Last night we finally got "together" and played Legend of the Elements. Here's last time.
(As an aside, having now watched the first season-and-a-half of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I can now say that this game isn't so much wearing its influence on its sleeve as wearing a shirt made from the skin of its influence. And that's fine, it's just a little jarring to look at the Watershaper moves and realize, oh, shit, this is totally Kitara.)
The characters talk amongst themselves and decide that they need to get a better handle on what's happening at the Temple. They split up and go to chat with the various members of the Kestrel's Talons. Khatun finds Citla, the Talon watershaper, as she's doing a lesson for some of the initiates. Khatun asks to watch, and Citla graciously says she can, and then opens an orate metal box and shapes a volume of shiny, metallic liquid.
Khatun has seen this stuff before, but isn't familiar with it. Citla tells her it's "quicksilver," and reminds her students that while it looks like water, you can't shape it using watershaping - it's metal. Also, it's toxic, so don't touch it. She passes it around so her students can practice, and then returns it to the box.
Khatun asks her about the fascination with metal, and Citla tells her that quicksilver is perfected water. Khatun balks and demonstrates her powers of ice-shaping, but Citla scoffs and shatters the ice sculpture with well-placed shards of metal from her sleeves. Khatun lowers the temperate until the metal cracks, pointing out that subtlety and precision trump brute force, but Citla scoffs and implies that this temperature manipulation is brute force.
Gerde finds Lang, the Talons' earthshaper, sitting near the waterfall (inkfall). She asks him about the Talons' philosophy and why their focus on metal; after all, you can't eat it and it's not as useful as the other elements. Lang disagrees. To them, metal is the most useful element. It's an equalizer, because anyone can use metal to improve their lives and work the world around them. Metal, he claims, is the future. Gerde says that this makes for imbalance, putting one element above the others, but Lang claims that this is, balance, because metal is above the others. She asks how he would present the universe, if not a wheel with each spoke equal, and he shows her how the whole mountain hums in harmony when the metal in it vibrates. Gerde takes his point, but is still troubled.
Ember finds the Wounded Man and Asht, the fireshaper of the Talons, where the main Temple used to be. She asks about the spiritual changes, Sable splitting into two monkeys, but they take the position that this is an improvement, an evolution of the spirit. The Wounded Man points out that physical changes to a place alter the spiritual makeup; if, for instance, a village were to be burned down, the spirits there would certainly change (this rather pointed barb is not lost on Ember).
Feng, meanwhile, finds Barnu, who is washing the ink off his face at the living quarters. He apologizes for injuring Barnu, and posits that Barnu isn't a shaper, but rather a smith. Barnu confirms this, and Feng asks why he uses a staff rather than a sword or an ax. Barnu says that it's mostly to avoid making a mess.
The heroes reconvene that evening over dinner, and agree that the Talons' philosophy seem wrong and dangerous. They also worry about where the masters of this place have gone. If they left voluntarily, surely some students would know about it? Feng summons Spot, the dog-spirit companion of Master Diaf, and asks where the master is. Spot doesn't know, and he's been trying to sniff out his master, but something always gets in the way. Feng offers to help, and the characters go after the dog. They get as far as the living quarters, but a bunch of the initiates are playing instruments (chimes, gongs, and other metal things, of course). Spot flops over and whines, unable to handle the noise. Feng takes on the burden and immediately goes painfully deaf, but Spot is able to continue and leads them out the back, down a hill, and to a crevasse where the Temple dumps its trash and waste. Spot sits on the edge and howls - there, he says, is Master Diaf.
Gerde wades out into the filth and retrieves a corpse. The characters are horrified, not only by the apparent murder the the disposal in the trash. Khatun washes the corpse off and checks it for signs of cause of death. She finds no wounds, but Diaf's tongue is black. Apparently, he was poisoned. Feng guesses that the poison in question might be quicksilver.
The characters decide to wait until morning and confront the whole school together, along with the Talons. They realize that if they give the Talons time to spin this, they'll probably be able to get the students on their side. Feng further decides to summon Diaf's spirit so that he can directly accuse his murderer.
And come the morning, the characters hear a crowd gathered where the main Temple was. Now, instead, there's a huge metal...thing, shining in the morning sun and belching off metallic smoke. The Wounded Man offers the secrets of metalshaping for anyone who takes the oath, and an initiate steps forward and swears to uphold the "Sacred Forge."
Before anyone else can, though, Ember summons thunder to get their attention, and Feng calls up Diaf's spirit. He roars and accuses the Wounded Man. The Wounded Man tries to talk his way out, but the characters notice that Lang, Mumet, and Asht seem shocked by the revelation, while Citla, Barnu, and the Wounded Man close ranks. The Wounded Man touches the Sacred Forge and a horde of silver monkeys swarm over the students, while he and his two compatriots try and escape.
The characters aren't about to let that happen, however. Gerde blasts rock into the air and block's Barnu's exit, Khatun freezes Citla solid, and Ember calls down lightning at the Wounded Man. He throws something made of metal from this sleeve and grounds the lightning, but Ember follows up with her old standby, fire, and burns him. He leaps forward and strikes her, but she retaliates and knocks her right out. Feng, meanwhile, enters the fray and disarms Barnu. He uses his own metalshaping power and binds up Barnu with his own weapon.
The threat over, the three killers are bound in not-metal. The others talk with the characters, and Asht says that they're going to split up for a while and go and reconnect with their main elements. Gerde tells Lang that her village could use an earthshaper to help with planting, and he agrees to go there. Feng suggests that after they complete their meditations, maybe they could return and instruct here, but, y'know, without the maniacal focus on metal? Asht says that would be good, and mentions too that the Wounded Man replaced their previous spiritshaper, Citla's sister, Ahru (whom the characters have met).
The characters decide to head to Greycliff to find one of the masters from the Temple who did leave. Next time, then, we're city-bound.
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