Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Happy Calibration, Y'all! (Exalted)

I know I've mentioned this in passing a few times, but for those of you unfamiliar with Exalted, Calibration is a period of five days in between the end of one year and the start of the next. The sun, moon, and stars vanish from the sky and reality gets a little wobbly. Weirdness happens all over, and certain magical feats (like summoning Third Circle Demons) are only possible during this period. The people of Creation don't even properly consider it part of the calendar and they try to acknowledge it as little as possible out of superstition.

I give this explainer of Calibration not only for educational purposes but also to contextualize the fact that Calibration is inspired by that week between Christmas and New Year's Eve/Day where the year is basically over, but not really. It's that weird liminal time where everyone feels a little off. So it inspired this five-day period where Creation gets weird because many of the cosmic systems that keep it running have literally been shut down for maintenance. To be recalibrated, in other words.

(Fun fact, I actually didn't fully get that that's why it's called 'Calibration' until, I wanna say, late second edition. For whatever reason, I was content enough to just write it off as a word that sounded meaningful and/or mysterious regardless of what it literally meant, because Exalted used to be really bad about taking words, often of Eastern theological/mythological origin, and using them regardless of impropriety because they sound exotic.)

So yeah, this week's session not only takes place during Calibration, but was technically run (and, barring incident, written up and posted) during it.

Speaking of which, sorry for the silence, there wasn't a session last week because of holiday stuff. I thought about dusting off my Promethean write-ups, but I had higher priorities demanding my creative/typing energy. I hope everyone had a very pleasant weekend, whether celebrating a holiday or not.

(Memo from the Department of Expectation Management: Incidentally, things just didn't line up for the full-blown action to get underway this week, but unless something weird happens the next session should start at most minutes before a Join Battle roll. Also, content warning for TV Tropes links and discussion of drug use.)

And now, let's get into it!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Finally, A Tournament Arc (Exalted)

I know my titles and such are only funny to me. But now that we've gotten the Gateway tournament out of the way, we move into one of the time-honored classics of the blend of fantasy subgenres Exalted uses for its smoothies: The martial arts tournament. (Though this session is primarily talking and setting things up, actual fisticuffs will come next session. This has been an announcement from the Department of Expectation Management.)

Oh, and before we get into it, just letting you know that the Sidereals Kickstarter is in its final week. Sure, there's pre-orders and you can always buy the book later, but if you want a fancy edition of the book and access to a preview manuscript just for backing, now's the time!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Play It Out (Exalted)

Hey there again, folks. Here's hoping I get this done in a timely fashion and posted and remain fully caught up for a week or two. (Which I seem to have technically done, barring a plane falling on my house during the editing process, not that you'd know if that happened so I don't know why I'm typing this.)

First off, real quick, here's a reminder that Onyx Path is doing a massive sale on the Trinity Continuum books to celebrate their 10th anniversary! (link may be wonky on mobile) If you're new here, I've worked on multiple books from the TC: Æon line, and I wholeheartedly believe my best work is in there. (Though the work I did for the upcoming Brave New Worlds supplement for Trinity Continuum core might give it a run for its money, we'll see.) I don't know off the top of my head how long the sale's running since they've described this sale as a 'Part 1,' implying a 'Part 2,' so why wait?

Second, this week's post wraps up the "Crossroads" story. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I was going to do a write-up or at least just talk more about the system I'm using to represent playing Gateway. And really, all I did was use this fan-made system, pretty much straight-up, converted to Third Edition. I'd considered at one point tweaking it to add some utility to the War Ability, introduced in Second Edition right before the linked rules got posted (and arguably useful for Gateway), but decided against it as nobody in the group has any War (as far as I know) and I didn't see the need to punish them for it.

And before I get into the meat of the post, I just want to take a moment to be amused that while it may not seem like it on the surface because of the Southwestern climate, in-setting this story is taking place at Creation's equivalent of this time of the year -- early on in the last month of the year, a couple of weeks away before the craziness of ringing in the new year. I dunno, that amuses me slightly. On a semi-related note, in case I forget to say so later on in the month, I hope everyone has a safe and pleasant holiday season, regardless of what holidays you do and don't celebrate.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Running Out of Moves (Exalted)

Yup, me again. Can't be rid of me that easily.

(Unless something goes wrong between me starting and finishing this post and I forget to come back and adjust the intro, this'll be the third of my posts to go up in a week, so my brain's only got so much to work with for intro material.)

Before I get into it, while not Exalted-related, Onyx Path has been doing sales all this year to celebrate their 10th anniversary. They've just started off December with a massive sale on the Trinity Continuum books in PDF. (That link might be wonky on mobile) How massive? Everything's only 10%. Not 10% off, but 10% of the usual price. That includes the Trinity Continuum core, Æon, Aberrant, and their various supplements (barring a couple that came out very recently). So if you've been meaning to delve into the Trinity Continuum, now's a very good time to start picking stuff up because you could get the entire line for under $30 USD. May I recommend the Æon core, Terra Firma, Under Alien Skies, and Prometheus Unbound? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I recommend all of it, quite frankly; those are just the ones I worked on.

(Actually, that reminds me, I need to update my 'stuff I've worked on' page. Not that there's a lot of changes, but it's the principle of the matter. And... done.)

And with that, on with the show!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Approaching Endgame (Exalted)

If not for the last minute, I probably wouldn't get anything done, as the old saying goes. Anyhow, unless something goes horribly wrong as I'm typing this, this should get us fully caught up now and with any luck I can get back to the pace I had before things fell apart a while back.

In case you missed it in my previous post, the Kickstarter for Sidereals: Charting Fate's Course, the next Exalted 3rd Edition 'fatsplat' supplement, is live and doing nicely. Fun fact, according to the Onyx Path Monday Meeting Notes, Sidereals is the fastest-funded OP Kickstarter at 9 minutes!

Oh, on a fun note, the session I'm describing here is the fiftieth session of Tales of the Moonlight Maiden. I just wanna take a moment to thank my players for sticking with me this long, and to thank anyone who's reading this for taking the time to do so.

And with that, let's dive in for the rest of last week's session.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Dreams and Abstractions (Exalted)

Originally I was going to start this off with a 'now I'm caught up, now to see if I can keep up to date' thing, and then it took longer to get written than I'd like, and I got waylaid by a massive headache one night and now this is late and I owe you two sessions' worth of material. Whoops. 

I'm doing something a little different with this write-up. I'm not going to combine two full sessions into a post because it'll get too damn long. However, there's a point where the group splits up, and that split carries through from the first session into the second. For the purposes of narrative flow I'm folding some of the second session into the post for the first. So really, rather than two sessions in two posts, I'm doing a session and change in one and the rest in the other. Hopefully it'll be seamless enough that you wouldn't even notice, but I believe in transparency and setting expectations with stuff like this.

In related news, the Kickstarter for the next Exalted 'fatsplat,' Sidereals: Charting Fate's Course, has gone live! I didn't work on the book, but still promoting it anyways because I can.

(And before we get on with it, I just wanna say that I know this story arc's been a little slow. I'll be bringing it to a climax soon, Luna willing. It was meant to be kind of a 'filler episode' after the recent bigger plot stuff, and for a couple of reasons it's come out a little more low-key than I expected. The people responsible have been sacked.)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Three Boards (Exalted)

This week's Exalted session had to be pushed back a couple of days, so to the best of my physical capacity to do so I'm seizing the opportunity to get caught up. That's right, as long as this goes up before Thursday afternoon, then I'll be officially caught up on these posts. So let's see if I can pull it off!

(And it appears I was successful, huzzah!)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Careful Placement (Exalted)

I'll be honest, at this point for the titles I'm just making shit up that sounds like it could be a good chess (or another tactical board game) expression. I mean, I'm sure these are perfectly valid, just don't assume any special meaning in them. Anyhow, as I write this, I'm nearly caught up, knock on wood.

And, again, one more reminder that I'm in an anthology that's come out called Samhain Secrets: World Premiere from new publisher Blackwarren Books. For more info/purchase links:

Direct from publisher

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Apple Books

Smashwords

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Opening Moves (Exalted)

Alrighty, here we are again. I was hoping to have this up sooner, in my quest to get caught up, but my arm has backslid a bit. It's frustrating, and when I get a chance I'm going to call my doctor's office an probably get a specialist to look at it.

So moving on from that fun topic, in case you've somehow missed it I've got a story in the Samhain Secrets: World Premiere urban fantasy anthology that's just come out! I've shared the blurb before, so let's just get to the various places where you can get it yourself!

Direct from publisher

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Apple Books

Smashwords

And with that out of the way, on with the show!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Careful Positioning (Exalted)

Something something still catching up.

In case you missed it, an urban fantasy anthology to which I contributed is releasing October 31st, 2022! I've got some pre-order links for Smashwords and Amazon, and I'm not going to copy-paste it here again but on my last post I put up the book blurb.

And, um... let's go, then.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Reviewing the Board (Exalted)

Alrighty, still playing catch-up here (and there've been all sorts of delays on this post specifically). I'm going to try to get the rest of my backlogged posts done soon, as I have all of my drafts and things turned in and my arm is doing a lot better. But between resting my arm and other stuff I've been dealing with, I've fallen a little farther behind than I'm comfortable admitting. Though the other stuff led to me having to cancel a session, so the backlog could be worse. But I'm babbling.

Though before we get to it, a quick announcement. One of the things I had to turn in is already available for pre-order! It's a story in an urban fantasy anthology called Samhain Secrets: World Premiere. It's currently available for pre-order on Smashwords and Amazon.

Here's the back of the book blurb:

In the Argent City, where supernatural creatures like dragons, fae, and tricksters live alongside blissfully unaware humanity, Halloween Night remains the craziest night of the year. A dragon who would be king struggles to establish his identity and find his passion in hosting a popular radio show, while the wily Kitsune seek to unmask a conspiracy against the feuding Tricksters of the City, where anyone could be the culprit. Across the City, a pair of Fae entrepreneurs stake their future on cleansing a murder site for the police, but a nosy Brownie can't accept the given cause of death and suspects murder. And finally, a hopeful actress takes a chance at scoring the lead in the reboot of a much-beloved vampire action series, only to find the audition process far more bizarre, and deadly, than even the most committed actor would expect.

Featuring contributions from Chris Shaffer, David DeMar, Vaughn R. Demont, and special guest Sierra Dean, the Argent City is explored through the eyes of the different denizens that call it home, and the one night a year where the brave and curious can discover the secrets lying just beyond the human eye.

Remember, the above links are for a pre-order. The book will be available on October 31st, 2022!

And with that, let's delve in.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Setting Up the Pieces (Exalted)

Hey there, folks. I know these are still erratic, still working on yada yada yada.

Assuming I don't think of some reason to come back and add to this intro (such as it is), let's get to it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Smoldering (Exalted)

Hey there folks, it's me again. As opposed to whom, I couldn't tell ya. But it's me.

Y'know, not that I'm gonna make it one, but it occurs to me that if this were a podcast I could get away with a generic intro. Just thinking.

Anyhow, I'm slowly trucking with trying to get these posts on track. But I'm still having issues with my arm and typing for long stretches is difficult, which isn't helped by the fact that I have multiple typing-related obligations going on at the moment. So I have to pace myself, as much as I'd love to just sit down and bang one of these out every night (heh, phrasing) until I get caught up. But at the same time, doing these gives me a bit of a mental buffer so I don't get burned out on the other stuff.

Speaking of which, let's get to it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Back into the Fire (Exalted)

Greetings, my peeps. What? Okay, I'm being told by my people I'm too old to say that. Anyhow, hi.

So here's the next one of my 'catching up' posts. We'll see how far I can get in this one before my arm tells me to stop or I lose my ability to focus. And, um, okay. Lets go.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Catching Up (Exalted)

I wanted to start off on some joke on what you folks have been up to while my back was turned, but I can't think of anything clever that doesn't also make me sound like a bit of a jerk. Ah well.

So yeah, I'm behind on Exalted posts. This is largely due to my having had some issues working on a freelance assignment and pushing through a combo of mental burnout and some minor physical issues to get drafts done and just not having the time or brainspace to devote to blog posts. The only reason we've been able to play at all is that my preparations carried us a little farther than I anticipated (not complaining!). 

(And as I'm sure there's someone who'll think that running a game session is irresponsible when a deadline is breathing down my neck, I'd argue that pressuring myself into a breakdown because I refused to use the relief valve would have been worse.)

For the record, I'm not gonna even try to cram what is four sessions (as of this writing) into a single post. Long stretches of typing are a little uncomfortable right now so I'm probably going to just keep it to four individual posts and get caught up ASAP, but we'll see how I feel as I go. I doubt I'll be fully caught up before the next session, as I have other things to do, but hopefully we'll be squared up by the next session after that. I don't have any sort of outline on that, though.

The delay also means more instances than usual of fuzzy details because I didn't think to attribute a line or something like that in my notes, and for that I apologize. If you're in my game and I badly mangle something, let me know so I can fix it. 

So let's do this.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Brawl on the Beach (Exalted)

Hello again! This isn't late or anything; I should have pointed out that the combat begun in the last post stretched across two more sessions and I didn't want to write a blog post that literally stopped between rounds of a big fight. I probably should have said something, and I apologize if anyone was concerned.

I can't think of anything else to add to this right now so let's get to it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Weight of History (Exalted)

So hey, we're back! Sorry it's been a while, real life issues have made it difficult for things to line up, but this past week we finally got to play Exalted. 

In case you missed it before, I want to mention that I'm working on the upcoming Trinity Continuum supplement Brave New Worlds, which is about (to quote Onyx Path's Monday blog) "strange and unusual environments for Talents like time travel, planetary exploration, microverses, and more!" I'm limited in what details I can share at this time, and while I'm pretty sure there's more I can say, I'd rather hold back on that until it's a little further along. Working on this and another project is also the reason why I haven't taken advantage of the hiatus to get any more old Promethean posts up. Sorry 'bout that.

(Before I get into it, we get into some traumatic backstory stuff. So consider this a content warning for gore and child endangerment.)

Quick Update

This is arguably a little overdue, but I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this is either in my game or I talk to elsewhere. Still, just for good measure... You may have noticed there haven't been any updates in a couple of weeks. This is because offline interferences have made it impossible for the Exalted group to get together, but hopefully we should be playing again this coming Tuesday.

Normally I'd take advantage of the time to get back to the updated write-ups of my old Promethean sessions, but I've been busy with other writing tasks. I'm working on a story for a friend's anthology and at the same time I'm working on a Trinity supplement, dividing my time between them to try and get them both done quickly (as I'd hoped to have the story done before now but there's also a decent word count and solid deadline on the RPG book). I apologize if this has caused any inconvenience.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Unnatural Disasters (Exalted)

Hey there, folks! So unless a miracle happens, this is probably going up at some point Monday because I will have been at Anthrocon in PA over the weekend. (Tenses get weird, because I'm starting this post before the con and will probably finish it during, but I feel weird writing the whole thing from the viewpoint of when it's going to be posted.)

(So hey, a miracle happened! Huzzah! I'm still gonna leave the above bit in, just so I look like a dumbass.)

BTW, this session wraps up one story and takes us into the next one, which is why it's got tags for both. I've got some other writing stuff I'm going to need to work on over the weekend, but with any luck I might be able to find the time for one of my little mini-fictions. Just so ya know.

Actually, that reminds me, I haven't done so in a while because it's not like I've had a lot to share, but... okay, I was gonna link to a post of just general writing stuff I've done aside from the freelancing, but I just realized I don't have a post like that. I've got one for my Chronicles of Darkness fiction, but I don't have one that's just a central resource for my writing in general. (I'm not trying to be cute about this, I actually didn't realize I don't have that until just now, when I stopped mid-sentence to look up the link for reference.) Okay, I guess I should do something about that, that's going on the pile.

Well, now that my brain's as scrambled as Shango's from that revelation, let's get into some Exalted.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Empty (Exalted)

Oh, back for more, eh?

Anyhow, normally I'd plug the Exigents IGG campaign about now, but it's only got a couple of hours left as I start to write this, so I guarantee you that nobody's gonna see this post before it wraps up. All that matters is that they hit the stretch goal to write up the Foxbinder of Shifune for the companion book. ;)

Barring coming back here to add something in the middle of writing this post (in which case this sentence will cease to exist), I don't have anything else to add before we get into it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Back to Creation (Exalted)

Greetings, folks. Back at ya with another adventure of the crew of the Moonlight Maiden, heading back towards the titular ship (via a roundabout route). There's a big combat in this session, and as a note I might rearrange the orders of one or two bits in the combat for better flow of action as long as it doesn't screw up continuity.

I don't really have anything more to add right at the moment, aside from one more plug of the Exigents crowdfunding campaign. It's only got a few days left, so if you wanna drop a few bucks on it now's the time. Most of the manuscript has been previewed in a chapter-by-chapter form for free on Indiegogo, and there'll be a final section this coming Tuesday. After the campaign, anyone who backed will get a combined manuscript (in addition to, y'know, whatever rewards you pledge for once they become available). As I've mentioned before, I didn't work on this book or anything, I just think it's really cool and want it to succeed.

And with that...

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Bringing Things Into Focus (Exalted)

Hello and salutations, my good folks. Here I am with another visit with the crew of the Moonlight Maiden, albeit separated from the aforementioned ship by a few hundred miles at this point. Seriously, this far outstrips the river trip they took in An-Teng for distance from the nearest harbor. 

To make up for this, once they get back to port, the next four stories will entirely be underwater. (I'm kidding.)

Anyhow, before I get into it, here's a quick reminder that the Mirage Kingdom and the Mirror City are mostly original places I've created for this game. As of this writing, literally everything in print about the Three Devil Princes can be summed up as "There are three Lunars who are ridiculously rich and living at the edge of Creation." Everything else is just something I've come up, so don't @ me if future supplements describe something drastically different.

And finally, for those of you following Exalted, here's a reminder about the crowdfunding campaign for the Exigents book.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Hazy Images of a Lost Age (Exalted)

Howdy again, folks.

As usual, I don't really have much to report here that would be of any particular interest. I mean, if you're following this and you're an Exalted fan, it might behoove you to check out the Indiegogo for Exigents: Out of the Ashes, the upcoming 'fatsplat' covering the Exigent Exalted, Chosen of various non-Incarna deities. You may remember the concept of Exigents (and the Exigence) from the first couple stories I ran, which I'm sure is going to raise some questions trying to reconcile a few elements of that arc with things we've learned since then. But I'll get into that when that plot comes back around (after all, the Pale Mistress is supposed to get an Exigent of her own at some point...).

But as Exigents in general are kind of a 'roll your own' variety of Exalt, the book doesn't present a standard set of mechanics like it does for other Exalted. What it does, have, however, are full mechanics (with charm trees) for four different sample Exigents (one of them Strawmaiden Janest, who appears in the fiction in the core book), and guidelines on making your own unique Exalts. This also includes guidelines on homebrewing your own Charms and Evocations from scratch. That's part of why they're releasing the book now while there are still so many other classic Exalt types to update, because having that homebrew Charm guide will make it easier for people to fake it, as it were.

For the record, I didn't work on the book or anything. I'm just excited about it and wanted to share.

So now we step away from the endless potential of the Exigents and move back towards the Lunars who sail the waves upon the Moonlight Maiden. Or at least they do when not in the middle of the desert.

And it occurs to me that I should offer up again a disclaimer first seen when discussing Lathe, is that the characters have entered territory about which there is almost no canon whatsoever. Like, we've got a couple of paragraphs on Lathe in the Third Edition core book. All we know about the Three Devil Princes is they're reclusive Lunars who lead a rich and mysterious kingdom. That's it. They have come up exactly twice in canon text, three times if you count a map label, and in each of those appearances they get maybe get a line or two that just emphasizes that they have vast treasures and are terribly mysterious. The first reference to them doesn't even say they're Lunars, just shapeshifters. There's another minor setting element that I've conflated with them, but what I'm getting at is that much like my players' Circle of Lunar characters, in terms of setting material we are well off the map. Hell, the name 'Mirage Kingdom' is something I just came up with as I was writing notes for this story in the days before the session.

I have no clue as to whether the Three Devil Princes or their mysterious kingdom is ever going to get more depth in print -- I suspect it will eventually, and knowing my luck there's an even chance that it'll come out as soon as the characters leave and have no further use for such material. Much like how I stumbled onto a big stack of stuff about An-Teng that would have been helpful, and then in the next session the characters left. Because that's just how it works.

Also, not only is the city kind of a throwback to the First Age, arguably it's a bit of a throwback to Second Edition. Second Edition had a box set that fleshed out the First Age, revealing that it was this advanced magitech-heavy society, bordering on science fiction in its presentation. But it committed the cardinal sin of 'prequel' supplements, and made a thing that wasn't supposed to exist any more into something so cool much of the game line from that point revolved around trying to bring that stuff back into the present. (See also Clanbook: Cappadocian) But I've made the executive decision to portray the Mirror City, capital of the Mirage Kingdom, in the style of that borderline-sci-fi wonkiness to help evoke a sense of awe and contrast with the rest of the world as the characters know it. Though as I said before, it's a little more Shevat, as opposed to Solaris.

What I'm getting at is that this is intended to be a weird outlier and not any sign as to how I'm portraying the First Age or anything like that. There might be other cities like this out there, there might not. We'll see.

Also, this is another one of my really 'talky' sessions. So assume my usual disclaimer about not always having every detail about every bit of every conversation in the correct order applies.

But with that out of the way, let's get on with it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Destination (Exalted)

Well hello there, folks. I hope everyone's keeping it together right now, as things are especially rough and stressful for a lot of folks. I'm not gonna get into it, but at least wanted to say it before offering up a serving of escapist fantasy.

Also, before I get into the post, I just want to say that I didn't pick last week's post title with the intent of following it up on this one. It just came to me in the moment. (Maybe it's a sign of a deeper issue, but sometimes I feel it's important to make sure people know I'm not always as clever as I appear.)

Anyhow...

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Journey (Exalted)

Hey, it's that time again.

...

I realize that not only am I officially out of jokes to start this off, but also out of jokes about being out of jokes to start this off.

So let's just start this off. Tales of Exalted adventure, ahead!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Descent (Exalted)

Well hello there again, my good folks. I'm back with more adventure from the crew of the Moonlight Maiden.

I can't think of any major personal updates, though just as a reminder I recently posted a mini-fic that ties into this storyline. After this post, you should have all of the context you need for it to make sense (as well as why writing the story put me in kind of a melancholy mood).

But anyhow, with that, let's descend into the Underworld!

(No, really! Sort of.)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Festival (Exalted)

Hey there, party people! Got another Exalted update for ya here. Not much in the way of personal updates that I can think of, other than a reminder that the other day I posted one of my 'First Age Memories' mini-fics (...he said, as if he had more than two of them). It sort of peripherally ties into this current story arc in ways that will become clearer as more of the secrets of Darthon and Shasaman Island are revealed.

Speaking of which, let's get to it!

First Age Memories: Practice (Exalted Fiction)

So while fleshing out some setting and backstory stuff for my game between sessions, the following mini-fic kind of popped into my head fully-formed. Like the previous 'First Age Memories' thing I posted, it's a glimpse at some characters as they would have appeared in an earlier Age. As with the last one of these I did, this could be a dream someone has had (or is about to have) or just a sunken memory rising to the surface. One of them, if you're paying attention, is clearly the First Age incarnation of one of my players' characters. The others, though... without spoiling too much, let's just say that at least one is running around in some form and another's influence is still felt even in the Time of Tumult. But I've gone with a light touch on certain details, partially so as not to spoil things but also so as not to make too many 'declarations' about my PCs' past incarnations.

(Incidentally, there are multiple non-binary characters in this story. I apologize if the multiple uses of 'they' pronouns make it hard to follow -- if that's the case, let me know and I'll see if I can tweak it for readability.)

Anyhow, on with the show!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Island on the Edge of Creation (Exalted)

Well hello again. No major updates at the moment, though I do have a mini-fic I'm going to get posted in the next couple of days. It's going to be another First Age Memories post like this one. It just kind of popped into my head while I was working out some backstory. I should have that edited and posted soon. (Edit: And it's up!)

But until then, there's this.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Chasing Eternity (Exalted)

Greetings, my peeps. Yeah, I got nothing. I'm that guy who, if I had a podcast, would refuse to stick to a consistent intro no matter how much it annoyed everyone.

Anyhow, um, I can't think of any important personal updates or anything that needs to go here. Nothing useful, anyhow. So let's just get into it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Even Death May Die (Exalted)

Hello again, folks. Got another write-up for you. Can't think of anything clever to add, so let's get into the cutscene I prepared to preface the action. Just a reminder, where we left off, the group found out that information broker Doctor Zither is in fact one of the Bad Guys and they left off on going after him.

And here we go...

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Breaking and Entering (Exalted)

Greetings, Exalted-teers... no, wait, that's terrible. I'm out of here. Just get some peas for the road...

Yeah, I got nothing. No news or anything that I can think of. All I've got is the adventures of the Moonlight Maiden, and you all. So lemme take a moment to appreciate anyone reading this right now.

...

Okay, and now that the moment has passed...

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Meeting New People (Exalted)

Greetings, programs! I've got another Exalted post for you, as often happens these days.

No real news as such, but I do want to point out that after a couple sessions of actually playing with my initial vision for Lathe, I've determined that vision needs glasses. My original version was, I realized, very 'ant farm'-like in its structure, with the residents moving around in tunnels carved through what I can best describe as a petrified primordial haggis. Which is limiting in terms of scenery and is really hard to imagine people moving around in, even if it's mostly large interior chambers and not entirely rooms connected by tunnels. So I'm reinterpreting it as open to the sky with much of the city carved into bits that have been hollowed out and cleared away, with a lot of the preserved organs still extant structures and occasional bones the size of California redwoods protruding and serving as an anchor for various structures. Aside from the organs and bones and such, the rough 'shape' of it is going to be very similar to the Italian city of Matera.

I'm not going to do it right this moment, but at some point I'm going to go back and tweak whatever descriptions I've already written to have this interpretation match up with previous write-ups. So just a heads-up, there. (Edit from the future: Got this taken care of, only took me a month and a half to get around to it. Just wanted to let you know.)

Anyhow, that's more about the past and future. Let's worry about 'now.'

(Oh, by the way, quick content warning for a very brief reference to suicide)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Split the Party (Exalted)

So as foretold in the prophecy, this is happening again. I've got another Exalted write-up for you. At some point I need to start doing the Promethean post updates again as well, I've just had a lot to juggle creatively and they've fallen by the wayside because there isn't any real urgency to talking about a game I ran a decade and a half ago at this point. But I digress.

Also, as I mentioned in the last session, Lathe is a new location in the third edition of Exalted and we have very little detail about it. There's a decent chance an upcoming supplement is going to touch on it some, so I'm going light on some details for ease of integrating my notes with a canon interpretation. I mention this mostly in case anyone goes back over these, sees my material on the city, and is confused by any discrepancies. I'm not opposed to maybe even going back and retconning a detail or two (like the location of the Immaculate temple), but these write-ups may conflict with official text and I wanted to at least offer that as a disclaimer.

One last thing before we get to it. In case I've forgotten to mention it here (and a quick skimming of the blog's front page suggests I did), Prometheus Unbound, a supplement I worked on for Trinity Continuum: Æon, is now available in print-on-demand!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Welcome Home (Exalted)

Greetings again, folks. Apologies for the disruption with my previous post. I tried posting it from my phone because I was out of town and away from my computer, and that wound up being a mistake. Blogspot's interface is such that I couldn't get the font fixed properly, so I wound up having to delete and repost it to get it to look right. I probably didn't need to go to the effort, but I wanted to at least try.

But anyhow, we're back, and the group is now in a location where they'll get to remain for possibly more than two or three days! I should note that Lathe is a new location in third edition, and we don't have a lot of material to go on and I don't know how much coverage it's going to get in the upcoming Across the Eight Directions. While I'm not averse to coming up with my own take on the city and then having it replace the canon version my setting, I've got enough faith in the current crop of Exalted writers that I don't want to rule out some really awesome stuff that I'll want to incorporate. So I'm going relatively light on the city details in the hopes that I can weave together my stuff and any canon write-up -- or, worst-case scenario, do my own more detailed write-up when the book comes out.

Also, just as a heads-up, there won't be a blog post this coming week, because circumstances will prevent us from playing this Tuesday. Not that I mind a little bit of extra prep time before the next session.

Anyhow, let's get on with the show.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: A Pound of Cure (Exalted)

The title is a little punnier than I normally go for, though it may not be obvious why at first. I apologize for nothing.

(It may seem like this post has appeared a couple of times before. Long story short, I initially tried posting it from my phone and that screwed up the formatting ways it wouldn't let me fix, so I've just reposted it. But now the url is wonky unless I change the name, and I like the name too much to do that. So hoist by my own petard, I guess. Sigh.)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Plague Ship (Exalted)

Hey there, welcome back! So what we've got here is your typical blog post. *slaps roof* I can fit so much Exalted in this baby. (Look, I don't know the meme so I'm sure I'm mangling it, and I can only think up so many interesting things for these intros. Let's just get to it.)

(Oh, also, content warning for some gross corpses and some stuff involving illness and plagues. While there won't be any resemblance to real world events, I can understand how some people might be twitchy about that.)

Disguises (Exalted Fiction)

So here's a 'deleted' side-scene from a recent action sequence that I couldn't find a good spot to work into the write-up. The exact timing doesn't matter, just mentally place it wherever you'd like in the sequence of events.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Showdown on Talipan Beach (Exalted)

Hey, sorry there wasn't a session write-up for last week. But as I previously mentioned, last week's session left off in the middle of a battle and for reasons that may seem obvious I decided to hold off.

That said, in case you missed it, I posted a little mini-fic to the blog. It's just a little glimpse into the First Age lives of a couple of the characters from the game. I hope it's obvious as to who everyone's supposed to be, I go pretty light on certain details, largely because I don't want to take too many liberties with my players' characters' earlier incarnations. But if people liked that, I might do more in the future as they come to me. Some may provide context or foreshadowing, they may focus on the PCs or NPCs or whatever. I don't have any hard plans for that beyond making sure the game isn't entirely about me writing First Age fanfic.

Nope, all about Second Age fanfic, here. Speaking of which, a quick aside before we get into it. There's a huge battle across the two sessions recounted here. Every now and again I cut away for a little interlude, and I share those here (though I may or may not have tweaked a detail between describing the scene at the table and writing it down). 

There was another I initially planned to share, but I cut it for time and replaced it with another sequence. And now I can't find a good place to insert it, because I think even one more paragraph of cutscenes are going to completely crowd out the stuff the player characters are actually doing. So I've posted it as its own little 'bonus content' mini-fic you can read later at your leisure. Just feel free to mentally insert it anywhere within the battle timing-wise, the exact spot isn't important.

And that out of the way, here we go!

First Age Memories: Showoff (Exalted Fiction)

You may or may not have noticed that an Exalted post hasn't appeared this week. This is because the last session ended in the middle of a combat that we still need to wrap up, and I wanted to resolve that before doing up a post. I have, however, thrown together a little something as an experiment. It's a short mini-fiction in my setting, giving a glimpse of a couple of characters as they would have been in an earlier Age. It might even be a glimpse of a memory or a dream that one of the relevant characters is having now. I might do more in the future if people like it.

And, um, yeah. That's it. Enjoy!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Death and Destruction (Exalted)

Welp, here we are again, with more Exalted-y goodness!

And, um... I can't actually think of anything to add. So let's just get to business to defeat the Huns!

(Actually, before we get to business, quick CW for references to mild drug use. Normally I wouldn't bother but there's just enough of them that I feel it's necessary.)

Writing Update and getting a few things off of my chest

So I've been meaning to post this for the last month or so, and I just keep putting it off. As I've mentioned previously, I haven't been in a great headspace, particularly writing-wise. Honestly, it's probably just being cooped up too much because of winter, SAD and all that. I've also properly fucked up my sleep schedule, which may be a factor as well. Regardless, because of that headspace, this post isn't going to be an especially positive one and if that's going to be an issue to read right now I recommend bookmarking it and coming back later when you've got the spoons. My inability to muster up a more positive version of all this is the primary reason I haven't written it and posted it before now, but I'm tired of just holding it back.

Before I get too deep into it I want to address that anyone who follows this blog may notice that I haven't actually posted any of my fiction here in a while. A big part of that is how little I've gotten done at all that I can post, but to be honest it's more because while I rarely get any engagement anywhere, I've never gotten any here. Posting stuff here is extra steps of formatting and uploading, and to be frank I'm reasonably certain anyone who reads this blog is likely to be familiar with my FurAffinity page anyways. And with that...

A quick something or other

I might delete this later, I don't know. But I just wanted to mention I've been meaning to do a blog post about my writing, what I'm working on, etc. But I'm actually not in a great headspace regarding my writing. I'm not going to expand upon why, because pretty much any time I talk about my writing either becomes a pity party about my worst feelings about it or is being said through a fake smile. 

For the record, I am actually doing better than I was before the ADHD meds, but I've still got problems and this is just a particularly bad patch I'm trying to push through.

(And please do not fall all over yourself trying to reassure me I'm a good writer, etc., even if you mean it. I've gotten those reassurances one time too many from people who don't actually read my work at all and I'm a little sick of hearing them altogether. I need feedback, not digital backpats.)

I'm going to stop this post here before it spirals. *closes the vent*

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Imperial Entanglements (Exalted)

Greetings, my fellow whatevers!

Back with another Exalted write-up for y'all. This kicks off our next story arc, Port in a Storm.

Before we get into it, however, let me take a moment to remind you that a Trinity Continuum: Æon book I worked on is out. (I swear, this is the last time I'm going to plug it... until the PoD is available.) You can find it at this finely-crafted affiliate link, and if you go check it out, the PDF preview on DriveThru goes deep enough into the book that you can read the opening fiction I wrote for it!

And with that out of the way, let's get into it!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Broken History (Exalted)

Stop right there, interlopers!

Don't worry, it'll make sense shortly.

We weren't able to play Exalted last week due to scheduling difficulties, hence no post, but we were able to play this week! So I've got another adventure here with the crew of the Moonlight Maiden!

But first, a bit of personal news. A Trinity Continuum: Æon book I worked on came out this week! It's called Prometheus Unbound, it's a guide to the Psi Orders, and I'm really proud of the work I've done on it. It's currently available as an Advance PDF, which means there's still going to be one more errata and proofreading pass before they prepare the PoD. I go into more detail on it here, and as always you can find the list of my other work here. (And as a reminder, if you follow one of the DriveThruRPG Affiliate links on the blog and then buy stuff there, I get some store credit even if what you buy isn't the thing I linked to.)

But now we jump from the sci-fi setting of TC: Æon and back to the epic fantasy of Exalted for the conclusion to "Buried Past".

I've got a book out!

So I have a more general writing update coming, but until I can find the time/focus to crank that out, a gaming book I worked on has come out! It's called Prometheus Unbound, and it's for the Trinity Continuum: Æon line. As I type this, it's #1 on DriveThruRPG right now. It's a guide to the Psi Orders of the TC: Æon setting. I wrote the chapter concerning the Æsculapian Order, as well as the opening fiction! In fact, if you load up the PDF previews on the DriveThruRPG site, they have enough pages available that you can read said opening fiction for yourself (as long as you can cope with a 'Sample File' stamp).

Now I should point out that this is currently an 'Advance PDF' release, which means there may be a couple of typos here and there, and there are still "Page XX's" in. Also, this book was initially meant to be released right after another supplement, called Mission Statements, and it just shook out that this one came first, so there are some Page XX's referencing Mission Statements as well that will need filled in. So this might be in the Advance PDF stage for a little longer than normal. But once that's done, the PDF will be updated and if you bought it as an Advance PDF you'll get a discount code for a print copy as if you'd been able to get both as a bundle at the same time.

Just as a reminder, if you want to look up what other gaming books I've worked on, there's an index of those here. And if you do pick up the book (or any others that I worked on), make sure to leave a review for them! That sort of thing really matters!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Current Troubles (Exalted)

Greetings, and hope everybody's new year, etc., etc.

Anyhow, we come to the first proper game session of 2022. I'm not sure where I was going with pointing that out, but here we are.

So let's get into it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Put to Rest (Exalted)

So I tried to get this out before 2021 was out, and did not succeed. Ah well. I've got no good excuse, I just mishandled my time.

Anyhow, it's time for one more trip with the crew of the Moonlight Maiden. BTW, if you're unfamiliar with the Exalted books, the manor house is something that appears in the Hundred Devils Night Parade supplement on DriveThruRPG, listed as "The Forlorn Manor." The book provides the haunted mansion as a setpiece and a character, sets up that there is a mystery surrounding the people who used to live there, and the rest of it (the island, the abandoned town, the backstory, etc.) was all me.