The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

From their sinfully opulent tea lounge and vantage point, Cash, Sullen Hoof, the Bodhisattva and Heath Rose beheld as the Primal Forge across the street sprung to life.

With its gates open, it was easy to see how the vast expance inside was coming to life. Spirits were going less in and out of the gates, than were simply going to and fro inside the gate and beyond.

“Looks like Speaker got them to make his thing” Cash noted, seeing the organized chaos beyond the gate for what it was: A ludicrously well-organized and infinitely large workshop where all the clockwork spirits, servants and assistants had just sprung to life.

Heath Rose concurred, sounding duly impressed: “The whole forge is coming to life… I don’t think that’s happened since before the usurpation”

And just as abruptly as it had begun, the whole forge seemed to power down and go back to sleep. Cash found this amusing. He speculated: “Maybe they just decided to test to see if things are working – to show off for Speaker?”

“We’re coming out right now – we’re done, Speaker is… he’s messed up… we need to get to Lytek right now!” sounded the very sudden and exceedingly urgent magical message from the silvery messenger sprite Shimmer had sent before it repeated itself once more, then fizzled out into silvery motes of essence.

Heath Rose quickly sprang to action, dispatching unseen messenger gods to notify Lytek, the god Exaltations.

The rest of them barely got any time to speculate on why Shimmer wanted to get Speaker to the Right Hoof of Power, but it became painfully obvious once Shimmer came flying out of the primal forge, with a limp Speaker held tight in her arms.

Landing on the tea lounge balcony, Speaker’s outwards symptoms revealed themselves: Apart from being seemingly unconscious, then he was vomiting up slimy chunks of golden essence and blood. He looked like someone had grabbed him by the head and flung him around until he had become so rattled inside that his inside and exaltation.

Calling a heavenly rickshaw, Heath Rose put Shimmer and Speaker on, and then got in herself: “Ok you lot – you know what you’re supposed to do here. Once you’ve had your chat book it for the nearest gate out of here – it’ll be to your east. And if you get into trouble, don’t – if you can’t avoid trouble, outrun it”

Thus She, Shimmer and Speaker disappeared into the heavenly sunny sky which moments later changed into that of a starlit nightscape with angry red tones throughout it, like the most delicate silk scarves strewn across the firmament.

The Bodhisattva, not used to Yu-Shan’s changing weather and lightning conditions found this very strange: “It is night…. But I feel as if it is still day”

“That’s heaven for you – and this means that the mare of battles is ahead in the games. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing right now” Cash noted, fearing that the leader-position in the games might directly influence the outcome of their little trip to Yu-Shan.

Such fears seemed quickly confirmed, for moments later Sullen Hoof reported sensing a vast tide of light and and sound coming from the west: “I think Celestia is coming”

The Bodhisattva stood up, girding him and looking… frightened, timid, fearful even.

“Come on, chin up – you’re not asking for something unreasonable here. If what I remember of Celestia, then she’s quite reasonable” Cash reassured the Deathknight.

Scraping a worried hoof against the impossible geometry of the floor tiles and their dancing dragon motifs, Sullen Hoof worried: “That was three thousand years ago. I’ve seen addictions destroy a pony’s very soul in just three months on guild heroin. What has three thousand years on the games of divinity done to Celestia? What if she just smites us for daring to wrest her from the games to close these damned games?”

“If you worry, then hide. I am the only one who needs to face her” The Bodhisattva stated, flexing in his armor one last time before leaping from the balcony down into the street, scaring the golden shit out of the celestial lions standing watch at the gates of splendor.

Sullen Hoof nodded and slinked off into the shadows. Cash merely shook his head and smiled: “I want to say hi to her as well – might as well show her that we’re worth paying attention to”

Jumping down, one story at a time, Cash caught up to the Bodhisattva who was getting some very mistrusting looks from the celestial lions in their midst: “Please, gentlelions – he’s with me – and we have official solar business with Celestia once she shows up here” Cash said, flaring his caste mark.

Unable to disregard the ancient clauses that granted the Eclipse Caste diplomatic immunity on official solar business (whatever they might define as such), the lions had to abide – and thus the two waited the few anxious minutes as the grand celestial parade that was the entourage of Celestia approached, with the Most High at the forefront.

Celestia. The goddess of limitless perfection, heroic virtue, the chief war-god of heaven, divine ruler of the celestial court, patron incarna of the Solar Exalted. Celestia had many titles. Of the most well known was that of the Unconquered Sun, for upon her creation was tested by the primordials – put through countless grueling adventures and trials – all of which she passed gloriously, so truly: She was unconqurerable, a shining beacon of virtue for all to aspire to and worship.

…well, that was many thousand years ago, long before the inception of the Exalted.

What landed before the Bodhisattva and Cash Charm was a goddess who indeed stood glorious, but she had a look in her eyes that Cash knew well, a covetous look – one of deprivation. Even her rainbow mane seemed to have faded a bit…

Seemingly ignoring the Bodhisattva and Cash, Celestia – a head taller than the Deathknight and twice the height of Cash, stomped over to the gates of splendor and with a single hoof slammed one half of the gate into place.

Cries of mercy and pleas to let the gates remain open sounded from within, but were quickly silenced as the second closed the gate shut.
“I don’t think you return to the Jade Pleasure Dome” the Bodhisattva posited sternly towards the Most High.

Celestia turned, slowly, her orichalcum shoes making ‘plinking’ noises as she stepped. Her gaze was terrible and one of utmost fury: “You dare”

To Cash, Celestia’s voice revealed many a thing. He had no doubt that Sully was in earshot as well, trying to gleam as much information as possible from the exchange. For one thing Cash could hear that Celestia was actually a bit frightened by the being before her…

“I will dare many a thing, for I have already defied those infinitely more powerful than you. I am the The Recalcitrant Bodhisattva of Penance and Suffering Ended, Exalted by the Dusk Caste Abyssal… and with your permission, I would quest to redeem this black exaltation return it to its original Solar state of being” the Bodhisattva stated quickly, clearly and concisely in his raspy nightmarish voice.

Craning her neck and giving the Deathknight before her an appraising look-over, her lips screwed into a tight expression of concentration for a few moments before she finally spoke: “You would ask my permission for this… why?”

“Depending on how I succeed I might well become a Solar, yet I am not chosen by heaven to become one of such an Exalted host. Thus I ask your permission to do so, should I succeed in my endeavor” The Bodhisattva explained in a grim but undeniably honest tone.

Taking a deep breath, Celestia took a bold step forward towards the Deathknight and waved her grand horn above him. The Bodhisattva whinced as the pure sunlight hurt against his ghostflesh – but it was a pain he gladly accepted.

“I sense great courage in you, and the conviction needed to carry through with the venture you propose. I also sense temperance to not haphazardly misuse your powers, and most impressively… you managed to hold on your heart, when so many others would have seen it forever taken from you and replaced with darkness. With this, I am impressed. Go forth, with my blessing, and become the lightbringer you know you can be” Celestia declared, her rainbow mane taking on a slightly more colorful appearance at the end of her words for some strange reason.

The Bodhisattva dropped to his knees and thanked Celestia – and while his eyes could not weep, nor his voice express happiness, then Celestia seemed to get the message.

Turning to her entourage, Celestia signaled for everyone to return to the jade pleasure dome…

“Wait – I would like to say something too” Cash stated with great panache, using a whole host of charms to not only get the Most High’s attention but to make his request impossible to deny… well, for lesser beings.

While she no doubt sensed the charms calling for her to respond to Cash’s request, Celestia certainly didn’t look like she had any inclination to actually do so. This disappointed Cash, who in turn applied a tad less subtlety in trying to get the Most High’s attention.

With a mighty and yet graceful leap followed by a perfect landing, Cash put himself next to Celestia: “So… not feeling chatty?”

There was no response.

“Your silence saddens me. I guess in my grief I might start telling everyone about the oaths I bound you to during my last incarnation… would be terribly embarrassing of course” Cash snarked, his eyes fixed on the Most High to gauge her response to his statement… his threat…

With a motion that was as swift as it was elegant to the point of bringing all martial hearts in sight to tears, Celestia spun around and held one of her four forelimbs at Cash in such a way that her mighty godspear came to be – its tip but a fraction of an inch from Cash’s nose.

Displaying balls of a scale that would likely have made the yozi known as The Black Boar That Cracks the Sky blush, Cash simply smiled: “And here I thought you would simply ward off such attacks on your character with your Aegis of the sun – but I guess you haven’t picked that up in quite a while…”

Neither god nor Exalt had spoken so harshly to the Most High in millennia. It showed.

The Most High, Lord of Heaven, looked at Cash with disbelief in her eyes. Such spiteful words, such hard truths – they had evidently not been spoken in quite a while, for Celestia looked torn. As the goddess of virtue, including the virtue of temperance, then it was not possible for her to ignore the sad truth of addiction… but as Cash had pointed out, then she had indeed thrown down her shield long ago and not picked it up since – leaving her defenses down, both physically, mentally and spiritually…

The tense silence ultimately amounted to nothing – at least not anything said. In the end Celestia gave Cash a disgusted look, though to the Eclipse Caste Solar it was instantly known that the disgust was less aimed at him, and more at Celestia’s own reluctance to act against her covetous love of the Games of Divinity.

To see the Most High turn away from someone who just called her out – called her out loudly, in public – oh this would be whispered about for decades, centuries even, in the hushed corners of social events across Yu-Shan.

Cash looked on as Celestia moved away, a facade of smug self-satisfaction perfectly veiling his disappointment and the lingering feeling of sadness… for he just say the one being who was meant to be incorruptible creep back to her opium-den without even trying to resist.

“We got what we came for – we should leave before your actions cost us our lives” the Bodhisattva urged, tugging as gently as his clammy ghost-flesh allowed on Cash’s heavenly silks.

Sighing deeply, Cash nodded and turned to leave.

From somewhere unseen, Sullen Hoof had secured passage for the three via the magical food gates – and while Robed In Splendor was unsure if the Deathknight’s presence would cause his food-stores to spoil, then the three were quickly off – through another food gates – to Lytek’s office.

Cash Charmer, Sullen Hoof and a Bodhisattva who was but a head and a soulsteel-encased ribcage with a shriveled up heart all tumbled out of the food gate into Lytek’s office, surprising everyone – but just as quickly as they had arrived did Shimmer recognize them, allowing Lytek to continue his work.

While the Bodhisattva formed new ghost-flesh limbs out of necrotic essence, allowing him to stand up, Cash and Sully inquired into Speaker’s condition.

Splayed out on Lytek’s grand dask, the god of solid light tinkered with Speaker’s soul and its connection to the Solar before him.

When the machine spirits of the Primal Forge had used the very tools that the Great Maker had used to create the Exaltations to remove Speaker’s Solar Exaltations, they had… stored it – somehow. What they had done to Speaker, what they worked upon him to make him spew essence not of Creation, this was not known – and yet the strange metallic traces of it were rife upon him: Stains of essence aspected towards lightning, metal and crystal had stained his flesh, his clothes and his beard – only if he ever regained consciousness would he possibly be able to explain what had happened to him.

That much was known.

What Lytek had also revealed, much to Shimmer’s horror upon their arrival, was that whatever crude means the machine spirits of the Primal Forge had used to reattach the Exaltation had not been… optimal. Thus Lytek now labored to fix this mess.

“…I haven’t seen damage like this since the primordial war. You kids really need to stop getting yourselves into trouble like this” Lytek groaned, working tools for which only Lytek and the Great Maker knew their names, tools that worked the stuff of souls and the stuff of Exaltations.

Putting his helmet down, Sullen Hoof gazed at Speaker with great worry in his eyes: “Can you help him? Can you fix him?”

“Of course I can – I am the god of this stuff. Don’t doubt my craft – just give me time” Lytek stated with not as much certainty in his voice as he had confidence.

Still, Shimmer could sense her love for Speaker return to her – or the love she had for his Exaltation. It was strange to think about, but she questioned it not: It was fate, it was destiny, it was the will of Luna.

As his soul healed Speaker regained consciousness – though the pain he still felt from the damage to his being, not his physical body, was great – and his anesthetic charm did nothing to quell the hurt.

“Speaker – what did they do to you? What happened back there?” Sullen Hoof was quickest to ask.

Finding his body easy to move, yet hurting deep within, Speaker struggled to Speak. Cash translated his groans: “They had to make room. Room in my soul. The connection could not be made while I was Exalted. They called it the demi-urge. I felt his touch”

“Who’s touch?” Sullen Hoof asked.

Shimmer felt stupid in even having to say it: “The Great Maker, Autochton, who else?”

As Cash continued to read the subtle twitches and spasms that Speaker gave off, while Lytek worked his soul, the circle learned that Speaker was – despite all the pain – feeling exceedingly happy with himself: His plea had somehow reached the apparently sleeping mind of Autochton… and the Great Maker had found his designs worthy.

“I must admit I do not find sense in this. You were gifted by this primordial, and yet you mock his work by trying to out-do him with a better weapon than what he gave you? Any god in Creation would strike down its champion for such blasphemy… how can this primordial be pleased with seeing you out-doing him?” the Bodhisattva wondered.

“The Great Maker is the lord of tools – he respects those who can iterate on his creations. If you ponies hadn’t done so to begin with, you’d all still be picking up sharp rocks in your mouths to cut reeds to make beds or thatch your huts – though I am curious, what did you make while at the forge?” Lytek explained, appearing close enough to finishing his work that he could comfortably make small-talk.

The Deathknight found his weird, but he couldn’t deny his curiosity either.

As Speaker sat up he displayed his new toy – touched by the very mind of the Great Maker – a new chakram, this time with a big hole in the middle, unlike the orichalcum disc that was Gift.

With a flick of the wrist and a trick of essence Speaker brought the device to life. From a seemingly empty crevice along the rim of the device, where there were no blades, erupted light and essence into a golden edge of pure force and heat – though it seemed not to touch Speaker as he handled the weapon.

“With his blessing I call it Homage – it will serve us well” Speaker said, his voice strained but exceedingly satisfied as he beheld his work before him.

Shimmer shook her head and hugged her love greatly: “You’re a fool you know that – an obessed fool, you and your toys”

Leaving heaven was very quickly accomplished – though not without drama. Cash’s ‘insults’ to Celestia had made him a prime target for any god and heavenly agency that wishes to enamor themselves to Celestia or the Bronze faction. Of course, at the same time then a lot of gods and agencies – mainly all the ones who honestly wouldn’t mind seeing Celestia brought out of her stupor and bring an end to the corruption of heaven – had similarly acted to help the circle or otherwise show them support.

To the circle this meant that for each corner they turned on their way to the dragon boats, they were met with celestian enforcers who would alternately try to capture them, or help them along to their destination. This mainly lead to highly spirited discussions between groups of godlings and enforcers that wished to arrest the circle, and those who wished to see the circle safely leave Yu-Shan.

Sullen Hoof found it curious that there were no celestial lions among the squads sent after the circle, to which end Cash noted that the vibe he kept getting from the celestial lions was they cared more about the overall health and safety of Yu-Shan, as opposed to the hurt feelings of some god who had taken offense to something.

Of course, this was less reassuring than it could be, as at that moment the circle was galloping as quickly as possible from a throng of dog-sized scarabs with gem-encrusted shells that seemed quite invulnerable.

Reaching the quicksilver rivers that ran through Yu-Shan, the circle boarded a boat and Cash was somehow able to pay for passage to the sixteenth Yu-Shan.

Three days later the circle arrived in Creation, at the foot of the cliff on which the temple of Anisatsis was, at the shores of the Meander river.

“Oh hey, I remember this place” Shimmer noted, recalling that it was at this temple that the Gold Faction of the sidereals had their terrestrial headquarters.

With everyone back in Creation the question was what was next on the Bodhisattva’s quest.

“With Celestia’s blessing, my next step is a personal one – your participation is not needed, indeed it would likely only hinder me. However, for the step after that I will require your help to quickly travel across all of Creation… and at that point we will be hunted by all of the Deathlords” the Bodhisattva noted.

Thus the Deathknight left the circle, using the same kind of void-vortex necromantic spell that had once sucked Shimmer deep into the underground labyrinth of the underworld.

This left the circle looking around to see how they could quickly get around – but as it turned out, then Heath Rose’s predictions had seen the circle return to Creation at this point, so Nah had been delivered to the temple of Anisatsis… and the priests there were quite happy to be rid of the colossal beast.

Returning to Sunhill, the circle recovered for a few days, mended singed clothes and took some nice and recuperating baths.

On the fourth day upon their return, Speaker found himself busy tending to a number of Lookshyan amputees that had arrived that morning on a medical transport from a Lookshyan operation in the far east, where they had been trying to stop a series of mutant raiders – mutant raiders with very nasty necrotizing poison that required expedient field amputations to prevent an even nastier death.

The legionnaires were awed and amazed, and to Speaker it was quite refreshing to engage in some barracks-banter afterwards with Lookshyans who hadn’t really heard of him before – everyone in Lookshy had heard of Speaker one way or the other, plus it let Speaker tell of his adventures more freely without them judging him or calling him anathema. Indeed, at the end of the day as the Daystar sailed into the western wyld the lot of them were quite fond of Speaker, who in return had demonstrated the use of Homage – and there were few things that soldiers enjoyed more than a live demonstration of magical weapons.

As the pulsing trail of light from Homage faded and the rod of iron collapsed into two, with the cut ends glowing bright red from the incredible heat that, a filly who looked young enough to have just gotten her cutie-mark just a few days ago, came galloping into the recovery room with ragged breath past the bright noon-day sunlight shining in through the broad windows of the recovery room.

With a smidge of soothing essence, Speaker calmed the filly and helped her regain her constitution. The message she had was dire: “Raiders – massing to the south. They’ve blocked the canals down to the yellow river!”

Speaker didn’t even have to say goodbye or wish the legionaries around him good recovery – they knew well enough how an officer had to act when news of an attack was coming. What they didn’t expect was Speaker basically dumping enough essence into them to instantly boost them back to good health: “It won’t last – you’ll collapse by the end of the night and have to recover normally again, but for now innocent ponies need protection. Will you fight by my side?”

Every Lookshyan legionnaire knew well enough that it was good to fight from the high ground – but every pony-at-arms in Creation also knew that having the moral high ground was even better, and defending what amounted to a community of healers and scholars against some random band of raiders… now that was about as good as it got.

As they rushed towards the front, Speaker and the legionaries were diverted to the Sunhill armory.

To Speaker’s surprise then the ponies of Sunhill Defence Force had, in months since Speaker had been to Sunhill, worked together with the foundry and forges that Cash had set up to support the shipwrights he had planned, to produce surprisingly high quality weapons and armor.
While equipping the legionaires and sheating himself in a glowing shell of essence, another messenger came in: The raiders had sent a list of demands.

“Where is Shimmer and Cash? They should be here!?” Speaker inquired, frustrated that he hadn’t heard from his friends.

The messenger, an old stallion, tried to give Speaker that old ‘grandfather trying to conceal an unfortunate truth to a grandson’ look – but Speaker was at least as long as him, so it didn’t really take: “Sorry my lord, but Mistress Shimmer and Master Cash left us last night for business in the north. Though I do know that Cash’s trio of secretaries is coordinating getting everyone who isn’t set to fight into the manse”

“What about Sullen Hoof?” Speaker asked, while trying to make sure that the lamellar armor one of the legionnaires were putting on wasn’t putting pressure on the pony’s bandaged wounds.

The messenger noted that Sully was out scouting – he had been the one who had discovered the raider’s camps.

“Wait, camps? Are they even attacking yet?” Speaker simply had to ask – he had thought that the raiders had been spotted on the approach. This turned out not to be the case.

“Chuzei, should we go back to recovery?” one of the legionaries asked tentatively, his head into the suit of lamellar armor he was trying to put on.

Thinking for a moment, Speaker nodded to the legionnaire: “Yes – return to your recovery rooms before my charm fizzles out”

The legionaries left, as did the messenger. Sitting down on the cold floorboards of the armory, Speaker focused on the hearthstone of the sunhill manse, briefly fiddling with it from its setting in the hearthstone amulet hung around his neck.

Through his connection to the hearthstone and the manse, Speaker used the hearthstone’s powers to scry across Sunhill. Following the flow of ponies, it was easy to find one of the three secretaries of Cash directing the citizens of Sunhill into the safety of the manse. Willing an illusion of letters to appear before Sunrise, Speaker communicated to her:

“What’s the evacuation status?”

The surly looking stallion barely paid attention to the text, shouting commands to and fro, ensuring that ponies were directed into halls and rooms that weren’t full yet: “Everyone should be accounted for in twenty minutes Lord Speaker – DO you know if Sully has reported back again yet?”

Speaker could only spell out “No – do you know when Shimmer and Cash will be back?”

The clerk threw a brief but intensely worried glance at the floating black text before him: “I only know that the boss and Lady Shimmer left to gather more allies for the battles ahead – but they packed for a weeklong trip, so I don’t expect them back anytime soon”

Terminating the connection, Speaker held back a sigh. This was not the time to worry or wish that your friends were there to bail you out: This was the time for an officer to take charge.

Lookshyan battle manual would have one hunker down in a defensive situation, but Speaker knew well enough that there wasn’t much of a city wall to do that with. No, this situation called for more… primitive… strategy.

In the hundred kingdoms, where a thousand warlords roam and pillage countrysides so fertile that some farmers harvest even in winter, the thing that such warlords find that they run out of most easily is not supplies – but troops. Over seven centuries since the fall of the shogunate, this had led to the evolution of a champion-based form of warfare commonly practiced in the hundred kingdoms.

Sure, a siege requires enough troops to cut off whatever your laying siege to, even then it was common to send forth a champion from each side if neither side would simply yield and surrender – no sane warlord would ever commit troops to a battle they didn’t think they were sure to win, while champions… well… if win they’re amazing, and if they’re dead you don’t have to pay them anymore.

Thus Speaker commanded the Sunhill defence force to take up a defensive position – as much as was possible – as he strode past them on the docks, as he leapt into the trees along the twin channel’s western bank.

Leaping from canopy to canopy, Speaker attempted to approach the raiders unseen – and who would ever be looking out for ponies approaching from the tree-tops?

Nearing the raiders, Speaker saw the two junks that had been turned to block the channels. It looked like river pirates, and they flew no banner – a common feature of pirates who wanted to be able to ply their grim trade one place and then sell their loot somewhere else without being recognized. Then the wind changed direction and Speaker was struck with a thick wall of the most putrid stench, indeed the smell was as foul as back in the… oh dear… underworld.

Ceasing with his leaping around, and instead just using his perfect balancing charm to gracefully stride over the canopy leaves all quiet-like, Speaker got close enough to recognize the shambling gait of the perimeter patrols at the blockade: Zombies.

Was this a pre-emptive strike from the deathlords? It was difficult to tell, and where was Sully?

“I’m beside you” Sullen Hoof quietly noted, spooking Speaker quite thoroughly.

It turned out that the night caste Solar didn’t have much to report beyond what he had initially relayed back to Sunhill: “I think whoever is in charge of this is staying below deck, either that or they have ghost messengers that I can’t see – what are you picking up with essence sight?”

Looking around in essence sight didn’t reveal much that Sullen Hoof hadn’t already observed, though Speaker did spot a few ghost sentries up in the rigging of the two junks – they appeared chained to the rigging with ghostly chains.

It was then one of the two junks exploded, and zombies spilled out of the broken hull like a ripe tomato filled with writing maggots breaking open – but on top of that growing and flailing pile of zombies stood a familiar form: The Bodhisattva!

Wielding a dread blade of soulsteel that howled with mad glee as it was swung, the Bodhisattva dispatched zombies by the hundreds – it seemed roughly as challenging as stomping ants.

Moments later, from the remaining junk, emerged what Sullen Hoof was certain was a deathknight he had fought with back in Stygia: “That’s the Scarlet Puppeteer, she’s a master of necromancy – that explains all the zombies… look, they’re still spilling out of the other junk. Just how many were in there?”

The fight between the Bodhisattva and the Scarlet Puppeteer was brief – without being able to really use her zombie minions to her advantage the Bodhisattva was quickly able to reduce his foe into a bleeding heap screamineg for mercy…

“Hold it! Don’t kill her just yet!” Sullen Hoof shouted, leaping from his and Speaker’s hiding spot in the chanel-side tree canopy down onto the deck of the blood-smeared junk.

Amidst zombies that simply stood mindlessly and tended what basic duties they had been instructed to do in advance, with Speaker in close pursuit, Sullen Hoof welcomed the Bodhisattva and politely requested that the Scarlet Puppeteer be spared… for now…

“I would like some information from her before you kill – perhaps in exchange for a merciful death?” Sullen Hoof quickly but eloquently requested.

The Scarlet Puppeteer, her pasty white coat and skin spattered in her own blood, was held tightly in the Bodhisattva’s writhing tentacle-like ghost-flesh limbs – but at the sight of Solars approaching she howled and screetched: “It’s true! You’ve been consorting with Solars! Just wait until I tell the others!”

With a quite grotesque snakelike ghost-limb wiggling into her mouth to silence the Scarlet Puppeteer, the Bodhisattva gave Sullen Hoof a somewhat aggravated look: “Well met – but do you honestly think she will tell you anything?”

“We just want to know exactly why she was sent after us. The amount of zombies here, this isn’t a raiding force – this is an invasion force. What Deathlord put her up to this?” Sullen Hoof explained, Speaker nodding as he too would like to know if more threats would rise against Sunhill within the foreseeable future.

Between Speaker’s lie detection charm, the Bodhisattva’s tight grip and Sullen Hoof’s powers of investigative clarity, the three quickly learned from the Scarlet Puppeteer that she had been sent by the Deathlord known as the Black Psychopomp. Sully recognized this title as belonging to the Deathlord he knew as the Walker in Darkness.

“If the Walker is coordinating attacks with the Barbate Arbiter, then that puts at least three Deathlords against us for Deep Rot” Speaker noted, wishing that he knew more about the exact number and types of troops available to each of the three dread ghosts.

The Bodhisattva bid Speaker take hearth: “Fear not. I came here because I finished my business in Stygia. We need to move quickly and seek Cash, for I need help to travel swiftly all over Creation. I need to restore my severed link to the essence flows of Creation”