Exalted - Calibration and Manse Building

This is the story of our Second Age Exalted game, told from the point of view of my character, Cathak Taji. Click here for the index.

~~~

It was the run up to Calibration in the year 757, making us 17. We'd been in the army a couple of years, been promoted a few times. Reilly sent us back to Rose Black at High Castle, not giving us time to see Rey before we left. When we got there, the quartermaster greeted us: we'd sent back the various things he'd asked for every opportunity we'd had, and to show us his gratitude he gave us a power bow and a flame tongue repeater, with ammo pearls and a kit to make more.

My overriding memory of our return to High Castle was the sheer number of Dynasts strutting around the place. Rose Black called us to her as soon as she could, to explain that we'd been in the army long enough to be allowed home for an extended period, even to leave. However, she continued, they had a continuing real problem with beastmen and we'd proven ourself against them, and in particular she was worried by a threat from the north, an Anathema calling themselves "The Bull of the North". If we came back, she'd give us our own command. We looked at each other, torn: I wanted to go home and see my family, but I liked Rose Black a lot, and I knew this would help the Empress too, and beastmen were a menace, and I think Kito felt similarly. She read our inner conflict and told us we didn't have to make a decision until after Calibration and sent us back to Gruncle's.

The Emissary joined us to travel back and invited us to a sorcerors' meet, a feast from the end of the First Age. It's held on the nights when the rituals to summon the most dangerous demons must begin: by gathering the most powerful sorcerors together, this can't happen without knowledge. The Realm doesn't following the tradition and it's fallen out of practice. He wants to bring it back. The Empress can't attend due to her position (though says she may come in disguise).

We talked with him about Lunar's Warriors. He called them Stewards and explained they're paired with Lawgivers. The Bull of the North, we learn, is a Lawgiver, but won't be open to negotiation: he'll see us as representing a force trying to oppose him. The Emissary showed uncharacteristic emotion then, looking demonstrably worried: there should be 300 Lawgivers, but he only knows of Tsung (the Seer) and the Azure Titan (our former incarnations' mentor). With the Bull of the North, that's 4, or 6 if he's right about our destiny.

When we reached Gruncle's, Hak's there and we showed him the bush where Kito saw the mouse. He told us we're truly blessed. 

Once we'd been greeted by everyone and been fed and fussed, I sought Gruncle alone in his office - the one with the stunning view over the Estate that makes it look like the grounds are aflame as the sun sets. It was an awkward conversation, but I walked away  reassured that if Kito and I do end up Anathema then he will at least still talk to us, and he knew I understood he would protect us as best he could, but had to put the safety of the House first.

And then the Emissary told us it was time to leave for the feast. He drew a glass globe from his sleeve and dropped it to the floor, where it shattered to dust that rose to create a shimmering, transparent door. He opened it and ushered us into a corridor of similar doors, with large double doors at one end. Others of the doors like we'd entered by opened and people came through until around 25 people stood there. We walked through the main doors and I realised we were approaching a manse, somewhere in Elsewhere - that place that isn't the Wyld, isn't Creation, but is everywhere else. From the steps to the Manse door walked down two inhuman women, perfect mirror to each other, with strange metallic tattoos or engravings across their skin.

Most of the guests seemed snobby. Not rude towards us, exactly, but uninterested. The Seer - Tsung - was about the only exception, and the Emissary didn't seem entirely pleased by our acquaintance. We didn't recognise him to begin with, but I, at least, was pleased to see him. We talked to him about things we'd struggled to get others to explain to us, and finally learnt the significance of the white mouse and the symbol Kito had seen: a boon from the Unconquered Sun, a symbol of his favour, a moment of luck or inspiration to help overcome insurmountable odds, and very, very rare. His favourites may see one or two in their entire lives.

The food was incredible, which made up for how lonely it started to feel.

In the morning, the Emissary took us and Hak to check on some of his freeholdings in the west, leading us through a set of sliding doors to a mountainside overlooking the ocean. An archipelago stretched out, leading to a larger island in the northeast, but we walked away from the view toward the mountaintop, a blackened caldera. The heat haze and a wisp of smoke showed this to be dormant, not extinct. All the same, even at the centre the heat felt merely uncomfortable and not deadly as I'd expected. As the Emissary reached through the solid rock, I activated my All Encompassing Sorceror's Sight and realised there were no elementals around. He pulled on an orichalcum chain the other side of the rock, and the heat dissipated, the mountain melting with it to leave an evergreen forest. It felt unnatural: we hadn't left the tropical region, so these trees were distinctly out of place. 

"This is the first freehold," our expressions led him to explain more. "A freehold is a stable area in the Wyld," and he went on to explain the Wyld we'd been in before had been the Border Marches. We were now in the Middle Marches and beyond that was the Deep Wyld, chaos unformed. I looked more closely at our surroundings and realised we stood in a bubble: there was a distinct circumference around us where the trees and bushes were well-formed, moreso even than in Creation, but beyond that things started to blur.

We followed the Emissary as he led us to the Deep Wyld, the bubble continuing to protect us. A path formed as he trod, and we took care to stay on it. Beyond that was darkness - the darkness of a child's room, filled with monsters. Nothing there, yet everything.

He created a safe area for the 3 of us to wait in while he worked, and we chatted with Hak. He told us he'd never been to the Deep Wyld before: Viziers like him rely on Ambrosia - on prayers made manifest - but Lawgivers, frustrated by the limitations of Ambrosia, had learnt to manipulate the Wyld. 

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"Very."

Golems stepped into existence around the Emissary, 12ft tall and golden. No, not gold: orichalum. Once there were 12, they knelt to him; he looked discomforted by the servitude, and tired by their creation. They returnedwith us, and Hak quietly explained to Kito and me that things created in the Wyld become unstable in Creation - further magics are required to give them solidity here, or they degrade. The magics were lost in the First Age: maybe 5 people have the knowledge now, and only 3 the power. 

The Emissary sent the golems around the island, which I now realised the caldera marked the very centre of, as we sat on its edge. He waited about 40 minutes - to allow them to get to the right places or for the sun to be in the right place, I wasn't sure - then clapped his hands as though into prayer and was hit by a torrent of light from the sun, cascading from him to flood the island until it reached what I surmised were the golems: 12 beams of light returned to the sky and expanded out to create a shield. As soon as the shield was complete, a 4-armed creature climbed from the soil to patrol the island, and magma began to bubble, rising from the ash of the caldera to reveal a simple sructure made of a composite of the 5 magical materials. The domed roof opened and the Emissary sank in.

Hak looked interested. As far as he'd known, only one person could do this, and that was the first sorceror, who'd been given her power by the Unconquered Sun.

A door appeared in the structure and the Emissary stepped out. He explained he had 30 planned, but could only manage maybe 10 this Calibration. Our offer of help was accepted, and Kito summoned a cloud to take us to the next location, a tiny rock in the ocean barely big enough for the 4 of us. The remaining golems (slightly smaller now) took their places beneath the waves and again pillars of light rose from them. The island seemed to shift as the ritual continued; once complete, a throne of glass waves stood before us, with a basin on a pedestal. The Emissary scooped out the ball bobbing in the bowl and explained there was a second manse below, which he'd created in a set of ancient ruins, and that was the relay manse to match the one he'd created earlier.

We took a portal to Gruncle's garden: stepping through felt a lot like walking through the Deep Wyld.

I peppered the Emissary with questions, of course. Manses are created during Calibration and are best given years of planning. There are many ways to use a manse that have been lost since the First Age - to learn more about that, I'd need to Meru herself, but the great city is no longer on top of the Imperial Mountain. He'd looked and found nothing but the ruins of hovels, long picked clean: no signs of the glory of the city.

There were feasts every night for the next four nights. The other guests continued to be uninterested in interacting with us, but the food and drink were phenomenal. The mirrored twins wore increasingly elaborate outfits: black fabric that flowed like water; a strange, metallic or stone-like material in white and silver; greens in a leafy, flowery, viney pattern; and finally, flickering, fiery reds.

We helped build manses again the second day, again in very remote spots: a section of a tropical island gave a multi-tiered tree; a four-armed statue of the Unconquered Sun, facing the Realm, above a small bay, where a rock formation created a natural wind tunnel that enhanced the sound of the crashing waves; an abandoned mine in the side of an equally abandoned quarry became a steel disc inscribed with runes supporting a throne and pedestal on a small island not far from a Shadowland (which had grown a lot since his last visit, 200 years perviously). On some of these, I saw statues as we left: the golems settling to take the exact appearance of those statues outside Nexus, with the Emissary's features.

The Emissary didn't take us if he did anymore on later days, but Mum took me to a manse in the north of the Realm to attune the hearthstone in her bracers.

It was good to spend time with our family, because we'd made up our minds what to tell Rose Black: the Bull of the North was a real threat, one even I appreciated we couldn't take on yet, but we would need to one day, so we might was well take the opportunity to learn as much about him as possible with our own recon unit.

Exalted - Hunting Beastmen pt 2

This is the story of our Exalted game, told from the point of view of my character, Cathak Taji. Click here for the index.

~~~

The next evening, Raging Tiger sent us after a party of beastmen to see what we could do - he'd be nearby in case we got into trouble. There were about 20 of them with a wolf-like appearance, settling at a campfire, cooking meat and squabbling over scraps. Something about them seemed to disappoint Raging Tiger.

Kito and I quickly planned our attack. I don't think either Rey or Tiger expected us to open with a flurry of Obsidian Butterflies through their tents, and a Blazing Raptor straight into their campfire. The beastmen certainly didn't, but none tried to flee and Kito stepped in front of me to take the blows as they charged.

The fight was fierce and bloody; we were victorious, but Kito was severely hurt. Raging Tiger carried him away with Rey in support, telling me it wouldn't be safe to follow. Unnerved but trusting them, I explored the camp, finding a few furs but no clues as to where the beastmen had come from or where they were heading. When the others returned, Kito was healed. Completely healed, no scars remained anywhere, not even the ones he'd picked up as a child. Weirder, his hair and skin had gone white, his eyes blue, paler than anyone from the North.

We continued on, a strange group. Time started to blur. We'd run into the occasional small band of beastmen, all easily dealt with.

After 2, maybe 3 weeks, Kito got Raging Tiger to tell us a bit more about the Children of Luna and the rules the existance of the beastmen breach. Luna doesn't have a strict code, but chooses those who've survived hardship, telling them they're chosen and now her warrior, and there's a duty of stewardship over the land that comes with this. It was this stewardship our quarry had breached: they were lording it over their creations and using them to encroach Raging Ti2ger's territory. We worried again about the military camp where we were based, but he reassured us he didn't mind as long as we didn't overhunt the area. He valued self-sufficiency and wouldn't be a hero, not wanting the people he'd helped to fall back into the same danger once he'd moved on. The way he said it, it sounded like there was a story there, but when we asked more, he gave us the same line we'd heard many time from the Emissary so many times: "another time, perhaps". He repeated that when we tried to ask about how he got chosen by Luna, then told us to sleep. We'd reached the mountains we'd need to climb to reach to the valley where we'd find the other Lunar.

It was a hard climb, steep with few handholds. The first rest point was about 100m up; just as I was pulling myself onto the ledge, there was a terrible rumbling, clamourous clanging from below me. Ray and Raging Tiger were already on the ledge: my eyes widened to realise it was Kito who'd fallen, and I screamed the kind of scream that froze my entire body. Raging Tiger swooped into a giant bird to carry him to us: we couldn't get into his armour, which meant we couldn't see how hurt he was, but at least meant he was alive. Tiger strapped him to his back as we continued; he was just about conscious by the time we made camp, and halfway through the next night's travel he was fine.

And eventually we looked out over the valley. It was beautiful, utterly idyllic, and without Tiger we'd never have found it. A small town of old buildings surrounded a stepped pyramid being reclaimed by the local vegetation, more akin to a jungle than a tundra. There was no snow, either, and the climate was warm and humid. We guessed the place to be at least 2,000 years old: it was clearly First Age, so possibly even older. Armed beastmen and unarmed people walked the streets. Tiger explained the pyramid at the heart was likely a powerful manse, judging by the effect. At Kito's question, he said it was likely the hearthstone was with the rogue Lunar, assuming there was a stone. At our surprised expressions, he explained not all manses have stones; some are built to a specific purpose instead.

We observed the town for a while. The normal people seemed to act as a serving class. Of the 60 or so beastmen, not all were combatants. One stood out from the rest, a pure bipedal snow leopard, of which the others were cruder, more human-looking simulcrams. This individual was smaller and compact than Raging Tiger's first appearance and carried a longsword. Concern passed over the face of our new friend: this wasn't our quarry, who's Aspect was Raven, but one of their followers. He was confident he could take on Raven, but not so sure about Leopard. As nervous as this made him, it worried us more. He suggested we - Rey, Kito and I - shoot at the beastmen and keep them occupied while he fought the Lunar. Shoot and move on, he reiterated. Kito and I cast Invulnerable Skin of Bronze, and we were ready.

The Leopard leapt to intercept Tiger as he walked brazenly into the town, yanking a di-klave from its arm. Slightly more than half the beastmen followed into the fight, so Rey joined Tiger while Kito and I ranged the jungle the other side of the river, shooting into the remainder until we had their attention. I stayed in the trees, shooting and moving to make it harder for them to pinpoint me, but one small group reached Kito and he had to switch to his blades - Rey joined him as more hurtled toward the melee. 

I saw 4 of the beastmen creeping into a hut and thought they were hiding from the fight until I saw them leave again with a cart-sized ballista! I took aim as they set it up, but they fired before I loosed. A ball of glowing blue energy expanded... exploded... killed them all! I swung my bow, seeking a new target.

Shoot and move. Shoot and move.

A group made a break for the temple, the pyramid. I killed one, but the other 5 ran inside. I looked around: only 3 remained. One threw a javelin at Kito - I shot it, and hid again. A glance showed me it was still standing, so I fired again as I wormed my way into a spot with vantage on the temple. This shot went through his side and embedded on a wall beyond, dripping heart's blood as he slumped to the floor. As I turned my attention back to the temple, I saw Kito running across the rooftops and fall into a building - before I could leave my hiding place, he'd recovered and continued on his path. I continued to mark the temple doors. 

Raging Tiger continued a blur against the Leopard while the last beastmen fell to Kito's swirling blades. It was then we noticed the humans milling around, armed with scythes, pitchforks and other utensils. Only one held a shortsword, and awkwardly at that. Kito investigated the ballista while Ray defeated the farmers. I kept my bow trained on the temple doors, waiting for the beastmen to come out with whatever threat they had in mind, but the corner of my eye saw the other, the Leopard, heading towards it, and Tiger's aura flaring as he spent Essence in response: a silver light building until it exploded out in a blinding flash, revealing a join-the-dots tiger roaring behind. The Leopard's blade span away as she fell in half.

The temple doors swung open. I saw fleeting black movement within and feathers falling out, and Tiger was there.

Exalted - Hunting Beastmen pt 1

This is the story of our Exalted game, told from the point of view of my character, Cathak Taji. Click here for the index.

(The spelling of several names keeps changing. I know the official rule is to pick a spelling and stick with it, but typing from notes where I'm horribly inconsistent makes that harder. I think Riley as spelt in the previous session should have been Reilly really so I've tried to correct throughout, and Rey/Ray is kinda deliberate: the character is always hidden by their power armour, making them unknowable.)

~~~

It was weeks before Kito was better, so I worked like a good soldier as long as they let me see him. A lot of my tasks were scouting missions to learn more about the beastmen: there were far more than anyone had realised. Rey and I returned one evening from a scouting mission where we'd found and killed a hunting party of 4 of the beasts to find Kito had finally been released. He was sound asleep in his bunk; as much as I wanted to, I didn't disturb him, but instead curled up in my own bed. He was awake before me in the morning, and explained he, Rey and I were to be sent on a mission to the north-east, where the beastmen were coming from, and would be out for several months. Captain Reilly filled us in: a recon/scouting mission, with the most urgent thing that we were not to be followed. If we even thought we were being followed, we were not to come back - especially if it was an Anathema. The suits should last as long as they didn't get damaged (we were only authorised to attempt minor repairs), and we'd have rations for 2 weeks: we'd need to hunt and forage. He finished by advising we travelled at night.

The first week, we saw signs of beastmen but nothing definitive - dead end tracks, signs of historic hunts, that kind of thing. The thick snow made our progress slow, and Kito and I found the armour uncomfortable to sleep in (though both reluctant to spend frequent nights out of it). The entire trip, we never Rey except fully-suited.

Maybe 10 days into our mission, Kito found the carnage of a fight - blood and torn tufts of hair (or fur) and a large gash mark in a tree that Rey identified as having been made with a large battleaxe. Piles of snow dislodged from trees had been replaced in the branches. I sketched the scene as Rey reported in to Captain Reilly, saying it looked like 3 beastmen had been killed. The Captain wanted us to stay in this area for a few days to investigate further, see if we could find out what happened.

A little further north, we found a similar site, with one tree fallen and another split lengthways down the middle. The work of the axe was also visible on a cleft rock, beastman remains still embedded. Fired arrows scattered the scene, and I found a sharp, curved dagger with runic carvings I didn't recognise, an elegant yet purposeful piece. I slid it into my pack, figuring I'd find a use for it. Ray spoke then, saying one assailant against 15 beastmen. I saw Kito's eyes flash blue with the sorceror's sight charm, and he said all the blood came from the beastmen, that they'd used the fallen tree as a weapon against the other and still hadn't been able to hurt it. From everything we'd seen between the two sites, we surmised the other was moving in a similar direction to us, and we might be gaining on them. None of us said it, but I think we were all thinking the same thing: Anathema. I wondered what that meant to Ray, assuming the same it meant to most of the Realm.

The third site had been a much bigger battle - Kito guessed 20 to 50, and the more experienced Ray stated 36 had died. It looked like the beastmen were hunting the Anathema, and we were definitely catching up: this site was only about 12 hours old. The sow was scuffed and red with blood and gore, and beastmen bodies torn apart. So much violence... Riley wanted us to continue, but warned us not to engage.

The next day, I spotted massive footprints in the snow, picked out in the evening light. Ray knelt down and studied them, pointing out the sharpness of the prints meant they couldn't be more than a couple of hours old. We hadn't followed them much further before we heard shouting in the distance, and the sound of a tree falling. Kito and I glanced at each other - I saw his eyes flash blue at the same time as mine as we both activated All Encompassing Sorceror's Sight. We crept forward to see a giant in a recently created clearing, surrounded by beastmen. He was definitely Anathema, not just by his height, but also that he was covered in fur and had the head of a snow tiger - or maybe less a man than a snow tiger on its hind legs, wearing straps of armour and swinging an axe taller than Kito or I. The gleam of the axe told me it was moonsilver. My mind raced to recall what I'd been taught of Anathema that may help us now: he seemed to be one of the "frenzied", those that go mad in the moonlight and drank blood fresh from their victim's hearts.

The battle was over too fast for us to see how many beastmen were slain. The tiger-man shrank down to be just a man; the axe shrank with him, to a little shorter than me. He was tall, still, and very muscular, but otherwise wouldn't have stood out - except, you know, for the gore he knelt in to stare at the moon. He wore worn travelling clothes and had slick, black hair with white streaks. We held our breath until he stood once more, and vanished the axe from his hand, and called us over.

Up close, I saw his irises had a reddish tint as though they reflected too much light, while his pupil's reflected none, not even the shine over the eye of a normal person. He asked whether we were the Wild Hunt, accepting it without argument when we said not and saying we could call him Raging Tiger. He explained he was also investigating why there were so many beastmen. His kind manner and friendly attitude soon had him subject to a barrage of questions from me and Kito. He was from an area to the south-west of here, a little north of the camp - which he knew about, and tolerated as long as he left his people alone. His people, in this case, were local tribes under his protection - from the Wyld, from less friendly Anathema, from beastmen. His description of beastmen as "not allowed" intrigued us, and he explained they were a creation, a cross of Nightfang and human. Nightfang?, we wanted to know: a name for what he is. Also Luna's Warriors or the Full Moon. He knew who was creating the beastmen and was pissed off - that they were doing it, and that they were doing it in our presence. At more of our questions, he said he assumed the other Anathema was male, but didn't really know, and demonstrated what he meant by shifting into a woman's form before our eyes. It gave us the final bit of courage we needed to ask about him being a tiger, and he explained he was stronger, faster in that form, and that's what made people afraid.

He considered us an enigma, surprised at our ability to channel essence despite being mortal - even more surprised when he realised we could see with sorceror's sight. That was the first time we heard it was unusual, but we were learning so much we didn't think anything more then. Raging Tiger looked over to Ray, and told us he wasn't Dragon-blooded as we'd assumed, but didn't look Celestial (like the Emissary, and Raging Tiger) - probably a Celestial half-breed. We worried he meant something like the beastmen, so he clarified that they were created from mortals, whereas Ray would have been a natural conception between a human and sufficiently powerful Anathema - neither he nor Ray knew what type of Anathema.

We went back to the topic of the Wild Hunt then. Kito and I only knew the name; he explained they hunt Anathema, and that Anathema - Celestials - are chosen by real gods, dismissing the Dragons with a sniff. He told us our boss has a dangerous reputation - dangerous as in Wild Hunt. It wasn't Mygus he described, but Reilly. I guess it was the questions we'd asked and the concern that then flickered across our faces that led him to realise it, but he knew, then, that we'd been chosen to be Anathema, and we already knew it. He said it's very unusual for us to be marked already: that doesn't happen, then explained there's 300 Lawgivers (like the Emissary), and 300 Luna's Warriors, and it's one in, one out. Only, for some reason, Lawgivers at least aren't being replaced...

It was impossible to judge Ray's reaction to all this through the suit.

We set up camp and trusted Raging Tiger to keep watch as we slept for the day.

Exalted - Joining Tepet's Legions

This is the story of our Exalted game, told from the point of view of my character, Cathak Taji. Click here for the index.

~~~

In the two weeks between the Empress's visit and our departure to join House Tepet's forces in the north, we wrote to Captain Ling and she came to visit with her husband and daughter. I was a little apprehensive: this was the woman who'd saved us. In my mind, at least, she'd taken on a maternal position, and now she was meeting my actual mother, and I was worried they wouldn't get on, that there would be jealousy. Instead, they shook hands and there were smiles and hugs and gratitude.

It was heading into Ascending Air when we departed. Kito was armed with the daiklaves that had been Daddy's, and Mum said I should keep her bracers. 

We had an uneventful journey (much, I think, to Jia and Mi-Yung's relief) north, to where the landscape was bleak and beautiful and cold. Our stop was the Last Refuge, a requisitioned Shogunite fort surrounded by pine trees and ice and snow. The fort stood on a clifftop, giving it near 360° of the surrounding region. A camp had grown up behind the fort, trampling the snow to dirt. There were so many people! We knew there were around 100 per banner; we tried counting the banners and lost track around 500. We saw people in power armour. We saw great Warstriders, even some made of jade. We even saw 4 people in gonzoshu, the armour of the elite forces in Lookshy. It gives a mortal with no essence of their own, who can't access the ebbs and flows of essence around them, the ability to take on an Anathema - at the cost of their lifeforce. Very rare, very expensive, very dangerous stuff. All 4 suits were in Tepet colours.

Our Imperial Orders saw us led straight to the central building, nicknamed the High Castle, where Tepet Ejava - the Rose Black - met us. She wanted us to travel with some supplies to join a recon unit, the 73rd Platoon, keeping an eye on barbarians without alerting them to the Realm's presence. She told us the barbarians were disorganised, but warned us of Anathema in the northwest.

We had a few days before the supplies would be ready, so we got to know the cooks and servants - the people who generally know what's really going on in a place. We heard a lot of gossip that way, and learnt that Commander Mygus (soon to be our CO) was a Dragonblood of House Ledall. We befriended the QM, too. His name was Han, like our brother, and when he heard where we were going he asked us to keep our eyes open for this red-coloured, peppermint-scented thistle that grew in the area - it was useful for curing "ailments of the mind". We were pointed towards a couple of people who've scouted the area before, and they warned us to keep a low fire at night and watch for the large, nocturnal cats who hunt a night: if they were to find us, we'd probably be dead. Look out, also, for Blue Dragon Fish, an admiral on the river who is very unhappy the Realm's in the area. We quizzed further on that, and were told he was very definitely a Dragonblood rather than an Anathema. They also told us to look out for the "Hushed Ones", people corrupted by "the stranger things out there" - naked and silent and very dangerous, they've wiped out entire units. We're warned to be alert: they prefer to lay traps. Avoid Wyld zones. Avoid snow lions. 

At least the ice weasels were said to be friendly.
  
Still with Jia and Mi-Yung, we travelled by boat up the River of Tears, then with the carts to the encampment, well hidden, camoflaged by the snow and much larger than we'd realised.. As we arrived, we saw a group of people in gonzoshu armour and one wearing something almost skintight, made of black jade plate and irridescent gems We were met by Captain Riley, a great bear of a man with flaming red hair and beard, and Rey, who wore power armour the entire time (it distorted his voice but could go invisible), and bore a dire lance. They led us to Commander Mygus, then Rey took us to where we'd be sleep: a small underground bunkroom which would be shared by just Kito, Mi-Yung, Jia and I. We were then left to settle in, and learned the food was good (supplies supplemented by hunting)..

At dusk, Kito and I reported to Captain Riley and Ray for our first assignment. We were given heavy laminar armour, matte black once we'd attuned to it. It made us faster, quieter, and acclimatised to the cold, and had built in comms. A long cloak completed the outfit. Kito kept his daiklaves, and I was given a red jade powerbow. Then we followed Ray on a scouting mission, to look out for fey, barbarians and bandits.

It was exciting, that first foray into the icy white wilderness. The speed of the suits was difficult to get used to, but once we'd mastered it Kito and I let out our competitive sides and raced across the snow. We came across 3 'horned devils', creatures of the Wyld whose horns, flesh, fur and bones would be useful, so we hunted them down and stashed their carcasses in a tree. The rest of the night was uneventful and we collected them as we returned to camp. A few hours sleep, and we were sent on another, longer patrol, again with Ray leading. This time, we ranged east, to investigate rumours of barbarians.

We found a village, and Kito found a hidey-hole with a good view. It seemed to have had recent use: the pine needles that lined it were well embedded and the snow hadn't fully covered the path to it. Curious, the 3 of us split up to see if we could find any trace of the mysterious observer. I found an arm and some broken weapons; Kito joined me there, having found and followed some tracks. It didn't take long for Ray to show up too: he'd found more tracks, these of the people who were attacked. They'd come from the village. The arm we'd found had come from someone who'd tried to run. From the various tracks and items we found, Ray reckoned there had been 4 people coming from the village. 2 were killed, and 2 taken captive. We didn't think barbarians were behind it: the arm had been severed too cleanly.

As we followed the onward trail, Kito and I spotted the hobgoblin who'd named us Dawn's Dancing Butterfly and Resplendent Blade Resonating Eternal. I can't explain how we knew it was the same one - even if it had looked the same, another fey could have assumed the appearance - but somehow we knew. Its presence alerted us to a small Wyld zone, which we skirted, picking up the tracks on the other side. 

Our suits meant we travelled faster than our quarry, and we eventually came across their extinguished campfire, and beyond that the village the attackers had come from. Movement flickered near some trees in the corner of my vision. I span round and fired my bow. We headed over to see a figure dressed in furs pinned to a tree, young, muscular, male, and dead. I staggered slightly: I'd never killed a person before. It wasn't like killing animals. We went over to bury him, and realised he wasn't wearing fur; he was growing fur. Ray turned his helmeted head in our direction: this was a beastman variety of Anathema. He wanted us to check the village and take them all out if they were all beastmen, becoming animated as he explained how dangerous they are, that they were a threat to our mission and to the natives, not to mention abominations.

It made me pause. This is what we'd been told about people like the Emissary and he hadn't shown any sign of being an abomination or dangerous. Hmmm. Maybe I should rephrase that. He'd never shown any sign of being dangerous towards us.

Although, the beastmen looked a lot more dangerous, actively violent against each other. Ray convinced us by pointing out they were taking slaves; we saw a normal man in rags and a blindfold. The blindfold meant we wouldn't have to kill him to hide the Realm's presence in the area; we could let him go. I didn't like to point out to Kito that this would likely lead to his death by exposure.

Our attack started with Kito and I firing from the trees while Ray snuck into the camp. Thunk-thunk-thunk: our arrows took down the chieftain. I kept firing as Kito ran in, dropping from the tree I stood in to land an arrow in the shoulder of one beastman causing it to miss Kito and kill its neighbour, but it wasn't enough: as axes and swords swung and arrows flew, Kito got very badly hurt. Ray and I finished off the combatants and freed the man in rags, giving him a blanket and telling him not to look for us. Ray burnt the village behind us.

We built a bier to drag Kito back to the base. I took him straight to the med-tent, then had to join Ray in a debriefing. The doctors and nurses wouldn't let me in to see Kito: as I begged and pleaded and argued and pointed out he'd get better faster if I was there, they just gave me nonsense about how I was demonstrating a lack of discipline.

He was in there for weeks, but I learnt if I played the good soldier they would let me in to see him.