Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Grim Vortex (Exalted)

Welcome again to another installment of Tales of the Moonlight Maiden! Circumstances almost thwarted another session, but we managed to schedule one for today outside of our usual arrangement. But this session wraps up the first story of the series (the first episode of the season, as it were)! Huzzah!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Hostages (Exalted)

So hey, welcome back! So we've got the second session of my group's Exalted chronicle, Tales of the Moonlight Maiden for your perusal. I know it feels like I just posted one of these, and I kinda did -- the last one was pretty close to the following session for reasons I'm not getting into here, and I'm getting this one out pretty quickly.

I don't really have anything to add, other than to say that because of character adjustments and whatnot between sessions, I've gone back and updated the little character info in the first post. So without any further ado, let's get into it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Moonrise (Exalted)

Greetings, folks! So for the first time in a few months, we've got some new tabletop content for the ol' blog here, as my group got together to have the first session of our new Exalted chronicle (if you couldn't guess from the teaser I posted), which I'm calling Tales of the Moonlight Maiden. (I was originally going to title this post 'Shakedown Cruise,' but then I remembered I used that on a Doctor Who post a few years ago)

I've typed up a primer on Exalted and posted it here. Originally I was going to include it in this write-up, but it was getting long enough that I decided to make it its own separate post where I can be wordy as hell and not clutter this more than it would be anyways.

This is going to be an all-Lunars game set in the Southwest, using the third edition core rules. Lunars are the chosen of Luna, shapeshifters and predators possessed of an inner rage that many of them channel towards the Realm. They come in three castes: Full Moon warriors, Changing Moon tricksters, and No Moon witches and shamans. In addition, there are Casteless who let their powers shift with the moon phases, flexible enough to do many things without being able to consistently excel in any one arena. They have no larger organization beyond the mutual aid society that is the Silver Pact, a network of mentors and apprentices stretching across Creation.

The Southwest of creation is a tropical area between the deserts of the South (and the Elemental Pole of Fire) and the wide oceans of the West (and the Elemental Pole of Water). Most of it is coastline and islands dotted with jungles and rainforests, and as one travels further south volcanoes become more common in the Cinder Isles.

(Not that anyone ever does, but if anyone has any questions about this specific game or Exalted in general, feel free to ask.)

While there will be the occasional short arc, recurring villains, etc., the intent is that this will be a "wandering badasses helping out the people of Creation" sort of game. Like, in my head, I keep imagining your typical early-seasons Supernatural or Incredible Hulk-style procedural but with a boat in a tropical setting.

The boat, by the way, is called the Moonlight Maiden. Hence the name of this chronicle.

This is the first Exalted game I've run, and I haven't played the game since first edition, and none of my players have experience with third edition either, so we're taking it slow as we adjust to the system, and there's going to be the occasional mistake, and so forth. So be warned. This is not a system we've been playing in some permutation for years.

So with that caveat out of the way, let's meet our Circle:

• Lintha Người Kéo Xương, aka The Bonetaker (he/him), a goblin shark-aspected Full Moon played by Sean (he/him). The Bonetaker was born and raised among the demon-worshipping Lintha pirates, until a negotiation went horribly wrong and they left him stranded for dead to teach him a valuable lesson and during his struggle to survive he Exalted. Now he's on the outs with the family, rejecting the culture that's enslaved them to the demons and fighting to free others from oppression -- brutally and messily if need be.
• Hǎifēng (they/them), a monkey-aspected Changing Moon played by Zac (they/them)[0]. Hǎifēng was taken by pirates from their village as a child, and doesn't remember where they're originally from. They escaped the pirates and grew up on the streets until their Exaltation. They carry a set of artifact war fans that they use with the Laughing Monster martial arts style.
• Shango (he/him), an osprey-aspected Casteless played by Bryan (he/him). He grew up in a wealthy family in the nation of Zhaojūn, and Exalted to escape the gilded cage he grew up in. Xương and Hǎifēng happened to be in the city at the time and smuggled him out of there. He's still Casteless and trying to find his way, but he's begun walking the path of Falcon Style martial arts.[1]

And now, let's get out into first adventure with this trio.