[Actual Play] Gem: Edge of Destruction

[SJE]

This is my aide memoire for the Exalted game which I'm running for YerMum and others in London. Basic Premise is to run a Heroic Mortals game with the PC's as Gem's underfunded City Watch.

Conceptually its Exalted meets Ankh Morpork meets Crowner John and the Falco mysteries. http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=181242

My vision of Gem-

Gem is set into the side of a (supposedly) extinct volcano Minas Tirith style, with great markets, homes, slave pens set deep into the lava tunnels and chambers of the mountain. The rich and noble live at the top on the Peak, dominated by Despot Rankar VII's Diamond Palace.

Down the northern, shaded and cooler slope the middle class and prosperus live in the Shades district. The Watch's HQ, the decaying Granite Tower is mid-Shades. At the feet of the mountain, spread out on the desert plain, exposed to the sun and heat is the Hot district- sprawling shanty town at the base of Gems volcano filled with beggars, cattle pens, caravanesaris, hovels, adventurers, cholera and typhus, and of course the destitute. Here the Ruby Citadel and the mercenary army guards the approaches to the city.

The Economics of Gem rely on the valauble minerals to be found in this hellhole. Like many human ventures, its the Jewel-rush which makes Gem a viable settlement, despite having to import most of its water and food across the desert.

The Despot grants local monopolies to those nobles and Guilds able to afford them. As long as he receives his cut, he is happy to leave business to them, so long as they take responsbility for their own security. He is rumoured to have reached an accomodation with the powerful Obsidian Thieves Guild, partially legalising them. He's found its more economic if the theives do less work then if he pays the Watch to do more. Now the theives sell protection to citizens (giving them a black armband to wear, which then warns thieves off them) and when they steal, they leave a shard of obsidian behind. If citizens want their stuff back, they can go to certain taverns and buy it back from the Guild.

As a result, over the last decade or so, the City Watch has been stripped back, Watch Houses closed, wages frozen, discouraged from pursueing the criminals. Now only the disgraced and desperate work for the Watch, patrolling the streets and ringing their bell to announce "All is Well!".

But all is not well in Gem......

Cast of NPC's

(which may well organically expand further)

Despot Rankar VII- as played by the Patrician.

Lord Steward Valtess- Gives the PC’s their orders. Mouthpiece for the Despot Arrogant & dismissive of Captain Brand and busted him down to the City Guard in disgrace. Played by Alan Rickman

Chief Clerk Sitting Dove. The paymaster for the Despots Treasury- Peter Mandelson

General Braun Dragonroar- commander of Gems Mercenary armies. Usually to be found drunk. Brian Blessed

Major Ymes (WHY-mes) of the Palace Guard. Hates the Watch as incompetents and disgraces.

Guilds & Nobles
Rankar- Gems & Jewelry-
Arbani & Sons- Firewands
House of Sahlak, led by Mother Sahlak is brothels & dream parlours
House Iblan- Gold & Silver trade
Circla & Co. Gladiators Arena
Trasti- Banks & Gambling Dens
Quiet Fox is the defacto head of the Obsidian Thieves Guild- stolen items can be bought back, protection against theft available if you wear a black badge. They leave a piece of obsidian behind to mark their crimes.
Black Night- Assassins Guild

Street Contacts

Hal- street urchin- knows whats going on. Claims to have Terrestial ancestors.
Blind Man Fish- beggar
“Two Ale” Sextus- tavern proprieter
Young Iblan Ahmed- Yasal Crystal duellist
Ginger- Yasal crystal duellist.
Fragrant Blossom- Houri with a Heart.
Khalid the Slaver- partner to the deceased Weyoun & his legal heir
Marta- Head slave of Weyouns Household. Currently under arrest.
Euphenes the Scribe- slave accountant to Weyoun & Khalids partnership.

Religions

Immaculate Order- Master Ledaal Tanaka- wise Sifu and traditionalist
Cathak Anaria- female hot head with Fire Dragon Style
Mad Fraho- Cultist of Ikerre. Fae hater. Claims to know where the Eye of Ikerre fell.
Mrs. Ahlat. Bride of Ahlat. Hundred God Heretic. Tall, lean Zulu.
Angry Tiger- revolutionary & idealist.


Exalts in Gem

Cathak Aron Legionnaire stationed here. Hates Gem, keeps having accidents with firedust. Brother of Anaria
Lord of Silent Repose- Moonshadow Abyssal emissary from the First & Forsaken Lion.
Cathak Anaria (see above)
Master Ledaal Tanaka (see above)

Victims

Drunken Horse- Dead & Eviscerated in the Hot District. Under Investigation
Weyoun the Procurer- presumed dead of Spontanous Human Combustion. Under Investigation.
Joaqim the Dreamer- anarchist and orator. Reportedly missing, no active case file.


Locations-

Diamond Palace- Home of the Despot, set high in a lava tube.
Ruby Citadel- Gems Armies.
Granite Tower- base of the (reduced) City Guard.

The Market- set in the interior of a mid level Lava tube
The Slave Stalls- slave market. Cholera & Typhus rampant.
The Camel Pens- Hot District, scene of murder most terrible.

Dragons Rest- tavern & watering hole for the Guard in the lower Shades.

[Mengtzu]

Mrs Ahlat! Classic.


Just, uh, let's all hope the HM PCs don't tick off the Fire Dragon practitioner!

[SJE]

Session 1- Concerning the Curious Incident of the Eviscerated Proletariat and the Worrisome Situation of the Prisoner Below

We had a Kung Fu Kojak (must get a description next week) named Burning Brand played by YerMum who got to be Captain of the Watch. He was assisted by a temp player who created Sgt. Majid a Carteresque rough cop. Together they were the Sweeney meets Big Trouble in Little China.

So, our intrepid duo begin a patrol through the hot and dusty streets of Gem. They soon espy the local villains, the Obsidian Thieves Guild drinking in their tavern of the Dragon’s Rest. Unable to think of a ready reason to persecute the gang leader Quick Fox, they instead met up with their street urchin informant Hal, who offered them damp rags and water and info in return for money. In the first twist of the story, bad cops Majid and Brand then beat up their own informant for info…..  :p

Word on the street was that a horrible corpse had been found down near the camel pens of the Hot District; Weyoun the Procurer had suffered a bedroom arson, and the revolutionary speaker Joachim the Dreamer had gone missing. All in all, a quiet days crime for Gem.

So they head down the mountain to the Hot District- the sprawling shanty town at the base of Gems volcano filled with beggars, cattle pens, caravanesaris, hovels, adventurers and the destitute. Locating the corpse is easy enough- a matter of following the vultures and mob to a horrifically eviscerated body, blood spray across the camel pens. Ribs sticking out, heart, liver and kidneys missing, brain pan strangely empty, this is a monstrous death. One likely blood spattered witness later (after the requisite chase and police brutality) they get a wild account of the victim (Drunken Horse) apparently wandering around in a daze before some black, squamous, liquid monstrosity burst from his torso and slithered into the camel pens.

Realising at once that magic is involved, the brave investigaters established that this monster/demon/undead thing now walked on cloven feat and had descended into the camel’s slurry pit into the putrid First Age sewers & lava tubes below the Hot District.

Valour checks were made and Willpower spent to avoid any temptation to chase the monster down the sewer, and instead a runner sent to the Immaculate Temple that an evil spirit was loose down here.

As the midday sun turned the Hot District into a broiling oven, the detectives turned their patrol to the cooler climes of the lower Shades and the arson of Weyoun the Procurer.

The home of this slaver was in some turmoil as creditors gathered and household slaves were led away in coffles. The Head Slave Marta (faded beauty, somewhat bruised) greeted the investigators and showed them Weyouns bedroom where a suspicious 5 ft long oval of soot and ash apparently marked his demise of spontaneous combustion. Curiously only the centre of the bed was burned, the hangings and sheets seemingly faded and bleached. Marta hesistated in saying that no one had heard anything from the Master after he had sent away his harem-slave, demanding an ‘early night’. Strong magic had been used here, as a simple Essence-divining crystal wildly span around before breaking from its string and richochetting around the room!

Captain Brand met with Khalid, Weyouns business partner and legal heir who was already seizing Weyouns assets & slaves. Khalid pandered to Brands questions and romised help, while hinting at high connections with the Diamond Palace. Khalid as sole heir had every motive murder Weyoun but was apparently dining with Lord Steward Valtess the previous night and regretted Weyouns death as a business inconvenience. Clearly the 2 slavers had little real love for each other.

After a little subterfuge in which it was revealed that Khalid had already seized the scribe-slave accountant Euphenes (the book-keeper of the Khalid-Weyoun relationship), Brand decided to throw some sand in the works of the Khalid profit machine by declaring a murder investigation. If any slave was complicit in the death of the master then this would mean the execution of all the household slaves. So, as witnesses & suspects, Brand arrested all of Khalids new slaves and sent them to the watch house for interrogation. Khalid was not best pleased by the City Watch’s distractions, evasions and shenangans and left ‘for an appointment at the Palace’.

Shift nearly over, Brand & Majid step out for a bite to eat in the early evening, where they are accosted by 4 of the Obsidian Guild Thieves who warn them they have been stepping on the ‘wrong toes’. Battle! Commences with thieves clubbing, Watchmen skewering, knives being spent spinning into Majid before he pulls them out to throw pack into the throats of their owners!

With one or two living prisoners, the victorious cops lay the boot in but good. Under threat of ‘the Basement’ (from which none return) the mooks spill that Quick Fox’s boys had told them to mug the Watch Captain and Sergeant.

Then said Captain & Sergeant haul their prisoners back to the Granite Tower where they discover the slaves are taking up space in all the usual cells, leaving only the Basement cell.

They head down the cold granite stairs into the depths. Their breath seems to condense and mist as it gets colder and the shadows deepen. The squeaking of rats dims, till they approach a long stone corridor with a single jail cell at the far end. Breath condensing in terrified puffs of air, hearts pounding, goose-bumps on the skin, their Obsidian Theif begging for his life “NOT THE BASEMENT, PLEASE DRAGONS, NOT THERE…. NO!!!!!!!!”

An ebony form slids from the darkness in that cursed cell, a tall, slim figure, ivory white skin, crimson-red lips and black as midnight hair whispers sibilantly

“Ah Gentlemen. Time for dinner……”

Desperately pushing the doomed thief into the cell, both men race back down the corridor, covering their ears from the terrible screams that will ring forever in their nightmares…..

So ends Session 1.

[YerMum]

heh, silly thief - he chose the wrong night to jump the city watch!

[SJE]

Session 2

New characters- Ibrahim al’ Amarah – formerly a dashing cavalryman in the Palace Guard, he was set up by jealous family, the caravan he was guarding robbed and he was disgraced. Given one last chance by the Despot, this now drunken hedonist has been sent to sort out the City Watch. Think Olly Reed in Gladiator- big and strong and a booming voice, but usually liquored up.

Jak- a bright young recruit to the Watch, its Jaks first day to battle demons, feed Abyssals and risk the wrath of not one, but 2 superiors. Of course Jak has secrets of her own- she is a successful cat burglar, richer than the rest of the Watch combined. However, she has earned the ire of the Obsidian Thieves Guild and has had to change her appearance & apparent gender and is hiding as a new recruit in the Watch!

Morning of Day 2- Captain Brand was awoken by an urgent summons to attend Lord Steward Valtess at the Despots Court. Instead he crumpled up the message and ignored the meeting.

At the meeting Brand didn’t attend, an incensed Valtess gave the job of Watch Captain to Ibrahim al’Amarah instead and instructed him to get it into shape. Ibrahim stormed down to the Granite Tower, posted his credentials and swept into the Captains office where he began throwing out Brands stuff.

At this point Brand was passing under the window and was showered by a rain of his own lollipops and trophies. He stormed into the Captains office and angrily confronted the man who dared empty his Captains Office.

“It’s my office now!” screamed Ibrahim back

“It’s my city, my investigation and my Watch” cried Brand as they squared off.

“NOT ANYMORE! YOU ARE OUT!” shouted back Ibrahim!

At this point there was a gentle knock at the door and Recruit-Constable Jak entered.

“WHAT!!!!!!!!” shouted both Captains simultaneously!

“Err…Recruit Jak Reporting for duty?”- said the nervous 18 year old.

“ OUT!!!” shouted both men glaring at each other.

Brand stormed out, fired by the City. As he does so, Jak takes the opportunity (through some incredible 8+ success Larceny & Performance rolls) to establish that neither man can in fact spot her pinching things from under their noses, nor determine he is really a she!

There then followed the slightly worrying splitting of the party as Brand went his own way while Ibrahim swept up Jak in his wake as he bull-inna-china-shopped his way through Gem.

Brand discovered that the Sewer Monster had struck again, and that there had been another case of spontaneous human combustion in the night- a houri called Jade Eyes in the Hot District. He went to investigate Jade Eyes.

Ibrahim got nabbed by Sister Anaria of the Immaculates who had come to report a crime, as was the proper role for the Watch. She dragged the Captain (who wanted to go drinking/monster hunting) too see Master Tanaka Ledaal and Jak got swept along.

Meeting the revered Sifu, he too failed to spot that Jak was a woman. He explained that someone had stolen an Immaculate Text in the night, despite its utter lack of monetary value. Ibrahim, sensing the political power & influence (and being a better player of the Court than the anti-Establishment Brand) promised to do all he could to find the stolen tract on Hesiahs early wanderings in the South. Jak determined it was a particularly old scroll, perhaps dating back to the early days of the Realm. Ibrahim actually found a Clue- someone had come into the Immaculates library through a window and a small scale had been dropped there.

Then they went monster hunting.

Rounding up the men, the new Watch Captain bravely marched them into a tavern to get up their dutch courage. One narrowly made Temperance roll later, he managed to put down the wine skin in time and inspire them into an ugly mob of vigilantes determined to “Get the monster good. Oh yesh! Lets be ‘aving him then!”

They easily found the second victim, torso ripped open, an unknown drayman killed near the tannerys of the Hot District. Nearby a sewer tube’s bent bars showed something immensely strong had passed this way.

Ibrahim & Jak and the 2 red shirts nervously made their way into the slurry filled, lye contaminated sewer, their torch flames quickly turning blue. Jak volunteered to scout ahead to the relief of Ibrahim.

Going ahead into the darkness, Jak sneaked along, hearing ahead a strange, rhythmic gurgling noise. Taking extreme precautions, he left behind his torch and climbed the tunnel wall till he could wedge himself between the opposing curves so he could sneak along the ceiling of the tunnel, spider man style!

Quickly he located below him a nightmarish, squamous, black oval shape of the demon half-mired in the muck and asleep. Gently he sprinkled a charge of fire dust onto the monster below, then leapt down and back, firing his firewand as he tumbled and back flipped!

The stream of Elemental Fire was true, striking the creature’s liquid black hide, igniting the firedust causing a terrible roar! Then the methane rich shit behind it exploded and Jak was thrown back by a tsunami of shit, making a soft but very sqeulchy landing!

Seeing this as his signal, Ibrahim the disgraced warrior races round the corner, thrusting his poleaxe into the throat of the disorientated beast! Then his left hand comes up, carrying the firewand of judgement! Putting the firewand to the great gash in its chest (from the poleaxe), Ibrahim triggers that terrible weapon, blasting through the demons vile, tentacled chest and incinerating its awful heart!

Covered in the worse leavings of the City, the successful Guardsmen make their way back to the sewer entrance where the cynical Gemites had been laying bets on how long it would take for them to die. Astounded the citizens of Gem beheld the conquering heroes, returned with the monsters head.

Slowly they begin to clap the Guardsmen, rising in volume and speed till the whole district hears of the new Captains great deed and the City Guard (perhaps for the first time ever) are carried on the grateful shoulders of the Hot District populace to the Granite Tower for a very necessary bath! Woo Hoo, first Case Closed! Somehow, 2 Heroic Mortals had taken on a 1st Circle Demon and won, without a scratch! So concludes the Curious Case of the Eviscerated Proletariat. 4 xp awared

Brand meanwhile has found that powerful magic too was present at Jade Eyes bedsit. She had been an addict of various kinds- he found opium, poppy leaves and a 1 third full sleeping draught. She too had been cremated with very burning to the rest of the bed. A circular shaft burned/cut through the wall also looked bleached & recent and opened up into the sunny sky above. There appeared to be connections to the Weyoun death, but each answer only threw up more questions.

Brand then decided to look into the Joaqim case. He found Petal, Joaqims lover serving in a bar. She recounted that Joaqim had disappeared from his bed 2 nights ago without explanation or taking his possessions. Then Joaqims wastrel friend, Yellow Dog had nicked the furniture.

Jak returned to duty, post-bath, to find a sarcastic Sergeant Majid looking to hobble his wings a bit. “Come on son” said Majid “As new boy, you get to feed the prisoner!”

Jak then took the proferred bowl down the stairs to the far cell beneath the Granite Tower. The temperature cooled, the shadows darkened as she mustered her courage to make it down the silent corridor to the prisoner in the shadows….

“Hello little jailer” came that sibilant whisper as the shadows drew back from the Lord of Silent Repose “and what is this you bring me? The dinner the other officer brought yesterday was so much more…. Succulent”

Jak could barely see the bones of the thief Brand and Majid had hurled here only 24 hours ago….

“Come closer, little …. Girl..” whispered the Abyssal.

“Er… no, you… you are wrong” trembled Jak
“I don’t think so. I can … smell… you, the real you.”

“I’m going now”

“You’ll be back, you will all come back to me… eventually” promised the deathknight.

Jak raced back down the long corridor, then mustered her courage to try to whistle a defiant tune at the door. Caught exiting, whistle on her lips, Sgt Majid said

”Enjoying it that much then recruit? Well you can take Him, His dinner every day then!”

Back on the streets, Ibrahim has sought out Brand (who was busy interrogating Yellow Dog). Ibrahim asks for Brands help and knowledge in bringing justice to the streets, promising to make Brand Captain again as soon as Ibrahim gets promoted out of the Guard. Brand agrees and between the two of them, they get Yellow Dog to spill that he had sold Joaqims stuff (including his dreamstone) to the fence Silver Coin.

Together the 2 cops call it a night, their furious disagreement at dawn reconciled by dusk. I thank the gawds as I cannot manage any more split party action…

See my Wiki site- http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?SJE

SJE

[Foyle]

Steve - Being completely crap at this sort of thing - where can I find a guide to the formatting codes for the wiki page so I don't screw up the page? Following his transformation from arabic hero whose outer cynicism hides a lust for justice to a particularly drunken combination of Proximo (http://www.dreamworksfansite.com/gladiator/presskitgallery/In_Wonder.jpg) and Zhang Fei (http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/chinese-mythology.php?deity=ZHANG-FEI) I have a couple of changes to his background story - mostly so I can use a picture of Mr Reed as the character.

I have also decided that the firewand / polearm attack shall henceforth be known as the 'Vigorous Invocation of the Wrath of the Dragons of the Eastern and Southern Poles', or more colloquially 'the SpitRoast' - trademarked by a good run up at the target then a leap onto a nearby surface, violently throwing Ibrahim through the air to thrust the polearm deep into the adversary's chest, twisting the shaft to crack open the wound and finally inserting the business end of the firewand into my opponent's black heart. Of course in a crowded melee I also try and ensure the blast of the firewand shoots out of the corpse and into as many of the other foes as possible.

And of course if there are any left standing I stand back, swirl my bloodied weapons (if necessary tearing apart the corpse they are stuck into) and shout 'HAH you sons of dogs and fae - you have only seen my 7th most powerful attack. Do you dare stand against me now?'

[SJE]

Hi Foyle,

I learnt everything from this page in under and hour- http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?QuickStartGuide

And whenever I saw something cool, I click 'Edit this Page' and see how the previous users set it, then borrow the formatting for my page. As long as you dont save, its a good way to learn by copying.

If you've got questions (for images etc) - ask here maybe-

http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?WikiQuestions

Have fun wiki-ing away. Now I need to figure out how to add 'Edge of Destruction' as a link in my sig without all the http:// stuff...

SJE

[SJE]

Exalted Session 3

Action gets going in this one.

Jak and Brand hear that there has been another Spontanous Human Combustion in the night- a struggling artist called Autumn Breeze in the Hot District. They quickly discover that she just vanished in the night with the same bleaching of her room as the other cases. She was also a dreamstone addict and Brand made a horrifying connection to the Missing Dreamer case. He concluded that Autumn Breeze was a Solar Anathema and alerted the Immaculate Temple to the possible presence of a Solar demon in Gem. They vowed to destroy it, if he could locate the fiend.

Jak meanwhile links the scale found at the temple on the Missing Immaculate Texts case to the Snake Cult of Ssseth (who promise long life, fertility and revenge upon our enemies to its adherents) . Adopting yet another identity, he ninjas up and secretly scales the Tower of Ssseth. Passing between its open stone fangs he then dropped a rope down into the Pit of Serpents, its floor crawling with intertwined asps, cobras, vipers and snakes.

Swinging across it on his rope he then passed through the tunnels by bracing his body between ceiling and wall and nervously passing staying a meter above the serpentine floor as it hissed and spat. At last he came to the Home of Sseth and spied the missing the scroll between the fangs of the huge idol of the Snake God.

Dashing for the idol, his somersaulting at last fails him and quick as an adder, he is bitten in the ankle. Even as his leg goes numb and the poison slows him, he reaches the scroll and seizes it. Only to stagger back as the lidded eyes of the ‘statue’ open and Ssseth Himself incarnates, biting forward at the blasphemer of his altar!

Jak then overcomes his poison filled leg, dashing back through snake filled tunnels as the awakening Ssseth follows him, hissing and slithering. Reaching the Pit of Serpents, Jak backflips 3 yards straight upwards to press himself above the entrance of the tunnel, hoping Ssseth will pass below and not spot him. But alas, his stealth is undone when the forked tongue of the Snake God flickers out, tasting the air for his scent.

Knowing the God would bite him in an instant, Jak martialed his courage and leaped forward onto the broad head of the giant Snake God, then using it as a stepping stone, leaped again to the dangling rope he had left! Using it to run up the wall of the Tower, he looked back to see the vengeful god still pursuing, its coils pressing it up the hollow Tower.

With a laugh, the still poisoned master thief threw her calling card (a small obsidian mouse figurine) down Ssseths open gullet and disappeared into the night to anonymously return the Immaculate scroll to the Temple.

Brands investigations have led him into piecing together the Missing Dreamer case with the rash of combustions. Joaqim the Dreamers dreamstone had been sold to Silver Coin who had been renting it out to Weyoun, Jade Eyes & Autumn Breeze. But minutes before Brand’s arrival, House Sahlak legbreakers had already reclaimed it. And Silver Coin had also rented it to Lord Trasti, who would surely suffer the same fate when next he slept, perchance to dream? What will Brand do as the sun sets once more over Gem, City on the Edge?

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

SJe, this rocks. Are you playing at the Green Man?

[SJE]

SJE, this rocks. Are you playing at the Green Man?

Indeed. We still need another player.....

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

Indeed. We still need another player.....

SJE
Hmm. The Mage game I currently play in may be coming to a stop on Wednesday, so I might have the spare time now...

What are the characters so far?

* Kung Fu Kojak
* Carter from the Sweeney
* Drunken ex-soldier
* Catwoman in disguise

:)

I'll have to have a think about what would fit with those.

[SJE]

Technically Carter from the Sweeney was a temporary PC, who has now been relegated to 'make the new recruits life miserable' NPC-hood.

Forensic sorceror maybe? Rich kid playing at cop? anything you like really.

SJE

[YerMum]

More the merrier that's what I say! We're a bit lacking in the Occulty department, and our social-fu is also quite weak, but I think what we're most in need of is more man, err woman, err woman-dressed-as-man power!

;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

There's part of my mind thinking that some sort of cosmic balance demands that I play a man disguised as a woman. I am already playing a Heortling ladyboy in a HeroQuest game, though, and I worry that I could make this my signature character style if I'm not careful... :)

I'll go away and have a think about occult-y/social fu types.

[YerMum]

There's part of my mind thinking that some sort of cosmic balance demands that I play a man disguised as a woman. I am already playing a Heortling ladyboy in a HeroQuest game, though, and I worry that I could make this my signature character style if I'm not careful... :)

I'll go away and have a think about occult-y/social fu types.

heh, don't feel like you have to go for the occulty type if you'd prefer to buckle your swash ;)

[SJE]

Women disguised as boys, men pretending to be women. This could have gone utterly Shakespearean........ (in the comic sense rather than his tragedies)

Now of course I need to work in the plot of he Merchant of Venice as some ghostly merchant demands the Watch enforce his contract for a pound of a Dragonblood's flesh while people fall improbably in love with someone they are related to but couldnt tell because a small domino mask utterly disguised their identities.....

:D

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

Okay, so I've been kicking a character concept around. How about Floating Summer Orchid?

Floating Summer Orchid is the scandalously young and wealthy trophy widow of Unnamed Old Rich Bloke. She's a bit of a shocking figure, as e-e-e-e-veryone knows she was a notorious actress/dancer and courtesan, a highly-skilled employee at one of the House of Salak's establishments for the discerning connoisseur. And you wouldn't believe the scandalous stories about how she ensnared her rich husband and how exactly he died... Not that any of this stops her being a fixture on the social scene. Everyone loves a hint of mystery and scandal.

So now you have this rich widow with more than a hint of scandal about her, who's quite capable of wrapping anyone she likes around her finger with her social-fu. And what does she do? She observes all the correct mourning protocols, she gives the dear departed a sumptuous funeral and she's the model of correct behaviour. Apart from this infuriating smile she occasionally gets that seems to say there's something going on behind that oh so respectable facade.

Then, a year and a day after her husband died, she joined the watch. What's more, she has enough money to have bought herself a really cushy posting, but instead she's gone in as a lowly constable. What in the hells is going on? Why? She has no need to do this; she's financially made for life. It's not even as if she's ever given the impression of being particularly compassionate or interested in social causes. Even if she was, she could do far more by just throwing money at things. Only she knows why, and she just smiles when asked...

But there's even more about Floating Summer Orchid that many people don't know. She's actually a boy. Some people know, and there are always wild rumours. It's just another of her little mysteries...

In personality, she's warm and always friendly, but there's a certain coldness behind it all if she doesn't get her way. She's surprisinly ruthless when she wants to be.

So what skills does Floating Summer Orchid bring to the watch? She's quite well-educated, so has a good smattering of lore, both occult and mundane. She's not exactly bright, but she's not stupid and she's pretty perceptive. She probably has a little kung fu, just enough to fend off a foolish mugger. But her main strengths are all social. She can wrap anyone around her little finger with, it seems, just the twitch of an eyebrow. It's not so much sexual, she just always seems to be able to talk people into being of some assistance. She has a few wealthy or influential men, and not a few women, in the palm of her hand, and she always seems to be able to find an acquaintance in the most unexpected places.



I think I've made the anti-Carter. Hmm. This is sort of like Emma Hamilton if she'd been a tranny, had more kung fu and joined the Bow Street Runners after Nelson snuffed it.

The thing I do want to come up with is a good melodramatic hook behind her joining the watch. Something a bit more compelling than boredom and "well, why not?" There must be some significance in the year and a day. I'll have to ponder further on this point.

[SJE]

Session 4

Oy vey, such excitement today.

First, 2 new characters join the Watch, Floating Summer Orchid (see above) the new Watch Thaumaturge who is re-opening the Forbidden Magics department of the Gem City Watch. However, Forbidden Magics has not had much luck over the years. Watch Astrologers go mad, claiming Gem will be destroyed seven-fold before jumping off high buildings. Demonologists keep vanishing. And the last Exorcist was eaten by a Hungry Ghost 5 years ago. Now at last a new thaumaturge is joining the Watch and re-opening the department and the secrets it has held undisturbed for the last 5 years….

Iliana (Cathak) is a mortal patrician of the Dynastic Cathak family. She has disappointed her family by not Exalting and has fled their coastal Satrapy to forge her own destiny. Gem Watch was recruiting and she is good with a blade, surgeons knife and magnifying glass, so she too joined as an anonymous citizen. I’m sure the fireworks might start when she runs into resident Dragonbloods Cathak Anaria and Cathak Aron.

The Captain rounds up Jaq the Lad and introduces Orchid and Iliana to the concept of patrolling the mean streets of Gem. They head down to the diaspora of the Hot District and find a Carnivale being erected on the outskirts. But, <gasp> there is a terrible accident and a great cage containing a Lion of golden skin (literally), acidic drool and burning blood bursts out the cage! (Lore experts immediately ID it as a carrion eating Abacasteri, a creature of the Wyld).

Fun and hi-jinks follow. Jaq leaps on it to ride the lions back, the Captain tries to lasso it. Then the Captain, tired of its fearsome roars made a great bellow of his own, temporarily cowing the creature! Iliana and Orchid sensibly tried to cut the ropes of the tent it hid in to capture it, but sense and caution have no place in Exalted as the Lion once more leapt for freedom and a mighty melee took place with tent pegs as weapons, falling beams, firewand bursts, hurled amphoras of water as the Abacasteri rent and tore at the desperately dodging Watchmen and women! Jaq even followed the Captains suicidal order to leap upon its back again and strangle it to death with the lasso.

In the meantime, Brand arrived, and both he and Orchid noticed a small band of clowns heading for the city gates as Gems Citizenry kept back a safe distance and placed bets on the eventual victor. And Clowns shouldn’t be in the City as the Despot takes a very dim view of them….

The battle was at last won with the combined martial efforts of Iliana, Jaq and the Captain incapacitating the golden beast and returning it to its (suspiciously sabotaged) cage. Brand was desperately wounded as a foot long claw swiped through his buff jacket and fell unconscious.

Their victory won, the Captain extorted a 60 jade piece ‘fine’ from the Ringmaster, the effusive Saladin al’Sunni and tickets to tonights opening show! He then split the bribe with the rest of the Watch and went drinking.

In his unconscious state, Brand recalled the Night Before the Morning After.

------------------------------------------------------------

He had been in pursuit of the mysterious Golden Dreamstone whose carried dream seemed to carry fiery annihilation for Weyoun the Procurer and Jade Eyes the Courtesan and was complicit in the disappearance of Joaqim the Dreamer and Autumn Breeze. He had tracked it back to a fence who had rented the dream to Lord Trasti. Mother Sahlaks legbreakers had then seized the Dreamstone from Silver coin, minutes before Brands arrival.

So as dusk set on Gem (the night before) he had raced after the two legbreakers, confronting them only yards from the Pavilion of Delights (where Mother Sahlak waited) brutally beating the and stabbing the goons Shaft-style, our hardened ‘tec finally laid hands on the Dreamstone which had caused so much death in the past 3 days. Unusually for a Dreamstone it glowed with a powerful inner golden light.

Desperately racing up the mountain to the Peaks where the Trasti villa lay, the desperate Brand almost threw up a lung or two with the exertion. At last attaining the summit he set to hammering upon the compound gates, waking the slaves and causing a commotion. Seeing the desperate look in his eyes and fearing their gleam and his dire warnings on their masters fate, the slaves took Brand into Lord Trasti’s room where he lay in unwakeable sleep, already dreaming.

Desperate, Brand puts the Dreamstone to Trastis forehead and then brings his own forehead to touch it too! Instantly his perceptions are transported and he stands facing a great white light, filling the horizon. Ahead, a black silhouette of a figure cowers, arms over his eyes. Martialling his bravery, Brand advances to save Lord Trasti from the burning light.

(and I pride myself that I must have got the timbre of my voice right because the whole table seemed to jump when I boomed)

”WHO APPROACHES THE UNCONQUERED SUN!!!”

Brand- “Eeeeep!”

Brand desperately tries to save Trasti, urging him to return to the Waking World.

“IS HE A RIGHTEOUS MAN” demanded the Unconquered Sun.

“Er…no.” Said Brand of Lord Trasti (the head of the bankers, moneylenders and gambling dens in Gem)

“ARE YOU A RIGHTEOUS MAN?!” demanded the Sun.

“Err…. Er… No. But I don’t want anyone else to die”

“THEN WILL YOU GIVE UP YOUR LIFE TO SAVE HIS?!”

Brand looked at Trasti, against the terrible Solar glare and shouted “Run”, pushing him away from the Sun’s light.

Then a great Solar flare seemed to evelope Burning Brand, racing through his nerves and body, melting his insides, scorching him into utter blackness.

….


,,,,

Breathe. Light. Great light spots across his vision. Brand slowly wakes to a four-post bed, rich tapestries, a gentle breeze and soothing ointment being applied to his brow. As concubines feed him peeled grapes, he wonders if he has died and gone to Paradise?

No, only Lord Trasti’s home. The Golden Dreamstone vanished, the Lord safe and well, and very, very grateful. All is well for Brand, better than its ever been before.

Up until he sees his reflection in the mirror and does a double take when he spots the golden half disk on his forehead before it fades once more!

He’s only been Exalted.

“Arse!”- Brand.

(note- since it’s a mixed group, I’m slowing down the power-up process. Brand gets his shiny new Exalted body, the extra Attribute & Agility points, but remains at Essence 1 and doesn’t get Charms yet. And he’s still to receive the operators manual on his anima….)


----------------------------------------------------------------

Then Brand wakes up from yet more grievous wounds, as the flashback from yesterday ends and he’s back in the Morning After the Night Before, where he had gone down to join the Watch in a daze and almost been cut in two by a Abacasteri’s claw swipe. Iliana has been tending to his wounds and begins to suspect (having treated DB’s) that his wound don’t seem to bleeding as much as they should. Then she also finds out that Jak the Lad, might not be such a lad after all…..

Meanwhile, a suspicious Floating Summer Orchid is poking around the Carnivale with Geomancy, finding some strange Essence flows to some of the animal tents and the Ringmasters caravan. But Saladin spots her and invites her into his silken pavilion (strangely larger on the inside than out) with its incredible beauty, incredible wine, delicious perfume and more. Tempted though she is by these unearthly delights, she some how succeed in both her Temperance rolls and Resistance to the Faerie Wine and makes her way out of the tent back into the cold, cruel, dusty, horrible world outside to warn the Watch that the Fae are in town.

Iliana meanwhile has been wandering about, getting to know the town. She helps a little girl called Lucita get her rag doll back, but there is something about Lucitas blue-grey skin and her tale of a bad man who sent her away from the Lake in the South that is ringing some bells. If only she could remember it.

She does however, overhear in the circus the whispered order that “the Watchwoman has resisted our charms. She must not warn the others. Tell those in the city….”

Iliana races after Orchid (just boarding an expensive slave-carried litter to ascend the mountain) even as Jaq discovers s/he has been cursed and bad luck is his second name. The Captain and Brand meet up, back on their feet after their wounds are partially mended and they head back to the Watch house.

However, as fortune, or misfortune would have it, they instead find themselves lead into a desolate alley, with strange small, misshapen figures with childish giggles peering at them from the shadows, surrounding them. Dressed in wigs and bright red noses against white make-up and smiles that reach their ears, full of sharp teeth and cradling scalpels and sharp, bright chakrams, the Gem City Watch have found the hobgoblin Clowns at last…..

[SJE]

We also had a quick round of Clowning about/Hobgoblin death-

Orchid screamed like the girl she technically wasnt and emoted terror to the nth degree- one of the Clowns lunged in, eager to eat up her fear and keep her fearful till it was all out of here. The face full of cold iron filings and banishment he got instead was quite the surprise.

The drunken Captain shouted "Who's laughing now!" as he blew away 3 of the hobgoblins with a blast from his firewand. He'd heard how good the Fae wine was and now had a reason to live through this!

Jaq, Iliana and Brand all went melee and desperately stabbed at the clows, hewing limbs and heads, and discovering their short dwarflike bodies had feet the same shape as their ridiculous clown shoes....

But by the end of the round, they were still surrounded, still outnumbered by the grinning, white-faced, big nosed killers, as the sun set once more on Gem.

Far down the slopes, they can just hear the welcoming music as the poor and curious, destitute and desperate, rich and decadent, all the peoples of Gem stream into the Circus of Unearthly Delight.....

SJE

(BTW, for my players, feel free to add anything I missed here or to the wiki. I know I havent done you have as much justice as I should on the comedy stakes with all the cross-dressing jokes, drunken Captain hilarity and all)

[SJE]

Session 5 Log

The action began with the Clowns taking their turn. Despite their grievous losses, they moved forward with smiling malice, 12 of the evil buggers left- Bozo, Smiley, Whitey, Duffer, Dooley, Tooley, Plonk, Tonk, Wheezy, Spangles, Skippy and Nic Nac!

As Brand raced into the gap left by the Captains firewand blast, Smiley and Whitey tip out their ridiculously large cuff sleeves and marbles and tacks litter the street causing Brand to teeter and almost trip!
Duffer gets Jaq right in the face with a custard pie. Even as therest of the table begins to laugh, Jaq starts screaming as the itching, burning powder in the custard starts eating into his eyes!
Dooley and Tooley try to double-team Alana while Spangles kneels behind her legs in best childrens trip fashion, but fortunately the eagle-eyed Alana managed to duck this highline trip. Smiley faced chakrams and sharp razor blades fly as the party battles for its life.
Brand (newly Exalted) quickly learns that his name is not a killing word as he keeps attacking, then striking a pose before a less than injured Smiley and Whitey. Bozo goes down when he botches and his huge waist underpants abruptly drop and trip him right onto Alanas knife.
Fortunately help is at hand. New recruit Ravitsu Cail and his Spear o’ Doom charge into battle to help the Watch. A few of the older Watchmen follow, but in a charge designed to arrive only when the trouble leaves. They didn’t get to be old Watchmen by charging into fights after all!
Floating Summer Orchid has a moment of sheer brilliance as she dodges in such a graceful and sweeping way that she circles around Plonk and Tonk while covertly laying a trail of cold iron filings. Then the 2 fae discover themselves trapped in a warding circle which even their voices cannot cross, turning the clowns into comedy mimes! Hilarity ensues.
Alana gets into a vicious knife fight with Nic Nac (the ‘bad’ clown), Jaq jumps around ineffectually and Orchid tries to keep from spilling her wine glass throughout. Clowns die in a hail of puns, raspberry-sound demises and tomfoolery. Overall, the combat is furious but the battle won through the martial prowess of Ravitsu and the Captain. Brand keeps posing for camera.

After this the Captain takes Jaq drinking “to make a man of him” and orders Brand to look after the 3 new recruits and sort out the circus.

Brand, Ravitsu, Orchid and Alana spot the masses heading into the gaudy, glitzy, enticing Carnivale below and realise this is a very bad thing if the rest of the circus are Fae. Half of Gems populace could be soul-Ravaged by morning!

Stopping off at a blacksmiths they load up on cold iron and we have a short montage of Orchid and Brand designing and crafting (some quick xp expenditure on a certains Twilights Caste abilities actually gave the party 2 dots of Craft!) ‘iron bombs’- a volatile mix of wood shavings, firedust and cold iron filings which explode like a grenade, shrapnelling Fae!

They head for the circus, and despite the many delights, wonders and terrors, somehow manage to resist the blandishments of the Circus of Unearthly delights. That and cold iron horseshoes hidden next to the skin work wonderfully. Orchid gets into an Evil Eye contest with a Fae fortune telling Crone and wards her back into next week. They decline to investigate the screams from the lion tent, or have a ride on the Merry Go Round (where the wooden horses might have turned into living beasts, charging across the Wyld, Ride of the Rohrrim style) or the Big Wheel (where you get off upside down) or even the Big Top with the acrobats, Trapeze and Furnace Rhino teetering round the ring, all 4 hooves on a small metal ball……

Ah well. Following the earlier lead that the Ringmasters wagon was a site of powerful geomantic effects, and the seeming centre to the Wyldzone springing up in Gem’s Hot District, they bravely head in.

At first it was a wooden gypsy wagon. Inside is larger than the outside and reality shifts to show room in Chinese Pavilion style with mats, silks, paper screens etc. An oriental gentleman with Fu Manchu moustache greets them and welcomes them in. He shares a surprising resemblance to the Ringmaster, the Arabian looking Saladin al’ Sunni. At the far end of the room is a large metal cage containing some sort of beast.

There is much fun as Brand does the old cop routine on the Fae. The fae tells them that they are not taking anything that would be missed- a moments happiness or a lifetime of misery. He plys them with Faerie Wine and small scalloped chocolate treats (“With these Fey-rerro Roche, you are really spoiling us” *groan*). Brand fails to decline and happily gets drunk on the most intoxicating and fascinating alcohol he’s ever drunk. Orchid still has her glass from last time 

The others spot that the beast in the cage is changing form. A lion. A crocodile. A swan. A flea. And each change causes a reality distortion to ripple out from it. They conclude that this is the source of the mobile Wyld zone. Alana with her Dynastic Primary school education recalls Anathaema 101 and spots the Tell of a Lunar Demon. Orchid spots that this creature is super-saturated with Wyld energy and is now releasing it uncontrollably. She recalls a forbidden tome, not normally read by mortals whose afternoons perusal came at dear and shameful cost which spoke of Chimera- those Lunars who have wandered beyond the laws of Creation and reason into the Deep Wyld and lost control of their protean essence. Somehow the Fair Folk have trapped it in a cage of cold iron and brought it with them, acting as a mobile Wyld zone generator and fuelling their impossible glamours.

Brand at this point has finally failed his Resistance rolls and is snoring. Ravitsu guards the door. Alana sneakily prepares an Iron bomb charge next to the cage as arch-socialite Floating Summer Orchid bends all her wiles to distract the Ringmaster. But alas, his tongue is even more silvered and she ends up inadvertently mentioning the bombs. His reply “There is no bomb” and as the Undetectable Lie takes hold in this place of variable reality, Alana finds that her cold iron filings now lack any sort of bomb quality whatsoever!

Throwing the iron filings into the cage provokes a great roar from the beast as it eats like acid through its morphic flesh. The whole room trembles and becomes a Northern yurt, Fu Manchu replaced with a Nordic, blonde Viking Ringmaster, pulling a huge axe from his bearskin cloak, Highlander style!

Brand (suddenly awake) and Alana rush the Ringmaster, whose incredible speed almost decapitates Brand and leaves him reeling. Thrusting cold iron in all its forms at him (horse shoes, bars, farmers hoes) they burn and dissolve his very flesh. At last Ravitsu strikes a killing blow with the iron tip of a farmers hoe and the Ringmaster is no more. By now Brand has been making so many ‘instinctive deflects’ that his anima shows itself for the first time, causing Alana to reel back in fear.

Somehow the party keep going and decide to kill the chimera while it is still trapped in the cage. Ravitsu takes up his mighty Hoe of Doom +2 and strikes dead centre into the raging, transmuting ball of silvery flesh and Wyld. It’s a killer blow, and he staggers back as silver light crawls up the hoe shaft, flooding into him, Exalting him as a Lunar!

Now there is much confabulation. The glowing Exalts hide in the now suddenly smaller and mundane wagon as the two remaining mortals go confer outside. Should they report this to the Immaculates? Or, looking at Brand marvelling at how even his ass glows with golden light, are they perhaps not the First Age Demons the Immaculates paint them to be?

Outside the circus is no magical fairyland of light and sound and excitement. It’s a drab, dreary collection of small tents and cages and a rusting merry-go-round, the remaining carnies soul-eaten zombies. In the distance screams sound as the magical beasts head for the open desert… .trouble for another day as the wounded heroes of the hour head back to Gem for healing and perhaps a resolution…

So ends the Threat of the Carnivale of Unearthly Delights

[SJE]

Exalted Session Log 6

Or the one where it all goes horribly, horribly Pete Tong.

At the end of last session, Floating Summer Orchid and Alana had become aware that two of their fellow Watchmen (Burning Brand & Ravitsu Cail) were Solar and Lunar Anathema respectively. This is a problem for the ex-Dynast (un-Exalted variety) Alana Cathak who was taught since Realm Primary School of the dangers of the Anathema.

So Brand heads to his new rich buddy’s house (Lord Trasti) where the best physicians, Eastern painkillers and his instinctive use of Body Mending Meditation gets him from Crippled to lightly injured overnight.

Next mid-day the entire Watch assemblies for the first time. The captain meets and greets Ravitsu Cail, Jaq releases Weyoun the Procurers slaves to Khalid the Slaver and then takes Ravitsu to go feed the Prisoner Below.

Orchid and Alana re-open the 4th & 5th floors of the Granite Tower- the long abandoned Dept of Forbidden Magics. See Gem used to have Thaumaturges and occultists on the Watch to deal with magical crimes. But a few years back they started to have a real bad time. Astrologers started screaming that Gem was doomed and jumped from high buildings. A Demon summoner was never seen again after an unlucky Calibration. And the last Exorcist was eaten by a Hungry Ghost 5 years ago. Forbidden Magics is part covenant, part Hogswarts, part derelict ruin. Bookshelves warped with weight hold decaying tomes, mice have set up nests in desk drawers, the summoning circle is cracked and broken, and decay and mildew have destroyed much.

But Alana does find 2 items of interest- a Thrice locked metal box of unusual weight containing something magical (Puzzle of the Thrice Locked Box) and a ciphered notebook of the last of the Dept. of Forbidden Magics thaumaturges, Ali al’Mazarin. He writes how he was investigating a strange pattern of hauntings, Hungry Ghost and zombie attacks in the underways of Gem. He though they heart of the problem lay deeper, in furthest lava tubes and he was going to investigate. ( The Shadow Under Gem )

Ravitsu and Jaq go down to the bottom cell to feed the Lord of Silent Repose. It’s a cold, quiet, spooky journey down that corridor of the Damned to the end cell, Jaqs hands and tray shaking all the way. Lord Silent seems interested to sniff out Ravitsu (literally) before he asked Lord Silent why he was here. Silent replies that it had to do with politics and an unfaithful servant- the Nemessary Yigor, a venal creature who enjoys the carnal and rough pleasures of life. This Nemessary is loose in Gem….
(The Hunt for the Venal Nemessary)

Brand is keeping low- he finds a rough and rubbish altar to the Unconquered Sun in an alley off the Street of Little Gods. He gets the feeling he is being watched as he leaves an altar. Captain al’Amarah visits Master Ledaal Tanaka at the Monastery of the 5 Harmonius Dragons to discuss the mustering Wyld Hunt. He is told that Brand sounded the alert on the Anathema and the monks are eager to have a target. Apparently word has been sent to the Blessed Isle, but until then, the Hunt will compose of Ledaal Tanaka, Cathak Aron and Cathak Anaria, the 3 resident DB’s in Gem.

In other news, Alana realises the blue-grey skinned orphan she helped yesterday might be a Demon-blood. Captain demands the kids death. Brand finds out that House Sahlak has put a bounty on his head with the Obsidian Thieves Guild.

Discussion & Argument

Ravitsu and Brand are fairly quiet as they want to avoid all sorts of Wyld Hunt trouble. Alana however is insisting to Orchid that they report the Anathema before their evil consumes Gem. Orchid wants to keep quiet for the time being. They compromise on informing the Captain of their suspicions. The Captain takes it badly- a bellow of shock that shakes the entire Granite Tower and can be heard across Gem!

He demands proof (“Does the sun shine come out of their arses then?!”) but the narcs only have testimony. They decide on a dangerous plan whereby Ravitsu and Brand will be sent after the Nemessary- if they are Exalted, a foe this dark might cause them to reveal their animas.

Meanwhile Jaq still labours under Ssseths Curse. Everything keeps gong wrong for him. (even listening at doors and disguising himself). Bored, he opens 2 of the locks on the Thrice Locked Box, but the 3rd lock defeats him, of infinite craftsmanship and complexity, he needs far finer tools to open it.

Jaq who is entirely outside the raging arguments, staredowns and verbal wars of Orchid, Alana and the Captain plays hooky and goes to stop the Curse. His approach to Ssseths Temple is aborted as the guards pet snakes rear, hiss and bite at him, his own reflexes barely saving him from the poisonous bite of a cobra. So with a whispered “You want to do it the hard way?” He changes disguise to go appear to the Immaculates as Bright Coin, the woman who returned the missing Immaculate Text to them 2 days ago. Ledaal Tanaka is somewhat suspicious (he cant quite spot Jaqs disguise but something is nagging him) but agrees to intervene with Ssseth.
Importantly he goes off to solve this afterward, leaving the Temple in the care of the hot-headed Cathak Anaria.

Captain Ibrahim still cant quite believe the Anathema story, but cant risk it if he’s wrong. He goes to get insurance- a bevy of bruisers from his cousin as a personal posse, and then visits the Palace to try to get Cathak Aron, the ‘military advisor’ from the Realm, womaniser, drunk and bon vivant and former acquaintance of Ibrahims.
Unfortunately the supercilious Captain Ymes of the elite Palace Guard is on the gate and he refuses Ibrahim entry, denouncing his tales of Anathema as desperate lies to regain the attention of the Despot- the product of a drunken mind.

So the Captain heads to the Temple, where is horrified to learn that Ledaal Tanaka has already left (to deal with Ssseth), so the intemperate Cathak Anaria invites herself along with dreams of glory for defeating an Anathema single-handedly! Anaria tries to follow the temperate teachings of Hesiash, but she is still a little too rash, and a little too eager for battle. But where Anathema are involved, she promises to smite them with fiery righteous fury!

Rest of the group has meanwhile found that 3 patrons of the unlicensed Brothels down in the Hot District have been found dead recently. Achmed (fresh from a Guild caravan, silver to spend), Wali (hit paydirt in the mines) and Djion (good cobblers business) were killed 2 weeks ago, 8 days ago and 2 days ago respectively. They all had been spending a lot of money down at the Hungry Yeddim cathouse/bar.

Figuring that Yigor has been killing these people, possessing them then abandoning their bodies when they run out of cash. Closer investigation by old hands Brand and co revealed nothing. New guy Ravitsu on the other hand forms an instant rapport with the bouncers and learns that all 3 have been visiting the harlot Fragrant Blossom. Interviewing her confirms their theory (all 3 have suffered personality changes recently, becoming more ‘aggressive’ and mumbling Western ditties to themselves in post-coital languor. And now a new john is evincing the same behaviour- Haran, a swarthy Southerner with a green turban and bad moustache.

Ealing comedy then ensues as the stakeout of the Hungry Yeddim takes place. Ravistsu, Orchid and Brand are inside at the bar, the Captain is pretending to be a drunk outside (people keep giving him change & I rule he gets 3 auto-success on the drunk thing) and Jaq is up on a roof as look out. Cathak Anaria (over her protests- she is here for Anathema!) and the Captain’s bully boys are at a nearby bar as back-up.

Alana is still quite upset that no one will report the Anathema straight away, so she storms off after a terrible row with the Captain, utterly insubordinate. She gradually makes her way back to the Hungry Yeddim. However there is a terrible cart crash and she finds herself in the middle of disaster as a cart with barrels of firedust topples, spilling its cargo everywhere…..

Time passes on the stake out..

10 minutes.

20.

30.

45 minutes, still no sight of Haran or a green turban.

So, Jaq then spots the saffron-robed form of Anaria storming up the street to find the Captain. She is about to harangue him, when Jaq also spots a green turban about to turn a corner and head down the road to the Yeddim. He gives the signal by throwing a rock at the Captain!

The Captain instantly realises what is going on and whips his ‘drunk cloak’ over Anarias orange Immaculate robes and pretends to kiss her. He feels her smouldering with deadly anger at this. (She is a Fire Aspect after all)

Haran walks by and heads in, shortly to be bumped out the way by the Captain who realises he needs to be inside instead! Everyone spots the Haran and follow him as he goes up the stairs. Jaq races off to get the bruiser posse for the Captain and Anaria are still outside.

Calling out “Haran” the Nemessary doesn’t twig that’s his name. Brand races up the stairs to kick him in the back, breaking the banister! Ravitsu, more competently, puts him into a hold. Floating Summer Orchid tries to pin an Exorcists prayer strip to Yigor/Harans forehead (it’ll bind spirit to body, otherwise the Nemessary just jumps to a new body, but somehow Yigor wrenches his head to the side, dodging it. And then a second time, breaking the neck in desperation!
The Captain runs up the stairs and makes the mistake of meeting Yigors gaze. A brief struggle for Possession of the Captains body later and Yigor realises the Captain’s brain is so damaged from alcohol as to be useless to the undead spirit!

DENOUMENT

On Orchids third time, prayer strip is finally stuck to Nemessary and they can relax. Except then Anaria bursts in, heat radiating from her as she demands the Captain stop wasting her time and point out the Anathema.

The Captain announces he doesn’t know who it is, but says dramatically “SOMEONE IN THIS ROOM IS A SOLAR DEMON!”

Anaria lines up the Watch-members (after incinerating Yigor, body and soul with Fire Dragon Breath!) and marches down the line, gazing into each ones eyes and seeing who sweats. Our exalts start channelling Valour to bluff her out and play innocent.

The Captains fine, looking on in innocent gullibility.

Anaria barely looks at Brand as he is cool as a cucumber.

She pauses at Floating Summer Orchid, searching her features for…. something.

Ravitsu passes with flying colours.

Then looking at fresh-faced Jaq, her face pales.

“These TWO!” shouts Anaria pointing at…..
…
…

…
…
….Jaq and Orchid.

Cue Eastender style drum roll and ending credit music as we pause on a cliff hanger ending!

[Cultist of Sooty]

Alana however is insisting to Orchid that they report the Anathema before their evil consumes Gem. Orchid wants to keep quiet for the time being. They compromise on informing the Captain of their suspicions. The Captain takes it badly- a bellow of shock that shakes the entire Granite Tower and can be heard across Gem!

He demands proof (“Does the sun shine come out of their arses then?!”) but the narcs only have testimony.
It's worth pointing out that we didn't have any proof for the Captain because the time we were supposed to be gathering evidence/tracking down the Anathema was spent arguing with each other over what to do. Oh, and having a very pleasant lunch that Orchid had her household staff bring round to the watchhouse.

The disagreement basically came down to:

Alana - "They're horribly dangerous terrible demons and will almost certainly destroy us all in short order. If you think we can 'use' them, you're crazy, a heretic or both."

Orchid - "At least give me a chance to get a good look at them first. If you have any idea of the things I've had to do just to get fragments of lore about the Anathema... Besides, they could be useful."

The very pleasant lunch was awfully civilised but there were lots of frosty silences. :)

If we'd been able to agree on a course of action, we might have had time to cook up some 'evidence', though. Quite who we'd have fingered with it would have depended on who agreed with whom. Orchid wouldn't be averse to fitting someone up as an Anathema if we could figure out a way to do it.

We did at least manage to put a good social face on it and not argue too much in front of the Captain. Gods know how he'd have reacted if we'd twigged that we've got yet another Anathema in the cells...

[SJE]

We did at least manage to put a good social face on it and not argue too much in front of the Captain. Gods know how he'd have reacted if we'd twigged that we've got yet another Anathema in the cells...

Thats an idea- you can always put Anaria onto the Abyssal :-)

SJE

[YerMum]

Thats an idea- you can always put Anaria onto the Abyssal :-)

SJE

well that's one way of dealing with 1/3rd of the wyld hunt :D

[Cultist of Sooty]

Thats an idea- you can always put Anaria onto the Abyssal :-)
If only I knew about him, I would.

I'm actually caught in an amusing catch-22. Either I dob in Brand and Ravitsu to the Immaculates, which I don't want to do*, or Alana and Orchid look rather incompetent to the Captain ("I thought you said they were both Anathema!"). Which will make it fun if we reach the point of trying to persuade him that the mysterious prisoner is an Anathema while he still thinks we were wrong about the other two. :)


* Well, not unless they do turn out to go beyond acceptable limits on baby-eating and the like.

[YerMum]

* Well, not unless they do turn out to go beyond acceptable limits on baby-eating and the like.

I think we might have to hammer out the official Watch Policy on baby eating soon ;)

Don't worry too much, I'm going to throw down with: "According to the Gem Mandate of Law, Order and Maintenance of the Despot's Rule strictly speaking merely being an Anathema is not actually illegal. As the Immaculate Order has so graciously agreed to abide by the Laws of Gem then unless you have proof that either of these two people have committed a crime against your temple then I'm afraid that I'll have to ask you to leave the members of the Watch to do their duty. As the officer who brought the possibility of anathema presence in the city to Master Tanaka surely it would be best if I was allowed to continue my investigation until I have proof of wrongdoing?


etc etc etc ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

I think we might have to hammer out the official Watch Policy on baby eating soon ;)
I think that, in general, we'd be against it ("Tough on baby-eating, tough on the causes of baby-eating"). I like to think that extenuating circumstances could be taken into account. Especially those where it's a Solar Exalt doing the potential baby eating and I'm scared of it. :)

[YerMum]

I think that, in general, we'd be against it ("Tough on baby-eating, tough on the causes of baby-eating"). I like to think that extenuating circumstances could be taken into account. Especially those where it's a Solar Exalt doing the potential baby eating and I'm scared of it. :)

scared of the baby or scared of the solar?

:)

[Cultist of Sooty]

scared of the baby or scared of the solar?
It might be a solar baby...

[Foyle]

I think we might have to hammer out the official Watch Policy on baby eating soon ;)

etc etc etc ;)

As Watch Captain I can confirm that baby-eating is contrary to the civil laws of Gem unless said eating
a) is carried out in furtherance of a religous duty by an officiated minister registered with the Department of Spiritual Affairs, OR
b) said babies are provided through one of Gem's licensed food purveyors - al-Tasco's or Fragrant Salisbury Blossom as part of their commitment to provide low cost nutritious foodstuffs to the hard working Gem citizen.

As Anathema fail under clause A) and such baby-eating as has been proposed would seem to consitute free lance food sourcing, I'm afraid in this case the Watch is very much against it.

Of course given that every member of the Watch bar myseld hides a secret that is at the least odd, and at worse criminal, baby eating is the least of my worries.

More worryingly I now have to decide what to do about Jaq and Orchid - especially as their duplicity seems so innocent. Everyone likes a cross-dressing catamite now and then, but its hardly the sort of thing serious official of the Watch should be carrying out, especially as there is no obstacle to women or men being in the Watch. There must therefore be a greater reason for the deception.

The logical though is of course that Orchid and Jaq are anathema - a suspicion I'm sure will be reinforced when I see Alana 's reaction to the dragon-blooded. I think I need to start shouting ' I'LL HAVE YOUR BADGE FOR THIS!' and '[insert name], your father/mother/small god/midichlorian was a good Watch officer. What would they think if they saw you now?'

Of course being the Captain, all this would require some kind of perception roll/logical thought, so perhaps I'll just box their ears, put them prisoner feeding and swere patrol duty for a month and leave it at that - while carousing with my good and trusted subordinates Rav and Brand.

[SJE]

Regarding dark secrets, think that Jaq and Orchid may well have some more in store after the whole cross-dressing thing comes out.

Now all we need to do is give the Captain some - not that the barstard in the Palace Guard is going to let you forget.... ;)


Steve

[Cultist of Sooty]

Of course being the Captain, all this would require some kind of perception roll/logical thought, so perhaps I'll just box their ears, put them prisoner feeding and swere patrol duty for a month and leave it at that - while carousing with my good and trusted subordinates Rav and Brand.
Good job we didn't do anything so silly as to (with quite obvious malice and falsehood) denounce your trusted associates as Anathema, then, or we might really have upset you... ;)

[YerMum]

Regarding dark secrets, think that Jaq and Orchid may well have some more in store after the whole cross-dressing thing comes out.

Now all we need to do is give the Captain some - not that the barstard in the Palace Guard is going to let you forget.... ;)


Steve

The captain really really needs to exalt soon - probably during a ridiculous drinking binge...

Good job we didn't do anything so silly as to (with quite obvious malice and falsehood) denounce your trusted associates as Anathema, then, or we might really have upset you...

such lies and slander, as if Brand is an anathema, would he be leading the investigation into their presence in the city if he was?!

[Cultist of Sooty]

such lies and slander, as if Brand is an anathema, would he be leading the investigation into their presence in the city if he was?!
Ha! Just like an Anathema to try to divert attention by investigating and accusing someone else... of... being the... Anathema... Erm, I'll get me coat.

[SJE]

such lies and slander, as if Brand is an anathema, would he be leading the investigation into their presence in the city if he was?!


Only if he were a very dumb or particularly unlucky Anathaema who had accidentally demanded the mustering of the Hunt on himself.

Well played BTW!

SJE

[YerMum]

Only if he were a very dumb or particularly unlucky Anathaema who had accidentally demanded the mustering of the Hunt on himself.

Well played BTW!

SJE

heh I knew it was a bad idea, but it's what brand would do :D

hopefully when the hunt does arrive we'll be able to point them in the direction of the Prisoner and never have to worry about them again ;)

[YerMum]

Ha! Just like an Anathema to try to divert attention by investigating and accusing someone else... of... being the... Anathema... Erm, I'll get me coat.

especially when all the evidence presented relies of enigmatic thaumaturgy which surely an anathema would be able to twist to throw the righteous off their trail ;)

[SJE]

heh I knew it was a bad idea, but it's what brand would do :D

hopefully when the hunt does arrive we'll be able to point them in the direction of the Prisoner and never have to worry about them again ;)

'Course, you do realise, that as a duly processed prisoner of the Despot, the Watch is responsible for the Prisoners safety. You may even have signed a chit accepting custody of him back when you were Captain.

Technically the Watch might have to defend the Prisoner from the Hunt with your lives....

SJE

[YerMum]

'Course, you do realise, that as a duly processed prisoner of the Despot, the Watch is responsible for the Prisoners safety. You may even have signed a chit accepting custody of him back when you were Captain.

Technically the Watch might have to defend the Prisoner from the Hunt with your lives....

SJE

I'm pretty sure that if the hunt were to attempt to do in the Prisoner brand would pitch in with his own, *ahem*, brand of essence fueled carnage.
Anything that stops the wyld hunt from ending his breathing privileges is a good thing(tm) ;)

[Foyle]

'Course, you do realise, that as a duly processed prisoner of the Despot, the Watch is responsible for the Prisoners safety. You may even have signed a chit accepting custody of him back when you were Captain.

Technically the Watch might have to defend the Prisoner from the Hunt with your lives....

SJE

Hmm, giving into his hedonist nature and being absent when they come calling probably won't get the Capt exalted - but its exactly that kind of behaviour that got him where he is today . . .

Oh wait a minute

[Foyle]

I'm pretty sure that if the hunt were to attempt to do in the Prisoner brand would pitch in with his own, *ahem*, brand of essence fueled carnage.
Anything that stops the wyld hunt from ending his breathing privileges is a good thing(tm) ;)

The Abyssal has breathing privileges? Clearly the Capt isn't being bribed enough

[YerMum]

The Abyssal has breathing privileges? Clearly the Capt isn't being bribed enough
I'm not sure that the prisoner has them, but brand would like to keep his own if that's ok ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

especially when all the evidence presented relies of enigmatic thaumaturgy which surely an anathema would be able to twist to throw the righteous off their trail ;)
Of course, we haven't actually got any evidence because we didn't carry out any such investigation. Our evidence is no more than: "Honest, he is! We saw him and he was glowing and everything."

[YerMum]

Of course, we haven't actually got any evidence because we didn't carry out any such investigation. Our evidence is no more than: "Honest, he is! We saw him and he was glowing and everything."

While in the middle of what was obviously a Wyld zone, after drinking Fae wine...

there's not a jury in the land that would convict ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

While in the middle of what was obviously a Wyld zone, after drinking Fae wine...

there's not a jury in the land that would convict ;)
Jury? I thought we were dealing with the monks in black and the forces of blind prejudice and paranoia.

We'll be lucky if they don't decide just to kill us all to be on the safe side.

[SJE]

The Wyld Hunt convict everyone

"Better Dead than Sorry" is their motto.

[YerMum]

Jury? I thought we were dealing with the monks in black and the forces of blind prejudice and paranoia.

We'll be lucky if they don't decide just to kill us all to be on the safe side.

well technically the monks have to abide by the laws of the land, so until the wyld hunt proper shows up, with a sworn brotherhood and a few hundred elite soldiers and a bronze faction fu-man-chu moustachioed "adviser" we/I can (hopefully!) stall long enough to develop Real Ultimate Power :D

[SJE]

Well see, the monks tend to obey their own Immaculate law. And legally Gem is still a tributory to the Realm which has the automatic death penalty on Anathaema.

So its probably a horrific Bureaucracy roll to resolve this, but the long and the short of it is- they monks/DB's will kill Anathaema on sight, especially if they have been invited to do so by the Captain of the City Watch. You guys invited them into this investigation- its going to be near impossible to dis-invite them. It'd be easier to convince them that they've got the wrong people.

And that explanation is something I'm dying to hear next monday. Social stunting might even be needed :)

SJE

[YerMum]

Well see, the monks tend to obey their own Immaculate law. And legally Gem is still a tributory to the Realm which has the automatic death penalty on Anathaema.



I thought that Gem had bought off its Satrapy/tributary status with a whopping big sack of gems labelled "Swag"...



So its probably a horrific Bureaucracy roll to resolve this, but the long and the short of it is- they monks/DB's will kill Anathaema on sight, especially if they have been invited to do so by the Captain of the City Watch. You guys invited them into this investigation- its going to be near impossible to dis-invite them. It'd be easier to convince them that they've got the wrong people.



Heh, it was agreed between myself and Tanaka that I'd find the anathema and then let him deal with it, so I think my ass is pretty much covered at the moment as I haven't released any evidence to him yet ;)
As for the official watch investigation though, well it's not really my problem anymore :D



And that explanation is something I'm dying to hear next monday. Social stunting might even be needed :)

SJE

hmm, trying to persuade the immaculate not to kill the city watch, while backflipping!

[Cultist of Sooty]

well technically the monks have to abide by the laws of the land
I'm sure the possibility that they may have overstepped their bounds and committed a faux pas will bring great solace to my ghost. :)

[Cultist of Sooty]

Heh, it was agreed between myself and Tanaka that I'd find the anathema and then let him deal with it, so I think my ass is pretty much covered at the moment as I haven't released any evidence to him yet ;)
As for the official watch investigation though, well it's not really my problem anymore :D
If I go down, you're coming too.

As it were.

[YerMum]

If I go down, you're coming too.

As it were.

actually I find it very suspicious that the person who has levelled most of the accusations of someone being anathema is actually absent from the scene - perhaps she has something to hide eh?

[Cultist of Sooty]

actually I find it very suspicious that the person who has levelled most of the accusations of someone being anathema is actually absent from the scene - perhaps she has something to hide eh?
You know, it wouldn't surprise me if she was outside, plotting to blow us all up with barrels full of firedust or something.

[YerMum]

You know, it wouldn't surprise me if she was outside, plotting to blow us all up with barrels full of firedust or something.

which is exactly what someone would do if they wanted to get rid of the only people who could prove that they were anathema... or something ;)

[Foyle]

The Wyld Hunt convict everyone

"Better Dead than Sorry" is their motto.

And we're never Sorry.

there's not a jury in the land that would convict

Jury? I'll have none of this strange eastern nonsense in my watch.

I've decided the best way to invoke the Test of the Overlord of the Highest Inflection of Perspicacity, He Whose Million Eyes See All. The Test is a simple one - relying on the god's powers you will all jump into a lavaflow.

- If you float you're an anathema
- Any golden glow while in the lava and you're an anathema.

Its a true and fair system thats been practised for centuries and has proven the innocence of thousands.

[Cultist of Sooty]

How about this for the story on the bargain that Orchid made?



Educated courtesans, though fewer in number, bring higher profits than common whores. As a result, House Sahlak operates some of the best schools in Gem. Orchid, being a slave who had been selected as suitable for training, received a classical education, in order that she would be a pleasing companion for the wealthy, powerful and discerning, whether they required conversation, music or other entertainments. Orchid revelled in the chance for education, and was drawn to hidden lore, to small magics and enchantments, though she had little opportunity to pursue such studies to any depth. Customers only require a courtesan to be adequately educated, anything further is surely a waste.

It came to pass that Orchid acquired a regular customer, who sometimes came to her as a young man, and sometimes as a young woman, sometimes claiming one name and sometimes another, but always with emerald bells at its ankles and sapphire flowers in its hair. After it had taken its pleasure, the Inconstant Hierophant of Five-Fold Adamant Pedagogy would talk to Orchid, instilling in her lore long thought forgotten and showing her thaumaturgy she could never have mastered alone. And one night, her head swimming from wine, pleasure and knowledge, Orchid accepted a bargain. If this god, for that is what she was sure it was, would continue to teach her, Orchid would repay it with but one favour, to come in the future.

One rainy winter evening, as Orchid plied her trade, the Inconstant Hierophant of Five-Fold Adamant Pedagogy came to her: "I remind you of the bargain we made." It asked but one favour from her, that she join the City Watch, this and nothing more.

Said Orchid: "I would happily join the Watch for you, but I am owned by House Sahlak, and they would never allow it."

"So be it," said the Inconstant Hierophant. "I shall ask again."

Within six months, Trasti Escalus, smitten, had set aside his wife, manumitted Orchid and married her. Now, in Orchid's sumptuous home in the Shades, the Inconstant Hierophant of Five-Fold Adamant Pedagogy came to her: "I remind you, for a second time, of the bargain we made."

Said Orchid: "I would happily join the Watch for you, but my husband would never allow it."

"So be it," said the Inconstant Hierophant. "I shall ask again."

Within six months, Escalus was taken by a sudden seizure. Now, while Orchid still wore her widow's weeds and observed the customary period of mourning, the Inconstant Hierophant of Five-Fold Adamant Pedagogy came to her: "I remind you, for a third and final time, of the bargain we made. I will not ask again."

Said Orchid: "I would happily join the Watch for you, but... No, I can think of no impediment."And it just so happened that the Watch stood in need of a thaumaturge. So here she is, her head full of dangerous lore and sorcerous knowledge and the nagging feeling that somebody has gone to great lengths to get her into this position.

But why hasn't Orchid questioned this, or tried to find out more about who she made the bargain with? It's hard to say, but she has genuine trouble with doing so. It's not that she can't remember that she joined the Watch because she made a promise. It's just that whenever she forms the intention of checking it all out more deeply, it just seems to slide away. Something always happens to distract her.

So who has Orchid made a bargain with? It could be that the Inconstant Hierophant of Five-Fold Adamant Pedagogy is being entirely honest with Orchid, but I doubt it. After all, that would be no fun. It could be anything: a mighty Raksha, a tricky city spirit, a Celestial god, a demon, a Sidereal messing with destiny, some other Exalt, who knows?

And what does this bargain amount to? On the face of it, Orchid has fulfilled her side of the deal. Surely, though, she has not seen the last of the Inconstant Hierophant. The big question is, of course, why is it so important that Orchid should be a member of the Watch, and will it turn out for good or ill?

[SJE]

Interesting stuff. Methinks I detect a hint of Gloranthan myth in the structure?

One minor change- the Inconstant Hierophant (and there is an alias if ever I have heard one) asks that you serve in the Watch for at least a year and a day.

Course, the mortality rate for Watch Thaumaturges was heading for under 6 months average life expectancy when al'Mazarin died, so a year and a day might be a death sentence by another name.

Steve

[SJE]

I thought that Gem had bought off its Satrapy/tributary status with a whopping big sack of gems labelled "Swag"...


Not entirely that simple- I'm assuming that this part of Creation was run by the Cathaks. After the Empress dissappeared, even the mighty Cathak legions came under the strain of extended force deployment in too many theatres. (Sort of like the British Army stretching itself between Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Germany, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe and assorted African republics)

So the Despot pointed out to Cathak Cainan that Gem was perfectly capable of looking after its own defences and that the Cathak legion there could be pulled back to the Lap. If Gem did need the Legion for defence (or if Gem ever missed a tributory payment) then the Legion just needed to march down the nice, well-used road and re-occupy Gem. (this is where the Kings Ransom in jewels came in). The Imperial presence in Gem would be maintained by the Immaculate Order and a 'military advisor' from the Cathaks. (Cathak Aron)

Of course, when the Military advisor arrived, the Despot showered him with attention, gifts, concubines and told Aron that he should help himself to anything he wanted in the mini-bar.....

So Gem is still technically a Realm state- paying annual tribute and obeying the Dynasty. Meanwhile the Despot is using his relative independence from Realm oversight to forge his own foreign policy- making embassy with the barbarians, Fae and deathlords, developing ties with the Guild and other cities. Paragons still a problem, but the Despot carefully tries to make it more expensive for Paragon to invade than it would gain.

The Despot is a smart man, but sometimes when the hurricane comes all you can do is batten down the hatches and ride out the whirlwind.

People say a storm is coming.....

[YerMum]

Cool, that clears that up - time to think of plan (b) ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

Interesting stuff. Methinks I detect a hint of Gloranthan myth in the structure?
Yeah, standard folk-tale structure, with three-fold repetitions. I've nicked it for my Glorantha myths because I enjoy playing with that structure.

One minor change- the Inconstant Hierophant (and there is an alias if ever I have heard one) asks that you serve in the Watch for at least a year and a day.

Course, the mortality rate for Watch Thaumaturges was heading for under 6 months average life expectancy when al'Mazarin died, so a year and a day might be a death sentence by another name.
Fabbo. The name was meant to sound like it could easily be an alias. And I just love making up ridiculously overblown titles.

The year and a day thing is good. Wish I'd thought of it myself.

[Beron the Grey]

At the moment, I'm torn between two possible replies from Jak to the accusation levelled against him:

1) "As the great sage Rincewind said (on many occasions)" - insert sound of running feet - "Byeee!"

Advantages: I can probably run faster than everyone else, or at least lose them by taking to the rooftops.

Disadvantages: Could well mean Jak leaving the campaign, unless he then rejoins the watch under a new alias.

2) "But whatever do you mean sir? No, I'm sure I'm a boy; well, my mother always told me that I was a boy. Are you saying that my mother lied to me? Gasp! No, it can not be!"

Advantages: It's so mad, it just might work.

Disadvantages: It's completely mad. Everyone will think Jak is either mad or stupid. (Do either bar you from serving in the City Watch?)

Alternatively, is there a culture in Creation with very rigid gender roles (i.e. not allowing woman to join the city watch) that Jak could plausibly be from?

Incidentally, at the moment the only reason that Jak disguises his gender as a watchman is to make that identity as different as possible from "his" true identity. Only now I'm wondering if there might not be some other reason . . . :confused:

[The Red Baron]

Alternatively, is there a culture in Creation with very rigid gender roles (i.e. not allowing woman to join the city watch) that Jak could plausibly be from?

Incidentally, at the moment the only reason that Jak disguises his gender as a watchman is to make that identity as different as possible from "his" true identity. Only now I'm wondering if there might not be some other reason . . . :confused:

The Tya.

[YerMum]

At the moment, I'm torn between two possible replies from Jak to the accusation levelled against him:

1) "As the great sage Rincewind said (on many occasions)" - insert sound of running feet - "Byeee!"

Advantages: I can probably run faster than everyone else, or at least lose them by taking to the rooftops.

Disadvantages: Could well mean Jak leaving the campaign, unless he then rejoins the watch under a new alias.



that'd be a shame as jak's quite a fun character to have around, and the captain hasn't had the opportunity to "make a real man out of you boy!" yet ;)



2) "But whatever do you mean sir? No, I'm sure I'm a boy; well, my mother always told me that I was a boy. Are you saying that my mother lied to me? Gasp! No, it can not be!"

Advantages: It's so mad, it just might work.

Disadvantages: It's completely mad. Everyone will think Jak is either mad or stupid. (Do either bar you from serving in the City Watch?)



actually I think that either makes you a strong candidate for promotion :D



Alternatively, is there a culture in Creation with very rigid gender roles (i.e. not allowing woman to join the city watch) that Jak could plausibly be from?



yeah, in the West there is a restriction on women working on boats, in order to get round this they can declare themselves to be Tya and live as men (even to the extent of taking wives!) and so can crew and captain ships.



Incidentally, at the moment the only reason that Jak disguises his gender as a watchman is to make that identity as different as possible from "his" true identity. Only now I'm wondering if there might not be some other reason . . . :confused:

hiding from a spurned suitor/brother/father/pet dog? ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

hiding from a spurned suitor/brother/father/pet dog? ;)
My pet theory is now that the First and Forsaken Lion is secretly Jak's pet dog, Rover and he's coming to claim Gem as his chew-toy.

[YerMum]

My pet theory is now that the First and Forsaken Lion is secretly Jak's pet dog, Rover and he's coming to claim Gem as his chew-toy.

:D
Definitely the wrong day to carry on the hallucinogen addiction eh captain ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

:D
Definitely the wrong day to carry on the hallucinogen addiction eh captain ;)
No, this is how I generally deal with reality. My strange interludes are very lengthy, and more entertaining than O'Neill's.

[SJE]

Exalted Session 7

<b>The One in which the Cathaks go to war and the Wyld Hunt battle an Anathaema</b>

So, having named the mortals Jaq and Orchid Anathaema, headstrong Fire Dragon Initiate Cathak Anaria pulls her red jade short daiklaives.

Jaq pleads his innocence, asking how he can prove he isn’t Anathaema. Anaria replies “In Blood!”, so Jaq cuts his own arm and says- <i>“Look, if you prick me, do I not bleed!”</i>

Anaria accepts this, but spots thaumaurge Floating Summer Orchid making herself scarce. A thrown daiklaive into the wall stops this and Anaria charges! Orchid dodges at the last minute and finds herself penned in by the two daikliaves to either side of her head. Brand grabs Anarias arm to stop a killing blow, and Anaria turns on the flames, scorching him till he lets go. Jaq tries to arrest Cathak Anaria for assaulting a Watch Officer.

At last the Captain regains his senses, punches Jaq before he says anything more stupid and launches into a fawning, obsequies speech about how Orchid is innocent, how she brought the Anathaema problem to his attention and how its all a trick of the real Anathaema to get their opponents to destroy each other.

Meanwhile, the real Exalts (Ravitsu and Brand) stay werry, werry quiet.

Moved by the Captains bluster, compliments and ass-kissing, Anaria relents and storms out the Hungry Yeddim in a foul mood, her dreams of Anathaema-slaying glory in ruins, her angry flames still silhouetting her body.

She walks up the street in a Creation of her own, not noticing the wagon accident, the spilled firedust, trapped pedestrians and Cathak Alana (her mortal Dynast cousin on the run). Alana notices Anaria though and shouts at her to stop.

Anaria looks up- instant recognition! She screams <i>“Cousin? Traitor!”</i> and walks toward Alana in a fury. Alana throws caution to the wind and tackles the Fire Aspect around the waist, throwing herself onto the fiery inferno in order to keep her away from the firedust. Even as her skins burns, clothes smoulder and face char, Alana keeps on top of Anaria, desperate to stop her igniting a catastrophe.

The two cousins, similar in build, face and colouration tussle and brawl in the dusty streets of Gem, just feet away from the barrels of firedust. Alana hears a booming voice in her mind <b>“WILL YOU CHOOSE THE INNOCENT OVER YOUR FAMILY?”.</b>

<i>‘Yes’</i> thinks Alana. Anarias deadly open palm strike then hits Alana in the face, but rebounds as if it had just struck solid gold.

Somewhere above the night parts and a pillar of bright sunlight shines down on the feudin’ Cathak cousins.

<b>“WILL YOU LEAD MY PEOPLE TO THE PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS?”</b> booms the voice of the Sun.

<i>‘Yes’</i> thinks Alana, suddenly filled with holy fire and passion.

Anarias eyes widen as she takes in the sight of her cousins glowing golden halo and anima, its fire even hotter and purer than her own raging elemental inferno.

All of Anarias strikes are useless, rebounding from Alana’s flesh as if she were hitting metal itself.

<b>“WILL YOU PROTECT GEM FROM ALL ENEMIES WITHIN AND WITHOUT?”</b> says the great voice once more.

<i>“If I can”</i> thinks Alana

<b>“THEN ARISE HAMMER OF THE SUN!” </b>

With a full celestial choir souding, the pillar of light brightens to blinding flare and Cathak Alana, she who had been failed, abandoned by the Dragons, is filled with the warm, eternal and unconditional love of the Unconquered Sun, a Zenith reborn!

Anarias head comes up to head-butt her Solar abomination cousin, just as Alanas caste mark flares out! Anarias head rockets back into the ground, unconscious, a burned circlular disk branded into her forehead.

The rest of the Watch have arrived and Orchid and the other Exalts quickly hustle away a dazed Alana. The Captain fails to spot any significance in the pillar of light from Heaven and assumes its some sort of DB tom-foolery. Jaq and the Captain take the unconscious monk Cathak Anaria up to the Immaculate Temple and say there was an accident with firedust. Fortunately Master Ledaal Tanaka is away battling Ssseth (at Jaqs earlier Machiaviallian request) so there is no one to punch holes through the story.

The 3 Exalts & Thaumaturge go off to discuss their future and help Alana understand her Damascene Conversion from failed DB hater of the Anathaema to righteous priest of the Unconquered Sun. They can fill in that part.

Jaq and the Captain also sort out the firedust. Suspiciously there is no owners mark on the kegs, so the Captain diverts it to his cousin on the understanding they split the money for the cargo 50:50. Jaq spots this ninja-style but doesn’t interfere in the al’Amarah corruption.

Next morning, Brand and Ravitsu talk to the Prisoner Below about Yigors death. He warns them a dark rider is coming, death in its wake and offers to help with the Shadow Below Gem case.

Then Brand, Ravitsu, Jaq and Alana head down to the Hot District to find Lucita the little Demon-blooded orphan get her story. Alana accidentally burns the child when Lucita hugs here, Alanas new Anima power kicking in reflexively. After the others calm the child, they get the story. Apparently the stony, grey faced ‘Bad Man’ lives in an oasis to the South (though none know of it) and he sent Lucita away with a caravan. She escaped from the caravan into Gem. Brand remembers that this isn’t the first caravan from the South from which a demon crawled- the Sewer Monster demon had burst out of Drunken Horse, a caravaneer of Iblans Gold caravan.

Meanwhile Orchid and the Captain visit the Immaculate Temple to see Master Tanaka. The aged Immaculate questions them about the incident that left Sister Anaria in a coma, and is not convinced by the Captains story and demands to part of the Anathaema investigation. The Captain then asks the monk to come visit the strange Prisoner Below as he suspects that the Prisoner might be involved.

(EDIT- Orchid's Essence flows are examined by Tanaka as she casts a warding and she is declared clean of Anathaema taint)

Tanaka makes it to the Granite Watchhouse before sensing the necrotic energies of the deathknight imprisoned below. The normally temperate monk shouts at the Captain, asking why he couldn’t recognise the Anathaema under his own nose! (Orchid tries not to giggle too much)

Cathak Aron is sent for and the 2 man Wyld Hunt prepare for war. Ledaal dons his blue jade breastplate and unsheathes his Infinite Jade Chakram. Aron arrives laden down in armour, powerbows and direlance.

(I let the PC’s play the DB’s and I take the Abyssals character sheet for this)

The doughty Hunters head down into the cold, dark corridor, with its far cell quiet as the grave.

<i>“Prisoner?”</i> bellows the Captain. <i>“I come to release you. I’m giving you to the monks”</i>

the sibilant voice echoes from the shadows <i>“So you, as a duly appointed officer of the Watch are releasing me from Watch custody?”</i>

<i>“Yes”</i> says the Captain before anyone thinks to gag him.

Three great drum beats sound in the earth as the Lord of Silent Repose is released from his oath to obey the justice of Gem. For the monks and Wyld Hunt are not part of Gems Justice, but the Realms!

Aron charges at the cell, lance lowered. As he does, the cell door swings open and from the darkest shadow within, the grating sound of sword being drawn is heard (Lord Silent recalls his Soulsteel daiklaive from the Void)

In a flurry of blades Aron stabs at the deathknight with his lance. The Abyssal easily parries and counter-attacks, Aron dodging. Then Lord Silent tries to chop off Arons hand, but the Cathak legionnaire pulls back the guard of his jade lance to save his fingers from being shorn off. Ledaal Tanaka unleashes 5 ghostly chakrams into the crowded cell, 3 of them biting deep into the Byronic, pale Abyssal.

(2nd Round) Aron, his fiery anima burning like a forge, spins and hacks with his direlance knocking stone chips from the walls, through his anima banner, turning them into a deadly molten weave of fire aiding his attacks. But all his stuntworthy efforts are for naught as Lord Silent becomes a flickering wisp, a shadow quicker than the wind that bends through the dark places between the fire and the molten stone.

The Lord of Silent Repose races for the stairs intent on escape, his Essence rapidly depleting. The Captain musters his courage and tries to stop him with a cone of fire from his firewand but again the deathknight twists round it like living darkness. Tanaka unleashes a terrible rain of chakrams, 25 filling the air, a hurricaine of metal. Yet when the survivors look up, they find the Abyssal vanished, leaving only a few cut pieces of black silk where the chakrams came too close.

There is a deathknight loose in Gem.

All the City become aware of this, for the clouds scud across the sky at maddening speed, gathering and spreading from the epicentre above the Granite Tower! Soon the clouds blot out the sun, from horizon to horizon and Gem falls into darkness at midday! Bells ring out to warn the faithful, but these sound strange, newly cracked by the Abyssals unleashed Resonance….

Alana looks up from the District, knowing at once that another agent of evil is loose in Gem. The Captain looks down as Tanaka castigates him for his incompetence and swears to tell the Despot. Lucita looks up in happiness as the Watch adopt her….

Hopefully next session, we fight crime!

[SJE]

<b>Rumours </b>

Paragon is going to invade

The Despot is going to put up taxes

A Dragon blood exploded down in the Hot District

Someone is buying a lot of Firedust.

A dark rider is coming, death in its wake.

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

The 3 Exalts & Thaumaturge go off to discuss their future and help Alana understand her Damascene Conversion from failed DB hater of the Anathaema to righteous priest of the Unconquered Sun. They can fill in that part.
Nothing greatly exciting to report. The discussion took place at Orchid's comfortable townhouse, which she offered to them as a place to lie low, assuming that it was the last place the Captain or anyone else would expect them to go right now.

The general conclusion was that, for now, the exalts should avoid drawing attention to themselves and we should hope/arrange that something draws the immaculates/wyld hunt away. Perhaps a scapegoat would be in order?

I think Orchid is thrilled at the chance to actually see the Anathema close up. It's something of a dream come true for a student of occult and forbidden lore. She is moderately concerned that they'll flip out and destroy the city, but the more time she spends around them, the more over-confident about this she might become. :)

[Foyle]

Exalted Session 7

<b>The One in which the Cathaks go to war and the Wyld Hunt battle an Anathaema</b>


At last the Captain regains his senses having rationally considered his options punches Jaq before he says anything more stupid and launches into a fawning, obsequies reasoned appeal to the priestess' sense of justice and caution about how Orchid is innocent, how she brought the Anathaema problem to his attention and how its all a trick of the real Anathaema to get their opponents to destroy each other.

Moved by the Captains bluster, compliments and ass-kissing, wise intercession Anaria relents . . .

Jaq and the Captain also sort out the firedust. Suspiciously there is no owners mark on the kegs, so the Captain diverts it to his cousin on the understanding they split the money for the cargo seizes this contraband and authorises its rapid sale to a trusted private partner of statutory enterprises such as the Watch in order to realise funds for the provision of Watch services 50:50. Jaq spots this ninja-style but doesn’t interfere in the al’Amarah corruption public-private partnership. . .


<i>“Prisoner?”</i> bellows the Captain. <i>“I come to release you. I’m giving you to the monks”</i> because it would be illegal for a prisoner to be killed in the Watch house

the sibilant voice echoes from the shadows <i>“So you, as a duly appointed officer of the Watch are releasing me from Watch custody?”</i>

<i>“Yes”</i> says the Captain before anyone thinks to gag inform him of the Despot's memo. I mean being the Captain is a demanding enough job without having to be bogged down in paperwork. Remember tax payers - the more time the Watch is doing paperwork the less time they are patrolling the streets.


Alana looks up from the District, knowing at once that another agent of evil is loose in Gem. The Captain looks down bored as Tanaka castigates him for his incompetence and swears to tell the Despot.



Corrected some of the write up there :D

[YerMum]

Corrected some of the write up there :D

I think the only reason that the UCS hasn't exalted the Captain yet is that he's far too amusing as a mortal, as a solar he may actually become competant ;)

[SJE]

Or that the Captain Exalted would be a terror that has not been seen for an Age...

[Foyle]

I think the only reason that the UCS hasn't exalted the Captain yet is that he's far too amusing as a mortal, as a solar he may actually become competant ;)

(Exalted = Solar = charms access = Immunity to Everything) + (Nature:Hedonism + alcohol) = Drinking Gem dry.

Not so much competent as incontinent

[YerMum]

(Exalted = Solar = charms access = Immunity to Everything) + (Nature:Hedonism + alcohol) = Drinking Gem dry.

Not so much competent as incontinent

There's some drunken fighting charms in Castebook: Zenith that will be right up the captain's street ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

(Exalted = Solar = charms access = Immunity to Everything) + (Nature:Hedonism + alcohol) = Drinking Gem dry.
I can see the captain creating an Incomparable Hangover Banishing Stance, or some such...

[YerMum]

I can see the captain creating an Incomparable Hangover Banishing Stance, or some such...

There already is one, Alcohol Resistance Prana... for 1 mote you get to enjoy all the positive effects of booze, but with none of the drawbacks ;)

[Foyle]

There already is one, Alcohol Resistance Prana... for 1 mote you get to enjoy all the positive effects of booze, but with none of the drawbacks ;)

From drunk to drunken master in one easy exaltation

[YerMum]

From drunk to drunken master in one easy exaltation

there's 2 charms that follow that one, iirc one adds the number of drinks you've had to your defence rolls and the other does the same but with soak :D

[Cultist of Sooty]

There already is one, Alcohol Resistance Prana... for 1 mote you get to enjoy all the positive effects of booze, but with none of the drawbacks ;)
Mine has a better name. :)

[SJE]

Hows the Exalts Plus One conspiracy going? I vaguely heard something from Paul about taking over Gem, but didnt hear it all.

SJE

[YerMum]

Hows the Exalts Plus One conspiracy going? I vaguely heard something from Paul about taking over Gem, but didnt hear it all.

SJE

I think we'd come to the conclusion that being Chosen of the Sun meant that we've got to take over at some point, but also because we're not the capt, err, not stupid, it'll be prudent to keep a low profile for the moment.
Brand and Alanna confirmed that they probably would have to go and be Righteous at some point along the line, and that the Wyld Hunt will be a problem, but hopefully the two of them can start figuring out charms and the like together.

[MirrorSnake]

I think we'd come to the conclusion that being Chosen of the Sun meant that we've got to take over at some point, but also because we're not the capt, err, not stupid, it'll be prudent to keep a low profile for the moment.
Brand and Alanna confirmed that they probably would have to go and be Righteous at some point along the line, and that the Wyld Hunt will be a problem, but hopefully the two of them can start figuring out charms and the like together.I hope so. I do NOT look forward to encountering the resident Air Immaculate... maybe with a little luck he and the Abyssal will kill each other off, thus, ahem, ending the anathema threat (which was obviously the Abyssal, not us, not at all!) and lessening the Immaculate presence in the city... ;)

(Me = Alana, by the way)

[YerMum]

I hope so. I do NOT look forward to encountering the resident Air Immaculate... maybe with a little luck he and the Abyssal will kill each other off, thus, ahem, ending the anathema threat (which was obviously the Abyssal, not us, not at all!) and lessening the Immaculate presence in the city... ;)

(Me = Alana, by the way)

thankfully the captain is the focus of his ire at the moment, although I suspect he might start leaning on Brand to produce some results quickly...

[MirrorSnake]

thankfully the captain is the focus of his ire at the moment, although I suspect he might start leaning on Brand to produce some results quickly...
Ah, let's face it, we're all still doomed. :) If the immaculates don't get us and if we survive the Abyssal then I'm putting my money on FaFL.

[SJE]

Y'know, I so wanted the Lord of Silent Repose to cut off Cathaks Arons hand in the cell. Should've channelled a virtue or something, but I thought my 20 dice pool was more than his 10 defence....

It would have given the subsequent escape a little more emotion and ensured a fraught re-match when Aron returned bearing a red jade hand.....

Still, the fight with the a'feudin' Cathak cousins was the best bit, especially as Orchid tried to distract the Captain from the Exaltation. But the Captain was so entranced by the catfight he didnt even notice the whole column of sunlight thing.

Heh. :)

SJE

[Foyle]

I hope so. I do NOT look forward to encountering the resident Air Immaculate... maybe with a little luck he and the Abyssal will kill each other off, thus, ahem, ending the anathema threat (which was obviously the Abyssal, not us, not at all!) and lessening the Immaculate presence in the city... ;)



As Watch captain I would like to stress that it is the duty of all watch members to reassure the citizenry there is no Anathema threat to the city. Any rumours of anathema corruption in the Watch are lies perptrated by Paragon spies and all persons caught spreading such slanders will be taken to the Despot for summary justice.

Similalry rumours of living shadows, water turning to blood, the Despot vanishing and undead priests of the immaculate order removing the head of their dragon blooded (ex)-masters are further disinformation and/or the result of an unfortunate experimental dreamstone creating widespread hallucinations. All citizens are advised to stay in their houses for the moment

[Foyle]

Still, the fight with the a'feudin' Cathak cousins was the best bit, especially as Orchid tried to distract the Captain from the Exaltation. But the Captain was so entranced by the catfight he didnt even notice the whole column of sunlight thing.


SJE

Incestuous, poshbird catfight please. otherwise you run the risk of making me sound like some common lech who disregards his duties.

[YerMum]

Ah, let's face it, we're all still doomed. :) If the immaculates don't get us and if we survive the Abyssal then I'm putting my money on FaFL.

well, Gem's doomed, our demise will probably depend on whether we stick around when it happens or not ;)

Anyway, the F&FL doesn't have any shadowlands around, which makes it kinda tricky to invade, my money's going on the autobots :D

[Cultist of Sooty]

As Watch captain I would like to stress that it is the duty of all watch members to reassure the citizenry there is no Anathema threat to the city.
As Watch thaumaturge, I would like to stress that any Anathema presence in/around the watchhouse has now been removed. Detailed geomantic calculations have proved this conclusively.

What's that? You want to see my working?

Ah...

The thing is, my dog ate it.

[SJE]

As Watch thaumaturge, I would like to stress that any Anathema presence in/around the watchhouse has now been removed. Detailed geomantic calculations have proved this conclusively.


Lets just hope Cathak Anaria doesnt wake up from her coma anytime soon then....

SJE

[YerMum]

As Watch thaumaturge, I would like to stress that any Anathema presence in/around the watchhouse has now been removed. Detailed geomantic calculations have proved this conclusively.

What's that? You want to see my working?

Ah...

The thing is, my dog ate it.

remember, the captain can't read, you'd be able to pass your shopping list off as your working ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

Lets just hope Cathak Anaria doesnt wake up from her coma anytime soon then....
The poor thing. Quite clearly delusional as a result of her severe head injury.

If it's not severe enough now, can we arrange something...?

[Cultist of Sooty]

remember, the captain can't read, you'd be able to pass your shopping list off as your working ;)
"Shopping list". "Shopping list". Yes, I seem to recall the servants mentioning one of those.

[YerMum]

The poor thing. Quite clearly delusional as a result of her severe head injury.

If it's not severe enough now, can we arrange something...?

oh the missed opportunities... ;)

[Beron the Grey]

Can I just add that Jak is clearly innocent of everything? And right now I'm the only one who is . . .

[Cultist of Sooty]

Can I just add that Jak is clearly innocent of everything? And right now I'm the only one who is . . .
And I've been officially certified 100% Exaltation-free by Master Tanaka.

Actually, I notice that's not mentioned in the writeup...

[SJE]

I've Edited it in to the post and the Wiki, for future reference.

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

I've Edited it in to the post and the Wiki, for future reference.
Fab. Do I get a kitemark or something?

[SJE]

Do you want some kind of "100% Anathaema free!" tattoo on your head maybe?

The usual kitemark for being cleared by the monks of Anathaema taint is that you are still breathing, and not full of 45 chakram holes.

SJE

[YerMum]

Do you want some kind of "100% Anathaema free!" tattoo on your head maybe?

The usual kitemark for being cleared by the monks of Anathaema taint is that you are still breathing, and not full of 45 chakram holes.

SJE

or no longer breathing, and full of 45 chakram holes

[Cultist of Sooty]

Do you want some kind of "100% Anathaema free!" tattoo on your head maybe?
A certificate would be nice. Or a little trophy I could put on the mantlepiece. Or a Blue Peter badge.

[SJE]

Exalted Session 8

The one with the character development and clues

A fairly quiet session this time, in part due to my extreme tiredness (never run 9 hours of Living Force the day before- too much Star Wars gaming drains your OTT Exalted batteries)

Midday- 15th Descending Fire, RY 768

So we begin with the sun having been blotted out and night fallen at midday over Gem as the Lord of Silent Repose makes his escape. Captain Ibrahim, having been berated by Immaculate Master Ledaal Tanaka, quickly dictates a cover-your-ass memo to the Despots Office presenting his side of things and asking for an audience.
The Captain also orders Watch Thaumaturge Floating Summer Orchid to fix the sky.

Orchid looks up at the Resonance effect bringing night to day and determines that the Essence flows have been disordered, but will restore themselves in about 20 minutes. She drinks tea and pretends to do magic whenever the Captain is around and then reports full success in her counter-magic efforts as the clouds part and sunlight once more falls upon Gem.

Orchid also investigates the mysterious Thrice-Locked Box, recovered from the Department of Forbidden Magics and Profane Rites. He is unable to open it, but is incredibly fortunate in matching its description to a tale told by her mysterious patron, the Inconstant Hierophant of Five-Fold Adamant Pedagogy. The Hierophant had once whispered how a mysterious order of Dragon Blooded sought to seal away the spirits of the Solar Demons they slew in the Usurption so they would never threaten Creation again. The Thrice-Locked Box matches the description and was designed to require more than mortal skill to open. An expert locksmith suggests either a nimble-fingered Fae with tools of gossamer, or perhaps the greatest thief in Gem (the Black Mouse) might be able to get it open. Orchid elects to send subtle word to the Black Mouse, offering a job worthy of the Master Thief.

The Captain and Ravitsu head down to the Hot District to ask about caravans to the South depositing demons in Gem. There have been two in the past 15 days- Iblans Gold Caravan and a Guild slave caravan lead by Guilder Profitable Endeavour. The Watchmen take some Iblan guards drinking, where the Captain disgraces himself as his subordinate drinks him under the table and elicits a drunken tale of a Forgotten Oasis with mysterious spun towers and demon-folk. It is from here that both Lucita the Demon-blood girl and the Sewer Monster have arrived from. Occult rolls ID the tower demons as Neomah- Demon Courtesean, summoned to Creation for the pleasure of a sorcerer. The Forgotten Oasis lies to the South East, 20 east of Palm Tree Wadi.

Alana and Orchid follow up on the Joaqim the Dreamer case (longest open investigation on the board.) They visit the elegant, beautiful but ruthless woman of a certain age, Mother Sahlak (of the Sahlak brothel and dreamstone monopoly, she is played by Glenn Close) who explains that her Dreamstone was perfectly normal before Joaqim was lent it to craft a dream. Now she wants it back from the Watch (as Brand took it from her men) and would lift the contract on Brands head if her property is returned. Such a pity the Golden Dreamstone is no more….

The duo then visit Joaqims old house and confirm an Exaltation took place here, apparently while Joaqim was recording his dream stone. (the trouble you get when the Sun appears in a vision and then a fragment of His Essence is trapped in the dream stone…. ). At a loss to discover Joaqims whereabouts, newly Exalted Zenith, Cathak Alana tries prayer.

It works! She is given visions showing Joaqim leaving the city that night, golden disk on his forehead still shining and wandering the desert, then being surrounded by Bedoun style desert nomads…. Clearly he is no longer under their jurisdiction. Writing it up as an anonymous witness saw him leaving the city, they close the case.

Ravi escorts the drunken Captain back to the Granite Tower. En-route she spies a relative of the Captain being chased by two thugs. She races the thugs before simultaneously tripping the two with her spear and takes them in. (after preventing the Captain from drunkenly beating them) The two mooks clam up quick and demand to see their lawyer, whose name they refuse to divulge.

After the Captain gets some Chiaroscuro Special Blend coffee down him, they head to his family compound to learn more. It seems that the appropriated firedust from last session belonged to the Obsidian Thieves Guild who are buying up/nicking every barrel of it they can. The Captains cousin accidentally sold their confiscated firedust back to them and they sent the heavies after him. His cousin demands that the Captain get them out of the terrible mess that Ibrahim has brought down on them all. Adding to the bad news, it seems the Black Mouse stole into the Al’Amarah secure storeroom and left an obsidian mouse on the kegs of stolen firedust. Now the Master Thief is involved too!

Then the Captain gets his summons to the Despot. After waiting a lot, they talk, and the deceptively mild mannered Despot takes the Captains dumb silence, weak evasion of responsibility for the prisoner escape and paranoid conspiracy theory with barely a raised eyebrow or comment. (I reason that the Despot is running down the Watch and leaving the Captain in place does more to aid that goal than hinder it. Plus the Watch have managed to upset nearly all the power-blocs in the City over the last week and the Despot likes them upset and off-balance)

Ravitsu Cale has meanwhile remembered what he did with his Spear of Shininess (Moonsilver Direlance) in a past life- he was killed during the Usurption, falling into the then active volcano 12,000 years ago. He transforms into his Eagle Totem beast shape and flies above Gem, scouting the now water filled caldera and discovering that there are lava tube tunnels on the caldera interior….

The various investigations seem to show the following-

: The Forgotten Oasis of Demons seems to be a threat, but its far away for now
: The Abyssal is loose in the city, but the resident DB’s are on Wyld Hunt mode.
: There is some death-related plot or Hungry Ghost infestation in the lava tunnels
: The Obsidian Thieves Guild are doing something nefarious, buying up a huge supply of firedust.
: Opening the Thrice Locked Box might be a bad idea.

The consensus seems to be that dealing with the Hungry Ghosts under Gem (& who ate Watch Exorcist al’Mazarin 5 years ago) would be best.

16th Descending Fire RY 768

Next day, the Watch muster and head to the Market and the lava tubes. The one Al’Mazarin was dragged out of had suffered a cave in. It takes the Watch over 90 minutes to clear a way through and they begin descending into the cold, dark, scary tunnels. They make entry at 10:00 am. (sunset is 10pm)

Soon they encounter bodies- dead for many years but strangely mummified by the cold and dark. These people were bound and then cut across the face, guts, arms and legs, left to bleed out. Fearing Hungry Ghosts might come out the bodies at nightfall, they use Firewands to cremate the corpses and mix the ashes with salt. (they do have a Zenith with them, but she doesn’t want to reveal her Anathaema-ness to the Captain and Jaq)

More bodies leads to another clue- one of the long dead victims got their hands free and used their blood to draw a crude stick figure picture of a person with an umbrella. Unfortunately, no one In-Character got the reference to the Princess Magnificent.

Deep in the bowels of the volcano, their light radius seems to shrink back, cold causing goosebumps in a similar manner to the Prisoner Belows dark cell. The Captain grows suddenly sober when he hears a low, droning, chanting sound from further on- “Oy-yaa, Doy-yaa” repeating on and on.

Then ahead, their lights pick up more bodies. And some bodies that are standing, rather than curled into death on the floor. What could be ahead as all now hear that terrible chanting in the language of the Dead?

And now I have many, many evil ideas…..

SJE

[SJE]

Current Chalkboard open cases (with your additions)

Chalk Board (http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?ChalkBoard)


SJE

[MirrorSnake]

Unfortunately, no one In-Character got the reference to the Princess Magnificent.I totally wish I hadn't got it out-of-character, too. My feeling of impending dooooom might be slightly smaller. ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

I totally wish I hadn't got it out-of-character, too. My feeling of impending dooooom might be slightly smaller. ;)
"It's just a girl with a parasol. How bad can it be?" ;)

I know I plan to look her up in my (in-character) books later. That'll give us another chance to roll better to recognise the manner of our doom.

[SJE]

I totally wish I hadn't got it out-of-character, too. My feeling of impending dooooom might be slightly smaller. ;)

Ah dont worry about all the DOOOOOM and destruction of Gem. :) You are the thin, blue line that stands between Gem and all that destruction, so I'm sure you'll be fine! How bad could it be? :D :D :D

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

You are the thin, blue line that stands between Gem and all that destruction, so I'm sure you'll be fine!
"Is this your shadowland, miss? I'm afraid you can't park it here. Please move along, if you'd be so kind, and I shan't need to issue a ticket."

[MirrorSnake]

How bad could it be. Erm. I'm not sure I want to think about that right now. :D

[Foyle]

How bad could it be. Erm. I'm not sure I want to think about that right now. :D

Well, the Captain's sober and I can tell you, he's not happy about that.

Capt - "I see no hungry ghosts and usually I see 2 of everything! Sail away"

His loyal minions - "we're on foot, in a tunnel and the lights have just been blown out. And as the only person here without occult you won't know that they're invisble"

Capt -"The next one who speaks out of line will be forced to go to the surface and get me some more wine. So let's hear no more nonsense"

[YerMum]

Great, while you lot are off gallavanting down in the lava tubes Brand's got to dodge assassins and immaculates while trying to track down this thrice damned abyssal.

Cheers lads/ladies/both/whatever ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

Great, while you lot are off gallavanting down in the lava tubes Brand's got to dodge assassins and immaculates while trying to track down this thrice damned abyssal.

Cheers lads/ladies/both/whatever ;)
No, it's alright. I think you and Jaq are actually down there with us. You've just been strangely quiet so far. We wouldn't dream of getting out of our depth without you guys along...

[SJE]

Great, while you lot are off gallavanting down in the lava tubes Brand's got to dodge assassins and immaculates while trying to track down this thrice damned abyssal.

Cheers lads/ladies/both/whatever ;)

Thats right- all the Watch PC's "posse'd" up for this one- the Watchs first (& only)dungeon crawl!

SJE

[YerMum]

No, it's alright. I think you and Jaq are actually down there with us. You've just been strangely quiet so far. We wouldn't dream of getting out of our depth without you guys along...

There's no way I'm coming out of this one with my non-anathema certification intact is there... ;)

[MirrorSnake]

Although I have no certificate, I'm thinking such cover as I have left isn't going to last much longer either. Oh well. I have the lyrics to a Tom Lehrer song running around in my head now. It's called "We Will All Go Together When We Go". Seems somehow fitting. :p

[Cultist of Sooty]

There's no way I'm coming out of this one with my non-anathema certification intact is there... ;)
Let's just tell the Captain we can't see anything. No, definitely no glowing auras here. Then ask if he's feeling okay now that he doesn't smell of booze.

[SJE]

Great, while you lot are off gallavanting down in the lava tubes Brand's got to dodge assassins

Actually Mother Sahlak (as played by Glenn Close) offered to call off the assassins if you returned the Dreamstone.

Oh yeah....

Whoops! :eek:

:D

SJE

[YerMum]

Actually Mother Sahlak (as played by Glenn Close) offered to call off the assassins if you returned the Dreamstone.

Oh yeah....

Whoops! :eek:

:D

SJE

That's fine, I'll just have to sneak into her bedchamber one night and make her an offer she can't refuse...

[SJE]

That's fine, I'll just have to sneak into her bedchamber one night and make her an offer she can't refuse...

She'd eat you alive.

Metaphorically.

SJE

[YerMum]

She'd eat you alive.

Metaphorically.

SJE


This golden glowing castemark says otherwise ;)

Either that or I learn sorcery and whistle up a bloodape or two and send them round, in pinstripe suits, wing tip shoes and firewands in violin cases :D

[SJE]

This golden glowing castemark says otherwise ;)



My money is still on rich, ruthless, seductive and cunning over a personal night light every time! :)

SJE

[YerMum]

My money is still on rich, ruthless, seductive and cunning over a personal night light every time! :)

SJE

Well Brand's ruthless and cunning as well as the power of Sol Invictus himself... I should have a few more charms by the time we're done in the depths, more than enough to get into her compound and "negotiate" with her ;)

[SJE]

Session 9

In which our heroes fall to despair in the darkness beneath Gem, a fool lights the way and the past is fought.

Note that initially the Exalts in the Watch (Brand, Alana & Ravistsu) are concealing their identity from the Captain- they fear he will report them to the Wyld Hunt again if given reason. This caution handicaps their abilities as they desperately spend personal Essence and avoid anima displays.

The Watch are investigating the death by Hungry Ghost of the last Watch exorcist, 5 years ago. He died in a haunted lava tube, deep in the bowels of the extinct volcano on which Gem is built.

Having unsealed the tunnel and ventured down, they encounter long slain corpses, tortured to death. Ahead in the darkness, chanting figures resolve to become moronic zombies, their battle cry “Brains!”…

So we kick off with a fairly easy fight- the members of the Watch (even the mortals) easily trouncing the zombies. The Captains polearm decapitating 4 of the six, even Orchid rushes in to karate kick a zombie with her soft slipper. Jaq is hideously unlucky and botches with his firewand, causing it to explode in his hand! He just survives, though soot-charred and shaky. Everyone else, if happy, confident, untouched by zombie claw and bite and fearing no zombie plague infection- only Jaq is injured and then only by self infliction.

Still the Watch is no place for molly coddling and the Captain sends Jaq to scout on ahead despite his injuries. But another botch means that Jaqs eyes never quite acclimatise and he’s wandering through, the chilly, spooky, black as night lava tube, walking into walls.

So he doesn’t see the huge boulder that is rumbling down the slope over him, gathering speed as it hits the other PC’s. Exalts go flying, clipped by the boulder. Jaq’s legs are crushed beneath it, Orchid in its path of certain doom, before the Captain pushes her out of the way and takes the impact on himself!


When the dust settles and the Watch pick themselves up, they find themselves in a bad way- only Alana and Orchid are unharmed- Ravitsu, Brand and the Captain badly injured and Jaq crippled. Spirits are suddenly down and there is talk to fleeing to rest and recover.

Worse news! The tunnel behind them is now sealed by the one tonne boulder! With heavy hearts, they follow the path into shadow, deep under the mountain.

Passing the incline, from which the boulder had apparently been levered down onto them, they come into a great night-shrouded cavern. A horde of zombies lie below them, randomly shambling, but forever repeating their dread chant “Oy-yaa, Doy-ya, OY-YA, DOY-YA!” In the centre of the cavern lies a many columned temple of grey granite, bear of symbology or iconography. Two-thirds around the rim of the cavern lies another lava tube exit, set into a ledge midway up the cavern wall. To reach it, they will have to descend into the cavern below and hug the wall till the reach the narrow path leading to the exit tunnel.

But Floating Summer Orchid has not been idle. She fashions sigils, daubed to the foreheads of the Watch which will mask the smell of living brains and cause zombies to ignore the warded person.

Alana is first to test the magic (reasoning that as a Zenith, she can always break cover and invoke her anima) and she makes it through the zombie horde to the high exit tunnel. Brand follows, again successfully though they sense movement in the roof of the cavern above, and the temple is clearly the heart of a small shadowland under Gem.

Ravitsu, carrying Jaq makes a run for the exit, again ignored by the zombies. (though there is a tense moment as Jaq almost wipes the sigil from his forehead in relief!). But far above, ancient hunting eyes spot Ravitsu and recognition is made.

Swooping down from the darkened gallery above, a Hawkman, left side charred to the bone attacks with a shining and very familiar Moonsilver spear! As the spear pierces her side, Ravitsu recognises the zombified remains of her First Age body, back when he was Argent Wings, Hawk-totem Lunar who had perished in the Usurption, thrown into the molten heart of Gems then active volcano!

Somehow the body remained intact, preserved over a thousand years before being raised up by necromancy as an undead abomination!

Ravitsu too begins to change, invoking for the first time in public his own Deadly Beastman Transformation! Eagle wings spread from his back, flesh suddenly feathered, face turned beaked. Two sweeps of his mighty pinions brings him up to drop Jaq at Alanas feet by the exit, and then battle is joined, novice Eagle Warrior with the memories of a dozen past lives against the zombie Hawkman, still clutching his moonsilver direlance with a dead mans grip!

The two battle back and forth across the cavern, spear against direlance, Eagle against Hawk. Alana sees her chance and jumps from her high perch, landing on the undead Argent Wings, her dagger thrust into the hawkmans flesh, a hand hold for her in the aerial duel that follows. Jaq too throws his daggers with what strength he can muster, creating yet more handholds in the zombie-Lunars flesh for Alana to hang to!

Below, the Captain sees this aeriel ballet but shrugs in his simple-natured way. He cannot affect this battle above his head (& reach) but that temple looks interesting….

Spotting the Captain holding his nose and making his way through the still-shuffling zombie horde, both Orchid and Brand attempt to head him off. Alas Orchids botched attempt at exorcism (doesn’t work so well in shadowlands) breaks her sigil and attracts the attention of the zombies, who turn on her, sniffing “BRAINS!”

Hemmed in on all sides by zombies, Orchid falls, quickly covered by swarming zombies desperate to feast on her cerebellum and pass on the deadly zombie plague. She is surely doomed for, till Alana sees her peril and drops down from the battle of the Lunars (Ravistus unleashing a fearsome attack on her old body). Alana’s anima flares up- a column of pure golden-white sunlight that suddenly explodes outward, causing the zombies to cover their eyes and turn away from the suddenly too bright Alana and Orchid!

Meanwhile in the Temple the Captain finds a translucent, ghostly man, face ripped away on one side- the Nephwrack Keeper of the Temple. The lisping ghost invites the Captain to embrace Oblivion…

“Oblivion? I do that every night!” exclaims the Captain, thinking alcohol

“I say, ghostie-chappie, whats in the big sacophagus?” demands the still oblivious Captain.

“The Holy of the Holieth, the most valuable gift of our Great Mithtreth…” says the Keeper.

So the Captain promptly walks through the surprised ghost and rips the 400 pound stone lid from the sarcophagus, expecting gold or at least a decent wine cellar.

Instead he is surprised to see a large five foot by five-foot cage made of bone, black jade, soulsteel (some weird metal) and covered in crawling eldritch runes and sigils (funny squiggles that makes the Captains eyes water). A terrible feeling of dread and evil emnates from the cage but the Captain, mortal that he is, is a man of unsurpassed valour and holds his ground.

Brand (who has jus entered the temple) is much less fortunate. Though he cant see the cage, something in his new shiny Exalted soul recoils back from the perversion, the utter wrongness that lies in the sarcophagus. “Destroy it!” he shouts to the Captain

“Embrath your Oblivion” hisses the mostly-ignored Nephwrack as the Captain girds his loins then brings the butt of his firewand down onto the Monstrance of Celestial Portion, scoring a legendary Success! The unbreakable cage, cracks along its side and a golden flood of essence pours out, lifting pushing the Captain back at breakneck speed. Coruscating black energy gathers around the cage, blasting through rock and zombie alike, tremors setting in!

Outside, Ravistsu has just decapitated himself (or at least his former self) sending the zombie Hawkman crasing to the floor and reclaiming his artefact weapon from his old corpse!. All look up as the Captain is thrown backwards out of the now collapsing temple by golden streamers of energy. Racing down, Ravistsu catches the captain in his pinions just before he struck the cavern wall at lethal speed. Looking down, the Lunar is astonished to see the Captains forehead blazing with the Solar brand of the Dawn Caste!

However the Temple is collapsing in on itself, the roof of the cavern is falling. All flee for the escape tunnel, the crippled Jaq thrown from Exalt to Exalt. Brand and the Captain alike are almost lost in the expanding cloud of dust and rubble racing after the fleeing party. Sure footed Alana yanks Brand out of the avalanche, but the Captain nearly lost till, (with a sigh) Orchid once more tries to repay her life-debt to the Captain and races back, pushing him out of the way of a falling boulder and saving his life.

As the tunnel collapses around them, they run for the sunlight ahead, emerging inches ahead of the collapse into the caldera lake in the crater of the volcano! Somehow they have traversed all the way through the side of Gems volcanic home. High above them, on the Peak stands the Despots Palace, with its commanding view, though fortunately none would be likely to see our anima flaring, mix of solars and Deadly Beastman Lunar with Moonsilver dire lances!

Outside the party pick themselves up and rest in the crater of the extinct volcano. A tremulous and still broken-legged Jaq asks for some leave, and the Captain congratulates him, mentioning something about commendations. Orchid, the tension and threats to her life suddenly over, throws a hissy fit, stamping her small foot at the unfairness of it all and how things were supposed to be different, and less lethal and a lot less dirty! Then she hands in her resignation, dated for a years time which the Captain blatantly ignores.

Ravitsu launches into telling the Captain of his new role in Creation “Welcome Bronze Tiger, Chosen of the Unconquered Sun. You join your scions here in setting Creation to rights. Alana and Brand are like you- demigods of the Lord of Heaven, I myself am a Chosen of Luna, consorts and advisors to your kind!”

Brand: “Together We Fight Crime!”

[Cultist of Sooty]

Orchid, the tension and threats to her life suddenly over, throws a hissy fit, stamping her small foot at the unfairness of it all and how things were supposed to be different, and less lethal and a lot less dirty! Then she hands in her resignation, dated for a years time which the Captain blatantly ignores.
Orchid has probably, at the least, walked further on each of her days in the watch than she ever has before. She's not brimming over with Stamina, Endurance, Athletics and the like, and she's been running and climbing all over these caves and things. She's footsore and bruised and exhausted. What finally triggered the outburst was that she'd just gone down to her last point of Willpower. Bless her, she's at the end of her tether. :)

You know, working as a slave/prostitute in the House Sahlak brothels is no picnic, but it was indoor work with little heavy lifting and at least you got a lie down once in while. Well, quite a lot as it happens but, you know how it is...


I'll have to have a ponder about XP. It's become obvious that, although it's not part of my initial character concept, I'm going to have to pump some XP into the fighting arts. Otherwise I'm pretty irrelevant in combat-heavy sessions like this. I'll have a look at XP costs for stuff in the morning and put pen to paper.

[SJE]

I'll have to have a ponder about XP. It's become obvious that, although it's not part of my initial character concept, I'm going to have to pump some XP into the fighting arts. Otherwise I'm pretty irrelevant in combat-heavy sessions like this. I'll have a look at XP costs for stuff in the morning and put pen to paper.

Dreaming Pearl Courtesean Style. Buy up Dodge & MA as a mortal then get some charms when you Exalt might be plan. The Form charm alone would make you uber-Presence & Socialise!

Steve

[Cultist of Sooty]

Dreaming Pearl Courtesean Style. Buy up Dodge & MA as a mortal then get some charms when you Exalt might be plan. The Form charm alone would make you uber-Presence & Socialise!
Do MA Charms actually help you do any more damage? At the moment, it seems to me that choosing to fight with kung fu instead of a whacking great sword is a mug's game. You do naff all damage and you can't withstand any because you can't wear armour.

[SJE]

Do MA Charms actually help you do any more damage? At the moment, it seems to me that choosing to fight with kung fu instead of a whacking great sword is a mug's game. You do naff all damage and you can't withstand any because you can't wear armour.

MA doesnt increase damage in itself, but does allow you to use weapons which give you a damage bonus. Courtesean Style is useful because you can disguise those weapons as long sleeved dresses and coy paper fans... It addresses the being hurt issue by giving you a mix of dodge bonuses and soak charms, though both are inferior to the specialised Dodge and Resistance Charm sets.

Still Martial arts does let you concentrate your points in MA rather than spreading them out between resistance, doge and MA.. High Dodge is still your friend though. And if you ever part the Lord of Silent repose from his Silken Armour, then that too is usuably by Martial artists normally denied armour.

The other alternative is to go the sorcery route when you Exalt- but again sorcery is still slower than a Dodge Charm. You can put up defensive Terrestial circle spells, but that takes 2 rounds to finish.

But when you Exalt, I would have no problem with you buying up to the Persistent Dodge charm and then using that to keep safe, then allowing you the opportunity to cast spells or do some funky martial arts or social attacks.

Steve

[YerMum]

Do MA Charms actually help you do any more damage? At the moment, it seems to me that choosing to fight with kung fu instead of a whacking great sword is a mug's game. You do naff all damage and you can't withstand any because you can't wear armour.

MA is a fairly good choice for a supporting fighter, you get a reasonable grab bag of tricks and form charms tend to be pretty cool, although dreaming pearl courtesan style is a bit, err, wonky... Mantis style might be better for orchid as it's a very defensive style. Saying that Orchid could probably get away with a smattering of dodge and just social-fuing her way out of combats ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

MA is a fairly good choice for a supporting fighter, you get a reasonable grab bag of tricks and form charms tend to be pretty cool, although dreaming pearl courtesan style is a bit, err, wonky...
In what way is it wonky? I don't know the system well enough to be able to grasp this sort of thing from a quick read-through.

Saying that Orchid could probably get away with a smattering of dodge and just social-fuing her way out of combats ;)
The thing is, the way the system is written, this only works if nobody else is going to get involved in a fight. If the rest of the party is fighting, and I'm using social-fu, the relative levels of detail and crunch involved, and the time that actions take, mean that, while everyone else is playing out a dramatic fight scene in blow-by-bow detail, I'm likely to just roll my social dice pool then spend some time twiddling my thumbs while events in the fight "catch up" to me. I've been there before too many times with non-combat characters, and it gets old fast.

[YerMum]

In what way is it wonky? I don't know the system well enough to be able to grasp this sort of thing from a quick read-through.


well there's the odd pre-requisites for some of the charms (ok, so they're solar social charms, but still...), the form charm is pretty pants wrt enhancing your combat abilities and the final charm turns you into a fish/gazelle/dragon thingy and might kill you. MA should be about smashing face, or at least helping to smash face...


The thing is, the way the system is written, this only works if nobody else is going to get involved in a fight. If the rest of the party is fighting, and I'm using social-fu, the relative levels of detail and crunch involved, and the time that actions take, mean that, while everyone else is playing out a dramatic fight scene in blow-by-bow detail, I'm likely to just roll my social dice pool then spend some time twiddling my thumbs while events in the fight "catch up" to me. I've been there before too many times with non-combat characters, and it gets old fast.

Ok so against zombies there's not much a social character can do, but then there's the whole exorcism thing that's working v. well :D In other situations a softly spoken sentence to the right person can work wonders. Think jedi-mind tricks, "you really don't want to hit me" backed up by listener swaying arguement, dodging around the clumsy attacks of thugs while actually moving them into the right position for the captain to bash them (and thus aiding in his stunt), stuff like that?

[Cultist of Sooty]

well there's the odd pre-requisites for some of the charms (ok, so they're solar social charms, but still...), the form charm is pretty pants wrt enhancing your combat abilities and the final charm turns you into a fish/gazelle/dragon thingy and might kill you. MA should be about smashing face, or at least helping to smash face...
If it's a style for social characters, then most of those sound, I dunno, plausible. The fishy thing is, well, one of those things. Shouldn't MA be about being cool as well? :)

Ok so against zombies there's not much a social character can do, but then there's the whole exorcism thing that's working v. well
Dice rolls may go badly instead of well. Management accepts no responsibility for your repeated botches...

In other situations a softly spoken sentence to the right person can work wonders. Think jedi-mind tricks, "you really don't want to hit me" backed up by listener swaying arguement, dodging around the clumsy attacks of thugs while actually moving them into the right position for the captain to bash them (and thus aiding in his stunt), stuff like that?
I know all this. What worries me is that, in almost every game in which I've played a social character in combat, everyone is too busy hitting each other and you never get a word in edgeways. Or, you get to speak maybe half a sentence in each combat round, so while everyone else gets to stunt around taking half a dozen actions, it take you 2 or 3 rounds before the GM lets you make a single roll against your social skills.

While it might sound quite good in a narrative, it usually sucks from a gamist point of view, as you spend almost all your time twiddling your thumbs while the stabbing and maiming is played out in great funky detail.

[SJE]

well there's the odd pre-requisites for some of the charms (ok, so they're solar social charms, but still...), the form charm is pretty pants wrt enhancing your combat abilities and the final charm turns you into a fish/gazelle/dragon thingy and might kill you. MA should be about smashing face, or at least helping to smash face...



While the form charm is pants in regard to combat, its pretty good with regard to social fu- boosting your Socialise or Presence rolls by your MA dots too- thats easily an extra 4-5 dice, scene length, for a few motes!

Like I say, Dreaming Pearl is designed to let you do the first scene of House of Flying Daggers and possibly fits Orchid as being the least martial of the martial arts.

[YerMum]

If it's a style for social characters, then most of those sound, I dunno, plausible. The fishy thing is, well, one of those things. Shouldn't MA be about being cool as well? :)



but turning into a fish? also MA charms tend to suffer from the "self contained non-standard system" problem that makes them a pain to remember what each does, at least with melee you can be pretty sure that each charm will help you hit things harder ;)




Dice rolls may go badly instead of well. Management accepts no responsibility for your repeated botches...



so it was a multipurpose ward/curse was it? hmm...



I know all this. What worries me is that, in almost every game in which I've played a social character in combat, everyone is too busy hitting each other and you never get a word in edgeways. Or, you get to speak maybe half a sentence in each combat round, so while everyone else gets to stunt around taking half a dozen actions, it take you 2 or 3 rounds before the GM lets you make a single roll against your social skills.

While it might sound quite good in a narrative, it usually sucks from a gamist point of view, as you spend almost all your time twiddling your thumbs while the stabbing and maiming is played out in great funky detail.

to be fair even though a combat round is 3 seconds you could get through a reaonably long saga with a suitable stunt - doing cool shit tends to slow time down a bit, and what's wrong with catching someone's eye as they're about to swing at you, softly shake your head, eyes wide open, as you channel essence into them, emphasising your defencelessness, helplessness, and the subtle promise of great rewards if they would only defend you from harm...

[YerMum]

While the form charm is pants in regard to combat, its pretty good with regard to social fu- boosting your Socialise or Presence rolls by your MA dots too- thats easily an extra 4-5 dice, scene length, for a few motes!



It's got nothing to do with kicking someone's ass though... Why should being able to go through a few katas and get into a combat stance help you seduce someone? I'd probably change it to something like adding your essence to the difficulty for people attacking you and keep the letting you use props as weapons part. As for boosting social-fu, there's already harmonious presence meditiation :D



Like I say, Dreaming Pearl is designed to let you do the first scene of House of Flying Daggers and possibly fits Orchid as being the least martial of the martial arts.

I really really need to see that film btw ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

but turning into a fish?
Maybe the author was an enormous fan of:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168856/

so it was a multipurpose ward/curse was it? hmm...
When I say "your", I mean "my" of course. :) I recently managed 3 consecutive fumbles in our HeroQuest game. I came really close to matching it with a hattrick of botches last night, but suddenly rolled inexplicably well. Something's not right.

to be fair even though a combat round is 3 seconds you could get through a reaonably long saga with a suitable stunt - doing cool shit tends to slow time down a bit, and what's wrong with catching someone's eye as they're about to swing at you, softly shake your head, eyes wide open, as you channel essence into them, emphasising your defencelessness, helplessness, and the subtle promise of great rewards if they would only defend you from harm...
Nothing's wrong with any of it. My worry is more that, almost every GM I've ever encountered tells you to eff off when you try this sort of thing: "It's combat, you haven't got time to talk to people."

This happens even in supposed light-hearted swashbuckling games. Sure, people tell you social skills will work in combat, but they almost invariably place prohibitive penalties and restrictions, thereby making it completely futile to try.

My past experiences lead me to the suspicion that the only likely result from standing still long enough to try social skills on someone in a fight is that said someone will hit you with an axe (or other nasty implement).

Why, yes, I am being paranoid. But I've had this happen too many times to count. :)

[Cultist of Sooty]

I really really need to see that film btw ;)
It is a very fun film.

[YerMum]

Maybe the author was an enormous fan of:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168856/


:eek:



When I say "your", I mean "my" of course. :) I recently managed 3 consecutive fumbles in our HeroQuest game. I came really close to matching it with a hattrick of botches last night, but suddenly rolled inexplicably well. Something's not right.


I managed a double botch on an 8 dice pool last night, nearly got squished by the cave-in... which would have sucked...



Nothing's wrong with any of it. My worry is more that, almost every GM I've ever encountered tells you to eff off when you try this sort of thing: "It's combat, you haven't got time to talk to people."

This happens even in supposed light-hearted swashbuckling games. Sure, people tell you social skills will work in combat, but they almost invariably place prohibitive penalties and restrictions, thereby making it completely futile to try.

My past experiences lead me to the suspicion that the only likely result from standing still long enough to try social skills on someone in a fight is that said someone will hit you with an axe (or other nasty implement).

Why, yes, I am being paranoid. But I've had this happen too many times to count. :)

I'm sure that steve will be reasonable with this, there's always plenty of banter going on round the table ;)

[Foyle]

I'm sure that steve will be reasonable with this, there's always plenty of banter going on round the table ;)

I should also add that now I am all shiny and bright I'm hoping to develop the Captain along the lines of the character of Zhang Fei which was pretty much my inspriation.

So he'll hopefully use his new and improved social charactertistics (super-white smile, deep bellowy voice, mad staring eyes (but alluring for the ladies)) to do some social-fu as well. Not as well as Orchid I would imagine as he'll still be split with combat skills but it should create more space within the rounds for Orchid to do her stuff.

Examples of Zhange Fei's special mix of social and combat fu

http://www.threekingdoms.com/chapter.php?c=2 paras 44-58
http://www.threekingdoms.com/chapter.php?c=42 paras 12-47
http://www.threekingdoms.com/chapter.php?c=70 paras 1-22

Of course I'll also be flogging my men with greater earnest now as well ;)

[SJE]

Nothing's wrong with any of it. My worry is more that, almost every GM I've ever encountered tells you to eff off when you try this sort of thing: "It's combat, you haven't got time to talk to people."

This happens even in supposed light-hearted swashbuckling games. Sure, people tell you social skills will work in combat, but they almost invariably place prohibitive penalties and restrictions, thereby making it completely futile to try.

My past experiences lead me to the suspicion that the only likely result from standing still long enough to try social skills on someone in a fight is that said someone will hit you with an axe (or other nasty implement).

Why, yes, I am being paranoid. But I've had this happen too many times to count. :)


My view? I welcome banter during the combat- hey the Captain got almost a whole conversation in with the Nephwrack!

Now social rolls and maneuvres during combat? Weeeeeellllll............. its one of those things. Once you resort to combat, you've shut most of your social options down. Someone trying to kill you is unlikely to heed your words and empathise with you as a human being- they are too busy trying to work through their fear and adrenaline and convincing themselves that its good, righteous thing to take another persons life.

That said, if the combat was less intense, (say a duel where the duellists were not out to kill each other) then witty banter to distract, seduce or convince would be appropriate.

And lets look at the literary and cinematic examples? Social fu rarely ends a combats, and if it does have an impact, then that is because its of immense significance and emotional impact. If you can pull out the equivalent of "Luke, I am your father...." then yes, social fu can make a difference. But if your message is just "Dont kill me, lets be friends kind stranger" then I cant see any reason why your opponent is going to listen to you.

I'm willing to hear the opposing case, but lets face it, having the social types shining out of combat and the combat monsters having their time in sun when the fights start, is a fairly standard RPG practice that is fair for both types of player.

SJE

[MirrorSnake]

I technically have a great deal of social-fu, but fear that using it would just make the captain pull rank on alana. ;)

And about the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan style -- I think it's pretty neat concept-wise except for maybe that weird-ass final charm (which doesn't have a chance of voiping you out of existance unless you sustain it for multiple scenes, IIRC). And I think it would totally fit Orchid's character; so while she wouldn't be amazing combat-wise she'd have something which worked *well enough* and cool visuals to play with.

Also, on the subject of social stuff in combat -- I think it really mostly comes in handy to inspire followers and such. Though I could see an exalt kicking in the presence charms to totally over-awe an opponent; put the fear in them, as it were. Not so much negotiating as trying to make them a little less confident about their chances.

[Cultist of Sooty]

Now social rolls and maneuvres during combat? Weeeeeellllll............. its one of those things. Once you resort to combat, you've shut most of your social options down. Someone trying to kill you is unlikely to heed your words and empathise with you as a human being- they are too busy trying to work through their fear and adrenaline and convincing themselves that its good, righteous thing to take another persons life.
Wouldn't this sort of thing be what a legendary-type success is? If top-end Solar Charms don't give you the social mojo to do turn someone from wanting to kill you to wanting to make love to you with a mere glance and a whisper, then they're just not epic enough, damn it.

If you can use high-level combat charms to beat up armies, I don't see why a social charm shouldn't let you talk someone out of killing you.

[Cultist of Sooty]

And about the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan style -- I think it's pretty neat concept-wise except for maybe that weird-ass final charm (which doesn't have a chance of voiping you out of existance unless you sustain it for multiple scenes, IIRC).
You're all just trying to get me to take it so you can laugh at me when I use the fishy Charm. I'm herring it ringing in my ears already. Cod knows, I've perch-ased some strange abilities for my characters before, but this hakes the biscuit. It almost gives me a haddock thinking about it. It might be nervous tench-ion, though.

Still, I won't keep carping about it. Eel do my best to take it seriously, that's what roe-leplaying is all about, after all.

[YerMum]

Wouldn't this sort of thing be what a legendary-type success is? If top-end Solar Charms don't give you the social mojo to do turn someone from wanting to kill you to wanting to make love to you with a mere glance and a whisper, then they're just not epic enough, damn it.

If you can use high-level combat charms to beat up armies, I don't see why a social charm shouldn't let you talk someone out of killing you.

I'd have to agree here, social charms are pretty scary things, which is why they cost so much to use, but they should be effective whatever the situation. Maybe with a slightly increased difficulty for being in a fight, but extras should break with 5/6 successes and a suitable stunt/charm...

[SJE]

I'd have to agree here, social charms are pretty scary things, which is why they cost so much to use, but they should be effective whatever the situation. Maybe with a slightly increased difficulty for being in a fight, but extras should break with 5/6 successes and a suitable stunt/charm...

Ok, to make a friend of an enemy who wants to kill you with a few words and flimsy reasoning, would be a Legendary Scccess if you were doing that over drinks or at a party or something. Doing it during a combat, where said enemy is trying to kill your ass, would increase the difficulty by 4-5, so you would require a total of 9-10 successes to make it work during a fight.

Will power and conviction might also impact. As would circumstances and reasoning used in the argument- hired ruffians might well be a much lower difficulty if you offer to pay them more (& give reason why they wont net that by looting your corpse), but someone who you've harmed would have a personal investment in killing you.

SJE

[Beron the Grey]

Nothing to do with the last session especially, but here are some thoughts on bits of Jak's background.

Many people in Gem (I keep wanting to spell it "Jem") know of the (in)famous thief named the Black Mouse. A few may have noticed that said thief has changed over the past few months, becoming less flamboyant and more secretive. What only a very few know is that the current Black Mouse is the second thief to bear that name.

The first Black Mouse was the swashbuckling Swift Shadow, steal-from-the-rich-and-sometimes-give-to-the-poor type thief, and Quiet Shadow's twin brother. Due to the circumstances of their birth, brother and sister had always shared a strange link, and when she woke from a nightmare 3 months ago, she knew that her brother was now dead, murdered by a man with no face.

Swift Shadow's letters home gave Quiet Shadow some clues, and she knows that the list of suspects includes the Despot, the Obsidian Thieves Guild, the Immaculate Order, and the Temple of Sseth. Travelling to Gem, she took over her brother's web of contacts and ressurrected the Black Mouse as a way of drawing her brother's killer out of hiding. As a deliberate stalking horse, she assumed the identity of "Jak": a guardsman who resembles her dead brother.

Jak was also a way of determining whether the City Watch was in any way responsible for her brother's death. After rummaging through the relevant files, Quiet Shadow is quite convinced that the City Watch could not have been involved in any way. She also thinks that the Lord of Silent Repose would have said something to her if her had been involved in any way.

As twins, Swift Shadow and Quiet Shadow were much alike, but in certain ways they differed greatly. Swift Shadow was never as agile or stealthy as Quiet Shadow, but made up for it with a flair for performance and manipulation that his sister lacks. Swift Shadow also had much more of a need to help people, especially the common people of Gem, whereas Quiet Shadow restricts her compassion mostly to people she knows.

Currently Quiet Shadow is at an impasse. Her investigations have so far stalled, and she's just discovered that most of her fellow watchmen are anathema, sorry, exalts. The only contacts of her brother's she has yet to try are his many lovers, whom she has avoided so far due to the obvious problems. She has almost reached the stage where it might be worth trusting her comrades with some of the truth.

Steve, let me know if any of this contradicts the existing background too badly.

Simon T.

[MirrorSnake]

Speaking of backstory, it amused me when Cathak Anaria ended up being Alana's cousin, because that was how I'd thought they should be related but had forgotten to mention it to Steve... randomness.

By the way -- I definitely WILL be in next week's session, but after that I'm gone for a bit. Time to come up with a reason for Alana to drop out of active watch service for a bit...

[SJE]

Nothing to do with the last session especially, but here are some thoughts on bits of Jak's background.



Steve, let me know if any of this contradicts the existing background too badly.

Simon T.

Nope, thats groovy Simon. More Shakespearen revenge plots and twin-tom foolery.

"Swift Shadow? Heard you were dead"

Steve

[Beron the Grey]

Nope, thats groovy Simon. More Shakespearen revenge plots and twin-tom foolery.

"Swift Shadow? Heard you were dead"

Steve

"I got better"

[SJE]

One thing- "Jaq" probably wouldnt look much like Swift Shadow- as otherwise the Obsidan Theives might have reacted differently when you drank at their pub.

I imagine that Swift Shadow looks almost identical facially to Quiet Shadows real appearence, just add adams apple.

SJE

[Beron the Grey]

One thing- "Jaq" probably wouldnt look much like Swift Shadow- as otherwise the Obsidan Theives might have reacted differently when you drank at their pub.

I imagine that Swift Shadow looks almost identical facially to Quiet Shadows real appearence, just add adams apple.

SJE

Good point. Still, I was imagining that Swift Shadow's actual appearance wasn't widely known (outside his small army of lovers; oh well, let's just gloss over that one). All most people have even seen is the ninja costume (which is what Quiet Shadow also wears when she's "working").

Incidentally, is the Gem alphabet missing the letter "K" or something? :p

[SJE]

Incidentally, is the Gem alphabet missing the letter "K" or something? :p


:eek: :eek: Speak not the forbidden letter!!!! For that is precious to the Others of whom we do not speak....

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

I imagine that Swift Shadow looks almost identical facially to Quiet Shadows real appearence, just add adams apple.
My friend Rachel has just come up with a name for her dancer/assassin character for a playtest of my HeroQuest conversion. Velvet Shadow.

They certainly are a disreputable bunch, those Shadow kids, eh? :)

[Cultist of Sooty]

Incidentally, is the Gem alphabet missing the letter "K" or something? :p
We're playing in the past. Spelling was optional then. :)

[Cultist of Sooty]

By the way -- I definitely WILL be in next week's session, but after that I'm gone for a bit. Time to come up with a reason for Alana to drop out of active watch service for a bit...
Unless Steve has some particularly dramatic hook, the simplest thing may be to have Alana assigned to one of the cases where the clues point in an out-of-town direction. Alana could be seconded to help whoever does some policing somewhere else. Like Jackie Chan in Rush Hour (only this version not being as rubbish as that dreadful film :) ).

Either that, or we feel the need to get her out of town until the fallout from the brawl with Anaria dies down a bit. Though the problem with this is that the conflict with her cousin is a great plot hook for Alana, so we have to make sure it doesn't get resolved until Alana comes back to town.

If we're really stuck, I suppose we could have her head upstairs into the Department of Forbidden Magics and mysteriously disappear. Then we'll have ages to come up with a fun explanation. :)

[SJE]

Speaking of backstory, it amused me when Cathak Anaria ended up being Alana's cousin, because that was how I'd thought they should be related but had forgotten to mention it to Steve... randomness.

By the way -- I definitely WILL be in next week's session, but after that I'm gone for a bit. Time to come up with a reason for Alana to drop out of active watch service for a bit...


Well, cousin describes most people in an extended multi-generational family unit that are not your immediate relatives. That or my ESP is working again... :D

Indeed, all is proceeding as I have foreseen.

I can think of a few ways to move Alana into the background but return her in September (?), plus there was another Zenith who was Exalted in Gem in case we ever need that elusive Perfect Circle.

Steve

[MirrorSnake]

Probably until September, yeah. Maybe not quite that long, depending on when I end up moving back to London. I'm finished with archaeology in August but am also going to Germany for a random festival in mid-august, so probably won't be in London until the end of August at the earliest.

[SJE]

Exalted Session 10 of Gem City Watch

In which a Perfect Circle forms and is broken- of revenge long awaited and stolen Exaltations.

WARNING- LONG!

We begin in the night with the Captains nightmares- He dreams of riding through the desert on a coal-black steed, occasionally leaning forward to drink crimson nectar from its neck. Then a small adobe desert hamlet lies ahead- shuttered and closed for the night. The perspective of the dreamer moves through a shattered door, into a carnage where blood spatters mark the wall and screams rise into the night.

Awake, shaking, the Captain cannot shake the curious sensation of a hot liquid coating his hands. They are clean, nothing unusual to see, but they feel coated in slowly drying blood.

Alana too heads back to her lower- Shades crib, but spots a watcher observing her front door. Mustering her resolve, she confronts the drab little man. It turns out that her watcher is Brother Rat, who quickly calls over Brother Munificent Apostle of the Lightbringer and Brother Gatekeeper of the Pillars of Heaven. The three immediately begin kowtowing before Alana, praising her as a “Holy One, a Shining One sent by the Gods to usher in a New Age!”

Alana rolls her eyes as the 3 Cultists of the Illuminated keep bowing and scraping in the dust at her feet every time she speaks. The Cultists warn her that the Despots’ spies have surely seen her public Exaltation in the street and strange men have already ransacked her crib. (this turns out to be true)

Resigned, Alana heads for the Granite Watchtower, followed by the Cultists who keep insisting she is the Chosen One foretold by Prophecy. Alana tells them to bugger off, and the cultists start squabbling amongst themselves as to who offended the Exalted one.

Jak receives word that a mysterious stranger wants to hire the Black Mouse for a job. He arranges to meet the stranger (Orchid in disguise) at a garden restaurant in the Upper Shades on the following day. Otherwise he double-gulps Sweet Cordial and gets medical aid for his busted legs.

Orchid learns that her mysterious patron, the Inconstant Hierophant of Five-fold Adamant Pedagogy will call on her on the morrow. Brand heals up and the Lunar, Ravistsu attunes to his newly recovered direlance.

A new day dawns- 17th Descending Fire RY 768

Brand (concerned Jak might talk to the Immaculates) enquires after Jaks health and the knock to the head he’d received from the rolling boulder.

“How are you doing man, not to bad are you? Nasty knock to the head you had” says Brand

Jak “Fine sir, apart from my broken legs, just fine sir!” Hilarity ensues.

(Laughter XP point for Jaq)

The Captain discovers he has to write up the Crime Stats report for the Palace and promptly gives it to Jaq as desk duty. Botching the Bureaucracy roll, Jaq prepares a fantastic (but mostly accurate) report of the Watch’s activities that no one would believe.

Orchid and Alana play Bad Cop, Worse cop with the 2 Obsidian Guild thieves arrested on the 15th. Orchid tries erotic torture sans erotique to get the truth and the legbreakers implicate Desert Goat (money man for the Guild) as running the warehouse with the Firedust. The other, fearing Alana will cut too deep with her knives, mentions something about the fat slaver of House Khalid fronting some of the money.

Down in the Hot District Caravanaserai, Ravitsu, Brand and the Captain talk to merchants about the Firedust buying. Turns out that a lot of Firedust has been brought to Gem (instead of being exported as usual) and one of the big buyers is Ahram the Trader. He is known for having lost much of his fortune 3 years ago when 3 caravans were lost in the desert consecutively. Confronting him, he presents his Export licence for firedust, sealed with the authority of Lord Steward Valtess and the stamp of the Despots Office. The Captain takes a hard look at it, and concludes that, yep, that’s writing for sure, he’d recognise it anywhere!
The non-illeterate members of the Watch then look at it, and it appears genuine, though Ahram wont reveal who his mysterious buyer for all the Firedust is.

The 3 also scout the Obsidian Guild warehouse but find it locked up tight, no one around. The Captain enquires of his Exalted companions about using their new powers to get in, but Brand and Ravitsu counsel against it. Ravitsu is prepared to sneak in in rat shape, but not during broad daylight. They decide to head back in the night. Rav also warns Brand that Mother Sahlak is gunning for him for the theft of the Golden Dreamstone, (http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?SJE/Session4http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?SJE/Session4) but Brand dismisses it with some trash talk.

At break, the report is quickly re-written by Alana, who has noticed that t portrays the Watch as a group of Walter Mittys with a strange fetish for the Black Mouse master thief. The new improved version is incredibly calligraphed and illustrated by Orchids ever suffering secretary.

This gets sent to the Palace, who then request the Captain give a presentation on it. Huffing and puffing, and incredibly handsome (the light zings off his polished white teeth every time he smiles now) the Captain exchanges venomous jibes with Major Whymmes of the Palace Guard and is admitted to see Lord Steward Valtess.

Valtess has many concerns. He’s worried that the Watch is harassing legitimate businessmen such as Ahram and interfering in trade. He also wants the 2 thugs in jail let go as affidavits of their good character have been received from their lawyer (Golden Amphora) and temple. The captain kinda doesn’t disagree. Valtess also demands to know how the Captain could present such a fantastic, unbelievable tall tale as in subsection 23-a of the Report?

“Ah, Subsection 23-A.” murmers the Captain, concealing he doesn’t have a bloody clue.

“How can you expect me to believe this nonsense!” shouts Valtess

“What is your problem with that subsection?” says the Captain, still playing innocent.

“Well frankly ….. I cant.. cannot.. believe, you mean to say, Gem was… was.. under threat from….” Stutters Valtess in apoplexy

“My ….lord?”

“CLOWNS!”

(cue hilarity and the players awarding the GM a laugh XP point!)

The briefing over, the Captain is ready to leave when Valtess, almost absent mindedly, asks about the new recruits. “Which new recruit?” asks the captain. “Constable Alana, could you send her up to the Palace?” asks Valtess.
“As soon as operational requirements allow” says a now suspicious Captain.

Back on the street. Alana is still being followed by the bumbling cultists who genuflect every time they see her spot them, much to her annoyance.

Brand too feels followed. Engaging in some counter-surveillance and doubling back through alleys, he spots a very ordinary man who might be looking for him. Or he might just be some guy, its hard to tell. Hungry, Brand nips into the Market for dinner to get samosas and dates. Unfortunately he misses the other ordinary man slipping a few extra dates into his bag….

Orchid and Jaq finally have their long anticipated surreptitious meeting- Orchid stops cross-dressing and disguises herself/himself as a noble lad. Jaq dons her gender-concealing ninja suit and speaks with a low, husky whisper of the Black Mouse. Neither penetrate each others cunning disguises and the two plot to open the last lock of the Thrice Locked Box- the Thief will need excellent tools to open the Box and Orchid will need to provide money and information on who might wish the Black Mouse harm (as Jaq/Quiet Whisper tries to discover who killed her brother Swift Shadow, the original Black Mouse)

Brand isn’t feeling too good. In fact his stomach is killing him.

Literally.

Botching a Resitance roll on the way back to the Watchhouse for stake out duty on the warehouse, he knifes over as his guts start doubling up in pain. Crawling to the nearest alley, he tries to make himself sick, realising he has been poisoned. But its no good, the healer cannot heal himself and the poison courses through his system, crippling him, shutting down his organs, limbs, nerves, blood welling up his throat, unable to vomit the poison out. Desperately he invokes Body Mending Meditiation, but all it can do is lengthen his pain, not clear the poison.

Orchid meanwhile has raced back to her home to meet the Inconstant Hierophant. Just when she is ready to leave, he calls upon her. Appearing this time as a thin, blond, androgynous Aryan, s/he offers once more to help Orchid and her new friend with their problem.

“My friend?” wonders orchid

“The thief. I have a gossamer lock pick that might prove useful.”

“the Cost?” asks Orchid of her mentor.

“A change in your lifestyle. An elevation to a more ….. Exalted position”.

“You can… Exalt me?”

“For a price. The Heavens are all abuzz with the activity here in Gem. I can help you.. join your colleagues. But it will be dangerous. You will learn the answer to the most dangerous question in Creation. Think on it, before you accept.”

Orchid takes a moment. Several moments…

Half an hour passes.

She accepts.

“I ask only for Three Favours in return for this.“ says the Hierophant.

“Of course.”

“Now, your Exaltation!”

Orchid is caught, elevated in a pillar of white-hot golden-bright light, burning her, penetrating her, atomising her.

”ARRACK OF NORTHHOLM, DO YOU SWEAR TO SERVE ME AS MY AMBASSADOR IN THE LANDS MOST FAIR AND FOUL” booms the voice of the Unconquered Sun, apparently addressing some Northerner called Arrack.

“I do” screams a puzzled Orchid.

And she is reborn in white-light, a new being, golden circle within golden circle upon her brow, remade with a stolen Exaltation as an Eclipse Caste.

Her best parlour, now sun-bleached white is empty of light and life save that of the smug Hierophant.

“Now know this, the first favour I ask of you Floating Summer Orchid”
Orchid is all ears

“There is trouble in Heaven. The Loom of Fate, which many guard but few understand has suffered a terrible accident. The fate of Gem and the Fate of Creation have become intertwined. What affects one now affects the other- if Gem falls, then so does all of Creation, if Gem stands, then so does all of reality!”

“What can I do? What will we face?”

“Never before has Gem and now Creation needed guards to protect it, to watch over it and keep it safe. All of Creations Foes are now arrayed against this city- the inchopate madness of the Fae, the corruption of Malfeas, the cold march of the Deathlords armies, the paranoia of a disintegrating Realm and the weakness of Man. For my first favour owed, I charge you with ensuring that Gem survives, that it stands for as long as it takes to save Creation!”

Now go, your friend will need this”

The Hierophant leaves, handing Orchid a slim case. Just as the door closes, Orchid blinks through the golden light shining from her brow and perceives the Hierophant differently No longer a man, the robes disguise a far taller, sinous creature with the head of a beautiful foal and the pearly, shimmering scales running down its draconic body..

The Captain, Ravitsu, and Alana assemble at the Watchtower to go stake out the Obsidian Guild warehouse. They wait a while, but decide the crazy maverick has gone off on his own case as usual and head off. It is only by the best of fortune, that they chance past the alley in which the poisoned detective is breathing his last, when Alana notices him.

Rushing him to the tower, they desperately try to keep him alive, but the poison is still in his stomach, undoing all the good his Body Mending Meditation is doing, killing him. Alana rushes to the Apothecarys for an anti-dote, but it is locked and shut. Brother Rat of the Cult of the Illuminated is still following her and offers to help the Shining One. Explaining her plight, Brother Rat exclaims

“Hey, I got a cousin downhill, works as a veterinary at the camel pens! I bet he can help”

The Cultist rushes off and is soon back with an acrid liquid in a brown bottle. Pouring this down Brands throat and applying all her medical knowledge, Alana is at last abel to induce vomiting in Brand to get the poison out of his stomach.

Brand paints the cell puce, (or puke) then falls back to unconscious health, swearing revenge on the Sahlaks and letting his magic heal his body back. (and gaining Limit from the back to the wall nature of the experience). Much as Alana tries, Brother Rat wont accept recompense from her- telling her that every Cultist ”Lives for the Shining One, will Die for the Shining One!”

Orchid and Jaq meet up again, at last with the Thrice Locked Box and gossamer lock picks together at last. Neither has seen through the others disguise yet.

”These are fine lockpicks, My Friend” says Jaq causing Orchid to look startled as the thief refers to her as friend for the first time, just as the Hierophant had predicted.

Jaq tries to open the box, concentrating all his craft on this.

Plink! The lock doesn’t turn.

“Arse!” exclaims Jaq, his confidence shaken. But he gathers himself together, gets Orchid to supply better light, calms his breathing, steadies his hand, hearing nothing but the sound of his own heart beating and the tumbling of the last lock. He has it… nearly there……


….

Nearly….



….


BANG!

Light explodes out of the box, spilling over the room, sweeping away the watching Orchid and coruscating around Jaqs silhouette! The Thrice Locked Box, early prototype of the Jade Prison opens for the first time in a thousand years, spilling out a Solar Essence.

“AT LAST- ONE WHO IS WORTHY TO BE CHOSEN!” booms the Unconquered Sun from Above!

And so, the last mortal, Jaq Exalts as a Night Caste, Chosen of the Sun.

As the debris settles and light subsides, Orchid moves off the ninja mask from Jaqs face and at last realises that the infamous Black Mouse is in fact the fresh faced Watch recruit she knows so well. As Jaq opens his eyes, he sees through Orchids disguise, recognising the noble lad who had employed him as one and the same as the Watch Thaumaturgist.

“I do NOT believe it!” – an upset Orchid.

At last we have a Perfect Circle of Solars- The Captain, Dawn Warrior. Brand, Twilight Investigator. Alana, Zenith Leader. Orchid, Eclipse Thaumaturge. Jaq, Night Thief. And Ravitsu, Lunar with memories of the First Age training of Solars.

But no sooner is our Perfect Circle plus One achieved, than it is broken.

Angry Tiger, the leader of the Cult of the Illuminated in Gem is more confident, more competent than his farcical followers. He comes to the Watch Tower where Alana tends the unconscious Brand. Angry Tiger warns her that her enemies are gathering, that she must leave Gem for a short while, to train and develop her most holy powers until she can return in the fullness of her radiant magnificence and sweep away her enemies like chaff in the wind. Alana is hesistant, unwilling to abandon her Circle in Gem, but if she stays she must face the Despot in the morning, and who knows when Cathak Anaria will wake?

So Alana and Tiger disappear into the night, fleeing for the training camps of the Cult at Kether Rock, sure to return….

[SJE]

So, any thoughts on Iconic banners yet?

I could guess that Jaq might have the black silhouette of a mouse scurrying around as his, but I cant help thinking it should be accompanied by the audio display of the Pink Panther music!

SJE

[YerMum]

So, any thoughts on Iconic banners yet?

I could guess that Jaq might have the black silhouette of a mouse scurrying around as his, but I cant help thinking it should be accompanied by the audio display of the Pink Panther music!

SJE

lol, gm xp point ;)

Brands may yet end up being the bat-signal :D

[MirrorSnake]

I'm still struggling. I guess I have until September to come up with something now, though. :rolleyes:

[SJE]

Exalted Session 11 Log

The One where the plot(s) develop....

Events- early morning 18th Descending Fire Ravitsu and the Captain surveil the suspected warehouse of Ahram the Trader, who holds an export licence for firedust. The Captain distracts them while Rav in mouse form scurries between their feet. He observes that the thieves are cutting up the fire poweder into small pouches and filling sacks with 10-20 pouches per sack. Rav evacs out unnoticed.

(Think 24! The clock is ticking to the hour- tink- Tink- TINK!, 4 split screens show different scenes! Upper right, a small mouse scurries between the feet of thugs cutting a mound of firedust into smaller bags. Upper Right- Brand looks yellow and near death, blood on his lips as he twists in agony on his bed. Lower Left- Alana looks worried as she and a mysterious man flee into the nightime desert. Lower Right, blazing white light surrounds a black clad ninja, Orchid rises unsteadily from behind the cover of a toppled table. Camera focuses in Lower Right – Clock 11:59:44

Full screen on Orchid, as she makes her way to the ninja, tugging away the black hood. Beneath is the recognisable face of young Jaq, recent recruit and boy-scout to the Watch.

Orchid- “OH Fuck!”

11:59:58
*CHINK*
11:59:59
*CHINK!!!*
12:00:00
*KA-CHINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Everyone gets some sleep and goes on duty around 8am.

Convening in the Granite Towers- some truths are shared. Jaq and Orchid reveal that they too Exalted during the night though Orchid keeps back some of the details on the Hierophant and Jak doesn’t mention the whole Black Mouse thing at all.

Orchid reveals some of the threat to Gem, how the Fate of Creation is now intertwined with that of Creation as a whole. Much talk of this amongst the Exalts as they sort themselves out. They also notice Alana is missing and find her note saying “Have fled to desert with those lunatics I told you about. Back sometime”

Then the PC’s surprise me. New Eclipse Orchid suggests they swear a binding oath to prevent the destruction of Gem from all enemies, within and without. (Actually, initially Orchid misspoke and said “We swear the destruction of Gem” to much amusement and speculation on how a dyslexic Eclipse could create more havoc than any given Abyssal….)

After a few revisions they all agree, join hands and say “I swear that I will defend the City of Gem from all enemies and threats as long as I shall live”. Somewhere above, three knocks in the sky signify Heavens witnessing of this oath.

Looking at the Chalkboard, the most immediate threat to defend against appears to the be the Obsidian Theives Guild and their stockpiling of firedust for undoubtedly nefarious ends. Plans are drawn up, the Palace is notified that Alana wont make her meeting with the Despot, and the Captain receives an invite from Lord Steward Valtess to join him at a large dinner party on the 20th at the Palace.

Then Trouble! Word comes of death at the City Gates. Scrambling, Rav, Captain, Jaq & Orchid head down the mountain for the Watchtowers on the City gates. Getting through the mob, they head up the spiral steps of the Gate tower and come out in the top turret room.

There the naked, decapitated corpse of old Watch hand Cpl. McMuhrty has been hung upside down from a rafter. Ravitsu, first through the door, gets the feeling of being watched- the Lunar hairs on the back of her neck prickling. But there is no one there, just a quiet sound of some clicks and a low humming noise.

Further investigation shows blood spatter near the two chairs at the fire. A lot of blood spatter. Body seems to have died of instantaneous decapitation. But where is Old Tam, McMuhrtys partner? A faint blood trail leads to the balcony surrounding the watchtower. Again a feeling of being watched- but no one to see. Old Tam’s headless body is here too- impaled on the spike at the top of the tower, a good 7 feet up from the roof gutter!

They get the bodies down and make a thorough invstigation. There are maybe some tracks in the rafters, but who nobody knows. Essence flows are strangely normal and no one is sure what could have done this without leaving a trace. But other threats press on Gem and this double murder is reluctantly sidelined to concentrate on the Obsidian issue. The rest of the Watch NPC’s head off for the wake/funereal arrangements for Old Tam and McMuhrty, leaving the Watchouse and patrols dangerously undermanned- only the 5 PCs are still on duty!

Brand (still slowly recovering from his poisoning) tries to put all the pieces of he Firedust smuggling together, but finds his charm-enhanced concentration interrupted by the sound of a crying child. It is the demon-kid Lucita who is sobbing about a bad dream she had of monsters chewing their way out of the ground with tentacles and teeth and stuff. Brand, hardened badcop that his is unable to reassure a crying 8 year old and winds up giving her lollipops instead, but does check under the bed anyway.

((Orchid, Rav & Brand go to astrologer Prophetic Voice and sort out deaf old neighbour Venerable Otaku- hilarity ensues.))

Captain stakes out the warehouse, gets drunk, gets into arm wrestle with Drongo, spots cart leaving just in time and sees it deliver sacks to addresses round city.

Orchid finds out that the Abyssal Lord of Silent Repose has taken up his old lodgings in the diplomatic quarter (lower Peak) and his carriage visits the Diamond Palace nearly nightly.

Rav and Brand discover that crime is down, the Obsidians are up to something but no one is sure what- they have been acquiring buildings around the city with a little intimidation and a lot of money.

Jak follows Desert Goat around all day- eventually to the home of Khalid the Slaver where he finally gets close enough to overhear “…. Sieze the armoury, tomorrow…. Firedust distributed….. uprising on the 20th…..”

Its all gone bad, it sounds like the Obsidian Guild are conspiring to lead a revolution on the 20th (when the bigwigs are at dinner) and today is the 18th. The Despot must be told!

But even then, braying trumpets from the (abandoned) City Gates herald the arrival of a column of men, horses and carriages, in blue and silver uniforms. It is the embassy from Paragon, lead by Ambassador Hollow Reed (played by Neville Chamberlain), Demi-Prefect Shania (think Denise Crosby) his bodyguard and a unit of Paragon Mounted Lancers as their protection.

The Watch rush down there, trying to look presentable (Rav resorts to Lunar shapeshifting charms to accomplish this miracle, the Captain looks shaven and less drunk for a moment, but Orchid and Brand really shine).

The Ambassador requests admittance to the City, the Captain accedes. Then youthful Jak impresses everyone by single-handedly opening the 30-foot tall gates himself! (9 successes on the Str & Athletics roll!)

“Hes our newest recruit!” boasts the Captain in diplomatic small talk as the Ambassador, Captain, Orchid and Demi-Prefect. Diplomatic incidents are avoided, the delay at the Gates smoothed over and soon the Ambassador and retinue are delivered to the Diamond Palace where Captain Whymmes engages in a Zoolander-esque fashion strut-off with the Captain over who is is the better looking and groomed.

So we close with the group at the gates of the Palace, so close to warning the Despot of the revolution, yet still so far away…

(More to come)

SJE

[SJE]

Rumours for the day-

"Paragon has invaded, the Diamond Palace is burnt and the Ruby Citadel fallen" (A look up the volcano shows a remarkable lack of smoke coming from the Palace)

"There is to be a Creation wide Kung Fu tournament in Gem over Calibration. First prize is supposedly an Apple of the Gods."

"Some village to the south east got turned into a charnel house a few nights ago"

"theres been strange weather lately"

"The Captain of the City Watch wears a wig and is secretly a transvestite"

And as 24 puts it- Tick- TICK- TICCCKK!!!

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

Then the PC’s surprise me. New Eclipse Orchid suggests they swear a binding oath to prevent the destruction of Gem from all enemies, within and without. (Actually, initially Orchid misspoke and said “We swear the destruction of Gem” to much amusement and speculation on how a dyslexic Eclipse could create more havoc than any given Abyssal….)
Thankfully, we were still at the point of suggested wording...

I must apologise, actually, my brain was very sub-par yesterday. I genuinely wasn't on good form. It seems that my hay fever has mutated into a proper cold. As I am a real man, I must insist to you all that nobody has ever had such a bad cold. In fact, I may be dying. I shall resort to the traditional cure - wrapping myself in the spare duvet, watching telly all day and whingeing. :)

[SJE]

Feeling absolutely rotten this morning- but thats more due to the 3 hours of sleep than anything else too.

So, did you have a plan for how to play out the Thieves Guild situation?

Steve

[Foyle]

I was going to suggest an elegant plan wherein we split our efforts -

Orchid and Brand set to work securing evidence from the guild - breaking into their offices to secure written communication and seducing key members into fits of desire so they readily betray their conspirators.

Captain, Brand and Ravitsu scout out the armoury and try and identify how the Thieves Guild will break in and seize control. Presumably if the taking control of the armoury is to happen a day before the actual insurrection they must be planning one of the following

a) to keep their takeover quiet (a tricky feat I would think)
b) to steal or disable key weapons that could be used against them (if done quietly this could be undetected until the need for the weapons arose)
c) to secure access to the building for the next day - getting hold of keys, codewords, ensuring windows are unbarred, placing agents inside the armoury in secret locations to wait for the signal.

Probably we need to do this in combination with breaking into one of the houses where the firedust is stored, ruthlessly interrogating anyone inside and leaving a little surprise for the next day.

Hopefully we will capture the Thieve's Guild agents in the act and with whatever information Orchid and Jaq come up with have enough to reveal the plot to the Despot without tipping the hand of the Guild. So where we try and foil the Thieve's Guild attack on the armoury, rather than us engaging in pitched battle, we ensure that their surprise is ruined and loyal guards alerted and able to fight them off. We then take a couple hostage and hope the Guild account them dead. At this late point it is doubtful the Guild will be able to call off the attack and would just have to work around the fact they don't have control of the armoury.

[YerMum]

I'm all for it, although it doesn mean that Brand will have to be in two places at once ;)

I think that the thieves, being thieves, will attempt to

a) bluff their way into the armoury, probably with a bunch of waggons filled with "supplies" that are actually filled with heavies/mercenaries or paragonese

b) sneak in at night in the traditional manner

c) kidnap the family of the supervisor, who'll then get what they need and have it delivered.

I think we might need to do another stakeout, with Rav already inside, Brand on the roof and the Cap in a COFFEE SHOP nearby ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

Speaking as a man with a cold, I am clearly feeling much worse than anyone ever has in history. Ever. But I've got a new eyepatch, so my eye is feeling much better today. :)

As far as the plan goes, seems fairly sound to me. It might be worth schmoozing the Paragon bunch if we can, see if we can winkle any information out of them that they might be connected to this coup attempt.

Possibly get some of the redshirts, if we can get them back on duty, to keep an eye out for more Paragonese being sneaked into the city? Or just keep an eye out for suspicious groups of heavies or goons. If nothing else, it might give them something to do to take their minds off their dead pals.

Orchid will also want to be sure to take at least some time to join the watchmen's vigil for McMuhrty & Old Tam, and would advise the Captain to do the same. It would be bad for morale among the men if we don't.

[Foyle]

As far as the plan goes, seems fairly sound to me. It might be worth schmoozing the Paragon bunch if we can, see if we can winkle any information out of them that they might be connected to this coup attempt.

I was going to suggest we do that on the day of the feast, but if Orchid's seduction skills and stamina are up to the task then go for it. As Mrs B'Stard once said 'not one at a time silly'



Orchid will also want to be sure to take at least some time to join the watchmen's vigil for McMuhrty & Old Tam, and would advise the Captain to do the same. It would be bad for morale among the men if we don't.

Agreed. Hmm, how much XP do I need for Tiger Warrior Training?

[YerMum]

I think we need to go on a serious recruiting drive as well, I think we've enough Presence-fu to get our message across. Then we need someone to learn Tiger Warrior Training tech...

The despot sure is going to be surprised once we get our private army, err, the watch into shape ;)

[Foyle]

I think we need to go round up all the dregs from the taverns and lock them in a cellar Then we need someone to learn Tiger Warrior Training tech...


Corrected your error there

[YerMum]

Corrected your error there

heh, that's only really gonna work once you get TWTT though, we need at least some able bodied men to plug the gap till then ;)

[Foyle]

Get the dregs, deprive them of drink till the thirst really hits them, throw wine bombs on our enemies and let them loose. The ones that survive are good enough for Tiger Warrior Training.

But yeah I should put some adds into presence in any case

[Cultist of Sooty]

I was going to suggest we do that on the day of the feast, but if Orchid's seduction skills and stamina are up to the task then go for it. As Mrs B'Stard once said 'not one at a time silly'
Easy, tiger.

Isn't the day of the feast the one that the coup is meant to start on? It might be a bit late to start trying to find out what they know by that point.

[Foyle]

Easy, tiger.

Isn't the day of the feast the one that the coup is meant to start on? It might be a bit late to start trying to find out what they know by that point.

Oh yeah.

Shit.

Ok, back to plan A - grab someone and hold em by their ankles over a lava tube until they confess! I suppose if we get enough evidence from the thieves guild that implicates Paragon we'll be OK

[YerMum]

Oh yeah.

Shit.

Ok, back to plan A - grab someone and hold em by their ankles over a lava tube until they confess! I suppose if we get enough evidence from the thieves guild that implicates Paragon we'll be OK

If it comes to it then maybe Orchid could talk with the Paragonese ambassador and mention that we have enough evidence to bring before the despot, however we're unwilling to do that as the resulting war would weaken both nations to the point that the Realm/Fae/Dead/Whoever could just walk in and conquer both - and allow them to make a graceful exit.
We really don't need a war right this moment, maybe 3 months after the captain's gotten tiger warrior training tech ;)

[Spectrum]

Well, this thread certainly helped me pass the day.

Subscribed. Looking forward to more write-ups. =)

[Cultist of Sooty]

If it comes to it then maybe Orchid could talk with the Paragonese ambassador and mention that we have enough evidence to bring before the despot, however we're unwilling to do that as the resulting war would weaken both nations to the point that the Realm/Fae/Dead/Whoever could just walk in and conquer both - and allow them to make a graceful exit.
If we do find evidence that the Paragonese are involved, I think it would be rather vulgar to confront the ambassador with it. Perhaps it would be best to discuss a hypothetical situation where evidence came to light that could indicate to a casual observer, not well-versed in politics, that rogue elements were plotting some sort of coup. Obviously, if such evidence were to come to light, one would feel compelled to bring it to the attention of the Despot. Who knows what intemperate actions might result? Let us all hope that there will never be a situation in which one must bring such distressing news to the Despot. By the way, this wine is rather nice, wouldn't you say? What's that? Oh, such a shame that you'll be returning to Paragon so soon...

Let's be civilised about these things.

[SJE]

Well, this thread certainly helped me pass the day.

Subscribed. Looking forward to more write-ups. =)

Thank you for your post and kind words. I was starting to worry that we'd completely internalised this part of RPG.net into an internal group discussion only! Our comic misadventures should be updated weekly, every Monday night.

If anyones got an opinion, plan or theory, feel free to shout out. As the evil GM I'll take any help I can get (hey, its 5 against one here!) and I'm sure the player might appreciate an outside perspective every now and then.

:)

SJE

[SJE]

If we do find evidence that the Paragonese are involved, I think it would be rather vulgar to confront the ambassador with it. Perhaps it would be best to discuss a hypothetical situation where evidence came to light that could indicate to a casual observer, not well-versed in politics, that rogue elements were plotting some sort of coup. .


Of course, if the Paragonese are NOT involved with the coup, then perhaps this information would lead them to war, as they sense weakness in Gem's political structure.

Damned if do, damned if dont. :D

MWA-HAHAHAHHAHHHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SJE

[ru]

I was starting to worry that we'd completely internalised this part of RPG.net into an internal group discussion only! Our comic misadventures should be updated weekly, every Monday night.
i've been lurking for a couple of week as well. good stuff. :)

[Cultist of Sooty]

(hey, its 5 against one here!)
There might be more of us, but you have a clue... :)

[Cultist of Sooty]

Of course, if the Paragonese are NOT involved with the coup, then perhaps this information would lead them to war, as they sense weakness in Gem's political structure.
Which is why I put in the caveat about finding evidence. Surely you don't think I'd go off half-cocked, saying daft things that might doom the city?

[SJE]

Surely you don't think I'd go off half-cocked, saying daft things that might doom the city?

I dont know, would you be binding people to irrevocable Gawd-oaths at the time or not?

:D

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

I dont know, would you be binding people to irrevocable Gawd-oaths at the time or not?
Do they have one of those back-out clauses for people with cold feet or who may have come to realise there was a small error, of little real significance, in the wording?

[YerMum]

Of course, if the Paragonese are NOT involved with the coup, then perhaps this information would lead them to war, as they sense weakness in Gem's political structure.

Damned if do, damned if dont. :D

MWA-HAHAHAHHAHHHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SJE

Well by the time they get to Paragon with the news, muster their armies, and get back we'll (hopefully!) have taken over, learned some sorcery, trained up our own private army, built up Gem's defences and generally got our act together...


















we're so doomed! ;)

[SJE]

Well by the time they get to Paragon with the news, muster their armies, and get back we'll (hopefully!) have taken over, learned some sorcery, trained up our own private army, built up Gem's defences and generally got our act together...


I think the Perfect is telling the blue-uniformed boys and girls of the Paragonese Army that it'll all be over in days and they will be back in time for Calibration!

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

I think the Perfect is telling the blue-uniformed boys and girls of the Paragonese Army that it'll all be over in days and they will be back in time for Calibration!
If they listen to us it will be. :)

[Phantom Stranger]

I think the Perfect is telling the blue-uniformed boys and girls of the Paragonese Army that it'll all be over in days and they will be back in time for Calibration!

SJE

See, I just assumed Paragon and domain was one big shadowland of unusually healthy-looking zombies ruled by an unorthodox deathlord when I invaded Gem with them...

[YerMum]

I think the Perfect is telling the blue-uniformed boys and girls of the Paragonese Army that it'll all be over in days and they will be back in time for Calibration!

SJE

what about the tea and medals?

(and paragon is several hundred miles away across quite harsh desert terrain, it'll take them more than a few days to get back ;))

[Cultist of Sooty]

(and paragon is several hundred miles away across quite harsh desert terrain, it'll take them more than a few days to get back ;))
This gives me a new plan, for when we really have our social-fu Charms up and running:

1. Go to Paragon.

2. Incite an invasion of Gem.

3. Get the Paragonese army lost in the desert.

4. Unleash the Captain to pickle their livers, addle their brains and train their tiger-ness.

5. Keeping them drunk, addled and fired up, lead them round in circles until we reach Paragon.

6. Tell them it's Gem. Hilarity ensues.

[Foyle]

Which is why I put in the caveat about finding evidence. Surely you don't think I'd go off half-cocked, saying daft things that might doom the city?

Hey, thats my job :(

I like the idea of encouraging the Paragonese (-itians?, gons?) to invade Gem. We should also build up paranoia in Gem until both have very large standing armies then at the critical moment take control of both armies and storm the Realm!

[YerMum]

Hey, thats my job :(

I like the idea of encouraging the Paragonese (-itians?, gons?) to invade Gem. We should also build up paranoia in Gem until both have very large standing armies then at the critical moment take control of both armies and storm the Realm!

Unfortunately every citizen of Paragon has sworn a magically binding oath to the Perfect, which if they break, even if under duress (or solar social-fu :() they die when they next enter a building at night iirc so even if we do take over their army, there's not much we can do with it unless we shank the Perfect first.

Possibly a job for Jaq and Brand then, sneak into Paragon and Greyhawk the Perfect, putting us in charge of his funky mind control artifact instead :D

[Cultist of Sooty]

Unfortunately every citizen of Paragon has sworn a magically binding oath to the Perfect, which if they break, even if under duress (or solar social-fu :() they die when they next enter a building at night
So what? They'll be outdoors until they get back to Paragon. :)

[Cultist of Sooty]

Greyhawk the Perfect
What, turn him into a D&D campaign setting?

[Beron the Grey]

What, turn him into a D&D campaign setting?

I'm good, but I'm not that good.

Anyway, wouldn't that be a social charm? :D

[Foyle]

So what? They'll be outdoors until they get back to Paragon. :)

And then we just make sure they destroy every building they come across as they storm the city.

I think we're getting the hang of this "its the letter of the oath, not the spirit of it that matters" thing

[YerMum]

So what? They'll be outdoors until they get back to Paragon. :)

true enough, but another rumour is that he can see through their eyes and listen through their ears as well, best just to ambush the army and then invade with our own ;-)

and by ambush I mean take the combat wombats out into the desert and wait for them to come past, then leap out and slaughter in a blaze of essence fuelled carnage :D of course brand + the captain will need persistent defences by then, but we've got a few weeks...

[YerMum]

What, turn him into a D&D campaign setting?

Kill him and take his stuff, or in this case take his magical doohickey and his city :D

[SJE]

Hey, thats my job :(

I like the idea of encouraging the Paragonese (-itians?, gons?) to invade Gem.

OK, this brings up an interesting question- what is the word to describe someone from

a) Paragon
B)Gem.


Paragon people could be Paragonese, Paragonistas, Paragoni, Paragonion, or one of my favourites- Paras (explains how their army travels so fast!)

People from Gem could be Gemian, Gems, or possibly most appropriate- Gemites.

Any more suggestions/ideas?

Steve

[Foyle]

true enough, but another rumour is that he can see through their eyes and listen through their ears as well, best just to ambush the army and then invade with our own ;-)

and by ambush I mean take the combat wombats out into the desert and wait for them to come past, then leap out and slaughter in a blaze of essence fuelled carnage :D of course brand + the captain will need persistent defences by then, but we've got a few weeks...

So we eye gouge them and cut off their ears, then Brand uses his craft skills to implant a series of all-seeing eyes tied directly to a series of magitech probes that fly around the army. This allows us to control what they see and send fake images back to the Perfect of the army burning Gem to the ground. He's so enraptures he fails to notice the smell of his own city as it burns around him.

[Cultist of Sooty]

true enough, but another rumour is that he can see through their eyes and listen through their ears as well, best just to ambush the army and then invade with our own ;-)
Who listens to stupid rumours? You'll be telling us there's a transvestite in the watch next.

It's not like we'll tell them they're invading Paragon. By the time he sees, through their drink-sodden senses, that it's Paragon they're marching on, it'll be too late. In the confusion, we sneak in and give him what he deserves.

[Roman Exular]

As my first posting on this forum I'm going to say: :eek: This thread is marvelous. I can't think of how fun it would be to play in this game. Keep the updates coming!

[YerMum]

So we eye gouge them and cut off their ears, then Brand uses his craft skills to implant a series of all-seeing eyes tied directly to a series of magitech probes that fly around the army. This allows us to control what they see and send fake images back to the Perfect of the army burning Gem to the ground. He's so enraptures he fails to notice the smell of his own city as it burns around him.

awesome :D

We'll need raw materials though, may I suggest that we all get our best safari suits and pith helmets and go on a Furnace Rhino hunt?

Tallyho!

[SJE]

As my first posting on this forum I'm going to say: :eek: This thread is marvelous. I can't think of how fun it would be to play in this game. Keep the updates coming!

Oh Hey, welcome! Thank you for the encouragement, I glad this transparant (to the public as it were) campaign is entertaining more than our own merry band of maniacs and punsters. :)

SJE

[Phantom Stranger]

OK, this brings up an interesting question- what is the word to describe someone from

B)Gem.




Doomed.

[SJE]

Doomed.


The Gem Board of Tourism decided to promote a new name over the traditional "Doomed". They also successfully lobbied the Realm to replace the traditional map markings from "Only Death Dwells Here" and "Here Be Dragons" to "Gem: City of Culture and Civic Pride '58". The bribes were astronomical.

SJE

[Foyle]

The Gem Board of Tourism decided to promote a new name over the traditional "Doomed". They also successfully lobbied the Realm to replace the traditional map markings from "Only Death Dwells Here" and "Here Be Dragons" to "Gem: City of Culture and Civic Pride '58". The bribes were astronomical.

SJE

If I had the time and ability I'd get one of the Creation maps and add in "Only Death Dwells Here" and "Here Be Dragons" then have them scrawled out and replaced with "Gem: City of Culture and Civic Pride '58" in shaky handwriting. Would be very Pratchet.

Saldy I have neither time nor skill but I encourage others to try it out.

[Cultist of Sooty]

We'll need raw materials though, may I suggest that we all get our best safari suits and pith helmets and go on a Furnace Rhino hunt?
"This morning I shot a furnace rhino in my pyjamas*. How he got in my pyjamas, I don't know."



* This sounds so much smuttier than the "elephant" version of the line. doesn't it?

[Beron the Grey]

The Gem Board of Tourism decided to promote a new name over the traditional "Doomed". They also successfully lobbied the Realm to replace the traditional map markings from "Only Death Dwells Here" and "Here Be Dragons" to "Gem: City of Culture and Civic Pride '58". The bribes were astronomical.

SJE

Literally astronomical, as it turned out. Bribing Sidereals to tippex out the old name in the cosmic register and write in an advertising slogan doesn't come cheap. As it is, they left off the '58' as writing the year in would have caused Gem to endlessly relive the same period of time.

That's their excuse, anyway. Cheapskates. They could at least have added 'The' before the word 'Culture', and then us lowly peons in the Guard would have access to knife missiles and suits of powered armour.

[YerMum]

Literally astronomical, as it turned out. Bribing Sidereals to tippex out the old name in the cosmic register and write in an advertising slogan doesn't come cheap. As it is, they left off the '58' as writing the year in would have caused Gem to endlessly relive the same period of time.



genius :D



That's their excuse, anyway. Cheapskates. They could at least have added 'The' before the word 'Culture', and then us lowly peons in the Guard would have access to knife missiles and suits of powered armour.

err, give Brand a couple of weeks and a hunk or orichalcum and he'll see what he can do ;)

[SJE]

Been reading some Iain Banks recently too Simon? (I re-read "Player of Games" at the weekend for no particular reason).

I like your idea of Gem being caught in a giant Groundhog Day effect- explains why everyone can destroy it, but its still standing the next day....

Hmm... Must use somewhere...

:D

SJE

[Beron the Grey]

Been reading some Iain Banks recently too Simon? (I re-read "Player of Games" at the weekend for no particular reason).

I like your idea of Gem being caught in a giant Groundhog Day effect- explains why everyone can destroy it, but its still standing the next day....

Hmm... Must use somewhere...

:D

SJE

Not recently, no. Just one of the ideas that swirls around inside my head and occasionally surfaces. I do wonder what you could do with an Exalted/Culture crossover, though.

Or maybe I'm just mad.

[YerMum]

Not recently, no. Just one of the ideas that swirls around inside my head and occasionally surfaces. I do wonder what you could do with an Exalted/Culture crossover, though.

Or maybe I'm just mad.

iirc kasumi's already done something like this, although it was on a crazy anime-style tangent and all exalts could turn their animas into giant mecha & weaponry :D

[Cultist of Sooty]

Literally astronomical, as it turned out. Bribing Sidereals to tippex out the old name in the cosmic register and write in an advertising slogan doesn't come cheap. As it is, they left off the '58' as writing the year in would have caused Gem to endlessly relive the same period of time.
To be fair, that endlessly relived '58 wouldn't have been quite so bad if someone hadn't bungled the arrangements for Gem's Great Exhibition at the Diamond Palace and offered 4500 sq. ft. of display space each to the First & Forsaken Lion, Ma-Ha-Suchi, the Balorian Church and some strange tall fellow with a great big gem implanted in his forehead.

[SJE]

Session 12 Exalted Campaign Log

Enter the Predator…

Having escorted the Amabassdor from Paragon to the Palace, the Watch retire to the Dragons Rest Tavern where the wake for the slain Watchman Old Tam and McMurty is being held, coffins at the end of the bar. The PC’s try to cheer up the rest of the now depressed and despondant Watch, but it’s a struggle.

People run errands- Brand goes over the Gate Tower murder scene again, discovering someone climbed it. Ravistsu finds the firedust warehouse is now deserted, that part of the coup preparations over. Orchid hears that there will be a reception for the new Ambassador tomorrow and manages to snag 2 invites with her feminine wiles.

Next morning, the Watch raid the home of Khalid the Slaver on the pretence/charge that he murdered Weyoun the Procurer way back in Session 2. Capturing the fleeing Khalid, the Captain in a fit of cunning gives him five minutes to put his affairs in order. Khalid immediately sends slave runners to his lawyer and also to 15 Opal Street (home of Desert Goat)

Orchid and Ravitsu intercept the runner to the lawyer and Jak follows the other runner to 15 Opal Street. He ninjas to the window but cant hear the conversation inside due to shutters. So he carefully goes to another window, lifts the shutter bar with a thin blade and slides in to a room filled with dust-sheeted furniture.

Inside he hears the conversation in the connecting corridor.

“Yes sir, the Watch arrested Master Khalid. “ gasps the runner

“I see- who did this?!” demands Desert Goat

“That new Captain they’ve got, said it was murder!”

“Damn them!.... Well I suppose…”

“Hey whats tha…URK!?”

"AARGH!!!!!"

There is a thump sound outside

Jak pulls open the door to see the runner racing past, down the corridor. Rolling out, Jak narrowly misses being hit by a ball of blueish-white energy that shoots down the corridor, blasting through the runners back!

To his left Jak sees the body of Desert Goat suspended a few inches up in the air, a great spear head emerginh from his chest. Behind him, holding the spear and corpse is a hazy, larger figure, the light apparently bending around it to leave a blurred silhouette, 7 foot tall!

Knowing trouble when he sees it, Jak immediately rolls back out of corridor, through the room and jumps out the open second story window, grabbing the side to swing himself round and cling to outer wall!

His pursuer following, Jaq takes to the rooftops, racing down the spine of 15 Opal Street (Graceful Crane Stance going like the clappers) he jumps for 17 Opal Street, but barely makes it, grabbing on the the roof edge with both hands while his body dangles below!

Then to his horror, he sees a triangular red light on the wall next to him… moving towards him as the guidance ray acquires its target. He drops, tumbling with the fall into the alley below as a microsecond later, a ball of plasma hits the wall where he had been hanging and burns through!

Meanwhile Ravitsu has been heading to 15 Opal Street to rendevous with Jak. Orchid was with her, but broke a heel and is looking for a sedan chair to bear her there. Rav spots the scene of the hanging Jak and gets a brief glimpse of the optically camoflauged silhouette standing on the eaves of 15 Opal Street. Then it jumps down into the alley, which Ravistsu sneaks towards.

In the alley, Jak makes like a very quiet shadow and crouches behind some pigeon cages and coils of old rope. In the middle of the alley, he sees the blurred silhouette jump down, great footprints forming in the dirt. The hunter (or Solitary Lethal Hunter to give him his correct designation) slowly makes his way down the alley, tracking his prey. Rapid little clicks sound from him quietly, like clockwork unwinding…

Jaq freezes as the figure gets to the other side of the pigeon cages, pausing for a moment… click….click…..click.
“Thuwump.” (Thermal vision engaged)

“CRASH!” , the cages and ropes are swept aside by the beings mighty spear, and Jaq starts dodging like buggery. Jak leaps upwards, bouncing off crates and walls Jackie Chan style to get up to the roof. Behind him a low pitched whine suddenly goes screeching up the decibels and a buzz saw blade of the damned screams past his head!

Racing across rooftops, Essence flaring through Reed in the Wind usage, our nimble Night caste, sees to his horror that the Chakram that he’d dodged had spun round in a long arc and was homing in on him again! Another dodge, and totemic Anima banner starts to light up the dawn, subtly surrendered for survival. Around him a golden light spreads, the silhouette of a Black Mouse tip-toeing across the foreground to the sound of the Pink Panther theme! Spotting this, Ravitsu curses, and leaps, transforming into her Eagle warrior Deadly Beastman Form!

As the soulsteel Chakram makes its third pass, Jaq races to a flag pole and spends everything hes got to duck under the whirling blades in Bullet Time. As the chakram hits the flagpole and is slowed as it chews through the metal bar, Jak’s nimble fingers grab it from the air and hits the “Off switch.” (17 successes!)

Then Ravistsu’s mighty pinions sweep Jaq up into the air and a golden comet is seen above the morning skies of Gem as the two make their getaway, leaving the Hunter to find them another day,….

[SJE]

Meanwhile- back in the Watch, Brand and the Captain are interrogating the prisoner, Khalid the Slaver on what he knows about the Thieves Guild Coup attempt...


(Placeholder to edit later then I have time to write it up properly. Unless Foyle and YerMum want to revel in their triumph and write it up)

Its the 19th Descending Fire. 9 Days to Calibration, 1 day to the Coup and a Soulsteel Predator is loose in Gem....

Tick-Tick-TICK!!!

SJE

[MirrorSnake]

9 days to calibration, oooh that's going to be a joy, I can just feel it. :p Seems like things have become even more eventful in my absence.

[Cultist of Sooty]

You know, it strikes me that I had one of those weird sessions yesterday, where my character kept arriving on the scene just after everything had happened. My role last night was to be some sort of Greek chorus, passing the odd comment and moving on. I'm sure I could get a drama, something like Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, out of applying this theme to the Iliad or something.

As for the things that are coming up, we're all going to have to be suitably magnificent for the ambassador's reception. Perhaps the Captain can cause a scene to distract everyone so that the Despot can be quietly warned about the plot, and told of the evidence that we have.

Are we going to warn the Captain's military pal(s) about this, too?


In the longer term, and partly for my own amusement, I suspect that Orchid will want to attend the rumoured kung fu tournament. I can't really see her entering it, unless there's a compelling and unexpected reason to do so, and she wouldn't stand a chance of winning, but... She's well aware that, with all the dangerous scrapes we keep getting into, she needs to learn to defend herself. What better place to find a teacher (by fair means or foul) than at the world's greatest kung fu tournament?

It might nicely tie Orchid in to the original one-line character concept for Orchid as "kung fu Emma Hamilton".

[Cultist of Sooty]

9 days to calibration, oooh that's going to be a joy, I can just feel it. :p Seems like things have become even more eventful in my absence.
Busy time for exorcists and thaumaturges. I'm sure the Captain will realise this and render suitable assistance/overtime payments to Orchid. :)

[YerMum]

Busy time for exorcists and thaumaturges. I'm sure the Captain will realise this and render suitable assistance/overtime payments to Orchid. :)

I'm sure that a generous percentage increase in your overtime pay is in order... ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

I'm sure that a generous percentage increase in your overtime pay is in order... ;)
Would the Unconquered Sun consider it unrighteous to use your social Charms to persuade your fellow Solars to actually pay you some overtime. Or approve your expenses - manicures and tailored evening wear don't come cheap, you know, and I'm sure my couturier doesn't give discounts, even for official Watch business...

[YerMum]

Would the Unconquered Sun consider it unrighteous to use your social Charms to persuade your fellow Solars to actually pay you some overtime. Or approve your expenses - manicures and tailored evening wear don't come cheap, you know, and I'm sure my couturier doesn't give discounts, even for official Watch business...

That's what social charms are for! Especially the bureaucracy ones, irresistable salesman spirit is just hillarious :D

Orchid: "Ok, here's the deal, you give me the key to the Gem treasury, which is really quite tarnished and perhaps a bit tacky, and in exchange I give you this *activates charm* fabulous, wonderful, incredibly shiny pebble!

Despot: "WOO HOO! PEBBLE!"

Captain: "See if you can't get his wine cellar as well, there's a good lass!"

[Cultist of Sooty]

That's what social charms are for! Especially the bureaucracy ones, irresistable salesman spirit is just hillarious :D
The problem with that is they come to their senses afterwards. I want them to, deep down, really want to give me all their stuff.

Hmmm - "I seduce him and take his stuff!" Exalted could be D&D after it's converted to Make Love, Not War... :)

[YerMum]

The problem with that is they come to their senses afterwards. I want them to, deep down, really want to give me all their stuff.

Hmmm - "I seduce him and take his stuff!" Exalted could be D&D after it's converted to Make Love, Not War... :)

There's always Memory Reweaving Discipline (or whatever it's called), which should let you edit their memory of you buying everything they own for 3 magic beans into some other person buying everything they own for 3 magic beans :D

Actually a good enough roll powered by listener swaying arguement will probably suffice ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

There's always Memory Reweaving Discipline (or whatever it's called), which should let you edit their memory of you buying everything they own for 3 magic beans into some other person buying everything they own for 3 magic beans :D
I'd rather make it so they remember getting a very fair price from me and then using it to buy the magic beans from a passing stranger. That way, nobody asks awkward questions when they notice me living in their old house. :)

I'll need to put some dots into Bureaucracy sooner or later.

[YerMum]

I'd rather make it so they remember getting a very fair price from me and then using it to buy the magic beans from a passing stranger. That way, nobody asks awkward questions when they notice me living in their old house. :)



that's the spirit! :D



I'll need to put some dots into Bureaucracy sooner or later.

well it is favoured, you've got no excuse really

[Cultist of Sooty]

well it is favoured, you've got no excuse really
Er... Kung fu is more exciting than being a solar-power sales rep? :)

[YerMum]

Er... Kung fu is more exciting than being a solar-power sales rep? :)

you can do both you know ;)

[Cultist of Sooty]

you can do both you know ;)
But I don't have enough XP to do both now. (Hint, hint, Steve ;) ).

[SJE]

But I don't have enough XP to do both now. (Hint, hint, Steve ;) ).

Remember, Closing cases equals XP!

That and saying something funny enough to make the whole table laugh.

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

That and saying something funny enough to make the whole table laugh.
Does that mean I should have got one for almost having the circle swear a binding oath to destroy Gem? :)

[Foyle]

Fucking hell Steve, I've just looked at the wiki and it seems to have exploded with content. Have I missed a session or something :) Even characters we've only briefly met have their own one-liners that gives an instant image and I love the YasalCrystalDuellists.

I think we should have a Pokemon/Heat style crossover games with us as the nasty cops cracking down oin illegal crystal duelling.

Congrats!! :D

[Foyle]

Oh and I've updated my character sheet on the wiki - I have decided not to have the two investigation charms at the moment but to get Harmonious Presence Meditation as the next charm to further enhance my glam-rock police style.

And I've written up some of my ideas for the nature of the solar essence - its history and inclinations. If you have a chance let me know what you think

[Cultist of Sooty]

Hmm. Here's a thought on Orchid's Exalted shard and its anima banner. If it's "meant to be" bonded to this blokey from the north, maybe it should appear as something appropriate to him rather than to Orchid. I'd have to think of what Arctic type animal would be appropriate for a messenger/ambassador - a reindeer? a mammoth? I dunno.

It would certainly bother Orchid: "But I've never even seen a polar bear!". :)

[Cultist of Sooty]

And I've written up some of my ideas for the nature of the solar essence - its history and inclinations. If you have a chance let me know what you think
Sounds good. The Watch need more parties. And groupies. We need groupies.

It's the secret agenda behind the buying up of Appearance with XP - nobody respects the Watch, but at least they'll want to sleep with us... :)

[YerMum]

Sounds good. The Watch need more parties. And groupies. We need groupies.

It's the secret agenda behind the buying up of Appearance with XP - nobody respects the Watch, but at least they'll want to sleep with us... :)

I wonder if I can cash in Brand's second dot of appearance for some xp (or bonus points ;))...

[Cultist of Sooty]

I wonder if I can cash in Brand's second dot of appearance for some xp (or bonus points ;))...
I wouldn't. You'll end up like the fat ugly one in every boy band and no-one will buy the merchandise featuring you.

Step 1 - Get the Watch to buy up their Appearance.
Step 2 - Souvenir posters and action figures + Irresistable Salesman Spirit.
Step 3 - Profit!

[SJE]

I wonder if I can cash in Brand's second dot of appearance for some xp (or bonus points ;))...

Nope, but the assassins are happy to cut you up for free!

SJE

[YerMum]

Nope, but the assassins are happy to cut you up for free!

SJE

hmm, I wonder if there'll be an assassin attack at the ambassador's reception, they could be useful in fending off the coup ;)

[SJE]

Fucking hell Steve, I've just looked at the wiki and it seems to have exploded with content. Have I missed a session or something :) Even characters we've only briefly met have their own one-liners that gives an instant image and I love the YasalCrystalDuellists.

I think we should have a Pokemon/Heat style crossover games with us as the nasty cops cracking down oin illegal crystal duelling.

Congrats!! :D

Thanks, I add stuff when it comes up here, or as it develops in play. Helps me keep everything straight. And one line descriptions for everything is basically how my memory works- it really is a giant aide memoire!

I'm still wondering when might be a nice time to drop in the Yasal Crystal Duellists.. they are a more light hearted element (and I like to balance the light hearted wit hthe more serious)... but I do have some ideas..

SJE

[SJE]

Hmm. Here's a thought on Orchid's Exalted shard and its anima banner. If it's "meant to be" bonded to this blokey from the north, maybe it should appear as something appropriate to him rather than to Orchid. I'd have to think of what Arctic type animal would be appropriate for a messenger/ambassador - a reindeer? a mammoth? I dunno.

It would certainly bother Orchid: "But I've never even seen a polar bear!". :)

Definitely an idea. Having fragile little Orchid being outlined by a mighty Polar Bear or Kodiak could be funny enough to stunt. Especially if she starts using it to stunt when she gets angry.

Scene- Orchid at the Beauticians.

Secretary- "I'm sorry, but Lawrence has had to cancel your 2 o'clock- we double-booked."

Orchid "WHAT! You are Bumping ME!" *great golden flash and the image of a 9 foot Polar Bear towers over Orchid, smashing towards the Secretary, jaws wide open!*

Totem- *CHOMP!*

Secretary- "Eep!" *faint*

BTW Simon, any ideas yet? or has the Pink Panther theme grown on you yet?

Steve

[Cultist of Sooty]

Definitely an idea. Having fragile little Orchid being outlined by a mighty Polar Bear or Kodiak could be funny enough to stunt. Especially if she starts using it to stunt when she gets angry.
I think I like the polar bear idea. It's a nice contrast and would be particularly surreal if it manifests when Orchid is doing something social and seductive. The image of a great big golden, glowing polar bear following Orchid through the Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata (if she ever works her way up to that Charm) is too amusing to resist.

[SJE]

The image of a great big golden, glowing polar bear following Orchid through the Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata (if she ever works her way up to that Charm) is too amusing to resist.

Very Amber Spyglass, Lyra :D

BTW, I've updated the Wiki some more- Simons new stuff, a list for Sanctified Oaths made, and added the Predator thing to the Chalkboard.

SJE

[Cultist of Sooty]

Very Amber Spyglass, Lyra :D
Haven't read it, but I've read the first one, The Subtle Knife?

I'm now also reminded of The Child Garden, by Geoff Ryman, which features an alcoholic lesbian polar bear who, if memory serves, loves opera and has a crush on the main character. It was a strange book.

[MirrorSnake]

The idea of Orchid as Lyra is deeply, deeply disturbing. That was bad of you, Steve. :p

[Cultist of Sooty]

The idea of Orchid as Lyra is deeply, deeply disturbing. That was bad of you, Steve. :p
For those of us who aren't familiar with Lyra, but are with Orchid, what makes it so disturbing? :)

[MirrorSnake]

Lyra is:

a teenage girl
innocent
not a cross-dresser
kinda a tomboyish character

...etc. I haven't read the books for a while, though, so some details may be evading me.

[Cultist of Sooty]

Lyra is:

a teenage girl
innocent
not a cross-dresser
kinda a tomboyish character

...etc. I haven't read the books for a while, though, so some details may be evading me.
Right. I was thinking there might be some weird spooky coincidences between the two, but it's just that Orchid is spooky. :)

[PTiKachu]

Haven't read it, but I've read the first one, The Subtle Knife?
The Golden Compass, originally published in the UK as Northern Lights.
I'm now also reminded of The Child Garden, by Geoff Ryman, which features an alcoholic lesbian polar bear who, if memory serves, loves opera and has a crush on the main character. It was a strange book.
I am intrigued.

[SJE]

Exalted Session 13.

The Ambassadors Reception

The Watch have finally made it to the Diamond Palace, the heart of Gems court, government, wealth, power and heritage.

So naturally they are there under fake names.

Orchid has been able to acquire 2 invites- one for the Deputy Khan Fast Horse (envoy from Chiaroscuro) and guest. Ravitsu shape changes into the form of a Chiaroscuron he once met and calls himself Assistant Deputy Khan Lightning Spear and takes the Captain along as his guest.

Meanwhile, our cross-dressing couple (Jaq and Orchid) settle for going as Mr & Mrs Batholith, water importers for Gem. We have a guest PC- Daring Hare (not his real name), the greatest lover in all of Creation, outrageous liar, conman and sneak thief extraordinaire. He is here to get his leg over, set someone up as the Black Mouse and steal the Dynasts Diadem, the largest Diamond in all of Creation.

Guest list Ambassadors Reception -

Other Guests-

The Despot Rankar VII
-His Great Aunt Marigold (only surviving relative. 73)
-Lord Steward Valtess
-Major Ymes
-Chief Clerk Sitting Dove
-General Dragonroar

Ambassadors-
Hollow Reed of Paragon
-Demi-Prefect Shania, his assistant

Lord of Silent Repose, envoy of the First & Forsaken Lion. RSVP (or RIP?)

Dashing Hare- representative from Halta

Nobility-

Mother Sahlak
Lord Trasti & wife
Lord Iblan & his 3 sons (Amir (23), Farrem (19) and Ahmed (10))
Lord Circla and Companion
Lady Daris & her daughters (Topaz (18) and Amethyst (11)

Temples-
Mrs Ahlat (Ahlat)
Righteous Serpent (Ssseth)
Brother Scrivening Robe (Immaculates)

Assorted other functionaries, members of the lesser noble houses, etc.


They get to the grand Diamond Palace, an ornate, ostentatious structure at the peak of the volcano. The Walls are near transparent- as if made of great, foot thick sheets of diamond, the floor marbled, tapestries gold-threaded.

In the Great Ballroom the nobility, merchants, administrators, diplomatic corps and bourgeoisie of Gem witness Ambassador Hollow Reed of Paragon presenting his credentials, the Despot accepting them. The Paragonese Ambassador then offers Gem (in the spirit of ‘friendship’) access to Paragons oath rod, allowing the whole populace of Gem to be bound to the Laws of Gem and thus doing away with the need for a Watch. Tumbleweed rolls through the ballroom as everyone thinks through the implications and the Despot politely thanks the Ambassador and welcomes him to what is sure to be a long stay here. Demi Prefect Shania, the blonde assistant somehow keeps and eye on everybody.

The Captain catches the eye of his arch-rival, Major Ymes of the Palace Guard and makes a rude gesture subtly. Ymes goes apoplectic.

Now the Reception. Flunkeys and courtiers dressed in tights and brocaded overcoats supply wine and Ferroro Roche (cue “Wiv zees Ferrro Roche, you are spoiling uz!” quotes as the players tuck in!) as a 100 man orchestra provide the music.

People mix, mingle and scheme. Orchid tries some social mountaineering- heading for the Despot. Along the way she speaks to Mother Sahlak (who sounds her out about some private sector Thaumaturgy and mentions how something always came up that prevented her from meeting the Inconstant Hierophant) and the Despots Great Aunt Marigold, (73 don’t you know) his last remaining living relative. (think Joan Hickson of Mrs Marple fame- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Joan_Hickson_is_Miss_Marple.jpg )

Aunt Marigold seems a harmless old biddy, but her questioning of Orchid does test her fake ID, for Marigold is “73 don’t you know, and isn’t a nice party they put on isn’t? And her nephew is such a good boy, and why when she was a bit younger, she used to volunteer a lot, met a lot of young babies at the hospital, and what was your maiden name dear? Chastity was it? Well she knew a Hiram Chastity and family back in the day, but my, didn’t they have a boy, dear? Your cousin dear? Of course, at my ages, the memory plays tricks doesn’t ? I’m 73 did you know?”

The Captain has what he thinks is a quiet (or loud, drunken, booming) word with General Dragonroar, warning him of the coup. Dragonroar is perhaps even more OTT (and drunk) than the Captain and booms back something about the “thieves don’t like cold steel and hot firedust up them, and its all piffle and nonsense, thieves don’t have the courage to stand and fight like men! Hurrah!”

Rav mixes, Jaq baits Righteous Serpent and mentions the break in (which the Cult of Ssseth never reported) and Righteous Serpent begins eyeing Jaq like a hungry cobra spotting a baby mouse….

Dashing Hare establishes that the Dynastic Diadem is in a vault deep in the bowels of the Palace. He also establishes that young Topaz Dari is probably the most beautiful woman at the party, but alas he has competition from the supra-rich young rake Fareem Iblan. It appears that Topaz and Fareem are going all Romeo and Juliet until Dashing Hare accidentally on purpose spills his drink on Fareem and then begins wooing virginal Topaz with extravagant one lines (or cheesy chat-ups)

Jaq spots someone with the emblem of the First and Forsaken Lion (mailed fist, sword and chains) and follows him to discover the Lord of Silent Repose is in the Palace (but not the party) and plotting to divide the “southern territories, south of the Lap” with an unknown party, who turns out to be probably Hollow Reed.

The Captain heads for the Despot, but is intercepted by Major Ymes and the two archrivals engage in a verbal battle of the wits (the Captain comes off to the worse of course after “Your useless men do nothing but take the Despots shit out to the dump, Major” “Then they’ve had enough practice to remove you from the Palace Captain!”, “If I’m shit then…. Oh wait” ) , insults exchanged, slanders made, the Major finally has his men throw the Captain out.

In the corridor the Captain activates his Dawn caste anima to appear momentarily terrifying to the guards and uses the shock to bang their heads together and knock them out. Orchid (who has just warned the Despot of the coup. The Despot didn’t seem that surprised by the news) walks in on the this and the Captain presses her into dragging the unconscious guards into the cloakroom and stealing their clothes, comedy style.

Orchid and the Captain are now roaming the Palace looking for evidence that Valtess is in on the coup, dressed as Palace Guards. Dashing Hare has successfully seduced the 18 year old Topaz with some intense love poetry (3 stunt dice, even from our East German judge! 10 successes!). The two arrange an assignation in the Despots private Gardens in an hour, and Dashing Hare races off. Rav and Jaq are in the ballroom keeping an eye on things.

They spot a guard come in and speak urgently to Ymes. Ymes disappears and then returns shortly, red-faced and worried- he speaks to Lord Steward Valtess. The Despot isn’t around. The two stride off quickly.

Ravistsu and Jaq turn on their Stealth charms and follow. They get enough successes to hear Valtess say “ WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE DESPOT IS MISSING? HE CANT JUST DISAPPEAR! !” (and damningly) “HOW ON EARTH CAN WE OVERTHROW HIM, IF HE ISINT HERE TO BE OVERTHROWN!”

At this the pair turn a corner to the Admin wing and find Orchid and Captain en flagrante with an unconscious Palace Guard. Jaq and Rav appear from behind them

Jaq- “Lord Valtess, Major Ymes, I’m arresting you for crimes against the State”

Valtess “I AM THE STATE, YOU FOOL!!”

Jaq “Your have the right to remain silent, the right to have a lawyer present (etc)….”

Valtess- “YARGHHHH!”

Acrimonious argument as everyone tries to throw their authority about. Valtess and Ymes try to fight their way out, then just run. Ymes and the Captain trade sword blows, (and then hurled Petunia pots) as Lords are tripped and Majors nicked.

Realising that they have just arrested the acting Head of State for Gem and the Captain of the Palace Guard our intrepid four confer.

Dashing Hare has meanwhile broken into the vault containing the Dynasts Diadem and stolen it, leaving a Black mouse figurine in its place. A second figurine has already been planted on Fareem Iblan. Hare then makes it back in time to make the rendezvous with Topaz and they embrace under the light of the midnight moon.

A little while later, his reputation as the greatest lover in all of Creation maintained, Hare flees (having lied to his lover that he will return for her) and glances up.

Above he sees a huge Eagle-hawk (Rav) carrying a bound and gagged Ymes winging its way out of the Palace. Alas the aerial wards around the Palace activate and the flier is fried with eldritch orange energy as a warding dome shimmers into activation. Ravitsu tries to push through the ward, but it is too strong and he returns to the others, their plan to smuggle out the arrested officials of Gem in tatters as the Palace Guard respond to the activated wards.

Desperate, Orchid pulls some feathers from Rav telling him to go human and urges the Captain to slay Ymes. Then they’ll scatter the feathers around his corpse and name him as the Anathaema! The Captain lunges at his bound and gagged enemy (fails a Compassion roll, so I let it happen, though I wonder if he should lose a point of Compassion for the act?), but Jaq deflects most of the killing blow with a quick parry of his own.

At this point the Palace Guards break through the Admin wing door and see 4 members of the City Watch armed, Lord Steward Valtess bound and gagged, and the Captain of the Guard stabbing the Major of the Palace Guard! It’s a coup by the City Watch!

But Orchid’s social fu just manages to slow their charge and avert open war in the corridors of the Diamond Palace. She wants them to go away, they want medical aid for Major Ymes and a trial. Weapons are gripped, knuckles tightened as an impasse develops, neither side willing to back down. As sweat pours, the mass of Palace Guards encircle the 4 members of the Watch, blood still pouring from Ymes chest!...
…. Tick….tick…. tick.. Mexican standoff….

…

“Ah gentlemen, look at all this trouble, and I’ve only been away 15 minutes!” says a familiar voice, stepping from a shadowed doorway. It’s the Despot.

Hubbub as everyone starts talking at once- orders requested, evidence offered, garbled explanations.

“Now, lets all sheathe our weapons… Get medical aid for Ymes… If he’s guilty, we wouldn’t want to deprive the scorpions of their meal, would we?”

((Sotto voce from Jaqs player “I think we’ve just met someone even creepier than the Abyssal!”)

“The Coup Sir?!”- blurts the Captain.

“Yes, well why don’t you go raid those houses Captain. That’ll be very proactive of you, wont it? As for this lot, leave them to me.” Says the Despot.

The Captain races off to smash the Thieves Guild with military support. Orchid finds herself taking tea with Great Aunt Marigold.

“Y’know, I’m not actually Mrs Chastity- Batholith” confesses Orchid.

“That’s nice dear. More tea?” pours an unfazed Great Aunt.

And Jaq? Well just as he’s leaving, there is another commotion. More Palace Guards racing about, shouting. It seems the master thief known as the Black Mouse has stolen the largest diamond in all of Creation from under the noses of the Palace Guard!

“Damn, I didn’t even get to see it!” laments a surprised master thief…..

So ends the Case of the Errant Explosives and the kicking of the Black Mouse Thefts up into high gear.

SJE

[SJE]

Ah. almost forgot. Party ends and raids begin at midnight- its now the 20th Descending Fire.

8 days to Calibration....

*Tick.... Tick.... BEEP!*

SJE