The Dragons' Run - Act 1

Daejon howls and bats the eagle away, blinking blood out of his eyes and trying wipe his face clean. Holding one hand up to ward off the osprey's talons, he screams out final word in Old Realm and thrusts his other hand toward the sky, wind and dust spiralling around it in an unnatural vortex. Daejon begins to levitate towards the centre of the dust devil as the spell completes, the sudden gust of air destabilising Whitecap's flight and drawing an enraged cry from the bird as it corrects.

Shape Sorcery, at -1 for wound penalty and using his full Occult Excellency again. 9 dice total.


Daejon casts Stormwind Rider.
 
Yvara

As the pair of Serpents sprint through the village, the magistrate is concerned with proper restraint of a criminal. Such is why, as she passed the working porch of one of the wee wooden fisherman's cottages, the hooked tip of her left sword flicks out and snags a coil of rope.

What Yvara had in mind when she took it was using the hemp to bind the bastards arms and legs, and yet when they reach the green, she realises the folly of this.

Well fuck that. He's not airborne yet, and he owes us answers.

With feet pounding the ground and hurling her onward, Yvara lashes the rope around her own shoulders and then tosses the loose end of the rope to Abyss.

"Show me you still remember how to fish, Cylin!"

Swords dropped to the ground, Yvara hurls herself forward, the water around her crystalising and leaving frost in her footprints. Her anima is battered by the winds of the the alabastard's personal storm, but she crashes through, setting trained and calloused hands on the Dynast, eager to twist his limbs until he wishes he had played nice.

Nope, failure.

Dex 4, MA 5, Stunt 2, Excellency 6, WP for one autosuccess. Total result: 6 successes

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Daejon howls in frustration as he sees Yvara leap towards towards him. He twists his body around in the gale, contorting and trying to stay clear of her grasp.

Daejon's Dodge, including light cover from Stormwind Rider, is 5. He spends 4m on Threshold Warding Stance to increase it by 2 to 7.
 
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The Dynast laughs as Yvara narrowly missed landing the grab and begins to fall back to earth. "Too slow, I'm afraid!" He winks at the Dragon-blooded below, then streaks off towards the sea.
 
Abyss' Black Reach

Abyss looses a wordless howl of frustration as the Peleps flies away. "I'll find you, bastard, and when I do you'll wish you hadn't run," she roars at the receding whirlwind. She turns to Yvara with a countenance grim enough to curdle milk, and offers a hand to help her up. As Whitecap lands on her shoulder she coos sweet nothings to him and checks him over for wounds, though their bond assures her there are none. She turns to go and round up her troops. A night time raid on a Realm transport ship should lift her spirits some.
 
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Yvara

She accepts Abyss' hand up, and shucks the rope and retrieves her swords. Already, her face has smoothed and she is calm.

"Well, that was embarrassing. Peleps Daejon is now a fugitive from the justice of the Tribunal of Serpents."

She pauses for a moment of thought.

"He wanted something from Lesanda, that she had no intention of giving him. I couldn't get out of her what it was. Perhaps she might tell you.
"In any case...he just forfeited an Immaculate, and at least one ship of troops, in addition to blatantly revealing a Lintha alliance. We need to find out what it is that he wants, and whether he acts for the Peleps or if he's fucking over his own house for his private ambitions."

Yvara glances at Abyss.

"I'd like to come along on the seizure of the Realm vessel. I want to interrogate both the captain, and the monk when she wakes."
 
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Jensa:

Her diagnosis didn't take long. "Eh. You'll live. Whether that's a good thing won't be my call."

Grabbing the monk by the chains so thoughtfully provided by Yvara, Jensa dragged her back to the hearth home. Dead and dying pirates everywhere, party ruined, four extremely soggy Lintha corpses still face down in the mud. She dropped her cargo in front of Banoron Lesanda. "The other two are chasing down Peleps Daejon. Your captain got this one, with a little help. There's a woman, Saria, saved her life this morning. People said she fell from the cliffs, but she had a head wound that was definitely from a weapon. Her son mentioned a strange boat. That's probably where they came ashore. A poor choice of gift for a visiting Dynast to give."

She heaved a sigh, and decided she was just too tired for niceties and titles. "What the hells was this about?"
 
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Abyss' Black Reach

Abyss glances across at Yvara and nods grimly. "It might be helpful to have you in an official capacity, the crew might yet see reason. Make no mistake, however, we are now at war, and those are enemy combatants. I'll slaughter them to a man if I must, but I'd rather hostages."

With a whispered word Abyss sends Whitecap to survey the Realm's transport, then pulls one of the daiklaves from her belt. "I've been trying to get access to the Dojo's vaults for a while now through... other avenues, but I keep being rebuffed. You reckon they'd be happy to trade that pair of Smashfists they have for these beauties?"

Abyss nods at Yvara's answer then turns to face the sea. "I'm going to wait here for a few minutes, let my anima calm down some. I'll see you up in the Hearth Home."
 
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Yvara

"I'll happily accompany you. I've never arrested more than about thirty people at a time, and that village was fucking weird let me tell you. New record!"

She glances to the daiklave.

"Might be I know of a home grown Fire Dragon practitioner. I am happy to make you a provisional offer of a pair of smash fists in exchange for this booty."

She grins.

"Our guest will be heartbroken. You know that I want her to live, yes? I am very much not in favour of executions left, right, and centre."

Once this is sorted, Yvara herself proceeds back to the hearth.
 
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@Sarky

Lesanda drops down on her hunkers, her anima still guttering and licking at her limbs here and there. "Well, well. Cylin dropped an Immaculate. I'm a little proud of her, though I'll deny it if you tell her I said so." She inspects the monk's wounds. "You do clean work, on and off the battlefield. I'll commandeer a fang or so of her marines and see who's hiding up there. I'm warmed up but the party is already over." She gestures absent-mindedly at the carnage behind her, and stands up.

"As for what's happened here, I would say the simplest summary of events is that Peleps Daejon doesn't like taking no for an answer, and that he doesn't understand that personal rivalries are less important to me than the people of the Archipelago as a whole. It also tells me that not telling him three other Serpents would be here was a smart move on my part. Without you girls I think this would have gotten a lot messier. You've all done well." She casually wipes her hands against her silk shirt, leaving streaky bloodstains. You're certain none of it is hers.

"I'm going to the north coast now, before their reserves spook and bolt. I need proof Daejon orchestrated this mummer's farce of an assassination attempt, and I was a little caught up in the moment back there. When Cylin and Yvara return, I want you three to impound the Imperial vessel with as little bloodshed as possible. I'll question Daejon when I return. He and I are clearly due an airing out of grievances."

She waves you off absently as she gestures one of Abyss' sergeants to come over and begins giving orders.
 
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Banoron Cylin

Cylin soars with Whitecap, letting the roaring currents of her essence cool her bilious rage. The torrent of essence ebbs over the long minutes she spends simply being, buoyed by the winds beneath their wings.

Once the pounding of essence fades somewhat Cylin calls Whitecap back with a whistle. "Thank you for your work tonight, dear one," she murmurs once he's perched on her arm. "One more job and I'll let you be, get you some food." Whitecap nuzzles into her and croak-coos his affection. Cylin scratches his head absently as she gives her instructions. "I need to get a look at the Realm ship, that one there- Hey! Concentrate for me! I'll give you more rubs once you get back. That one there, so fly around it until I call you back, ok?" She launches him into the air and sighs as he gains altitude, and begins circling the Realm transport, then straightens, tightness coming back into her face.

Abyss reaches out to Whitecap, the jarring transition catching her breath, as always. She had never gotten used to the quick, jerky movements Whitecap makes as he flicks his attention from target to target, marking sentries and deck activity, checking their top eyes, and ensuring their sailcloth was still furled.

[I'd like to make a Wits + Awareness roll to sound out what's going on on the ship. Would it be reasonable to have access to the 5 bonus dice eagles get for noticing things (Eagle Eye, p.563)]





[5 Successes total]
 
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Yvara

The magistrate arrives back to the hearth, idly cleaning her swords before slinging them back by her hips. When she sees Jensa, the Fire Aspect's anima beginning to calm down but still a riot of spectral flame, she perks up.

"Jensa, I am going to feel like a huge arse to admit to Lesanda that I let Daejon get away. That man is going to find himself on the receiving end of a gentle slap at some point."

She sighs.

"We'll have to arrest a bunch of sailors now. Listen, Jensa, I think it's important to kill and injure as few of them as possible. I think this entire episode of extended silly buggery is an attempt to provoke a war and give the Peleps an excuse to completely breach the Contract."
 
Jensa:

"Oh dear. Well, she's gone to the cliffs to slaughter more Lintha, that's probably their infiltration point, and the reason Saria nearly died, so she'll be feeling better when she gets back. Or at least she'll be too tired to drown you. Lesanda called it an assassination attempt. Daejon thought it would just be the hearthmother, she kept our arrival secret. Apparently he wanted something he couldn't have, so he ruined a perfectly good Sundering festival in a fit of pique. Typical.

"On the bright side, Lesanda wants us and Abyss to impound the Imperial ship, so you're both in agreement there. Although we may have to stress to the good captain Cylin that the hearthmother explicitly ordered as little bloodshed as possible."

She stared at her hand, considered the dimming flames of her anima. "Gods, but I shall sleep well once we're done tonight."
 
Yvara

By the time Cylin arrives back to the Hearth, Yvara has had the Immaculate firmly locked up in the hall, with a couple of folks standing watch over her with buckets of water at the ready should she attempt to burn her way free. She found the time to check with Hearthfather Sorelt exactly what her name is, as Yvara didn't catch it earlier.

She's also commandeered a couple of boats, a shitload of rope, and written a brief but firm arrest warrant and mandate of impound for the Realm vessel and crew. In triplicate.


When Abyss gets there, Yvara silently hands her one of the copies. It's time to serve some fucking paperwork.

Paperwork, bitches!

That's Intelligence 3 + Bureaucracy 2, spending 2m Peripheral on an auto success.

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Total 6 successes to produce airtight warrants of arrest and impound for those Realm assets, in triplicate.
 
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@Hair

Whitecap's powerful senses give you a clear view of the deck - two Legionnaires guard the gangway, and more soldiers are moving around on deck, coming up from below and returning in fairly standard routine patterns. They don't seem to be in any hurry to leave.

It's hard to gauge but you'd estimate their strength to be equivalent to Size 3.
 
Abyss' Black Reach

Abyss reaches the hill about twenty minutes later. She gestures to two of her officers. "Imeta, I need you to take most of our men here down to Wavestrider and get her moving, slowly, tops and t'gallants only. If that ship tries to run I want to be able to cut her off before she leaves the harbour. Go, now, quickly. Bisil, get the ten most presentable lads, you'll be coming with us. Hopefully we can take this prize without too much bloodshed."

Orders given Abyss finds an undisturbed table and piles a plate with cooling food. She quickly devours it while giving Imeta time to set about her task. Once the plate is clean, and washed down with a cup of the sudsy local ale, she finds Yvara.

"It's time."
 
Yvara

"Right. By your Letter of Marque, I need you to sign off on these as a secondary witness and impounding officer."

Yvara quickly leaves brush and ink with Abyss, then joins her by the dock.

"We playing friendly or rough to start with?"
 
Jensa:

Jensa followed Abyss' example, snatching a leg of meat and some fish and taking a moment to relax.

"Friendly may serve to avoid having to beat a small army unconscious. Realm forces are very strict on their chains of command, aren't they? Go to the top, explain how much trouble Daejon left them in, they might order the rest to comply. You can imagine Hearthmother Lesanda is already very... irritated, by tonight's proceedings, 'just warmed up' was what she said to me. I don't think anyone wants to see her genuinely furious. Least of all a cargo hold full of Realm soldiers with no way out that's not through an elder Serpent with a fondness for drowning her enemies."
 
Abyss' Black Reach

Abyss lazily scrawls her mark across all three pieces of paper, then hands them back to Yvara. "No point in taking a prize bloody if you can take it clean. We'll play nice to start, we can secure the weapons lockers with whit I'm bringing, if needs be."

As they reach the end of the jetty where the Realm ship sits at anchor she hisses to her marines, "straighten up, you slackers. Parade perfect, we want this to go smooth." She steps forward and raises her voice. "Ho, the Star of Faxai! Lastland delegation escorting a Magistrate of the Tribunal requesting permission to board."
 
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The two guards side-eye each other. "No personnel are permitted to board except under the authority of Peleps Daejon or his daughter, or Captain Ma'hen. Those are our standing orders, ma'am. Do you have identification?"
 
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