Battle Script
11th of December 2006 A.D.
Over the next day Warden Morgan dedicates himself to what at first seems a very narrow and technical investigation of the armed forces of the Five Cities, from the crises teams on call to backup detectives in over their heads to the Aug-infantry brigades in full exo-suits sheathed in Sub dermal Impact-Enhanced Gel to the point where they seem almost a species apart to the Stonebreaker artillery designed to shatter field bunkers and deliver fragmentation munitions into the middle of enemy formations. That morning you are looking over Glory class mag-skimmers, long range high payload bombers which were never even designed to come within sight of the enemy not to launch strategic missiles high enough in the atmosphere that they could ride the magnetic winds until they are near their target then with minimal fuel usage turn and unleash their payload. What is saved for on fuel is more than made up for with the balefire elemental that provides much of the destructive power and the rudimentary intelligence behind the blast.
Yet for all the dreadful power of these machines that is not really what the senior warden seeks, the questions that sharpen his gaze the most have to do with rules of engagement, past conflicts and expectations of future ones. For a while there you wonder how he would eve bring himself to trust the testimony, but then as you ponder the nosphere searches you realize he does not, at least not on their own. instead he has chosen to cast a wide a sphere as possible reasoning, correctly, that no conspiracy on your part could perfectly encompass an entire world at least not without limiting his access to information sources.
That is how he ends up at the a veteran's bar in the City of Law swapping war stories in the morning at a test firing by lunch and at the factory where they make magically conductive brass wires by evening. Charitably the fact that he has Harry deal with most of the paperwork might be due to seeing him as more reliable than the very inexperienced Carlos... but you will be keeping an eye on that. Thankfully Arte is fascinated with the process as much as with the visiting delegation themselves and he is just the kind of person who would spent moonturns looking not just through electronic files, but even ones writ in ink and parchment or carved in sheets of steel and stone.
As for Carlos Ramirez he ends up field testing a lot of things, not that he minds. That Stormhammer was not even designed to be lifted with merely mortal strength, but he is manages it on the second try, using his magic to manipulate weight and inertia in such a way that it is light to him and every bit as deadly to the intended target.
"This White Council does have some sense after all."
By now you have a decent guess what the voice at the back of your mind is going to say.
"Because they are using the least experienced person to take the risks?"
"Your insight is unmatched Eternal Majesty Without Peer," he offers without delay or even a hint of sarcasm.
"Or you are getting very predictable...."
After allowing the thought to trail off you add with faux-worry.
"Oh no, am I getting predictable."
The next person you approach might have many complaints about you but predictability is not one of them. Or so at least you hope.
Wu Min has been doing some reading of scrolls and books, for as she judges it accessing the nosphere is more akin to asking a spirit, or in this case a whole spirit court to give you information, which is not a thing do do lightly or for the sake of convenience alone. So you take a seat across from her, the privacy screen deploying automatically around you. "Honored sage, with respect I did not fully grasp what you meant about the change in the essence of things. There is no fount of darkness so deep that it cannot be brought to life, this I have been told, this I know to the depths of my own soul. "
The wizard, the
diplomat, starts to speak, pauses, staples her hands then starts again, obviously in a more moderate tone than she would have before, and almost as obviously wanting you to see it.
"In principle Your Serene Majesty"—the title is a start to hear from someone beyond your world— "one might move a mountain with a tea spoon, that does not make spoons the tool of choice for excavation." She pauses a long moment looking out the window to the dojo below where Carlos was trying his luck against a practitioner of the House of Law, first of the Fivefold Howling.
"But are we speaking of spoons, excavators or anything between. Pardon my presumption but if we cannot even agree on terms..." you give a shrug that it is anything but as ponteneous as you make it seem.
"Scope is in the eye of the beholder," Wu Min begins, but you cut her off.
"I am more interested in the ear than the eye at the moment." As you speak a handful of flaming eyes flicker briefly around you like embers on the wind. "Supose for a moment that all this—" you wave at the window— "did not hang between us and I a seeker of wisdom.What did you mean by Essence? I know it by nature but not in any of the tongues of man."
"It is called many things by many traditions, for some it is mana, for others simply life, to the hunters of the shih it is chi, for the Wan Kuei of which some you have met it is Yin and Yang, stillness and motion, life and death, for the creatures of the Red Court it is
blood, for they know not on what they feast, but beneath it all there is Essence, matter and energy, speech mind and spirit which flow into one another and yet..."
"Yes," you prompt, this is very close to the explanation you had given Bob, overly simplified yes, but basically correct and
not something you had put in the Big Book.
"Simply because you know the roots of things does not mean you can change them or indeed that they should be changed. Ms Carpenter what do you know of a certain book that Warden Dresden delivered to the Council?"
"I wrote it."
No surprise marks her pale face at these stark words. "Generally tomes of demonology fall into two categories, those meant to entice and those written that men may better protect themselves. Your work seemed at first to be the latter and indeed I do not doubt that you meant it in great part for that..." The words are meant to mollify, but beneath the smooth tones of a diplomat doing their job you hear surpsise, at how much she had come to believe the fact.
Good. Alas her next words dunk your words of satisfaction in cold water. "But on the whole it reads like a guide to assassination or conquest. Tell me, do you have any insights as to why that might be?"
What do you reply?
[] It is good to be proactive when dealing with such foes as the Yama Kings
[] This is the context in which those thoughts came to mind
[] This power I hold was long a weapon of war between the dark lords of Yomi
[] Write in
OOC: Good opening. Now the question is how much are you willing to risk opening up?
