The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

The news of the wyld hunt moving towards Chung Do came like a hammer-blow to the circle. Sunhill didn’t have any defenses yet, not even city walls, and with the wealth of medicines and medical herbs that would soon be stocked inside the Sunhill hospital manse there was a dire need for protection against raiders – but with the wyld hunt moving towards Chung Do there wasn’t much time to set that up.
Well, that was until Heath Rose explained just how big and how slowly the wyld hunt was moving: “They have over seven hundred ashigaru and martial monks with them. It takes a long time and a lot of logistics to move that big a force. Gold faction projections and auguries put the hunt at Chung Do’s gates in three months – remember, they’re traveling all the way from Charak”

“Well that gives us plenty of time to plan and raise an army. Speaker, do you think Chung Do’s fortifications will be up for this?” Cash said with a much less unnerved smiled.

Heath Rose nodded in silence as Speaker reassured Cash that Chung Do’s city walls were plenty sturdy. Then she revealed why the walls wouldn’t matter: “This hunt is not a normal one. The bronze faction engineered the situation in such a way that Peleps Blueblood is leading it”

“Oh hell no!” Shimmer gasped, taking three hurried steps back, nearly tripping over two other ponies.

Speaker looked to Shimmer to see if she was ok. The clearly shaken Lunar in turn looked around at the rest of the circle: “Do you have any idea who Peleps blueblood is? That stallion is a mad-pony, a butcher”

“It’s true. Hell, Blueblood has killed fifty times more unicorns than anathema in his time in the hunt and that’s simply over dogmatic disputes, or disagreements over the proper translation of ancient immaculate texts” Heath Rose chimed in, shaking heard head as she recounted the grim statistics of the murderous unicorn.

Speaker had heard of Blueblood. So had Sully and Sunrise. Indeed, there probably wasn’t a pony in any part of civilized Creation who hadn’t heard of Blueblood – the butcher of the hunt. Rumor had it that he was so zealous that he would publicly outright murder other unicorns if they didn’t agree to his personal interpretations of scripture… and Heath Rose looked like she knew even more grim facts than that.

“Hold on, this doesn’t add up. From what I heard about Blueblood then he’s not that popular in Realm… him killing unicorns and whatnot – he shouldn’t have been to assemble a force like this – most hunts these days are fifty to a hundred ashigaru and maybe one or two unicrons” Shimmer noted.

Heath Rose nodded and took a deep sip from a drink glass that held some semi-transparent green liquor, her eyes brightening up as she relished in the delightfully fresh flavor. Giving the glass a look, then looking at Shimmer, she sighed: “It’s all because of the factional infighting up in heaven. We’ve kept you lot a secret from too many, so when the gold faction handlers in charge of keeping Blueblood alive found out that the Bronze faction had sent him to be killed by a group of Solars, he pulled some strings to get Blueblood some reinforcements, not knowing that it was you he’d be sending the grandmaster on”

“The grand-who?” Sullen Hoof asked, knowing next to nothing about the Immaculate faith’s organization and clerical hierarchy.

Speaker on the other hoof was well aware of who the Grandmaster of the Immaculates were, so with a trembling voice he asked: “The grandmaster… holy hells, how did you get him to do that?”

“Hello, who is this pony?” Sullen Hoof stated again, keenly noticing the dread in Speaker’s voice and quickly deducing that if Speaker feared this pony, even with the powers that the circle could draw on, then this Grandmaster had to be a big threat.

Sunrise Glow explained: “I’m guessing that the sidereals have a lot of control over the immaculates, right?” Heath Rose nodded and looked to Sully and added: “He is the most powerful unicorn martial artist in existence. He has mastered over a dozen magical martial art styles. Hell, he’d give most elder sidereals a run for their money in a straight fight. Even if Red was still alive he would outclass her so much that it’s not even funny. Plus he’s bringing his Furious Five with him, and they’re each bringing a hundred or so martial monks and retainers”

“We’ll need a Lookshyan field force to counter this…” Speaker said as he despaired, hinting quite heavily that getting such assistance would be next to impossible to get in time.

Sullen Hoof nodded slowly. Sunrise was making a pained grimace, likely fearing for the lives of the ponies of Chung Do. Shimmer walked around the table and rested her head on Speaker’s shoulder. The whole circle was feeling Red’s absence quite heavily, for without her indomitable valor in this kind of moment of dread they had no-one to lean on to reassure them.

Ultimately Heath Rose reassured the circle that the massive wyld hunt, due to its size, was unable to journey straight to Chung Do. It would have to make its route via several dozen minor immaculate monasteries and temples to resupply, and considering that the grandmaster was along for the trip then each stop would likely last a few days so proper welcoming and departure ceremonies could be performed.

“Rememeber: Our fate augery shows their journey to Chung Do to take almost three months, and that’s from today – this should give you plenty of time to come up with a plan. They set off a few weeks ago, so there’s no rush” the sidereal explained, hoping to see some kind of improvement in the circle’s morale.

Even with the long time to prepare, the circle found it difficult to come up with any immediate solutions. Unlike the ponies from Brookside who had been sick of how the Council of Entities had treated them, then the ponies of Chung Do genuinely liked where they lived, so simply moving them all to a safe place – Sunhill for example – was out of the question.

Having remained largely silent during this revelation, Cash suggested that they put off any strategy meetings until the next day – or at the very least until after the party: “Come now, we have dignitaries to entertain and potential future business and trade partners to make nice with”

Despite their best attempts, only Cash was able to display what appeared as a genuine smile for the rest of the evening – and even that was only possible thanks to his charms and a healthy wad of essence veiling his otherwise worried looks.

That night, as they went to bed in their penthouse suite at the top of the Sunhill manse, Shimmer wept quietly into Speaker’s mane. She had seen scenarios like this unfold far too many times in her life: She would spend two or three years rebuilding an island tribe that had been decimated by changelings into a thriving and independent community – only for a couple of unicorns to come in and kill those they didn’t convert, and destroy everything they considered heretical… which usually meant ruining most of the shrines that worked as the cornerstone of the usual protection deals that Shimmer would set up with local spirits, as well as any kind of fishing boats and equipment that the wyld hunt deemed to be of anathema origins by virtue of being too advanced for the locals to have come up with themselves.

The next few days the circle dedicated themselves to pursuits of distraction, so they wouldn’t have to focus on the wyld hunt just yet. This bore fruit in several unexpected ways: Sullen Hoof’s walk through the surrounding forests resulted in him gathering an inordinate amount of rare seeds that would allow for a likely profitable orchard with rare herbs to be set up, while Shimmer found a large copse of completely untouched rubber trees. The rubber trees weren’t immediately identified as useful until Speaker noted that he knew a way to refine their sap into a sticky fluid that he knew that Lookshy prized in its manufacture and maintenance of its magitech arsenal, plus he recalled certain uses of the stuff for the production of first age medical equipment.

Efforts were quickly set up to build these two efforts into future production and export businesses, as well as setting up farmland for the ponies of Sunhill. The downside to getting all these things done was that now the only pressing issue at hoof was the wyld hunt...

As the circle gathered in one of the meeting rooms of the Sunhill manse Heath Rose appeared as well, this time looking somewhat pale and frightened. She was clutching a large pendant that Speaker identified as a Recorder of Everlasting glories, though it looked a bit different from the one he had. Heath Rose nodded: “Ya… and what I have on this is enough to get all of us killed, both in this life and the next couple ones”

With that ominous statement, the circle gathered around as Heath Rose displayed what she had recorded: Images of letters from the Immaculate grandmaster Ragara Bulk Biceps, addressed to someone he simply called Sifu. This instantly raised the question of who the grandmaster had as master… for the grandmaster was supposed to be the greatest master there was, at least in martial arts.

“Oh it gets better…” Heath Rose said, twisting a gemstone knob on the recorder so it displayed a brief recording of two ponies standing on a bridge in the middle of a large and beautifully arranged garden, with towering pagodas in the distance.

Zooming in enough to show the two ponies properly was difficult. The recording had been done from very far away – but it revealed a huge pony with enormous muscles, clad in the traditional immaculate light blue monk robes commonly seen everywhere in Creation. In front of him stood another pony clad in a mix of red and black, with a red and black mane and a cream-colored coat. It was difficult to see any distinct features on either of them.
“Wow… he’s big” Cash noted incredulously.
Heath Rose nodded, then drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, appearing to expect divine smiting or some kind of intervention to stop her from what she was about to say: “That other pony is one Anys Sunshine, chosen of battle. She’s the right-hoof pony of Ketchup Carjack, the leader of the bronze faction. The amount of power she wields makes her VERY dangerous”

There was a moment of silence as Heath Rose looked over her shoulder, scanning the white marble walls of the meeting room as if looking of unseen assailants that was leap out of the very stone itself. After steeling herself once more, she continued as she trembled: “Just getting this information will mean that I’ll become a wanted pony in heaven… when they find out I’ve told you this… no, anyway: Sunshine is the elder who devised the five celestial dragon styles of martial arts that the immaculates use. She came up with them almost two and a half thousand years ago. She basically made the immacultes from scratch. From what I can tell then she’s now trying to initiate Grandmaster Bulk into sidereal martial arts… and heaven help us if she succeeds”

“But that shouldn’t be possible. It was tried in the first age. Not even lunar essence can work on that level of refinement” Speaker pointed out, sounding as if he was more confused at hearing of a supposedly impossible feat being undertaken, and not as if he cared for who the grandmaster’s sifu was.

Shimmer spoke next, as Heath Rose tried to think of an answer to Speaker: “For how long has Sunshine been working with Bulk? I mean, he’s older than I am”

Heath Rose explained that she hadn’t been able to tell for how long Bulk Biceps had been receiving tutelage from Sunshine, but his meteoric rise in the immaculate order started from a very early age, so it was not out of the question that Sunshine might have been grooming him since foalhood. In response to Speaker’s observation in regards to the impossibility of unicorns leading sidereal martial arts, then she could only note that Sunshime undoubtedly knew of that as well, and so was taking all kinds of arcane and mystical precautions to ensure that the grandmaster’s essence could process the level of enlightenment that sidereal martial arts required.

“Right – well, how does this relate to us? You’re basically just telling us that this grandmaster is even more powerful than we thought” Sullen Hoof noted, annoyed with the doom and gloom spreading throughout the room.

Sullen Hoof’s words caused Heath Rose to perk up and nod a bit: “You’re right, I haven’t told you that yet, but it’s quite simple: By the laws of heaven it is punishable on par with causing mass extinction or murdering a god, for a sidereal to a teach a non-sidereal the secrets of our martial arts”

Speaker furrowed his brows deeply. He recalled clearly that in the first age solars were all ultimately taught some flavor of sidereal martial arts, be it the Scarlet-Patterned Battlefield style that let a master alter the very way that battles were fought, or Citrine Poxes of Contagion style, while struck down foes with sickness at every touch. Since when was it illegal to teach non-sidereals in such martial arts? Right now that question was irrelevant, but a style that mastered illness would no doubt later be useful for Speaker as a means to subdue sickness and spread good health to all.

“Ok, so… if you have all this information, why not bust Sunshine for breaking the rules and get rid of Bulk as part of the process?” Sullen Hoof suggested.

Heath Rose gave Sullen Hoof and his orichalcum helmet-mask a pained expression: “None of the information I have is solid enough to warrant an investigation let alone an auditing. That’s where you come in. If you can find solid proof of the grandmaster having learned forbidden martial arts then an official inquiry can be launched in Yu-Shan. You’ll likely have to give testimony, which will reveal your identity to the bronze faction, but considering your connection to Chung Do you can invoke your heavenly mandate to challenge the bronze faction’s attempts at interfering with your rule of creation, which would land them in even more trouble than teaching a unicorn forbidden martial arts”

With this possible solution to their most imedeate problem, namely the supposedly impossible to defeat Grandmaster of the immaculate order, the circle only had only question to answer: How to reveal this connection? The grandmaster no doubt knew that he had to keep his heavenly tutelage a secret, for Anys Sunshine’s tutelage would not have come without grave warnings at what would happen if he blabbed – and the grandmaster was well versed in so many martial arts that to most casual observers any unknown move or technique would easily be chalked up as something from just another exotic magical style one had never heard of.

It was then that the large panoramic window that looked out over the mostly barren land and apartment buildings that so far made up the Sunhill community exploded inwards. Through the shower of glass shards a pony-sized white owl tumbled onto the stone table in the middle of the room.

Before anyone could act the large snow-owl shapeshifted into the guise of a pony: An eerily familiar light-grey coated mare in moonsilver armor, with a black mane tied up into a rough pony-tail with a leather cord. Cash tripped over his own hooves as he tried to back away from her murderous gaze. Heath Rose barely managed to eep out a whisper of “Lilith” before she faded from existence in a brief flash of green light.

The only two ponies in the circle that didn’t appear moved from the sudden entrance of this lunar elder was Sunrise, who’s steely resolve didn’t easily frighten, and Shimmer who was terrified to the point of catatonia – because she remembered quite clearly who this was.
Speaker, who’d taken cover behind the chair he’d been sitting on, peeked out and had to make a very conscious and strenuous effort not to cower as Lilith’s furious gaze swept the room and met his eyes. None the less, Lilith, Cash’s lunar mate, who back in Chung Do had appeared out of nowhere and nearly murdered Cash, now stood before them all.

With a voice that sounded deceptively young – despite Shimmer having long since informed the circle that Lilith was one of the, if not the oldest still living lunar around – Lilith introduced herself as she stepped off the table and approached Cash: “You know who I am. The young blood told you. I can smell it”

Picking up Cash effortlessly with a single hoof, Lilith pressed him up against a wall. Cash tried to feebly shield his face with his hooves, but Lilith’s gaze still reaches his eyes – for this huntress could not be denied, such was her power.
“What do you want?” Sunrise asked boldly, in a stern tone.

Lilith dropped Cash, who collapsed into a pitiful pile of silk-clad pony, who’s colar of dawn’s cleansing was the only thing hiding the fact that he had just pissed himself. Turning to face the rest of the circle, Lilith responded to Sunrise’s inquiry, first with a deep breath, and secondly with an answer: “I am here to say that I am pleased with your actions”

Sunrise did not respond, sensing that Lilith had more to say.

“Your actions in Chung Do were commendable, likewise your work in Nexus. I am happy to see that much of your old madness from the first age has been tempered by the hardships of this age, though now with this wyld hunt… you need my help” Lilith said, speaking slowly and methodically. Her accent was pronounced and quite difficult to pin down, indeed it sounded almost as if she had only recently learned to speak the river-tongue of the scavenger lands, although it was impossible to tell what she had spoken commonly prior to that.
Stepping out from behind his chair and giving Shimmer, who was sitting next to him – still frozen in terror – a little poke to see if she would come back to life, Speaker asked: “How can you help us?” though he wasn’t quite certain if they even wanted the help of someone who seemed to be in the habit of introducing herself by pining ponies against the wall.

Lilith turned to Speaker and gave him a look that made him deeply regret having asked her anything: “You’re facing a wyld hunt of a scale and potency rarely seen since the usurpation… and now you need someone to force the grandmaster’s hoof into revealing his most secret of martial arts – this I can, for a price”

Sullen Hoof sighed and added: “It would be so much easier to just sneak in and screw with the grandmaster’s diet and training regimen… I mean, if it as to be kept that strict for his essence to be able to handle that kind of martial arts”

Getting up, albeit shakily, Cash audibly gulped and asked: “Ok, and I think I speak for us all when we’re happy for your offer to help – but… you clearly want something , what is it?”

It was obvious from his tone that Cash was afraid that Lilith wanted him… and necessarily alive. This turned out not to be the case, as Lilith struck the stone table. Its surface rippled for a moment, before settling and revealing an engraved image of a large palace.

“In Yu-Shan there is a place, an archive, which holds records of all the sanctified oaths that Eclipse Caste Solars have wrought. I want you to go there and destroy all records that I am tied to…”Lilith said, suddenly looking around and into the ceiling as if she was expecting something to happen. It was like Heath Rose’s presentation of her secret information all over again… almost.

With a sudden gasp Lilith briefly clutched her chest and winced sharply – Speaker recognized it as a very sudden and powerful heart attack and was about to leap to the Lunar elder’s aid when she gestured for him not to and spoke in a decidedly strained tone: “Don’t. It was merely punishment for even speaking of a means to undo the oathes that I am bound to – and it won’t be the last. Do not make me regret breaking that oath, or none of Cash’s future incarnations will live for more than a day”

Stepping quickly to the broken window, Lilith looked back at the circle which seemed to still be digesting her ‘offer’: “Ask your sidereal handler for directions – I’m sure she knows the place” and then leapt out into the air, turning into an owl in the process, silently gliding away into the surrounding woodlands.

The pregnant pause that followed Lilith’s departure lasted until Shimmer spoke up, her fear-induced catatonia finally ending: “Well that went surprisingly well, don’t yall think?”

The rest of the circle wasn’t entirely agreeing with Shimmer, but both Speaker and Cash saw the potential value of Lilith as an ally in this situation. Sunrise was less certain: “We have no guarantee that she won’t just abandon us the moment we have done what she asked”
“I’m inclined to agree. She busts in, uses a lot of force, threat displays – very little in her behavior indicated that she actually wanted to help us – no shows of good faith” Sullen Hoof chimed in, his behavioral evaluation and investigations charms having judged Lilith to not being very trustworthy.

Cash disagreed with Sully’s profile of Lilith: “Nah, its common business sense: She needs to see us come through before she’ll commit – that’s why she felt non-committal and untrustworthy to your charms, plus she didn’t kill me, I think that’s a show of good faith”

Sunrise and Sully remained apprehensive, but both Shimmer and Speaker seemed ok with the idea of doing what Lilith had asked – and at that moment Heath Rose re-appeared, flinching to the point of almost falling over as she apparently didn’t have any idea if Lilith was gone or not. Her expression and overall posture turned to one of great relief when she confirmed that Lilith was gone.

This led the circle to ask the obvious questions: Why was Lilith so scary to Heath Rose, and what was this archive place.

Curiously enough it was the question about the oath archive that drained all the blood from Heath Rose’s face – not the one about why she was afraid of Lilith, which turned out to ‘simply’ be because the current primary cause of death among sidereals was elder lunars with an axe to grind.

“No… you can’t ask that – please, don’t do this” She begged. Sadly, this only made the circle even more curious.
Speaker, trying to appeal to Heath Rose’s sense of compassion, said: “But come on. The amount of lives this will save, and the goodwill this would generate with the Silver Pact? This is too good an opportunity to pass up”

Heath Rose face-hoofed, fiercly so. It left an imprint on her forehead which only faded slowly as she grasped for words to describe just how bad an idea it would be for a circle of solars to access the Palace of Oathes Eternal: “I… no – the moment anyone finds out that you’re planning on this the bronze faction will clamp down on that place and never let go – and if you’re caught there… then there’s nothing the gold faction can do, I doubt even Lytek will be able to fix your incarnations after that”

“You still haven’t explained why you don’t want us there” Cash said in a mix of defiance and curiosity.

Heath Rose gave Cash a sigh that conveyed much giving up and dread. That was all Cash needed, for suddenly he looked quite pensive: “Ok, I get your point… that would probably frighten a lot of celestial gods and the bronze faction”
“What are you talking about?” Sullen Hoof asked.

Cash explained: Through a charm of subtle social cue observation he had discerned that Heath Rose didn’t want Cash to enter this archive because it would reveal all the oathes he could stand to collect on. Several millennia of gods, spirits and even other celestial exalted who had promised Cash favors or other services, promises that Cash had sanctified, all waiting for Cash to rediscover them and cash them in: “Of course, from how Lilith acted then not all of those oathes were made willingly – so I can see why a lot of gods and sidereals might not want me to know what I kind of strings I can actually pull”

“And that’s why the bronze faction will move heaven and earth to prevent you ever getting there – or getting out of there alive” Heath Rose emphasized.

Cash gave the sidereal mare a pained expression. He knew what he was about to say went against quite a lot of what he personally considered right and proper – but at the same time, then he wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of getting killed as part of all this, either from the bronze faction for pulling this off or from Lilith if he didn’t pull this off: “What if I wipe out all the oathes from my past incarnations? Is that even possible?”

Heath Roses expression quickly cycled through a multitude of brief expressions. Ultimately she settled on something that looked just slightly hopeful: “I’ll have to look into it, but if I recall correctly then each oath is stored on a scroll of heavenly parchment. They’re indestructible, but if you just manage to remove them from the archive that’ll prevent the spirits working there from detecting any breaches done on those oathes – but I have no idea what you can do with them after that”

“Let us worry about that – just get us an excuse to go to Yu-Shan” Sullen Hoof said, enjoying the idea of pulling off a heist a lot more than the idea of burning down some sort of library as he had originally thought this would have to go down.

Heath Rose left quickly, without even saying goodbye – though she did do something weird to the door which faded right after she had gone through it, after which she wasn’t out in the hallway… she was just gone.

“Well that was interesting” Sunrise commented.

The circle agreed to disperse and wrap up any remaining personal projects in Sunhill, while waiting for Heath Rose to return with more information and an excuse to enter Yu-Shan.

Speaker gathered up a large number of volunteers and found that he knew quite a lot about farming – knowledge that he magically passed on to the volunteer ponies who would now work to ensure that Sunhill could supply its own food in the form of rice, nuts and other fruits from orchards – at least to begin with. It would require some work from Cash to set up large enough chicken and pig ranching to supply Sunhill properly with a more varied diet.

Come evening Heath Rose reappeared, rounding up the circle in a most auspicious of ways – for they all ‘just happened’ to walk by the same spot and gather up without any obvious manipulation from the sidereal. She didn’t look pleased, but liked Cash’s idea of possibly erasing all the oathes he’d set up in his past incarnations: “That might be the only way you’re getting out of there alive… at least it’ll probably make the bronze faction want to kill slightly less”

“Ok, and what’s our excuse for getting into Yu-Shan?” Cash inquired, sounding a lot less worried about the heist than simply getting there.

Heath Rose handed Sunrise a scroll that seemed to be made of thin parchment-like silver: “This is an official invitation from Raven King, the god of all things rotting, to meet and discuss means to curtail deathlord activities in the east. He’s quite adamant about this, seeing as he considers the undead an affront to his domain and purview… the dead should be rotting in the ground, not walking around and what have you – I would suggest actually going to this meeting”

With that Heath Rose somehow disappeared again without even saying goodbye. She seemed distraught. Cash said it was likely from what he might learn inside that archive: “It’s actually making me a bit scared of what I might find in there…”

Getting to Yu-Shan from Sunhill wasn’t difficult: Shimmer conjured up a cloud and the circle flew down to the celestial gate near Great Forks that they had used in the past. They didn’t use Nah because they would have to leave at the gate.

Apparently just having the official invite made the gate possible to see and pass through – and thus the whole circle found itself in Yu-Shan once more, marveling at the gold-brick cobble that the streets were paved with, and the diamond palaces that lined those same streets… it was a start change from the almost-town that Sunhill was, even more so the squalor of Brookside and Nexus in general.
The giant celestial lion that guarded the gate on the Yu-Shan side seemed to instinctively sense the invitation the circle had, so while Cash thought about how he could set up a nice little business giving rich guild merchants tours of heaven, Shimmer started to conjure up a cloud for them to fly off on, but the celestial lion quickly shut that down: “No noise or light pollution allowed here”

While sorcerous spellcasting usually involved working through enough essence to flare one’s anima, and in the case of conjuring a cloud there was a lot of rushing wind, then none in the circle had ever considered the spell particularly noisy. This made getting around a bit more difficult – considering that Raven King’s palace was thousands of miles away.

“Why aren’t we getting an aerial rickshaw?” Speaker thought out loud.

Sunrise looked around at the multitude of colorful spirits that passed them by. Most seemed to ignore the circle, or at the most regard them like curious strays that had somehow wandered into Yu-Shan. Shaking her head at their folly, Sunrise said: “We do not have celestial money to pay for that. We would need to be worshipped down in Creation for there to be any heavenly funds in our name up here”

“There are a few hundred of the Sunhill ponies who pray to Speaker as some kind of healing saint – would that be enough?” Sullen Hoof noted, having overhead the ceremonies and prayer groups of these ponies many times during his security sweeps.
Appearing pensive for a moment, Sunrise shrugged: “It should…”

With a quick prayer the nearest aerial rickshaw was summoned, and the circle found that simply stating that their payment for the trip could be deducted from Speaker’s heavenly account more than sufficed. Cash quipped that at least the monetary part of the Celestial bureaucracy seemed to function smoothly.

The Raven King’s palace was… not as one might have expected for a heavenly abode – though for the god governing the concept of rot it really didn’t surprise anyone: The walls around the palace was fashioned from tomb stones and other grave markers, and the gate… well… like the entrance to a cemetery.

“You’d think a big god would have guards at the front? I mean, pretty much everywhere else we’ve been has celestial lions and stuff standing guard. Even the toilets in the Bureau of Heaven had guards” Cash noted.

Speaker shot Cash a dirty look: “You know where the toilets in the Bureau of Heaven are?”

“Yes, why?” Cash quipped back, amused that Speaker would even ask such a question… then he remembered: “Oh… right, sorry – we found them long after you had left to meet Lytek”

Entering the courtyard to the palace was like walking into a newly tilled field filled with fine mulch. There was no grass, no paved roadway, no nothing. In fact, there wasn’t even a palace… there were simply a lot of neat small piles of rotting garbage here and there, and ravens picking at them – and ravens flying above in artful flight patterns.

Cash was about to ask out loud if the rest of the circle thought they had been pranked, but then a giant quarter-mile long, fifty-headed, twelve tailed giant snake monster burst from the ground.

The reactions from the various members of the circle were predictable: Cash was shocked, Sunrise looked unphased but weary, Shimmer shapeshifted into her beast-pony form and took an immediate defensive stance, Sullen Hoof disappeared, Speaker summoned Gift from elsewhere and dropped into his primary Thousand Wounds Gear Style fighting stance and the giant snake monster… looked snaky, though with a distinct worm-like twist.

The giant monster didn’t have scales: Like an earth-worm it seemed to have banded skin – and it wasn’t really attacking… instead one of its fifty heads lowered itself down to the ponies that stood before it and asked, in Old Realm, what their business was with its master Hran-Tzu.

“Who?” the circle could hear Sullen Hoof say, though none could see him.

Cash quickly looked at their invitation, then chuckled: “Raven King is the title of the god we’re meeting, Hran-Tzu is his actual name”
Declaring that they had an invitation and then displaying it to the giant monster, the monstrous worm-snake moved aside and one of the piles of garbage and the ravens that had been working it over floated up into the air: Pristine funeral garbs and living but completely immobile ravens floated together to form the shape of a pony – a hollow and grotesque shape, but one that appeared to have a face and everything none the less.

It floated towards the circle like a ghost poised to haunt someone, but it was when it spoke every pony in the circle felt their bones chill, for the voice of Hran-Tzu was truly a voice from beyond the grave – like icy claws in your soul – but beyond that the god was surprisingly nice and grateful for the circle to come visit: “Greetings, I am Hran-Tzu, god of decay, the Raven King and Executive Director of the office on Rot and Deterioration – and I am glad that my summons have finally been heeded”

It turned out that Hran-Tzu, despite being really creepy to talk to, knew a lot of useful things and was surprisingly eager to share them. Not all of this news was very good: For one he informed the circle that they did not have three months to deal with the Wyld hunt that was moving towards Chung Do: “My informants notified me a few days ago that the Mask of Winters had shipped over a thousand slaves through the underworld and out of the Black Chasm, along with large amounts of silver, handing all of it over to that Wyld Hunt of yours almost a week ago”

Hran-Tzu’s analysts had found figured that this would allow the hunt to simply buy supplies on the go, and even order them well in advance. That, combined with the legion of slaves to haul their gear, would speed up the wyld hunt dramatically: “We project it arriving at Chung Do in roughly three weeks from today”

“Fuck” Sullen Hoof blurted out. The rest of the circle appeared to share his sentiment, though they held their tongues.

With that bombshell out of the way, Hran-Tzu explained what he would like from the circle: “As god of decay I see all things undead as what they truly are: Abominations and affronts to the true and proper circle of life, death and rebirth. My main enemies are the deathlords, for they scheme to expand the power of death over creation – and their neverborn masters. Thus, when I was informed that you’ve tangled with yet another Deathlord that I have yet to hear from… well, you became very interesting to me”

Thus, Hran-Tzu informed the circle that he had discovered that the reason that their Nexus operation had been foiled was NOT because funds from the blessed isle had finally arrived… no, it was because a Deathlord had funded them – covertly of course, through spies and infiltrators that made it look like a shipmest of silver and jade had arrived from the blessed isle.

“So… the Barbate Arbiter strikes again” Shimmer grumbled.

Frowning deeply, Speaker wondered: “Will he move against Sunhill too?”

“He already has, through the wyld hunt sent against Chung Do – to strike at you, likely to render it defenseless” Hran-Tzu noted.

The tea table the god had conjured out of the ground smelled of fresh mulch – but looked clean. The same applied for the rather comfy chairs the god had willed into existence for the circle to enjoy while in his ‘palace’. The discussion that followed revolved around Hran-Tzu urging the circle to take a more aggressive stance towards the Deathlords and neverborn, not simply indulge in their own personal projects in places like Nexus or Sunhill. The circle in turn argued that they had very little to work with in that respect, no clues or places to truly start.

The frayed bit of gray-white cloth that made up Hran-Tzu’s face curled into a rather unnerving smile: “I do… seek out the city of Shining Reefs in the south-west, and discover the secrets of the sleeping princess – if possible, bring her to me. There is a Yu-Shan gate that leads to the place directly, but it was recently blocked after I talked a sidereal into investigating the place”

That sidereal apparently never returned – only Lytek’s subsequent pruning of that exaltation’s memories revealed that the manatee folk that now lives in Shining Reef’s underwater ruins had eaten the young sidereal alive, slowly. This had not endeared Hran-Tzu with the bureau of destiny: “Indeed, this request from me to you is as much about me trying to save face as it is to discover how these monsters are working with their undead masters – for they worship the Neverborn, and receive commands from them somehow via their ‘sleeping princes’ – I must know how this works, either so the process can be disrupted or so we might strike directly through that connection to the neverborn. In return I can give you official protection as agents in my employ, in the fight against the deathlords. No more hiding your names in the convention of deathlords, you’ll be answering directly to me – no heavenly official can touch you”

“Ok, that sounds like a solid lead to work with – but you also mentioned that it was the deathlord Mask of Winters who funded the wyld hunt? We haven’t tangled with that deathlord , only the Barbate Arbiter” Speaker said, trying to make sense of that particular connection – mainly because knowing exactly who was your enemy or not was always a good thing to be clear on.

Hran-Tzu explained that the deathlord known as the Barbate Arbiter mainly worked in cooperation with other deathlords – and the Mask of Winters, who rules over Thorns, is a big player in the eastern underworld, so the two are undoubtedly connected: “From the reports I’ve read from Heath Rose on that topic, and from the examinations of the abyssal manse you turned over to the convention of deathlords, then it seems that Mask of Winters was experimenting in means of creating manses in the underworld that open up shadowlands in creation as a means to insert military forces quickly and without warning. Considering the Mask of Winter’s current history of conquest, then adding such a stratagem to his arsenal would be disastrous”

“It strikes me that Lookshy should be informed of this, post haste” Speaker pointed out. The circle agreed, though Cash also added that unless Hran-Tzu had any other information to share at the moment, then the circle had business elsewhere in Yu-Shan to wrap up before they could head back to Creation.

The god of decay nodded: “Very well. I have nothing else to offer at the moment, beyond a promise of support and a standing invitation for tea should you need an excuse to enter Yu-Shan for whatever reason. Oh, and Speaker, feel free to bring Resplendent Buttflow for tea as well, for I am one of the few in Yu-Shan who enjoys his work”

Speaker wasn’t really sure how respond to that. Cash graciously thanked Hran-Tzu for his generosity before herding the circle out into the gold-brick cobbled streets of Yu-Shan, away from the giant fifty-headed, twelve tailed, worm-snake monster which was apparently called the Ur-Snake by Hran-Tzu, it supposedly being the very primordial worm/snake original that all other slithering creatures were based on.

Thus, the circle wandered into the bustling streets of Yu-Shan, past divine vendors of heavenly junk food, clerk spirits hauling literal mountains of paperwork, and elemental dragons dancing across the sky.