| SESSION RECAPS |
| Night 1811 How it is to arrive in a new city and taste the air! I shall never reconcile myself to the necessity of being transported as cargo, but waking up in a new city is at least akin to taking passage via caravan. Tatlankel is pleasantly warm with the jungle heat dissipated by the lake after sundown. That water presents certain problems: on foot one is constrained to bridges, and panicked prey can unwittingly escape into the lake. The House of Foreign Rest is fine and comfortable but like all buildings on the lake, lacks a subterranean floor. Night 1813 After several jaunts into the city, I feel more comfortable. Bassot renews his contacts and we will soon get down to work. This is not our first joint effort and we are brothers in our march toward Night 1815 It is night 1600 for Tweeters, and on this unique anniversary he remains in good health and supping happily. The extent of my control over him has not improved; a blunt instrument rather than a fine blade. If I wish to allow him free flight, there can be no live-in servants unless I make other arrangements for his containment. I dislike denying him his freedom. Not for the first time I suspect I see my own constraints in how I must govern him. Still, we are partners in this grand experiment! Night 1819 Collecting fallen is thirsty work, but I must feed separately. Partaking of our stock of ingredients might taint the potentials. The Precinct of Reeds and lakeshore are best for hunting. The Precinct of Service is poor, as it is difficult to remain unobserved and organized criminals protect the area. They are a credible threat to secrecy even if they cannot oppose my predations. To better understand the locals and for assistance in collection, I have taken a thrall from the beastkin underclass. Bassot has instructed against this but it is done. Night 1821 Bassot divides his time between his office in the Precinct of Seven Grains, the Dynastic Cassern, and the laboratory. He is most tolerable in the laboratory, where we can converse as equals in discovery. We have encountered several dead ends from the development of the ozrut rituals, and more ingredients were needed, but a working formula is close. I wish I could experience the Cassern for myself. The libertine streets of Moonstone and Jade are far more agreeable and without the threat of magical scrutiny! I worry, however, that the constraints I operate under will impede my further advancement within our shared brotherhood. Night 1826 Our experimentation bears fruit! The formula can be delivered orally, and now a plan must be made to slip it past the security in the Dynastic Cassern. Transportation of food and drink between the House of Flowers and the Cassern provides opportunity, but the use of iaret tasters by the Nomarch is an impediment. More inroads will be required. The presentation of another thrall to Bassot the previous night has secretly infuriated him, but he must acquiesce if our mission depends on it. Night 1828 I can no longer stand the proximity of Bassot nor his religious mumbling. I have decamped to the aerie, where my privacy is inviolate and I can better supervise my thralls. Tweeters has always been a better confidant, and more rational conversation. Night 1829 Time in solitude now has given opportunity for musing upon the nature of metamorphosis. Though I did not fully understand what I was taking on, I did to some extent understand how it would set me apart from mortals, and I began my grand experiment by choice. How will one born to and isolated by power react to sudden change? The Child Dynast shall be alive, possessed of a certain social power, but unable to go abroad any longer. I have only forcibly made spawn and Tweeters to draw conclusions from. Night 1832 This slow pace of infiltration galls me. Many hands would make light work, but I am forbidden more thralls save for the fallen girl we require. She will be a delicious conquest but I did not embark on this path to take half measures. I alone discovered the Islander castaway. I alone understood the import of his bloody affliction. And I alone was bold enough to pursue its use. The next time my “brother” in enlightenment assembles his gambling cronies, there might be an unfortunate disruption that necessitates the elimination of witnesses, and then I will have all the hands I need. |