Hey there, folks. I know it's been a couple of weeks, but there've been delays on sessions and on this write-up. Good news, though, I'm back now, in case you didn't notice!
No real personal announcements to share, but in case you missed it, Exalted Essence is now available! It's an alternate core book for Exalted with a streamlined system and enough setting information to run Exalted games (even in the 'setting' of earlier editions, if that's your fancy). Most notably, the book includes rules for portraying ten different types of Exalts -- not only ones we have rules for already (Solars, Dragon-Blooded, Lunars, as well as Exigents and Sidereals if you count Kickstarter preview text), but also for types that haven't been covered yet. Which means you've got rules for Abyssals, Infernals, Getimians, Liminals, and Alchemicals, without having to wait for their own splat books to come out.
If you've thought about getting into Exalted, I highly recommend Exalted Essence -- it's simple enough to be a solid entry point for a newcomer, but fleshed out enough to run a game without needing any other books.
(I've gushed enough that I feel the need to make it clear that I didn't work on this book or anything, and I don't get anything out of it unless you count the affiliate link above. I just believe in the wonderful work done on it and what that can bring to the table, pun intended.)
Also, unrelated to Exalted, the Backerkit campaign for Trinity Continuum: Aegis is coming up later this month! Again, not a book I worked on, but I got a peek under the hood when I was working on my section of the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide and it's gonna be something spectacular. Follow this finely-crafted linkto sign up to be notified of when it starts!
And with that, let's get on with it!
Out on the grounds in front of the fort, the trio watches Bokano's arms wave in the air, matching the movements of the arms amidst the clouds as she chants unrecognizable words with a low, droning voice. Whether she ever knew the words or the language was lost long before she learned this spell, she still chants them by rote and despite the droning tone there's a musical quality to the performance. Her anima flares, giving everything an itchy, off-kilter sensation with scents of sand and salt filling the air even more than they normally do on the island. As the clouds get ready to open up, the shirtless gray-skinned Lunar with her, Loma, offers umbrellas to the group. Hǎifēng and Gou each take one, while Xương goes without.
Once the rain begins to fall she stops, catching her breath. She turns to Loma and the group and remarks that that spell takes a lot out of her without preparation, but she hopes their evening is going well, at least. Gou offers her an umbrella but she turns it down and leads them all inside (though Hǎifēng is being standoff-ish and making a big show of not talking to her). She leads them into a grand hall in the middle of the fort, where the literal seams between the original building and new construction are still very visible, where there's comfortable seating scattered around a burning hearthfire.
Gou asks her where she learned sorcery as they go inside, and she says it was during the early Shogunate -- the Low First Age or early Second Age, depending on who you ask. She says she learned it from an island shaman named Banded Rhizo, who trained her and taught her to bond with the storm, but perished during the Fair Folk Invasion. Gou says he's sorry and she says she appreciates that but it's been a long time and they certainly had a goodly number of years together. They make small talk about sorcery for a bit -- she talks about the spells she knows, and how during the Fair Folk invasion she went to the volcano gods to advance her power. As she says that, she stands before the fire and literal tendrils of flame reach out of it and dry her off.[0]
She says that when you live in the islands, it's extremely useful to be able to control the weather. She then points out that a lot of people see magic as a way of solving all of your problems, but it has a lot of complications to it. She and Gou chat a bit more about sorcery in general[1] -- among other things, Bokano talks about feats the Solars were capable of, and how some of them could -- forgive the vulgarity -- make you shit yourself. Not just from the awe or the terror, but also 'the rumble that'll hit your guts when a beam of pure Essence tears through a mountain.'
As they talk about sorcery, someone on the staff offers refreshments to Xương and Hǎifēng -- Xương partakes of meat and rice bowls and some tea, but Hǎifēng is (in their words) 'just a basic bitch' and refuses. Eventually Bokano realizes she's babbling, and asks how things have gone on their end. Xương tells her that the stuff they were looking into is all tied back to a group of Sidereals who are after the 'suits of armor' in the mansion. She gets very quiet when he says that, and her cup of tea starts boiling away -- with the steam making tentacle shapes as it rises from the tea.
Gou asks if something's wrong and she opens her mouth to respond, realizes what's happened to her tea, and just slumps in her seat. She's just tired, she explains. If it's not one thing, it's another.
Gou then explains the Sidereals' motivations regarding the Brass Legionnaires, and she acknowledges that they probably mean well, but there's no a lot of trust there. Gou says that he and the others were thinking of staying out of their way, as they have enough enemies. Xương then adds "Unless you're willing to fight for those brass soldiers, then oh boy." Gou makes it clear that nobody has to fight anyone.
Bokano's still visibly upset and annoyed. She says that since she took over, she sleeps maybe two nights a week. She acknowledges that maybe she's making too much work for herself. But if it weren't raining, she'd be tempted to just leave the Legionnaires on the lawn with a note saying "Free to good home." to spare them the trouble. She sighs and says there are bigger things to worry about. Serenity's currently on the case with the necromancer, Silver Lining is trying to get Open Palm to let the Lunars help them, but the Dynasts are paranoid that Bokano's people are trying to engineer access to the settlement -- as if they couldn't just go in.
There's some talk about why the Dynasts are even bothering, and whether they'll try to retake the island. It's pretty well-accepted they're not going to try anything, and even if they did there's little chance of success. She admits she's not entirely sure why she even lets them stay above and beyond trying to play nice enough they won't feel the need to try and fight. Xương says she'd be in her rights to bar them from the island entirely. She admits it's partially because of Silver Lining, that he's actually making an effort and it gives her a bit of hope. So out of respect for him, she's willing to give it a shot, though if things were every pushed to the point where he said they could all burn, well... She trails off and asks one of the staffers to break into V'neef Gamon's stash and bring her her pipe.
The conversation circles back around to the Sidereals and whether to make it easier for them to take what they want, and she says she's inclined to let them do it with a minimum of fuss. She confirms that the group talked with the Sidereais about everything going on, and she asks if they talked about the necromancer. Gou says that the Sidereals had a possible lead, and the group was about to check it out but when they left the meeting they saw the storm forming and recognized it wasn't natural. As he mentions that, thunder rumbles in the distance.
She gives Gou a look and realizes that the trio somehow wasn't warned about the storm, and they can see her work out that if they were talking to the Sidereals, that probably interfered with attempts to find them. Gou says it's good their conerns are dealt with, but now they've got other stuff to be sorted. She gets up and thoughtfully takes a hit off her pipe and offers it around if anyone wants a puff (they don't), and then a leak in the roof opens up and starts to drip on her as there's another rumble.
She sighs and calls out for someone to get the work crew on that leak if they're still around, and expresses some concern to the group -- the storm's not supposed to have any thunder or lightning, but she's hearing thunder rumbling from the direction of Open Palm. She's got a bad feeling about this, and wants to go look into it. She taps the pipe out into the fireplace and the group heads outside, and on the way out they see the 'work crew' come in -- Owl, and three other people (two of whom Gou vaguely recognizes, and one he doesn't). So the heist is definitely on.
Once they're outside, Bokano shifts into the form of a seagull and takes off. The group can see lightning in the direction of Open Palm -- though whether it's natural or the anima banner of a pissed-off Air Aspect Dragon-Blood is unclear from a distance. Either way, the group agrees that Bokano can deal with that while they go and head down to the docks to try and get a look at Lost to the Riptide, captain of the Shadowed Orphan.
They head into town and on their way to the docks, they see barrels out catching rainwater, guarded by Bokano's security forces -- a mixture of crabfolk and humans wearing distinctive crab-themed armor. As they reach the docks, it's not hard to find the Shadowed Orphan, as there's a commotion going on next to one of the ships.
A muscular (but not bulky) woman with skin like onyx and short, white as ash hair argues with a girl who looks to be in her teens with jet black hair, deathly-pale skin, and an eyepatch.[2] The group notices patagia hanging off the underside of the dark-skinned woman's arms, giving away (to them) that this is Stormseve Serenity in a human guise. She seems to be trying to explain to the pale girl -- presumably Lost to the Riptide (whom I'm going to call 'Captain Riptide' from time to time, for the record) -- that the local authorities insist the Shadowed Orphan remain docked until the rain passes, just in case.
"Hello, possibly-Abyssal pirate captain!" Xương casually calls out as he and the others stroll up. The woman with the eyepatch stops and slowly turns to face him. "There's the death-gaze I was looking for!" he cheerfully says. Serenity gives the three a nod, indicating (with the help of Glance-Oration Technique) their timing is perfect and this is who they're after.
The captain insists she's fine with the rain as-is and just wants to leave before the storm gets even worse and her ship and crew are stuck on the island for a few days.
Xương asks outright if she poisoned the water in Open Palm. She stares at him, and Hǎifēng can read in her expression (with a stupidly-good roll) that she's definitely responsible and she's trying to leave without having to fight her way out and possibly get killed. Gou, watching her crew, recognizes that they're bracing for violence (just waiting on some sort of signal) and even by pirate standards, seem to have had a rough time of it -- lots of scars and missing/prosthetic limbs.
"Yeah, I poisoned the well in Open Palm," she says, straddling the line between defiant and casual. "Because fuck those people."
Gou leaps into the air, shifting to hybrid form and whipping out Weirdflame. He flies up to blast her sails (using firedust, not stoking the fires of his own madness), setting them on fire to try and intimidate her into standing down. Despite the rain, they definitely catch fire, and as he dramatically lands on the railing of the ship he can see a human skulking among the crew with whiskers -- Tua of the Current, in human form, presumably investigating the ship while Serenity keeps the captain distracted.
Lost to the Riptide incoherently sputters in rage, and orders her crew to put out the fire. She then turns on the others and demands to know what they want from her, and Xương says "Surrender." Gou says he wants her to confront what she did, and Xương says that poisoning a well cannot stand. Captain Riptide glances over to notice that some point Serenity has shifted into her bat-form, and Tua has taken on her own hybrid otter-shape up on the ship's railing (not that she's much of a physical combatant by Lunar standards, but the Abyssal doesn't know that). So by now she's fully aware that she's utterly surrounded by Lunars, and manages to hold onto some dignity as she asks what they plan to do to her.
Hǎifēng points out that it's Bokano's island and her laws, as Gou argues that she needs to stand down and turn over her weapons. Hǎifēng also tells her to disclose any other places on the island she's tainted with her magic. She looks at Hǎifēng and says, truthfully, that she hasn't interfered with anything else -- she simply saw an opportunity with the well. Tension hangs in the air between the collection of Exalts as the Abyssal is clearly considering making a run for it, and Xương shifts into his full battle-form (everything but the size-increases).
Without looking away from him, she tells her crew to back down and then turns to Serenity to make it clear that her crew had nothing to do with the well at all and should be allowed to leave. She disarms herself -- producing several mundane blades and hand-needles -- and clarifies that the only member of her crew besides herself that had anything to do with the whole incident was the ghost herself, whom Hǎifēng destroyed. Xương remarks that being a ghost is a rough life, and completely deadpan the Abyssal says that the ghost was better off with her than when Riptide found her.
Serenity says that the crew isn't allowed to leave until tomorrow, as it really wouldn't be conscionable to let them leave in this weather with a damaged sail, but otherwise aren't being arrested or confined (at least, not for the poisoning). Serenity then tells Riptide that she needs to see under the eyepatch -- provoking flashbacks the corpse eye that Seize the Beyond had jammed into his socket as part of his necromancy. The Abyssal is indignant at first but the bat Lunar calmly but firmly insists. She tries to lift up the eye patch and satisfy Serenity without flashing what's underneath to everyone, but thy can all see it's just a perfectly mundane ruined eye.
Stormseve Serenity then asks, with a meaningful tone in her voice, who Captain Riptide serves. She snorts and says she's not much of a joiner, and 'Fuck all of them.' She then goes on: "I did what I did and I'm not going to hide that. But I did that for me. For what it's worth."
Gou says it's not like they're going to trust her, but...
Serenity shoots him a look as if to say 'you'd better not trust her' before officially proclaiming that she's taking Lost to the Riptide, captain of the Shadowed Orphan, into custody while they figure out exactly what to do with her. A dockworker collects her weapons as Serenity leads her off.
Tua jumps down onto the docks as Gou, Hǎifēng, and Xương regroup and Captain Riptide's crew files back onto the ship.
"This is a shitty situation," Tua comments.
"That could have gone a lot worse," Xương points out.
Tua agrees and thanks the gods the trio showed up when they did. Gou says it's their pleasure. Tua then says this might hav been easier if she'd actually tried to fight back or escape -- she's not bloodthirsty, but it's not like there's any way she can make any sort of recompense, and the Dynasts might insist she be turned over to them. Which, base-case scenario, means the Immaculate Order takes her to one of their prisons and worst-case scenario means they try to hold her and can't and she just kills everyone. (Nobody says it outright at this time, but there's kind of an unspoken discomfort with just executing her after she surrendered.)[3] Tua comments that that's why they have prisons, but she's not sure if they'd be able to hold one like her if she made a serious attempt at an escape, but they could at least try. Of course, if she does get away, Open Palm will just accuse the Lunars of letting her go.
Tua notes that Gou was about to say something, and asks him to speak up, and he just says he's torn on the whole thing. She acknowledges that and says they can sort it out later when they're not standing in the rain, and when Open Palm isn't in the situation it's in. And as if mentioning Open Palm by name summoned it, there's a rumble of thunder in the distance.
Gou offers to carry the others, arguing that he's faster, and there's some back and forth bickering over whether it'd be easier for them to just all take on their assorted avian forms and fly themselves -- Hǎifēng in particular points out they're fast in other ways, and then shifts into bird form and takes off. Gou has to stop and grapple with the question of whether Hǎifēng just insulted themself.
Anyhow, the group is soon on their way to Open Palm, the rain not being too much of a hindrance. They see anima banners flaring as they approach -- one all lightning and white streaks clashing against one that's more of a reddish ripple in the air like a heat mirage, and nearby a third that appears to be blue and white streaks. They arrive to find everyone in the dojo's courtyard, where Silver Lining is fighting -- not sparring, actually fighting -- with Ragara Danafo, the Earth-aspected monk that Hǎifēng encountered in the administration building before. The other Dragon-Blood, Peleps Kaizoku Agino, stands to the side and watches with a glare and her own blue and white anima swirling around. Bokano watches as well from the opposite side of the courtyard, and she looks like she's taken a couple of glancing blows but her demeanor is very much standing back and letting them slug it out.
Hǎifēng and Xương, quickly deciding Bokano's got the right idea, perch on a nearby rooftop. Gou (in his winged hybrid shape) lands a short distance away and casually approaches Bokano, making it clear via body language he's not getting involved in the fight and is here for her. She sees him coming and nods to the fight and just remarks "Beware the wrath of a quiet man."
"Indeed," Gou says. "I take it this is a local scuffle?"
"Short answer, yes. Silver Lining has been fighting to keep the peace, and he's tired of all of the effort to that end coming from the side that isn't 'his people.'"
Gou asks if she can talk a minute, and she agrees as long as she can keep an eye on the fight. So they walk over to stand next to the wall beneath Hǎifēng and Xương, and she clarifies for everyone's sake that this is an internal thing on the Dynasts' part and she's not going to get involved, but she will step in if it looks like they're going to just execute Silver Lining.
Gou fills her in on what happened down at the docks, and when he comments the living crew is basically innocent, she remarks on how innocence is relative in a place like Smolder (as kind of a pirate haven), but she gets what he means. There's some discussion of the group sticking around for a day or two just to dissuade Captain Riptide (who at least didn't deny being an Abyssal, the group observes) from trying anything foolish. She says paying their tab would be a small price to pay for that.
But she admits she's not a hundred-percent sure what to do about the Abyssal. If she were human, Bokano would just hang her. But she's concerned about what Riptide would do if they tried to do something as mundane as that. Xương remarks that executing her would probably need all of them, and Hǎifēng suggests that Bokano only wants them to stick around to help with such an execution.
The elder Lunar, a sour look on her face, makes it clear that asking them to say is about the safety of the island, nothing more. She's still concerned that if they try to kill the Abyssal, she'd have one of those moments where she suddenly discovers something really dangerous that she can do that she was unaware of until she had to do it. And Bokano certainly isn't going to turn her over to the Dynasts -- even if Riptide were mortal, Bokano would just hang her before doing that.
What she did, everyone agrees, is unconscionable. Gou laments however the situation is likely to end up, and Hǎifēng calls it ridiculous to be sad that she's going to die, given that she tried to murder a town. With a sober look on her face, Bokano says that Hǎifēng has a point -- and as much as she hates to keep mentioning her age, being old enough to live through the Great Contagion has made her a little jaded in that regard. She suggests they can probably find some way to bind her to get the whole thing done so the Circle doesn't have to be here for this. Hǎifēng makes it clear that this is Bokano's place to deal with, not theirs; they stopped to resupply, not fix her government.
Bokano gives Hǎifēng a look at that[4], and says that they are right, but she'd still appreciate it if the three of them stay a couple of days just in case. Also, while she's confident the rain is under control, it's always good to wait to make sure it remains that way. Gou agrees they can stick around a couple nights.
It's at this point where Silver Lining crashes into Bokano, launched by Ragara Danafo. Xương asks if they need to get involved, and Bokano looks at the Ragara and Peleps and asks "I don't know, do we?"
Peleps Agino cuts her off, though, going off on a rant about how the Lunars set this whole thing up, have been toying with them this entire time, and she in turn is cut off by Silver Lining. He just unloads on the Peleps, pointing out that Bokano isn't forcing them to be there, didn't have to let them stay there, and there wasn't a blessed thing they could do about it if they wanted to go against her. And that he's tired of having the Order weighing him down when he just wants to help people.
Danafo asks if he's doing what she thinks he's doing, while Gou perks up and listens (as he has a personal interest in this sort of thing). He realizes what he said, and says yes... he's leaving the Order. He's tired of being the only one who considers the Order's ideals and their duties to Creation, that he doesn't need the stricture to do the stuff he's supposed to be doing. He's done covering for the Realm, done apologizing for them, and done having to be the one who has be caught between them. From here on out, they can deal with Bokano directly.
And with that, he limps out of the courtyard, leaving the building -- and Open Palm -- and heading for Smolder, grabbing the dojo sign on the way out.
The Dynasts are flabbergasted, and before they can say anything Hǎifēng (still in bird form) calls them dicks and then flies away with Xương. The Peleps administrator starts to ask Bokano what she did, and the monk cuts Agino off with a "Really?!" and walks back into the village.
Bokano tells Peleps Kaizoku Agino that this is the deal -- she's preparing medicines and water to help Open Palm, and she's going to bring them once they're ready tomorrow. Agino can let Bokano help the Dynasts, or not. She's tired of fighting it and is willing to let them die at this point if that's what they choose. She then leaves without waiting for a response. Gou follows her out, and she tells him she's going to catch up with Silver Lining and make sure he gets back to town okay, and she jogs ahead to catch up.
Gou flies back to Smolder and catches up with the others while they get things together to stay on the ship. Not long after he gets back, Tuyền shows up with what I can only describe as a cauldron with some sort of local fish stew that she says is from Bokano. There's no specific message attached, but she's assuming it's thanks for something, and she tells them to enjoy before she leaves them to it.
And we left off there.
[0]-- For those of you at home, Bokano's a Celestial Circle Sorcerer. From her Terrestrial intiation has the shaping ritual that lets her 'draw power form the forces of wind, rain, and storm' as described in the Exalted Third Edition core. Her Celestial initiation is tied to the volcano gods from the region, and for mechanical purposes is a reskinning of the 'Ifrit Lords' initiation in the core book -- not that it really needs much reskinning, if you stop and thinking about it. But her Celestial Circle control spell is, unsurprisingly, Magma Kraken, which lets her do little fire tricks like the one I described.
[1]-- This is one of those rare cases where I've got enough detailed notes to recount a conversation, and while it's an interesting one to have in the moment, even I have my limits when it comes to pure exposition. I mean, a lot of it is just recounting stuff from the books but in-character.
[2]-- It's probably just because I recently started watching The Orville, but I can't help but imagine the Abyssal here as played by a heavily gothed-up Halston Sage, who portrays Lt. Alara Kitan. I didn't have her in mind when I first came up with the character, but when I actually got around to portraying her in the scene, the 'casting' came to me out of the blue.
[3]-- I'll openly admit I kinda painted myself into a corner here. I didn't necessarily want to force a fight, and at this point in the session it was too late for me to start a combat anyhow -- but too early to just wrap up then and there so we could start with a fight next session. But I didn't go in with a larger plan on what to do with the Abyssal, figuring that I'd just come up with something in the moment or run off of what the group wanted to do, and it just didn't pan out that way.
[4]-- Imagine a thought balloon above Bokano's head that reads "What the fuck are you talking about, 'fix your government?'"
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