15[20:15] <@VoxPVoxD> So it is that Xu Sim, Xia Lan, Stranger, Seven, and Selin stand in the sewers, having just resolved to inspect the ancient coral filters that once purified the water running through what's now the Nexus Undercity. 15[20:15] <@VoxPVoxD> Seven, to the group: "Should we bring anything?" [20:15] 14Stranger: "Our senses of comedic timing." 15[20:16] <@VoxPVoxD> Seven looks puzzled. [20:16] 14Left hers at home, I suspect. [20:18] 14Stranger's just along for this ride, for the most part. This is a question for Selin and Xu Sim. [20:18] "Surely we can come back if there's something else we need?" [20:19] 13Xia Lan's also utterly out of depth here, regrettably. An extra set of hands, but probably not much more than that. [20:19] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's duty is clear. He needs to see about this falling tower business. Apparently there's been - children leave the room and old people sit somewhere stable - serious property damage. 15[20:24] <@VoxPVoxD> The five of them have quite a ways to wander, from the heart of Brighttown all the way to the shady alleys of Outer Dimtown. The walls here are thick with mushroom colonies, just sprouting, and the echoed mewls of the ratcatchers. "There should be one just here..." says Selin, arms folded, as he regards a sewer canal that ends in a large pile of sludge. [20:26] Xu Sim makes sure the Twice-Refined Princess stays close by as they wander through the tunnels. Impressive growth of these mushrooms! 15[20:28] <@VoxPVoxD> Here's what Keldar knows: the Hollow tower fell during Xu Sim's defensive self-immolation of the city. It landed evenly on the four buildings that side-by-side formed the Guild's symbolic and administrative center in the city, including both the Nexus Foreign Office and the Threshold Company. There were a lot of Lookshyans in the fire teams in the Nexus yesterday, but no one's made a report to Keldar and Lookshy hasn't given him a report of their own. [20:30] 13Xia Lan blanches and tries not to let the disgust show on her face as she looks towards the sludge. "Under that?" 15[20:30] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Eh..." [20:33] 05Xu Sim gives it the once-over. How bad could that sludge really be? [20:35] <@Ferrinus> 12Well, Keldar won't need a report if he just works this stuff out for himself. Early the following day he's at the site in full regalia, pacing around the wreck of the tower and the Guild buildings it fell upon and looking for suspicious cracks, blast points, acidic precipitates, whatever else. 15[20:37] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin squats down and gets close, but doesn't come near touching it. "What do you make of that?" he says to the others. [20:44] "Seven hundred years of pollution and filth built up, turned into something useful for the rest of us. Substrate for all these mushrooms." [20:45] <@Ferrinus> "Hmm," 12says Keldar to himself as he rubs some ash between two fingers. "Uhhhh huh," 12he comments later, lifting a slab of blasted rock off what used to be a Guild foyer to examine the scarring on its hidden side. "Ahhhh hah," 12he exclaims to several confused scribes who watch him lean out of an office window to squint and sort of waggle an arm vaguely at where an ancient tower [20:45] <@Ferrinus> 12used to stand. 15[20:46] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Mind if we scrape it off to take a look?" 15[20:46] <@VoxPVoxD> Seven: "Go ahead." 15[20:46] <@VoxPVoxD> "Any volunteers?" asks Selin drily before he steps forward himself. [20:47] <@Ferrinus> "Those fucks. Those shits. Who do they think - no, no, we'll see about this." 12Office workers are presumably confused as Keldar stomps on out to street level, calling his officers to him. "I need eye witnesses. Everyone present here yesterday during the storm. Lists of every Lookshyan known to be in the area during the accident." [20:47] "Let's take a closer look," 05suggests the sorcerer as he reaches into the substrate with a bare hand. 15[20:50] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "You're looking for Ballare and her personal guard, on top of about a third of Lookshy's Zeta company, a couple of Dawn Guard fire squads, and Xia Lan. Do you want us to round them up?" 15[20:52] <@VoxPVoxD> Xu Sim steps past Selin and pokes around, literally, a moist crunching noise audible as he reaches into the mycelium. Appropriate temperature... viscosity's alright... probably a touch too alkaline but you'd expect that of skeletonized coral... something slimy wraps around Xu Sim's wrist and holds it tight! [20:52] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Wait on the Lookshyans a bit. Want to talk to the fire squads first." 12As Tsuka sends the word out, Keldar turns away and touches two fingers to his ear (even though his page of the Codex is folded up somewhere inside his shirt). His voice carries by magic to, presumably, the undercity. "Xia Lan. Got a minute?" [20:52] 14Stranger's walking stick flips up into his hand. [20:52] "This fungus is incredible, Seven! It's grabbing me back!" [20:54] 14Stranger patches Keldar through to Xia Lan. 15[20:56] <@VoxPVoxD> What does Xu Sim do about the tail? Does he pull away, does he hold firm, does he lean in, does he try to pry his hand free? [20:56] 13She jumps back from the thing and fumbles for her weapons, but if Xu Sim doesn't seem to be in grave danger at that moment, she'll take the call. "Keldar? Uh, this might need to wait, there's -- that's disgusting, ugh." [20:57] 05Xu Sim pulls gently but firmly back on whatever it is. Very impressive stuff! [20:59] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Need to know if you saw the tower go down yesterday, or were just around. Lemme know once you're free." [21:02] 13Xia Lan: "I was underground when it actually fell - Xu Sim, what is that?" 15[21:03] <@VoxPVoxD> Seven takes a step forward but doesn't interfere. "Fascinating..." 15[21:03] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "I'm going to brace up behind you in case you get sucked in. Don't be alarmed." [21:03] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Were you around before or after? Tsuka mentioned you as a possible witness. Need some idea of who else was nearby." [21:08] 13Xia Lan shifts her stance slightly to keep her swords at the ready. "Both - I was near where it went down getting people to the Undercity safely, underground when it fell, and Xu Sim and I walked past it on our way to the apartment." [21:12] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Remember which Dragon-Bloods or, uh, gods or insanely powerful sorcerers might've been there offhand?" [21:15] 13Xia Lan: "I don't think I saw any. I was with the Lookshyans before it fell, and underground when it actually fell - no idea about how it happened." [21:16] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Got a recollection of which Lookshyans?" [21:18] 13Xia Lan: "Vuol Ballare's group - they were running a fire brigade, I jumped in, then I left to lead people to the Undercity." [21:21] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Uh huh. Thought so. Well, you remember anything more damning than that you gimme a call." [21:23] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar makes ready, then, to interview the Dawn Guard's own mortal (and supernatural, if we can swing it) fire brigades. He'll probably make his way down to their barracks, though anyone not present who was present on the scene is getting summoned over. 15[21:24] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar's in a meeting with the fire brigades, including Xia Lan, Tsuka, and even the commander of the Ninth Orchard Company himself, Khelendros. He was captaining the fire brigades in the next neighborhood over. [21:27] 13Xia Lan makes sure to sit (or stand, whichever) near Tsuka, if at all possible. It's been a few days since they've been able to see eachother! Or, you know, talk without having to route through Stranger. 15[21:28] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger, as he walks home from a meeting with Sion, is accosted by a bird in the street! He's caught the attention of a swan. That's always dangerous. [21:28] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's already got a hunch as to who's behind this, but he needs to hear as much of the story as possible so that his accusation is credible. Everyone he talks to gets basically the same opening: "I'm looking into the collapse of the old Hollow tower. You were there around the time - need to know what and who you saw." [21:28] 14Hmmm. [21:32] "Wait, you mean they aren't supposed to do this?" [21:34] 14Before all that, Stranger will finish up his business in the sewers. [21:41] 14Which requires him to do some fancy footwork, since the sludge is now moving. [21:49] 14Stranger snaps his walking stick against the stonework of the sewer floor and the tip splinters into jagged, sharp wood. Even through its violence, the motion is...elegant, somehow. It's out of place in this sewer. 15[21:49] <@VoxPVoxD> Xu Sim strains against the force and manages to pull away, revealing something like an eel-sized earthworm wrapped around his wrist, or the tail of a giant rat. A moment later, when the titanic humanoid rat with a coral-studded face lunges out of the sludge and onto Xu Sim, it's clear which. As if beckoned hundreds of rats flood the floors of the sewer as Selin and Seven adopt martial arts stances. 15[22:00] <@VoxPVoxD> Reports come in. It was hard to get the taller buildings in the Nexus protected from the falling thistledown, so the Lookshyans focused their efforts there. Ballare led her personal guard from above, flying on stormdrifts between the buildings to freeze, stifle, suffocate, and blow out fires. Then they spread out to assist in evacuation. Everyone describes leading helpful Lookshyan soldiers away from the Nexus to attend to another problem area. [22:03] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar pulls down some paper, draws enough orthogonal lines to make a grid suitable for a shift chart for a dozen-odd soldiers, and then painstakingly assembles a retroactive schedule for every company named by his Guardsmen. Which Lookshyan units can be placed at or near the tower right before, during, or right after the collapse according to these reports? 15[22:04] <@VoxPVoxD> None, they're all pulled away by one thing or another, even Ballare's personal guard. Though, as it happens, not Ballare herself. She apparently went to rendezvous with the rest of her command. [22:04] 13Xia Lan assists with the timeline as best she can in between small talk with Tsuka. How's he been? ...assuming he can actually have a conversation while still on the job. [22:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Now Keldar pulls out, copies, and then draws on a rough map. If she was here... and then left to rendezvous with these guys here... does that line cross the tower? 15[22:06] <@VoxPVoxD> No. Her alibi is airtight, if you take the Lookshyans at their word. [22:09] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar frowns to himself and taps his stylus against his desk for a bit. Still, no one in the Guard actually has visual confirmation on Ballare at the time of the explosion, yeah? Anyone else who's merely thought/said to be somewhere, rather than confirmed to be somewhere by some firefighter or watchman's word, at the critical moment? 15[22:11] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar's reports say no, though obviously it's possible they missed someone here or there in the chaos. [22:15] <@Ferrinus> 12Or that someone's wrong or lying. Keldar will need to do some kind of quiet internal audit in the case of the former... but it's time, too, to talk to the Lookshyans. Zeta Company, Ballare's squad, Ballare herself. [22:16] <@Ferrinus> 12He puts out the call under these pretenses: there are rumors of some kind of foul play at the time that the petal rain was incinerated, implying but not outright stating that the concern is looting of the Guild offices and surrounding buildings during the chaos. The Dawn Guard is looking for witnesses. [22:16] <@Ferrinus> 12While those messages are sent out, Keldar will also want to talk to the highest-ranking Guildsman still standing and involved in this nonsense. They might have an idea as to motive. [22:20] 05Xu Sim goes flying, slams into the wall, and rises unsteadily to his feet. He shoos off his dog. 15[22:23] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin and Xu Sim are back-to-back in the sewer. "Good! Good. Now, you cover my openings and I'll cover yours." [22:26] "Sifu," 05exclaims Xu Sim with a flourish as he adopts the style stance. 15[22:36] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka's been busy, but he's glad to make time. "How have you been?" [22:39] 13Xia Lan: "I've been rushing around trying to prepare for - next week, getting it all in order..." 13She shakes her head, tiredly. "All kinds of running around, and I've still got that show to put on." [22:39] "And I'll be learning Crane style, hopefully well enough to use it for the big day..." 15[22:40] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar is able to secure a meeting with Syndic of Tithes, who is incredibly agitated. His eyes are sunken; must be sleeping poorly. "What do you know about what happened?" [22:41] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Can't prove anything, but I'm pretty sure that tower was blown down on purpose. Tell me this - who'd want to do it that's also strong enough to do it that quick?" [22:41] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar thinks, then adds: "And what'd you lose? Anything unusual? Anything get looted after the crash down?" 15[22:44] <@VoxPVoxD> Syndic: "Your friends could do it. So could Khelendros probably. Sorcerers could. The Lookshyans. We can't put people on this because your people still have our shit." [22:46] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Yeah, but the - wait, seriously?" 12He gave that daiklave and armor back, of course. "What's missing?" 15[22:47] <@VoxPVoxD> Syndic: "The jade gloves and the bodysuit." 15[22:48] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Yeah, I haven't really had a break either. Can you take a night off?" [22:48] 14As that madness goes down with the royal rat authority, Stranger dances up the silty sewer canal, whistling a merry tune and slinging his walking stick back behind him as he twirls; the stick bops a rat on the head here, then a rat on the head there, and both the alluring song and the incensing blows of the splintered walking stick drive the rat vanguard to break fully after him. [22:49] 13Xia Lan: "Of course!" 13She'll just have to rearrange a practice session, but there are worse things to do. "When and where?" [22:50] Xu Sim and Selin together try to rally back against the enormous rat-mutant; the sorcerer resists his blows as best as he can, then strikes back - turned aside on the mutant's filthy hide and parried by whipping tail. 15[22:50] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Somewhere quiet. The high gardens at the east end of the Parko maybe?" [22:50] 05Xu Sim and Selin together try to rally back against the enormous rat-mutant; the sorcerer resists his blows as best as he can, then strikes back - turned aside on the mutant's filthy hide and parried by whipping tail. [22:51] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Noted. Anyway, I know who could do it. Question is, who would? Has Lookshy got something against you?" 12He pauses and considers the question. "Something out of the ordinary?" [22:51] 14The rats chase him, but Stranger leads. [22:54] 13Xia Lan: "After dinner?" 13Or do you want to eat together, is unspoken. Not sure when he's released from duty, specifically. 15[22:59] <@VoxPVoxD> As Stranger leads the small rats away, Seven finishes her spell, holding up a green vial that throws sickly radiance on her face. Motes of light rise from the dead rats on the ground and from within the vial, coalescing into a large rippling orb with a human face pressed against it trying to escape. It glides toward the faceless rat slowly, picking up momentum until it strikes him and detonates with an ugly flare and a shower of green-white sparks. 15[23:01] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "We could bring food to the park. Like a picnic or something." A pause. "I don't know, is that dumb?" 15[23:02] <@VoxPVoxD> Syndic: "I don't think so. Nothing I can think of." [23:04] 13Xia Lan kisses him to keep from laughing. Best boyfriend. "No, that's an amazing idea. Gosh, I haven't had a picnic in ages, it'll be nice to just relax..." [23:05] 05More of the phials, eh, Seven? Xu Sim wonders what's inside. [23:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar looks down at his notes. "Let me see - they crushed Threshold Company, the foreign office... take me through 'em? What was each working on, or storing?" 15[23:08] <@VoxPVoxD> Syndic: "I don't have all that information for you, I can pull it from the other factors. Threshold Company was just collating all the contracts with the city and the free companies." [23:16] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "I'm just trying to figure out motive. If some Lookshyan war hero'd racked up a gambling debt, or if you were keeping an artifact they wanted in the coffers, that kinda thing." 12He leans forward a bit. "'cause if none of that's true, they're just fucking with me." 15[23:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Yeah. ...Yeah. Should I find anything special?" 15[23:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Syndic: "I've never met a Lookshyan who gambled with money." [23:23] 13Xia Lan: "Anything you bring'll be special." 13She beams, covering up the fact that that's the cheesiest thing anyone has ever said. 15[23:24] <@VoxPVoxD> It works. Tsuka can't make eye contact. [23:25] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "All right. You learn something different, you let me know. Meantime, I need a bill." 12He waits a beat. "Like, an itemized assessment of losses and damages, plus the appropriate markup for inconvenience. Need to add it to the city's own judgments for breaking up to two Dogmas." [23:26] 13She smiles even wider, seeing that. "What about me? Any requests...?" [23:30] 14It's hard to keep an eye on what's going on down the sewer tunnel; Stranger hopes that the others have the Rat King under control. His dance with the vanguard continues, bopping and whistling and twirling as the swarm grows angrier and angrier. [23:33] 05Xu Sim concentrates for a moment. With a puff of smoke, there's suddenly, somehow, an even worse smell in the sewers as a pair of blood apes emerge from the corners of Xu Sim's dim anima. [23:34] "Protect us from them, and you can eat all the rats you can catch," 05he explains to the demons as they materialize. 15[23:35] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka shakes his head. [23:38] 13Xia Lan: "Only the spiciest southern cuisine, then!" 13she announces, cheerfully. 15[23:45] <@VoxPVoxD> NEXT TIME: Ruby weapon [23:52] 14Later, back aboveground and on the streets of Floodwater, Stranger-Visits-Heaven looks at the flock of swans sitting outside the entrance to their now-fairly-public hideaway -- and the large, majestic swan calmly grooming herself in the center. Onlookers nervously circle about the edges of this impromptu field of feathers, some watching from doorways, others staring and turning their [23:52] 14heads as they continue down the street. [23:52] "Well," 14he says, "I'm not going to bend that far over to kiss you." [23:54] 14The swan in the center straightens, and suddenly the flock explodes into wings and motion, crossing and twirling around as they launch into the air and scatter, honking as they go. When they've alighted, standing where the great swan used to rest is the Ambassador of Night and Day. She's dressed for battle, not for ballrooms. https://i.imgur.com/BocMH9G.png [23:57] 14She strides forward to kiss him instead. The street goes silent except for a few nervous coughs. They are two of the most attractive people the citizens of Nexus have ever seen, after all, and one of them was just a swan. [23:58] 14After a moment, they separate. "We should go inside," 14she says airily. "I wouldn't like to cause a scene." [00:02] 14...Two hours later, they emerge together again, dressed for a night on the town, faces only slightly flushed. The Amaretto Countenance is one of the few fine dining and cocktail establishments still open this close to the end of the world, with most of the others having shut down as their staff relocated underground or been converted into rationing kitchens to feed the ever-growing [00:02] 14number of soldiers in the city. The Countenance, however, remained open for Councilor, Guild, and merchant use as one of a small number of neutral grounds for negotiation. Soldiers from every faction in the city took turns guarding its doors. [00:05] 14They get a table for themselves and whoever else from the Emissary (or the Dawnguard) wishes to attend. It might be something of a working dinner. [00:06] 13...it's been a long day for Xia Lan. If Stranger sent out a call, she'd answer. [00:07] 14The tea, however, is absolutely on point: Thousand Days Red Jasmine, some of the last leaves of its quality in the city's stock. The food is an array of premium raw fish, along with battered and fried vegetables ("tempura"). [00:08] 14The Ambassador is delighted to see Xia Lan, of course; the young singer gets the full "Darrrling!" 14from across the room as she enters. [00:10] 13She waves as she makes her way over towards the table -- almost as delighted to see the Ambassador as the reverse. "Hello, hello!" 13she says, on arrival. [00:11] "Been a bit, huh?" 13pouring herself a bit of tea. "And Stranger! Hi. Long day, huh." [00:12] 14The Ambassador will smoothly transition into whatever cultural greeting Xia Lan finds most appropriate; left to her own devices, she prefers a hug and a peck on either cheek. [00:13] "Too long," 14she says, with a slight grimace. "You must tell me all about what's happened since I've been gone. Stranger has been unforgivably vague." [00:13] 14He looks over at Xia Lan and shrugs as if to say, 'Wasn't my story to tell.' [00:16] 13She doesn't object to the greeting - certainly, she's been around enough to have encountered more... unique greetings. "There's... a lot going on." 13From her recollections... she actually hasn't seen the Ambassador since before Nogare's attack, for instance. [00:16] 13Xia Lan: "Do you want the full breakdown, or the much more pleasant personal story?" [00:17] 14The Ambassador leans forward: "Well. The personal story first, certainly." [00:20] 13She lightens considerably. "I've been seeing Tsuka. He's --" 13gallant, considerate, hot -- "adorable," 13she settles on. "It's been wonderful, having someone who - I don't think he even knew who I was before we started talking!" 13He might have, but didn't show it, which was really the key to the whole thing. [00:22] 14Stranger hides his smile well. The Ambassador doesn't hide hers at all, but then, she's smiling for different reasons. "The strong, silent type, isn't he? I remember him from the club. Uncommon in one of the Blooded with the Fire, I've found. Treasure that." [00:23] 14Her smile fades a bit. "I suppose I should tell you the news, before I have to explain it to..." 14She makes a dismissive gesture. [00:23] 14Stranger, helpfully: "The Dawn Sergeant." [00:23] "Him." [00:23] 13Xia Lan: "Strong yes, silent... only when he's embarassed, which is... ah." [00:24] 14The Ambassador: "So sad to hear about Pellicia. Doubly so about her replacement. I suppose it can't be helped." [00:25] 13She straightens in her seat. "Regardless of any of our feelings, Keldar is the most qualified for the position." 13When she says it like that, it's even believable. [00:25] "Indeed." [00:26] 14The Ambassador sighs again. "The Silver Pact will not officially help Nexus, proper. This was to be expected, given that it is a city, and the Pact has certain stances on mortal cities. But they're not willing to do much more than harry the Fair Folk army travelling in from the West, either, and are only putting up a true fight in our own lands." [00:27] 14A hint of the smile returns. "But that doesn't mean we won't be getting no help at all..." [00:27] 14TBC