39 - Where Do We Stand?

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Help the Heavens investigate what remains of the cult and their compound
When: May 2
Where: A converted farm on the rural edge of the Tokyo metro area
Summary: Characters can discuss what they know about the cult, choose how much or how little they tell the Heavens' representative Suijin, and help make decisions about where to go from here.






This place was once a farm, then rebuilt into a compound with a big central building, heavy concrete walls and plenty of outdoor spaces for ritual magic. Now, the rooftop has caved in, and the main floor has collapsed as well, leaving a basement open to the skies above. All around, police tape from a local Near Shore department has quarantined off the area. Amaterasu's shinki, in cooperation with those from Suijin, Fuujin, and Raijin have managed to take shifts warning miscreants and the police away from the area, but left the tape to help with those efforts. Just beyond the tape, they've now put up Borderlines to safely guard against ayakashi for the duration of this meeting, but they're pretty far out of earshot and very focused.

Letter of Invitation

Everyone should have seen the digital letter that Amaterasu sent out, but just in case, later that day each temple receives a single letter, with a wax seal on it with Amaterasu's chrysanthemum as the emblem. It is a reproduction of the same digital letter that Amaterasu crafted the day before; it's not printed out, but rather handwritten with painstaking accuracy. The shinki could be from Amaterasu, Suijin, Raijin, or Fuujin, and they will not force anyone to take the letter, in particular if they're told that the god/dess already saw the message on their phone earlier.

Early Arrival

There's a set time that Suijin will arrive - Noon - but as everyone is encouraged to come early, it is possible you are one of the first or last to arrive among the "early" crowd. How did you get there? Was it by stealth or impossible to miss, even by any Near Shore people in the area?

Topics of Discussion

Now is your chance to discuss with your fellows what you know, don't know, wish you knew, etc. about the cult or their compound. Do your characters think they are still being spied on by Heavens and want to hold back, or are they reasonably confident speaking out with the protecting shinki so far away? At the very least, none of the shinki are making very obvious attempts to return to the compound itself. For the very paranoid, there are little alcoves out of visual range or a small room that still has a door on it, albeit not a ceiling.

Suijin's Arrival

Suijin arrives at the appointed time, stepping onto the compound's front drive and under the police tape at precisely Noon. She comes in the capacity of official counselor for Amaterasu. OOCly, this thread will be free-form individual threading.

After her arrival, we will have mirrored top-level comments with Suijin supplying a piece of information as a jumping off point for discussions about each topic. From that point, it will be individual threading, or multi-character threads if you would like. All of these threads will still be addressed to the group at large, loud enough for them to hear and jump in if players would like.

Redacted April 7th via OOC post: We will run this similar to how we ran the Compound's Second Fight: there will be an opportunity for Suijin and/or her shinki to speak, then characters will be given free reign to respond to her and amongst themselves for a period of time. Then, another "round" will begin with Suijin and/or her shinki's responses to the characters. This structure allows for characters to still react with late comments or reactions to anything being said, or jump in whenever they feel comfortable speaking up.

In Summary:

• Talk amongst yourselves before Suijin arrives
• Check out the damage inflicted on the Compound
• Discuss next steps with Suijin, if you would like
• Have fun~

Comments

Topic: History/Summary/Cult Motives/Past Events

[sweetspringwater]

[ Suijin rises from her seat to address all assembled ]

To begin, for those who may not be aware...

This group - the one we originally knew only as Down With Amaterasu [1] - has since been attributed to numerous sprawling attempts to infiltrate The Far Shore or otherwise destroy its residents. They have been linked to generically known "cult" activity recruitment efforts, taught them how to become spellcasters, and see all Gods or Shinki as their enemies. Their oldest known cover was through the Fujisaki company, which interrupted a picnic [2] of ours just over a year ago. From deathly chocolate creatures [2] to demon-summoning [3], to us this group appeared so scattered in their approach that we could not believe they were all backed by the same core leadership structure.

However, the sheer volume of spell tags provided to us [4, 5] by the new gods and shinki - I am to read their names in just a moment - from the forest [6], alongside the proficient volume of spellcasting discovered at this Compound [7], leads us to believe otherwise. The people here were all of a much different skill-level than the prankish behavior of animating small chocolate creatures and their calligraphy immaculately practiced. The ones called... Metis... Ginia... Nanshe... Cú Chulainn... have supplied the information that most relates to our research here at the Compound, as we have found similar styles of spells being used everywhere around this place. Harnessing an ayakashi as large as the one discovered here without a Vent anywhere nearby is no small feat for a human.

We must conclude that they are planning an uprising against the Heavens, and that unfortunately this Compound was not their only stronghold. The exemplar Chikusa, the god of Fortune Nekhbet, and the gods Forseti and Averruncus... they have demonstrated to us the sheer breadth of their reach [4, 5] and that was echoed here, where phonecalls were made out of the Compound just as the attack here began.

OOC - Events Referenced:	IC - Dates:	Link(s)
1) "Down with Amaterasu":	April 25th 2016	008 | Sakura 2.0: You Can (Not) Have A Picnic
2) Interrupted Picnic & Chocolate, later known to have come from Fujisaki Company:	March 15th 2016	004 | Too Much Chocolate
3) Demon-summonging:	May 5-6-2016	009 | Where Your Demons Hide
4) Information shared with Amaterasu and her shinki in advance of a private meeting:	February 1 - March 8th 2017	OOCly Handwaved
5) Private Meeting with Amaterasu:	March 8th 2017	Interlude: Meeting with Amaterasu
6) The Forest:	Nov 14th 2016	28 - The Hungry Forest and 28 - The Hungry Forest (Final Battle)
7) Cultist's Compound:	April 1st 2017	37 - A Call To Arms