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.

So the adventure starts in the month of Ascending Fire, on a lovely day in the middle of Summer (though storms have passed through the area as of late). The Moonlight Maiden approaches a little fishing village called Beacon, on a small island that is just off another island that is itself just off a peninsula known as the Talon. My point is, this is an island a little ways off the trade routes, just big and equipped enough for travelers to stop and top off their supplies but not big enough to be worth doing so unless you're trying to avoid entanglements in larger cities. It's the sort of place where all of the able-bodied men go out onto the sea to fish, which they then later sell to traveling merchants in exchange for other supplies.

It's called Beacon because it's got a lighthouse big enough that it's obvious the fishing village on the island started as families of the lighthouse keepers who expanded into a community. A secret that few outside the village knows is that the light on top of the lighthouse is in fact a bit of First Age magic stuff that glows without needing fuel. Very few people are ever close enough to get a good look at it and/or would have the capacity to recognize the magic in it, so the village is able to keep it to themselves without having to worry about anyone stealing it.

The Circle[2] knows this little secret, which is why they're concerned when they come up on the island to see that the light isn't where it's supposed to be. Hǎifēng thinks that maybe it's just burned out, but Shango isn't so sure. Shango's certain that as a First Age item it's pretty sturdy, but Hǎifēng points out that if First Age artifacts were that sturdy there'd be more of them.

The group also notices that about half of the village's fishing boats seem to be still docked, which doesn't make sense for this time of day. Hǎifēng points out that a town of superstitious peasants and fishermen (which, while I haven't explicitly described them as such, is a pretty fair assumption) might decide to stay in the harbor if something is wrong with their magical lighthouse.

Shango goes ahead and sails the boat into the island's dock, and they notice the harbormaster (really just a glorified guard) is someone they've never seen on this island before. And while they're not exactly on a first-name basis with all of the locals, seeing a machete-armed stranger manning the dock's alarm bell is another red flag that something's up. The guard watches them without saying anything until it's clear they're getting off the boat, at which point he approaches them. He warns them that there's been an outbreak of some plague, and while it's not too serious, he strongly recommends that they get back on their boat and leave. 

They say they want to just get some supplies and they'll be on their way, and he points out that the market is closed on account of the plague. He's not trying to seriously threaten them or stop them from stepping off the dock, but he's still putting some effort into conveying that sticking around is a bad idea. When it's clear they're not going away, he says that somebody at the inn might be able to do something for them. Shango gives him a half-dinar for his trouble[3] and his demeanor softens considerably.

So Hǎifēng and Shango head into the inn -- which, while I hate to describe it as your typical fantasy tavern, is pretty much your typical fantasy tavern. It's the local drinking hole, and there are rooms for rent, and such. However, it's almost entirely empty today. There's merely the bartender, a local middle-aged woman named Seong-gi, and two more outsiders drinking and having a conversation. That conversation stops as the pair come in and head for the bar. Seong-gi seems nervous but offers them food and drink, and at their request brings them some water and fish stew with some bread. 

After that she checks to see if the other two men in the room want anything, and when told they don't she ducks into the back to take care of something. A few moments later, the Lunars find a tiny scrap of folded paper underneath the loaf of bread, and unfold it to find a simple note: "Help us."

"Why can't I have just one nice day," Hǎifēng mutters. Shango cheerily remarks that every day is a nice day, which gets him sort of a "you know what I mean" reaction.

Fully aware that the strangers are pretending to make conversation while watching them, Hǎifēng gets up and heads behind the bar where they pour themself some rum, and ask if the two men want any. They turn it down. So they come back out with the rum and makes their way over, all flirty, and then 'accidentally' trip and spill rum over one of the men. The stranger gets up, knocking over the table and kicking his chair away and revealing that he had a dagger drawn and held out of sight. Hǎifēng and Shango quickly move to try and dry him off like nothing's wrong, and as he pushes them away they trip him and send him to the floor.

And at this point the game's first combat is about to begin as the other stranger pulls a machete of his own. The one with the knife gets up and Hǎifēng kicks him hard enough to stun him as they pull out their war fans. The one with the sword starts to swing at them, but Shango yanks out one of his hairs and uses the Needle Quill Technique Charm to turn it into a dart, which he puts into the sword wielder's arm. The man then turns his attention to Shango, swinging and missing. The one with the knife swings at Hǎifēng, who casually dodges the blow and hits him with the war fans, enhancing their strikes with their own Charms. 

Shango continues his movement around the man with the sword as he reels from the missed swing, whereupon the No Moon yanks another hair, turns it into a dart, and sticks the man with it as he takes advantage of the momentum of the guy's movement. The two unnamed attackers futilely try to strike the Lunars who are just too fast for them. Hǎifēng brings their war fans up under the man's chin, using Wasp-Sting Blur to chain a second attack off of it to hit him in the side of the head and send him crashing into the bar where he loses consciousness.

Shango then turns to the remaining man and points out that the two of them hadn't laid a single hit on himself or his companion, and implores him to consider if he wants to suffer the same fate. The man drops his sword and kicks it over to Shango.

And we left off there for the moment, partially because our time was starting to run short and I didn't want to get into an interrogation that would just have to be repeated for Sean's benefit later.

[0]-- Zac's pronouns have changed over the course of the chronicle, and until I go back over the posts with a fine-toothed comb there will be some entries where Zac is still referred to as 'he.' I apologize for any confusion or offense before I get that sorted.

[1]-- Bryan reworked the character heavily after the first session, so I've gone back and revised the character description. He also got rid of that charm he uses with the hair seen elsewhere in the action, but I'm not going to rewrite the scene to accommodate that, as that would be a bit much. Also, as a note, much later on, Shango changes his name to Gou. I'm noting this here in case you've been looking at more recent posts first and need that context.

[2]-- Something came up at the last moment and Sean wound up unavailable for this session, and we'll sort out where he is during all this later.

[3]-- A dinar is a silver coin used in vast swaths of the setting. A full one is basically the monthly salary of a commoner household with two working adults and will feed a family of four or five for a month.