Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
Bloody Revelations     It has been, relatively speaking, a while since called upon to deal with the difficult grand scale strategic campaign against the Deathlords. Almost half their known number, and ovr a quarter of the rumoured number, cut down by now, it might have only been inevitable to arrange a means of no longer blatantly meeting in the open. That, or there had been some special interest in the remains of what the Lover had left behind; difficult and time-consuming enough to quite a lot of time to crack, which would be a first, for the supposedly (though increasingly likely) 'divinely inspired' Exalted.

    An appropriate place to meet has finally been outlined however, relatively deep into the Eastern direction, as of yet essentially untouched. Immediately after hearing about it though, it'd become apparent that the place is famous: Sijan, city of the Mortician's Order, known far and wide as far west as Lookshy and Thorns, and as far north as Whitewall and Gethamane. It's a good chance to get out of the frozen cold of the North and arid steppes of the Northeast, to a climate approaching Mediterranean, spring having already long thawed winter, with blue skies and slightly humid climes.

    And yet, despite being Creation proper, Sijan is like a little slice of the Underworld had entered into it --or perhaps the Underworld's eastern architecture modeled on it. It's a large city. *Very* large, sprawling on in a maze columns and spires, temples and tombs, monuments and theatres, all in spartan shades of grey, black, and white, like some monochrome fusion of Athens and Jerusalem. Despite its size, it's extremely quiet, even sombre, where people walk the streets in relative silence, religious and funeral processions are far more common than traders and covered wagons, and where entire districts are solely dedicated to mausoleums and mortuaries.

    It's only, apparently, underground, where people commonly live, endless mazes of tunnels and stacked buildings, having sunk through the soft ground over time and built over on the surface, that the city pulses with life. Opposed to the quiet and respectfully austere surface, the more vertically expansive 'catacomb depths' are lit, furnished, busy, warm, and highly active. The place you end up having to navigate to, oddly, isn't some out of the way hole or workshop of place of public entertainment, but a middling government-looking building, with men and women in pseudo-Gregorian robes and masks and censures conducting business outside . . .

    And perfectly silent, empty marble halls. The possibility of it being a trap feels quite high, the longer one navigates around it, with piles of ledgers untouched, coffers of silver unopened, embalming rooms unoccupied, and maps untended. It's only the heart of the building, at some sort of parliamentary hall, benches vacant, where you finally hear two noises.
Bloody Revelations     One is the muffled yelling and sobbing of about a dozen and a half robed officials, bound and gagged on the runway floor between the two partitions, before where a judge or high council official would sit, forced to their knees in chains, some in plain black robes, and some festooned in silver decorations of office. When you enter, they cry out to try and get your attention, looking to you with desperately hopeful eyes.

    The other is much fainter, as if from a great distance, barely audible, yet enough to make the skin crawl. A nearly imperceptible, deep, fierce, warped howling, neither quite human nor beastly nor that of the wind, grainy and distorted as if something broke in the process of trying to convey even the faintest notes of its ferocity. It emanates from the woman who has taken up the council chair and kicked her boots up on the desk, precariously balancing the chair at its absolute limit of support.

    The grating sound comes from one of those glowing hot, blood red daggers, floating above her fingertip, turning slowly, perpetually sparking and disintegrating away. She appears to be, rather than the captives, distantly examining her hand, somehow blackened from the fingers down, to the wrist, nerves glowing faintly through the skin. At your arrival, she puts out the dagger, and quickly slips back on her glove.

    "Took you long enough." is said, once again, regardless of anyone's arrival. There's no way she was keeping track of the passage of time, looking that entranced. "Of course you know why you're here, right? This is Sijan. An ancient neutral territory between all the nation states of the east. Nominal ally to everyone. Once depending on Lookshy, once direly threatened by Thorns, embroiled in Underworld power struggles to take a side, but the single biggest source of power, goods, and military might in the free Underworld outside of capital Stygia, which hardly counts, given it's been divided up thirteen ways." She pauses, then flashes an unwholesome grin. "Well, nine, now."

    "This place happens to be near to one of our most immediately problematic enemies. I dare to say that we've sadly run out of unpopular targets. Deathlords with few allies and little respect. Ones outright hated by their Neverborn patrons. Things change from here." Only just now remembering, she gestures to the prisoners. "Oh, and these are his spies. Cultists, really, thinking he'd be a reasonable ally to Sijan, expecting it to take a side with the Mask of Winters against them. I rooted them out beforehand. I've just been deciding what to do with them."

    "Well, listening about what to do to them."
Lezard Valeth Lezard arrives as requested and as scheduled. He doesn't change his clothes. He, as always, wears what he wills and effectively dares anyone to try to enforce a dress code on him. It requires a much more pointed situation to make him change things up.
     A meeting in Sijan isn't it. He enters the meeting toom and simply glances at the captives before looking away and taking a seat of his own. If they are looking for solace, they're pleading with the wrong evil wizard.

    "Well, one can appreciate your proactivity." Lezard says, glancing down at the captives again. "Perhaps they can provide some intelligence on their master? Spies can often end up working in both directions if one is not careful enough..."

    He sighs, and relaxes back in his chair, folding his hands. "Are we to move against the Walker in Darkness next, then, or are we simply looking at our options at this point?"
Staren     Staren doesn't have the patience for long trips, but flying a goddamn mech through the sky might attract undue attention; Staren gets out some gear he prepared for The Line but barely got to use, high-speed flight parts for his armor. He can keep low to the ground and hopefully not be seen too much. As for inside the city itself... hopefully people will just think that white plate armor adorned with silvery metal-and-hyperglass thrust nozzles is just the style from somewhere far away, creation's a big place. The ears and tail could just be part of the armor, too!

    Staren's getting tired of the maze of halls when he hears the cries, and hurries to peek into the room... Ah. There she is. And these were spies. Staren looks at the and considers... She's probably going to want to do some pretty terrible stuff to them. Maybe he can at least nudge it in a useful direction?

    "Perhaps... you could use them to demonstrate the principles of necromancy and souls? I would like to learn more about seperating souls from bodies..." He nods to Lezard, also an expert in such things. "I imagine you'll extract information from them in the process."

    He glances at the spies, then looks directly at Bloody. "So, just what allies do our next targets have, anyway?"
Starbound Flotilla     The Starbound Flotilla have been laying low since the SWITCH was set to OFF. For obvious reasons, their efforts to supply Bloody Revelations with all manner of esoteric spirit left their own more mundane stockpiles and war chest drained, and in need of a more passive refill. Considering the strained relations with several Concord members, it was best that they restock all on their own. But they remain loyal to the cause, and their frequencies spark to life when called upon.

    "With contracts yet incomplete, our services remain yours."

    A man in surprisingly plainish deep cyan eastern robes, wearing a jingasa that covers nearly his entire face, stalks underground catacombs with his motley entourage. Behind him, a man with salt-and-pepper hair and a grey plain jumpsuit and a woman in elegant golen robes checks that they weren't followed while the whole gang proceeds inside. They disregard the irrelevants, though one woman in something more like a medieval cloak checks to make sure they're not harmed. The anonymized group approach with an air of subtle confidence.

"Nine? That much meat left on buffet?"
"All you can eat. What do you say we count down a little further?"
"It is going to be difficult to make a target of those less hated by their peers."
"Tough jobs. Only ones worth doing."
"Determined. And /their/ tyranny will be worse, for their collaboration."
"So. What's on The Frequency, Rev?"

    A man in a just-weathered-enough naval coat and a captain's hat that almost hid his face grunts an apelike grunt at Lezard. Albert. "Unlikely. Operation Panopticon took him out. Unless he's operating again." He adjusts his hat, only barely exposing the fur poking out of the top of his jacket's collar. He isn't, right? Those cold, grey eyes narrow.

    Pavo brandishes something important to Staren from her Matter Manipulator. A mask, taken a long while back from Island 5, which is known for its soul-harvesting powers -- encased in a Pseudochalcum-lined case, of course. "This one's for you, remember? Have a blessing from your new god, hahaha! Something you can learn how to use, if Bloody Revelations is feeling the whim to loose your habits on life and death herself."
Haguro The silence of the halls is the strangest thing to Haguro. She's used to bustling cities, and she's used to quiet towns, but actual silence is simply too bizarre for the cruiser to just leave alone. Her footsteps are deliberate, as if she was trying to make noise just to keep the maddening silence away.

They completely are, and they don't stop until there's actual sounds down the hall. It takes her a bit to make out the sounds, but even that heartwrenching sobbing is some small personal relief to Haguro as twisted as that sounds in her head.

Best thing to do is to just not think about it and try not to make eye contact when they call out to the arrivals to plead for help. She clenches her jaw shut, she focuses straight ahead, and she forgets to unclench her jaw as she brings her hand up just underneath her white cap in a stiff salute towards the woman at the desk.

The grating noise is almost enough to distract her from the captives. "It's been a while, Miss Bloody Revelations. I hope you've been doing well outside of..." She remembers to loosen her jaw, finding it significantly easier once the explanation of the captives' presence is explained. "... Work matters. Ehm. Well. If they're spies, then..." She taps her chin lightly, steeling herself while looking between the captives and Bloody Revelations once again.

"Should they really even be allowed to hear any of this?" A beat, and then she shrugs lightly in response to Lezard. "I doubt there'd be a lot of useful information we could get from them. Good spies would pretend to crack and feed us useless intel, and bad spies would just tell us whatever we want to hear." She pauses, then furrows her brow at Staren's suggestion. "That's a little... Erm. I don't know if having them around would be a good idea on the off-chance they ever escape or recover."

One more pause, and then Haguro adjusts her cap. "Have any of the others made moves on your territory yet? Or done things that you could justify retaliating against in the public eye?"
Bloody Revelations     "Obviously, I already tried squeezing them for information." the Exalted scoffs. "And as I expected, their master only has any orders for them through layers of intermediaries and proxies. They report back what they know and are rewarded by middlemen. They worship him and empower him with prayers. More importantly, since this is Sijan, with far and away the most potent funeral services in Creation, they skim offerings and burn them in his name, furnishing him with Grave Goods. Mostly, they're spies though --bottom end ones. There wasn't much to gain from them outside of who is next up the chain and what they've been offering.

    Snapping her fingers repetitively, she stares off into the distance. "That's the problem. The Walker in Darkness is the next most immediate threat. His domain lies close to former Lookshy, presenting pressure on the forces handed to my Liege. His reach extends all the way to Denandsor, where you were previously able to beat him to the abandoned city heart and hand the treasure trove of technology over to Lookshy, which of course is now owned by the same man. Out of the remaining Deathlords, he maintains a balance of being threateningly competent without being overwhelmingly powerful. The only thing that has held him back so far is having too many irons in the fire to pursue any one of them fully effectively."

    "Now though, you have his full and undivided attention. He is capable of reading the writing on the wall, and you present a clear and evident threat, which he is . . . underestimating *less* than usual. More than anything, he considers you catspaws of Sixteenth Night's Silence, rapidly ousting him from his intended gains."

    "His 'allies', if you'd call them that, are innumerable puppet states and kingdoms he has 'advised', ruined, and then 'rescued', over and over again. He considers himself a neutral arbiter and benefactor within the East, and kingdoms still try to win his favour, between sending him yearly offerings to stave off an invasion, since he possesses a powerful and large standing army. Smaller, but more professional than the Mask of Winters. Without several layers of trump cards. No doubt he'll marshal all those territories at once, along with their Underworld mirrors, in a military effort."

    "The real problem is that he considers himself a theologian too. A warrior priest, genuinely devoted to the cause. This leads him to have a *cordial* relationship with one Deathlord peer. None of them ever trust each other, of course, but he can easily count on the support of, not far enough to the North, the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible. The two of them exchange correspondances. They worked together to establish the religious groundwork of the training of Deathknights. They interpret the Neverborn's will, as much as they are able. It stands to reason, obviously, that the Bishop is next. They *will* cooperate to take out a threat to both of them."

    Finally done, she returns her attention to the present, lowers her boots, and leans forward on the high table, lacing her fingers. "Much like you've decided yourself~" she says, particularly leering at Staren. She then waves of Haguro's concerns pretty much immediately. "It doesn't matter if they do. They won't leave this chamber *both* alive and mentally intact." The round of muffled yelling grows louder and more desperate for a moment, but she continues on anyways.
Bloody Revelations     "The Bishop is thus our other problem. He doesn't maintain much in the way of a military force. He is a 'religious philosopher'. His hope is converting the living to the worship of Oblivion and have them walk willingly into it. A little like the Silver Prince's 'New Order', before you killed him, but considerably more dangerous. He doesn't present death as a lifestyle. He distributes his texts widely, at swordpoint if necessary, and thus who read them are quite enthusiastically converted."

    Reaching under the desk, she picks up a thick, black bound and silver embossed tome, and drops it on the surface with a heavy thunk. It looks innocuous enough. "The Tome of Endless Night. *Multiple* large kingdoms in the Kunlun Desert territories swear by this religion now. He even distributed slightly different versions to them, so they're perpetually at war now. *His* designs were on Whitewall, which he is now barred from following, on Marama's Fell, which I understand has been purged of its undead armies *quite recently*. So, he has a personal grudge as well."

    "Neither of them have 'made moves'." she says to Haguro, airquotes audible. "I've told you before: Servants of the Neverborn are *expressly* prohibited from open war on each other. That's why you exist. They'll certainly find a way to co-conspire their way back into Lookshy's stores, or perhaps Whitewall somehow, but we're not going to let them live long enough, now are we?"

    "This time we can't just march up to their personal domains and attack them at their seat of power. The Walker's domain is cursed to kill any living thing that enters, and his army trains and manufactures round the clock there. The Bishop's manse constantly teleports throughout the desert to different locations hundreds of miles away, and entire armies gather at its doorstep for holy wars with each other to win the privilege of entering."

    Then, at last, a slightly too-sweet smile to Haguro again. "And I've been fine~ Quite fine~ More than fine! I've finally broken the protections on the Lover's prized little artifacts, and severed its connection; a task worth several months, but worthy of the time. That puts three in my possession, which no other Deathlord is aware of, rightfully assuming I'd surrender them to my Liege. That makes them fear him more than me."

    One more reach under the table, unceremoniously dropping a rolled up letter. Her voice turns to a derisive scoff. "In fact, the Walker in Darkness is so very pleased at the destruction of the Mask of Winters --his hated rival-- that he's made an overture to win me over to his court, and asks that I bring you all with me."

    She taps her finger slowly at Staren's requests for demonstrations. "Separating a soul from the body. Isn't that obvious? You kill them."
Staren     Staren gives Haguro a brief sad look, then he blinks as Pavo brings a gift: One of those masks that sucks at peoples' souls! He takes the case and looks at it for a moment. "Thanks! I hope I can learn some useful things from it...

    Then he listens to Revel. "Marshal all those territories for a military effort /where/ though? We don't exactly have territory ourselves... maybe we could let him waste his supplies keeping the army marshalled, then strike when it begins to fall apart...? Or is he going after Sixteenth Night's Silence -- after Lookshy?"

    He mutters, "Or dead and mentally intact, either... can't have ghosts ratting on us to our targets..."

    At the bit about worshiping Oblivion, Staren hmphs derisively. And whistles appreciatively at the mention of the Bishop manipulating his 'followers' into religious war with eachother.

    "Just to check," Staren raises a hand, "Does my trick with occupying a construct protect me from the effect of the Walker's domain? And you say the Bishop's constantly teleports, yet armies are able to gather on his doorstep... How often, exactly, does it move?"

    Staren blinks at her blunt answer. "Ah. Well. I guess that's true, but I'm rather hoping to learn enough about manipulating souls to also put them BACK in bodies, or in other ones. I can't manipulate essence directly as a construct, but I wonder if a different process of soul transfer might not have the same flaw..."
Lezard Valeth     The arrival of the Flotilla actually causes Lezard to look over to the group as they enter, a curious little smile on his face. "Ah, the Flotilla. Good to see you all again. It has been far too long since we have been graced with your... professionalism." Unlike others in the Concord, Lezard, at least, seems to be quite enthusiastic to see them again. "It should be of no moment, I simply needed to refresh myself on current events, which our dear patron is already in the process of."

    He then shrugs to Haguro. "I do not bother with normal methods of interrogation. There are /far/ better ones than simply taking them at their word for it. Though it seems that Bloody Revelations is of the same mind, so we can simply allow her and perhaps Staren to enjoy themselves."

    Bloody gives an overview of the current political situation, and Lezard is already scowling. He is about to provide a possible plan when a better one is immediately presented, causing him to lower a hand for a moment as he gets a contemplative look. "So the Bishop is the next target. And he and the Walker work together. If we can break apart that tenative defensive pact, then we can eliminate the Bishop quickly. Since you so kindly have provided us an entrance to his court, perhaps we should avail ourselves of it and work to deal with the problem of the Bishop from within their organization."

    He leans over and taps on the table. "The teleporting Manse can be dealt with. Like most things in Creation it is likely following some form of geomantic line, whether here or through the Underworld. Once we can tap into the network we can force it out of position. But I am getting ahead of myself. First, we need to put the forces of the Walker out of position dealing with a presumed threat. Leveraging the existing suspicion against Sixteenth Night's Silence seems like the optimal path in this respect."
Haguro Haguro's gaze goes from thoughtful to dull as Bloody revelations goes over the various parties still in play even at this stage of the conflict between herself and... All those others. Cursing her lack of foresight to bring something to writenotes in, she simply listens while occasionally perking up at the more familiar names. Eventually, she just starts repeating "Waker in Darkness" and "Bishop" to try and hammer those names into her brain as their relative importance and the dangers posed by each are detailed by Bloody Revelations.

"Do...? No. Hm. Trying to sabotage the Walker's plans from within is out of the question, then. And finding the manse would be tricky, so we'd have to act from outside each of these locations without a better way to get in. But..." Haguro furrows her brow again, crossing her arms and closing her eyes to try and see if that helps jar her mind for better ideas.

It doesn't. At least Revelations gives her some good news, and Haguro actually chuckles lightly at the news of breaking those protections. "Oh? That's going to be incredibly helpful, then. A good opportunity to use them should come up eventually, but..."

It's that last bit of news that gets her attention. "If there's a way to get into the Walker in Darkness' domain, then that would certainly make it easier to... Hm." She taps her chin again. Once again, she's drawing a blank on how to us that! Not so much of a blank that Lezard's suggestion about Bloody Revelations's and Staren's potential use of the spies is lost on her, though, and she actually lets out an intrigued noise at that.

"I didn't know Mister Staren would have it in him." Haguro jokes, then turns back to Revelations. "Perhaps if we make it known that the Walker in Darkness is trying to win you over, we could create a rift between him and the Bishop. Not through actively pitting them against each other since that would be too obvious, but..."

Haguro turns to Albert. "Like if someone knew Mister Albert and Miss Pavo were friends, then started monopolizing one of their time to the detriment of the existing relationship."
Starbound Flotilla     "Of course, you'll need our benefactor's gracious help. I can bless you with boons, but even a god like me can't cram wisdom in your skull, you know." Pavo says, breaking into cawing laughter briefly again. She finally removes her hood as well, baring her grin. "I want to see you ditching that long-cooking brain-scan quick. It doesn't have the look of a proper miracle. You need something that people can write about in books like it was something impossible. Really, it's the only way you'll ever get some respect for that immortality you have on-sale."

    She's still kind of an asshole, but at least she's trying.

    Moonfin inclines his head at Lezard, removing his hat. "Valeth. Of course we would grace matters such as these with little else than utmost professionalism. Forgive us, our coffers required dilligent restoration. We remain, shall I say, under the radar for now." He sets it aside. "But not so much so that we would fail to pursue our unfulfilled efforts." He turns to regard the letter. "A bold maneuver, one I quite assume you shall reject. But perhaps an opportunity. Of course, we shall never be as foolish as to take up his offer, but a meeting could permit some maneuvering."

    "Curious. Is it too much to hope that your power would help us make the protection we need to survive Walker's domain?" There's a soft buzz of tension as Seft undoes her cloak and sets it aside, but she continues with an open mind. "Focused. You've furnished us with protections in the past. Is it possible we could merge our mass armor manufacturing technologies with the protective parts of your craft?" She joins Moonfin at the table, planting her palms on it and contemplating.

    Albert thinks many military thoughts. Adjusting his cap, he plants a little holo-projecting techbit on the table, something to trace out maps for what Bloody Revelations is describing. "Not as outright powerful as Mask. But." He mutters. "This tactical position. Worst we've faced. Can't afford to go into open war just for this, right away. Would expend too much of our forces at this position."

    "Ship friend hasss good idea, Floran think." Biteblade says, pointing to Haguro and smiling wide with all those many many teeth. Her own furred cloak is tossed aside."Doesss Bishop get thingsss from Walker that Ssspooky Friend could asssk for? Maybe isss way we can add tensssion to cooperation?" She's giving this a hard as hell thought. But for now, the Flotilla clearly need more information before they can put down a strategy.
Bloody Revelations     "Often enough." Bloody Revelations replies to Staren. "It's not tracking it down that's the problem, but the fact that he could move it away again at a whim. And I doubt a simple change of flesh would suffice. Besides, what resources? Ghosts don't require anything to stay battle ready, and these kingdoms all supply their own militaries. We can't walk into either one of their manses directly; we would *require* a sustained effort to break one down, travel all over to locations to gather necessary items of power in operations that'd take weeks and be easily interrupted by deployments across the East and North, or else gather up an army ourselves. Again, I can't count on my Liege's forces to do the job. Such would be war between Deathlords, nakedly and obvertly, at the expense of the cause of death."

    "As for the manse --the Hidden Tabernacle by name-- the sorcerer is right. There are a set number of locations it has ever appeared in Kunlun, which it goes through. Given their distance apart however, and their number, being ready enough at all of them to stage an invasion regardless of where it might appear seems . . . unlikely to me."

    In a vaguely agreeable tone, she continues "The Bishop is the weaker of the two of them in direct combat, though I've heard whispers of him attempting to develop some sort of new, ultra-lethal martial art. Regardless, he doesn't personally command much beyond his own retinue of suicidally zealous and loyal Deathknights, who don't stay in the Tabernacle. We're even more fortunate with the Walker, in that his *cannot* stay in his domain for long. Neither will be able to call up their wayward knights on a moment's notice. Given that they most certainly have spies in each other's court though . . ." Again, she leans forward. "How do you expect to make ready moving on one without the other finding out straight away? Where do you expect to find armies, artifacts, cults, labourers, sorcery, that neither can see?"

    Making a sound of . . . vague, almost-approval at Haguro, as surprised as Haguro probably is, she says "I don't . . . hate it. I *refuse* to debase myself to the point of bending knee to him, but it'd certainly distance the two. After all, the Bishop must surely be aware of my own . . . philosophy. I know it's circulate, here and there, in closed rooms in Stygia. It'd certainly result in him putting more resources towards spying on his fairweather ally of convenience."

    Biteblade expounding on the idea makes her smile, even, in a twisted sort of way, probably related to secondhand information heard from Lookshy, if she had to guess. "Ohoho? Quite possibly. With their propensity for spying on each other, I'm sure he's *very* much aware of my Liege's propensity for 'gifts'. Lots of them. Lavish ones. Excessive ones. It'd be perfectly in-character for me, from his perspective, to demand equally, no, even more handsome splurges as part of some deal I never plan to honour. Not bad. Not bad at all. If Moonfin wouldn't mind being a liason, of course." She actually used his name. "If you want to be paid, that's a trivial concern for me."
Bloody Revelations     Drumming her gloved fingers on the table, she considers Seft. "It's possible. I could do it. But it wouldn't be an absolute protection. It isn't some spell the Walker in Darkness laid over his manse to protect it; it's a much older curse, and one that he'd be glad to get rid of. You'd survive only for a time, as it drains away your life --a hideous disadvantage which he could easily exploit in battle. It'd be a last resort, compared to luring him out, forcing him out, or destroying it completely."

    "We wouldn't be able to do the same thing as the Lover's palace; as much as I . . . 'respected' her command of Necromancy, and nothing else, she had no interest in guarding its geomancy past the necessary level to thwart heroes ignorant in its workings. The Walker's very army lives within his walls. This Bishop is indeed the softer target, I agree, and more likely to believe my wrath towards him stayed to a degree by the Walker's 'wise consultation', opposed to Sixteenth Night's Silence letting me do as I see fit."

    Finally she deigns to answer Staren's personal questions. "Putting souls back *into* bodies? Into, strictly defined, a body, certainly. A ghost can possess a corpse, or an artificial vessel, if needed. There are magics they are capable of learning, thought taught rarely, for the purpose of walking in the daylight, though inhabiting a flesh vessel has few benefits but protection from the sun until it eventually rots."

    "You can't be talking about bringing *back* the dead. I'm only interested in perfecting the pure soul; an imperishable form beyond crude and earthly needs, wielding essence as they were meant to, not forcing them back into an existence of fleshy suffering."

    "Under usual circumstances, after death, the higher soul, containing the intellect, enters into reincarnation and ceases to be a person, or if its will and attachments to life are strong enough, it persists as a ghost and immediately appears in the Underworld. The lower soul, containing the animal brain, dissolves entirely, or else might rise as a mindless, hungry ghost, which feasts on the living, if the body is mistreated. This usually takes three days, after which the ghost appears in the mirror of where they died, with any goods they were buried with, or burnt as offerings, as eternal, self-replenishing Grave Goods, and can gain power from prayers."

    "Necromancy can force a soul to become a ghost, or force it to reincarnate --the latter of which ghosts fear worse than death. It can trap a soul, reuse or control the lower soul, modify the existence of a ghost, bind them to vessels, or even temporarily prevent death from existing, for an individual. It can create substance out of nothing in the Underworld, even animals, and tap into certain not yet understood mysteries of reincarnation, but it does *not* bring people back to life. Necromancy is absolute dominion over death."
Staren     Staren is also surprised by Haguro's idea. He's not sure what to make of Pavo's assertion that what he does already isn't miraculous. Bringing back the dead is bringing back the dead... do things lose their magic just because they are explained?

    When Revel addresses his questions about necromancy, he nods. "I see. I look forward to seeing your work perfected, but I see it's the wrong tool for the job I mentioned, at least until becoming a perfected ghost is a reliable option for people. I hope to learn more about necromancy nonetheless, but it does sound like it won't really help us with the Walker's domain, either.

    "I agree that social manipulation is probably our most powerful tool here, I'm just better suited to looking for other ways to aid us once they've been put in a weaker position." Staren rubs his chin, and paces a bit, then stops by the mask case and puts a hand on it. "What about the masks and the stone from the island? Could you just... suck up their armies of the dead? Whether you use the soulsteel or not..."
Lezard Valeth     "We will not need to be at any of the locations." Lezard clarifies. "My plan would be to create a geomantic shunt that would force the Manse to manifest in a place it is not intended to do so. This would cause it to appear at a place of our choosing, and then we can simply lay siege to the Hidden Tabernacle in a place they never would expect to be assaulted." Lezard waves a hand. "But again, I am getting ahead of ourselves. We must lay the groundwork before we can engage in such an action."

    Lezard then leans back in his chair. "Here is a thought exercise, perhaps: Why hide it? Perhaps we can simply appear to give the Walker in Darkness what he desires. Such a spike in power alone may threaten the balance of power between them. The Bishop is like not immune to the wiles of envy, nor would it go unnoticed that a group that is reputed to have destroyed /several/ Deathlords may be assisting the Walker. How long before he begins to have second thoughts about being so close?"
Haguro "Martial art...?" That gets Haguro's attention, but she quickly dismisses it with a shake of her head. "If it's suicidal, then it probably won't do any of us any good to learn, anyway." She emphasizes the 'probably', then blinks slowly as Bloody Revelations makes that vague noise. It's not a s dismissive one, so it's a good start!

Probably.

"Oh, don't become a pushover by any means. That'd turn you into how I used to be." She cracks an incredibly forced grin, then clears her throat. "... But yes, smaler wedges like that or making the Bishop's benefits to the Walker redundant as Miss Biteblade suggested. Although that's easier said than done, even with promises of-"

Bloody Revelations mentions not honoring such a deal, and the gears start turning again. "Do you know if you have a reputation for honoring or not honoring deals? I... Don't think it'd be a great idea to not honor them. At least, not right away. It could make other potential allies and enemies more wary around you if they can't trust legitimately beneficial gestures."

Haguro takes off her hat and peers into it briefly, starting to lose her footing some. "Does your Liege have anything impressive to offer that's ultimately worthless for him and the Walker? Perhaps a distant territory that the Walker would have no chance of governing or controlling for longer than a week or so due to distance or being another oen of many things splitting his attention?"

She's starting to sound more confident by the end. "One that would need delegation to someone with more time to handle it like... You?"
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin wouldn't mind being a liason /at all/, it seems. "Absolutely." He says, immediately. "You will find no success quite as grand as what I may provide in your stead, in realms of diplomatic maneuvering." He sounds outrageously confident in this. Presumably he's already scheming schemes. "I need know only the objective; if I can draw away what is most often provided to Bishop, then I shall squeeze Walker for every drop of it."

    Soft makes a soft series of contemplative beep-boops. "Thoughtful. We don't want a disadvantage. Maybe..." She stops, processing something in her mind. "Verging. Bloody Revelations, what /exactly/ is cursed? Can you tell me what the precise subject that bears the curse is? The Walker's domain... his land? Is it the land, or his dominion over it that has the curse?" Seft turns to Biteblade, and the two wordlessly form the primordial soup from which an idea might start to evolve.

    Pavo is the one who disengages slightly. "When are ya gonna grow some of those balls you mammals keep bragging about, Staren?" She caws. "The job you have is to swoop in and draw the dead back into this world. You don't want to lose anyone anymore, right? Why are you bending over backwards to cram them back into the same bodies they shit on the carpet with the first time? I think you should look into this ghost business. Get a solid foundation for being a messiah, figure out appeasing the meat-lovers /after/ you have that. Don't stick to a tool that only works on people with neurons, you should take a tool that works on /everyone/ and then refine /that/. Is listening to moralizing Watch bio-conservatives more important than reviving any magic-brain friends you make?"

    She has conspicuously turned off her radio for this particular session of brief critique, because she wants to not make this into a "beat up on Staren's morality" moment. She's trying, legitimately, to move him. "We're not folks who see eye to eye, but I know you're gonna be in bunker mode, so I'm laying it down: Don't turn this opportunity down or you'll be regretting it the /moment/ you see a fae, or a golem, or some other soul that doesn't have neurons. Figure the meat out later if it matters, but it matters less than people staying alive. Such as it is, anyway."
Staren     Pavo rants; Staren is a little taken aback. "That's another reason why I need another method that doesn't require just the right sort of brain. It remains, though, that I know more about building physical bodies than making spirits able to interact with the world. I suppose people I help would rather be a ghost than dead, surely, but I myself am better at building battle robots than making spirits swole. And if it can put me in a battle robot as needed or a clone when it needs to not freak out the normies at a diplomatic dinner, then it can also put people in whatever THEY like, but what's important is they can still interact with the world."
Starbound Flotilla     "So learn. Find out how to put ghosts into /robots/, I know someone like Bloody Revelations would know where to start. Don't sit and wait for the perfect solution, find the good solution and /make/ it perfect. Make the miracle happen yourself, don't reheat a pre-cooked one." Pavo seems particularly emphatic, dredging up her own obsessive egotistical nature to try to compel Staren here. "If you can't be a necromantic messiah like Bloody Revelations, be a necrologist messiah like /Staren/. Be /you/. You're the one who runs in and saves the day so that nobody dies. Stop being less than that because the tools have a few edges you could file down later. Don't let yourself stagnate."

    She clenches a tight, encouraging fist in front of her, leaning in towards Staren. "You should be white-knuckle grabbing your chance to become a /god/ of rebirth and ultra-life, not wasting away cooking fresh meat in tubes and waiting to fail a dead golem friend. Don't be afraid of change, /take it/ instead."
Bloody Revelations     Haguro's question about honouring deals immediately draws a scowl to Bloody Revelations face. Her hands slap down on the desk, which quakes far more violently than it should for the gesture. One of the feet splinters, and it sags slightly to one corner. "Have I ever lied to you? Have I ever not given you something you were owned? Have I ever gone back on any sort of promise to *any* of you? No? I don't think so. That is *different* from this. I'll string that amnesiac idiot as long as I need to. He wants to impress me? Win me over? He can keep trying until he's bankrupt; it'll still be no. All he has to do is upset the Bishop in the process. Do you get that? At all?"

    There is a moment of mounting pressure in the room, where the lights dim, the air grows hard and cold, and the dull roaring, at the edges of hearing, begins to return, but it fades quickly as the Deathknight backs off of her dangerous tone. "If he believes the Walker in Darkness will gain some sort of power that is aimed squarely at him, of course the Bishop will not remain 'allies' for more than a moment. They don't *like* each other. None of them are. None of them are loyal to anything but themselves. That's a good reason amongst several that they have to be wiped *out*."

    She seems to throw down a name off the top of her head. "Skullstone, maybe. On the opposite end of Creation. Lucrative and built up, with the Silver Prince's manse still intact, but its people are weak and soft, and its military is now ruined. The real prize is Island Five --that invisible factory. No other Deathlord, of course, has any idea of its existence, but I'm sure they'd be more than happy to rifle through the late Silver Prince's articles to dig up the secret weapons and half-finished plans they'd expect to find."

    Finally, she considers Lezard's proposal with a look of appraisal, letting the chair clatter back as she stands, with a round of flinching cowering from the bound men on the ground. "If you believe you could do such a thing . . . well, I shan't gainsay you on it if you're confident, but I doubt it will be easy, nor go unnoticed. You're a known party to the destruction of the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears, and it's not the sort of work that can be completed overnight." Now she's pacing back and forth.

    "Armies of the dead, of course, don't matter to me. I've said already that they have armies of the living as well. The four kingdoms in Kunlun would be more than eager to work together for a time to kill a band of apostates who seek to threaten their messiah. But they aren't his forces personally. The Walker won't send aid to him if he believes he has a chance of converting me and bringing you all into his court, and wouldn't slightly care if it took out a rival at the same time." There is a plan, obviously forming.

    "The curse isn't his. The land itself --a valuable shadowland-- is cursed. Its previous owner, another Deathlord, had her manse there, and was humiliatingly defeated by the cooperation of three gods from Great Forks, and duly punished. The curse is her way of salting the earth, to spite the Deathlord given her land. He's been looking for a way to break it for decades. You need not necessarily enter it yourselves, nor do battle there, however . . ."
Bloody Revelations     She stops pacing all at once. "There's one last thing to talk about. The Sins of Death. I've told you before. I can't, and won't, overtly protect your lives. If you were dead, it'd be a different story. However, the restrictions about warring on the other parties of the cause --internal conflict between major parties sworn to Oblivion . . ."

    "I have reason to believe that protection is slipping away from them. Four times in a row now, even if it was obviously indirect, through you, it's not that They haven't noticed. Haven't seen or heard. I've been . . . 'There'. I'm beginning to believe . . . that They may even intend to replace the Deathlords. Or at least, this process is one that eliminates the weak and unworthy to serve, and if one of the Deathlords instead succeeds in stopping me and killing you all, that'll only prove they're the worthy servant to hand the domains of all the rest to. I think they're all too deaf to Their whispers to know it."

    "I'm going to participate myself. At least through my four, dear friends. Ju'uni, of Silent Tales is in the North of the Underworld. Sorath, the Bone Carver in the East. I'll make it work. If nothing else, there's no guessing with them. They stem from the Third Circle. The Neverborn themselves. I'll try it. I'll just first need to . . ."

    She waves that off too, without finishing. "Never mind that for now."
Lezard Valeth     The amused look on Lezard's face as he listens to Pavo attempt to cajole Staren in to action is interrupted as Bloody Revelations spikes in aggression. There is a recoiling motion, as if Lezard was just stung as he pulls back from the table getting slammed. His expression goes wary, clearly calculatying what might come next...

    But Bloody makes it clear that there is a very clear divide between her true allies and what she will do to her enemies. Still, that pressure is intense. "Your position is quite clear on the matter." Lezard states in a mollifying tone. "There is no need to worry in this regard." He tries /something to try to deescalate the situation... But Bloody relents, for whatever reason, and Lezard relaxes.... A little.

    "We will assemble more direct methodologies to deal with this issue soon enough. I can begin exploring and examining the situation and determining what I can and cannot accomplish soon enough."
Haguro Haguro jumps a bit in reflex when Revelations hits that table, and her jaw tightens again as all of her old anxieties return to her mind. Instead of apologizing immediately, though, she takes a breath to steady herself, puts that admiral's cap back on, then shakes her head while trying to keep her cool despite that visible anger. "You haven't, no. Your reputation with us isn't the same as your reputation with the Deathlords, though, and it's probably not the same for others in this room."
Shehe looks towards the captives. "It's a delicate balance, but... Have you considred looking less... Hm. More manipulateable, at least to others outside of here? Not necessarily gullible or foolish, but just... Easier? You know, to make them think they have a..."

She stops herself, then shakes her head again. "... No, that wouldn't work. Everyone here is already known for what's happened to the Lover, and looking too weak would just embolden them..." Haguro rubs her head, most of that confidence from earlier fading considerably already. That slight dullness comes back in full force, too, when more names are pitched.

It was a good run while it lasted. She does, however, seem to perk up again once Bloody Revelations mentions personal participation.

"That'll be an interesting sight to see. Just.. Try not to reveal too much right away. You said we're known, yes? If it can be handled with known actors, then any unknown abilities you have could be key to victory later. First things first, though... Um. North or east first? And..." She glances over at the captives, looking only slightly apologetic about their plight. "Should they still hear this?"
Staren     Staren continues to be taken aback at Pavo's... intensity about this. "You know, I don't save /everyone/. I kill, or don't revive, bad people I don't think will reform..." At the end of it, he just looks to their Exalted friend to see if she has any further input on the matter or not.

    Staren's tail goes all bristly when Revel reacts almost violently to Haguro, but noone can see that under the armor. And then another subject comes up.

    "So you think the Neverborn are letting us kill their chosen? Or at least... not interfering. Well, the fact that the deathlords seem to have been locked in a status quo may have tried their patience. They may have forever, but if they want to end the world because they're in a state of eternal suffering or something, I can see why watching their chosen fail to move forward would be agonizing. What about Sixteenth Night's Silence, though? Are they worried you might replace them, or confident that having found you is a mark of their excellence in the eyes of the Neverborn?"
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin speaks up. "So," He starts. "We draw Walker into offering gifts that might apply tension to the relationship that he and Bishop had, then we return those gifts in kind -- with something that shall easily make Bishop feel a threat in a dire time." He thinks, and Biteblade races to beat him to a conclusion.

    "What can Flotilla do to rig Island 5 againssst Bishop? And alssso maybe trap it ssso Walker can't ussse againssst usss? Maybe make own factoriesss, ssso Flotilla knowsss weaponsss better than Walker? Could ssseed with many teleportation technologiesss, make Bishop ssscared, maybe."

    George flicks a cigarette onto one of the bound and gagged spies and speaks up. "The rules buckle, soon as you tune in, don't they? That's the way it is. You aren't on my frequency, but you're... close. I say go for it, Rev. Dig in deep, you'll find out the boundaries just lead backstage." Then he approaches Seft.

    "I know what you're thinkin', Seft, and I'm thinkin' it too." He grins widely and points to Bloody Revelations. "You said the solution yourself. The /land's/ cursed. And you just so happen to have the biggest land-movers around here workin' for ya. I bet ya nobody's ever put the time in to geoengineer the whole damn cursed land to take it out of the picture for an ambush. Just gotta know how far down that curse goes, and we /might/ be able to lift that whole thing off if we can find plenty of local fuel sources."

    Literally just... flip the pancake of the entire landmass? Probably not as viable as they'd hope, considering the differences in matter between their native planets and local land. But if the Flotilla goes all-in on geoengineering, they /may/ actually have the resources to at least abruptly move a big enough chunk of land during a battle to kill the curse locally.

    Unconventional traitor tactics.
Bloody Revelations     "Good." That's all Bloody Revelations seems to have to say to Lezard at the moment, but it's affirmation enough. 'Good' means 'we'll go with that' as far as her standards seem to go. "Withdrawing the Walker in Darkness' military support of the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible should allow you to start. The destruction of Kunlun when their crusaders ride out to stop you will come second." Not 'would'. 'Will'.

    "Finally, you're beginning to get it." she huffs in barely contained annoyance at Haguro. "You're famous now. Dark avengers. Messiahs of the dead. Tentative heroes of Creation, or at least a convenient miracle for those scrambling to bolster it, but more than that, heroes to the people of the Underworld threatened by the Deathlords every day of their unlives --which is most of them. I was known even before that, for my writings and 'philanthropies', mostly, and by reputation going up and down the stairs at the center of Stygia. I have followers now. Worshipers. Perhaps even revolutionaries when the time is right. And of course, amongst the things that live deep, deep below, as the wrath of the Neverborn against wayward and unfaithful fools made manifest. Loved by the ghosts of Stygia and the mad things of the Void. Why would I change that~?"

    "You're in this now. So act the part. Oh and forget about them. I've already decided I'll devour their memories of this entire thing and implant them with the idea that I'm seriously deliberating the Walker's proposal. I've brought you in today to discuss the potential change in leadership, and you've expressed hesitant approval, but require personalized terms."

    "If they suddenly remember otherwise, they'll drop dead on the spot."

    Staren has a fairly legitimate question, by now though. "Of course it did. You can't hear them --you won't-- but I do. More than those long since played out ghosts who think they're somehow the only ones at their Masters' side. I know what they think, in as much as it can be said they have thoughts. Their rage at the Silver Prince's complete lack of urgency. Their contempt for Eye and Seven Despairs' utter uselessness. Their impatience with the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears' wastes of time on pleasures instead of progress. There are but perhaps three they have any *real* confidence in."

    Her expression turns a sort of sour that can only be described as 'difficult'. "He's . . . a complicated man. Every single Deathlord has already though about and planned for every one of their Deathknights' possible avenues of betrayal. But . . . we have certain things we agree on. I have a certain status amongst . . . his own. And he would never dare gainsay the Neverborn; there is an absolute certainty that I speak the truth when I claim to know their desires. Crossing me directly while I do works in their name is as good as countermanding their orders --to be punished severely. I'm far from blind to that being a relevant factor in how I got away with terrorizing the useless dregs of the Deathlords' council for years. How would anyone know if it were a lie?"

    "But it's true that there were many, many 'auspicious' signs that lead to him choosing me. Things he would have been a fool not to notice, with lengthen his faith far beyond what another Deathlord would place in their knights. I'll say no more than that. I ill enjoy thinking about it."

    She seems to enjoy the topic of screwing over the Walker in Darkness much more. "The first place to start would be Skullstone itself. That Wandering Dog man took all of its people off with him on his floating fortress-nation. The island is already configured to draw in enormous power, and replete with its own industries sitting unused. Let it be your playground." When George begins talking though, she finally breaks into outright laughter; a genuinely amused, if incredibly malicious kind.
Bloody Revelations     "Oh but don't they? Won't it be such a surprise if I'm right? Oh how these rules are such a ground presumption that even utterly ancient self-styled *geniuses* consider them a priori. They won't even *think* to second guess them. They'll have plans upon plans upon plans, derived from our actions so far. All the parties between us like pieces on the board. Anyone that can be made useful, anyone who can be turned against. What they can do to thwart my minions and catspaws and generals. How this relates to my Liege's --their rival's-- obvious grand plan. How this is his master stroke to coup them all, already in its second act, that he's certainly devised in secret."

    "And they won't have *anything* ready for when I hurl them into the Void myself."

    Now apparently in good humour, she almost flippantly adds "If you think it'd work, I encourage you to try. It's true that the curse is upon the earth itself. The Princess' old manse is already thoroughly destroyed; the Walker built his on its ruins. I adore that kind of diabolical creativity". She even has it in her to bother finishing Staren's open air question after Pavo has thoroughly torn into him. "What part of 'absolute power over death' did you not internalize? As far as I'm concerned, there *is no limit*. Every single thing from the moment of death onward is within grasp. True resurrection has been tried a thousand times before --mostly by the Solars of the First Age-- and has never, ever worked. The last part that you'd require, once you join a soul to a body, and instead of a possessed corpse, 'create life'; that I can't help you with."
Staren     Staren listens, intrigued at the idea of turning the 'cursed' land upside down. And Bloody Revelations lays out in more certain terms the limits of necromancy on revival. "Oh. That makes sense. But what if the body is alive but empty? Or an automaton that can't be alive or dead in the first place?"
Starbound Flotilla     George spreads a smile across his face smoothly, slowly, and unstoppably. "Yeah, yeah, you're tuned /right/ in. I'm all in on this, kid." Especially, it seems, at that last part. The Void. The nature of all of this. One eye shuts and he strokes his beard. "Let's get that tumbling in the brain then, and let's kill some bastards. Now I just gotta figure more for Bishop."

    "An orbital platform, to bomb every site simultaneously with massive gamma radiation." Albert grunts. "Fry him no matter which spot he teleports to."

    "Alright, if I decide to be boring for a change, we'll come back to that." George rambles. "But I'd rather we go with Lezard's plan, on account of he has a plan that won't depend on these guys not having Glorious Dark Spicy Air Unbreathing Technique or whatever. Hey, Valeth, siege stuff? We can do siege stuff, we got the goods for it." The help is offered, and it looks like this is settling down.
Staren     Staren asides to Albert, "You can't see this place from orbit; I think the wyld's in the way. I also wouldn't be surprised if the sky is /literally/ a giant dome with little lights in it. ...I guess we should check sometime, huh?"


    Staren is thinking that there would be little harm in just nuking the enemy armies, if it came to it, but he's not saying it because that never goes over well.