Burning Footsteps: Settling Accounts (Promethean)

Hey, guess what, it's time for another Promethean write-up! I know I've been scooting along with these for the most part (or at least it seems that way), which seems odd to me given that the process isn't that much different from what I've done for any other game given that I'm writing these posts from my old posts as reference rather than my notes. I dunno. Maybe it's the lack of pressure since I'm not actively running this? I dunno.

Either way, here we are again. If it matters, this is the point where Amanda officially informed me she was dropping out of the game, so the players I've got at this point -- Sean, Brendan, Zac, Greg, and Shomo -- are going to be the group we've got for the rest of the chronicle. (And if you've been paying attention, I still run games for Sean and Zac today whether they like it or not) Of course, that's not counting sessions where one or more players can't make it and we handwave their character into the background, etc. But I just wanted to lay that out there in case it matters.

Now, I'm not going to do this often to keep from throwing off my own numbers or anything, but this write-up is going to cover two sessions, mostly because one of them is really sparse on details and kinda glossed over (on account of being really combat-heavy), so I'd rather attach it to this post than have a separate post for what's only going to be a couple of paragraphs.

So here we go, for this game's first two-fer.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Hostages (Exalted)

So hey, welcome back! So we've got the second session of my group's Exalted chronicle, Tales of the Moonlight Maiden for your perusal. I know it feels like I just posted one of these, and I kinda did -- the last one was pretty close to the following session for reasons I'm not getting into here, and I'm getting this one out pretty quickly.

I don't really have anything to add, other than to say that because of character adjustments and whatnot between sessions, I've gone back and updated the little character info in the first post. So without any further ado, let's get into it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Moonrise (Exalted)

Greetings, folks! So for the first time in a few months, we've got some new tabletop content for the ol' blog here, as my group got together to have the first session of our new Exalted chronicle (if you couldn't guess from the teaser I posted), which I'm calling Tales of the Moonlight Maiden. (I was originally going to title this post 'Shakedown Cruise,' but then I remembered I used that on a Doctor Who post a few years ago)

I've typed up a primer on Exalted and posted it here. Originally I was going to include it in this write-up, but it was getting long enough that I decided to make it its own separate post where I can be wordy as hell and not clutter this more than it would be anyways.

This is going to be an all-Lunars game set in the Southwest, using the third edition core rules. Lunars are the chosen of Luna, shapeshifters and predators possessed of an inner rage that many of them channel towards the Realm. They come in three castes: Full Moon warriors, Changing Moon tricksters, and No Moon witches and shamans. In addition, there are Casteless who let their powers shift with the moon phases, flexible enough to do many things without being able to consistently excel in any one arena. They have no larger organization beyond the mutual aid society that is the Silver Pact, a network of mentors and apprentices stretching across Creation.

The Southwest of creation is a tropical area between the deserts of the South (and the Elemental Pole of Fire) and the wide oceans of the West (and the Elemental Pole of Water). Most of it is coastline and islands dotted with jungles and rainforests, and as one travels further south volcanoes become more common in the Cinder Isles.

(Not that anyone ever does, but if anyone has any questions about this specific game or Exalted in general, feel free to ask.)

While there will be the occasional short arc, recurring villains, etc., the intent is that this will be a "wandering badasses helping out the people of Creation" sort of game. Like, in my head, I keep imagining your typical early-seasons Supernatural or Incredible Hulk-style procedural but with a boat in a tropical setting.

The boat, by the way, is called the Moonlight Maiden. Hence the name of this chronicle.

This is the first Exalted game I've run, and I haven't played the game since first edition, and none of my players have experience with third edition either, so we're taking it slow as we adjust to the system, and there's going to be the occasional mistake, and so forth. So be warned. This is not a system we've been playing in some permutation for years.

So with that caveat out of the way, let's meet our Circle:

• Lintha Người Kéo Xương, aka The Bonetaker (he/him), a goblin shark-aspected Full Moon played by Sean (he/him). The Bonetaker was born and raised among the demon-worshipping Lintha pirates, until a negotiation went horribly wrong and they left him stranded for dead to teach him a valuable lesson and during his struggle to survive he Exalted. Now he's on the outs with the family, rejecting the culture that's enslaved them to the demons and fighting to free others from oppression -- brutally and messily if need be.
• Hǎifēng (they/them), a monkey-aspected Changing Moon played by Zac (they/them)[0]. Hǎifēng was taken by pirates from their village as a child, and doesn't remember where they're originally from. They escaped the pirates and grew up on the streets until their Exaltation. They carry a set of artifact war fans that they use with the Laughing Monster martial arts style.
• Shango (he/him), an osprey-aspected Casteless played by Bryan (he/him). He grew up in a wealthy family in the nation of Zhaojūn, and Exalted to escape the gilded cage he grew up in. Xương and Hǎifēng happened to be in the city at the time and smuggled him out of there. He's still Casteless and trying to find his way, but he's begun walking the path of Falcon Style martial arts.[1]

And now, let's get out into first adventure with this trio.

An Exalted Primer

First, a quick-ish primer on Exalted. Exalted is an epic fantasy game set in a land of monsters, demons, spirits, gods, and so forth called Creation. Thousands of years ago the Ancients carved Creation out of a primordial chaos called the Wyld and anchored it with five Elemental Poles. They created the gods to run Creation for them, and the gods eventually rebelled against their tyranny. Because the gods couldn't directly confront their creators, they (with the help of some allied Ancients) infused mortals with divine might to create the Exalted, champions who could fight the Ancients in their stead. The mightiest of the Exalted passed their power on to worthy mortals when killed, while others spread their power through bloodlines to create armies of demigods. The Exalted won with some of their foes slain, and the rest trapped in a Hell literally made from an Ancient turned inside out. (Kind of a dick move, to be honest.)

The Solar Exalted, champions of the Unconquered Sun, ruled over Creation itself at the gods' behest after the war, with the bestial Lunar Exalted (Chosen of Luna) and wise Sidereal Exalted (Chosen of the Maidens of Fate) by their side. They were backed by families of Dragon-Blooded (Terrestrial Exalted Chosen by the Elemental Dragons) serving as their champions and assistants. And then with the Unconquered Sun's assistance, 'lesser' gods were able to create their own Chosen -- the Exigents, each as unique as a fingerprint but no less a force to be reckoned with. It was a golden age of magic and technology, ruled by demigod kings and queens. 

Eventually the Solars grew corrupt and tyrannical and the Unconquered Sun turned away in shame. The Sidereals privately determined that unless something was done, Creation was doomed to become a land of horrors. The Sidereals orchestrated the Usurpation (or the Solar Purge, depending on who you talk to), where they and the Dragon-Blooded overthrew the Solar Exalted Host. The Maidens' Chosen sealed away the Solars' power, drove the Lunars out into the wilds, and in the process accidentally broke Fate itself so thoroughly that Creation cannot retain the memory of them. Creation was now lesser, but safe.

The First Age was over, and made way for the Second.

The Dragon-Blooded formed the Shogunate to rule Creation now. The Sidereal Exalted backed them from the shadows with tools like the Immaculate Philosophy, whose teachings claim that the Dragon-Blooded are enlightened and 'virtuous' (read: obedient) mortals may reincarnate as Dragon-Blooded in future lives. This philosophy also holds that the gods are not to be worshipped directly, but with the Immaculates as liaisons between mortals and the divine. They formed the Wyld Hunt, to fight threats to Creation and its people such as monsters, raksha (often poetically called the Fair Folk), rogue gods, and Lunar Exalted (as well as a few 'loose' Solars) who took issue with the new state of affairs. Things weren't great, but Creation functioned well enough.

Everything changed when the Great Contagion attackedswept Creation, striking down mortal and Exalt alike. Ninety percent of Creation's population perished before the terrible plague, and it looked like nothing could save the remaining ten percent. Then the raksha, previously something of a nuisance, invaded from the Wyld beyond Creation's borders en masse. And for a moment, it looked like they were about to finish the job the Great Contagion started.

In Creation's darkest hour, a squad of Dragon-Blooded soldiers broke into one of the old manses the Solars used to run Creation, braving and bypassing impossible defenses. In the end, only one made it to the controls of the Sword of Creation. She deciphered and seized control of one of the most potent artifacts ever known, and drove the raksha back to Creation's borders. Much had been lost, the Shogunate was over, but the time came to rebuild.

That Dragon-Blooded soldier, whose original name is lost to history, crowned herself the Scarlet Empress and built the Realm -- a mighty empire managed by the Great Houses, some founded by her followers and others by her descendants. The Immaculate Order (and thus the Sidereals) backed her rule, and she created a Dynasty of powerful heroes that has been the predominant force in Creation ever since. With the Wyld Hunt keeping the 'Anathema' at the far reaches, the Scarlet Empress established a peace, albeit one built on an elaborate scaffold of political manipulation and carefully-managed jealousies to keep any rivals too busy to overthrow her. (Not to get too glib with this, but I've used Ron in this video as an example of her ruling style.)

With all this power she built and ran her empire from the Blessed Isle, ransacking much of the rest of Creation -- The Threshold -- for wealth and resources, with thousands of supernatural living weapons at her beck and call. Few are safe from her greed and ambition, with those few either too far to reach or have their own Dragon-Blooded champions.

One day, 763 years into her rule, she vanished. Nobody panicked right away -- she'd taken unannounced sabbaticals before, and came back. Officially, she's gone into secluded spiritual meditation.

Five years later, she has yet to return and nobody in Creation or Heaven knows where she is. Nobody's dared declare her dead (partially for fear that she's just laying in wait to punish the first person to do so), but the Great Houses of the Realm are gearing up for a civil war to determine who's going to succeed her. The Realm's control, as well as the Wyld Hunt's effectiveness, waver as the Dynastic forces focus on building up their own power for the conflict to come. The first casualty of this conflict may be House Tepet, secretly hamstrung by its rivals as it faced the Solar warlord called the Bull of the North. At the Bull's hand House Tepet lost almost all of their military might, which in turn cost them all of their political might.

And this all happened as the imprisoned Solars returned, their power freed and empowering mortals once again as the Unconquered Sun's attention returns to Creation. And some of these Solars appear to have returned in darker, stranger forms, wielding the powers of the Underworld or Hell, their motives uncertain at best. Some of the so-called 'Abyssal' Exalted, champions of death, were seen when the Deathlord known as the Mask of Winters marched on the city of Thorns with an undead immortal behemoth. Meanwhile the 'Infernal' Exalted glow an unhealthy green tint as they unleash literally-Hellish powers in bloody campaigns of revenge and anarchy. In addition, the rogue Sidereal Rakan Thulio has stepped up his own personal crusade against Heaven with mysterious followers of his own who seem to have strange powers but no past. And then there's the flame of the Exigence, left to smolder by the Unconquered Sun when he turned his face from Creation, now blazing brighter than ever to ignite a new generation of champions.

And that's all not even mentioning the various factions who see the weakness of the Realm and are about to make their move.

The Time of Tumult has begun.

Burning Footsteps: Reading is Fundamental (Promethean)

And here we are again, with another of these flashback posts. As I write this I've got the first session of my group's new chronicle in the works, but there's some things in my notes I need to go over before I finish it so I thought I'd see if I can bang this out.

Oh, and before I get into it, Under Alien Skies is available in PoD, for those inclined!

Soon...

For the past month and change, my group's been working on plans to resume regular gaming after our post-Geist hiatus (still utilizing voice chat, as much for convenience as for safety at this point). With any luck, this coming weekend we should be able to get started on the first proper session of our next game.

Just as a reminder, my past game write-ups can be found under this label, with a detailed index here, but while you wait for me to start getting new sessions written up, there's a preview below the cut...

Burning Footsteps: Fetch Quests (Promethean)

Hey there, folks. We're back with this. Barring incident, soon my group should be starting up our next game, and since I think I'm basically set for the first session I'm putting aside what would otherwise be some prep time to crank out another of these write-ups.