The Scorching Depths

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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
"You're saying something actually grew!?" The excited voice opens the door. Sekhmet, Queen of the Scorching Depths, steps into the room in her regalia, followed by a succubus in a sundress and high-heeled sandals. "Yes, all on its own, I barely had to do any watering." The pair look at the sapling, amongst the dead and dying flowers and shrubs, with the succubus looking proud and Sekhmet looking surprised. "See?" "Uh, I didn't plant that." "What?" "I didn't plant that. It's a yew tree, I didn't plant any yew trees." "What!?"
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

The other plants near the yew- though not directly under the toxic tree- are likely also doing better, as life leaks through the tree into the surrounding area.

"I suppose technically it planted itself. Hi. I'm Baccata." The dryad has to squeeze a little as she climbs out of the tree, a young woman looking to be about nineteen. She's got brown skin the colour of the tree's bark, green hair made of yew needles, and eyes the pale white of yew heartwood. She's wearing a red jumpsuit with J on the back, "This is my yew. You look familiar. Have we met?" The yew rustles despite the lack of breeze when mentioned, and Sekhmet might recognise her from GLoG, even if they didn't interact to my knowledge.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
"A dryad...?" Sekhmet can't place Baccata either, and it's unsurprising that Sekhmet's not immediately recognizable - outside her court she's a lot shorter and doesn't dress so fancily. "I don't think so? How did you get here?" This place isn't exactly open for travel. "Welcome to the Scorching Depths, Baccata. I'm queen Sekhmet, and you're in my palace."
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

"I'm here because my tree's growing here. This is an afterlife, right? Yews are associated with death as well as life, and mine's already growing in, like, four places. A campsite called GLoG, the Sunless Country, the Plains of Death, the Endless River and now here, apparently." So the tree might serve as a portal between those places, and Baccata at least appears to know how to cross between one version of her tree and another. "Wowee, this place is hot. None of the others are so warm. Bright, too, though that might vary." Sunless Country, Plains of Death and Endless River don't sound all that warm, either.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
"Yes, this is an afterlife. It's much darker outside the palace, I'm afraid," Sekhmet looks Baccata over. "But how did your tree get here? I didn't plant any yews in my garden." Obviously the answer is magic. But she still has to ask. "And, uh, why are you here?"
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

"I'm here because my yew's here." Obviously; dryads can't go far from their trees. This is not, however, a helpful answer. Particularly because it's the same answer Baccata gave to 'how did you get here'. "You didn't need to plant my yew. It planted itself. They can spread like that. If a branch gets so heavy it bends down to reach the ground, it'll grow roots. Well, one of my yew's branches brushed against your afterlife here and it's put down roots." Which might not answer the question to Sekhmet's satisfaction, but is honestly the best answer that Baccata can give. "Oh! You meant how did I get to an afterlife without dying? That's symbolism. Trees in general are symbols of life, and dryads are even more symbolic of life than trees. But yews are symbols of death, so as a yew dryad I get that symbolism as well. Which means I'm kind-of a psychopomp. I can cross over between Life and What Comes Next, and for some people that's here. I can also cross back again whenever I want, and take people with me. But if I take someone here, I can't take them out again. They'd need to find their own way back to Life." But if she doesn't send someone to Death, she can help them to Life as often as they want. How this might work in crossing people from one afterlife to another is a thing Earl needs to think about.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
Sekhmet frowns. That description makes it sound like she might have a problem. "Leave us," she says to the succubus gardener, "But..." "Leave us." The succubus leaves. "This, uh, could be a problem. Do I understand correctly, you can, uh, bring people from here back to life?" Sekhmet wants to make sure before she takes action.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

"If I want to, yes. But not bodily; I can't transport bodies. I could make them a body at the other end, they could use that. If I make it. You should have kept that woman here to hear me explain. Now she'll tell others, and I'll have to explain that I can't take bodies when we cross over. If they've all got bodies as nice as hers, they might not like that." Sekhmet might be more worried over the fact that some succubi may be able to conjure flames, and dryads and yews are both made of wood.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
"It hardly matters. They can create their own bodies or take over someone else's." Sekhmet sighs. "If you can uproot and leave, you should. This place is a Hell. The people who are down here have done very terrible things. I don't want any of them getting loose through you."
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

"Most dead people have done terrible things. Because they're people. No matter how hard they try, people keep doing terrible things. They won't get loose unless I let them, and if they get out they'll be at a good place where I have people I like, so they'd have to really impress me and my tree first. It's got a lake and everything, I have visitors, and I'm not lonely. All the places my yew grows can be called Hells. The Endless River's current drags souls into oblivion, the Plains of the Dead are flat, featureless, and lit by a dead star and the Sunless Country is dark and cold. This place at least looks interesting." It has a garden, even! Baccata's yew grows on a small islet, in the middle of nowhere, and on a sheer precipice. They aren't happy places. She doesn't seem willing to force her tree to grow elsewhere, however.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
"I'm not talking about petty thieves or even most murderers," Sekhmet clarifies. "I'm asking you to leave for your own safety. I can't keep your presence here a secret, and they'll be more than willing to coerce you into transporting them by any means necessary."
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

Baccata frowns. She turns and reaches into the yew, her hand passing seamlessly through the bark and into the wood beneath. When she pulls her hand out, she's holding what is clearly a human skull, one about fifty years dead. "I call him Bill. Don't know his real name. He was the first person I met, alongside a man whose skull I call Ben. I didn't have clothes, and I was younger than I am now. A lot younger. I killed them in self-defence; my yew's never trusted humans since. I can defend myself, and coercion will not work." Behind her, the yew creaks and shakes, even if there's no wind. It's still growing, and seems to speed up now.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
Sekhmet looks skeptical. "If you say so." These aren't mere mortals assailants and Sekhmet's not sure Baccata wouldn't respond to some form of coercion. Her mention of the succubus' "nice body" shows signs of vulnerability. And there's the question of what being rooted in the realm of Corruption might do to a dryad (but since there aren't normally dryads in Hell, that's a question that's never been answered).
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

"Besides, I can go back to GLoG any time I want, or to one of the other afterlives, just by touching my tree. He'll take me away, and I don't think I want to explore here too much. It's all... stoney and blocky and not fun." The sky might not be much here, but Baccata prefers even that to any kind of ceiling. "I have had to defend myself from shades, spirits, and other things before. It's not just the dead wandering the lands of the Sunless Country, or swimming in the Endless River." Although the Plains of Death are mostly inhabited by shades of the dead, some more shadowy than others as they wander.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
There is a ceiling. It's just a long way up and dark enough that it can't be seen. "Is there anything else you need? Uh, and you'll probably be visited by my subjects once I'm gone. They might proposition you with attention and gifts, but uh..." Black blood fills Sekhmet's cheeks. She's embarrassed to even bring this up, but it's important. "Under no circumstances should you sleep with any of them. I don't know if it would have the same effect on you as a mortal, but it's better safe than sorry." Sekhmet doesn't want any visitors, invited or not, to die on her watch.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

"I wasn't planning on it. I'm the soul of a yew, and every part of a yew is poisonous." So sleeping with Baccata can also likely lead to consequences, though possibly not ones that a succubus would be affected by. Also, technically there is one part of a yew that doesn't contain toxins- the aril is edible, though the seed it contains is not. I'm not sure if, as a male plant, Baccata's yew produces arils however.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
"Uh, okay then. I'll, uh, let you go?" Sekhmet does have other business to attend to. Unless Baccata has more to say, she'll leave, and that will open the door to other visitors.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Demons and Demigods
Sekhmet's portal opens onto stark volcanic rock. Embers drift past on the wind. The heat is oppressive, a dry, fiery temperature.
Not far away, molten lava bubbles and churns, the only source of light in this sunless, forsaken place.
The demon queen and her friend are standing upon an island of obsidian and ash in the middle of a volcanic caldera.
Perhaps this is an ideal place to learn to wield hellfire. After all, it's all around them.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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[Demons and Demigods]

Sophie steps through the portal and takes a look around. This location should be more disturbing to someone who has lived in very mundane locales all her life. But it's not.

"I feel like this place should frighten me," she observes aloud. "But it doesn't. Maybe it's because I'm here with its ruler. Or it's a Solar thing. Trick and I saw some things the previous bearers of my Exaltation have seen and done."
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Demons and Demigods
Sekhmet isn't quite sure what to make of that statement.
"As long as I'm here, you should, uh, be quite safe."
She turns to face Sophie. "Shall we begin?" There's a sort of confidence in her stance not normally present. She's standing as queen in her domain, quite literally in her element.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

"Sure. If you need me, knock on my tree, I'll hear." The dryad smiles and demonstrates, with a rapping of her knuckles against her yew's bark. The tree shudders unusually in response, the leaves and branches swaying despite the absence of a wind to move them.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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[Demons and Demigods]

Sophie nods, focusing on the task at hand rather than ruminations.

"Yes. Show me how you manipulate hellfire. If I remember this right, if I focus on you while you do it, I should... understand it instinctively."
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Demons and Demigods
Sekhmet nods. She spreads her limbs into a wide stance. Her tail strikes sparks on the rocky ground as she turns to face Sophie. A ball of flame appears in her upraised left hand.
"Fire," she begins, "Is the most destructive element." She stomps her foot, causing the ground to crack and fire to issue forth. "First wielded in ancient times by dragons," Sekhmet smothers the conjured fireball in her fist, then breathes a cone of flame into the air, "But fire is a dangerous art. It is as deadly to its summoner as to others if uncontrolled," the demon queen is wreathed in a corona of flames as she speaks, "But fire can also remake and reshape. It refines and purifies," the fire around her coalesces into a resplendent royal gown of flames which sparks as she moves. "Fire is the art of the forge, to destroy and remake anew." She strikes the ground with a blast of flame, turning it to molten rock, which she causes to flow upwards to form a rough statue of a demonic woman.
This is all a far more artistic display than Sekhmet would normally make. Perhaps something about the situation makes her more willing to show off with her powers?

Palace Garden
Sekhmet leaves and a few minutes later, the first "visitors" appear. Two succubi and an incubus, attractive demons wearing very nearly nothing, open the door to the garden and enter, looking at the tree (or Baccata if she's not inside) with a curious (and slightly hungry) expression. They heard about the newcomer. News travels fast down here.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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[Demons and Demigods]

As Sophie watches Sekhmet, her eyes gleam gold briefly and the symbol on her forehead appears. A golden glow surrounds her as well. She's tapping into her Exalted power to understand what she's seeing. Feel the power that Sekhmet calls on. She reaches out with her hand and feels it grow warmer, but no fire appears yet.

"When I was a monster-hunter, many of us thought of what we did as lighting a candle in the night, to ward off the darkness. Fire destroys but also protects. Long ago, our ancestors huddled around campfires when the night closed in."
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Demons and Demigods
"That's true," Sekhmet answers, creating a candlelike flame on her fingertips. "Fire keeps the wolves, literal and metaphorical, at bay. The bringer of death, but also the protector of life." Are there wolf-like shadows moving in the fringes of the light?
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden

Baccata has entered her tree, leaving the yew alone. Or so it appears. The tree is growing quite rapidly, far faster than it should, though whether the visiting demons know enough to recognise that is harder to determine. If they get close, the tree's branches shake and shiver, and the trunk twists so a knothole in the bark stays level with the largest of the demons. This is not normal tree behaviour.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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[Demons and Demigods]

"It gave me hope in those times. I fought an impossible fight, I felt my old life slip away, I knew I'd die sooner or later. But as long as I kept the lurking monsters at bay, it would be worth it." A tiny, flickering flame appears in Sophie's cupped hands as she looks at the wolf-like shadows. "I survived it and my life is very different now, but I remember it. And I think it's helping me understand your fire."
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Garden
"Hello? Dryad? We know you're here. We just want to... hehe... meet you," one of the succubi says, unable to keep a little giggle out of her voice. "Whatever horror stories her majesty told you aren't true. We just want to be good hosts."

Demons and Demigods
"You understand." Finally, Sekhmet snaps fully into one of her other aspects, one she's been balancing on the edge of for this whole demonstration. Her posture becomes steady and unyielding. Her flaming dress stiffens and reshapes into plates of gleaming, ornate armor, and a shield of flames appears on her right arm. Her crown resembles a sturdy, yet beautifully worked, helm studded with diamonds. "I am Resyr Lotaka, the Fiery Protector," she says. "My flame is no mere weapon, but a shield. I hold my ground for those I love. Will you do the same for yours?" She points at Sophie questioningly. This is the moment of truth.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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[Demons and Demigods]

Curious. Is this one of Sekhmet's aspects as the queen of hell? Might be worth asking her about it later. For now, the flame in Sophie's hands grows brighter.

"I will. That's what I've always done. With whatever tools I had available to me." The fire grows brighter still. "I'm still Sophie Mouchabière. I've been a social worker, therapist, monster-hunter and now a Solar Exalted. But I'm still me and I'll do what it takes." As she speaks, the fire surges upwards from her hands and she starts glowing as Sekhmet would have seen her do before. The fire also takes on a golden hue in the centre and around the edges, mixing together with Solar Essence.
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Re: The Scorching Depths

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Palace Gardens

"Sorry, I missed part of that. I was talking to a crow. I'm Baccata, who're you?" Baccata's sticking her head and shoulders out of the tree, the bark blending into the jumpsuit she wears. There's no crow immediately visible in the surrounding area, and the dryad's smiling and tilts her head to one side curiously.
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