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Mare Internum: An Exalted Quest

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So ... Sidereal/Heavenly/Hellish intervention or an empty box? Because last I checked Vesper's sword was last used during the sinking of her ship. Did she put it back in the chest before waking up on the beach?
 
Second Bear said:
So ... Sidereal/Heavenly/Hellish intervention or an empty box? Because last I checked Vesper's sword was last used during the sinking of her ship. Did she put it back in the chest before waking up on the beach?
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Maybe it will give us a clue as to where the daiklaive went afterwards, or it'll cut down on the time we need to think about it later. Talking to Logris unlocked the thought of how we might distantly be related to Yonris, after all.
 
It came to me in a bolt of lightning...

Crumplepunch said:
But that's not quite it, is it? You love emptiness, of a sort. After all, the falcon is your favourite form. It soars in the sky over everything else, looking down on them, occasionally shitting on them, and sometimes just swooping down to take. It's how you like to conduct yourself at all times, at varying removes of metaphor.
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Crumplepunch said:
"You're a centuries-old serial killer with delusions of grandeur. After you spent decades stalking me you can't think of anything better than telling me that we're not so different? Get the fuck out of here."
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Crumplepunch said:
The Wolf and the Falcon
Why did you introduce yourself as the Wolf of Sibun? Did you have something to do with the disaster that destroyed the winter palace thirty years ago? Did you once know what happened there, and why? Is it at all possible that you secretly an Anathema? To the last one, no, you are absolutely not, but have a good think about that other stuff.
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The Wolf and the Falcon may give more information on Izumherat, should we choose to pursue it at some point.
 
Parabola said:
Maybe it will give us a clue as to where the daiklaive went afterwards, or it'll cut down on the time we need to think about it later. Talking to Logris unlocked the thought of how we might distantly be related to Yonris, after all.
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Artifacts can get pretty weird. Maybe the box is part of the artifact, or a separate artifact that can be used to call the daiklaive. Maybe the box will have the daiklaive's name on it and it will come when we call it, or give us some memory that will allow us to do the same.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with the daiklaive. But it's a treasure chest, and we'd best open it!
 
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Now That You Are Pure 112
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    • glyph said:
    [X] Swim to the islet immediately.
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    You toss the re-wrapped soap and water flask down with the rest of your things.

    "Hey sword, watch my stuff. I'm going for a swim."

    HAWK SWORD: As you command! I shall await your return.

    The hawk sword gleams proudly from its place stuck in the sand, standing sentinel over your meagre belongings.

    You turn and walk out over the other side of the tidal bar, into the sea.

    The briny water bites at your freshly scoured skin. Freezing, turbulent, inky black, an inexperienced swimmer could easily be dashed against hidden rocks or pulled out with the currents. You are not an inexperienced swimmer. The water moves with you like an instrument under the hands of a master musician. In mere air you are cumbersome, ungainly, half-dead. Here, you fly.

    There is a temptation here beyond conscious thought or meaningful desire. You could just swim away and forget what you have forgotten. You would be at home here, a wild thing beneath the waves.

    You shake it off. There is no place for you down there. And there is a place for you on land, somewhere, if only you can find it.

    One of your outstretched hands scrapes agains tthe stony underwater bank of the islet as it rises to an incline. You pull yourself upright, water streaming from your body.

    The chest is as it was in your vision, dark wood subtly etched at the borders with a fine spiral pattern, inset panels of glossy black lacquer. It's a little shallower than a traditional sea chest, and longer. Standing on its end, it would reach your shoulder. You estimate that you could fit Fincher comfortably inside it. It's a little weathered from its time spent in the water, but less so than you would expect. It's wedged between a pair of tooth-like rocks jutting from the ground of the islet.

    A heavy brass-plated lock holds the chest closed. Getting it open will be difficult.

    First things first.

    PHYSIQUE: DIFFICULT
    5 2
    CHECK PASSED

    PHYSIQUE: Yeah! Get it!

    You grab hold of the chest and pull it clear of the rocks. It's lighter than it looks, maybe twice as heavy as you. The way the load shifts informs you of multiple small objects stored within.

    Well, best hope this thing can survive one more trip across the water. You step out onto the shallows, dragging the chest behind you.

    Curiously, you don't sink. You walk across the top of the water, and the chest skirts across the surface as well. It's quite different to walking across ground, even moving ground. Your body instinctively moves with the motions of the waves, making the balance feel perfectly natural to you. Still, it doesn't make the chest any less a burden. Your arms are strained and sore from the exertion before you make your way back onto the beach with its strange quartz teeth.

    Now what?

    CRAFT: You'll need tools to get that lock. You know who has tools? Rooster. Maybe he'll help you carry it, too.

    PHYSIQUE: Help you carry it? Why? This is perfect training. Drag that chest back to camp, up the cliff. It'll do you good. Then smash it open.

    STEALTH: I think you should hide it. It might be a trap. Or useful later. Either way, don't look at it.

    Well, for the moment you just need to figure out what you are doing with it right now.

    [ ] Drag the chest back to Sulco Camp.
    [ ] Leave it here for now.
    [ ] Smash it open.
     
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    • I can't help but imagine the Mass-Produced Bar Of Lye Soap's cringing at the strand of seaweed hanging from our hair and the inevitable salt crust, right after it finally saw use.

    Sure we can't delay that dragging just a little bit? Go for another quick dip in the waterfall pool for, uh, luck? :V
     
    It'd have been really funny if we'd actually made a raft, if only to then realize how unnecessary it'd have been.

    More seriously, I'm wondering what is actually in the chest. A journal, maybe? Some documentation? Some clothing? I'm also a bit worried how twice now, we've had the option to just leave it or ignore it because it might be a trap?

    Crumplepunch said:
    [ ] Ignore it, it feels like a trap.
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    Crumplepunch said:
    STEALTH: I think you should hide it. It might be a trap. Or useful later. Either way, don't look at it.
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    Perhaps we're afraid of what we'll discover. Or are we the type of person to trap our own chest?
     
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    Am I the only one that remembers this part?

    Could I actually be the Wolf of Sibun?

    SAGACITY: Maybe? The only thing anyone knows about them is that they destroyed the palace of Sibun thirty years ago. You're old enough, so it's not impossible. Why would you do something like that, though?

    Why indeed?

    THOUGHT GAINED: The Wolf and the Falcon
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    We're obviously a Lunar who's pretending to be an Exigent who's pretending to be a Water Aspect.
     
    Obviously we're an elder Sidereal mimicking the Water Aspect anima power with Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style. We accidentally inverted our Arcane Fate, and now periodically forget who we are. Mei is furious with us because we forgot who we were in the middle of the conspiracy to assassinate the Empress, saw the Imperial Seal, and figured we were supposed to thwart the plot. We only just managed to piece this together and conspire to get ourselves smuggled aboard the invasion fleet to apologize before we forgot who we were again.
     
    Now That You Are Pure 113
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    • Corpusvoyeur said:
    [X] Drag the chest back to Sulco Camp.
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    You take a quick dip in the tidal pool to rinse off the salt, then, lacking a washcloth, dry yourself with your woolen cloak. You dress yourself and return your sword to the cord belt at your waist.

    HAWK SWORD: Welcome back, lady. I see you have found some new possessions.

    Yeah, well, we'll see. Whatever's in here had better be worth it.

    PHSYIQUE: DIFFICULT
    2 6
    CHECK PASSED

    Despite dragging a heavy chest behind you through the sand, you make decent time. You estimate that roughly an hour has passed by the time you return to the cliff side under the camp. Now, how are you going to get this thigng to the top? There's no way you can just carry it up.

    CRAFT: Ah, look there! They might know a way.

    The engineers that were previously huddled some distance from the wreck of the Sulco are making their way back to the cliff face also, a few hundred paces away from you, towards the northern side of the manse.

    Why do you say that, Craft?

    CRAFT: They must have gotten these supplies down to the shore somehow. I bet they have a winching platform or something to get stuff up and down.

    Good thinking.

    You approach the engineers. They look nervously to you as you approach, dragging your sea chest behind you.

    ENGINEER: "Ah, good evening, lady. What brings you down here? Are you conversing with the sorcerer?"

    "No, I'd rather not. I'm just trying to get my chest here back to camp. Do you have a way of moving heavy stuff like this up to camp?"

    ENGINEER: "Oh, yes lady. Just yonder, we've a treadwheel for getting up and down the face safely. Er, did you not use it already?"

    "No, i just climbed down the cliff."

    ENGINEER: "I see."

    He doesn't really know what to say to that.

    [ ] Please have this delivered Captain Logris' tent. I'll make my own way up.
    [ ] Well, I hope you have room, I want to ride the treadwheel.
    [ ] Actually never mind, I'll leave the chest here for now.
     
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