gal. There's not an item built that she can't repair, replicate, or improve on." The Solar laughs at Dove's words as three people--one older man with blue hair, two young women with green who appear to be twins--walk up from another door belowdecks. Dove bows at them. "This would be the Captain--Captain Peleps Teren, of House Peleps, and the reason we're still flying after being chased by Skullstone," Dove says, motioning at the man, who grunts. "No thanks to your antics, Dove. This was supposed to be a sneak and run, not a smash and grab."

Dove just laughs, and motions at the twins. "And these are Larrena and Lithia, Lost Eggs. They're our doctors, archers, and local masters of poisons." The twins bow as one, and speak. "We live to serve," they say, voices oddly toneless. "Where's our last one, Captain?" Dove asks. Peleps Teren grunts. "Coming up now. Said he had to get ready for it first."

With that, a door opens, and out steps the last member of the group. He's a man, tall and strong, with the tanned skin of a westerner. He's also familiar, from his silly, sideways grin to his close-cut dark hair.

Santoso, a fisherman from your village, steps out. "I, uh, might be the reason they knew where to find you, Mere..." he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

He was sweet on you once, you remember that.

What do you do?

>>18843579

A flat "What"

>>18843579
"Huh?"

>>18843579
Hahah, that guy again, seriously? Well, isn't that interesting. Threaten him to explain himself.

So by process of elimination, he's a Lunar.

Didn't see that coming.

>>18843641
Let's hope the captain's the lunar.

>>18843691
I give that a 5% chance at best.

>>18843691
Wasn't the captain introduced as a Solar earlier though.

As for how to react to this, I think Santoso owes us an explanation.

>>18843733
The Gear Gal was the Solar.

Santoso owes us a double explanation. The whole bit about them finding us AND almost killing the entire village.

"What? Explain. Now," you say, flatly. Santoso spreads his hands. "I saw them take you. I don't care what you are now, Mere, you were one of us. So... I stole a boat and went after you. Sharks attacked and sank the boat. I fought them off and swam after you. I wasn't thinking, I just did it."

He smiles wide, and you notice his teeth seem much sharper than they were before. "I saw a vision from Luna. The Moon, Mere. She talked to me, told me I had great things ahead of me. Next thing I realized, I was a Siaka! Swam as fast as I could towards Skullstone, but these folk picked me up before I got there. They saw me on some loom or something?" He shrugs, and looks over at Dove. "But I told them about you, and they agreed to help me. You've heard the stories of Skullstone, you know what they do to people there. I didn't want you to go through any of that. So I came after you."

Dove speaks up. "Well, yep. Looks like everyone's met everyone now. Though you may want to call her Pearl now, Sharky," he says, and turns around to the door belowdecks. Peleps Teren speaks up. "Ship's on her way back to our Manse, boys and girls, and we'll be there in less than an hour. You two," he says, pointing gruffly at you and Santoso, "Warning in advance, no fighting on my ship unless we're getting boarded, so if you're gonna fight over something, wait until we touch down or I throw you both overboard, swear by the Dragons." He, too, heads back belowdecks.

The Twins stay where they are, heads down. Iceheart just shakes her head and goes to the large contraption at the aft, pulling out strange tools to tinker with it.

Santoso stands there, smiling at you.

What do you do?

>>18843757
Doesn't him being a lunar mean we have to shack up with him? I know exalted only from the usual horror stories here on /tg/.

>>18843757
I don't know, time skip?

>>18843802
Each solar was married to a specific lunar, metaphysically. This includes the abyssals and infernals now, since they are actually all solars anyway.

There's a very slim chance of Santoso being Mere's lunar mate, since we didn't actually feel any connection of the sort.

>>18843802

Only if we are soulbound. The odds are rather low there.

Maybe go ask if we can help Iceheart in any way?

>>18843802
No, we don't HAVE to do anything. All Lunar have one Solar they're bonded to by their exaltation, but the magically enforced feelings are one-way only, the Solar side doesn't have to feel anything they don't want to. This is of course assuming our exaltation is even the exaltation his one is bound to.

>>18843816
Thank god.

>>18843816
Oh yeah, and since you don't know about it most likely, there are exactly 300 solar and exactly 300 lunars. When one dies it reincarnates. Lunar/Solar mates are a thing from thousands of years ago.

>>18843826

Sounds good. Might as well try to be useful.

You stare at Santoso incredulously for a moment, then shake your head. "I'm going to go see if I can help Iceheart with something," you say. Santoso frowns, but nods. "Okay. I'll be hanging out up here!" he says with a wave, and heads towards the bow of the ship. He did like boats, and kept asking if you'd take him as crew when you purchased the ship you were planning to.

You head over to Iceheart, who immediately looks over at you. "Hold this," she says, shoving a strange-looking golden gear at you. She is elbow-deep into the innards of the strange machine, performing some strange repair ritual with what looks like a tiny hammer. She grunts. "So, Abyssal, huh?" She asks, banging away at something inside. "Mind if I ask why? I've heard stories about how your kind Exalts, and I'm curious about the specifics."

What do you do?

>>18843870
"Why? I don't know. I was murdered and then I was what I am now."

>>18843870
If she shares her story afterwards? Why not.

>>18843870

Tell her what we know. Mind you, I don't think we know much about the metaphysics behind it.

>>18843870
We don't know either. We were murdered and offered a chance for a second, more glorious life. We took it.

You shrug, helping the Solar out by holding her tools and parts. "I was stabbed in an alleyway. I got offered a choice to live again, and I took it. I don't really know the... details, I guess," you say. Iceheart nods. "Pass me that screwdriver?" she says. As you do, she speaks. "About like mine, minus the dying, I suppose... well, really not a lot like mine. I'm Haslanti, from the North. I was serving on an airship, we were getting attacked by raiders--this pirate, Captain Gyrfalcon. He got us in the engine, took out all of the engineers except me. I tried my best to repair it... could've bailed with a paracute and lived, but there were still a hundred people on that boat."

She pauses, adjusting a few final things, before putting her tools away and closing the machine. "I got it fixed, and most of them lived. Couldn't stay home, so I went travelling, and met Dove, the Twins, and the Captain. They needed a Gear Gal, so I signed up to work with them. Good folk, but the Twins are a bit creepy." She turns and nods at you. "We should be near the Manse now. We'll get you squared away. I think Dove thinks you're gonna stick with us, but I get the feeling you're not sold yet. And I'm not gonna force your hand, but if you need help, ask, yeah? We're not bad people," she says.

At that moment, the ship comes to a stop above a calm spot of sea. "Ah, and here we are," Iceheart says. A rumbling noise fills the air, and below you the sea shifts and moves as a great dome emerges from beneath the waves, made out of purest Black Jade. The dome opens, and the airship settles down onto the landing pad beneath. The Captain's voice calls out. "All ashore who's goin' ashore! We're home, boys and girls, we're home!"

What do you do?

>>18844036
Go... ashore?

We can talk to any of the others too. Or maybe the lunar whatshisname. Or try to get some training or gear.

>>18844036
See if one of them is willing to give us a tour.

You head ashore with the others as the dome descends beneath the waves again. Dove approaches you with a grin, and waves Santoso over. "Others are going off to do whatever, so I figured I'd give you two a tour, if you wanted. Just follow me," he says, and walks off. Santoso gives you a glance, and follows the Sidereal. You proceed to do so as well.

The Manse--a Manse being, as Dove explains it, a building built to harness natural upwellings of Essence--is huge. Not as large as the Silver Prince's palace, but most definately the second-largest building you've ever seen. It has a great many galleries and viewports out into the life-filled waters beyond. Dove shows you and Santoso where you will be sleeping, where you can get food, and, finally, training rooms and dojos.

When you reach the latter, Dove turns to you both. "Figure if you wanted to start training, now's as good a time as any. I'm not gonna be amazing at helping you with the more specific things, but I can at least serve as a sparring partner, if you want."

He grins. "Two verses one should be fair."

There's a collection of weapons--wooden training types--on the wall beside you.

What do you do?

>>18844223
Doing some training sounds good, but have him give us a rundown of what our powers should amount to.

>>18844223
Get a big sword and train with it. Try to gauge our new abilities accurately this time, see if we can do anything specific.

Try to get Santoso in on it too, see how he fights.

Figure out any Dove's strengths and weaknesses we can see at this time.

You pick up a large training sword--you have to hold it in two hands--and turn to face Dove. Santoso sprouts a stupid grin and picks out a training spear. "Before we start," you say, "I do want to ask just what my abilities can do. I haven't been able to get a good explanation out of anybody yet."

Dove nods. "Well, you're a Dusk, which is like a dawn, so... you kill things really, really, really good. And lead people in war really good, too. Probably don't have to breath anymore, if what Santoso had to say about your talents as a mortal. Probably alot more athletic, better balance, things like that. Might even be able to sail a whole lot better, too."

He takes up a defensive stance. "We'll figure things out as they come, yeah? For now, let's get our spar on."

Santoso is the first to act, leaping high in the air with a warrior yell native to your home. Dove reacts, ducking to the side slapping the Lunar quite hard in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. You use that oppurtunity to advance, swinging your sword towards the SIdereal's midsection. He leaps backwards, kicking up into the air. Santoso recovers, and leaps up after him, tip of his spear facing upwards. The Sidereal grabs it in one hand and swings, bringing the spear--and the surprised Lunar holding it--around towards you. Santoso hits you with a yelp, but you act on instinct and throw him off, bringing your sword to chop at the Sidereal's knees. You catch him on the side of one, and the impact makes him buckle, cursing, falling to the ground. Santoso's stood up and picked up his spear again at this point, and it looks like Dove is planning to leap again.

What do you do?

>>18844373
Waif for Dove to leap, then grab Santoso's spear and throw the spear and its wielder into Dove.

>>18844373
Hit the same knee a few more times.

Try to push ourselves as far as possible.

(try to get some essence rolling)

You push yourself as hard as you can--as hard as you ever have. You flip behind Santoso and up him up--"OH BY LUNA NOT AGAIN"--and throw him, spear-first, at the downed sidereal, pouring all your essence into this attack. The wound on your forehead opens again, and you can feel the dark energies surrounding you in a blanket of deathly cold essence, like the darkest waters of the deepest West.

Santoso hits Dove square-on, the force of your throw driving the wooden spear into the Sidereal, through him and shattering against the floor behind him. Santoso keeps going, bowling the Sidereal over and falling on top of him in a lump. Beautiful crimson blood stains the floor beneath the two lesser Exalted, and you find yourself licking your lips in some sort of hunger. Before you can think, you run on instincts, moving forward and separating the two. Throwing the stunned lump of flesh that is Santoso to the side, you pick up Dove with one hand and rip the spear from him, blood splattering the wall, the floor, your body, your face. Some hits your lips, and it is the most delicious thing you have ever taste--you can feel the Essence within it, and it empowers you further.

Dove smirks, a line of blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. "Not bad for a beginner, Pearl," he says. You frown, scowling. "You're beaten, old man," you begin to say, and it is then that you note the symbol flaring up on Dove's own forehead--the symbol of Saturn, the symbol of Endings.

He touches your stomach with one hand.

You freeze in place, unable to move.

Dove works himself free, and his wounds close. Santoso has recovered, and after a moment, you have calmed down, and can move again.

What do you do?

>>18844545
"Fuck. Thanks for stopping me." Wonder if we'll always lose control in a fight.

Anyone else going to input what Pearl is going to do here? I'll give it ten more minutes.

>>18844545
>>18844710
I don't really know what to say. Ask about the blood thing?

>>18844545
If there's one lesson we should have learnd regarding Dove, then it's to never let a Sideral get close enough to touch us in a fight.

>>18844731

>>18844758
Indeed, that way lies only life as a duck.

>>18844823
Mere would be the terror that destroys creation.

Hold on a minute, just hold on.

One moment we were going to be a servant to the Silver Prince. We were resigned to this. Now we got kidnapped and we're just rolling with it?

Do we just not give a fuck or what? I'd like to stop things for a minute and ask just what the fuck is going on.

Why were we kidnapped? No, "saving a girl from whatever" is not enough of a reason. What do you expect from us? What does it mean to be Abyssal?

We've been jerked around without answers long enough. I want to sit down at a table and get some.

You shake your head as you let your Anima banner fade away. "Thanks for stopping me, Dove," you say, licking your lips again. "When your blood hit my lips, though, I felt... energized. Any idea what that's about?"

Dove shrugs. "Probably a way for you to regain Essence without having to be in the underworld or a shadowland or anything? From what we understand, Abyssals can't regenerate Essence in Creation. I guess you have to drink blood instead."

Santoso grunts. "That dosen't sound very good," he says, though the last of his sentence is nearly drowned out by a rumble from his stomach.

Dove laughs. "Well, we'll see. Let's get us a meal, maybe chat up the rest for a bit, and then... well, we'll see, yeah? The future's a big place."

You nod, and put your weapon away. Dove leads you towards the shared dining hall for the group.

You've been rescued from a fate that may not have needed to be rescued from, met an old friend and some new ones, and sparred with a Sidereal. The future is, as Dove said, a big place.

"There once was a maiden... with a body like a cold pearl."

And that's it for this week folks, as there seems to be an emergency going on with my grandmother and I have to go. Sorry to cut it short, but, well, uh, yeah.

I may run again on Thursday, if there's interest in doing this bi-weekly!

Until next time!

>>18844878
I'd say she's just happy to not actually have to roll with satan.

I tried to imply we accepted the sparring thing to gauge the strengths of the people here.

>>18844878
yeah, i'd say she doesn't give a fuck, just go with flow kind of thing

>>18844890
I'm interested if you are.

I hope it's nothing too serious.

Kill him.

>>18844950
>>18844878
Go with the flow sounds right. And why not, her current situation can't seem worse to her than being in skullstone.

I must say, it really is rather annoying that you take the goodguy option every single time a choice is offered. I mean really, our character was offered nothing but politeness by the Silver Prince, and had no reason to think Skullstone was any more evil that she was after becoming Anathema. It would have been nice to spend SOME time with the Deathlord before choosing to go renegade rather than declaring that of COURSE the deathlords are terrible and evil (because Pearl has read the Abyssal book apparently) and didn't offer her more than she ever had before, as well as giving her another chance at life and revenge.

But nah, fuck gratitude, deathlords are evil and this is a setting in which morality is absolute right?

>>18845006
The deathlord's minions DID want to kill everyone she'd ever know, though.

I'm pretty sure the stories about skullstone invoke more terror than stories about anathema in the populace around there.

And... we didn't really choose any kind of good guy option apart from having the village spared in the previous thread.

Besides, we have a friend(?) who'd become a lunar here.

>>18845006
we can always go back after we've hung out with this group for a while.

>>18845006
I agree. I was looking forward to being a vicious leader of the dead. Too many good guy quests.

Then again, being an Abyssal in a circle of "good guy" exalted is kinda interesting, (also horrifically sue-ish) so it might be worth it to stick around for a bit.

If we get tired of it, we can always sneak off to the local deathlord and say we escaped.

Well, I prefer "good guy" options, even though we were really just neutral up until now.

That's what I'm gonna suggest.

Because I prefer it.

At the very least it will be entertaining the first time we hit limit from all our good deeds, and all the new friends we've made get horribly mutilated by angry Neverborn energies.

There's a reason most Abyssals don't do good things after all.

>>18845129
We haven't been doing anything specifically good. We'll see. Also, other exalts are immune to dark miracles, IIRC.

>>18845141
Perhaps, but our home village certainly wouldn't be. That is if the servants of the Silver Prince haven't already burned it down trying to find us.

I really can't imagine Pearl was feeling overly empathetic about her village, given that the chieftain's son murdered her, his father almost attacked her for being Anathema, and she was a bit of a loner anyway.

>>18845218
Eh, there must have been a few people she liked. She's not a sociopath seeing how she has two points in compassion.

I've got to admit I'm having a great deal of trouble getting invested in this character. So far she doesn't really seem to have any sort of personality, drive, or personal desires. I suppose one could see it as her being confused and not yet finding her feet, but first she went along with it when the abyssal took her to the Silver Prince, then she went along with it when the sidereal kidnapped her, and she's now joining up with them in their fight against Skullstone for... what reason?

Honestly I think the only direction this story could go in now which would actually make me care about the character would be if she flipped the whole situation the bird, stole a boat and went out to pursue her original dreams of life on the high seas.

Damn I go out for a bit and the quest is over.

Anyway I'd say that pearl is pretty neutral so far, and hey we can always be the one in the group advocating slaughter like, of pirates or something. All we really have to do is kill stuff though right?

>>18845510
That seems fine to me.

>>18845516
Yup. Kill all sorts of things, and keep good deeds to a minimum.

If we do too much good, the neverborn get pissed with us and Bad Things happen.

>>18845510

I've been viewing this as a tutorial section. Small group of good guys is preferable to a possibly binding relationship with evil overlord. As the small group would be easier to get away from. Right now we have yet to encounter anything to really sway us in any direction.

>>18845546

Kill all sorts of things? so um, hypothetically speaking everyone goes walking in a forest, and all we really need to do is bring up the rear lighting fires to keep ourself in um condition.

>>18845510
maybe she is depressed and just doesn't give a fuck about anything?

>>18845510
What do you expect from a character whose actions are decided by anonymous players on the internet?
Anything coherent?

>>18845563
Basically the Neverborn don't give two fucks what we do, because the Resonance we deal with forces us to kill things and shun life regardless of our side, and given that the Neverborn want EVERYTHING dead, they are not picky about what we kill.

Deathlords such as the Silver Prince, however, tend to be rather more irritable about the whole defying their authority thing though.

>>18845563
The Neverborn, our masters, are ghosts who's chain keeping them in the world is the world itself. The only way they can pass into oblivion is if the world is destroyed. It is their goal, and our mission, to destroy all life. Every human, every spirit, every cat and dog, every insect, every blade of grass. We must kill it all. Only then will the Neverborn be free.

How we do this is largely up to us. But we must kill.

>>18845684
Well, that's what the neverborn think, anyway. They might just be keeping themselves alive with this notion because they're idiots who can't see past themselves, like the yozis.

>>18845719
I wouldn't call them idiots, really. They have pretty good reason for being less than rational.

The Yozi are tortured, imprisoned, and utterly insane, for one.

And the Neverborn are fucking dead, for another.

>>18845777
Yeah, but the only thing keeping them both in their torment is their own nature and inability to see this.

>>18845795

TO BE FAIR, IT'S NOT A MENTAL INABILITY, IT'S METAPHYSICAL.

THE YOZI ARE HIDEBOUND BY THEIR CHARMS, AND THE NEVERBORN, WELL, WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THEY HAVE *THAT* MUCH MANEUVERING.