With the Church of the Silent Gods surrounded by wardings, Caelan waited with Ariorn beyond the barrier while Olvir and Song went to investigate if the barrier would affect them in animal form. Song concluded it didn’t, since she flew over it and took a quick look at the Church - it all seemed quiet (unsurprisingly) – the ward was likely there to keep noisesome animals at bay, she thought. Olvir, however, didn’t really want to go much closer. He circled around and returned to join Caelan.
Song rejoined them and as the two Lunars took their human forms, Ariorn showed she wasn’t to be fazed by a warding either and walked up to the entrance where we attracted the attention of a passing acolyte. There was a bell – but the silence of the church and the forest meant we hesitated in ringing it.
The acolyte showed us in though Caelan elected to remain outside with Ariorn just in case. As Song and Olvir walked through quiet halls they noticed a number of shrines to deities whose purviews included silence – Kilean, god of silent pleasures, Quiet Yu, the god of orchids whose followers are forbidden from speaking ‘louder than the flower blooms’ and a number of deities of places no longer existent.
They were shown into a dining room where a senior monk spoke (quietly) with them and they explained, rather hurriedly, who they sought and why they thought the Church’s inhabitants were in danger. The monk nodded at the description and said he’d already been to the Church – a couple of days before. They’d let him look around and while he was angry when he couldn’t find what he sought he didn’t wreak the same violence we’d seen him capable of previously.
They didn’t have many visitors so they were also fairly sure they’d not seen Amber Roshani either, so relieved they were otherwise unharmed we bade them a quick farewell, explaining we had to move on. With a prayer and thanks for the package of food they insisted on giving us for Caelan, we headed off with only a brief check by Song who head a disturbance as we left. In bird form she hid and saw a monk who’d dropped something and loudly cursed clearing up. Relieved it seemed innocuous she rejoined the others who were already heading at speed towards the next destination, the village of Hunyani.
It took a day at fast gallop to reach it. As we got close the two Lunars took to the air once more to survey the scene, a village of some 80 houses arrayed loosely around a large willow tree in the middle of town and an area of oddly desolate land to the north east. To Song’s sight the desolate patch seemed to hold an Essence afterimage of a complex of buildings arrayed around a large courtyard and seemingly push everything living away from it. But the Akuma was not there and so she drew her attention back to the village. To her Essence sight the tree at the centre seemed reminiscent of Hengethorn’s manse – a living Essence monument which stretched its influence a mile or so in all directions. Beneath its branches were people, and while Song noticed one of the people beneath as an Essence user, Olvir recognised him as the Akuma we were looking for. Giving Song a telling glance, he wheeled aside to tell Caelan.
Landing on a rooftop according an excellent view Song got a good look at what was going on under the manse-tree. The Akuma had hold of one of the villagers by the arm and was loudly threatening him and the others with violence if they didn’t tell him what he wanted to know. It didn’t take long to pick up on the fact he was still searching for Amber Roshani. Trying to buy some time for Olvir and Caelan to arrive but trying not to make herself seem too unusual she gave a piercing call, drawing attention to herself as a bird of prey and flitting to a closer rooftop. The Akuma, mildly annoyed by the distraction, threw a stone at her which she effortlessly dodged with a quick sidestep. A second stone was also avoided and followed by a knife, but as Song’s distraction tactics irritated him into using Essence, his anima began to flare and essence flames gently licked across the Fire Aspected Dragon Blood’s skin. Keenly aware of the man still held in his grasp, she tried not to anger him too much whilst maintaining a distraction.
As he grew more annoyed and none of the villagers admitted to owning the bird, his next knife, fuelled by Essence, caught Song squarely between wing and talon. Trying not to show the pain she pulled the knife out with her beak and dropped it before she flew out of range, relieved to see Caelan and Olvir approaching. The Solar’s keen eyes spotted blood drip from Song’s talon and seeing the immediate danger for the villagers drew his daiklave from Elsewhere and charged to attack. Essence flashing around him as he called on the might of the Unconquered Sun he brought all he had to bear and would have struck the Akuma down had he not also called upon the charms of the Infernal and avoided Caelan’s blow.
Meanwhile Olvir had shifted to dog form, the better to get close without being seen as a threat and leapt at him, powerful jaws ready to ensnare and rend the Akuma. But he showed us just how vile the Infernal charms were when he interposed the body of the man he’d been threatening between himself and Olvir’s jaws. The defence left the man’s throat torn and blooded and his lifeblood spilling onto the ground – and drew a laugh from the Akuma. Olvir, equal parts horrified and enraged, leaped away to try a different tactic.
Song, injured herself but seeing the man fall, heard Olvir’s howl. Knowing her own injury made her less useful in the fight she opted for easing Olvir’s pain through use of a different talent and, shifting mid-air and dropping to the ground to shield the fallen body, wrapped the man’s throat in a bandage as she applied a potent dose of an alchemical recipe to stem blood flow and drag him back from death.
Fleeing back to town the Akuma grabbed a child and swung them around as a shield against Caelan, growling at him to drop the daiklave. Caelan froze as the Akuma told us to leave him to his business – but Caelan was having none of it. Terse words were exchanged before Caelan, reluctantly – but knowing he had other weapons he could summon to hand if needed – carefully laid his daiklave on the ground. The Akuma smiled grimly and hurled a dagger Caelan’s way – but the lithe Solar easily avoided the attack.
Meanwhile, Olvir had taken to the rooftops and swung with ease towards the standoff in his war form. Seeing the Akuma with his eyes on Caelan he took the advantage of surprise to grapple him with tendrils of Essence and bind him to the spot.
Opponent secured, he charged. The Akuma hurled the child in the path of the attack but Olvir was less concerned as he sent the infant flying across the village with a mighty blow – this time he simply used a charm to ensure the child would only be bruised. Song meanwhile, having ensured that the injured man would not die immediately, had learnt from Olvir and also taken to the rooftops. Seeing her opportunity she hurled a lightening torment hatchet, coated with her own especially venomous arrow frog venom, sinking it deep into the Akuma’s back.
It gave Caelan the opportunity he needed now the fiend wasn’t defending himself with an innocent and he launched an attack, but the Akuma’s malfean Charm allowed him to evade and still engaged in fighting with Olvir, the infernal finally threw off his moonsilver shackles and took control of the struggle. Song and Caelan backed off – having seen his trick before they feared he’d use Olvir as a shield against their attacks.
Caelan, anima flaring, held his attention while he continued to grapple with Olvir which allowed Song the chance to slip out of sight and ensure another poisoned hatchet found flesh. Olvir, realising the Akuma had been gaining strength as they fought, decided to use a more obvious tactic. Shifting to tyrant lizard form he raised one mighty foot and as his foe went to attack allowed him no purchase. Bringing his foot down on top of him Olvir crushed him into unconsciousness – and the poison already coursing through his veins ensured he’d not breathe again.
The villagers had fled – if the Akuma hadn’t been bad enough, the fight and the anima eruptions had ensured they wanted to stay well clear. The only villagers left were the severely wounded man and one child who, despite being thrown across the village, woke up a little later bruised but otherwise uninjured. After checking them both and making sure they were recovering in one of the bigger houses Song ensured the body of the Akuma was accorded the rites necessary to prevent his spirit lingering and after an hour or so, a few residents began to make their way back. Introducing ourselves, we tried to reassure them and showing them the injured and what we’d done they seemed to realise we weren’t a threat.
When we asked them about the Akuma and his quarry they admitted they’d seen Amber Roshani – she’d travelled through a few days before the Akuma arrived and traded with them before she left. She’d headed towards the dead zone out of town which Song and Olvir had seen from the air. They warned us about it when we asked – telling us that ‘things’ came from there during Lesser Calibration and attacked anyone not safe inside a house. We were confused. Lesser Calibration? They seemed surprised we didn’t know what they spoke of but explained while we tried to determine what they meant... they spoke of a single day every year, some eight weeks before Calibration itself when creatures from the dead zone emerged and roamed abroad. It was difficult to determine from their descriptions what they may have been – a form of automata, or a Raksha or even a wyld mutant – whatever they were they were roughly humanoid but more than that we couldn’t determine.
While Olvir set himself to work repairing the crossbeam of the house that had suffered the worst damage in the fight Song spoke with the villager who’d made the trades with Amber Roshani and exchanged the silver the girl had given them for an equal value. As we bade the villagers goodbye and headed out of town Song tried to get a scent from the silver in an attempt to track her. Silver didn’t hold scent well but Song had animal forms with excellent noses – and the gifts of Luna to heighten her perception considerably. Catching a faint scent she tracked her through the scrubland around the village till she reached – somewhat unsurprisingly – the dead zone a mile or so out of town. There the scent grew a little stronger before abruptly ending.
Song could still see the faint outlines of Essence but otherwise the bare patch of land remained stubbornly immune to our investigations. We discussed contacting Jeret, but after concerns over his security, opted not to. Eventually, Song suggested she cast a sorcery on a tree which overlooked the area to keep an eye on it from afar and as she was looking for the best place to site one, Olvir’s own investigations found someone else had had the same idea. Another face carved into a tree overlooking the area also contained a legend carved in Claw-Speak which the Lunars understood to mean “Moved Outside Time”. It gave Song cause to recall an old text she’d read which mentioned First Age places which (allegedly) the Solar Exalted had moved outside time. People could access them but needed a piece of malfean porcelain as a key.
Lacking any such thing, we suspected it would remain closed to us. Caelan spent time meditating by the edge of the zone, just in case he could attune to it, but was unsuccessful and realising our trail had gone cold and Amber Roshani was likely beyond reach, we could only hope she was safe now she’d ventured to another place and the Akuma who hunted her was gone. We spent an uneasy night on the outskirts of the dead zone before dawn’s light found us journeying back to Moonspire.