The Rim and the Hammer (Exalted/Warhammer Quest)

Much as it pains an engineer's heart better to use everything you have now than let it gather dust in storage awaiting study. After all there are still plenty of broken examples of Essence-crafting to work with and any thaumaturge worth their guiding feathers should know how match and repair such craft. If you did not the city entire would be long dead by now.

Diplomacy: In spite of his lingering sickness Sigh of the Flutes through the Willow Branches has taken up the task of chief diplomat of Sezekan

Choose Three:

[] See what the locals have to trade: Skorlm did not seem particularly prosperous to by your lights, but they almost certainly have some goods you lack and are sure to want some of what you can produce, find out what that might be
DC 25 Reward: Trade deal with Skorlm +4 Wealth/Turn
Cost: None

Result: 38 (Success)

Though it has been many a year since Sezekan has traded with any but the gods and spirits you still well recall that the days of the city's glory were built upon its trade and so it is with some trepidation on the matter that Little Flute proposes a trade to the Skorlmlings, inviting some of the wingless with the beasts of burden and their armed guards to the very walls of the city. Hey had proposed instead the creation of some manner of waystation where the traders could set their wares for the perusing of people on the wing, but it quickly becomes apparent that this cannot be so, you simply do not have the manpower to maintain any outposts and it is not as if the city itself can be kept a secret.

Ingots of iron and of copper, amber, mead and beer, salted fish and tar for caulking, geese and chickens scrambling, all these pass through the south gates in exchange for pottery and tools, buttons, clasps, needles and combs, dyes, medicines and scents. Given the sheer hunger for trade that the locals have you suspect more will come in time seeking the works of Sezekan, though alas not all will be seeking it in peaceful trade, of that you are sure

Reward: Trade deal with Skorlm +4 Wealth/Turn

[] Petty spirits of the air: Little Flute has always had a gift for conversing with and gaining the confidence of the lest elemental spirits, perhaps in another life he would have been a sorcerer, in this one he is a whisperer whose voice carries far. From small spirits great things may be heard
DC 55
Reward: Learn more about the local gods and elementals

Result: 87 (Success)

It is said that he who is struck by lightning once is most careful of tall spires and so it was with Little Flute as he sent out his summons anew, seeking out those small things that have kinship with the air, with sweet scent of honeysuckle he tempted them and leaping green driftwood flames mesmerized them. Onto them he offered that singular sacrifice they could not long resist, curiosity. As soon as he felt the air move with a will invisible he started talking, about himself, about his people, tales true and fanciful by turn, fantastical and strange, daring the watchers to guess one from the other. Though some eventually became bored and distracted more came down from the mountains and through the woods to listen to his words. Playful gusts and unseen jabs they were by day, but by night they shone like fireflies in colors that bewildered the eye.

"Who are you, Crow Pecked? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you, Wolf's Undoing? What do you seek in the Hollowed Woods...?"

So it goes in a manner that would drive a less patient soul looping end on end, but with other willing souls flying windward and helping him to keep the attention of his new admirers, Little Flute manages to coax some sense and answers out of them. In perhaps the most dramatic bit of self-aggrandizement he has seen of such minor spirits they are called Radiants and their motley gathering a cluster, they are not wholly things of the air, but of light and music also. At first Little Flute thinks that their insistence that they do not speak to mortals often is an attempt of ingratiating themselves by emphasizing the honor that had been bestowed upon him, but as he learns more of his diminutive guests another truth unveils itself. They draw upon the Essence of the world directly to sustain themselves, the Essence of living and Enlightened beings. The only humans they would find interesting are those who deal in the occult and they probably would not take the constant pinching of their power well. Sigh of the Flutes through the Willow Branches had not even noticed it until they pointed it out. One of the Chosen of the Dragon would practically stand in he middle of the cluster for hours on end before the drain caught up with the natural recovery of Essence.

Trying to get information out of them is like pulling teeth, sometimes it seems like trying to pull a hen's teeth, but eventually you get somewhere. According to the spites the terrestrial gods in this land are wild and mistrustful of mortals for they fear being shackled or consumed by wyld-drunk madmen, trusting only those with a long history of service and sacrifice. Even the barbarians though are not as wicked in their despoiling of the land as the Braying Children of the Hateful Moon, shaggy footed things that come down out of the mountains with the snow-storms, Horned Ones that dance ruin into being.

They hate works of Bright Craft like they do things Green-Growing, they come they come, they come for you.

Alas the memories of spites are not the best when they had not been instructed to remember things so they can give neither numbers not a useful timetable for this threat.

Reward: Information; Sigh of the Flutes through the Willow Branches gains Spite Spies: The little ones know much and for one with the patience to listen they tell much, but they leave less time for other matters +3 to Intrigue -1 to Stewardship; More spite Actions unlocked.

[] Aarvick's Prey: The tales of a warrior-smith taken as a slave in the Norscan town of Aarvick have fired up the imagination of the Engineers and more to the point they offer the prospect of encountering another civilized people, however disharmonious their miserliness might be
DC: 44
Reward: Learn more about the prisoner and his people
Cost: 20 Wealth

Result: 74 (Success)

The man that is brought before you under guard by warriors of Aarvick has clearly seen better days as the scars that lines his now bald head show, but though that head barely reaches your chest and gaunt from his captivity you do not mistake that for weakness. His keepers aren't fingering the butts of their axes because they are worried that you will betray them. Skin fair from long years underground faintly mottled with old bruises clings to bones that are heavier and stouter than the norm and even the muscles on his arms mark him as a smith. Had some flesh smith of old had crafted his folk to make them more hardy and fit for battle? You wonder with a pang of sympathy.


"Here's the Goldgut just as we promised, now hand us the gold," the leader of the slavers says without preamble or courtesy, though he shrinks in on himself under your answering glare.

The 'dwarf's' eyes dart up at you not with trepidation, a broken slave awaiting his fate, but with a gleam of cold calculation. It's a good thing you are not planning to keep him in chains.

As you take out the small pouch the Aarvick adds: "Don't be cutting his beard now or he'll go mad with rage and not be worth dog's spit. Old Thror learned that the hard way with the other one who came with him."

At these words the dwarf throws him a look of such bitter hatred that the Norscan, armed and armored for battle though he is, actually steps back and makes a warding gesture against the evil eye. Galdr, as you learn is his name is, certainly seems to have taken as fine a care of his beard as he could under the circumstances, you note.

After the Norscans had gone you strike his chain yourself, the flawed iron offering little resistance to jade tipped chisel you still keep on you at all times, though the need to make on the spot repairs unexpectedly is admittedly smaller now that you are the voice.

"What are you... what do you want?" Galdr rumbles, there is still anger in his words, but also a hint of surprise.

How do you introduce yourself and your people to the dwarf?

[] As strangers chance-brought looking to make a new life for yourselves in this land

[] As civilized folk hurled into the midst of Wyld-worshiping barbarians

[] As craftsmen and artisans, sharpers of essence and makers of wonders

[] Write in

OOC: Meeting a new people is important enough to break I feel, especially as how you present yourselves now will be the basis for interactions going forward.