GM: Kevan Forbes
System: Exalted, 2nd Edition
Hand’s Account
What a self-righteous arrogant bastard! I can’t believe my own brother, chosen to be a lawgiver, can be so callous. I know I’m getting ahead of myself here. But I can’t tell him how mad I am or he’s likely to do something even more rash and violent, so I’m describing my thoughts here is more or less the opposite order of how anything happened.
I just finished working out; hopefully the sweat dripping from my brow won’t smudge the ink on these pages. He came into the dojo and I just couldn’t concentrate any more so I’m writing to vent here. I don’t want to go to sleep mad at him.
We talked back at the Manse and it went something like this:
“In battle there is no mercy. They attacked us with blades of sand. They were trying to kill the people I swore to protect. I was going to kill them and the YOU got in the way.”
“But they were innocent. These are people who made a mistake. They took a drug which gave this Fair Folk power over them. She controlled them. They were not the enemy, they were only puppets.”
“They were lost. They chose to use that drug and their souls are forfeit. If I had taken such a substance and my soul corrupted I would expect that you would kill me before I could do more harm.”
“But they have been stopped, jailed and taken to Howahkan’s clinic where they will be treated and healed.”
“How do you know that? How do you know that their souls haven’t already been stolen? They are walking dead men.”
“I don’t know but I have faith. Howahkan is the greatest healer in creation. They have been made sick by the fey, they will be made whole again by the hand of the Unconquered Sun.”
And then it seemed the conversation just kept repeating itself. I had challenged my Dawn Caste’s sovereignty in battle and he had crossed the line between protector and murderer. We simply couldn’t reconcile our differences.
It all started with that rat Melani. He had agreed to meet me in his dream parlor and the Sun-damned Titan of the South decided he had to make an appearance. I asked for a bodyguard but he wanted to bring the Sentinel Defense force Armor and his Grand Goremaul. He had the sense at least to stand aside the meeting, presumably unaffiliated, and be at the ready. I hoped I wouldn’t need any muscle, let alone the power of the Chosen, but for appearances sake I took Nadaal as my official bodyguard (well, that and she wasn’t going to let me go without her anyway, I have to love that woman). I brought Howahkan along as well to explain the “effects” of Wyldfire to its distributor.
Just as Nadaal had thought, Melani is accountable to his superiors, and another member of house Sahlak entered into the arena. When we arrived at the Unsheathed Sword down the 4th tier, the young host told us that Melani wasn’t present but that he had left a letter for me. “We of house Sahlak” as the letter went wanted to meet with me at a much classier dream parlor Sand and Silk up on the 3rd tier. How could this not a trap? Clearly Melani was over his head and he was luring me inside house Sahlak’s web for protection. I knew it was a trap but I didn’t have anywhere else to go. Let this trail go cold and it may never pick up again.
With friends at my side and the Unconquered Sun at my back we went to the Sand and Silk and were politely invited into the bark parlor where I met Basim Sahlak. It was clear I had just found the next bigger fish in the pond. Negotiations were slower than I had hoped for. Melani was ready to dance but Basim was unknown and as it turns out far more savvy than the “wayward Melani.” I may have never convinced him to work with us if not for Howahkan’s description of the drug’s effects. The addicts were being changed, mutated by the Fair Folk. Left unattended they would spill forth chaos like a young Dragonblood that has just seen his first pleasure slave.
Clearly moved by the realization that not only House Sahlak but all of Gem was in danger, Basim confided in me. He needed not only our silence in the matter but help removing Wyldfire from the population. The price was his information. Besides Nadaal being too aggressive, which was hardly a surprise, the negotiations were moving along well. Well enough that I had forgotten what I had walked in knowing: How could this not a trap?
From under a dancer’s scarves two blades flew and, if for not the fast reflexes of Howahkan, would have pierced the heart of Melani. At that moment the parlor was stormed. Addicts, who had been mutated and controlled by the Dream Queen, poured into the room. Unskilled but bestowed with amazing speed and strength and wielding glamour swords made of swirling sand the puppets of the Dream Queen attacked. By far the most haunting of them all was a man who spoke with the dulcet voice of an angel. “Little mouse, I have found you again” she spoke through the voice box of her puppet. Terrified and overwhelmed I threatened to break her puppet strings and wrapped a length of silk around his neck and spun him in place to fend off the other assailants.
I took a moment to examine my companions in battle. Though outnumbered three-to-one they faired well. Too well. As I held the man clinched in my silken garrote I saw Shining Thunder thrust the head of his Goremaul into one and heard the crunching sound of his rib cage cracking. Howahkan leapt and scissor kicked two breaking their jaws. At first I felt terror but when I saw the faces of those falling my vision turned crimson. I saw the blood of innocent spilled by my own circle. These were not mad creatures of the fey, these were poor men and women who had taken a drug and become the salves of the Dream Queen.
“Stop!” I shouted. “These people are possessed by the Dream Queen, we can’t kill them.” I hadn’t finished my breath when I saw Shining Thunder in action. Disregarding my words he fought with brutal and deadly efficacy. One swing slammed a man, sending him sailing through the air to into a wall where he slumped over, his body broken. A kick followed, into the chest of the man whose ribs had already been broken. Thunder’s dance of death peaked as his great hammer was lifted high and brought down to crush another child of Gem. I couldn’t believe my own eyes. With a series of nimble bounces I tumbled through the parlor and dove in front of the last victim. Somehow along the way I picked up a sword which I held inexpertly in the path of the Grand Goremaul. “Stop” I yelled again.
He held back the blow but I could hear from his voice behind the armor that my interference had emasculated Shining Thunder. Like a lover pulled from sex before his climax, he stood before me full of rage and vexation. “What are you doing?” He shouted. Just as embittered by his mercilessness I raged “Protecting the innocent!”
Frozen in that moment, I don’t know what happened next. I turned and all of the addicts had fallen to the ground unconscious. Some convulsed and suddenly I realized the parlor was burning down.
Howahkan and I had pulled the bodies from the building but two were lost in the flames, victims of the Dream Queen’s machinations and my own companion’s violent response. Two died in the fire, plus one more from Shining Thunder’s blows. I wear the blood of three innocents on my hands…
