[Exalted] Solar Circle of the West - whole slew of updates 3/8/09

[Ao the Overkitty]

Session 79 - Patient Tiger Found This All Boring

Session 79
Synopsis of 10/27/08

Patient Tiger Found This All Boring
Subtitle: I'm A Necromancer, Ask Me How!
By Ao the Overkitty


Pursey swallowed Quicksilver and spat him out into a dream somewhere. Since Sixth Day Island was in Creation now and the group wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, they figured he could find his way back to them. Plus, this sold the immediate problem of needing to go find his boat and familiar.

The group hung around Sixth Day Island for over five months. Gareth and Jade's Luck navel-gazed, Tiger improved his mental attributes, and A-Dom created some charms he'd been putting off.

Jade's Luck convinced the three remaining losing villages that they needed to band together into one society to survive. They were told they would be taken to a new island where they could prosper. She convinced them that each of the former villages would take on an important role in this new society. Because they valued piety, Oak Castle would be the Faithful, the society's priests. Because they valued strength, Little Well would be the Warriors, the society's protectors. Because they valued preparedness, Big Well would be the Advisors, the society's thinkers. As a side effect of this, the priests were all women, the warriors were almost all men, and the advisors were close to equal gender wise. Jade's Luck wasn't exactly happy with these gender stereotypes but didn't want to make the society more complicated. Gareth helped make the society as efficient as possible. Gareth and Jade's Luck did a lot of training villagers in new skills, like farming and medicine, to allow them to adapt to their new habitat.

During this time, Gareth took a census of this new society. He determined 10% of the population was likely to die of old age once they were taken away from the Wells. He took them aside and explained this to them and asked what they wished to do. The old people of Little Well wanted to go with the Solars and the rest of the society, even though they were facing almost certain death. The old people of Oak Castle asked Gareth what they should do. The old people of Big Well were suspicious and thought this was another test. Ultimately, it was decided that the old people of Oak Castle and Big Well would both stay on Sixth Day Island and keep the Cathedral. They were properly trained in how to care for the Cathedral and pray.

Sun'gra'la was largely left alone during this time by everyone but Jade's Luck. She took the time to learn Forestspeak so that she didn't need to use shadow-puppets to communicate everything with them. She made sure that they weren't going to just sacrifice themselves en masse (they weren't) and that they weren't going to kill the remaining people from the other villages (so long as they were left alone, they wouldn't). She then made sure the new Cathedral staff knew that Sun'gra'la would leave them alone if they did.

During this time, the group started planning the island they were going to build to support the new society. In discussion they decided they were going to sail out to the MiddleMarches of the Wyld so that the shaping was easier. They knew they needed to get the island back out of the Wyld once it was created, so it needed a propulsion system. A-Dom thought the propulsion system could be powered by the prayers of mice. This idea was pretty much ignored. Talking it out, they came up with the following specs.

• Manse powered propulsion system
• 400 miles (half size of Atlantis)
• shaped like a sun (circle with triangles)
• mountains, forests, plains
• flippers underneath each sun ray for improved directional change and steering
• hollow (perfect ovoid)
• beaches and cliffs
• fertile lands

With these requirements, Tiger took the entire five+ months to work out the design for the island. There was the second task of reshaping the new society into being immune to the Great Contagion. It was determined that Gareth would have to do that part on his own, since Jade's Luck only knew how to make new people, not change existing ones. Gareth expressed his desire to make new Cannibalistic Voodoo Mice, so she said she could do that while he was fixing the people. She asked how many he wanted and he responded a small village (15-20). He gave her design specs for the mice.

• Mice
• Intelligence 2
• Voodoo Mouse Language
• Barbarian tribal culture
• Loyal to Gareth
• Worship the Unconquered Sun.
• Omnivores (won't eat other Voodoo Mice, but anything else, including other mice, is fair game)
• Little Voodoo Masks, spears, and loincloths

Since the Voice of Reason would not fit all of the new society onto it, Gareth went about constructing a new boat, Ark of the Covenant, after he finished fixing the prow of the Voice of Reason. The new boat received the standard charm treatments.

Once all of this was done, the boats were packed up and properly supplied and the group cast off into the Wyld. Gareth stayed on the Voice of Reason while Jade's Luck went on the Ark of the Covenant, to make sure both ships and passengers/crew were as prepared against the Wyld as possible. They sailed until they hit the MiddleMarches and stopped. Gareth started shaping the people to be immune to the Great Contagion while Jade's Luck made mice. Once the people were finished, Jade's Luck introduced Gareth to the 20 Cannibalistic Voodoo Mice. Gareth talked to them for a little bit and then took them over to see A-Dom and Petunia. He asked A-Dom to tell Petunia these were the mice he couldn't eat. Petunia asked how he could be sure which mice they were on the ship. Gareth pointed out the little masks, spears, loincloths and war paint. Petunia understood.

Gareth then explained to the mice that they weren't allowed to kill 'that cat' (Petunia). They asked why and he explained that there was a deal that Petunia wasn't allowed to kill them and they weren't allowed to kill him. They agreed that this was a good deal.

The next day, Gareth and Jade's Luck started crafting the island. Progress was uneven, coming in short spurts and slow crawls. Tiger and A-Dom were left alone with the villagers. On the first day, A-Dom gave a sweeping speech about how great necromancy was and how it could be properly used for the betterment of a society. Tiger worked against A-Dom halfheartedly. The second day, A-Dom gave another speech, but he got bored early on and Tiger didn't even bother working against him. On the third day, a group from the Little Well villagers came looking to learn more. Some other time while Gareth and Jade's Luck were off crafting, A-Dom decided to alleviate boredom by opening up communication to Atlantis and saying "Hello" to everyone on the island, at normal volume. He then cut off communication before anyone could answer and went back to being bored.

Jade's Luck and Gareth felt pressured by Tiger and A-Dom to produce results quickly, since the two were fairly bored, asking how long this was going to take. Jade's Luck was also worried because A-Dom was being left alone with the villagers and a bored A-Dom around mortals is NEVER a good thing. So, the two of them started getting creative in their efforts to finish the island quickly. Because of this, they deviated from the original plans.

Jade's Luck's Deviations:

• singing caves that said prayers to the Unconquered Sun when wind went past
• Diamond sparkled beach (warning sign was later put up by Gareth)
• Small sun (Like Uk-Sun) that hovers over the island

Gareth's Deviations:

• A section of the island is covered in liturgies to the Unconquered Sun
• Massive fresh water systems above and below ground, starting at the top of some of the mountains

All in all, it took the two of them ten days to complete the island. Once they were finished, Tiger came out and shook his head. He said that the deviations had completely messed up the Ley Lines of the island and now the original Manse idea wasn't going to work. Jade's Luck told him he shouldn't have complained about the boredom and continually asked how long it was going to take.

Jade's Luck: If you ask for a rush job, you get a 10 day island.

A-Dom started talking about the next island they'd have to build to replace this 'screw-up,' but Tiger felt he could salvage the job with a plan rework involving multiple manses. He said it wasn't going to go as fast as the original idea, but it'd still move. Gareth and Jade's Luck followed his new plan to the letter.

While doing this, they realized they hadn't worked Wyld Repulsion into the island's plan. They came up with a satellite island concept that would revolve around the island. Gareth initially suggested that the satellite island should be shaped like a Moon, but Jade's luck shot that down as possibly pissing off Luna or her followers. The satellite island eventually evolved into 8 satellite islands that were each a colossal statue of the Circle and their Exalted traveling companions, past and present. Each island would be an accurate sculpture of the Exalt it was based on, complete with caste mark and name. It would revolve around the main island, repulse the Wyld, and promote something in accordance with the beliefs of the person.

• A-dom (naked with club [complete with names]) - promotes fertility (Design: 10 successes)
  A-Dom’s Statue does indeed promote fertility. Plants and animals within it’s range of influence are more likely to produce offspring. Offspring are also more likely to be healthy. +1 dice to all seduction attempts.
• Gareth - promotes inspiration (Design: 12 successes)
  Gareth’s Statue does not have a large range for it’s additional power. One must visit the island and gaze upon the statue at close range to gain the benefits. When in close proximity anyone who is seeking inspiration on a given topic will be inspired. (+3 dice to any planning check. Only works on the first check of an extended roll) People will only be inspirited to do things that are within their abilities to do. The down side is their artifact-inspired plan will never be simple.
  Range was limited so casual thoughts (“I’d like to kill that jerk”) don’t get supernatural inspiration whenever Gareth’s island is nearby. Statue can provide inspiriation for any plan.
• Patient Tiger - promotes Lent and good hygiene (Design: 7 successes)
  Patient Tiger’s statue does promote his holy day of lent. It affects everyone on any island the artifact island is near, on that one day. On that day everyone who is affected gets +3 Temperance to avoid that which is prohibited. It mildly promotes good hygiene the rest of the time. People wash their hands and bath more, etc when the statue is around, but not so much more often that anyone really notices.
• Jade's Luck - promotes good will (Design: 7 successes)
  Jade’s Luck’s Statue provides anyone affected +1 die to any social roll that is friendly (in intent) or specifically promotes good will.
• Quicksilver Noon - ??? (Design: 7 successes)
  Will be filled in later once player gets back to the GM
• Jahar - promotes learning (Design: 7 successes)
  Jahar’s Statue causes people affected to seek out learning. They tend to read if they have literature available. Affected people also ask “Why?” whenever someone explains things to them, until they are given a sufficient explanation or violence occurs.
• Bianca - promotes farming/agriculture (Design: 7 successes)
  Bianca’s Statue gives affected people +1 success to any farming or agriculture related check.
• Ceri - promotes healing (Design: 12 successes)
  Ceri’s island is also very powerful, and also must be visited to gain the benefits. Any mortal on the island heals health levels as if they were an Exalt. They also generally suffer less pain while healing. Any charm which causes healing, heals an additional health level automatically. All medicine checks on the island gain a +2 bonus. Medicine checks receive no penalty if you do not have the medicine skill while on the island. All checks to resist disease on the island get a +2 bonus.

Each of the satellite islands were built exactly to Tiger's design.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Session 80 - Jade's Luck's Try At A Unity Speech

Session 80
Synopsis of 11/10/08

Jade's Luck's Try At A Unity Speech
Subtitle: Fine. I’ll ing kill the kid myself!
Subtitle: I'm Not Making Churches Cause I Wanna!
By Ao the Overkitty


The villagers were all very happy to be off of the boat. Gareth made a settlement for the people while Jade's Luck went off to create a balanced ecosystem, complete with livestock. Gareth made sure a small village of Voodoo Mice were installed on the far side of the island and were part of the plan.

Gareth told A-Dom he had free reign to construct a second church to the Unconquered Sun for the island. Jade's Luck tried to give him a plan, but Gareth told her this was for A-Dom to design and he could build whatever he wanted. A-Dom decided this was a punishment/dare and made a wooden church with a stone foundation, despite having no Craft (Wood). Once he was finished, the building was a very basic square wood design that looked like it would collapse at any moment. Gareth carved into the foundation A-Dom's Church - Hazardous Area. It was asked why he hadn't played to his strengths and built a stone building or relabeled (stole) another one for the purpose. A-Dom hadn't thought that was allowed and then asked if it needed to remain standing. The general consensus was that it didn't. As A-Dom went to push it over, a gentle breeze forced it to collapse. He then cleared the wood away and made a stone fence to create a graveyard. Gareth changed the inscription to read A-Dom's Graveyard Church - Respect the Dead and it won't be a Hazardous Area.

The people liked the island, but found the constant sunlight made it difficult to sleep. The group went to go talk to the new sun. He wasn't sure he could/should move much, since this was all very new to him. He didn't want to go into the ocean overnight, since that would create boiling water. He also didn't like the concept of hiding behind a mountain for the night. They talked about Uk-Sun and how he lived inside of the island. There was much discussion about making a hole in the island so that the sun could go down into the hollow ovoid middle. That was generally considered to be a safety hazard and bad idea. They finally settled on building a Manse right underneath him that he could enter at night so that there would be a period of darkness. Jade's Luck and Gareth then went about building the Manses, as per Tiger's instruction (to be filled in later).

There was a brief discussion of what to call this island. They went with Jade's Luck's suggestion of Island of the Younger Sun.

Gareth wasn't sure what to do with the Ark of the Covenant. He didn't want to destroy it and wanted it to be able to be used in case of dire emergency, but wanted to put it some place where it wouldn't be likely to be stolen. He finally settled upon placing it on top of one of the mountains. A-Dom decided he could be moody too and said he wasn't going to help. While A-Dom lounged on the diamond beach, the rest of the Circle disassembled the Ark, carried it up the mountain and reassembled it. Once that was done, Gareth commented that this would have been a good idea for A-Dom for his church. They asked if he would have let A-Dom do that to the boat. He shrugged.

An arbitrary point was picked to place the island, so that it was out of the MiddleMarches. The spot was off of all trade routes, on the edge of Creation, and well away from Sixth Day Island. On the journey there, the Circle made sure the people knew the lay of the land, how to live on it, and what the special parts of the nine islands were.

The group then discussed what they should do next. The things were brought up as possible were:

• Dealing with the soul repossession list
• Fulfilling their obligation to the Whale villagers and Red Oak tribe in the East
• Collecting the skull from Sijan
• Lighting 100 lanterns in Sijan
• Finding the Voodoo Mice

From where they parked the Island of the Younger Sun, they sailed to Elemental Island. Everything was fine on the island. Since they'd be going through the Wyld Portal a lot, Gareth set his village of VooDoo Mice far away from all of the humans on the island.

The group popped over to Uk-Luk-Muk-Muk-Chuk, so that A-Dom could visit his family (and Tiger could take care of the child that needed to be repo'd). Gareth wandered off to find a privy. A-Dom greeted his wife and children. He tossed some candy into a pile and told the kids to 'have at it.' There was some comment about survival of the fittest. Concussions and broken bones ensued. When Gareth got back, he was told there were several wounds that needed healing that were beyond Jade's Luck's ability. Children were healed.

A-Dom asked Gareth to make a statue of him for the kids. Gareth made a perfectly accurate representation of A-Dom (complete with club and dress). A-Dom "thanked" Gareth for the statue and said he didn't want to give that one to his kids. Gareth asked if they should give it to Chuck-Chuck. A-Dom said no, they should put it somewhere it wouldn't be seen. They ended up taking it to the Cave of Doom. They had a brief conversation with the Doom Spirit. He asked if the statue was full of Doom. A-Dom said that it wasn't but that sounded cool. The Doom Spirit told him to put it closer to the Doom then. That was ultimately decided to be a bad idea.

Before they left, Jade's Luck realized the ulterior reason for coming to the island and thwarted all attempts to deal with the list Tiger & A-Dom's way. Tiger tried to stay behind and Jade's Luck tried to send the others along to the East while she tried to figure out the whole soul thing without killing. It was pointed out that she was the one who made the contractual agreement with the Red Oak tribe, so her presence was kind of needed. She dropped all subtlety and told them she wasn't going to let them just go around killing the people on the list. Large, drawn out, circular argument ensued. Gareth got significantly closer to Limit Breaking. Since A-Dom and his trustworthiness were insulted several times, so did he.

It was pointed out that she wouldn't trust A-Dom and Tiger not to go behind her back without an Eclipse to sanctify an agreement.

Jade's Luck: Fine. I’ll ing kill the kid myself!

Jade's Luck wanted an indefinite amount of time to figure out how to repo the souls without killing the people that were using them. A-Dom pointed out that this was unreasonable since, if it took her 70 years or so, the point would be moot anyway given the people with the bad souls would just die (and so would the ones she wanted to give souls to). She finally said that she wanted one year to try and figure out how to do things her way.

Jade's Luck: One year from today, if I haven't figured out how to repossess the souls safely, then we'll do things your way.

Tiger shrugged. Gareth didn't really care; pointing out it was Jade's Luck's legal agreement with Heaven anyway. A-Dom agreed to this, but also pointed out that the painter guy had been about to do something very bad and the other souls might also be about to do something. One year might be too late. He postulated about things his kid might do in that time to kill off his island.

Gareth grumbled about his reason for the group going back to Atlantis had just been destroyed. Jade's Luck said that, if he wanted to go to Atlantis, then he should just tell the group he wanted to go there. He responded that he had, but had been vetoed already.

Eventually the group headed back to Elemental Island. A-Dom collected Foursey to take him to the Manse in the East. He said that, if something weird happened to him in the portal, Jade's Luck could just slap it out of him. Foursey proved he could resist the Wyld on his own. Jade's Luck pointed out that, since her charm specified beings of Creation, she wasn't sure it would it would have affected Foursey anyway.

Since they couldn't take Foursey into the village, A-Dom knocked over a tree, hollowed it out, and put it over the undead monkey butler. He said they'd pick him up on the way out. They remembered that Bianca was the one who spoke Red Oak, so figured they'd need a translator if need be. They wandered into the village and found some of the Whale villagers. They were adjusting nicely. They liked vegetables and had integrated to a non-fishing lifestyle. There wasn't as much water as they'd like, but they had a river at least. They had learned enough Red Oak to be able to converse with the other villagers. Those that hadn't liked the lifestyle had left. They went and talked to the Red Oak elders (with a translator). They were happy with the new members of the tribe and the nonslave thing was working out nicely. They did have one problem child that didn't fit in. The kid was a little terror, had Shark Eyes, Fangs and Claws. His name was in Red Oak, which roughly translated to 'Hey! Stop That! No No!' They wanted the group to take the child off their hands. A-Dom said they'd take him back to his wife for her to deal with. The rest of the Circle felt bad for his wife.

The group was shown the child. In many ways, it was a lot like Steggy; liked to bash into things and was very impulsive. He was also very demanding. After spending a little time with NoNo, they learned he wasn't very bright. Since he only spoke Red Oak, Jade's Luck taught him Uk-Luk-Muk-Muk-Chuk and Sea tongue, so that he could converse with the group and his future surrogate mother. A-Dom explained to the kid that he was his father and that he'd be going with the group. The kid said that he didn't look like his dad. A-Dom explained that he used to look like him when he was his dad. This confused the child (and others). A-Dom failed to correct himself, but made himself look like he did when he was Wyld Mutated before switching back to normal. Gareth made comments about teaching the child Temperance. Jade's Luck was against that, saying the kid was just acting like a little kid and would learn Temperance. Gareth reminded her who his father was, but said he'd just teach the child Intelligence for now. There were lots of comments of him, Steggy and possible matchmaking coming from Jade's Luck. He said girls were icky.

They left the village and went back to collect Foursey. Since the child was now smarter, he was a little afraid of Foursey. A-Dom explained that Foursey was okay. They discussed for a little bit about how they would get NoNo back through the Portal. Gareth suggested he empower the child and teach him Integrity Protecting Prana. This was decided to be a bad idea (due to the increasing xp deficit of the child). They settled on creating a coffin sized artifact that would be impervious to the Wyld. That way they could get the Mice through too. Plus, if it was a coffin, they'd be able to find everything they needed to build it in Sijan. Jade's Luck objected to calling it a coffin. It was explained that that was just for proportion descriptive purposes.

A-Dom picked up Gareth, Jade's Luck, Foursey and NoNo and sped off towards Sijan. Tiger went back through the Portal and then reset it to the island next to Sijan. He hung out in Sijan until the others arrived.

When they got to the outskirts of Sijan. A-Dom slowed down and let the others off. Up ahead, they saw the Silver Mask of Heroic Justice walking on the road. A-Dom tried to mock him, but failed. Silver Mask said he was walking because he felt like it. When A-Dom asked him if he knew of any maidens that needed saving, he said he didn't and had already saved 6 maidens that day. Silver Mask asked about Foursey and A-Dom said he was going to put him in his manse. Silver Mask asked if he could do it delicately this time. He said yes. He asked where the lanterns were to be lit. Silver Mask said that Sijan didn't have any lanterns. A-Dom commented on needing to talk to the Mortician about things. They asked him about the whereabouts of the 'mortals they left here last time' (pirates). He said the fat one now owned the Inn. The previous owner had died under mysterious circumstances. He figured that he'd know where the others were. They said goodbye and headed into town to the Mortician's dwelling.

Tiger sensed them and met up with the group before heading in to see the Mortician. They entered the Shadowland at noon, so they would not be emerging into the Underworld with NoNo. The Mortician greeted them cheerfully. He said that the grave goods scheme was working nicely. A-Dom apologized for the destruction last time. Mortician said that it had caused some problems, since he hadn't been able to implement the Grave Goods charges yet. A-Dom told him he was going to install Foursey in the Manse, but would be the only one going up and would do it carefully.

They talked about the coffin sized artifact that they wanted to build. He suggested that they get an air spirit to reside inside so that people always had air. He suggested that it knock people out so that those inside wouldn't freak out about being inside for a long period of time. He said that it should probably be armored so that it wasn't destroyed by things trying to break in. He also suggested it create food so that they don't starve to death over long periods of time. They explained that it was for very short trips, so they didn't feel it needed to create food for the people. Windows were discussed but discarded, since people can go insane from looking at the Wyld.

Finally, he suggested that it be padded inside for comfort. This got into a discussion about how he was trying to get people to buy into padded coffins, but was having trouble. A-Dom asked if the people had a residence when they died. The mortician responded only if their house had burnt down. So A-Dom explained that they could be sold as a place to sleep for the dead while they waited to move on. The Mortician liked that idea.

A-Dom said he wasn't done with book 2 yet and asked if he knew who had book 3. The Mortician said he didn't know, but would keep his eye out for it. A-Dom asked the Mortician where the lanterns were stored. The Mortician explained that they had stopped being used after the First Age, had fallen into disrepair and were now gone. A-Dom expressed a desire to build, place and light exactly 100 of them in the city. The Mortician said that he'd want them evenly spaced and he'd have a guy check them over to give an okay before they were allowed to light any. He said he'd have a map drawn up for placements.

They thanked him for his time and left.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Session 81 - The Unconquered Sun Brings Death to Others

Session 81
Synopsis of 11/24/08

The Unconquered Sun Brings Death to Others
Subtitle: Definite Kill Zone
Alternate Subtitle: I'm only required to show you two of them, mom!
By Ao the Overkitty


Before they did anything else, Gareth went and collected the brewer's skull. Gareth remarked it was a good skull. He tried to make it act like a ventriloquist dummy. A-Dom commented on how it required widening of holes to make that effective. Well, either that or NECROMANCY! A-Dom asked for a refresher on what they needed to accomplish in Sijan.

• Collect Brewer's Skull DONE
• Construct Wyld-Protecting Coffin
• Get Mortician's okay for lanterns DONE (with inspection proviso)
• Build, distribute, and light 100 lanterns
• Find remaining bound servitors of Jade's Luck (ex-pirates)
• Find Voodoo Mice
• Install Undead Monkey Butler in Wretch's Tomb, SAFELY

Gareth had Tiger look over the lantern placement plan to make sure it didn't have any occult significance. He said it was just a street layout.

Paul: The city is run by a Deathlord. I can't make it much worse.

Gareth created the lanterns and A-Dom distributed them, according to the plan. The Mortician was then told that the lanterns were ready for inspection. The Shining Mask of Heroic Justice came around and straightened a few of the lanterns before giving the okay. A-Dom lit the lanterns.

Paul: Huzzah, you're done!

• Get Mortician's okay for lanterns DONE
• Build, distribute, and light 100 lanterns DONE

The group then talked about how he seemed to be the only Deathknight around. It was postulated that maybe there were several Shining Masks of Heroic Justice and they were just identical siblings or look-a-likes. This got into a discussion of Deathlord's exalting only identical twins, triplets, or look-a-likes at the same time.

A-Dom was starting to have doubts about installing the monkey butler in the Manse. He was worried about triggering the pins again. There was a long discussion of how to install him safely and keep him from touching anything that would cause the pins to shoot. A-Dom didn't like the concept of telling Foursey to just sit there. After all twiddling your thumbs gets boring after a while; even if you have four of them.

The group wandered over to look at the destruction zone from the pins. The area around Wretch's tomb was now filled with low-lying mausoleums. Jade's Luck talked about putting up signs around the area saying Definite Kill Zone. This got into a discussion of how the Manse could be used as an execution device. Offenders could be put up on stakes within the kill zone. The worst offender could be catapulted onto the pins, initiating the destruction. A more lenient idea was to stake a person up in front of the Manse for a number of days, depending upon the crime. If the Manse didn't explode during that time, they were free. Someone thought it would be a good idea to give these ideas to the Mortician.

Jade's Luck asked if A-Dom needed to look after the small child while he was in the tomb. He looked confused for a few moments.

A-Dom: Oh that's right, my son!

A-Dom, Tiger and Foursey went up the Manse and inside. A-Dom went about inside the Manse marking places Foursey wasn't to go (to prevent pin explosion). A-Dom and Foursey had a conversation in which A-Dom explained that Foursey was to do butler type things. This was explained as dusting and serving tea. Foursey tried to convey something through pantomime and failed. A-Dom told him to try again. Foursey tried the exact same pantomime. A-Dom handed him a piece of paper and a writing utensil and was told to draw it. Foursey drew a banana and looked disappointed. Through questioning, A-Dom managed to figure out that Foursey was asking if he was supposed to kill intruders. A-Dom told him he wasn't good at fighting and he should hide from intruders; unless they were friendly, whom he should serve them tea. Foursey had trouble determining friendliness, so he was just told to hide from anyone who wasn't part of the Circle. More confusing instructions were given before A-Dom and Tiger went to check the timer. It said 25 years. They left the Manse.

• Install Undead Monkey Butler in Wretch's Tomb, SAFELY DONE (time will tell on the safely part)

Jade's Luck wandered off to the Inn to go talk to Fatty. She found a much skinnier Fatty tending bar. He was very happy to see her. When asked, he said it was very hard to get good ingredients here. She asked him if he wanted to leave. He emphatically said yes. When asked about the other two, he told her that Jim was a Gravedigger now and would likely also want to return. He said that Salty Frank had run off to become a bandit. It wasn't piracy, because he wasn't on a boat, but it was piracy like, since he was stealing. Fatty found the banditry concept a little weird. Jade's Luck asked about the Voodoo Mice and Fatty said they were around and still weird. He said they hung around the fresher tombs and had taken on a Death theme. He said they hunted and sacrificed other mice. Fatty asked when they were leaving. Jade's Luck explained that they were working on making a box that they could use to transport them through the Wyld Portal and back to the West. Jim was contacted (either by Jade's Luck or Fatty) and brought up to speed. He wanted to leave as well. Jade's Luck then went off in search of Gareth.

• Find remaining bound servitors of Jade's Luck (ex-pirates) DONE

While Jade's Luck was at the Inn, Gareth used his investigative skills to find the Voodoo Mice. Near the fresher tombs, he found a little mouse village made of skulls. Gareth gave the shout of greeting.

Gareth: Zug Zug, Shoga!

Little mice came out of the skulls, dressed in masks and funeral shrouds.

Mice: Shawoona!

He talked to them for a little bit. They still worshipped the Unconquered Sun. They made sacrifices to him regularly. The Unconquered Sun Brings Death to Others. He asked them if they wanted to go back to the place with all the water. They said they were happy here. Gareth decided to make them better by teaching them all Wits. While he was teaching, Jade's Luck wandered up. He let her know that the mice were staying and he was teaching them. He asked her if she could teach them something as well, but then remembered she didn't speak their language. She said she could probably use shadow puppets to get points across, depending upon the subject matter. He asked her if she could teach them Perception, or possibly Intelligence. She said Perception would be easier to teach and used a lot of spotting exercises (Find the real mouse, find the sun, etc) to teach them. After they were done, Gareth and Jade's Luck left the mice.

• Find Voodoo Mice DONE

The Circle got back together to discuss the coffin and the ex-pirates. They were unsure just where they were going to put the ex-pirates. Jade's Luck suggested Fatty could live on the ship and go back to cooking for us.

A-Dom: And when he dies I could raise him and he could still cook for us!

A-Dom's comment was generally thought of to be a bad idea. He went on to talk about how they could bury him in effigy. It was a very confusing conversation.

Other thoughts for Fatty was to set him up with a job at an inn in Atlantis, since he seemed to like that. What to do with Jim wasn't discussed.

They started discussing the coffin planning out it's requirements. The group got into an involved discussion of add-ons involving a magical sign that told the occupant whether or not they were in the Wyld at the moment. Tiger shot these ideas down completely.

They ended up deciding that the coffin needed air, needed to protect from the Wyld, and shouldn't be able to be opened from the inside while in the Wyld.

Magical Components for Wyld-Protecting Box (Coffin):

• air spirit
• something that symbolizes anti-Wyld
• something that represents locking or spots the Wyld

There was then a long discussion about what each of these things could be ensued. The ideas for the symbol of anti-Wyld were a book of laws, a Wyld-repelling diagram, and adamite. They ultimately decided on Gareth scribing all of the laws of Abalon upon the box in very fine script (to the point where it took someone of A-Dom's perception to read them). A-Dom would help with this part.
The ideas for the symbol of locking or spotting the Wyld were wedding bands, a chain, Celtic knotwork, a parakeet (like a canary for mines, but bigger), and a Wyld-crafted animal that senses the Wyld. Liz found it interesting that Ryan took Gareth's suggestion of the wedding bands and immediately came up with a chain, saying he felt marriage was a prison. After Ryan was finished explaining/backpedaling, they ultimately decided to go with the Celtic knotwork. This would, after all, require less larceny on A-Dom's part, since otherwise he'd have to steal some wedding bands.

The group assembled the necessary items and constructed the coffin. Once it was complete, they discussed testing it. A-Dom said they'd send Jim through first to test. Jade's Luck didn't like this idea, since she was contractually obligated to look out for them.

A-Dom: Fatty has had a name since the beginning. Jim was only recently named. He's expendable!

It was suggested they get a street urchin to test the coffin with. She liked that idea less. A-Dom volunteered to be the test victim, but Tiger pointed out that he was already naturally resistant to the Wyld (at least, more so than a mortal).

During this conversation, Gareth realized that they still had the problem of NoNo never having been to the West and brought this up. Some thought the box would protect the occupant from this effect, others didn't. Tiger said that the artifact was still new enough that they could wedge in another feature. They discussed needing something that symbolized belonging, so that the Wyld portal would accept the coffin and its contents at its destination. Gareth proposed religious texts, since they promote a sense of belonging. Citizenship papers were discussed. Finally A-Dom went off to talk to the Mortician about a deed for a funeral plot. A-Dom came back from the Mortician with a deed for a large plot of land in Sijan (for an Anathema tomb), which included citizenship in Sijan and others things.

I don't believe A-Dom mentioned to the others how he paid for this (he agreed to hunt down the Mortician's missing box).

Gareth slipped the deed into a panel in the coffin and Tiger added it into the workings.

Wyld-Protecting Box (Coffin): Allows contents to be safely transported through the Wyld, cannot be opened from the inside while within the Wyld and allows contents to be brought through the Wyld Portal, regardless of whether or not they have been to the destination before.

• air spirit
• something that symbolizes anti-Wyld (laws of Abalon)
• something that represents locking or spots the Wyld (Celtic knotwork)
• something that symbolizes belonging (deed to plot in Sijan, including citizenship)

List of Things To Do In Sijan:

• Collect Brewer's Skull DONE
• Construct Wyld-Protecting Coffin DONE
• Get Mortician's okay for lanterns DONE
• Build, distribute, and light 100 lanterns DONE
• Find remaining bound servitors of Jade's Luck (ex-pirates) DONE
• Find Voodoo Mice DONE
• Install Undead Monkey Butler in Wretch's Tomb, SAFELY DONE

With Fatty, Jim, NoNo and the coffin, the Circle made the two day hike to the island nearby Tiger had directed the portal to. They really didn't discuss who was riding through in the box so much as NoNo was put in it and they carried the coffin through into the Elemental Manse. They opened the box up and checked NoNo over. He was fine, so they brought the box back through and repeated for Jim and Fatty.

Monkeys were given the responsibility of looking after NoNo for a while. Fatty quickly found his way to the kitchens. Monkeys reported problems of Fatty ordering them around and eating the raw ingredients before they could be cooked.

The concept of bringing NoNo to see A-Dom's mother was brought up. He said no, since he was supposed to bring her to see the grandkids, not the other way around. Since they were going to Uk-Luk-Muk-Muk-Chuk and they now had the coffin, Gareth asked A-Dom if he wanted to take his mother along to see her grandkids. He latched onto that idea and started formulating a plan to dump NoNo on her.

He read over the coffin to verify they wouldn't be breaking any laws before they set out. He remembered that you could only carry an empty coffin on specific days, so they waited around the Manse for a few days. Well, he initially talked about filling it with various things (his kid, rocks, a monkey, a corpse), but decided to just wait.

Fatty made himself at home in the Manse kitchen. What Jim did was not discussed. Jade's Luck went to check on the village, which was doing fine.

Once it was the appropriate day for empty coffin carrying, they left NoNo with the monkeys and went through the Portal to Abalon. A-Dom greeted his mother and asked her if she wanted to go see her grandkids. He didn't really explain what was going to happen, he just ushered her to the portal to show her (which is funny, since only Jade's Luck and Tiger can see the portal). He told her to get in the box and they'd take her to his island through the portal. She did, so they went back to Elemental Island, where he let his mother out of the box to show her she was in 'the Manse.' Jade's Luck called for the monkeys to bring NoNo, which they did (and were once again happy to be rid of him). Introductions were made. NoNo swore at her. A-Dom told him he shouldn't do that because that she was his grandmother. NoNo didn't know what that was, so Jade's Luck explained that they were people who give you candy if you're good. He demanded candy. A-Dom slipped his mother some sun drops for her to give him. She was delighted to spend time with the little terror, but when A-Dom brought up the story of how his poor mother had died in child birth and how he needed someone to take care of him, she told A-Dom she was enjoying being a GRANDmother. He considered letting the child be raised by the monkeys, but that was rejected by the others. He tried convincing his mother a little more and she told him that perhaps he should be telling this sob story to his wife. He accepted this.

A-Dom's mother went back in the box and they retuned the portal to Uk-Luk-Muk-Muk-Chuk. Once through, she was let out and they went back for NoNo. More introductions were made, which was harder since his mother didn't speak their language. She was impressed by the number of children, but when shown the book, she started asking where the others were. She voiced that they needed to go visit them next.

A-Dom (face in hand): I'm only required to show you two of them, mom!

After meeting the children, she asked where the forge was so she could go make presents. The group looked at each other and explained that they weren't a metal-working society, but if they gave Gareth a few minutes there would be one.

A-Dom: They do all have little clubs. Watch out for your knees. They look just like mine. *pulls out his club*

While A-Dom introduced his mother to his wife, Gareth made a forge. Then his mother was left alone in the forge for a little bit while A-Dom talked to his wife.

A-Dom (bashful): Wife, While I was away, I had a child with another woman.

A-Dom's Wife: Yes, you do these things....

He then explained how he needed someone to care for NoNo. She sighed and said she'd find someone.

A-Dom: You're such a good wife. And here is a random gift!

A-Dom stuck his hand behind his back, towards Jade's Luck. When a gift didn't immediately appear, he looked at her expectantly. Jade's Luck handed him a little statue that was a perfect representation of A-Dom (which she had gotten from Gareth). A-Dom handed it over to his wife, then noticed the statue was wearing a dress.

A-Dom asked his mother if she wanted to stay with the grandkids for a little while. She said she hadn't planned for an extended trip and asked if she could have a week back at her shop to prepare for a week away. He said sure.

So, two weeks passed while A-Dom dealt with his mother and his children. During that time, the Keg of Everlasting Beer was built back at the Elemental Manse (and Gareth attuned it). It had to be taken away from Fatty, because he was drowning himself in the beer. Jade's Luck stopped by the Island of the Younger Sun to see how things were going there.

The Circle got back together at the Elemental Manse and discussed what they were going to do next. Jade's Luck brought up finding the Censor, but a consensus was reached that that was an 'if you can' thing and just wandering around the Western Wyld looking for him wasn't exactly a productive plan. Gareth ran through the list. They had recently messed with the Wyld a bit by turning large chunks back into Creation, so that could be checked for a little bit. He liked the idea of messing up the Lintha Pirates. It was pointed out that they might have a means of locating them in their midst (Fatty and Jim). Jade's Luck didn't exactly like that, since that might involve making their heads explode.

There was talk about creating a new, pirate hunting vessel. The concept of a submersible vessel was brought up so that they could deal with any sea demons. This would mean it would require it to be an artifact boat, though.