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Twin Emperors[EPIC RPG MKIV] - Story Minute
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<blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 7103685" data-attributes="member: 60965"><p><strong>Session 5 - Chimney</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Ten years ago, Eon Baron Gimble Throne crucified himself at the precipitous edge of the Sunken Kingdom – first step to becoming a Non Ja assassin. Eliot Sam could only watch, fulfilling his master's final command before being released to freedom after a decade fighting in the Eon Revolt against Praetor Ralius and his notorious 13th Legion.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">This morning Gorge killed Aiko and dumped her body down the waterfall of the bandit's lair. Michkin discovered it and, bewildered, brought it forth. The sight threw Hamura into a killing rage. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">As Hamura charged down the switchbacks in her gleaming jade armor a lean figure strode from the forest. Maderu Shima – the Jade Warrior last seen on the morning of the companions' execution in Chian – emerged, drawing up his sleeves to reveal two golden dragon arm bands to match Hamura's one. Shouting a rebuke, he declared Hamura scorned and exiled from the revered Jade Order. The giant warrior screamed in frustration and rage as her armor and sword dissolved away, steel and jade streaming away like cherry petals raining from a tree at bloom. Swearing revenge, Hamura fled with Aiko's body, strange ribbons of black cloth dancing and swirling around her.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Maderu approached the wary companions, declaring Aiko and Hamura traitors and stating his belief that they were part of a conspiracy that led to the synchronous murders of all the twins in Chiain. Lacking any other suitable vessels, the great Lord Saito had no choice but to invest His power in Aiko's younger twin siblings following the ancient Twin Emperors deaths. He apologized on behalf of his people for Aiko and Hamura's dishonor, announcing he would not force or even ask the companions to accompany him in his quest to return the Twins. Instead he simply called the Twins “innocent demigods at the whim of evil men” for whose safe return the Saitese people would give almost anything. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">After a brief discussion, the companions declared they would join him on condition that he be their advocate in the face of Saitese xenophobia if they managed to return the Twins to their home. Maderu swore on the Twin Emperors and Lord Saito he would do so.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">After burying the blood-drowned children, the companions readied for travel, planning to return to the homestead to search for the path of the real Twins. Their preparations were interrupted by horrible, piercing screams echoing from the woods. Maderu became troubled, advising everyone to wash and bind their wounds tightly then focus their minds on his back to the exclusion of all else as they walked to avoid the attentions of the Murder Spirit that seemed to now roam the woods. The tortured, wracking screams of the fleeing Sixfold Suffering Gang survivors led grim credence to his words. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Pursus volunteered to stay behind and face it should it fix on them as they traveled.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Shortly after setting off into the woods back towards the homestead, a red, iron-smelling mist surrounded them, an obscene figure stalking at the edges of their vision. As promised, Pursus stopped to face the bizarre monstrosity of blood and sinew to give the others time to escape, staring into its disturbingly hypnotic sucking maw as... a seizure struck. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">“You shall not have him; he is <em>mine</em>,” a voice hissed in his mind. He blacked out.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">The others reached the farmstead and waited an hour for Pursus, to no avail. In the meantime, Gorge discovered three sets of hoofprints leading north a ways from the farm. Out of nowhere, Pursus re-appeared unharmed, carrying one of the fine vases full to the brim with blood. They others regarded him uneasily as he swore he had no memory of how he eluded the Murder Spirit nor the source of the bloody jar and its contents. They left the unclean jar behind and followed what was assumed to be the true trail of Aiko's uncle, Akuma, and the Twins, his bandit diversion having bought him several more days head-start.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Pushing hard much of the rest of the day, they soon heard the brassy horns of the Aedaric Legions echoing distantly from beyond the woods. A few hours later found them stepping onto the unnaturally smooth stone surface of the Aetherurn Road, trodden clouds of dust swirling around them in the 13th Legion's wake. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Exhaused, they set a ways off the road and made camp. The night that followed was quiet, but for the passing of the strange six-legged deer spirit apparition, spotted by Nanoc in the far distance.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">In the morning, Eliot Sam scouted the road, spotting a familiar figure riding a hay cart before a moment before said figure toppled to the dust. Eliot Sam shouted for help and rushed over to find Gimble Throne lying dying, wracked with the fever chills of some sickness. They carefully bundled him on Raxtus' cart and pushed north.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">They had almost caught up the Legion when they spotted a tilted cylinder of iron reaching hundreds of feet into the air a few miles off the road to the west, signs of a Legion cohort or more trampling in its direction and back. Eliot Sam remembered a bit about the place and they diverted to Chimney, Michkin learning from a passing herdsman the “prettiest kids anyone ever seen” came through on fine Aeolian horses more than a few days back behind a richly dressed older Saitese man. The man briefly met with the Elderman of Chimney, Sterra, before the Saitese trio departed northwards.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">After asking around town for a bit, Eliot Sam verified the herdsman's story, also catching and earful of the Legion stripping the town of anything that might be useful – purchased at rock-bottom prices thanks to the looming influence of a hundred heavily-armed Legionaries standing casually at arms. Meanwhile Raxtus dug into his cart, extracting the organ jars from the desecrated altar in the cave. To his surprise and curiosity, they had refilled with the various body parts that had been stuffed within them.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Around the base of the mysterious and looming rusted iron mass of the Chimney, they discovered the ramshackle lair of Pygmy wise-woman Sutta Sutta. Eliot Sam made her an instant friend via his ability to speak the First Tongue and through his translations Raxtus attempted to sell her one of the grisly jars. Sutta Sutta took it and shattered it upon the hard ground, swearing that a dark spirit followed close behind it. Raxtus wasted no time following her example and breaking the others into small pieces, scattering their fragments across the red earth.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">While Sutta Sutta brewed acrid concoctions for their battle wounds and to ease the dying Gimble Throne's pain, Gorge's spotted something gleaming in a nest clinging to the pitted iron wall of the Chimney. Gorges trained hawkling battled a stubborn magpie for possession of what turned out to be a tarnished silver amulet. Wondering what other treasures might be secreted away in the nest, Michkin scaled the flaking wall of the Chimney in a daring feat of athleticism to find ivory magpie ring nestled in the weave of the nest. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Upon donning it, the magpie alighted on his finger and attempted to steal the ring back. After a series of experiments, Michkin learned the magpie had to follow his commands, though it resisted and complained in muttering squawks at every order.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Sutta Sutta muttered and clicked to herself in First Tongue as she identify the teas and herbs within Aiko's elaborate tea chest while Pursus scoured the chest itself, discovering a secret compartment in the lid containing three tiny lead beads, a large bone needle, a bundle of leaves identified as the sedative that knocked them out in prison, along with a dozen leather baggies of yellow powder that Sutta Sutta called “succimer”. She remembered the substance as some sort of antidote, but for what poison she was unsure.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Gimble Throne awakened spluttering moments after Sutta Sutta's concoction bubbled down his throat. With a flask of ale to wash away its bitter taste and loosen his tongue, Gimble Throne spoke of his twenty years fighting Praretor Ralius, of the Praetor's elaborate torture and execution of the Throne family one-by-one to force him to give up the location of his half of the Vault of Throne, an arcane key he now wore sealed in wax around his neck. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">He spoke of Sinsia Borix's attempt to bring Ralius down by sleeping with him to get close enough to kill him, to be discovered and tortured before being crucified, of Wolfpic's heroic yet doomed charge that left his Clan eradicated and he nailed beside her while Throne watched helpless in the distance. He warned that Praetor Ralius was the greatest Aedaric general and perhaps the best general in the world, his Praetorian Bodyguards the best money could buy. The companions – led by Nanoc and Eliot Sam – promised to bring down Ralius, avenge he, Sinsia, and Wolfpic Borix and to notify the Non Ja of Gimble Throne's failure to kill Praetor Ralius as he swore when he joined their secretive ranks. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Finally, he passed the Vault of Throne to Eliot Sam, calling him his son and thus heir to the Barony of Throne. All he need do was reclaim the half of the Vault that Ralius wore and unlock the arsenal buried deep beneath the burned out ruins of the Throne Keep.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px">Gimble Throne passed peacefully to laughter and camaraderie beneath a canopy of gleaming stars and Eliot Sam smiled sadly has he closed his former master's eyes for the last time.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">After burying him this morning, the companions approached the large stone house of Elderman Sterra and were greeted by the Elderman on the broad planks half-haphazardly bridging the mud-churned streets. Sterra dripped disdain for the sellspears Akuma hired on his way south a week ago – mostly common herdsman lured with promises of easy money – and admitted that Akuma had stopped in briefly to speak to Sterra on his way North less than a week past.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"> When the group stated they were looking for Akuma, Sterra smiled and said Akuma had left something just for them. The companions stared, mouths agape as Sterra slipped back within his abode.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"> After several minutes of strained silence and stillness, the group spread out and placed nervous hands on weapons.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">For good reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"> Moments later the front and back doors slammed open and armed figures poured out from the Elderman's home.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron Sky, post: 7103685, member: 60965"] [b]Session 5 - Chimney[/b] [SIZE=2]Ten years ago, Eon Baron Gimble Throne crucified himself at the precipitous edge of the Sunken Kingdom – first step to becoming a Non Ja assassin. Eliot Sam could only watch, fulfilling his master's final command before being released to freedom after a decade fighting in the Eon Revolt against Praetor Ralius and his notorious 13th Legion. This morning Gorge killed Aiko and dumped her body down the waterfall of the bandit's lair. Michkin discovered it and, bewildered, brought it forth. The sight threw Hamura into a killing rage. As Hamura charged down the switchbacks in her gleaming jade armor a lean figure strode from the forest. Maderu Shima – the Jade Warrior last seen on the morning of the companions' execution in Chian – emerged, drawing up his sleeves to reveal two golden dragon arm bands to match Hamura's one. Shouting a rebuke, he declared Hamura scorned and exiled from the revered Jade Order. The giant warrior screamed in frustration and rage as her armor and sword dissolved away, steel and jade streaming away like cherry petals raining from a tree at bloom. Swearing revenge, Hamura fled with Aiko's body, strange ribbons of black cloth dancing and swirling around her. Maderu approached the wary companions, declaring Aiko and Hamura traitors and stating his belief that they were part of a conspiracy that led to the synchronous murders of all the twins in Chiain. Lacking any other suitable vessels, the great Lord Saito had no choice but to invest His power in Aiko's younger twin siblings following the ancient Twin Emperors deaths. He apologized on behalf of his people for Aiko and Hamura's dishonor, announcing he would not force or even ask the companions to accompany him in his quest to return the Twins. Instead he simply called the Twins “innocent demigods at the whim of evil men” for whose safe return the Saitese people would give almost anything. After a brief discussion, the companions declared they would join him on condition that he be their advocate in the face of Saitese xenophobia if they managed to return the Twins to their home. Maderu swore on the Twin Emperors and Lord Saito he would do so. After burying the blood-drowned children, the companions readied for travel, planning to return to the homestead to search for the path of the real Twins. Their preparations were interrupted by horrible, piercing screams echoing from the woods. Maderu became troubled, advising everyone to wash and bind their wounds tightly then focus their minds on his back to the exclusion of all else as they walked to avoid the attentions of the Murder Spirit that seemed to now roam the woods. The tortured, wracking screams of the fleeing Sixfold Suffering Gang survivors led grim credence to his words. Pursus volunteered to stay behind and face it should it fix on them as they traveled. Shortly after setting off into the woods back towards the homestead, a red, iron-smelling mist surrounded them, an obscene figure stalking at the edges of their vision. As promised, Pursus stopped to face the bizarre monstrosity of blood and sinew to give the others time to escape, staring into its disturbingly hypnotic sucking maw as... a seizure struck. “You shall not have him; he is [I]mine[/I],” a voice hissed in his mind. He blacked out. The others reached the farmstead and waited an hour for Pursus, to no avail. In the meantime, Gorge discovered three sets of hoofprints leading north a ways from the farm. Out of nowhere, Pursus re-appeared unharmed, carrying one of the fine vases full to the brim with blood. They others regarded him uneasily as he swore he had no memory of how he eluded the Murder Spirit nor the source of the bloody jar and its contents. They left the unclean jar behind and followed what was assumed to be the true trail of Aiko's uncle, Akuma, and the Twins, his bandit diversion having bought him several more days head-start. Pushing hard much of the rest of the day, they soon heard the brassy horns of the Aedaric Legions echoing distantly from beyond the woods. A few hours later found them stepping onto the unnaturally smooth stone surface of the Aetherurn Road, trodden clouds of dust swirling around them in the 13th Legion's wake. Exhaused, they set a ways off the road and made camp. The night that followed was quiet, but for the passing of the strange six-legged deer spirit apparition, spotted by Nanoc in the far distance. In the morning, Eliot Sam scouted the road, spotting a familiar figure riding a hay cart before a moment before said figure toppled to the dust. Eliot Sam shouted for help and rushed over to find Gimble Throne lying dying, wracked with the fever chills of some sickness. They carefully bundled him on Raxtus' cart and pushed north. They had almost caught up the Legion when they spotted a tilted cylinder of iron reaching hundreds of feet into the air a few miles off the road to the west, signs of a Legion cohort or more trampling in its direction and back. Eliot Sam remembered a bit about the place and they diverted to Chimney, Michkin learning from a passing herdsman the “prettiest kids anyone ever seen” came through on fine Aeolian horses more than a few days back behind a richly dressed older Saitese man. The man briefly met with the Elderman of Chimney, Sterra, before the Saitese trio departed northwards. After asking around town for a bit, Eliot Sam verified the herdsman's story, also catching and earful of the Legion stripping the town of anything that might be useful – purchased at rock-bottom prices thanks to the looming influence of a hundred heavily-armed Legionaries standing casually at arms. Meanwhile Raxtus dug into his cart, extracting the organ jars from the desecrated altar in the cave. To his surprise and curiosity, they had refilled with the various body parts that had been stuffed within them. Around the base of the mysterious and looming rusted iron mass of the Chimney, they discovered the ramshackle lair of Pygmy wise-woman Sutta Sutta. Eliot Sam made her an instant friend via his ability to speak the First Tongue and through his translations Raxtus attempted to sell her one of the grisly jars. Sutta Sutta took it and shattered it upon the hard ground, swearing that a dark spirit followed close behind it. Raxtus wasted no time following her example and breaking the others into small pieces, scattering their fragments across the red earth. While Sutta Sutta brewed acrid concoctions for their battle wounds and to ease the dying Gimble Throne's pain, Gorge's spotted something gleaming in a nest clinging to the pitted iron wall of the Chimney. Gorges trained hawkling battled a stubborn magpie for possession of what turned out to be a tarnished silver amulet. Wondering what other treasures might be secreted away in the nest, Michkin scaled the flaking wall of the Chimney in a daring feat of athleticism to find ivory magpie ring nestled in the weave of the nest. Upon donning it, the magpie alighted on his finger and attempted to steal the ring back. After a series of experiments, Michkin learned the magpie had to follow his commands, though it resisted and complained in muttering squawks at every order. Sutta Sutta muttered and clicked to herself in First Tongue as she identify the teas and herbs within Aiko's elaborate tea chest while Pursus scoured the chest itself, discovering a secret compartment in the lid containing three tiny lead beads, a large bone needle, a bundle of leaves identified as the sedative that knocked them out in prison, along with a dozen leather baggies of yellow powder that Sutta Sutta called “succimer”. She remembered the substance as some sort of antidote, but for what poison she was unsure. Gimble Throne awakened spluttering moments after Sutta Sutta's concoction bubbled down his throat. With a flask of ale to wash away its bitter taste and loosen his tongue, Gimble Throne spoke of his twenty years fighting Praretor Ralius, of the Praetor's elaborate torture and execution of the Throne family one-by-one to force him to give up the location of his half of the Vault of Throne, an arcane key he now wore sealed in wax around his neck. He spoke of Sinsia Borix's attempt to bring Ralius down by sleeping with him to get close enough to kill him, to be discovered and tortured before being crucified, of Wolfpic's heroic yet doomed charge that left his Clan eradicated and he nailed beside her while Throne watched helpless in the distance. He warned that Praetor Ralius was the greatest Aedaric general and perhaps the best general in the world, his Praetorian Bodyguards the best money could buy. The companions – led by Nanoc and Eliot Sam – promised to bring down Ralius, avenge he, Sinsia, and Wolfpic Borix and to notify the Non Ja of Gimble Throne's failure to kill Praetor Ralius as he swore when he joined their secretive ranks. Finally, he passed the Vault of Throne to Eliot Sam, calling him his son and thus heir to the Barony of Throne. All he need do was reclaim the half of the Vault that Ralius wore and unlock the arsenal buried deep beneath the burned out ruins of the Throne Keep. Gimble Throne passed peacefully to laughter and camaraderie beneath a canopy of gleaming stars and Eliot Sam smiled sadly has he closed his former master's eyes for the last time. After burying him this morning, the companions approached the large stone house of Elderman Sterra and were greeted by the Elderman on the broad planks half-haphazardly bridging the mud-churned streets. Sterra dripped disdain for the sellspears Akuma hired on his way south a week ago – mostly common herdsman lured with promises of easy money – and admitted that Akuma had stopped in briefly to speak to Sterra on his way North less than a week past. When the group stated they were looking for Akuma, Sterra smiled and said Akuma had left something just for them. The companions stared, mouths agape as Sterra slipped back within his abode. After several minutes of strained silence and stillness, the group spread out and placed nervous hands on weapons. For good reason. Moments later the front and back doors slammed open and armed figures poured out from the Elderman's home. [/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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