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Bright Journey Long before Great Forks has seen any of the heroes of today, Great Forks has contended with a Shadowland not too far to the north, on the other side of the river. The Field of Endless Raitons is a source of countless stories and legends from the earliest days of the city, but as usual, the truth is somewhat stretched in the telling. Few know exactly what happened here, but as any of the Exalted of the modern day can attest, the time for new glory in this debased Second Age is never far away.

This portion of the Field is an ancient battlefield. Bleached bones stare upwards at the dim excuse for a sky as far as the eye can see, and rocky outcroppings dot the barren hills here and there--perfect for the raitons for which the Field takes its name. They watch the procession of warriors as they pass through--Tepet Makara, Rishi, Bright Journey, and Raullaur--, and if they could lick their beaks in anticipation of the feast to follow, they surely would.

The party has searched and invoked magics in the interest of locating one place in among these endless rocks and bones...a tomb, nestled beneath one of the numerous hills, a tomb whose visage haunts Makara's dreams. And so they search, following the guidance Amethyst had given Tepet Makara weeks ago.

In truth, following Amethyst's guidance was not the easiest task, particularly since she gave it with the intention of actually being there! Still, the party's senses and magics have served them well...they hope.

All is still; all is quiet. The party has long since stopped remarking on how unusual it is for ghosts and spirits to not haunt a battlefield. What happened?

Tepet Makara Even with the lack of undead nearby, the shadowland unnerves him especially since it is linked to his past life's past in some way. "Strange, not a single spectre nor a shambling corpse nearby here at all" Even with the lack of such unholy creatures, the Lunar is still on guard as they all head for the tomb.

"I expect we will find trouble once we get to the entrance. Even if we don't meet some undead there, there might be traps"

Raullaur The lionman shakes his head slightly. "I have been in such a tomb, and overcome the last of the traps that was there...though it was simply by enduring all it did to me." He chuckles, a rubmling bass, "It can be done again, I am sure, though it was /painful/. For now..." The orichalcum armor gleams in the light, "If there is no-one clever-fingered and sharp-eyed to make sure they fail, I can go ahead and bear the brunt of any danger."
Rishi Rishi's honed senses have been opened and she remains vigilant for spirits as they approach. "I am not liking it. I was thinking there would be many of the shades that we would be needing to be sending to rest. There must be the necromancer here." As she considers this, she looks down at her hands, considers for a moment, then pulls out a small vial that smells of herbs and drinks it while making a mudra. Vines quickly grow along her hands until they are well covered mighty oaken paws. After another moment of consideration, flesh spills from her sides quickly forming into another set of Rishi's feminine yet toned arms, before they too are covered in glistening moonsilver like the rest of her body. "This way I can be doing the fighting and the healing if it is being needed."
Amethyst One may be able to hear the distant disturbance of air, as a whirlwind of sorcerous wind approaches at incredible speed. The intense winds buffeting her clothes as she guides and stabilizes the winds with her sorcerous power. Still in her human form -- turns out wings are bad for keeping stable in the middle of the whirlwind -- the young alchemical dragon finds herself speeding towards the group. It was not the easiest to find them, but she's relieved when she does.

In an instant the storm devil vanishes and Amethyst falls, growing her wings in mid air and landing just behind the ensemble. Her whip is coiled around her arm and she looks out of breath. "Gods and Dragons above, Tepet Makara, I swear. I even offered to come with you and guide you to your tomb and instead you just ask a bunch of my friends?" She sounds exasperated, but, she steadies herself, and takes but a moment to reach out and calm her breath and her rage.

"So, have I missed anything important thus far?" She asks the group, "Apologies for my delay, but I ought've been invited to start with."

Bright Journey Bright Journey is spending the vast majority of her attention span watching out ahead of them as the party walks forward, and what little is left is mainly spent avoiding stepping on bones. (Those awful crunching sounds? Ugh!) She of course has her orichalcum armor on, her moonsilver bow in hand, with an arrow nocked but not drawn. The familiar whipping whirlwind sounds from behind her are of course enough to make her half-turn, one pink eyebrow raised skyward as she looks to see who is approaching.

As Amethyst explains, Bright has the grace to look sheepish. "Oh, no. I'm sorry, I just thought..." She sighs. "Or -didn't- think, I suppose. I was sort of asked along at the last minute, as well as..." She sighs deeply. "Never mind. You're here now and we can save the recriminations for later, I think." Bright smiles vaguely and makes eye contact with everyone in turn.

"Let's just make sure we all make it home, and you can chew us out as much as you like."

Tepet Makara Amethyst would see the Tepet albeit in his chimera form of a komodo dragon and a pterodactly, truly the shape of a false dragon. "nothing much although you'll notice there are no undead at here which is strange even for a shadowland. We should be near the manse. Hopefully my past life didn't set up much traps but I doubt it" Makara sighs as he is baffled his past self got into so much trouble especially with dabbling with the dead too much.

He would then continue moving towards the abandoned manse but prepared for any danger that awaits them there

Raullaur The Golden Lion walks steadily, watching for mundane threats. "Be ready for when we are attacked. Keep watching all the sides. Behind. Above. Below. They must know we are coming." He steps to be on Makara's left, forging steadily ahead.
Rishi Rishi beams at Ammy and goes to give her a hug with her second arms, holding her large wooden paws away. "Oh, I was thinking you were being busy today or I would have sent you the invite. I am most apologetic and happy that you are being here still. We are thinking we know which way to be going though. Is that being right?" Rishi looks over at Raul. "Also, do not be taking all of the traps. I can be ignoring them just as well as you."
Amethyst Amethyst nods to Bright, "Recriminations can be later. For now I'm here to make sure we all get through this safely." Her whip uncoils and her ears spread out, listening for the sounds of anything beyond the group. "It is strange that there is no dead around here, but we are here in the daytime. It's night fall where things typically pick up."

Amethyst offers a hug to her love, "It's good to see you too Rishi. But both of you be careful. There are still traps that can be lethal even to the Exalted. Doubly so if this really is the tomb."

Bright Journey Bright Journey sighs again as she turns away, eyes towards the horizon in alertness. "Why, oh why, if we're that concerned with traps did we not just bring Silk?"

The party continues to travel through the eerily quiet, dimly lit, gray battlefield. There are still a few raitons in the distance, perched on rock outcroppings, watching the party intently but making no cry.

The group travels for perhaps another hour over the rocky, bone-strewn ground. The tomb is somewhere at the base of one of these hills, and so it is to the hills the party travels, with ancient memory their guide.

As they walk around the side of one of these large, rocky mounds, they begin to circle around the left side and see that one face of the rock is hewn almost flat, a cliff almost twenty feet high at the crest and with perhaps a 30 degree incline leading upwards from where the party now stands. They cannot see the flat, vertical surface of the cliff yet (they'd have to go around the corner), but echoing through the hills is the clang-clang-clang of some sort of heavy tool--perhaps a shovel or pickax--being used in a fairly slow but steady, powerful rhythm.

Almost as soon as the party hears the sound, it pauses for a moment, and a deep, male voice from around the corner states an unequivocal order:

"Go find out what that is."

At the sound of this voice, Tepet Makara feels the weight of ancient memory bearing down on his soul! This...whoever this is. He is -important-. Danger. Camaraderie. Enemy. Violence. Friend.

A blood-soaked, tattered banner.

Tepet Makara Once he hears the unfamiliar yet familiar voice, he alerts the group by whispering to them. "Someone else is hear and strange that they sound like someone I know for some reason" He begins manifesting claws of moonsilver if a confrontation is inevitable as he is flooded by sensation of ancient memories.

"there is the sound of something like a worksite here. Whatever they are, it seems they are planning to take something here"

Rishi Rishi also heard this and prepares herself for a fight, dropping into a combat stance
Amethyst Amethyst's stance shifts quickly, a well prepared and carefully helded defensive stance. Her whip is held back in just the right spot so that she can easily rush forward and strike. She does stand near Rishi too, knowing she likes to protect her in combat. "Doubt they're friendly if they're excavating."
Raullaur Raullaur draw his sword then, easily wielding the giant daiklaive and letting what little sunlight there is catch the gleaming metal and, for a small space around him, the Sun's light around him as he stands ready--to attack, to defend as needed.
Bright Journey There comes a different sound from around the corner, an extremely fast skittering sound that is very difficult to place immediately...but after a concerningly short moment, a black, horrific looking -thing- with a lamprey-like mouth shuffles around the corner, beady little eyes peering this way and that to see what's coming.

"What in the pit of Malfeas is THAT," Bright exclaims! She reflexively lets loose an arrow which skitters against the stone, barely missing the creature as it hisses and ducks back behind the corner.

The male voice from earlier growls a basso rumble in frustration. "No! Not when I'm so close! DEAL WITH THEM!"

The eldritch wave of magic erupts from a point around the corner, near where the voice must have been coming from. It's a visible, sickly grey-green, but it doesn't harm any of the party in any way. Instead, as it expands outward, the eerie quiet is replaced by a sussurus of dozens....no, -hundreds- of anguishes voices whispering, screaming, crying, wailing...

Immediately after, the skittering sound from earlier multiplies, and instead of one of those horrific creatures, there's at least a half dozen starting to move!

Bright Journey Almost instantly, Bright Journey's anima glimmers into life as she pours Essence into instantly readying herself for action. She draws her bow back fully, ready to strike whatever is the next to come around that corner!
Bright Journey The sound of murmuring comes from on the other side of the hill. A dark and sibilant chant begins to sound as that same male voice is doing...something.
Amethyst Amethyst tightens up, she's never actually experienced someone casting necromancy before her. With a deep breath and careful focus, she rushes forward, preparing to attack. Her whip floats before her, made of her own blood and charged with the essence of the dragons, ready for whatever awaits her.
Bright Journey As Amethyst rounds the corner, she sees what looks to be a small camp or worksite, situated in front of a door buried halfway into the stone of the hill. The stone is made of some dark, worked stone and looks to have a decent dent in it...but far less damaged than one might have expected of the powerful, animalistic man standing in front of it. He is strong and well-built, with obvious moonsilver tattoos, and is currently muttering words of power over hand mudras that are almost sickening just to look at. He's clearly not done yet but is on his way.

There's a few of the black things with lamprey mouths--materialized mortwights--skittering towards the corner, with one in range immediately.

In addition, just as Amethyst turns to see it, several greenish runes are fading out of the sky, blown away by the wave of power. What they were holding back is a HUGE mass of swarming, writhing ghosts, all armed with spears and swords, wieling helms and shields, wailing in their death-agonies...

It appears you've found where all those battlefield war ghosts were.

Tepet Makara Although he doesn't have the sorcery nor the means to injure a spirit's form yet, Makara growls at one of the spectral beings as his claws glow with the might of Luna's moonlight, as he strikes the creature with it to rend them asunder and banish them back to whatever horrid plane of existence it came from.

Meanwhile the Lunar necromancer even in his human form seems to have the fangs of a sabretooth tiger known to prowl the cold lands of the Northeast, meaning that is his tell. His clothing are decorated with the bones of raitons, other beasts and skulls that seem to have been engraved with the mark of the elemental dragons...meaning they once belonged to the princes of the earth.

Amethyst With the fury of the dragons behind her, Amethyst's anima explodes in a boiling dark green, with little rainbow hues at the edges. Hers is like the sea before a grand storm, a storm she is bringing to the necromancy and his undead. Her whip ignites in flame as she strikes, aiming to burn the death out of them!
Raullaur Raul charges around the corner, roaring defiance against the horrors he knows await him. As the Sun's essence flows through him, the multi-rayed disk of the Dawn appears on the helm of his armor, and more of the essence lends him weight, power, seeming to be taller, broader, stronger...starting to draw power into himself, and then unleashing it with a precise overhand slash at the prone monstrosity.
Rishi While Rishi is confident that Ammy will be fine, it seems like the source of their problems is around the corner. So being there means she's better situated to deal with things that come up. She's not simply trying to protect Ammy. She isn't.
	 Once she rounds the corner and sees the Necromancer, she stops, blinks, tilts her head for a moment, then her voice all honey and affection, she says "I am not supposing that you would be willing to be talking about this? I am thinking I can be getting them to be stopping if you do." even as she moves into a guard stance next to Ammy and her anima banner starts to glow, revealing the empty silver circle on her forehead.
Bright Journey Rishi's honeyed words actually seem to have an effect on the Lunar, distracting him briefly from shaping whatever dark sorcery he has in mind. Slowly, one thick, bushy eyebrow raises as he eyes the Lunar woman facing off against him, standing foursquare in his way and clearly protecting Amethyst. He smirks slightly and replies.

"Says you, woman," he rumbles, "while wearing the trappings of Luna and defending one of the hated children of the Realm. Corruption like yours justifies me. Now be silent and let the hallowed darkness take you!"

Meanwhile, the undead this necromancer has unleashed continue unabated! One of the mortwights has been thoroughly smacked around, hopelessly off kilter, but is still as yet unharmed. The other two, however, start to slink forward in a horrible, unnatural gait, and they are far, far faster than it looks like they should be! One lunges right for Rishi, claws forward, while the other tries to circle around Rishi to strike Amethyst.

Lastly, the swarm of War Ghosts, hundreds strong, is just arriving from the magicked gaol it had been trapped behind. It surges over the battlefield like a tide of souls, striking at everything within reach.

Bright and Raul, still not moved from around the corner, only get a glimpse of any of this when the swarm of War Ghosts billows out, filling the area as quickly as they can. Bright, however, had an action readied. Before they can close to striking range, she has one chance to strike...

Rishi Rishi has her Wood dragon claws up, wings open, defending Ammy slowing down the creature trying to get her. For the one attacking Rishi, the vine in her hair suddenly jumps out forming into a floating shield made of brambles, driving the attacker back. "Bigotry is not being an excuse for any of the things." she says to the other Lunar, right before the ghost wave arrives. When it does, Rishi starts a prayer to Luna.
Bright Journey As the ghosts careen around the corner, billowing out in all directions, Bright Journey's multicolored eyes widen in shock. The cries of consternation from her companions make far more sense now, of course, and fortunately, she's more than ready to do something about it!

As she pours a fountain of brilliant white-gold Essence into her nocked arrow, her moonsilver bow adds its own silver luminescence. As she fires, not one, but a stream of brilliant Essence arrows floods from her bow, streaking here and there like tiny ghost-seeking comets, burning their unholy forms with its purifying light.

The ghosts scream as one, the cacophony raising everyone's hackles and all but piercing eardrums in agony. They thrash about, but while the arrows leave windrows of fading ghosts in their wake, they cannot stop the tide entirely. A flood of ectoplasmic swords and shields dive onto everyone, hacking and slashing, but only doing incidental damage, at least for now.

The mortwights had struck and failed, but there was still one, the mortwight who had almost been knocked silly earlier in the evening...and in half-remembered terror, it exhales a cloud of utter blackness over the area.

The cloud fills an area two range bands from the corner where it's lying, completely obscuring the sight of the living.

Bright Journey "Gods damn them!"

Bright isn't given to cursing, but as the night washes over her vision...she has little idea of what to do! She kneels in place, leaning so as to avoid Raullaur, sets another arrow to her bow by feel, and fires skyward, hoping to catch the ghosts with more purifying power!

Bright Journey Bright fires blindly, expecting to at least hit -some- ghost...and she did, except it contemptuously bats the arrow away with its shield. Archery is not so simple as pointing and shooting, some days.
Raullaur With a snarl, Raullaur moves between Bright Journey and the ghosts. More and more golden light starts to coruscate over his armor as the golden sun on the helm is taken into the brightness. It is impossible to hide, and with the roar, and holding himself ready, none can get through him to Bright Journey. "Leave! Leave be or perish again! Once and for all!"

And as the light glows brightyl, so, too, does the sun's heat start to emanate from his armor, warming the air even as the golden essence, rises off of his armor like steam.

Amethyst Amethyst is surprised when suddenly the darkness sweeps over her and the others. She also curses, but in high realm. Even her anima is suppressed, she considers, as she tries in vain to see herself. Now this is not the first time she's fought blind before. She realizes, however, to her horror, that she's not actually honed her dragon essence to enhance her senses so that she can perceive the world around her. Something to fix later, she supposes.

For now she tries to focus on the matter at hand, and readies herself. Her ever so sensitive ears twitching to the sounds of her nearby allies and the subtle noises the dead can make, she strikes at one of the mortwrights through the black.

Amethyst Being blindfolded and relying on her ears to defend against attacks from her father from what feels like eons ago pays off, as now she applies those lessons practically against the mortwright. And now with the essence of the dragons flowing through her veins, her attacks are not only more powerful but also significantly quicker, the animated energy of fire boiling her anima and driving her faster, and faster yet.
Tepet Makara Seeing as the unfamiliar yet familiar lunar may still be beyond his power. Makara looks over to the remaining foul spirit of darkness still lingering as he fears they may interfere to assisst their master. While muttering a personal sutra of Luna and the Immaculate Dragon Danaa'd, his silver claws would flash like quicksilver lightning at the being's chest for it strikes it many times.
Rishi While she keeps her two bark clad paws up and out to fend off any attackers, Rishi's two other hands remain clasped in prayer to the Everchanging One as she steps towards the necromancer. Her voice started low before quickly reaching a crescendo "...of the Changing Waters, Swiftest Rider, Son-and-Daughter, Lord of Reflections, let all of your faces stand between us and destruction now!" and as she reaches the end her anima snuffs out.
	 For a moment there is only night. 

	 Then, like the moon sneaking out from behind a cloud, a silvery dome surrounds Rishi out to several paces away, including those nearby, repelling the darkness! 

	 Rishi is glowing once more, a dark penumbra at the heart of the silver dome, a long moving shadow stretching behind her. She smiles for a moment, before she tilts her head like she's considering something, then shouts out "Oh! Bright! Raul! While the moon can be illuminating the night, it is only being banished by the rising of the sun. Can you be doing more of the glowing for us please?" She sounds like she's smiling.
Bright Journey The battle in the Shadowlands rages on!

Currently, the battle consists of Makara, Bright Journey, Raullaur, Amethyst and Rishi on one side, and an as yet unnamed Lunar, three mortwights, and a large Battle Group of war ghosts. Around the corner from the front of the tomb, Raullaur is currently guarding Bright Journey, who is fighting off the war ghosts. The Lunar is directly in front of the door, the Lunar is trying to shape necromancy and is not having much luck, but he still took a moment to taunt Rishi.

Perhaps the most effective weapon against him is his own emotions?

The mortwights are mostly unhurt but are all in a bad way--two are crashed, one severely so, and the last has yet to land a solid hit. The war ghosts have taken some significant damage from Bright Journey but are still -very- strong, enough that Bright will probably be focused on them for some time, and could probably use a hand. Fortunately, Rishi just cast a powerful ward against them, a bubble that they cannot enter. Amethyst is near her and Makara is a bit closer to the Lunar.

Most disturbingly for Makara specifically...there's something familiar. Something disturbingly familiar about that Lunar. It's on the tip of his tongue...

Bright Journey Gods damn it all! They just keep COMING!" There are people in Great Forks who think Bright Journey is incapable of cussing, or even being impolite. They're wrong, of course--she's not a milksop!--but still, she tries to come across as genteel and nice even when she's not really feeling it.

Now, of course, things are different, the chips are down, and she and her friends are in a shadowland getting attacked by a HUGE flood of angry, insane war ghosts. Her bow is going nonstop as streaks of silver-limned arrows fly into the cloud of ghosts, each one eating away at the corruption and tearing through multiple enemy combatants before fading out.

But there are just SO MANY of them.

As she draws on more and more Essence to whittle them down as best she can.

In between shots, she shouts out over the moaning din to Raullaur. "Raul! I can handle this! Go help them up front!"

Raullaur Raul growls in acknowledgement, and the lion armed and armored in the sun's gold runs around the corner then. Golden wisps of essence make the armor seem alive, the helm more like a lion's mane, and the warmth of early summer spills from him.

When he sees them, he jumps past, to put himself between the trio and the forces of darkness, and the opponent who commands them. Sword drawn, readied for anything to come close. "Leave be!" he roars in challenge. "None shall hurt them while I am here! And you will not drive me from them!"

He sets his stance, one foot forward, teh other behind, settled stably on the ground, but not to attack, stance clearly to ward and protect. Defend. And as he does so, the golden power coiled around him ignites fully, surrounding him in the shape of a giant lion over 9 feet tall whos roar reverberates and echoes as the flare of power goes well beyond stealth, letting any with the eyes to see and ears to hear that one of the Sun's dread champions does battle here.

Bright Journey With Raullaur protecting her from the ghosts, Bright Journey takes full advantage. A huge swath of them collapse in on themselves, all trying to be the first one to pierce Raullaur's superior defenses to strike at her. This, of course, is her cue.

Time almost seems to slow as she draws one more arrow from her shoulder quiver, nocks it, and floods it with her own white-gold, and the bow's silver Essence, turning it into a monument to ghost destruction. As she looses it, the Essence explodes in a silver-white-gold streak, plowing through all the ghosts trying to reach her in that one spot, and clawing its way into clusters of them beyond. They erupt into screams of agony, the purifying Essence tearing them asunder in droves.

As they writhe and disintegrate, the other ghosts rear back. They're insane, whipped into a killing frenzy by the Lunar, but they're by no means mindless. Indeed, at one time, they were squared away. Disciplined. Focused. And undeath took much of that away...and seeing their fellows torn apart by the Exalted is starting to do the rest.

First one, then two, then dozens of ghosts back off, flee in panic, scatter to the winds.

Many turn to strike at other foes, trying to get one last violent bit of revenge before fleeing, but Raullaur's armor may as well be a wall of orichalcum, and Rishi's powerful warding is even stronger against them. They can do naught but flee.

As for Bright Journey herself, she stands as Raullaur runs around the corner to protect Makara. Her anima has erupted into its full iconic glory--a waving pure white aura in every direction, like infinite silk in the wind, and a brilliant, five-foot-diameter golden halo, oriented vertically and hovering behind her head. Noble and majestic, peaceful and powerful, the orichalcum hand in the white silk glove.

Bright Journey Well.

That didn't go as planned, did it?

Just a few moments ago, he was digging away while his minions were keeping watch and his ghosts were bound away. In the course of about -two minutes- his mortwights were beaten down, his ghosts scattered hell to breakfast and his attempt to crush his opponents with necromancy simply not fast enough. No necromancer could have gotten off the spell he was trying in the time he had, and so he lets the accumulated dark Essence drift away.

He barks a quick order, and the three mortwights slink their way towards him, standing in front of him but coming nowhere near his impressive height nor muscular bulk.

"Enough," he growls, and while he looks resentful at everyone, he spares a long, hard look for only Tepet Makara. "You. I -know- you. I remember you. I -respected- you once, filthy Dynast.

Or do you still insist I call you by your original title...sensei?"

Tepet Makara Seeing as the unknown Lunar's undead servants have fled, the only one left is none other than the necromancer himself until his reinforcements came. Even if he seems far more experienced at a glance, he readies his very fangs as they seem to drip with a particularly virulent substance contained by his glands. But he halts once the Lunar begins to talk "Sensei? what are you talking about? Are you saying I'm your...." Even if his past memories recognizes him, Makara is in denial that the very foe they are standing against was once of importance to his old self.

Seeing as the recently arrived mortwights surrounds him to protect their master, he needs the right opening to land his venom imbued fangs at the Lunar necromancer's flesh but he postpones his plans for now unless the fight continues

Rishi Seeing that hostilities have temporarily ceased, Rishi brightens, giving the other Lunar a smile only marginally dimmer than the Solar's animas. "Ah, that is being much nicer." She claps her lower hands together, while her upper ones are still in a guarding pose, bearing the Wood Dragon's Claws. "So, would you like to be telling us your plans for the place you are doing the excavating of? It is being possible that we are not minding them. We are really only being here to be helping our frind with his forgotten memories and it is seeming like you could be of much of the help with them." She headtilts. "Alternately, I am supposing you could be doing the runing of the way now as we are having more of the power than you, but I really would much rather be trying to be coming to some kind of the accord here."
Bright Journey Bright Journey makes her way around the corner, her brilliant anima banner almost declaring her entrance like a rolled-out red carpet. Much of the overwrought noise has abated now that the ghosts have fled, and the sounds of tense conversation are just starting as she arrives. She's got an arrow nocked but not drawn, and approaches, not speaking, just carefully listening. If the Lunar's going to reveal truths and ask questions, far be it from her to interrupt...just listen and judge his intentions.

The Lunar, on the other hand, stands straighter with tense, fight-or-flight pride as his gaze bores right into Makara's.

"Sensei." His voice drips with acid sarcasm. "Perhaps Luna taunts me with her weak, soft ways. You tarnish everything you used to stand for, -Dynast-. Unless, of course, you remember what you -were-..." He grins a fangy grin, and a not at all nice one. There's....something....behind those eyes. Something ancient...something dark.

Tepet Makara "I do not know if this is Lethe's sick joke or Luna's plan to exalt some dynast like me, but I do remember I was Fafnirius, who was a Lunar that was a scourge to the Shogunate in the name of revenge. Whatever sins I did in my past life, I am not -like- your past master"

Despite his noble upbringing as a dynast, he growls like a feral beast concerning the questionable actions of his former incarnation. "To think I once plunged into the dark wisdom of necromancy all for the sake of avenging him...." He recalls the obscured Solar figure back in his dreams killed by a blade of starmetal.

Bright Journey The Lunar's voice is low, but intense. Like hearing a mountain crack open.

"Sins? You speak to me of sins, while wearing the clothing of the enemy? Once, I knelt at your feet, and you named me Crimson Fangs Painted In Dragon's Blood. And every time I earned that name, you were proud. So proud, so intent, so clear of purpose. Not like now. You -knew- what had to be done, and it was not noble nor ignoble. It was just using the tools we were given."

He clenches his left fist white-knuckle tight. "There was a time, whelp, when we saw injustice and we -fought-. We were moonsilver soldiers, pure of purpose. Now, who is given the gift of Exaltation? A Dynast, who isn't even sure what he wants." He turns to Rishi and sneers. "And you. You're strong, I can tell, but what of it? If you cannot do what must be done, what -good- is that strength? There was a time when Luna chose warriors, for that is what Creation needs. Warriors with the discipline to work as one, the will to fight the hard fight and make the hard decisions. Both of you should be asking to -join- me, if you but had the strength."

Rishi "I am being most sorry, but Riverspeak is not being my original language. But, were you meaning to be implying that the One who has the Choosing of us, that they are being ...less than wise with their decisions? That the One who is Many is being ...wrong? Or having the problem?" Rishi has stopped smiling and her voice has shifted into the very dangerous rumble of a hungry tiger who hasn't quite decided if they petting more than they want to eat you.
	 After his new speech, Rishi's voice is very low and very, verydangerous in a way that none of you have heard from her before "I would be suggesting you be taking that back, as it is being my Oath to The Many Faced One that is preventing me from making your outsides into insides at this moment. Unless you are wishing to be answering for this insult, you should be leaving this place. Most Quickly."
Bright Journey Bright Journey is usually the one driving any conversation, but this time, she just sat back...and listened. Perhaps it wasn't necessary for her to speak--after all, Crimson Fangs was having no difficulty speaking his mind!

Still, following on the heels of Rishi's getting him to back down...Bright's anima almost -instinctively- responds. This is what she is. This is what she does. All things wilt before the Lawgiver's gaze.

First, Bright erupts in a blaze of impossibly bright light, transforming her into a -terrifying- icon of spiritual pressure. Just -standing there-, not even doing anything, is enough to make anyone quake with terror...and that's just her allies! The immense force of her personality washes over the mortwights, making them wail in helpless fear as they all run, even over the power Crimson Fangs had employed on them. Then, a breath later, her entire anima banner implodes inward, suffusing her into a new, even -more- horrifying apparition of power.

All of her intense, supernatural gaze is focused solely on Crimson Fangs as she asks one question. "What, Crimson Fangs, are you recruiting for?"

Tepet Makara "I see that title was given to you by my past self and it's meaning implies your hatred for the dragonblooded. That explains why you view me with disdain as a dynast." Makara says with guilt as his past self has taught him to direct his hateful rage against the dragonblooded. "My past self Fafnirius must have been proud of you but like what I said, I -am- not him"

He gives a reptilian hiss filled with venomous resentment (sometimes literally venomous) at Crimson Fang. "He sadly won't come back no matter how I try to act like him"

Bright Journey Between Rishi and Bright and all the supernatural terror they can inflict, even the proud Crimson Fangs has no realistic defense. His force of personality, strong as it is, just cannot hope to withstand the kind of potent intimidation two separate experienced Exalted can unleash, and any will he had left after his failed spellcasting from earlier vanishes like dust in the wind.

Crimson Fangs, all bluster and control earlier, turns desperate and craven in an instant, clearly the first time in a very long time that's happened. His hands open and clench, his mouth opens and closes, and he shakes like a leaf.

"I...I...NO! The Shadow Fangs will HEAR OF THIS!" He shouts in absolute despair and then turns, shifting to a great cat and running off as fast as his legs can carry him.