15[20:13] <VoxPVoxD> Centuries ago at least this place was set aside for the relaxation and spiritual refinement of the keepers of the prison below. Even now, as one woman nervously evaluates four people who see their lost Empress in the flesh, the mood is serene.
[20:15] <Crion> 4Piu: "Sooooooooo."
[20:15] <Crion> "This is...awkward."
15[20:15] <VoxPVoxD> "Didst thou enter behind me? Is there another way?" asks the figure who identified herself as Xia Lan, and who appeared from thin air after the jar resting in the crushed-chamber lotus behind her shone and rattled to life.
[20:16] <Crion> 4What language is she speaking again? Piu probably can't understand this if she's busting out the 'didst thou's.
[20:17] <mattbaby> "Y-your Supreme Highness?" 07Dryas stammers, bowing just to be sure.
15[20:18] <VoxPVoxD> She's speaking High Realm, mostly intelligibly. But it does sound odd. Not even the crustiest and most venerable elders of the Dynasty sound like that.
[20:19] <Crion> 4In that case, Piu's looking to Daizo: "Is she real? Is this, like, real?" 4Oh, she'll do a bow too for good measure.
[20:19] <cbass> 10Daizo: "…………if you do not wish to stand on ceremony, Highness, then I will of course…" 10What? What?? His brain's become temporarily uncoupled from his mouth.
15[20:20] <VoxPVoxD> "I..." she hesitates, eyes widening at Dryas's supplication. She takes a step back.
15[20:20] <VoxPVoxD> "I bid you bare your throats to me. Neck and shoulders, if you please."
[20:21] <cbass> 10Daizo: "My apologies. I. We entered through this… yes, of course." 
[20:21] <Crion> 4Piu's already doing that, given her dress code.
15[20:23] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan, "Who the Earth Talks To": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX8pqzkGjLs - I see the spine of the world; I know it's mine, twisted and tied.
[20:24] <cbass> 10Daizo's helmet clatters to the floor and he fumbles at the catches of his gorget. 
[20:24] <Crion> 4Piu chuckles nervously. "What the fuck's going on, Daizo?"
[20:27] <cbass> 10Daizo: "How dare you speak so in Her Highness' presence!" 10Daizo's eyes flick to the figure of the Empress. Has she already… no, if she wished to kill Piu, Piu would already be dead.
[20:28] <mattbaby> 07Dryas casts her cloak aside and fumbles with the clasp of her sealskin jacket, holding her head up. But, as she does so, she casts an increasingly critical eye towards whoever is in front of them. It could be a test? A trap? An imposter? A coincidence?
15[20:31] <VoxPVoxD> Dryas looks past the famous face and sizes up the hearth's interlocutor. She's young, not much older than they are, by the looks of her - though the Empress's ageless beauty is a matter of legend and fact. But her stance and manner of dress suggests nothing of royalty - she has the rough-and-ready posture of someone anticipating danger and not anticipating help. She wears jade-reinforced 
15[20:31] <VoxPVoxD> leather, of a highly antiquated style, and her scarlet hair is held up by a clip the shape of a black triangle - not the sort of thing you'd expect an Empress to wear.
15[20:32] <VoxPVoxD> She has a daiklave at her hip, and rope and piton... and a crest on her belt buckle that Dryas doesn't recognize.
15[20:34] <VoxPVoxD> Whatever she was looking for herself, she seems tentatively satisfied as the hearth members bare their throats. She reaches at her waist, to a sort of saddlebag on her belt, and comes up with a featureless dark rod. "Wouldst thou kindly place bare hands on this?"
15[20:34] <VoxPVoxD> She kneels down and rolls it across the floor to them.
[20:35] <mattbaby> 07Dryas stops it rolling under her boot.
[20:38] <mattbaby> 07She does not immediately bend down to retrieve it.
[20:40] <cbass> 10Of course Piu's impertinence is beneath her Highness' notice. But disobeying a direct order? "Don't make another Hamoji out of this—"
[20:40] <Crion> 4There's a slight pause 14cuideam an sgian an aghaidh na teanga 4but then Piu genuflects: "But of course, your Highness."
[20:45] <Crion> 14This clearly isn't the Scarlet Empress -- and Piu's not convinced it isn't just some kind of illusion -- but a pretender? A pretender with this face? Now that would be useful.
15[20:45] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Your clothes and manner of speech are foreign to me. Dwell you all within the Mountain and Sea Palace?"
[20:46] <cbass> 10Daizo's still got his gauntlets on, which turns out to be good in this circumstance because it means he can make a grab for the rod without Dryas being able to stomp on his hand. "Give me that—" 10Wait, what?
15[20:47] <VoxPVoxD> "The..." she looks around, and tightening around the hilt of her blade. "I bid thee please: place the rod against thy skin."
[20:47] <cbass> 10The where, exactly?
[20:47] <Crion> 4To Dryas: "I'm gonna touch the rod."
[20:49] <Crion> 4Piu is going to do precisely that.
[20:49] <Crion> 4Unless physically stopped.
[20:49] <mattbaby> 07Dryas: "You are asking me for permission now? What will Samperson say next?"
[20:49] <cbass> 10Daizo blinks, refocuses. "It's… it should be safe to do so. It's just wrought iron."
[20:49] <Crion> 4Piu: "There wasn't a question mark there! And it's under your shoe!"
[20:50] <mattbaby> 07Dryas bends to place a fingertip upon it.
15[20:50] <VoxPVoxD> It's just iron. Cold iron, master of them all.
[20:50] <mattbaby> 07She picks it up to hand to the others.
[20:51] <cbass> 10Daizo: "I believe we are being tested to ensure we are not of the Fair Folk."
[20:52] <Crion> 4Piu twirls it around, tosses it to Zhangyu, who will eventually get it to Daizo.
[20:55] <trenchfoot> 6He catches it and throws it to Daizo. C'mon.
15[20:56] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "If thou are of this world, and thou aren't ill... what meanest thou? From where do you hail? Which daimyo do you serve?"
[20:57] <mattbaby> 07Dryas: "The Mountain and Sea Palace... you mean the Imperial Manse? No... I'm from Pangu Prefecture. Cynis Dryas," 07she repeats.
[20:57] <Crion> 4Cheerfully: "Never been invited, your Highness."
[20:57] <trenchfoot> 6Carefully: "Tepet Zhangyu."
[20:58] <cbass> 10Daizo presses the iron rod against his bare neck before holding it out to return."None have entered that place but you, Highness. And I serve no master but you."
[20:58] <mattbaby> 07Dryas: "Your majesty, whose sign is on your belt?"
[20:59] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "It has been... some time."
15[21:01] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan takes the rod tentatively and stows it in her bag. She tilts her belt upward, causing it to gleam briefly as it catches the light and lets it go. "This is seal of the daimyo whose house I serve. Lord Maheka, Who Stands Unbowed."
[21:01] <trenchfoot> 6Um. Did Zhangyu know that already?
15[21:02] <VoxPVoxD> No.
[21:02] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "What?"
15[21:04] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Maheka the Resolute, whose father's grandfather built the walls that guard our people. Lord of the Second Legion."
15[21:04] <VoxPVoxD> "Where are thou from?"
[21:05] <Crion> 14Piu, in Low Realm: <Better question might be when.>
[21:05] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Juche, Highness." <What?>
[21:05] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: <Don't be rude.>
[21:07] <Crion> 14Piu shrugs. <Her Highness is doing a bit, or she's hit her head, or this is not her. Because all of this sounds...hundreds of years out of date. Maybe more.>
[21:08] <Crion> 4Back in High Realm: "I am from the Threshold, your Highness. Adopted into House V'neef, a graduate of Paisap's Stair, and a servant of the Realm."
[21:09] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "Adopted into house Tepet, member of the House of Bells." <It has to be close enough to her language!>
15[21:10] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan's eyes dart between the hearth members. "Are we safe?"
[21:11] <cbass> 10Daizo: <Yall think she's lost her memory or somethin'?> 10Daizo's Low Realm is… straight from his rural childhood.
[21:11] <mattbaby> "You may consider yourself as among family," 07Dryas answers measuredly.
[21:11] <Crion> 4Piu: "You're safe with us, your Highness, if that's what you're asking. And we didn't see any danger on the way in. But I have a question."
[21:12] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "If you're safe, we're safe."
[21:12] <cbass> "I believe we are. I spoke with the font of knowledge in the archives, and—"10 What did it say again?
[21:13] <cbass> "…there was no one here aside from us and the… Jadeborn… maintenance crew?"
[21:15] <mattbaby> 07Dryas thinks back to her days as a little girl, lessons with Auntie Kana. "Your Highness, have you come here for refuge from the plague?"
[21:17] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "Hold the f-ing-- is this real?"
[21:17] <Crion> 4Piu: "My question, your Highness, is that we keep calling you 'your Highness,' and you've neither acknowledged that nor asked us to stop. Do you have any idea what we're referring to?"
15[21:21] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Would that the plague alone were my fear. I am--" Piu's words stop her, and she considers the V'Neef scion for a moment before saying, "There is much about our predicament I don't understand. If you think me of high station, it is for some reason. Less urgent an epithet than traitor, trespasser, thief - I ajudged it less urgent."
15[21:21] <VoxPVoxD> "Perhaps you feel differently."
15[21:21] <VoxPVoxD> "Who dost thou see when thou looks at me?"
[21:22] <trenchfoot> 6As if it were obvious: "The empress."
[21:22] <Crion> 4Piu sighs. "Someone who does not know what danger having that face puts you in."
[21:22] <trenchfoot> 6Yeah, wow, do NOT walk around with that.
[21:23] <Crion> "I think the greatest respect we can show you is to address you how you'd like to be addressed. What's most comfortable for you?"
[21:24] <cbass> 10Daizo: "The woman who saved the world in its time of greatest need. Our protector, these past seven hundred and sixty years. The mother of all our mothers."
15[21:24] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan falls silent at this. She just stares.
[21:26] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu stares back.
[21:26] <Crion> 4Piu gives Daizo a look, then: "...So it might be best to start with what year you think it is, by whichever system of reckoning you have."
[21:27] <mattbaby> 07Dryas strides past The Empress of the Realm of the Scarlet Dynasty to the row of jars from which she emerged. How many more jars are there? Are there fragments of the previous jar?
[21:27] <cbass> 10Daizo: "That seems reasonable. Er. Is there someplace a little more hospitable than this chamber where we can converse?"
15[21:30] <VoxPVoxD> There was just the one jar, which is still there. A thin line of light runs around it about two-thirds of the way up, where the seam must be.
[21:31] <mattbaby> "What is this thing?" 07Dryas asks the room.
[21:31] <cbass> 10It was fully sealed before, right? 
[21:32] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "...a jar?"
[21:32] <Crion> 4Xia Lan...it's gonna get used to calling her that. The only other Xia Lan in modern Realm and Threshold life is the scandalous bandit-queen demon diva, heretic of the stage, and her harem of 108 outcast and outcaste Dragon-Blooded princelings. Or so the stories say. Mainly she just has bops.
[21:32] <trenchfoot> 13Rude.
15[21:32] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "It is--" She looks outside, through the narrow window past which blue sky is visible. "It was Calibration, in the eight hundredth and twelfth year since the Revolution."
[21:33] <Crion> 4Someone else is gonna have to do the math on how long ago that was, but that doesn't sound like their numbering system.
[21:35] <trenchfoot> 13No, go back, you have to tell me how bad you think I suck.
[21:35] <trenchfoot> 6That sounds like... a long time ago.
[21:35] <Crion> 4Having bops is a very high compliment?!
[21:36] <Crion> 4The songs go! They whip! They slap! Get back to your own game.
[21:36] <trenchfoot> 13THIS WAS MY GAME
[21:37] <cbass> 10Well, much like the Cleansing, it's our game now.
[21:37] <mattbaby> 07Dryas leans up to it and peers out.
15[21:40] <VoxPVoxD> Dryas sees clear sky and the tip of the opposite mountain.
[21:40] <mattbaby> 07Here in the far West? Or on the Blessed Isle?
15[21:41] <VoxPVoxD> Looks like the Maw.
[21:41] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Hence your fully reasonable caution about the Contagion and that we might be Fair Folk in disguise. If I recall… He of the Terrible Eye was poised to make war on the Blessed Isle itself."
15[21:42] <VoxPVoxD> "Was? So he was defeated. Oh, thank the dragons. How?"
[21:42] <Crion> 14Piu, Low Realm again: <No one else -- no one else -- can know about her until we have a plan. For her safety as much as ours.>
[21:42] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "Was I supposed to learn that? I, uh, didn't."
[21:43] <cbass> 10Daizo: <Yeah. This room's hotter'n the Pole of Fire right now.>
[21:45] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Through the might of the Mountain and Sea Palace. You… you were able to unlock its secrets."
[21:46] <Crion> 4Piu: "You should probably lead with telling her how many years it's been."
[21:46] <Crion> "So she's got context for all the other stuff."
[21:47] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "It's been... a while."
[21:48] <mattbaby> 07Dryas: "You are my mother's father's mother's mother's mother's mother. We four are aristocrats of the Scarlet Dynasty. Your dynasty. Which has ruled the world - or the most and best of it - for nearly eight hundred years."
[21:49] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "As I said. A while."
[21:50] <cbass> 10Daizo: "I already did. When you emerged from the Palace, you declared your dominion, and a new reckoning began. This is Realm Year 768."
15[21:50] <VoxPVoxD> "Seven hundred and--"
[21:50] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "A. While."
15[21:51] <VoxPVoxD> She takes a breath. The turmoil that plays across her face is gone in an instant, replaced with cold focus.
15[21:51] <VoxPVoxD> "Where are we?"
[21:52] <trenchfoot> 6One supposes 'when are we' is a bad question.
15[21:52] <VoxPVoxD> Also, was just answered.
[21:52] <Crion> 4Piu: "In the archipelagos of the Direction of Water. Was 'Abalone' a city that existed in your time?"
[21:52] <Crion> "What about the great volcano, Hamoji?"
15[21:53] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan shakes her head. "I have never left the Holy Isle."
[21:53] <cbass> 10Daizo: "This place is known to us today as the Maw of Toto-Rak. The writing upon this facility's wall names it (Palace/Temple/Soul One)."
[21:53] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "Wow. Uh."
[21:54] <trenchfoot> "This... isn't called that anymore."
15[21:54] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "The hierarchies of the Gentes are above my station. Such things... are not mine to know."
15[21:55] <VoxPVoxD> "Is Abalone the new name for Mionzi?"
[21:55] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu immediately looks to Daizo. The nerd.
[21:56] <Crion> 4Piu: "Then you're probably 5000 malms from home, at least. Mianzi's nearby, but Abalone is not built on its site."
[21:56] <Crion> "Nothing is, far as I know."
[21:56] <Crion> *Mionzi
[21:58] <cbass> 10Daizo: "We know it as Old Mionzi. It is on the charts to the southeast of this place, and northeast of Abalone. But none have visited there in centuries"
[21:58] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu is once again surprised by Piu. "I really need to study geography."
[21:59] <mattbaby> 07Dryas: "You should also understand that, respectfully, you've been missing for more than five years. We came here on the trail of someone who, supposedly, believes herself to be looking for you."
15[21:59] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Why are we here, then? Why are you here? I gather I was not the expected discovery."
[21:59] <trenchfoot> "...she WAS here."
[22:00] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Right. Furia *was* here 70 days ago."
[22:01] <Crion> 4Piu: "It probably has to do with something you should probably get used to right now, because it's going to be reinforced moving forward and it's good to just rip the bandage right off: shortly after your memory stops, the Shogunate falls to the Contagion. Completely falls. The history we all get taught in school says you were doing a desperate, doomed last stand at the heart of 
[22:01] <Crion> Creation when you -- you, personally -- took control of the Sword of Creation and saved the world."
[22:01] <Crion> "And then you, like, conquered it."
[22:02] <cbass> 10Daizo: "And the person who was here before then, 90 days past… well, we had good reason to believe it was you. The modern you."
[22:02] <Crion> "We're saying this over and over because it's very important you realize this."
[22:02] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "Yeah, that happened. It was super important."
[22:02] <Crion> "We step one foot outside here, and people are going to worship you as a world-historic savior...and if they think you're not that person, they're going to try to kill you."
15[22:03] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "If I... if your Empress was gone for years, why did she come here three months' past?"
[22:03] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "'You' were missing."
[22:03] <Crion> 4Piu: "We assume Her Highness has her reasons. Part of being Her Highness is never having to explain them."
[22:04] <cbass> 10Daizo: "We are still trying to ascertain that. Your future self did not share her motives with anyone, nor her plans."
[22:04] <mattbaby> "Two empresses?" 07Dryas murmurs.
[22:05] <Crion> 4Piu: "And we're not ruling out -- yet -- that you're actually her. Just...going through some stuff."
[22:05] <trenchfoot> 6It would be super messed up if she was.
[22:05] <Crion> 14Not a likely option, but functionally irrelevant.
[22:06] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Indeed. Perhaps you have lost your memory, or had it taken from you."
[22:06] <trenchfoot> 6No, like, super messed up.
[22:06] <mattbaby> "Or putting us to some kind of test. In which case I ~~hope we are doing well!" 07Dryas remarks.
[22:06] <Crion> 14Likeness, enscorcelled copy, amnesiac ruler -- the money question is: can she operate the Sword?
[22:06] <trenchfoot> 6z0rd
[22:07] <Crion> 14Every faction in the coming war would pay dearly to find the answer to that question out. A malleable wielder of the Grid? A puppet? What a prize.
15[22:07] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Very well. Then we shall need a plan. If we are in the West, then there is a ship waiting for us, yes? We should return anon."
15[22:07] <VoxPVoxD> "Or have you not yet found what you *truly* sought?"
[22:08] <trenchfoot> 6What on Creation is she saying. "There... is... but I'm not sure we should return with you, like this?"
[22:08] <mattbaby> "Our orders were to return if we found a living soul," 07Dryas warily agrees.
[22:08] <cbass> 10Daizo: "No, no, no—we will not abandon you here!" 10There's steel in those words and it spurs Daizo on. 
[22:09] <Crion> 14Piu: "One question first. Do you have the Dragon's Blood?"
15[22:09] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Of course. Don't we all?"
[22:09] <Crion> 4Piu: "Whew! Well, see the thing is if the answer was no, this would have all gotten a lot harder."
15[22:09] <VoxPVoxD> To demonstrate, she holds her hand out, and a solid chunk of marble rips itself from the other to hover gently beside her.
[22:10] <trenchfoot> 6Well, alright.
[22:10] <mattbaby> "So not a Lunar Anathema with a death wish," 07Dryas breathes a sigh of relief.
[22:10] <cbass> 10Uh.
[22:11] <Crion> 4Piu: "We want to take a look around the rest of the place, and you should probably get your legs under you and maybe try to pick up our manner of speaking a bit more. It's gonna be a process, but we'll be here."
[22:12] <Crion> "Maybe there will be something else here that will jog your memory. Backward or forward."
15[22:12] <VoxPVoxD> "I will do my best. How does your Empress speak?"
[22:12] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "Um. We have no idea? She's hidden."
[22:12] <Crion> 4Piu frowns. "Now that I think about it, I doubt anyone out here except some of the Mnemons even really know."
[22:12] <Crion> "So just keep sounding, like, imperious."
[22:13] <trenchfoot> "Yeah just keep doing you."
15[22:13] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "...very well."
[22:14] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Er… If need be, I have a book of your most famous orations in my cabin."
[22:17] <Crion> 4Piu grins. "Let's start slow."
15[22:20] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "I shall endeavor to follow your lead, then. Albeit in a way that gives the impression I am in charge."
[22:21] <Crion> 4Still grinning: "Yes, your Highness."
15[22:22] <VoxPVoxD> The hearth and its new acquaintance make to leave the chamber, and Xia Lan vanishes once they're halfway to the stairwell.
[22:22] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Of course. In all things I stand as your servant, as an adopted—"
[22:22] <cbass> 10Daizo: "What the fuck."
[22:22] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "Of fucking course."
15[22:23] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan reappears, a few fulms behind them, panting and out of breath. "Oh, thank the dragons. I feared you destroyed, the world dissolved..."
[22:23] <trenchfoot> "Yeah, no, this isn't going to work."
15[22:23] <VoxPVoxD> "Past this point," she says, scraping a line in the dust with her boot, "the corridor becomes terribly blank."
15[22:23] <VoxPVoxD> "White in all directions. No terrain remains ahead of me."
[22:23] <Crion> 4Piu: "Aha. There's the trick."
[22:24] <Crion> "...Daizo?"
[22:25] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Allow me to try something. Walk with me, Highness." 10He's returning to the meditation chamber. 
15[22:25] <VoxPVoxD> She follows.
[22:26] <cbass> 10Daizo lays his hands on the vessel marked 'HEAR'. Is it fixed in place?
15[22:26] <VoxPVoxD> Nope! It's nestled in place, but Daizo can pick it up.
[22:27] <cbass> 10All right! Daizo's going to pick it up and try walking with it, alongside the Empress, past the line in the dust.
[22:28] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu just stares at the line.
15[22:28] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan takes a deep breath, steps over the line... and she's still there.
15[22:29] <VoxPVoxD> "The vessel sets a perimeter!" she says, triumphantly! "A canny deduction, Tepet Daizo!"
[22:29] <trenchfoot> 6But is Daizo?
15[22:29] <VoxPVoxD> Yep.
[22:29] <Crion> 4Piu: "Our first order of business is to untether you from that vessel."
[22:29] <trenchfoot> 6...Huh. Okay.
[22:29] <Crion> "Maybe we'll find something about it in the vault or the archives."
15[22:30] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Perhaps so. I confess I have no sorcerous arts. I assay, I reconnoiter. I am... a glorified tomb raider."
[22:31] <trenchfoot> 13LOOK
[22:32] <Crion> 4Piu: "Well, you'll have to learn on your feet, your Highness. Let's get rolling."
15[22:32] <VoxPVoxD> Going down?
[22:33] <Crion> 4Seems like. Do any of the readers wanna stop by the archives to look up this jar thing or are we headed straight for the vault?
[22:33] <mattbaby> 07Dryas walks behind, thinking.
[22:34] <cbass> 10Daizo: "We have been seeing quite a number odd vessels, of late. I should like to study this one as well."
[22:35] <cbass> 10Mm. Daizo doesn't want to grapple with the basin again just yet. Perhaps something useful can be gotten from the documents Dryas found.
15[22:35] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "It's a common form found in tombs of the Old Ones. You're familiar, I trust, with burial practices that saw vital organs discharged from corpses and sealed in sacred jars. Old and potent monsters could fashion similar vessels, capable of containing the numinous. Essence, a spirit."
15[22:36] <VoxPVoxD> Stoically: "And whatever it is I am."
[22:36] <Crion> 4Piu: "Well, look on the bright side. It's an argument in favor of authenticity, at least."
15[22:36] <VoxPVoxD> Dryas still has that lockbox, though it is still locked.
[22:38] <trenchfoot> 6What in the heck.
[22:38] <mattbaby> "I don't suppose you know anything about this sort of box?" 07Dryas asks, producing it.
15[22:39] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Lockboxes of adamant routinely hold the treasures of the Old Ones. Where was that?"
[22:39] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Fascinating. You've explored ruins like this often. In the archives."
[22:39] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Fascinating. You've explored ruins like this often? In the archives."
15[22:40] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "I have a knack. It's how I earned my deed name. Do... do you not have those anymore?"
[22:41] <mattbaby> 07Dryas: "I found it upstairs. Would you do me the honor of opening it? And... 'deed name'?"
[22:41] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "I... don't think so?" 6He looks around. "Do we have those?"
[22:41] <Crion> 4Piu: "For us, House names are more important now."
[22:42] <Crion> 4To Xia Lan: "Think that might've been your doing."
[22:42] <trenchfoot> 13You're damned right.
[22:43] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Still, exceptional individuals of any age earn epithets, formally granted or not."
[22:43] <trenchfoot> 13Unfettered.
[22:43] <mattbaby> "The Roseblack," 07Dryas agrees.
15[22:43] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan reaches into her hair, past the triangular clip holding it up, and produces a set of delicate-looking jade picks. "I never did like mine," she admits. "I took the Second Breath playing in some ruins near our lord's home, and I was able to find my way out whole, with treasures no other tomb-diver had ever found."
15[22:43] <VoxPVoxD> "The lord's sage dubbed me 'Girl the Earth Talks To'."
[22:44] <trenchfoot> 13Hey wait what
[22:46] <cbass> 10Daizo: "It makes sense, then, that you didn't care for it. By our time, any written records of your name had been long since expunged."
15[22:48] <VoxPVoxD> "So what, you just called me 'the Empress'?"
[22:48] <cbass> 10Daizo: "It's been a scholarly pastime to speculate on what it might have been. Ah, but that means that any names you may have used with your husbands or daughters, other confidants≥… are unknown to us." 
[22:49] <Crion> "The Scarlet Empress."
[22:49] <trenchfoot> 6Zhangyu: "That's... you're her."
15[22:50] <VoxPVoxD> As if on cue, the Xia Lan's anima flares scarlet as she picks delicately at the lock... "Tch!" she doesn't succeed. "Maybe if we had more time," she says.
15[22:51] <VoxPVoxD> The box goes back to Dryas and the picks back into her own hair. The five descend!
[22:51] <trenchfoot> 6She's...!
[22:52] <mattbaby> 07Even The Empress can be imperfect...?
[22:53] <Crion> 14Perfection is the realm of the Anathema. And besides, the anima flare confirms she's not simply spoofing lesser tricks with that marble stuff.
[22:54] <cbass> 10Wise words, Dark Piu.
15[22:54] <VoxPVoxD> There are great jade doors that bar the way to the Vault, but luckily at some point they were rent savagely apart and thick webbing clots the space between them.
[22:54] <cbass> 10Dork Piu.
[22:54] <Crion> 14Phhllbbbt.
15[22:56] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Hast thou-- have you already slain the creature that spins these?"
[22:56] <mattbaby> "Creature?" 07Dryas asks, perking up.
15[22:56] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "This is spider's silk."
[22:57] <Crion> 4Grimacing: "We have not. Meaning..."
15[22:57] <VoxPVoxD> "Evidently, quite a large spider."
[22:58] <Crion> "I could set myself on fire and burn it all away. But the uh. Giant spider. Would be mostly on the rest of you."
15[22:58] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan draws her sword, a reaper daiklave of shimmering blue jade. "Shall I?"
[22:58] <Crion> 4Piu steps aside. "Or we could do that."
[22:59] <cbass> 10Daizo: "We've not seen nor heard signs of any creature. But we'll be on our guard."
15[23:01] <VoxPVoxD> Dryas catches a scent from the silk, one that grows stronger the deeper they go. She's got the trail, now.
15[23:02] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan draws the blade between her fingers, and leaps into the air buoyed by a whirlwind. The blade pierces the webbing at the apex of the passageway and she rides her own sword to the ground, shredding it open as she goes.
15[23:03] <VoxPVoxD> The difference in pressure is overwhelming, and everyone is sucked through the wind that rushes to equalize it, pushing them mercilessly forward!
[23:11] <Crion> 4Piu's anima ignites as she curls into a ball and then extends forward into a wind-driven leap, temperature rising around her.
15[23:11] <VoxPVoxD> Daizo holds steadfast against the natural pressure, while Piu, Dryas, and Xia Lan are able to break their fall safely.
[23:12] <mattbaby> 07Dryas scrabbles for purchase with expert skill before finding herself on solid ground again.
[23:12] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Hrrngh!" 10His anima flares as well, but he's unmoved. "Zhangyu! Grab on!"
15[23:13] <VoxPVoxD> The Vault is a vast chamber, tunneled deep into the earth. A staircase winds around the outside, and platforms every quarter-turn lead off into corridors. That mold can't survive down here, but it *does* grow, leaving what should be forests of luminescent fungus reduced to stagnant pools of goo that slow progress if you don't walk around them, and the odd wheezing spore pod that bursts 
15[23:13] <VoxPVoxD> if you stand too close. None of you are so foolish.
[23:14] <Crion> 4Ehhhh. Let's keep an eye on Zhangyu.
[23:14] <mattbaby> "I've got its scent, by the way," 07Dryas says, quietly and intently.
[23:15] <Crion> 4Piu tests her legs with a hop. "Let's go."
[23:15] <cbass> 10Daizo wrinkles his nose. "Disgusting. Truly foul."
15[23:16] <VoxPVoxD> Most of the passages they pass terminate in empty cells, or are blocked off, if not by cave-ins than by barricades that are strong and coherent enough to plausibly date to when the place was abandoned or before. 
[23:24] <mattbaby> 07Dryas paces along, an arrow nocked in the Earned Nemesis.
15[23:25] <VoxPVoxD> They have to get quite deep before Daizo can sense movement. All the way at the bottom, past dozens of empty cells and dozens more collapsed or barricaded, Daizo can sense vibrations as he feels live bodies wriggling in cocoons stuck along the walls and ceiling of the vault down below. He counts fifteen, and he can see them in his minds eye, with their rough clothes and crude bodies 
15[23:25] <VoxPVoxD> and huge, crystalline eyes. No larger than near-adolescent children. Dryas tracks the scent the same way, and when it twitches Daizo can see it too.
15[23:25] <VoxPVoxD> It isn't a spider. It's a scorpion, with a long, wicked-looking tail covered in tarantula-like fur. It's almost perfectly still, as if it senses you as surely as you sense it.
[23:26] <cbass> 10Daizo whispers "No one move."
15[23:26] <VoxPVoxD> A bit closer by, however, is the sound of someone audibly cringing. It is only this movement that lets Daizo distinguish the creature from the earth - another smooth, rough-dressed thing cowering behind a rock up ahead.
15[23:26] <VoxPVoxD> Everyone, though, can hear the sound.
[23:27] <cbass> 10Daizo whispers "Shit."
15[23:29] <VoxPVoxD> The great creature Daizo perceives continues to hold still, in a vast chamber off the corridor at the bottom of the vault.
[23:30] <cbass> 10Daizo: "Get ready. It's a damn scorpion with spinnerets, and it's coming for that poor soul any second now. It's already webbed up the rest of the maintenance crew."
[23:31] <cbass> 10But… not yet. It's biding its time. 
[23:32] <Crion> 4Piu: "Not all of them."
[23:33] <cbass> 10Daizo barely breathes <Can you hear me? Come this way, slowly.> 10in Old Realm.
15[23:35] <VoxPVoxD> The creature crawls hesitantly out from behind the rock, into Daizo's lamplight. It looks like polished yellow stone, wearing overalls of rough blue fabric and metallic goggles over its one huge and cyclopean jade eye.
[23:35] <Crion> 4Piu's a bit far back to give them all space, but will give the thing an encouraging smile.
15[23:37] <VoxPVoxD> <Peace!> they squeak. <This one pleads for peace and mercy! Is my groveling sufficient?>
[23:37] <Crion> 4They're adorable, in a stupid way.
[23:37] <cbass> 10Daizo: <More than adequate. We mean you no harm.>
15[23:39] <VoxPVoxD> The cringing little Jadeborn: <Please! My whole crew... Graffias has them!>
15[23:39] <VoxPVoxD> <It waits in Akavadra's Vault!>
15[23:39] <VoxPVoxD> <Oh, woe. Oh, woe and despair!>
[23:40] <mattbaby> 07Dryas: "What's it saying?"
[23:40] <cbass> 10Daizo: "I'll translate." 
15[23:40] <VoxPVoxD> Kisalli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yIELWjG8Tc - Strong, united, working 'till we fall.
[23:43] <mattbaby> "Weak spot?" 07Dryas had her share of scorpions in the South. Usually a bootheel was enough.
15[23:45] <VoxPVoxD> The Jadeborn: <Graffias has two brains. Its main brain is behind many layers of plate, but the secondary in its tail is often exposed.>
[23:46] <mattbaby> 07Dryas: "Graffias? Is the name for such beasts, or this beast?"
15[23:46] <VoxPVoxD> The Jadeborn, aghast: <There's more than one?!"
15[23:46] <VoxPVoxD> *>
15[23:47] <VoxPVoxD> It looks like it wants to faint.
[23:47] <Crion> 4Piu will kick out a foot to prop it up if it does.
15[23:47] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: <Who do you work for?>
15[23:48] <VoxPVoxD> At the sound of her voice, the Jadeborn's eye wells with a single pearlescent tear. <My Queen! You have returned as you promised! Please, we are your humble slaves. We exist only to flesh your will.>
15[23:49] <VoxPVoxD> It gets down on its hands and knees in a gesture of supplication.
15[23:49] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "I keep slaves?"
[23:49] <Crion> 4Piu: "Yes."
[23:50] <Crion> 4Piu: "Not my place to offer an opinion, but my opinion might be clear. Your Highness."
[23:51] <cbass> 10Daizo: "If you find that shocking, please don't ask Dryas what her House's primary business interests are."
15[23:51] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan kneels down, then, before the creature. <Tha thu sàbhailte. Chan eil dùil againn ri cron sam bith. Dìonaidh sinn do bhràithrean.>
[23:51] <Crion> 14She's well-trained enough not to physically react.
[23:53] <cbass> 10Huh. Daizo makes a mental note of that. Zhangyu can repeat it back to him later for transcription.
15[23:53] <VoxPVoxD> Whether or not the Jadeborn understands, they seem comforted by the words. <My Queen,> they repeat.
[23:53] <mattbaby> 07Dryas makes two notes of this for later. It is the moment in which her body language and face most closely resemble her cousin Caxi moving stones around on her mental and moral abacus.
[23:54] <cbass> 10Daizo: "What did you say to them?"
[23:54] <Crion> 4Piu: "What a strange tongue!"
15[23:55] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "What language do the slaves speak now? Is it not the Cant?"
15[23:55] <VoxPVoxD> "I told him that we meant him no harm, and that we would save his comrades."
[23:56] <Crion> 4Piu: "They just teach the slaves the common tongues now, to shout at them better."
15[23:56] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "Hh."
15[23:57] <VoxPVoxD> She rises to her feet, and points into the dark with her sword. "This way?"
15[23:57] <VoxPVoxD> She's looking at Daizo here.
[23:58] <cbass> 10Daizo nods. "It seems like it's decided to wait for us. It must be a canny creature indeed."
15[00:00] <VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan: "We should expect a trap, then. Or some disadvantage."
[00:01] <cbass> 10Daizo: <Little one, how does the Graffias hunt?>
[00:03] <Crion> 4Piu: "My plan will be to tackle it, burn my Essence, and ignite it with me. I've got moves for that."
[00:03] <Crion> "Might set the room on fire, but these little guys are made from jade, right?
[00:03] <Crion> "Should be fine."
15[00:04] <VoxPVoxD> The Jadeborn: <It makes the mold grow. It summons its spawn to kill and feed. Terribly strong and fast and so, so big...>
15[00:05] <VoxPVoxD> "Tepet Daizo, please shine your light over the door," says Xia Lan, who is squinting up into the dark.
[00:05] <mattbaby> 07Dryas prefers a different strategy: "As the venerable Jadeborn explained, the brain is in the tail. Even in the darkness, I believe I can make that shot."
[00:06] <cbass> 10Daizo: <It makes the mold? That's twice as much reason to slay it.>
[00:07] <Crion> 4Piu: "Don't waste one of his arrows on an animal. We can take it the proper way."
[00:07] <cbass> 10To Piu: "They're alive—not elementals or animated stone. I don't know what precisely their anatomy is, but let's try to avoid roasting them all alive."
[00:08] <Crion> 4Gross. But: "Well, okay."
[00:08] <cbass> 10To Xia Lan: "At once, Highness."
15[00:09] <VoxPVoxD> Daizo lifts the light, and they can see the Old Realm characters arranged vertically over the door.
15[00:09] <VoxPVoxD> A
15[00:09] <VoxPVoxD> KA
15[00:09] <VoxPVoxD> VA
15[00:09] <VoxPVoxD> DRA
[00:10] <cbass> 10If nothing else, Xia Lan is the authority on exploring places such as these. 
15[00:10] <VoxPVoxD> NEXT TIME: Graffias