Exalted: The Kingdom of Orphans

Return to previous page
This adventure takes place shortly after the events of The Treasure of Fang Zan, and concerns the southeast region of the swamps of The Wrecker's Coast that borders upon The Great Sand Sea and the neighbouring kingdom of Anaathalay that occupies it.
=== Investing in our Future ===
Returning to Marrull Vaar, with a kings ransom of treasure, the circle swiftly begin to invest it in furthering their own agendas. Reeds buys up a warehouse and several merchant concerns, Hephestia gets the tools together to build her own workshop, Meng hints at plans involving ships but intentionally remains vague. Crystal intends to open a theatre and needs Hephestia's help with the interior.
Later that day with the last of the devils recently captured, the full circle behind her and Bellar waiting outside, Tokumei opens the seven devil seal revealing a disquieting sight of a great eye with three inter-linked pupils. The circle were unable to get a name from the creature, only its title: Sister of the Ram. It claimed to be able to help change reality. Though not by overt wish-making. Reeds asked how to become the greatest merchant in the Southwest and it replied that he should buy up wine. Thoroughly unnerved they sealed the Sister of the Ram away again pending further study. Venturing North to the Great Library of Ang-Teng or finding ancient records from the first age research outpost are both floated as possibilities. 
As the circle conducted their business in Marrul Vaar, Meng finished liquidating the rest of his spoils from recent adventures into two chests of Jade coins save for two items - the tooth of the water monster Igappo, and a large crystalline orb he had stolen during a prior expedition into the pyramid manse. Hiding one of the chests behind Igappo's tooth at the back of the party's storage warehouse, he tracked down Daxi and revealed the truth of his plan - he was leaving Marrul Vaar in secret, revealing only that he could feel a mysterious woman from his past, Mei Fang, and her agents had been pursuing him and were surely almost upon him. Strangely it seemed that it was not fear for his life but some deep shame that made Meng unable to bring himself to face Mei Fang. Unable to bring himself to say goodbye to the others, Meng got Daxi to agree to keep his departure a secret for as long as possible and to let Mei Fang take the chest of Jade he left behind should she find it. After giving the crystal to Daxi as payment, Meng disguised himself in a new identity as an old man named Fong, before leaving with the other chest on a freight ship bound for the Cinder Isles. 
Bellar was constantly frustrated by eel merchants trying to form a guild. The inefficiency frustrated Tokumei who set about organising the two people vying for her approval so that their assets would run more smoothly and could be left in the care of somebody more competent and less bothersome. 
=== An invitation that we can't refuse ===
However there are other concerns. A brightly plumed peacock flies over the city slowly towards Bellar's palace bearing an announcement from the new ruler of Anaathalay, a kingdom to the Southeast. Following a slave revolt leadership had changed and the new ruler, a man named Jagganath, announced they intended to visit and seek to expand trade with the city. Soaring Currawong, one of Bellar's advisors from the Southeast region of Marrul Vaar, filled the circle in on the recent history of Anaathalay, including the cult of its mother goddess Mahadevi and the lake she had summoned from the earth that now formed the cradle of the kingdom. The plan to reactivate the magical Three Sisters Dam took on new importance as showing off a newly restored first age wonder would impress on this new leader, the vitality of Marrull Vaar as a trading partner. 
So travelling up river with tools and materials they arrived at the dam. Three statues stood overgrown. With some investigation the first lay dormant; it seemed in generally good shape except that it was overgrown with vegetation and the main control crystal at the top of the statues interior had an obsidian knife plunged in to it. The second statue had a vast horde of bats inside, but the interior was largely intact. The third Tokumei tried to cleanse with fire as it was full of spiders. However this caused alarm to a heavenly bureaucrat responsible for counting the spiders of the area, an oddly high ranking spirit for such a task. The scribe lamented at the destruction of some of their spiders, but was somewhat mollified when they explained their actions and the intent to reclaim the dam, requesting only that the circle leave the spirit and their spiders in peace. The party gave the spirit their names as the ones claiming the dam (although Daxi gave the name of their absent circlemate Meng) and Hephestia and Tokumei found that the spirit was in desperate need for fresh, good quality ink pens and other supplies and so said that they would seek to bring some. 
The circle elected to begin cleaning out the three chambers with help from workers recruited from nearby villages, Reeds in particular expressing interest in collecting as much of the bat guano as possible to sell on as potentially rich fertilizer. As the workers cleared this out, however, their leader Sound Foundation brought the circle a box that had been discarded in the guano which seemingly had contained a large round object. Reeds noticed that there was a strange emblem of a four-legged golden crab on the front, but which Hephestia recognized as a machine from the first age used in Geomancy for clearing obstructions from leylines. Beneath the emblem was an inscription of this particular machine's name: GIGACLES. 
As their work continued the circle further examined the knife embedded in the orb in the first chamber. Its origin was unclear, but it purpose was sinister - the disruption of the flow of essence. From what the spirit had told them, long ago a mysterious entity in the shape of a horned man had stuck the dagger into the orb; possibly in an attempt to disrupt the leyline that ran along the direction of the dam. Cautiously, and with the rest of the circle beside her, Hephestia pulled the knife from the orb, causing a tremor to shake the area. Following the cries of horror from the workers outside, the circle emerged to see that a great mechanical creature like the one depicted on the cover of the box had torn itself free from the ground in the distance, and was lumbering off in the direction of Anaathalay, and Jagganath's delegation that was surely on its way to Marrul Vaar.
Sensing the diplomatic (and humanitarian) crisis that could ensue if this creature crossed the border at such a sensitive time, Reeds took off on the back of Snails, with his circlemates following closely behind via sorcery. As they approached, the sheer size of the mechanical beast became apparent - standing over 100 meters tall on four massive limbs encrusted in intricate statuary ending in huge clenched fists for feet, the body of Gigagles stood far above them emitting a dense cloud of steam within which moved large mysterious shapes. And somewhere on top was the ground that Gigacles had been buried beneath; the location of Weaving Bird Village... or what was left of it?
=== The March of Gigacles ===
The mammoth stride of Gigacles took it swiftly across the countryside. However Snails, moving at the command of Reeds and the rest of the circle aboard Hephestia's Tornado were able to get out ahead of it and concoct a plan. 
From where they were the circle could see that there was a circular bulge at the front of Gigacles's body, an opening beneath its belly that occasionally fired powerful bolts of essence and several vents around the beam firing weapon. Atop its body was an area of swamp containing Weaving Bird village which was primarily reed-woven buildings, but there was a single stone structure near the front of Gigacles. Below there was a vast spray of oily mist being emitted beneath the creature in which a shoal of rainsharks swam ravenously. As they did, one of the villagers fell or leapt from the back of Gigacles and was caught by one of the rain sharks and torn to pieces. 
We could see that the legs were held up by sinuous bundles of cable woven with moonsilver and the legs themselves were elaborate columns decorated in statuary which provided numerous hand-holds. 
Using rope from Snails, Daxi would leap across to one of the forelegs and secure a rope so that everybody else could climb over in relative safety. Tokumei tried to climb over first but the motion tugged the rope away and left her swinging pendulum-like beneath the monstrosity. She threw her body from side to side to swing back up and landed on the leg. Then Daxi threw the rope back and Crystal came over followed at last by Hephestia who dispelled the Tornado as she went. 
Climbing up the leg was a slow and laborious affair, particularly due to Tokumei being rather clingy to the safety of the statues, but after half an hour they reached the top if the leg and clambered on to the top soil that made up 
Most of the villagers were cowering in horror as each step tore their homes to pieces.
Meanwhile Reeds riding ahead of Gigacles was able to warn and evacuate several smaller settlements in the Behemoth's path. Buying the rest of the circle time to stop it. 
Thee of them came over to meet the strangers. The teenaged woman was Singing Finch, the large man who was the head of the village was called Big Tree and the kid behind them Piglet. They were overjoyed that somebody had come to save them. They explained that their priest Scent of Heavens Favour, had managed the stone building (The village temple), which contained a being known as Boomslang and that he had left with the temples key, leaping off the back of Gigacles and was probably the figure we saw earlier. The temple would not open without the key and that the Priest had been taking villagers to be sacrificed to Boomslang for sometime before now. 
 
Exploring the stone building, it was clearly first age artifice. There was a sealed door at the far end of the room. In front of the door was a prayer wheel. then there was a statue of a Devil-Tiger with its tongue stuck out, surrounded by statues of four fish and near the entrance was a console with symbols written in Old Realm. Daxi tried to examine the door for a way to bypass it using traditional methods, but found that all the controls were embedded in the stone of the statuary and the prayer wheel. Crystal tried to pray to the god of the shrine in the hopes of gaining its attention, but found a worrying spiritual void, as if no spirit had lived here. Hephestia saw the mechanism of the statue allowed a circular disk to be placed on the tongue, the tiger's mouth would then close and the disk would spin activating the console mechanism and Tokumei found that the console could be used to spell out commands, although there were some buttons more worn than others, so it was likely only a specific combination. The characters that spelt out `Open door` were among them. Hephestia was able to use some metal she had to hand to craft a replacement key and put it in the cats mouth and when the console lit up Tokumei entered the commands to open the door, a deep voice boomed from the mandala: ""WE AWAKEN GIGAGLES IN DIREST NEED, IN FULL KNOWLEGE OF THE WORKING WE UNDERTAKE AND AWARE OF THE PRICE THAT IS PAID." and the door opened revealing a spiral path downwards, each side decorated in frescos depicting, what we assumed to be a first age solar. The figure was initially praised and beloved, but as they descended the depictions grew more blood thirsty and depraved. In each panel of the fresco, there was one figure representing a bystander or innocent victim in various poses. Towards the bottom the primary figure was wading through seas of blood and carnage and the bystanders were tormented and oppressed. 
Opening in to a wide chamber, there was a door directly opposite guarded by an impressive statue with lights in its third eye and writing on the floor. 
The inscription on the floor in front of the mudra statue was "BEFORE THE EYES OF JUDGEMENT PERFORM THE MUDRA OF OPENING TO DEMONSTRATE YOUR COMPREHENSION OF WHAT WAS LOST." 
Around the outside of the chamber were three great statues that stood like pillars rows of books that seemed to be parish records. The books told a tale going back hundreds of years of the villages history and most recently that the priest was something of a pervert who followed the village women around and speculated on their personal lives. The priest had heard a voice from below demanding sacrifices. The voice threatened to rise up and consume him if he did not comply. 
Tokumei studied and tried to attune herself to the details of the social aspects of the mundras of opening ritual to limited effect, but she recalled the raised figures on the journey down and moved through the forms shown on that wall. Each step told a story of progressive oppression that reminded her of her time in slavery and left her shaken, but the lights on the statue changed green and the statue sank in to the floor, allowing the door to open. 
Beyond the door was another path down leading to what appeared to be a control room. Inside was another console and a dome-like display allowing control of the direction of the movement of Gigacles, but due to a vast essence build-up, it could neither stop nor slow down. Nor could the weapon be turned off. We would need to descend in to the generator to do that. 
Daxi and Tokumei descended and were terrible at staying concealed. They found numerous cables bristling with charged essence and they felt that beyond the walls of the chamber lay the structures equivalent to gills or lungs of the machine. The dome from the control area was actually the top of a large egg-shaped core that seemed to be the source of the creatures power. 
Above them however came the serpentine hiss of Boomslang. A serpent with a head the size of a cart and Tokumei realised that one of the cables she was examining was actually Boomslang's body. She called for Hephestia and Crystal to join them and together they sought to engage the beast. 
=== The Speed of the Behomoth ===
...In conversation.
Crystal spoke flattering words, calling Boomsland wise and mighty. 
Boomslang explained a little of its self. It had entered in to Gigacles when it was young, when it could still fit through the hole in the bottom. The waters were warm and the eggs of the rain sharks were plentiful. It remained and grew. They hypothesises that the ambient magic of Gigacles was allowing it to grow supernaturally intelligent. 
The Circle pointed to Hephestia and said that she was a masterful engineer and would be able to fix things. Boomslang, not being able to go outside, had little idea that his home was in motion, but found the vibrations disagreeable. So agreed to help if they would aid him in escaping. 
Digging around Tokumei and Hephes found a hatch at the bottom of the room leading to an area of extremely hot water. At the base Tokumei found a stone about the size of a bar of soap. It seemed to be a water heathstone. They theorised that this was keeping the working of the machine lubricated and cool and that its venting produced the mist beneath the machine that the rain sharks inhabited. Removing it would likely cause overheating and disaster. 
So instead they focused on the control sphere. It had cables connecting in and out of it. Tokumei activated a charm to enhance her senses and found a delicate seam and listening to the structure allowed her to hear the sound of a man screaming.
Hephestia found that she could carefully dismantle the cables that powered the locking mechanism for the generator. Doing so allowed them to prize open the outer covering of the system. Inside they found a cradle holding an essence construct that they recognised as a Solar exaltation shard. 
Approaching it caused an ethereal sword to manifest which moved defensively around the shard. It struck Tokumei who got a flash of insight, seeing the frayed memories and emotions of Devil Tiger, the ancient Solar to whom this shard had belonged. It showed him making love to his wife then a field of battle where he slaughtered his foes and the with his children. Intense bursts of emotion as one image cascaded over to the next bleeding in to the other. 
She tried to bleed the energy off of the sword by mimicking its motions in ritual whilst Daxi tried to catch the ephemeral blade, but failed as his hand went through them. Hephestia dismantled the cradle with her bare hands. The shard became untethered but didn't depart, so sensing the turmoil it was in Tokumei reached in and hugged the shard letting it go. But The shard exploded and vanished blowing the Circle back and blasting a large hole in the wall of Gigacles. 
The behemoth came to rest in the middle of a lake and Boomslang gratefully descended to the water along with the rainsharks. 
Meanwhile Reeds had been rushing ahead and evacuating villages, but had eventually come across a train of elephants in the distance. 
He had approached them and was greeted by a large muscular man named Saddam Singh, who asked him if he was from Marrull Vaar. He said he was only a travelling merchant, but Saddam asked to introduce him and the others to their king Jagganath the Irrigator.
As Gigacles came to a stop the exhausted Solars came out and made their way to meet them.
=== Hail to the King... Damned... ===
Descending from Gigacles they were met by Saddam who greeted them and invited them to meet with Jagganath the Irrigator atop one of his elephants in a howdah. Using their intuitive understanding of etiquette Crystal and Tokumei greeted them with proper politeness and were invited up. 
There, Jagganath and his two veiled companions wearing turbans and chain metal face coverings sat and they were treated to black tea, dips, sauces and sweet flat-breads. 
He was a man of modest build and size, particularly next to Saddam and he had a long beard down to his waist. 
He invited us aboard his Howdah in the company of two veiled people wearing turbans and chain metal face coverings. 
He asked about the adventures so far. The circle told him about Gigacles and the disasters relating to it as well as the steps taken to stop it. 
We advised of the importance of stopping the Three Sister Dam from exploding and our need to deal with that urgently. 
After some food and drink he dismissed his guards and made certain that the howdah was secure, revealing that he himself was an Eclipse Solar. The rest of the circle were obviously relieved and they expressed hope that they would be able to effectively open trade with Anaathalay. 
There was a concern about the Great Eastern Road and that it might cause problems, because it was proposed by Heartsong (A demon bloodline) to link Marrul Vaar with Anaathalay (which was at the time a slave-owning society). At the time this would have opened a slave market route but thankfully now, both places are under different rulership. 
Bidding Jagganath farewell the Circle went back down river with extreme haste to address the dam issue. 
Arriving there, the water was rising up in huge globules at the top of the dam, floating in place before bursting or being absorbed by larger globules. It was clear that the dam was in a geomantically unstable condition. 
Getting to work swiftly they divided their efforts. Hephestia took the central statue with Crystal and Daxi taking the ones at either bank. 
They needed delicate fine-tuning but the essence build up was so great and several pillars had fallen down completely. Crystal and the Spider-bureaucrat were able to use a combination of brute strength and spider silk to raise one of the fallen systems back in to place. 
Daxi found their area uninhabited and were also able to reconfigure the controls. 
Tokumei stood downstream and with her fire elemental and used an infallible messenger to coordinate the three of them. 
After several hours the dam had released a large flow, which caused some damage, but the geomantic flow was stabilised temporarily. 
Long term however it would require careful regulation by priest-engineers. 
With it temporarily stabilised the Circle headed down river, thankfully the damage was not too great as it had spread out across the delta. 
That night, however, far from a restful night's sleep, each member of the circle was instead greeted with sinister dreams, each woven not only from their troubled pasts but perhaps their turbulent futures too. 
The next morning, the Circle gathered at the Wave of Words to discuss their plans, and the dreams they had, when Soaring Currawong burst into the room, breathless and clutching a roll of paper in his hand, gasping "You need to see this..." 
Return to previous page