You Will Hear Thunder (campaign)/Act 2

Act 2 occurs primarily in Karuhung. In real time, it took place between June 27, 2021 and December 11, 2021. It was played using Gubat Banwa versions 0.8.6 to 1.41 (or Early Access 1).

#### June 27, 2021 (Respite)

> I waver over this eternal hypocrisy within myself as I hate violence and perpetuate violence but there is one thing I have found within myself as certainty, my own reason to fight. I must follow this path to the end for the dream within my heart of a world better than this, for the oath I swore to the woman who destroyed my life, and to the people who stand by my side. So I ask you this. Suladnon of Murder, Diwata of Sword Hell, Mother of Ten Thousand Bloody Spears, I beseech you. Will you teach me?
>
> Sakuna

The Iron Fleet stops at a cove the day after they had slain the Sword of Hulagak.

The twins aim to cheer up Yakal after the latter has been isolating herself even more than usual. Amaya gossips about Ilari's relationship with Cesilia, and after further questioning, she confirms Ilari had forged Cesilia's blade with the sealing mentala that Yakal had taught her. Cesilia had lied that the blade was for killing and trapping sitan. Yakal finds herself furious but unable (and unwilling) to direct her anger at Ilari. Amaya senses the tension in their discussion and goes off on her own.

Sakuna carries Hiraya's kampilan with him deep into the dark depths of the cove. He arrives at a pool of water, where he strips his shirt off, cuts his palm, and drowns himself. This brings him into the garden of Mahadiwa Kalakatri Duumanun, where he asks the Suladnon of Murder to teach him to fight through his hypocritical path to a better world. He offers her his life, which she scoffs at and instead tells him he will regain his heart when he can love himself again. With the bone spear in her chest, Kalakatri gores Sakuna's heart out of his own, placing it in her narra tree. Sakuna awakens to find himself literally heartless, chops his hair off with the kampilan, and assures Amaya, who had discovered him floating facedown in the pool.

Abyang later visits the twins in their workshop, seeking to remove whatever's crystallizing his arm and putting a weird bloodthirsty voice in his head. He sees that they're shipping over a sibat gun - a *sibaril*, if you will - and tells them that weapons that they had crafted were used against the warband, and tells them that even if the strange crystals saved his life, that they should be more careful about who they sell their weaponry too. He embraces the twins before leaving.

Yakal comes upon Ilari showing off elementalist powers by blasting off rocks on a cliff. Yakal blows off steam by joining her, taking the smoky quartz glasses the weaponsmith gives her to protect her eyes. She listens in a little on the twins' love lives - Amaya had just lost contact with a Datu Batsuhon she fancied, and of course Ilari is determined to remain in love with Cesilia despite Yakal's sermons. They eventually chance upon Sakuna, and initially don't recognize him because of his disastrous haircut, shirtlessness, and the lack of the perpetual melancholy on his face. Yakal offers to fix his hair, and while evening it out, asks his advice on how to forget about the pain she's experiencing; he says she will not, and that being a kadungganan means using violence in the hopes of one day ending violence. She tells Sakuna that she respects him, and leaves.

Meanwhile, Dagem - who resents walking everywhere now that Balu is incapacitated - decides what Daguum needs to get through his melancholy is a good lay.

> Wait WHAT They're just gonna Go At It in Junhao's fucking office I guess. I **guess**
>
> R-, dissociating from this plane of existence as he summarized this entire scene for our benefit, and also not realizing how apt of a descriptor a "fucking office" is

Dagem tries to hype up Daguum to the blademaster Kamarang, as well as the catboy shipwright, Kaiyani. Kamarang immediately figures out that Dagem's proposing a foursome to pop Daguum's cherry (even as Daguum does Not help his own case, shadowboxing in his confusion) (he hurts himself in his confusion) and tells them to all meet her in Junhao's cabin, which is *apparently* where members of the Iron Fleet regularly go to conduct Unwise Business.

Dagem, however, forgets this appointment and visits Balu in the infirmary. In the meantime, Kamarang arcs lightning through some rope, assuring Daguum that Kaiyani is there to give them a safe time... and *she's* there to give them a *fun* time. Daguum rips off his limiter - his choker.

When Dagem arrives, the room is in disarray, Kaiyani is thoroughly traumatized, Kamarang is Into All Of This, and Daguum has become the picture of peak male performance. After Dagem narrowly avoids blunt force trauma from Daguum's no-no zone, they discuss their plans of spicing the puto for the upcoming feast.

Relishing in the afterglow of releasing forty-plus harvests' worth of sexual repression, Daguum gains post-nut clarity so potent that he begins to communicate with the ghost of a Virbanwan Sword Saint lady who has half of her face burnt off - one of his former warband members. She taunts him with reminders of all the lives that have been lost because of Daguum's mistakes. He brushes it off with his usual humor, offering instead to have their ghosts work for him now, but is left to ponder.

Sakuna asks the twins to craft self-repairing quilted armor. Amaya hints that she's sneaking alcohol for that night's upcoming feast arranged, unsurprisingly, by the Dags, and Sakuna attempts to be a cool dad but lowkey insults her by reminding her that his nightlife from many years ago was more exciting than hers.

Abyang gets back on the Abot-Tanaw and catches up with Balani, asking the latter to bring out the locker of his things if it's still there. Abyang asks why Balani thought to bring the Sulyap back together, to which the latter replies that they're planning on stealing the Sultana's floating throw pillow. Abyang supports this endeavor and promises to introduce them to his warband - and particularly to his good friend Sakuna - soon.

#### July 4, 2021 (Respite)

> **Yakal:** FUCK. YOU.
> **Dagem:** FUCK ME YOURSELF, COWARD.
>
>

Junhao gives a speech about the importance of feasts for keeping the Iron Fleet together and bonding. Dagatan Batonghari arrives to provide music for the party, and Dagem is determined to have a good time at the party to cope with Everything That Has Happened So Far.

Sakuna, newly unbothered thanks to the loss of his heart, his shirt, and like ten inches of hair, is once again unrecognizable to Dagem. Sakuna flusters Dagem and then gains all the attention of the dancefloor, which is literally on fire thanks to Batonghari. Daguum tries to have a sexy dance-off with Sakuna in his new, sluttier baylan attire to forget about the Burnt Lady's words, but is overpowered by 0.05% of Sakuna's dormant Fakkuna power. With Daguum left speechless and motionless on the dancefloor, Abyang and Sakuna finish off with a stunning aerial silk performance.

Meanwhile, although Yakal has changed her character design for the feast, she remains standoffish, drinking alone. Dagem - with two shawties on his arms - hits on her. This escalates into a drinking contest where they both get severely inebriated and angry, Yakal upset that Dagem seems to be moving on from Xiaoli and his troubles so fast and Dagem upset that Yakal is ruining his attempt to forget about Xiaoli and his troubles. They end up making out - bitingly - on the beach, eventually moving to Junhao's cabin to do unwholesome things with *Gubat Banwa's* quick and dirty combat mechanic.

Yakal wakes up afterward to flee from the unconscious Dagem, like a coward, and finds herself being called to drink with the captain along with Daguum. Junhao explains that he called them as he feels they were the warband members most likely to understand his troubles; he asks about their families and their history as binukots (both are incredibly relieved they were not married to each other), and then talks about his own troubled feelings, being not only the eldest among eight children in a noble Baikhan family, but the only *son*. He gives a toast to his fellow family disappointments. Afterward, Daguum and Yakal find Ilari consoling a sobbing Amaya; the latter had been dumped by her date, and wonders if she is unlovable. They tell her to not rush into her feelings, and Amaya decides to have better control over romantic matters. (This will absolutely backfire ten harvests down the line.) Ilari promises to Yakal that she will talk to Cesilia regarding the balaraw, and Yakal tells her not to do it until she and Dagem are present.

When Yakal returns to find Dagem having awoken and cleaned up the cabin, she admits that she's always liked him and will have difficulty treating this night as just a fling. Dagem confesses to liking her too, but that their timing was terrible - both having left steady relationships literally just the day before. Yakal says she'll do her best to earn his friendship, and Dagem tells her they're already friends, and that he always has her back.

Dagem and Yakal then go with Ilari to confront Cesilia. Cesilia first insults Hiraya, then eventually Ilari herself, for being so naive that she'd fall all over the first person to give her a scrap of affection. Yakal only barely restrains herself from throwing hands with Cesilia because of Dagem's presence, and warns Cesilia that she will never again talk about Yakal's daughter - Ilari - like that ever again, and Ilari drags Yakal out of the scene. Dagem tells Cesilia she's not like the woman he remembers, and she scoffs that she has to be like this to survive in the Sword Isles, to protect *people like him* in these Isles. She storms away, leaving the balaraw - which is unnaturally warm - with Dagem.

Abyang introduces Sakuna to the Sulyap and begins to regale them all with the tale of his greatest score in a raid: a magical flower pin from a razed village. As he recounts the story, however, Sakuna starts noticing how uncomfortably familiar the details sound, and realizes that Abyang had raided Tanay, Sakuna's own village, and that Abyang had stolen the cherished hairpin of Sakuna's mother, Harana. Sakuna takes the hairpin and returns to the dark cave to cry; Abyang follows but fails to find him. Kalakatri appears to Sakuna to remind him once again that violence is hypocrisy, and hesitation is death.

> Tears come unbidden but Sakuna blinks them away before looking at Abyang right in the eye again with a hard look
> “Just one more thing, Abyang. **Stay out of my sight.**"
>
>

The next morning, everyone is considering their feelings - among the NPCs, particularly, Amaya resolves to seal her emotions away, Ilari feels conflicted at Yakal accepting them as her daughters, and Junhao wonders if he should be scared or proud at the prospect of his sisters becoming like him - when a flare and loud noises are shot up on deck. Assuming it's a vengeance raid from a datu, Junhao gives a rousing speech to his crew.

> **Fledgling on the Iron Fleet**: How many are out there?
>
>
> **Junhao**: Seems like there's six of them for every one of us. That hardly seems fair.
> **Fledgling on the Iron Fleet**: Oh, gods, we're gonna die!
>
>
>
> **Junhao**: No, woman, it hardly seems fair for THEM.
>
>

The opposing force is lead by the Swordmaster, who finally speaks as they order their mangugubat - who refer to them as Gitunglong Kilat - around, telling them all to leave Yakal to them.

They remove their robes and salakot, revealing a Lichtenberg scar and a nodachi sparking with purple lightning. Yakal recognizes the Swordmaster as her childhood friend, Iraya.

#### July 11, 2021

-lmao glass bleach

-TIMOTHEE CHIRURGEON??

-cesilia legs gone

#### July 25, 2021 (Respite)

-broath

-dagem calls tf out of the binukots

#### August 1, 2021 (Respite)

-HAILANG

-lawana sinigida was the voice pala tf

-balani is racist

-threeway??? i'm assumin this is when the threeway happened hn

#### August 8, 2021

-"what r we" @ dagem; he and yakal decide to figure it out after the venture

-"what r we" @ junhao; takes a whole-ass 30mins of irl time

-venture to get the dark star

-issohappanz

#### August 15, 2021

-combat against tha boyez. abyang fukin boomerangs

-monster mcman comin out?? smells like sampaguita? black lightning?

#### August 21, 2021

-ya we fight ngahud. hiyang daguum

-before the morning we're caught by SUBANG

[Respite here was conducted via flashback threads so we can immediately get to the next plot point in the next session]

-sanduguan

-yakal gets sakuna's advice on her lovelife lmao

#### August 28, 2021

-fuck controls honestly

-he leaves iraya behind

-zones crew arrive onboard!!

#### September 4, 2021 (Respite)

-ah tangina it's the debt-clearing episode let's GOOO

#### September 11, 2021 (Respite)

-malaya helps em break out some animals; they get the dove and pangolin at this point

-dagem namechange back to melag

-we are now datus huhu

#### September 25, 2021

-minglin with the karuhung pipol and such

-agyup is invented

#### October 2, 2021

-biraddali attack us on our way to the spire

-melag is blinded

-water smh

#### October 9, 2021

-sri gading!!

-we fight against yawas and shit

#### October 16, 2021

-melag and abyang cook rice together hnn

-binukot homeopathy

-we get to the fukin,, abominations

#### November 13, 2021

-melag DED

-balani DED

#### November 20, 2021 (Respite)

-CORT

-APO UZAN

-everyone is backsliding god bless

#### December 4, 2021

> You think beating me is the end of it? You think it's so easy to walk away from the path? You started it; you will end it, one way or another. You would defy her will? So be it. It is all you have. It is all you are, all you will ever be in these Isles of Violence.
> May you live forever, Son of Murder.
>
> Sakuna's Desperation

-sakuna's desperation fight

-abyang and daguum throw hands

-cortador has the awkward-ass dinner

-yakal talks to iraya and spars with ilari

-abyang approaches the twins to make a weapon that does not kill - an eight-grooved eskrima stick - before the sun sets

#### December 11, 2021

-yakal and abyang sipa game vs daguum and ilari prompts the starshooter change

-apo uzan speaks to the sons of the mountain. abyang returns to vuyu.

-cortador resolving to fix shit on his own; tells junhao to tell anyone seeking him that junhao had killed cort.

-junhao calls the remaining members of the warband that he is disbanding the iron fleet. he would like to start a teahouse in karuhung, and find the rest of his sisters with the help of his sister, Hairui, who had been Adlawan this *entire fucking time*. together, they spar, sinking the iron typhoon to the bottom of the ocean.

> I came to the Sword Isles fully expecting to make it my grave. I never thought I would make it my home.
>
> Junhao