Hey there again, folks. It's me, back with another Exalted session write-up after having to skip a session last week due to RL interference.
But first, the crowdfunding campaign for the next Exalted expansion, Abyssals: Sworn to the Grave, is live on IndieGoGo! I didn't work on it or anything, but as I like to promote stuff related to the game line I wanted to share the campaign link here. If you'd like to hear more, The Story Told has an interview with the book's developer Chazz Kellner (storyteller for the Fall of Jiara AP, one of the hosts of Systematic Understanding of Everything, and generally a cool dude). You can hear that here.
Also, on a note unrelated to Exalted but possibly of interest to anyone reading the blog, between the last session and this one I did another one of my 'build a character' posts, this time for Trinity Continuum: Aberrant. I've got another one in the works for Trinity Continuum: Adventure!, and after that I'll probably switch gears and do something else for a post or two since any other TC games are either still in crowdfunding manuscript format, or pre-errata backer PDFs. I might do a Trinity Continuum: Assassins character, but we'll see. Either way, if you have any suggestions or requests (including a request to do Anima, Aether, or Aegis characters even though the full books aren't out), let me know.
And now, we get into the Exalted session. This is one of my 'talkier' ones, so usual disclaimers apply about me possibly misremembering details of dialgoue. I mean, I can tell you now that any of my NPC-on-NPC dialogue was made up on the spot at the time and I didn't stop to write down everything I said as I said it so I'm just winging it in the recounting. At some point I'll ask my group about possibly recording sessions so I can better get this stuff down for my own notes, but this feels like an awkward time to learn how to do that, mostly because we're coming up on a major showdown and potentially a story break.
So for those of you who haven't fallen asleep or wandered off...
After meeting with their various local contacts, the crew reconvenes at Copper Orchid's home in Salt-Founded Glory, as Hǎifēng has a key and an understanding that they can crash there if he's out of town. It's a nice enough apartment -- not as luxurious, but it's got about as much space as the penthouse suite he's occupying in Goldenseal.
Hǎifēng asks Xương and Gou how it went at the temple, and Xương says the two of them met with the Pale Mistress and she's on-board, and they're expected to go back tomorrow night. Hǎifēng sees that as a good sign, as it means they should be able to get 'the Exigent thing' taken care of in plenty of time to deny the Captain of the Ashen Umbra their prize. Yes, they're still going to lay waste to An-Teng, but this is still one thing sorted out. Hǎifēng gets some wine out of Orchid's stash to share with the others.
Gou suggests that they might be able to manipulate Captain Ash if they don't know that the puzzle box has been opened and the Exigence inside spent, maybe create a fake parley and sneak aboard some of their ships and do some damage. Xương says that's pretty devious, though he wonders if they should be devious.
Gou says he knows that Xương would just want to charge at them head-on, but Xương considers that maybe deviousness is the way to go. Hǎifēng adds that Xương knows they're not keen on the idea of him swimming out alone. He's tough, but not immortal. Gou points out they'd certainly have ballista and other siege weaponry, and would likely be ready for something big. Hǎifēng makes it clear they don't want to tell Xương what to do, they just hate the idea of him being out there without backup.
On Hǎifēng's end of the day's business, their contact is a Sidereal (but then, Hollow Thunder did refer to Tong Kaim as a 'colleague'), but Gou certainly isn't surprised. Hǎifēng grumbles a bit about 'sneaky secret Sidereals,' and Gou says that as long as they're on the group's side, it's fine, and Hǎifēng insists that they're only loyal to the Maidens and that can change on a coin flip. They then explain that Tong Kaim wants to try and arrange an alliance between them and one of An-Teng's Princes, and Gou reacts very badly to that, as he sees this as basically being the same as allying with the Realm.[0] Hǎifēng pours him a little extra wine and slides the glass over, and then just hands Xương the rest of the bottle.
Gou wants to know what's going to stop the Princes from turning on the Lunars after the battle, and Hǎifēng just wants to emphasize they're not necessarily personally endorsing this plan, but concedes there is no such guarantee.
Gou asks who she has in mind among the Princes, but Hǎifēng doesn't know. They don't like it, and it goes against what they've strived to do. Xương, for his part says he's willing to fight alongside Realm forces if that's what it takes, but he won't take orders from them. Hǎifēng hopes nobody from the Realm is stupid enough to try. It's suggested that if they go down this road, they should probably try to stay in their hybrid forms when dealing with the Princes or Tong Kaim to help protect their civilian identities. Hǎifēng in particular is concerned about their human form being identified since they still see An-Teng as their home.
Xương grins at the idea. "Fair enough," he says. "If they're going to ally with the Lunars, let them ally with the Lunars."
Hǎifēng emphasizes they didn't want to make any hard decisions for Xương and Gou, and that they'll go with what the others want to do. Gou grudgingly accepts this is for the greater good, and Xương just repeats that he won't be taking orders, with a "Ditto on that" from Gou. So they make plans to get back in touch with Tong Kaim, with the plan that when they go in to meet the Prince, they're definitely going to make a scene to make it clear how serious this is. Hǎifēng comments that tomorrow morning they're going to have an interesting meeting at the palace, and then in the evening a 'theater performance' of an Exigence occurring.
Though the group decides to check in Tong Kaim before then, rather than surprise her with something too drastic. Hǎifēng would go alone, but as this potentially brushes up against political stuff, they bring the others along -- though they do shift their appearance back into the disguise they first used to meet Jotaro back in Goldenseal. The weather outside is dreadful and rainy so the group can at least bundle up so they're not too visible as they return to the Shore Lands Palace.
They head in and ask for Tong Kaim, and are directed to a spot off the side where she's waiting for them. Hǎifēng needs a moment to recognize the woman in the functionary robes as her. Xương's never met her before so he follows Hǎifēng's lead, and Gou talked to her briefly at a party some months back but he doesn't recall her now. (Thank your Arcane Fate, kids.)
Hǎifēng starts by informing her that they're going to be here tomorrow, and they want to make it clear they're not taking any orders, especially from anyone associated with the Realm. She just asks if they'd like to go to a room and talk in private, and leads them into an empty meeting room. As Hǎifēng is in disguise, for good measure she asks if this is the same person she spoke to earlier, and Hǎifēng just asks "Am I?"
She sighs, weary, and explains that the three of them aren't going to be expected to take (or give) orders. They're not working for the army. This situation isn't ideal -- An-Teng doesn't have a formal military of its own. The Princes have small private armies of 'bodyguards,' but the bulk of their military defense comes from the Realm garrison, which is a joke. An-Teng can't do this without help.
Hǎifēng says they're going to fight regardless, but if someone looks at the Lunars wrong they might be the next target. Whomever they fight alongside is going to have to be well-informed, and very polite. Tong Kaim points out that's why they're hammering a few things out now and making arrangements, to cut down on misunderstandings by doing things like making sure certain troops aren't deployed where the Lunars are likely to be. Hǎifēng hopes for their sake that she's right.
So now, the Princes. She's not making any assumptions about their knowledge of local politics, so she gives them the basic run-down: An-Teng is ruled over by three Princes, each of whom rules over one of the three provinces that makes up An-Teng. The Shore Lands, where the group is now, is ruled by Prince Laxhander of the Glorious Reign, who's full of himself and an eager toady to the Realm. The Middle Lands are ruled by Prince Kiotaran of the Upward View, who's more interested in astrology than politics. The High Lands are ruled by Prince Josei of Notable Genius -- which, she assures them, is not an entirely undeserved epithet -- who's probably the least sycophantic to the Scarlet Dynasty.
She says that Kiotaran and Josei are going to be the most amenable to working at least temporarily with the Lunars, and each one has resources they can bring to bear to help. Of the two, Josei may be the tougher to convince and work with but potentially has more to offer in terms of support. And, working with one of them would give the group more opportunities to look good in front of the mortals, especially if Laxhander's Dragon-Blooded allies are conspicuously absent from what's likely to be the heaviest fighting. She says that none of the Princes are currently in the city, but she could definitely get one of them to the Shore Palace by, oh, about lunchtime the following day.
It comes up at one point that given Captain Ash's search for the box, and there are a couple of places where the Pale Mistress and Golden Lord could do whatever combined ritual they have in mind, they could potentially redirect that fight to another of the port cities, but it's settled that they're going to stick with Salt-Founded Glory.
Gou asks if she can get both Josei and Kiotaran, and she says that there's only time to get one of them amidst all of the other preparation that's going to need done.[1] Gou and Xương both think that Josei's going to be their best bet.
Tong Kaim makes a note of that and says she's going to jump on getting him there, while also trying to get things started arranging the country's defense as quickly as possible. She explains that her job is to carry messages between all of the Princes, and between the Princes and the satrap, and the garrison commander, and all that with the help of a small cadre of assistants and courtiers all dressed pretty much exactly like her. Basically, she's taught them to recognize and respect the 'uniform' without being tripped up by the Arcane Fate, and essentially this lets multiple people get messages from their 'trustworthy servant' at the same time. (She doesn't explain the last bit exactly like that because I didn't think of it until just now, and I really wish I had. Ah well.)
She says that she's also going to be sending messages up to her superiors. She doesn't get into further detail because she doesn't want to assume how much they do or do not know, but she says it with an inflection suggesting she means her Sidereal superiors in Yu-Shan. She asks the group if there's anything they want to go over before she gets to work, or anything they think she needs to know. Hǎifēng informs her about the trio's plan to remain in hybrid form when they meet with her or the Princes from here on out. She's visibly (though subtly) taken aback by that, but she says she appreciates the warning and will do what she can to accommodate them.[2]
She asks if there's anything else, and Gou informs her there isn't, but expresses his appreciation of what she's done so far.[3] With that she escorts them back out to the lobby, and as they head out they see her already surrounded by courtiers and messengers, giving them assignments to get the ball rolling right away.
We jump ahead to the next morning.
Shortly before sunrise, a small storm rapidly comes in off the water, wind whipping up waves and making the boats bob up and down with the disturbance. The storm blows a small courier ship in to crash into the docks. The storm quickly recedes as people come out to see this ship, with no signs of any crew. Someone comes up from belowdecks and staggers out to fall off the side of the boat onto the pier and begins to walk uneasily towards Salt-Founded Glory. His motions are jerky and uneven, and his mouth is stitched shut to muffle what would otherwise be screams of pain and dismay.
The other people on the docks come close enough to get a good look but far enough away to wait for someone else to do the stupid thing and approach. The man stops, pulls out a blade, and slits his own throat, cutting it deep enough to get to his windpipe. An unearthly wail comes out of it before the man falls lifeless to the pier, and while not everyone fully agrees on exactly what they heard among the hellish sounds, most of them work it out clearly enough:
"Surrender the box."
Salt-Founded Glory is abuzz with the incident when the Lunar Circle show up at the palace in their hybrid forms. They draw looks but nobody starts anything as they go in and one of Tong Kaim's 'doubles' escorts them to a meeting room upstairs. There's a large table with maps and charts and a sideboard with food and drink. On the other side of the table is an older man with short gray hair in nice robes -- projecting authority but not ostentatious -- with Tong Kaim next to him, and a handful of armed bodyguards against the wall, and a few assistants. Tong Kaim steps forward.
"Allow me to present Prince Josei of the Notable Genius, ruler of the High Lands of An-Teng."
She then turns to him, gestures to the Lunars, and says that they are the special guests of whom she spoke. She's actually not sure how to introduce them, and didn't think to work that out ahead of time.
He begins by asking the Circle if they're aware of what happened at the docks, and naturally they are. He admits he doesn't know the full context of the message, but he knows it's only a matter of time before people realize the threat approaching An-Teng. He thanks the trio for coming, and there's some back and forth about confirming the Lunars' desire to help and willingness to work with him. Hǎifēng also talks about the Captain's ultimate goal of turning the oceans into one big shadowland.
There's also some back and forth as the group confirms that the Captain's forces are going to be focusing on Salt-Founded Glory, and that's where the Lunars prepare to meet the deathknights. Hǎifēng points out that the fleet might be the bigger issue, and it's agreed there's no good way to stop that. Hǎifēng says they need to prepare for landfall. Prince Josei agrees, he's more than aware of that already, that's why he's talking to them.[4] He just wants to hear it from them that they can do this. Xương steps up and says they can kill whatever comes off the boats, with enough sincere confidence that it reassures the Prince.[5]
The Prince talks about how there are going to be ramifications for this, for them being seen allying together, but he suggests that they're probably fine upsetting apple carts given their openly approaching the palace in these forms. Hǎifēng calls him a little racist for that, and he quickly clarifies what he means is that they're not interested in things going smoothly, is what he meant. Xương says they're more interested in winning, which gets a firm agreement from Gou.
Prince Josei goes on to explain that there are potentially associations cutting both ways between him and the three of them -- if something were to happen between the Lunars and the Realm, he might be implicated just because of their brief alliance, or if something were to happen between him and the Realm, they might be implicated. He wants to know if they're okay with that. Gou says he doesn't want to answer a question with a question, but he asks which the Prince and his people would prefer -- being slaughtered by a necromancer, or possibly having to work with 'monsters' that have some honor. He makes it clear they're helping because it's the right thing to do, in spite of what people think of them. They know how to at least stop part of Captain Ash's plan, and once they did that they could just leave. But they don't want to because they're not evil, they don't want to see people dead.
Josei, resisting the urge to make a 'hand whooshing over the head' gesture because that wasn't what he was getting at, just emphasizes he wants to know if they're fine being linked if either is involved in some sort of upheaval in the future. Xương says they can kick that can own the road, and Josei then just asks outright if they'd be fine possibly collaborating in the future if things break down between the Realm and An-Teng. He's not asking for or expecting anything, but not everyone in An-Teng is happy with the current situation with the Realm -- and some of those unhappy people might be An-Teng's rulers. Hǎifēng says that if they go to kick out the Realm, they'll be there. Gou says all they can do is simply hope that the people will see what actually happens here in the near future, and that can help push things towards mutual partnership and agreement.
Now that they're on the same page, Hǎifēng asks if they can now talk about the imminent invasion. Josei gestures to the map-covered table, and they get into what little intel they have, mostly discussing the Lunars' capabilities and what they have to offer besides punching deathknights.[6] This mostly gets Xương's ability and willingness to go after the ships before they reach the shores, and Gou's got the ability to take to the skies. Josei's got some ideas on how to put Gou's flight abilities to use, and deploying Xương to slow down or damage the Captain's fleet is a wonderful idea, just one that's going to have to wait until they have a better idea on where the fleet is -- also, making sure they're close enough that he's got time to go out there, hit them, and come back.
Josei then explains that An-Teng doesn't have a proper military as such, so they're going to have to supplement the Realm's meager forces. But with him stepping up to help with his own private forces, he has a notable advantage to bring to bear. He produces a scroll and shows them drawings of a number of animal masks, and explains that among An-Teng's ancestral treasures are the Animal-Commanding Masks, which will be trusted to his lieutenants who can then summon swarms of different animals to beef up their ground troops. Those animals could be used to not only supplement the military forces directly but could also be used to speed up communications, reconnaissance, etc. Each mask commands a different variety of animal -- he goes out of his way to point out, with a grin, that the Tiger Mask is his.
But once the planning and small talk are completed, they agree to meet again in two days' time and go over their new information.
We then move ahead to that evening, as Xương drops in on Kim Sơn and tells him there's someone he needs to talk to. Kim Sơn is surprised, but he rolls with it -- he's had a streak of good luck lately, even if he doesn't know why -- and the trio take him to the temple (with Hǎifēng still in their disguise and Gou wearing his replica mask from the tournament). He's confused at being led through the shrine of the Golden Lord, past Jian and into the basement. He starts to freak out a bit when they go down into the room, which smells faintly of seawater and blood.
He asks, nervous, why they've brought him there, when a toothless old crone with white hair steps out of the shadows -- the Pale Mistress, in another guise -- and says "To meet me."
She tells him she knows what he's done, that he worked for the Eternal Wave, spying and luring people into it, willing to do almost anything to prolong his life. He insists he's not that person any more, and she laughs -- it's an unpleasant sound, more like glass breaking than laughter -- and says she wants him to be that person, but for her, and reflects on the irony that it's fleeing the cult that might actually get him what he wants.
As she talks, she pulls out the puzzle box, one hand transmogrified into a gigantic monster hand. The puzzle box opens up, seemingly of its own accord, and the group can see silvery fire -- like staring into the sun, except it doesn't hurt -- in the middle. The flame of the Exigence, of pure potential and Essence manifest.
She explains that she's a god of chaos and misery, a reflection of the darkness that lurks in the hearts of the people of An-Teng, and in these changing times she needs an extra pair of hands to hold the knives. She Choses him to be her champion, and if he accepts his health will improve and he might live centuries (barring incident) rather than slowly dying in agony over the next few months. But it won't be easy, and he'll be feared by many.
She closes the puzzle box and says he can think it over, and he almost looks pained to have the glorious divine flame -- a gift from the Unconquered Sun himself -- taken out of view. She says there's a ritual they have to go through, as she's working with the Golden Lord and the two are supposed to get their champions together. She can start now, his half of it starts at sunrise, and there's a point where they intersect.
Kim Sơn looks at the Lunars, unsure and terrified -- but then, among other things the Pale Mistress is a goddess of fear, that's to be expected. They give him an encouraging nod, and tell him it's going to be okay. He turns back to her, and accepts.
The puzzle box opens back up, and she lifts that monstrous, clawed hand, and plunges the claws into the flame. The silvery fire coats her claws, and she says "Then we begin," as she plunges the claws into his chest. He screams in what might be ecstasy or agony (or both) as the power surges through him, but that's when the TV screen suddenly smash cuts to 'To be continued...'
[0]-- Which might be a little unfair, though I didn't want to interrupt the scene to have Gou make a Lore roll to know some relevant details about An-Teng's tenuous relationship with the Realm.
[1]-- This is a deliberate limitation on my part. Long story short, I've got a whole thing set up on my end about the forces they'll be fighting alongside and against, dependent (respectively) on which Prince they ally with and in which of the three port cities they choose to make their stand. If anyone's curious I'll go into a little more detail after the battle actually plays out.
[2]-- Given that beastfolk are a commonly-known phenomenon, simply walking around as an animal person is not necessarily going to get people screaming about 'Anathema.' But she can at least try to cut down on the number of people present the next day that might freak out or make too much of a fuss.
[3]-- He's really trying hard not to say something like "you've done enough," even if he doesn't mean it in the way most people would.
[4]-- After all, as we know, a proper defensive navy for An-Teng was Danai's life's work, and it completely slipped my mind until this moment as I'm writing this sentence I should have pointed out a family resemblance between Danai and Josei. Frig.
[5]-- I don't normally interject with influence rolls for these sorts of interactions, but it felt appropriate at the time to just give Sean a roll that wound up successfully instilling an intimacy of "The three Lunars (Faith)." It's not a huge thing, but it is a sign that they've made an inroad with him.
[6]-- I dunno quite where to put it because there wasn't a formal introduction as such, more of a retroactive clarification, but I feel the need to mention at some point that the Prince doesn't know the group's real names. He's been told to just refer to them as 'Bird,' 'Shark,' and 'Monkey.'
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