Manithan Vaanam

மனிதன் வானம்

Clammy Night

Session 19
Vanathi's Lightseekers
Before the rooster crows, the Vaanam falls silent. The branches of trees stop swaying, the waters stop rushing. Yet readers, you would be mistaken to think the Vaanam stops still during these hours. The opposite happens, for ghosts, memories, and visitors of all kinds decide to awaken during these hours, to create chaos within the peaceful, sleeping soul of a manithan.
Mun Mugham
In-Game Time 23rd Night of the 4th Dharan Cycle
Played On 18th of April, 2025

After the party ensures that there shall be no saints today, silence enshrouds all for a few minutes, the footsteps of Thooli leaving echoing throughout the palm trees. Ilanka then determines to burn the mirughams bodies, so the corpses are heaped together, and, before Ilanka casts a fireball towards the bodies, Shwari breaks a pincer off of the beetle-mirugham. As the corpses are ablaze, Ilanka tells the group about community breakfast, and everyone heads to their huts. Once they settle therein, sleep takes them over, visions infiltrating their minds.

The sun seeps in; the first to awake is Shwari. She, noticing that her party is not waking anytime soon, leaves for the town center and is immediately conscripted by Ilanka to set up the town breakfast. Aadhi and Nila wake up afterwards, and, on the way to the town center, Aadhi tells Nila of her dreams: Bodhi revealing that the Murugeshwara twins are the key to releasing the Raatchi Raasa. Aadhi and Bodhi also struck each other, leaving a red mark on Aadhi's cheek. After Aadhi tells of her visions, she and Nila meet Shwari and then head into a secluded area to eat breakfast: idlis and sambar. While eating, Nila tells her dream of her paati's demise, where a shadowy figure knocked her, and the Dharma Villu, into the Kaveri River.

Back at the hut, Haavani wakes next, and, as Bhavannan sleeps, she cleanses his wounds. Bhavannan wakes up choking on his breath and tells Haavani of his vision: the monkey Anjan being captured by evil sorcerers and suspended in a sphere of manthiram. Haavani and Bhavannan then discuss Bhavannan's mission before heading to breakfast, joining the rest of the group. Shwari joins as well and the group recounts their dreams to each other, Haavani revealing that her vision consisted of a conversation with Veyyon and Shwari revealing that she had been visited by the celestial being Vasuki. After the party recounts their visions in the clammy night, they make a list of tasks to accomplish in Lagaab before heading to their next destination: Malai Hill.