The Journey to the (Far) West

This is a chronicle of the Circle's adventure into the Wyld-touched Western borders of Creation where they attempted to reclaim the Western War Manse.

## Chronicle 1

The Circle journeys forth on the Tidechaser, bringing their greatest naval personnel as well as some of their new Dragon-Blooded vassals. They recognize soon as they push towards the edge of Creation that the world itself actively resists the attempt. They must chart a course to exactly West from the Absolute Center of Creation.

To pass the time, Kurgan decides to try and get to know one of the Dragon-Blooded, Knows No Bounds, but finds it frustratingly difficult to do so because of how deft the other man is at navigating small talk. He's able to find that the man has a genuine tie to tea ceremonies and an attachment to a cosmopolitan ideal, and also that he's tried to poison Kurgan once but failed to brew a strong enough dose. Silk brings along numerous books and documents on the Wyld and holds "book clubs" with Dusk Thrashing Princess and the Dragon-Blooded Ledaal Sook. Ruby Labyrinth spends her time winning money off of the crew.

Before long, it is revealed that the Fortunate Jade is back on the trail of Ruby, who is encouraged by Silk to face this specter of her past once and for all. The two of them head to the ghostly decks, where Ruby offers a bit of an apology for her own actions while convincing them to be ashamed of their own mutiny.

Silk attempts to plot a navigational course by reaching out and "touching" the mystical pressure between Creation and Wyld. It does not go very well at first, but she begins to formalize her intuition and feel that she is actually creating the steps beyond as she is taking them. Ruby helms the Tidechaser, using the charts that Silk creates to blaze the trail forward. Meanwhile Kurgan tells stories of the Circle's adventures throughout the West, keeping them entertained and the sway of the Wyld at bay.

As they reach the middle-marches of borderland, the compass just stops working. Upon discovery, Dusk tries all sorts of approaches, like running in circles around it and swinging down on top of it, which somehow helps her discover that the compass is pointing at the ship itself. Kurgan's story-telling continues to pacify the crew, helping them feel like they were all just as destined to be on this legendary journey with the Chosen.

Things begin to get truly strange, and the lack of stars gives way to new, strange sources of light at night. The sailors begin to recognize that when they aren't on duty, the best thing to be is belowdecks. The artifact timbers of the Tidechaser begin to put more of a dent into the nature of the reality around it, and leaves longer and longer of a wake as it progresses.

The Tidechaser is suddenly beset upon by a strange, snake-like creature, growing legs at random places along its brilliantly-colored body that step along seemingly-solid pieces of the condensed-air/water of the Wyld. Silk tries to protect the aft and wheel of the ship with a shield made of their anima, and Dusk leaps off the boat to confront it. Kurgan, who had readied himself on the boat, ready to defend, sees Dusk's incredible charge, and follows suit to take the fight directly to the snake beast.

Finally, Silk and Ruby's navigational and piloting expertise bends their course to an island in the middle of nowhere, bearing a single tower of golden glass. No matter where they chart, the tower appears to keep putting itself in front of them. They prepare to dock and find the next step in the path forward.

## Chronicle 2

The tower opens into a room full of sharp objects. Everything in the room is sharp, even though it is presumably a space for hosting guests. The group shares a cautious toast from the sharp cups, and chose to climb upwards instead of downwards. As they climb, in the steps they can see the faces of themselves, throughout the ages, mouthing inaudible and indecipherable words. They reach a room that feels to be full of breathable water. Giant siaka with yellow eyes swim in the water, and the room itself is covered in coral that obfuscates its true dimensions and directions. Just as Kurgan tries to explain that the siaka are, naturally, not going to consider them prey, twin lances of golden light blast forth from a siaka's eyes into his heavy armor.

"Kurgan, you fool," Silk notes, "they're *laser sharks!*"

The battle is short and simple, as Kurgan cannot be harmed in his Artifact Armor and the other Exalted are dexterous enough to avoid most of the danger. Those who are struck, hear some strange whispers, but do not speak much more about that. Heading farther up, they wind up somehow ascending the stairs to the sharp ground floor once more.

The group turns and heads down the stairs this time, reaching a pastoral scene with transparent, gold-hued walls that reveal pelagothropic fey swimming about the outside. Kurgan's senses reveal that all of the grass and animals inside are constructed and not real, they don't move quite right. There is a sense that they are in something of a reverse aquarium. Dusk pets a rabbit and it is oddly squishy. Kurgan tries to communicate with the fey but outside of a wave that is returned, his sign language only returns scorn. Finding little to do here, the group returns to the sharp room, and then heads up the stairs and then down the shark room to enter a room entirely full of darkness. In the dark, they are beset upon by a lethal environmental hazard, as if the darkness itself is eating them. Glowing up with anima appears to solve this problem, revealing a similar room as the sharp one. The four Exalted glow up at different quadrants of the circle, which reveals the path.

They choose to go up again, revealing a room of mirrored planes with grotesque proportions in the reflections, more like projections really. The images are of each of the Exalteds' hands and arms, holding their eyeballs, pressing against the 'screen' of the projection. Silk can feel the pressure on their eyes as the projected hands squish the eyes to popping against the 'screen.' Closing their eyes, Silk recognizes that, beyond the sense of sight, there is nothing else in the room, and urges the group forward, to descend once more.

The light in the next room cycles through sickly purples and greens, but the shadows of the Circle remain constant. Within the room is adorned in decadent, ornate furniture that appears to be luxurious Imperial or even early Shogunate make. There are four figures in the room this time: A larval looking slug thing the size of a cave bear with a mouth just a circle of teeth. It has many arms/appendages and each end with a mammalian paw. The second is a bright green preying mantis with the face of Dusk's old mantis. Next is a feathered monkey with macaw-colored feathers, and finally, at the right-most table, is a humanoid construct composed of golden mirrors that reflect the outside of the tower. There is a tea set on each table. Ruby quickly steps to the grub to offer to be its guest, and Kurgan goes to the feathered monkey, believing it to be an adequate match. Silk, meanwhile, watches the opening steps of these conversations, sensing the intentions of the beings is simply to have tea. Dusk, however, doesn't want to sit with the one that wears the face of her master, so Silk offers to do so in her place. The four engage in a tea ceremony, though Silk does not drink the tea, and they are given permission to continue.

They ascend the stairs to wind up back in the room full of projected hands. They go up this time instead. The next room is once more in that sickly color scheme. The room is materially empty, but the furniture appears to exist in the room in an immaterial sense, existing mostly only in the corner of one's eye. There are shadows flitting around, one of which Dusk grabs to reveal it to be an eel with an enormous jaw. The eel asks her a riddle, which is a series of words that contain many similar letters, with one left out. Silk grabs an eel to find it offers her a similar style of riddle. When Dusk figures out the pattern, Silk is able to quickly use the Memory Stone to cross reference the words and come up with more answers. They are given the words "tower," "glass," "mirror," and "message" before every eel after continues to give riddles that only offer the answer "invasion." Dusks asks if we are the invasion but the eels do not answer. The group descends, and Silk stops to try and decipher the words their odd faces are speaking.

They seem to be speaking in short messages that don't immediately make a ton of sense for Silk. They are ten to fifteen words, often coded, that appear to be military commands of some sort. Kurgan can tell that these orders must have spanned different years, if not decades or more, making a cohesive theme between them hard to grasp, but the most emphatic appear to be from the Contagion and the battles to combat it.

The next room is the most comfortably furnished room that's existed so far. There's a thin haze of golden smoke, and at a table is an identifiably female form, dressed in robes that defy the laws of density and gravity, draping in ways that fit neither the figure nor the room. She welcomes them and asks if they're ready to play a game. Silk asks what the game is, and Ruby asks what the stakes are, which the woman says is the better question, and answers that the stakes are "knowing." She identifies herself as Unsuited Dreams, and deals in Ruby, Silk and Dusk. Ruby wagers her knowledge of the Lintha, Dusk wagered her Stupid Facts, and Silk offers her Memory Stone and the entirety of her knowledge. Ruby cheats, Silk counts the cards, and Dusk simply plays fair, and Dusk wins the game but all of them manage to beat the dealer. The three are given new insights and knowledge for their wagers, including the knowledge of how to progress through the tower. With this in mind, they head to the Court, which Unsuited Dreams says is where one must proceed to make it to the center of the tower.

In the so-called Court, it is reminiscent of the first chamber, the sharp one, except that there are two high backed chairs instead of one. In the chairs sit a powerful man with blue-green "salt and pepper" beard, dressed in the Western fashion, bejeweled in a sarong and barefoot. A terrifying woman sits in the other chair, not as physically powerful but with a presence that exudes power, ostentatiously covered in scars and tattoos. Against her throne stands a long spear. They appear to be the Ocean Father and Siakal, but Silk and Kurgan quickly ascertain that they are fae actors playing the parts of the gods. Silk tries to glean from them the way out of the tower, but all they can offer is that they must "hear the final message." Silk recognizes that they actually have no idea how one would even do that, but it is an accurate instruction. When asked where to go to do so, they simply say "up."

Moving up the stairs is the longest journey yet. They reach what appears to be the top of the tower, where there's a ladder leading to the top of the spire. On top of the ladder appears to be the group, looking back down at them in perfect reflection. There is also a repetitive sound of something snapping shut at odd intervals. The snapping sound is some kind of code, but without a point of reference, the code is fairly difficult to decipher. Dusk tries the ladder and tries to touch her reflection, and nothing really happens, its like reaching into the nothing-water of the Wyld. She finds another rung of the ladder there, so the group simply ascends further, climbing past the illusion into a dim room, with an object in it glowing with heat. There is a shinier object in the middle of it, which Dusk recognizes as molten glass. Using her Solar abilities, she tries to get the shiny bit in the middle, a thin, curled sheet of orichalcum. Dusk goes to work, working the orichalcum into a mirror-back, and crafting the molten glass onto that, which creates a brilliant, beautiful mirror that says "All is Lost." The gang begins to infer that this was part of a communications relay of the First Age, and bring the mirror back to the top to complete the tower again. This creates something of a Wyld Lighthouse to help them navigate further into the Wyld.

## Chronicle 3

As the group moves further west, the very laws of reality themselves start to no longer make sense. There are no stars, there are no days, only a strict regimen onboard the ship helps the crew retain any semblance of time passing at all. Soon, the water begins to change color in visual consistency, and the waves steady, as if emanating from a source. Dusk recognizes the source as a lump on the horizon ahead. It seems to rush toward them just as the Tide Chaser heads toward it, revealing it to be some sort of turtle-like being with a leonine head. Once it gets close enough, perspective shifts enough to reveal that it is truly behemoth in size, having not actually moved very far at all.

There are some villages built upon the shell of the great beast, and the Circle decides to investigate further. The turtle itself does not seem to be of Fey origin, but the people atop it are indeed Raksha. Silk entreats them with Crossroads Walker Entreaty but finds them to be relatively simple in their desires, content only with feeding off the dreams of the Lion Turtle beneath them. Silk speaks to the turtle in the form of a dream, beckoning it through metaphor to return Eastward, back to Creation.

They pass by various things that seem like landmasses, but feel more like echoes of the continents that once were here. Navigation becomes a test of moving between these masses, that are not exactly land but still very solid and dangerous, and also are moving around in the Wyld-Water as well. The Tidechaser comes up into what could only be described as a hole in the ocean. Kurgan and Dusk are able to recognize the size and dimensions of the hole, and Dusk sees that there is something at the bottom of the hole worth checking out. At this point, a Wyld Monstrosity makes itself known as it comes down the cliffs towards them with aggressive intent. The Gang decides to head towards the hole and the mystery at the bottom, and Kurgan heads to the aft of the ship to defend against the Monstrosity's lashing tail attack. The hole seems to shift dimensions again, becoming a tunnel, which leads to yet another Wyld-Water ocean. Here, there is a woman, who appears to not be Fey, swimming in place, frantic and exhausted. Kurgan tries to fly down to her but cannot seem to reach her. Dusk, tied to the mast by Silk, leaps off to save her instead, seeming to freeze in place to the world around her. To Dusk, however, she feels as if she is falling forever. She uses some of her Solar Exalted abilities, forcing herself through the Wyld magic barrier and literally striking Order back into the Dragon-Blooded with a two-footed kick. Back on the boat, the group only sees her locked in place for a few seconds before snapping through reality and kicking the swimmer in the back. Dusk is able to drag the swimmer back up.

Kurgan greets the newcomer, who seems to be intent on throwing herself back into the water. Silk recognizes that she is speaking in an ancient of dialect, and that her ordeal has thoroughly fractured her mind. Beneath that, Silk can discern that the woman, who had introduced herself as "Swimmer," has some sort of military background, in incredible shape and incredibly strong-willed. She has a hooked jade dagger and an empty scabbard, and wears Shogunate-era garb, as best Silk can guess, and is rambling about a mission. She refuses to elaborate further, and Kurgan attempts to inspire trust in her. She refuses to allow this as well, and Ruby finally convinces her down to relinquish her weapon and retire to a cabin. Silk beseeches her in a dream once more to trust Kurgan, which finally gets through.

Silk's navigation reveals two paths, one that is anti-weird and one that is not. The group chooses to venture into the Weird once more. Here things are at their weirdest. Eventually, they are hailed by a Raksha taking the form of a pelagothrope. He address the group in Old Realm and asks if he can come aboard to preach the Immaculate Word. Kurgan and Silk are intrigued enough to agree. The being begins to speak what can only be described as "un-words," and points towards a "sky-path" before departing. This causes some ill effects in the crew, even though the Circle is able to resist them, and Swimmer again tries to sneak off, though Kurgan is able to talk her down and convince her to go back to her room.

Silk recognizes the sky path as a viable route, and they take it, revealing a path towards a set of metal spires, and sail onward towards them. Dusk is able to recognize that the Spires appear to be part of some sort of machinery. They head to the center, finding themselves in what seems again like an echo. There are a number of brazieres, lit but giving off no light or heat, each filled with some sort of magical material. This place is not exactly an essence forge, but is definitely a place for some sort of supernatural crafting that utilizes the Wyld as part of its material. Dusk realizes that she can use this forge to will an artifact into existence. Silk and Kurgan witness as an elegant, long coat swirls about her and forms upon her, the moonsilver spooling out of the braziere that contains it to form a jacket that fits her perfectly. Dusk, meanwhile, sees the words that make up the concepts of the armor being forced out to create it, wrapping the ideas she had for the armor into an armor that coalesces around her. Once the armor is complete, all hell breaks loose, fracturing the reality that the spires were still clinging to. The Circle dashes off the island, retreating to the boat as the island ceases to be any longer.

The next impediment on their journey are a school of capricorns, goat-fishes that leap from the waters and attack the boat. The boat is steadily resisting the physical damage, but in the reflection of the water, a different story is told of the boat taking severe damage, with crewman falling overboard. Kurgan engages the capricorns in combat, driving them away with his artifact tusk. Finally, the group reaches the Western War Manse, only to find it under siege from legions of Raksha soldiers.

## Chronicle 4

The War Manse is enormous, easily the size of Wu-Jian in base area alone. The fey are surrounding the entire fort, tens of thousands of soldiers if not more. There are ships nearby drawn up on convenient beaches. The Tidechaser is greeted with welcome and parties come out without any hint of aggression. The Circle takes a launch to shore, and Silk utilizes their ability to entreat the fae without harm, taking the shape and countenance of the Imperial Officer Peleps Hana and acting as Kurgan's lieutenant and acting officer.

The scene plays out with a maze of strange rules, and the rules are deadly serious, but no one is able to explain what the rules are. The questions come out as a series of job interviews beyond just the standard layer of what they want from the group. They have been sieging the manse for a "very long time" against "numbers beyond counting" and expect that we are here to break the siege. Silk attempts to pierce the veil of intrigue beyond the siege to find there are factions at play within this army. The factions are united in purpose but not in method, nor monolithic. There are small differences in mannerisms and dialect that suggest regional differences as well as differences in method. They are led through the camp by a runner with bat ears and big eyes, and the camp is massive, bigger than nearly anything the Circle has seen in a war camp before. The colors are blocky and saturated almost as if in a cartoon. The guide leads them to the generals, and they get the sense that in this fashion, no one will get in their way or bother them, but, as non-fae, it would be impossible to try and sneak. The tent they are lead to is lavishly lit and furnished, and is extremely big for a tent. The Circle is introduced as "champion and retinue," and the rest of the tent clears out. On each end of a table with an impressive scale model of the War Manse are the two generals.

The one on the right is tall, lean, hard, with a severity to her demeanor and a long, angular face that contains a hint of melancholy in its stern anger. She is not armored but wears a sword. The one on the left is equally powerful, but contrasting. Male, broad-shouldered, shorter than the woman, powerfully built without appearing brick-like, with bright orange yellow hair, particularly piercing eyes and a flowing beard. While the right general seems poised, the left general appears barely restrained, as if he would take action at the slightest provocation. The tall one introduces herself as Blossom of Righteous Instinct and the shorter one, Four-Fold Devourer. Kurgan introduces Dusk as the champion to the generals, who size Dusk up. The tall one asks "when you will be ready" and the short one asks "what will you need to be ready". Dusk asks for a practice siege, which the Fair Folk regard as asking the troops to show their devotion. They ask if the champion wishes to return to her quarters, which they take up to some confusion from the generals, who extended the offer to Dusk as the champion specifically. The walk is long, giving the group lots of time to see the camp. Silk delves into observing the soldiers and learning of their divisions, sussing out the existence of factions and strife between them. Kurgan examines their defenses to discover that there is some type of essence weapon defense around the manse that is longer than bowshot.

The quarters for the champion seem to be the most important and lavish part of the entire camp. There are even servants, short fae with seaglass eyes who are quick to wash Dusk's feet. Dusk asks of them questions about the champion, but they open their mouths to reveal no tongues. They find someone who can speak, and Dusk asks them about the Champion's past, to find that previously, the Champion left because of a slight made against them by Blossom, causing them to refuse Blossom's request to lead the charge of the siege. While they speak, Kurgan and Ruby go out to find more about the factions. Posing as "the Champion's Speaker," Kurgan demands to know more on the matter of the factions on behalf of the champion. He's able to find that Blossom is the instigator of the siege who called all of the various warlords together, and there is doubt as to her efficacy. The greatest doubt seems to be wavering in a sense of purpose for the whole endeavor.

Over time, it becomes clear that there is some grand drama being played out here, and there are roles needing to be filled. The Champion is one, and the others, instead of being tactical, are more theatrical in nature. Silk begins to suss out the narrative behind the siege, and finds there are enemies within the camp that appear to be missing, as well as some type of spy. They also ask who was brought who can unravel the secrets of the defenses. Silk pulls from this that, apart from the Champion, there is also the Hostage, the Spy, and the Sapper. Learning this, the Circle begins to take on these roles, with Silk taking on the Spy, Ruby as the Hostage, and Kurgan becoming the Sapper. They make a show of interrogating the Hostage, while the Spy-der works the crowd, sowing discontent and doubt about the strategy. The generals are in attendance, as well as another important figure in the camp known as Seventh Mechanism of Heaven's Design. The Sapper demands information from the Hostage, who instead decries that they were only caught due to the prowess of Four-Fold Devourer and not at all from Blossom of Righteous Instinct. Meanwhile, Silk goes amongst the crowd, going to each general and sowing dissent amongst them by posing Blossom and Four-Fold as working against the other, and making them both out to be ineffective and useless to Seventh Mechanism. Lastly, Silk loops in Silver-Gold Wellspring, letting them know that the plans are finally set into motion as had been discussed. Dusk, the champion, broods on top of her tent quarters.

Afterwards, Dusk dons a disguise and goes to chase after Swimmer, who is coming after the fae, and Silk recognizes that her plans aren't working and people aren't believing them. Dusk tries to hide Swimmer in the Champion's House, who is surprisingly compliant to do so. Having just escaped from this manse and its siege, she was not happy to be brought back, but does let slip that she understands how to bring strife between the factions of the army. All in all, Swimmer seems to be at least somewhat more lucid and intentional here than she was before. Kurgan and Ruby head to the hostage's quarters, where the hostage is expected to be deposited. Silk follows Four-Fold Devourer, who asks their advice on how to overthrow Blossom and become the lead general, who conspires with him for a while until the time seems to rather suddenly change and a new siege begins.

The siege is horrific as bodies and machines push against the walls and doors, until hatches along the walls open and essence plasma and armored warrior spill out to repel the siege with incredible effectiveness. Kurgan and Dusk notice a particular figure organizing the retreat. All in all, the siege is exhausting and terrifying to repulse, but it seems inevitable that it will be repelled. Kurgan also notes that they don't siege everyone at once, or even multiple siege points at once; however, once the smoke clears, it also doesn't appear that the numbers of the siegers have noticeably diminished, either. After the battle, Four-Fold Devourer summons Silk again and expresses desire for Dusk, as The Champion, to challenge a champion of Blossom's in Four-Fold's name to assert full control. Silk tells him they will attempt to encourage the Champion, and then goes back to the Circle to explain this possible event and how it could change the landscape of the siege camp entirely.