The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

The news that Shimmer was alive… sort of… sent a shock through the circle. How could she be in the underworld?

Maybe she had died and it was her ghost that had sent the message – it might not even be aware that it was dead. It wasn't unheard of for the ghosts of sorcerers to keep on using their magical powers beyond the grave... especially necromancers, thought whether or not that was true could be debated since such rumors mainly came via Immaculate Monks.

“Why would she even leave a ghost behind that can do something like that if she’s dead? I mean, a ghost shouldn't be able to send messenger spells like that, right?” Cash wondered out loud.

Sunrise shook her head, her bright orange mane and its tightly bound hairbun jiggling softly: “All ponies can leave behind a ghost if they have an earthly tether – someone they love too much to let go, or something they care for greatly – and as ponies with enlightened essence we all stand a chance of leaving behind powerful ghosts that can do more than just haunt you in the night”

“That and sorcery isn’t tied to your exaltation – damnit… its just the stories the Immaculates tell - and we don’t have a means of getting a message to Lytek to see if Shimmer’s exaltation has arrived in his office yet” Speaker begrudged, realizing that the message Shimmer had sent indeed had no indication of whether it was her ghost, or whether she was truly alive somehow.

For Cash there was also the issue of Shimmer having all his oath-scrolls stored elsewhere… which gave him an idea: “Hey Speaker – you saw Shimmer disappear into that vortex you talked about, right?”

Speaker nodded, sighing deeply.

“Well that settles it, she’s alive then” Cash said with a cheerful tone.

The others gave Cash a suspicious look. Cash explained: “Speaker, of what you’ve told me about storing things elsewhere, then if you die all those things reappear where you died… right?”

The old Lookshyan stallion stood upright as his eyes brightened: “You’re right!”

“Hold on, what if that vortex sent her somewhere that killed her… say… the underworld, wouldn't that still mean she might be dead?” Sunrise noted, urging for caution as opposed to getting ones hopes up too much.

Speaker disagreed, explaining that Shimmer had been in her beastpony form when she had disappeared, with all her combat charms active. If she had simply been sent to the underworld there shouldn't be any reason why she wasn’t still alive.

“That sounds possible – but if we can’t find her or send a message to her…” Sullen Hoof noted glumly, his words trailing off as he knew it wasn’t a popular sentiment, though he felt it necessary to point out.

Shrugging, Speaker said: “Then we find someone who can. We just need to get back to Nexus and contact that Deathknight… what was his name…”

“The Bodhisattva of Resurgent Misery and Lost Causes was his name… or title… if I recall correctly” Sunrise noted.

Cash nodded, adding that he remembered the deathknight’s contact information. Some Sijaneese mortician working in Nexus who would know where to find the deathknight.
With their plan clear, the question once more became how to return to civilization post haste. Staying on Captain Darktide’s ship would waste too much time and mean Chung Do being razed to the ground by the wyld hunt.

The solution came to Cash the next morning, as he peered across the waters. Gathering the circle and the good Captain, he proposed his solution: “We might not be able to find a yeddim here – but Shimmer often spoke of many strange sea creatures and monsters here in the west. We just need to catch one and ride that all the way home…”

“Sounds like you want a sea-dragon then” Captain Darktide noted, sounding rather bemused at the thought.

Cash gave the Captain a daring look: “Perhaps? If it’s the toughest creature around then perhaps it is – how do we catch one”

For some strange reason the Captain wasn’t all that hot on the idea of using his ship as part of catching a sea-dragon. Apparently these creatures were massive, sixty foot scaly things, more maw and teeth than fin and flesh – but they also prefer shallow waters to feed on sharks, so finding one on open waters was unlikely…
“Damnit – then what kind of big sea creatures do you have out here on in the deep sea?” Cash groaned.

The Captain suggested that Cash try his luck with the great western Siaka – the monster sharks of the great western oceas: “They can smell blood for miles… should make it easy enough to attract one, if you spill enough blood in the water – though something like that’ll likely just eat you, not let you ride it”

Cash cared not. He wanted back to the east. The source of blood for chumming the waters was easy enough to find: In one end of the ship’s hold there was a pen with a tangle of giant spiders. Apparently the crew fed the spider’s the rats that ate their bread and rice supplies – and in turn also butchered and ate the spiders – something in that diet supposedly staved off scurvy somehow.

With copious amounts of spider-blood trailing the ship a giant siaka appeared soon enough – and it was truly massive: 40 feet long, and with a maw big enough to eat two stacks of ponies at once with its five rows of six inch teeth… Speaker wondered if Shimmer had ever hunted one of these things to take it’s form: He figured that she probably had.

To ‘tame’ the beast Cash displayed a marvelous use of his riding charms, using his shoes of distant claws to fire a claw into the Siaka and pull himself onto it. With a dazzling display of golden light and riding charms Cash calmed the beast enough for it to cooperate and then had it pull up to the ship.

The Captain and his crew looked on in awe as the circle climbed down onto the siaka, even more so when they swam off at a speed that no ship with sails could ever hope to match.

“Uhm… Cash – do you have any idea where we need to go? We’re out in the middle of the western ocean here” Speakear wondered.

Cash waved a map at Speaker: “I didn’t spend all my time on Darktide’s ship moping around – I talked with their navigator. If we keep a heading of north by north-east for a day or so at this speed we’ll reach the Wavecrest archipelago. There we can nab a sea-dragon or see if there can’t be a single yeddim hidden somewhere on the island”

The next day the first few outer islands of Wavecrest appeared on the horizon, and soon after the pillars of smoke from the Wavecrest volcanoes became visible as well.

Cash expressed quite firmly that he’d prefer to find a yeddim – somehow – or some other creature they could fly with, mainly because it would simply be faster if whatever they rode around on didn’t need to breathe water. The circle agreed, though Speaker pointed out that Captain Darktide had said that sea-dragons have to surface to breathe…

“Ok, sea-dragons remain an option then – but first let’s find one of those nice realm-controlled port cities here and try to buy a yeddim. I would like to stay dry for the trip home” Cash stated.

Releasing the siaka from his charmed grip near what looked like a big port city, Cash waved goodbye to the shark from the shore as the rest of the circle dried themselves off – Cash needn’t bother with such things due to his collar of dawn’s cleansing keeping him clean and dry even if swimming.

Making their way into… oh this looked just a little familiar… yup – the circle had made their way back to Seacrest, the capital of Wavecrest.

“Well, that should mean that it’s the center of commerce here – so if they’re pulling around big loads of agricultural produce they might actually have a yeddim or two here” Cash noted.

Speaker was less enthused: “Just make sure we stay away from any realm garrisons… and remember Cash, you’re the only one among us who speaks sea-tongue now – so please be careful”

“Oh you noticed that – well I shall do my very best to make our stay here on Wavecrest as brief as possible” Cash said, bowing elegantly.

The outskirts of the city were replete with farms, fields and orchards. Speaker guessed that the volcanic ash made for good fertilizer, though the fact that most of the local farmer-ponies used stone tools made him roll his eyes… though Cash was quick note that even in the east then Lookshy’s farming techniques and tools were second to none: “But ya… this is about as primitive and inefficient as it gets”

The city itself was quite nice: In the outer districts where craftsponies toiled away at smithies and workshops, mostly supplying local shipwrights with materials and parts, the buildings were made of stone and wood, whitewashed, with dried seaweed instead of thatch for roofing. In the better part of town, especially around the quite obvious realm embassy and unicorn estates the buildings were clad in tiny nacre tiles, and roofed with larger earthenware tiles.

Brightly colored awnings overhung the streets everywhere, with shops underneath selling refreshments, tourist knickknack, at least in the nicer part of town, and the circle did cross several groups of ponies who were clearly from the realm: They spoke high realm – though Cash was the only one who understood what they said in passing.

At a large square on the north side of the city, not far from several shipwrights, the circle found two things they wanted: First they found a nice little place to eat lunch, with Sullen Hoof paying close attention to the uniquely western fish dishes he observed going out the kitchen to the various costumers. Secondly they came across a massive guild-wagon-sized timber hauling operation which was in the midst of unloading their cargo to one of the nearby shipwrights. The massive timber-wagon was pulled by a yeddim.

After lunch Cash inquired where the yeddim was from and if there were others around. Convincing the old mare in charge of the timer wagon and yeddim that he represented some rich realm unicorn, he managed to weasel out of her that there was a single yeddim breeder on the island – and in exchange for a few coins of silver he also got the locations of that yeddim breeder.

With that information Cash first made rounds at a few nearby provision dealers, securing supplies for the circle’s journey – and by nightfall the circle was flying east at great speeds, loaded up with enough food to last the entire trip.

Unlike the time the circle had to pick up Speaker at the Densic, the circle this time flew north around the Blessed Isle, covering a massive distance before Cash finally had to land and get some rest. The island Cash landed the as-of-now unnamed yeddim on was a cold one, indeed Shimmer figured that it was one of thewest-most islands that made up the northern part of creation. The amount of snow on the ground and ice in the water was a dead giveaway.

Speaker quickly used his singing staff to create a shelter big enough for the circle and the yeddim, while Shimmer collected dry flotsam on the beach to make a fire… well, she would have. Cash had to collect firewood instead, while Sullen Hoof made the best of their supplies.

The next morning the circle flew east once more, following the islands and later the mainland coastline. Shimmer warned that many of the coastline territories were realm tributaries, so setting down near any of them would likely be met by unicorns asking questions and throwing elemental essence blasts around.

By nightfall Sunrise spotted something eerily familiar as Cash raced to use the last bits of sunlight before landing for the night. It was a long stretch of strangely white roadway, wide enough that it could be seen clearly from high in the sky. Sunrise had never seen it before, and yet it felt unsettlingly familiar: “What road is that, do any of you know?”
“That’s the Travelers road. We’re passing over Wallport, Whitewall’s sister-town. I’ve talked with merchants from Whitewall, they’re a fun bunch” Cash remarked.

Sunrise didn’t feel quite satisfied by Cash’s description, feeling that there was something else to it – but none in the circle had ever been to the place, so they knew nothing of Whitewall’s first age legacy.

Moving further east the circle flew into territory that Cash insisted was part of the Bull of the North’s domain. Sullen Hoof confirmed this after they flew past an encampment where he spotted, using charms to enhance his sight, banners bearing solar-style sunbursts and the image of a yellow or golden bull.

Staying one night at a small wayside tavern barely fifty miles south of where the grass gave way to endless northern snow, the circle continued on in a more south-eastern direction, giving the lands of Cherak a wide berth – for it was another realm tributary according to Cash – meaning that that day was mostly spent crossing the inland sea.

Two days later the circle finally arrived at Sunhill, where the new yet still un-named yeddim was fed and prepared for head out again.

The circle barely stayed a day in Sunhill before heading to Nexus in search of the deathknight known as the Bodhisattva.

Approaching the by now familiar sight of hillsides dotted with first age towers and a mess of slums, carved up by a network of canals down in the valleys between the hills, the circle strategized:

“Our first priority is not to get caught: I can only imagine that when the council of entities sold off all our assets to cover the damages the changelings did that they expected that they were selling a fully staffed hospital… plus I destroyed most of the art and jewelry that Shimmer couldn’t stuff into elsewhere – so I doubt we’re that popular” Cash noted.

Sullen Hoof was quickly chosen to sneak into town and contact the mortician who supposedly knew where to find the Bodhisattva. Hovering over the north-western edge of Nexus, just beyond River Park in the Nighthammer district, Sullen Hoof leapt from all the way up in the yeddim down to the rooftops, sticking the landing perfect as if he had just skipped over a puddle.

It took the circle quite by surprise when Sullen Hoof reappear on the yeddim howdah a few hours later, mainly because he had disguised himself as a pale and sickly looking beggar clothed in rags, but as he dispelled the illusion that his magical helmet had made he told the circle where to pick up the Bodhisatva: “He’ll be atop the Nexus Military College around midnight – we can swing by and pick him up there”

This left the circle wondering what to spend the rest of the day with… and spending the day in Nexus wasn’t really an option – which annoyed Cash endlessly, especially after Sullen Hoof showed them copies of the wanted posters that had been distributed all over town: “They really nailed our likeness – I’m the only one they don’t know the face of…”

Sullen Hoof also informed that circle that while council of entities indeed seemed to know of Sunhill, then the guild at large didn’t seem to have much interest in going after the place. This was good news, as it meant that the guild controlled mercenary armies that operated in and out of Nexus wouldn't likely be raiding Sunhill any time soon.

Camping on the north shore of the yellow river, across from Nexus, the circle waited until midnight and then flew towards the Nexus Military College to pick up the Bodhisattva.

The college was located in the northern end of the cosmopolitan Manehattan district, and was a beautiful old first age fortress used by the mercenaries of Nexus as a shared academy for officer training. It was also partially on fire when the circle approached, the tall flames from the college’s nearby warship docks and drydocks illuminating the college itself and making the mosaic windows with their images of the Mare of Battle and other first age gods of war shine and sparkle.

The Bodhisatva was, sure enough, atop the highest spire of the college, his dark form difficult to spot – but Speaker’s essence sight allowed the circle to home in on him quite expertly.

Approaching the deathknight, the circle was surprised when he suddenly leapt about fifty yards up onto the howdah, landing with a heavy thunk on the wooden planks.
“Your handywork?” Cash casually inquired, nodding towards the fire raging beneath them all.

The Bodhisatva, his ghost-flesh head and limbs rippling and twisting ever so slightly, while his lidless blood-orb eyes gave little to no hint of emotion, merely shook his head: “No, but I did just kill the pyromaniac who set the fires, as well as the owners of the construction company that paid her to set the fires”

“Lovely – now, did Sullen Hoof tell you why we wanted to talk to you?” Sunrise asked quickly, looking down at the fire in disgust now that she knew the truth of the situation.
The deathknight nodded: “Your lunar is stuck in the labyrinth and you need a guide”

The circle and the deathknight compared notes as Cash flew the yeddim east towards Sunhill.

A few hours later as the circle arrived at Sunhill in the dead of night several things had been cleared up: First of all the Bodhisattva recognized the necromantic spell that had that sent Shimmer to the depth of the labyrinth – which was apparently a place at the very center of the underworld, not far from the mouth of the void of oblivion. This was good since that was where the circle would need to go to destroy the oath scrolls, but also very bad since it also meant that Shimmer wasn’t that far from the tomb-palaces of the Neverborn… and just being in close proximity to dead primordials was all kinds of bad for your health – not even Deathknights went there willingly unless they were completely mad.

“Ok, but can you find her?” Speaker asked, not even trying to mask how worried he was as they walked the halls of the Sunhill manse towards its top levels where the circle lived.

Nodding, the deathknight noted that it was not impossible and retrieved a picked-clean unicorn pony skull from elsewhere, then conjured up a necromantic equivalent of a sorcerous messenger sprite – just in the form of a bat-winged unicorn pony skull – and bid it to seek out of Shimmer: “I am a messenger spirit sent by the Bodhisattva, your deathknight ally from the Chung Lands. Seek higher ground, exit the labyrinth by going upwards. When you enter the city of Stygia seek the district of Whispering Streets, say that I sent you and let them hide you. Eat nothing offered to you. Your circle is coming, I am bringing them. Message me or your circle when you are ready for extraction”
The ghastly necromantic sprite flittered off at great speed, after which the deathknight turned to the circle: “Is your flying yeddim expendible?”
Sunrise gave the deathknight a distrustful look: “Why? What is your plan?”

Cash was about to say something when the Bodhisattva sighed: “We will need swift transportation to get in and out of Stygia quickly. The mightiest of the deathlords all share control of Stygia with an uneasy truce, so I doubt we will be able remain undetected for long – and there are no shadowlands on the blessed isle thanks to the stabilizing nature of the elemental pole of earth, so it will be a long trip to get there”

“Lovely – so how will we get there?... and get out again?” Cash inquired.

The deathknight turned and looked out of a large panoramic wall to wall window which stretched the length of the hallway they were in: “There are plenty of shadowlands in the east – and once in the underworld I know fast but dangerous means of even faster travel – the issue is getting to a shadowland, quickly”
“Don’t forget we need to do the… thing, once we get Shimmer” Sunrise reminded the circle.

The deathknight sighed, its breath sounding like a dozen faint voices ghasping weakly for air: “You have business in the underworld?”

Speaker looked around at Cash, Sunrise and Sullen Hoof with a pleading look. He didn’t need words to ask whether they should tell the Bodhisattva about the stolen oath scrolls or not. Sunrise frowned and lightly shook her head, Sullen Hoof following suit. Cash seemed ambivalen, so with all that in mind Speaker opted not to tell everything, just enough: “yes we do – but nothing that concerns you. We just need to get to Shimmer and a way to leave, that’s all”

Cash opened the door into the atrium that separated the circle’s private quarters, with the deathknight stepping through and pausing for a moment– admiring the scenery: The atrium was decorated quite tastefully with a mix of some of the western art that Cash had originally imported via the Densik, as well as other curio that the circle had acquired: A suit of worn but good lamelar barding with the crest of Chung Do, Red’s old blade from before she started constantly shaping daiklaives out of her essence, and a rather worn old robe that was probably once Sunrise’s – likely her first robes from the Cult of the Illuminated.

“You want a way out of the underworld, fine – but if you intend to stay any longer than is needed to simply rescue your lunar, then I must know so I can plan your exit accordingly” the deathknight stated as he beheld some nice flowers in a pot. The flowers wilted merely from his presence as if to emphasize the Bodhisattva’s statement.

Sunrise grimaced and sighed: “We have something that Shimmer is holding on to that needs to be dropped into oblivion – it is the only way to destroy it. You needn’t bother yourself with what it is”

It would have been understandable if the Bodhisattva wasn’t pleased with not being given all the details – but if that was how he was feeling then he didn’t show it.

Later in the evening a response from Shimmer arrived via another sorcerous message. Just the first messenger that Speaker had received it relayed Shimmer’s message in a perfect copy of her voice, as if Shimmer herself spoke it – but it spoke in a ragged and tired voice, with heavy breaths between her words: “I’m where the Bodhisattva told me to be. The ghosts here… they keep offering me water from this weird fountain. I haven’t drunk any – but this place… its creeping me out, please come. I’ve hidden in my elsewhere den to get away from the voices, helping the ponies we rescued in there and we’ve begun sorting the oath scrolls, to find the ones involving Lilith”

As the conjured messenger dissolved into motes of silvery essence the circle sighed in relief, though Sunrise was quick to point out that Shimmer didn’t sound that well in the message.

“Rescued ponies? You’ve been busy” The Bodhisattva noted with a rather obscene-looking grin on his face – though that was likely just a result of his ghost-bodied nature; not being able to look kind, happy or amused.

Cash nodded: “We had to do a little thing in the west to cover our flanks with regards to the bronze-faction sidereals wanting to kill us. Had to nab us two dead princes from the ponatees for that”

The Bodhissatva stood silent for a moment, then he forced something akin to a predatory grin: “You stole the conduits of Who’s Whisper Chains? Oh you are bold indeed – Were you not in a hurry you will be welcomed in Stygia as heroes”

The circle gave the deathknight an odd look – for it was truly difficult to read the face of a being with transparent flesh and blood-red orbs for eyes: “The political landscape of Stygia has changed much since you freed me – I can tell you more while we travel to the nearest shadowland. We have to get there before nightfall”

“The one from that weird manse is gone – and I’m not familiar with any other shadowlands in this part of Creation. I mean, we are pretty far north from the big one near Great Forks. How about The Black Chase, the shadowland that Sijan is in?”Cash suggested after a little bit of thinking.

With a mighty disgruntled stomp the deathknight began marching towards the door leading back to the hallway they had just arrived from: “I’ll go hunt for a ghost in the nearby forest – forget bringing your flying Yeddim, we’ll enter the underworld just outside Sunhill just before dawn. Rest now and steel yourselves”
As the deathknight marched off, leaving the circle somewhat confused about what he was planning, the circle ultimately agreed that it sounded as if the Bodhisattva knew what he was talking about, and thus they all rested easy.

Rousing just before dawn and eating a quick but surprisingly filling meal, curtsey of Sullen Hoof, the circle assembled in the courtyard of castle Chung. The young Shogun was still asleep as the Bodhisattva came out of a door which led down to the castle dungeons – pulling something that only Speaker could see with his essence sight: The miserable looking ghost of a pony, likely one that died while a prisoner…

While Speaker could see it, then he felt himself quite happy that he could not hear the thing – for the ghost was thrashing around and clearly screaming, though not in anger from having been roused or taken from its lair… it was absolutely terrified.

Speaker quickly began to feel the ghost’s dread as the deathknight hauled the ghost up into the air and drew a soulsteel daiklaive from elsewhere. A few dark words that seemed to split and crack reality as spoken made the dark metal on the straight-edged daiklaive glow with a pale light, which was then swung into the ghost as it came down… and thus a pony-sized gash in Creation formed: A hole leading into the underworld. The echoes of the ghost’s screams could be heard as they faded from beyond the portal.
“Quickly now” the deathknight ordered – indeed, the hole was already starting to shrink.

Sullen Hoof, with saddlebags laden with gods knows what, was first through. Sunrise followed suit, then Cash, then the deathknight.
Speaker lingered for a moment. There was no visible light beyond that dark portal.

Steeling himself and taking a deep breath, Speaker stepped through the hole which closed after him, his hooves stepping onto a walled courtyard of pale grey ash-covered cobblestone. Everything was monochrome, aside from his circle-mates and the blood-red eye-orbs of the Bodhisattva. The air reeked of burnt pony flesh.