Deadlands - Doomtown

Returning to Deadlands in my frantic efforts to get back up to date in the write-ups of the various games I've been playing over the last few, errr, years...

~~~ 

We're dusty, tired and hungry by the time we walk into Lion's Roar. Hungry? So what's new? 

We need to find a ship willing to take us out to where Sam said we'd find Born in a Bowl. Eventually, the captain of the Archeron agrees to take us for one of the dubloons we found on the way here. We leave the following morning, only to be attacked by a water sprite - a sentient spout of water - later in the day. The following day, the others overhear the crew planning to murder us for the rest of our dubloons, so want to pre-emptively kill them. I'm not happy about it, but it means we're ready when they come for us and win. Having our own boat will make travel easier, but I feel bad compounded murder with theft until they promise me we'll return it to the late captain's family once we're done with it.

Problem is, Chin's the only one of us with any real boating experience, and even his is minimal. Means it takes us around a week to find the mesa. It's easy enough to see: Native American bodies line the beach. The living ones let us enter and explain the corpses are Rattlesnakes - bad guys who pretended to be part of the group then stole Born in a Bowl. Seeing as we need to find her, a scout (Eyes like Fire) and a shaman (Weematai) are instructed to help us bring her back.

Back on the boat, I find a scrap of paper, a page torn from a book - a diary or memoir, maybe. We puzzle it out together (apart from Chin, who can't read):

...couldn't even consider it further. I was too afraid.

Mother had gone by then, and the whole westside was in flames. You could hear folks screaming. Folks we knew. Lord, I should have helped them but I was crying and so very afraid. That thing - I dare not write it again - was still out there. The ghost rock was burning and it sounded like devils clawing their way out of Hell.

...

And I wasn't ... find me and Emily, so we .. and as we ran past the Whateley House I remember how Billy had once said he was in the library and he saw a picture of a lightning bolt in an old book. Such a strange thing to remember. But then again, There were many stranger things

Carson's concerned: "Whateley" is a magical family who use blood to enhance their power. We share a look, understanding this is something we can't let distract us now, but will need to look at again.

On the search for Born in a Bowl, Weematai suggests we start at Gamora. Chin's heard of the place, and on checking his guidebook Tesla agrees that it's an abandoned mining town to the north, nicknamed 'Doomtown', though the book doesn't say where the name comes from and Chin doesn't know.

It takes us a few days to reach 'Doomtown'; we arrive shortly after sunset, at that point when the last glow of the sun has gone and it's fully dark. Eyes like Fire has told us he can see in the dark: we now see his eyes glowing and it's easy to believe. Chin hooks us up to the dilapidated dock and anchors the boat as a precaution against the state of the jetty. The wooden steps and rails make the climb to the town precarious. All we can smell is rotten wood. It permeates the air from the dock to the town. 

There's a glimpse of a person in the corner of my eye. I look again, and it's just a rotten door, swinging in the breeze. There's no one in the first building, but Weematai encourages us to keep going as something here doesn't feel right to her, the same kind of "not right" as she felt when the Rattlesnakes attacked.

We get a good whiff of corpse at the saloon; the others won't go inside, so I creep up the wooden stairs alone. There's noises behind one door, so I open it. Inside, the room is filled with moving, writhing corpses. I slam the door shut without seeing any more, but am too scared to move. I don't know how long I stand there, hearing the thump of my heart and my ragged breath, but eventually Carson arrives to see if I'm ok. I manage to stammer out what I saw, and he pushes me behind him before opening the door and going in. The door slams shut behind him - I hear the distinct sound of his fireballs exploding as I struggle with the door. When it swings open, it seems the whole thing was a trick of the wind in the bedsheets...

In the general store, the dilapidation of the town has managed to warp even the metal items beyond use. 

There's one brick building in town, the mining authority's headquarters. Rusted bars cover shattered windows. Carson shines his lantern through and peers inside, only to go even whiter than normal, and mutters "No man, you're dead. We looked for you."

The handle goes cold in Tesla's hand - he and Carson back away as shadows swarm and coalesce into the shape of a man wearing a cowl, armed with large guns with sharp, curved blades on the handles. It swoops at Carson, screeching "Justice comes!"

It focuses on Carson, ignoring the rest of us. Weematai whispers something, then repeats it louder: "Hanging Judge!" She directs us to shoot it with its own guns, then hang it. Tesla and Chin grapple for the weapons as the Judge wings Carson's head with a bullet - it throws Carson off balance, and his next set of fireballs come for us instead of their intended target. It's the final distraction needed, though; Chin and Tesla get the guns and shoot it until it falls, and we hang it from the cliff. A bell tolls from the church.

As we head to the church, Weematai explains a bit more about the Hanging Judges: they come to enact retribution. Carson says he had a feeling of Steve from it, which doesn't make any sense, because Carson's been really hurt by the loss of Steve. Oh, he's been stoic and put on a brave face, but I remember the frantic, distraught man we had to pull from the shipwreck.

The church is the only other building not made of wood, though it's missing half its roof. There's no bell ropes, and as we look up we see no clappers for the bells either. I can't find a Bible, but Carson finds the preserved body of the priest; not rotten, but desiccated.

It's gone midnight, and Weematai, at least is exhausted from the fight. We head back to the boat to sleep.

In the morning, we notice the body of the Judge is no longer hanging where we strung it.

Exalted - First Years in the Army

Bringing an Anathema to the heart of the Realm in a flying chariot visible for miles was not our best plan, and left the Empress in a bit of a quandry. Once the dust had settled, she explained she was sending us to join the Rose Black's forces in the north where we could stay out of trouble.

Jia and Mi-Yung came with us, remaining by our side for the first couple of years, but eventually getting separated and joining another unit. The Rose Black remembered us from Nexus, though whether that was the reason she kept an eye on us, or the fact we were young to be soldiers I don't kow. We fought mostly against Beastmen; I didn't suffer my first kill as severely as Kito had, but it still took time to get used to, even with the inhuman nature 
of those we killed. 

I remember one early trip out where Kito was severely injured. I hovered outside the medtent for days, while they worked on him and wouldn't let me in. It killed me, to be forced apart from him, and they weren't interested in making it easy for me.

We had frequent trips back to the Realm, to see our family and the Empress, Captain Ling and her family - she had a daughter while we were in the army - when they could make it, even the Abbess when she was free. We talked to her one time about our ability to see spirits and essence flow, something we thought she'd taught us. Her reaction was... unexpected. She visibly calmed herself before explaining we shouldn't be able to do that - it was an Anathema thing, really. I asked if this meant we would be Anathema and she reassured us not necessarily - it could be that one of our parents was Anathema, or even a God. I wasn't convinced - our parents were Dynasts, Dragon-bloods - but the way she spoke and the gentle way she looked at us made me feel I could trust her, even if we did turn out to be Anathema.

Each Calibration, the Emissary collected us for a traditional gathering of sorcerors, although our magic was only Terrestrial Circle and the gathering was really to protect Creation from more powerful magics. Most of the others there barely tolerated us, but one man was kinder. We recognised him: the 'Sage' - the hermit all Realm children were taken to who'd vanished after our visit. Here, he was known as the Seer and would talk to us - sometimes cryptically, but he'd often answer our questions when the Emissary told us "another time". 

It was white mice that first caught our attention: he told us to ask our mother whether she'd seen any at our house. Our next visit home, she gave us a confused look but eventually recalled chasing some out of the small house in Derren's Ford when they first moved there - the Emissary had told us that, if we were Solars, as everyone believed, that our previous incarnations had had a manse there, but that they were pranksters and it was filled with traps too dangerous for us to explore now. So it was curious that they'd chosen Derren's Ford to hide out in, but we didn't know how to ask her about that. 

Another visit, Hak finally agreed to Kito's request for a spar. With Hak being an Exalt, it seemed it could only go one way, but somehow Kito got a lucky, and said a white mouse had appeared. It had a strange symbol on its back; he saw it run toward a bush and vanish there: the mark was on the root. We asked the Seer about it next Calibration, and he told us the Unconquered Sun would sometimes appear to people as a white mouse, for luck - and that the symbol was his symbol. Already feeling concerned about the possibilities of being an Anathema and having realised the Realm hadn't been entirely honest with us about them, I started encorporating mice or the symbol into my art, as subtly as I could.

We befriended the Quartermaster, keeping our eyes open for things he wanted when we were out or back in the Realm. In return, he kept an eye out for items we might like; over the years, he gave us a plasma repeater and each a set of power armour as the most notable items.

After a couple of years, we were paired with Rey, a maverick soldier of great skill, especially in athletics and wielding her huge lance. The three of us were sent on scouting missions together, and it was on one of these we met another Anathema, a Lunar - Steward - called Raging Tiger. He couldn't come to the camp with us, but he helped us (or we helped him) defeat a mad Steward who was mutating people into beastmen... We didn't tell the army about Raging Tiger and were worried Rey would be unhappy about it, but we learnt instead her abilities came from her mother - a Solar.

Not long after defeating the rogue Steward, Kito and I were given our first command; Rey informed the army she'd join us (they tolerated her insurbordination and parentage because she was so capable a soldier). They were experienced soldiers; I have no idea why it was considered a good idea to put people as young and green as Kito and I in charge. Probably because we were heirs of House Cathak. The Realm is strange like that about nobility.

Their previous CO had been killed by an Anathema not long before - they were all of their unit that survived the battle, and managed to kill it. We impressed them by telling them about the Anathema we had defeated (leaving out the assistance we had).

One of the unit, Sven of House Ladall (our mother's House), was fond of practical jokes and placed a rabbit in Kito's bed one night. It was a sweet thing, white with a few black splotches. I named it 'Spook' and it stayed with the unit as a mascot for quite a long time. 

Sven was a soceror like us - though more powerful, as a Dragon-blood. Other notable members included Elinor, the Rose Black's young sister; Cainan and Rhianon, both of House Cathak; and a member of the Immaculate Faith whose name escapes me.. Horst was a broad man with a shiny bald head, expert at getting into places without getting seen and with a knack for knowing where to find information. Matsu Dairu fought with a pair of plasma repeaters in a style we'd never seen before, but was not Dragon-blooded, and neither were the oldest members, a married couple whose armour drew on their life to enable them to power it.

We were sent, as a unit, to investigate a Realm outpost at the Hold of White Idols. It had stopped paying tithe, and the army wanted to know why.

There was another stop en route, at an estate where the owner's tithe was lower than expected. Turned out, he was not only skimming but also selling things he'd found in a Solar tomb onto enemies of the Realm... Horst executed the man as soon as we had evidence. It was a bit of a shock. The servants and others who lived there fled. We raided the place for as much as we could: a plasma repeater and bullets, a good pair to the one Kito had from the QM that Kito said I should have, and a 'windblade transport' - a belt buckle-sized device that expands to provide a board on which one can stand and fly. Kito let me have that too: I love it. There was also a small box of healing needles in various magical materials that got use almost immediately, when I accidently found a Thousand Forged Dragon that was primed and ready to explode (or became so after I poked it) [[ OOC note: triple botch on a search roll... what's the worst that could happen? ]]. I was hurt, but not badly: Kito took the brunt of it, but the needles were fairly intuitive to use and I soon had him back on his feet.

We continued to the Hold of White Idols, a significant place both for what we did and whom I met.

Exalted - From the Realm to Nexus, via the Wild

The Empress wanted us to learn about Creation, so sent us off to Nexus, hoping we might be able to pick up rumours and so forth she wouldn't find otherwise. She made us promise to be careful and avoid the ruler of Nexus - The Emissary - at all costs, and took us off to have our very first hearthstones. I forget Kito's, but I chose one that would help me haggle and negotiate in trade.

We took a boat from the Imperial City to Lookshy, as our first stop, Mi-Yung and Jia accompanying Kito and I. We rejected the first inn we came to, an absolute dive, and ended up at the Leaping Fish instead. It was run by a father and daughter who took us in and made us welcome. Kito and I ran off to explore while Jia and Mi-Yung set things up. He and I split up, to cover more ground. I had a great time, meeting traders and locals. Kito wasn't back yet when I returned to the inn; we waited a bit, but I was hungry and tired so we ate before worrying enough to look for him.

When we found him, he was bleeding badly, unconscious in an alley. I was terrified; I don't know if I can express the fear that went through me. I've seen him similarly hurt since, and every time I flash back to that moment.

Jia carried him back to the inn, and the two of them patched him up. It took him several days to be up and moving, but even once he was physically recovered he seemed distant. Someone had tried to mug him for our father's blade he still carried. It took him a long time to admit to me (one of those 'creeping into the other's bed' conversations) that he'd killed the mugger. I was torn between hurt it had taken him so long to tell me and relief that he finally had. But mostly I was angry that he'd gone through that, angry at the hurt to his soul.

We took passage on a river boat to get us to Nexus, but it was attacked by pirates (in a boat armed with an implosion bow, the power of which left a huge impression on us) and sunk. Despite my best efforts to persuade him otherwise, the captain went down with it, but some of the other crew and passengers survived. Mi-Yung and Jia did their best to rally them; we built a fire and caught some food and ate and dried out, and left them in the morning to walk onward to Nexus.

We got lost that first night. Found a tumbled-down, ramshackle small building to use as shelter, but all four of us felt unsettled. Jia went to hunt and didn't return - Mi-Yung followed him, and when she didn't come back either, Kito and I went out. The landscape got stranger the further we went, with bleeding flowers whose thorns writhed. I lost Kito when he climbed a tree to try to see the way out. He said afterwards that as he tried to climb down, he found himself instead getting higher and higher. We rediscovered each other on a sheet of pure black glass, that rippled as we walked across it. 

Sitting on (growing out of?) a throne of the same material was a pale, androgynous figure who looked at us and asked our names. 

"Kito and Taji," we replied.

The figure laughed, a shattering of glass, "No. Your real names. I see Resplendent Blade Resonating Eternal and," those strange eyes, too big for the head, turned to me, "Dawn's Dancing Butterfly."

It wanted a story, promised to let us go as long as the story was a good enough story, and true. We told it of Derren's Ford and our journey to Thorns, and how we learnt who our parents really were... It seemed to satisfy the creature; strange dancing lights guided us back to the ruined hut - where Jia and Mi-Yung were sound asleep.

The experience stayed with me. It had laughed again when we'd said we were House Cathak, laughed when we talked about being chosen by the Dragons, as we expected - a derisive, baffled laugh. My thoughts kept spiralling back to one thing it told us: that we were Anathema, not Dragon-Bloods. I remembered the strange visit to the Sage when we first arrived at the Cathak Estate. My thoughts were confused and conflicted, but rarely left the topic for long; Kito, meanwhile, decided it had been messing with us and seemed able to put it completely out of his mind.

Jia and Mi-Yung had no strange memories of the night, and we didn't give them full details, but it was clear we'd stumbled into a Wild incursion and were careful as we left it in the morning. I was the first to notice Kito was... taller. The others didn't take me seriously to begin with, but when it became clear he could also walk faster and jump further - and I could see in the dark (or at least, low enough light conditions that it might as well be dark) - we realised that the experience had left its mark on us.

We walked for what felt like weeks, eventually comng across a statue of a man, enormously tall and made of a material we'd never seen before. He stood facing away from the city, arm raised with the palm facing out. We paused there, and I sketched the statue. 

From there, it was only hours to Nexus. We hired a small boy to keep us up to date with the ever-changing laws and took rooms at the 'Laughing Badger' - a lovely pub run by an elderly woman and her young nephew, a boy about our age. His name was Lawrence and we got on very well - he was impressed that we'd come all the way from the Bless... the Realm, when he'd never left Nexus. 

Nexus impressed us. The market was particularly exciting, and it was here we were surprised by Realm voices: looking around, we recognised the Rose Black. She was here to buy arms for the Realm's battles in the North, but her negotiator was doing a terrible job. So with all the cocky confidence of a 14 year old, I stepped forward. Kito tried to talk me out of it, but Gruncle, the Abbess and the Empress's tutors had nurtured my natural abilities, which were further boosted by the hearthstone the Empress had leant me, and I soon arranged a much better deal between the Black Rose's armies and the Guild. She was impressed, of course, and said she would remember the favour.

We wanted to see everything, but remembered the Empress's warning to avoid the ruler, the Emissary, so made sure never to be in the main square where theythey read the proclamations. Her warning was reinforced by stories we heard, including that it once exploded someone with a click of its fingers. We wanted to visit the library, and were disappointed to discover only Citizens were allowed. After that, we headed to the White Tower, whose edifice is visible from anywhere in Nexus. I was trying to convince Kito that we should try to blag our way inside to get a look at the view over the city, when we both felt a strange pull, a compulsion to turn around. The Emissary was behind us, walking towards the Tower. We'd forgotten this was where the ruler lived... 

The Emissary was tall and spoke in a deep, reverberating voice. The silvery mask was smooth, almost featureless; the billowing robes hid the figure. He (the voice made us decide he) seemed curious about us and invited us in. We didn't feel we could refuse.

Inside, we introduced ourselves as Taji and Kito of House Cathak, and explained the Empress had sent us here and told us to avoid him - he laughed at that and said they had history. It was hard to tell, with the voice distortion and the mask, but I caught a wistful edge. I told him what the Fey had said about us and our names, and he told us a bit about the history between the Realm and Anathema, to try to explain why the Realm hates them so. Particularly, he told us that the Realm, the island of the Realm, used to be called the Blesséd Isle and was important to the Anathema - to Celestial Exalts. They ruled there, and the Dragon-blooded (the Terrestrial Exalts) worked for them, but there was a falling out and the Dragon-bloods rebelled and wiped out the Celestials, taking the Blesséd Isle for their own, and with it a powerful weapon: the Panopticon Cataclysmic [[OOC note: not the 'Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster' I kept hearing]]. The Empress has tried to use it a few times, but as she isn't a Cestial Exalt (specifically a Solar, a Lawgiver, like the Emissary), doing so has damaged Creation.

It was a lot to take in.

He took off his mask, and revealed himself to be the most beautiful being either of us had ever seen - and thus started my first crush. My only crush, before I fell in love.

We told him about our mum and sister being held prisoner in a nearby slave camp. He knew the area we described, so took us there and showed us a taste of his power as he destroyed the guards. The Realm guards. Our brother Han was there, along with Mum and Yee. The Emissary freed everyone else, but they came back with us; he summoned a chariot from the sun, pulled by flaming horses, and took us back to Gruncle's estate, landing on the main lawn. Gruncle was very pleased to see us and our family. 

Hak knew the Emissary, and we learnt he was not a Dragon-blood as we'd thought, but another Anathema, Celestial Exalt. Not a Lawgiver, but a Vizier, a group we would later learn to distrust - though Hak has (mostly) retained our faith.

We talked about Derren's Ford and learnt about the mental walls Hak had put in our minds that night he saved us from the pack of giant rabid tiger-wolves [[OOC note: still just one small, mangy wolf, but they've told this story so many times now they don't remember it accurately]] to protect us from the emotional horrors of what we'd seen as they came tumbling down, and we sobbed and hugged Mum and Yee and Han. While we'd seen the ship flying Pellips' colours that day, Mum thought her House (Ledall) was behind the attack, based on the colours they wore - though she hadn't recognised anyone.

When we were alone, I told Mum that the Fey had said we would become Anathema, and asked her what she thought. She made me promise not to; she laughed as she said it, to show it was a joke, and I smiled back, but felt deep unease. Gruncle's response, when I spoke to him later, was to reassure me we'd face the challenge if it ever rose - and that, no matter what, he would always be our grandfather. That did make me feel better. Even now, when I feel overwhelmed, I remember his words, the tone of his voice, his face as he said it. His love.

The Empress was not impressed that we went to our Grandfather first, and summoned us to her - even the Emissary. She was pleased to see him. He called her "Catherine".