So before you accidentally get the idea that this blog is ever about anything but my gaming write-ups, I'm back with another Exalted post for ya.
Though that said, I'm still open to suggestions and such from my previous post. Even if you're not familiar with or interested in the setting, any thoughts on how to go about sorting my issue would be greatly appreciated. I've gotten literally no response at all from anyone on the subject.
We pick up in the aftermath of the attack on the arena, with Xương selling more of his corn hogs during the extended break, asking who would be stupid enough to attack a place with the greatest concentration of martial artists in existence. Hǎifēng says they don't know who's responsible, 'but they went that way,' and then points in the direction in which they saw the mysterious individual running off last session. Xương asks if Hǎifēng literally meant that, and Hǎifēng's like "remember when I mentioned lying to a cop and then petting him?" and next thing the group knows, Xương's already taken off running in that direction. Hǎifēng and Shango quickly put up a 'back in five minutes' sign and chase after him, Hǎifēng shifting to monkey form and catching up to scramble onto Xương's shoulder.
As they run past groups of people still dazed and recovering from the attack, Xương just starts grabbing people at random and demanding to know "Which way?" which doesn't get much in the way of useful info, though a few people recognize that he's asking about any mysterious individuals who may have come running past.[0]
The trio see, at the mouth of an alley between two buildings, the mask that Hǎifēng saw, and a short distance into the alley itself they see a body dressed the same way as the mysterious individual Hǎifēng saw. Xương takes a few moments to calm himself down and checks the body -- it's someone with lizard-like scaly skin, kind of greenish, but still mostly human-looking. Possibly a minor god or a god-blood working in the arena, assuming it's not the mastermind behind the attack pulling a scam. Xương does a quick assessment and the guy seems to be alive but unconscious. Hǎifēng pops out a clone to keep an eye on him while they and Xương start combing the alley looking for any sign of anyone else or where they could have gone.
Shango keeps watch at the mouth of the alley, and sees a couple of celestial lions headed their way. Xương and Hǎifēng can't find any traces of anyone else or any easy escape routes. Hǎifēng takes a closer look at the smooth, featureless mask they found nearby, the one that the suspect was wearing, and discover that it's not magic wood like the rest of the masks but some sort of textured porcelain. Xương suddenly becomes very aware of his own mask and that it doesn't come off.
Shango, having no reason to hide anything from the celestial lions, waves them down to tell them that he and his compatriots have found something. They come over and Xương directs them towards the dazed but waking lizard man, and Shango indicates the tiny monkey holding the mask. Xương explains that the three of them are Lunars, and give them the rundown of what they've found (which admittedly isn't much). One of the lions leans in to take a closer look at the mask and just flat-out asks Hǎifēng what they saw, fully aware of what they're looking at.[1]
Hǎifēng sighs and reverts to their human form -- not a magic 'poof' transformation, but slow and drawn out. They explain that they saw someone wearing that mask hanging around after the attack and that person ran and Hǎifēng chased after them. The lion just nods and understands this -- they're Exalted, after all, it would almost be out of character not to chase the guy.[2]
Nearby, the lizard man gives his statement: He didn't see what happened or who's responsible, all he remembers is someone coming up behind him and choking him out. He sounds like he's telling the truth, but Xương and Hǎifēng both pick up on some nuance in his tone suggesting he's not entirely sure if that's what happened. Xương calls him out and asks him for details on what happened. The lizard man stops and says that what he remembers is someone coming up behind him and a hand over his face.
Xương then leans in to sniff at him and even tries to lick him, and the guy pulls away and asks what he's doing. Xương explains that he's looking for any traces of ether or some similar chemical. Everyone just stares at him, kind of scandalized.
Magos shows up with a couple more celestial lions and a woman in red armor who's updating Magos on what they know about the attack. They all get quickly briefed by one of the lions already on the scene. Xương tells Magos to lick the lizard guy. Magos gives Xương a look, and he explains that he's not satisfied that the guy wasn't drugged. Magos looks at the three Lunars and back at Xương and says "Ah, right, the doctor." They thank everyone for their help and say they've been briefed on all of the competitors, so they know how to find them if they need anything.
Now that the excitement is pretty much over for now, Xương goes back to selling corn hogs, with Hǎifēng as his 'booth babe' giving out samples and Shango leveraging some of his business skills from his pre-Exalted upbringing into arranging resupplies of ingredients.
The break wraps up at about 8pm-ish, in-character, and everyone returns to the ring. Magos comes out to thank everyone for their assistance during the attack, and says that they have no reason to expect any more attacks (to which Hǎifēng mutters that they weren't expecting the first attack, either) but if anyone sees anything suspicious to let one of the lions know, keep safe, stuff like that. Then they say it's time for the show to go on, and with a snap of their fingers Hǎifēng's mask starts tingling and glowing.
Hǎifēng comes down to the ring with an armload of corn hogs to help promote them, giving a bunch out to people in the front row. (Magos takes on, with a slightly confused look on their face.) And once they've done that, they turn to find their opponent waiting for them.
It's the woman in the motorcycle-style jacket with the thin layer of bronze fur on her skin. Up close, Hǎifēng can see that even though her hair is almost black enough to absorb light, little spots of light like stars in a clear night sky are visible. Also, her leather jacket is lined with fine black jade chain.
I forgot to do an intro in the session itself, and to be fair it's because I was playing her up as kind of a mystery and didn't want to give too much away. But if I had done an intro, the caption would have used a font with points on the bottoms of the letters like a row of knives or teeth, with a subtle 'growl' sound effect. And the caption would read:
Jaspio Tesa
Water Aspect
Heaven's Dragon
God-Blooded Enforcer for the Shimmerside Corsairs
Magos says it's time to make this a little more interesting, and they snap their fingers. The floor shifts and changes, becoming a bridge over a flowing river (though where the water comes from or goes is unclear). They then do that thing where they say "Any questions? Good." without waiting for an answer, and declare a start to the match.
Tesa draws her short, paired orichalcum daiklaves, and at this distance Hǎifēng can see they appear to have been carved from the fangs of a celestial lion, which horrifies them slightly (given they just met and petted a celestial lion a couple of hours ago). She takes on a very no-nonsense stance for her form, holding the blades in a reverse grip, low to the ground.
Hǎifēng opts for showmanship this time over a quick and dramatic finish. They stand up straight, chest out, back slightly arched, and they reach up with both hands and deliver a couple of short, sharp claps like a flamenco dancer. With a flick of their wrists the fans slide out of their sleeves, and as they lower their arms to the sides the afterimages of a hundred arms follow. In each afterimage the fans are slightly more open until, with a flourish, Hǎifēng stands prepared for battle.
They stare her down, starting on the defensive in a physical sense, but giving her a wicked smile that, thanks to the Feral Smile Tactic Charm, sparks some genuine fear in her. Driven on by that, she swiftly dashes over the bridge to deliver a series of rapid daiklave strikes with rehearsed precision, as if this were a choreographed dance. But, with equal speed, Hǎifēng dodges and sidesteps each strike, though the series of attacks goes on long enough that they're pushed to their limit and wind up off-balance.
They then thrust out with their fans to snap them closed on the woman's daiklaves while the illusory arms punch at her arms to weaken her grip. They wrestle her blades away and fling them into the nearby river, then pivot on their heel and deliver a kick to her face. Despite her sheer speed and technique, she's just not ready for the simple, brutal attack and as Hǎifēng delivers the blow, a little imp pops out the back of her head.[3]
She staggers back and shifts her stance to accommodate the loss of the blades. She grins and Hǎifēng hears a growl that, normally, they might write off as a facet of her anima -- except the masks, um... mask that sort of thing. The growling is actually coming from her. She lunges at Hǎifēng with an open-palm strike that would utterly pancake an unExalted opponent. They flick their fans out, layering them so her palm strikes one and then the other, and as it continues they shift their grip to catch the blow with a hand behind the second fan. She's just not fast enough to get past Hǎifēng's defenses, despite the strike's perfect form -- a form so perfect that when Hǎifēng blocks the blow, it's almost like they were meant to.
In a cutesy voice to hide a hint of intimidation, Hǎifēng tells her "You're a scary lady." Tesa grins and says "Thanks," while the imp behind her mutters "She hears that a lot, but never as a compliment," souring her expression.
Then her body language shifts, showing that she's resigned to the end of this battle and unhesitating in progressing towards it, as she proceeds to attack again with a knife-hand strike for Hǎifēng's neck. Hǎifēng gasps with surprise at her speed, but they're just that much faster.[4] As they see her hand coming out them, they dissolve and dematerialize into a cloud of madness and monkey chitters. She staggers to a stop and looks around, and takes off running to put some distance between her and the center of the cloud. She runs across the surface of the river, reaching down to scoop up her daiklaves that emerge from the water on the way, and she reaches the other side.
She's surrounded by a cloud of low-hanging fog, and while she can't see it, the audience can see a ripple on top of the fog before there's a flash of silver. She whips around to deflect a strike from the war fan, but with a clang and a spark is thrown off-balance and left open to a follow-up strike that poisons her. She grits her teeth and struggles against the poison, her Essence flaring as her body tries to reject it, sweating a bunch of it out through her pores, but she staggers as she can't get all of it. She struggles and takes a swing at the still-visible imp, but it's also immaterial so she can't harm it.
And with that, she drops to one knee and taps out.
Hǎifēng rematerializes with a whirl of silvery fog, and tell her "Nothing personal, kid." She gives them a pained half-smile and says "I should have brought the other knife." Hǎifēng pauses for a moment to listen to the applause from the crowd before turning into a bird to fly back to the others.
And we left it there.
[0]-- Though I do feel the need to point out that the arena is currently hosting literally dozens of dangerous masked individuals with mysterious pasts at the moment.
[1]-- First off, there's the wooden mask. Second, all spirits have a charm called Measure the Wind, which lets them identify other beings under certain circumstances. Celestial lions' version of Measure the Wind kicks in when dealing with someone who might be a criminal or potentially obstructing justice, and I'd say a troublemaking reluctant witness definitely counts.
[2]-- One of those 'I might have mentioned this in the past and forgotten' details about Exalted characters is they experience something called 'Essence fever.' Basically, the Essence within them wants to be channeled, to be unleashed on the world. It urges them to act. This manifests differently for different Exalts -- Solars feel the drive to be glorious and shining heroes, for instance. Lunars' Essence feeds their rage and anger like a fire. In other words, most Exalted would chase after a mysterious individual potentially responsible for such an attack as was witnessed in the arena, even if they might justify it differently.
[3]-- This sort of thing has come up before, but as a reminder, this is part of the effect of Unitary Being Forge, one of Hǎifēng's Charms that lets them split a character's Intimacies into separate beings that can be used to mess with them. In this case, the imp is made out of the Minor Tie of Fear Hǎifēng inflicted on her, meaning that she's lost that fear while it's extant.
[4]-- So what's going on here is that Tesa is using Secrets of Future Strife, a Violet Bier of Sorrows technique that increases her effective Initiative rating to determine when she acts. Hǎifēng, in response, uses a Lunar Charm called Sinuous Striking Grace which does the same thing, putting their effective Initiative back above hers.
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