Dice Exalted 3E - Tale of a Falling Empire OOC

[Random Word]

Yup, skip me for pacing.

Goals for off-screen secret meeting:
- Convince attendees the role Asuna is playing is a mortal representative of some Dynast on the Isle whose family is negotiating for a marriage. The marriage is favourable for him, he doesn't want to see her die, and he's willing to put money behind winning her favour, the favour of her family, and keeping her alive.
- Pick a god to hold the festival for. Someone useful for shoring up the Satrapy's food situation. Inform them Sengon will fold if they push to have a festival day rescheduled.
- Organize the disbursement of funds through proxies to the attendees - they're essentially being paid to buy things from themselves and donate them in a grand philanthropic gesture, so it ought to be a fairly easy sell. They make money and they look generous.
- Subtly make it known that the Dynast is very far away, very wealthy, and has very little idea what prices are like out here, so there's an opportunity for all of them to make quite a bit of money.
- Have sources in local banking and merchant houses + the households of the participants keep an eye on where money and goods are flowing, and assemble a list of possible leads for embezzlement and graft. I don't know if there is a organization planning a rebellion, but at the very least this might give Asuna an up to date map of business relationships and the finances of the major players in Kandara, which could be useful regardless.

Let me know if you want me to roll for any of that.

 

[Random Word]

Harun saw through my disguise, then? Or she just believes Asuna is so good at disguise she discounts the fact she couldn't recognize her? Either way, nice of her to play along.

 

[jaydude]

Harun saw through my disguise, then? Or she just believes Asuna is so good at disguise she discounts the fact she couldn't recognize her? Either way, nice of her to play along.

Sorry for taking a while to respond to this.

I can't remember what you rolled for that disguise (or even if you rolled at all), but I don't mind not pressing the matter. The way I see it, Harun felt no compulsion to blow Asuna's cover at the meeting, regardless of whether or not she recognized her.

Right now, I'm under the impression that Asuna's involvement in the planned festival is an open secret to Harun. As well as Satori and Sengon, seeing as Asuna talked about setting up the festival with them.

 

[Random Word]

Satori and Sengon definitely know. Asuna is a compulsive liar, though, and takes it personally when anyone catches on to one of her games without her telling them herself. She would have put some serious effort into at least making Harun uncertain she was behind this as a point of pride. If she can fix problems in the city while almost everyone thinks she did absolutely nothing to help she'll consider it a great success - that's the sort of thing her House instructors would have praised her for.

She had 6 hits on her disguise, so Harun definitely could have seen through it.

 

[jaydude]

Harun doesn't have a particularly large amount of dice for Perception + Awareness, so I'll go ahead and assume she didn't recognise Asuna at the meeting.

 

[D. Rex]

jaydude
Did Jazald leave with Satori?

 

[jaydude]

jaydude
Did Jazald leave with Satori?

Javald. And nope.

 

[Random Word]

Exchanging news and instilling ties in Voruna and Satori are Asuna's only goals for the party. Other than that she's going to get drunk, play gateway, and enjoy the food. I'm fine with skipping forward whenever everyone else is ready.

 

[Rykon]

Barring another chance to interact with them, not much to do about that. I'm good with moving forward as well.

 

[Sherwood]

I am fine with that.

 

[Random Word]

Oh! I totally forgot to leverage the Minor Tie of Fascination to lower Voruna's Resolve by 1 for my Instill. That being said, if he leveraged even a Minor Intimacy in opposition ("I don't mix business and pleasure."; "House Sesus are jerks"; etc) or spent 1 WP to negate the instill, it wouldn't change the results. Still, that would give me useful information that there existed an opposing Intimacy I had to wear down.

 

[D. Rex]

So, we know that we will be fighting anathema. But, with all the dynasts here, how many circles of celestial exalted and traitorous kinships and mortal armies do you think that Jaydude will be throwing at us that would have to seige Kandara for our goal of protecting the city to fail? Will we be able to hold the city for any length of time or we will we be overrun entirely?

And if we do somehow pull off an absolute miracle and break the seige, will the victory have been big enough to have turned the tide in our direction? Or is Kendara just one front of many... and cities are being attacked all across the threshold?


Lol and will we get to fight against other circles that have made? I can see it now, Bard inciting the riots while Manato tries to quell them, Kuidao leading the armies against Asuna's Tactics , with either Spider or Maja crushing a warstrider between their thighs like a watermelon while the other ragdolls Xandra, all the while Larissa trying to get a bead on the mysterious Sidereal that is hiding amongst the Ragara household playing them like a game of Among Us.

 

[jaydude]

Heh. Glad to see at least one of you considering that Kuaidao's likely to be involved in this. Though did you also consider him using Guardian Host to sic an army of gemstone soldiers on you all?

That aside, while I'm happy to bring my PC's into this game as NPC's, I'm not going to do so for any of your PC's. I'd want to get individual permissions first, but even if I got them, I think I'd be too concerned about making them OOC - or taking them in directions you wouldn't approve of - to do so.

On another note, yes, there are plenty of Dragon-blooded at the gala in the area. But they won't necessarily all be willing to fight alongside you. Those affiliated with other satrapies may want to return and shore up there if they know that there's an Anathema-led army in the area, and certain Dynasts may be happy to just let Kandara fall if it means House Ragara suffering a blow.

 

[Rykon]

So, we know that we will be fighting anathema. But, with all the dynasts here, how many circles of celestial exalted and traitorous kinships and mortal armies do you think that Jaydude will be throwing at us that would have to seige Kandara for our goal of protecting the city to fail? Will we be able to hold the city for any length of time or we will we be overrun entirely?

And if we do somehow pull off an absolute miracle and break the seige, will the victory have been big enough to have turned the tide in our direction? Or is Kendara just one front of many... and cities are being attacked all across the threshold?


Lol and will we get to fight against other circles that have made? I can see it now, Bard inciting the riots while Manato tries to quell them, Kuidao leading the armies against Asuna's Tactics , with either Spider or Maja crushing a warstrider between their thighs like a watermelon while the other ragdolls Xandra, all the while Larissa trying to get a bead on the mysterious Sidereal that is hiding amongst the Ragara household playing them like a game of Among Us.

My plan wasn't actually to quell the riot, but to use their hatred of Exalted to make them question Solars by redirecting it back at them. Intimacies are two-edged swords if you're clever enough.

"If people suffer under complacent dragons, how much greater could the suffering become under an Anathema? You cling to powers above you and let them shroud the power you hold in your hand. You would let the light of a false sun blind you from the life you lead yourself to follow a sickly glimmer that tempts you to damnation." et cetera.

I've played Solars long enough, I'm eager to tackle the counter-propaganda challenge. While the writers have seemed content to give Dragon-Blooded a fairly weak ideology to stand on, I'm more than willing to bend or break it to fit our purpose in surviving.

 

[D. Rex]

Heh. Glad to see at least one of you considering that Kuaidao's likely to be involved in this. Though did you also consider him using Guardian Host to sic an army of gemstone soldiers on you all?

That aside, while I'm happy to bring my PC's into this game as NPC's, I'm not going to do so for any of your PC's. I'd want to get individual permissions first, but even if I got them, I think I'd be too concerned about making them OOC to do so.

On another note, yes, there are plenty of Dragon-blooded at the gala in the area. But they won't necessarily all be willing to fight alongside you. Those affiliated with other satrapies may want to return and shore up there if they know that there's an Anathema-led army in the area, and certain Dynasts may be happy to just let Kandara fall if it means House Ragara suffering a blow.

Of course he could be! What better dramatic and effective anathema general to lead against the Realm Legions than one who was one of them and knows all their tricks and strategies? And no... I did not actually factor in Guardian Host or how dire that would be for us.

Lol but the talk of PCs was more along the lines of amusing speculation than anything else. Given that PCs are themselves considered a cut above the average exalts of their kind by design, I wouldn't want to face ANY of our PCs in combat. Bard would make everything Topsy turvy by turning everything into a disney musical number. Ragnar would hulk out turn my warstrider to dust with a single punch, use titan wrangling method on me then toss my weeping corpse to the other side of creation. And Hazel would release that Third Circle Demon she Naruto'ed into her body. And with every one enemy we cut down, Zed would be reviving ten soldiers to replace them. Lol and mine are the weird unoptimized ones. May TUS have mercy on us if any of Rykons PCs get involved.

That said! Anyone here always has full permissions to use anything of mine any way they see fit and in any situation. I would not be worried about something as small as my char "not being portrayed correctly", because most the time im winging it anyway, and have only recently upgraded to knowing HALF of what im doing.

But the speculation came about as I was thinking that most Exalt games take place in the sameish time period. And it made me think "huh, what do you think those char are up to right now? Have they exalted yet? Did they win? I wonder what a PC vs PC fight would look like. Gosh I miss Hazel, I wonder if she saw any of the Terrestrials we know or made as heroes before she exalted. "

Lol them cowards. It Dynasts like them is why the Realm is crumbling! We are going to have to fight twice as hard now. Satori better be grateful.

My plan wasn't actually to quell the riot, but to use their hatred of Exalted to make them question Solars by redirecting it back at them. Intimacies are two-edged swords if you're clever enough.

"If people suffer under complacent dragons, how much greater could the suffering become under an Anathema? You cling to powers above you and let them shroud the power you hold in your hand. You would let the light of a false sun blind you from the life you lead yourself to follow a sickly glimmer that tempts you to damnation." et cetera.

I've played Solars long enough, I'm eager to tackle the counter-propaganda challenge. While the writers have seemed content to give Dragon-Blooded a fairly weak ideology to stand on, I'm more than willing to bend or break it to fit our purpose in surviving.

That's a pretty smart strategy, playing Solar potency against themselves. Bold enough to throw a wrench in their plans surely.

And I agree! While I haven't played solars as often as you, I'm definitely enjoying getting to play things from the other perspective, and all the challenges that come with it.

 

[jaydude]

Of course he could be! What better dramatic and effective anathema general to lead against the Realm Legions than one who was one of them and knows all their tricks and strategies? And no... I did not actually factor in Guardian Host or how dire that would be for us.

Then there's Annika and Selket; they'd be going around and sneakily wrecking all of your shit. Shi-vash may or may not secretly lend a hand to the efforts against you, depending on her workload and/or whether or not she can get enough free time.

And I agree! While I haven't played solars as often as you, I'm definitely enjoying getting to play things from the other perspective, and all the challenges that come with it.

That's pretty much the main reason I came up with this plot idea, besides the fact that Sherwood was already running a Solars game.

 

[D. Rex]

Then there's Annika and Selket; they'd be going around and sneakily wrecking all of your shit. Shi-vash may or may not secretly lend a hand to the efforts against you, depending on her workload and/or whether or not she can get enough free time.



That's pretty much the main reason I came up with this plot idea, besides the fact that Sherwood was already running a Solars game.

Indeed! Also, Shi-Vash has Xun. He can get her their and back quickly enough to a bit of chaos sewing in her lunch and coffee breaks.

Lol I'm always down for two Solar games. Though all we need now is a Lumar game going on and we are running max 3e.

And I rather enjoy this plot. Being on the losing side and facing off against impossible odds. Like we are im the exalted version of Helm's Deep.

 

[Sherwood]

The more Exalted the better. That's what I think.

 

[D. Rex]

The more Exalted the better. That's what I think.

Ditto

 

[Rykon]

May TUS have mercy on us if any of Rykons PCs get involved.

Oof, there were some with Dreams of the First Age templates I got to make that fight close to Incarnae level. That GM had no idea what he was asking for. Single Swing Army Slaughtering Stance, Cosmic Counter-Yeet, Hand of the Great Maker +The Eye, and all that other stuff you'd think you'd never be allowed to use... I doubt we'd even get to pick up dice. There was even one that started from 0 XP that stole the sword of creation with sorcery loopholes... Then there's the "how is this even happening" type stuff with the Tyrant Lizard jogging at 120 mph on the open sea with some comparatively shrimp-sized dude on the back touting a Warstrider's Direlance in each hand. That's only the Solars too, not even a Sidereal or Lunar... or Infernal...

Yeah, 3E is much kinder to Dragon-Blooded, even if most of it is cause the silly-creep of other splats was dialed back a lot. I dialed back the optimization a bit myself with 3E too, so almost all of the more terrifying ones are in the previous edition. I'm going to miss the "You're doing what now?" reactions 2E encouraged. I'm definitely going to enjoy better Lunars and an actual playable version Dragon-Blooded as well. I'm both curious and terrified about what we're liable to see with 3E Sids. I just hope the old Yellow Path charm makes its way back this time around.

As for what we end up facing it could still get pretty bad though. Jay is well within the realm of viability to get you into a boxing match with a Kaiju-tier Mantis shrimp Lunar with a missile resistant bunker grade carapace. Thundering bowling ball hand punch and all. That'd still be a pretty impressive L to have to take though.

The more Exalted the better. That's what I think.

It's what I came to this site for originally, as some of you know. So I'm always up for more Exalted games.

I had been playing with the thought of trying to run one myself again, then things got decidedly unpleasant at the office. Our team is back down to two people again, and other departments are making life difficult. So I don't think I'll be able to have enough energy by the end of the day to weave together a coherent plot.

 

[jaydude]

Interestingly enough, I do have two ideas for Solar games. One of them's based in the South, and would centre around a desert kingdom founded by the characters' past lives but now ruled by the Scarlet Empire and a Shogunate dynasty (think Ancient Egypt with the political dynamics of Ptolemaic Egypt), with the characters having the option to seize control for themselves. The other's based in the West, and would feature the characters having adventures on their own ship, and dealing with a Deathlord who commands his own massive armada of ghost ships and seeks to sink the entire West into the Underworld (think Warhammer's Vampire Coast adapted for Exalted).

Another Dynast idea I have is the group being tasked by the Scarlet Empress herself to find an N/A First Age artefact, leading to adventures across Creation and conflicts with groups such as Lookshy as everyone attempts to get their hands on the thing. Other than that, I wouldn't mind having a go at running a Lookshy/Prasad game, seeing as we've largely dealt with Realm Dragon-blooded previously.

 

[Sherwood]

Those sound interesting. I would happily toss a character into either one of those.

 

[Rykon]

Any of those sound great to me as well.

Also note, there a canon Deathlord in the West you can leverage if you wish. I think it's the Silver Prince in the Skullstone Archipelago. It's been a long time since I've looked at any of it, so I might be mixing something up somewhere.

Other than the Scavenger lands game I've not had many long-running games as a player for Solars in 3E. So if I had to vote I may favor a 3E Solars game for my own variety in the present. More important than that though, go with what most appeals to you and I'm sure we'll all have fun.

 

[D. Rex]

Oof, there were some with Dreams of the First Age templates I got to make that fight close to Incarnae level. That GM had no idea what he was asking for. Single Swing Army Slaughtering Stance, Cosmic Counter-Yeet, Hand of the Great Maker +The Eye, and all that other stuff you'd think you'd never be allowed to use... I doubt we'd even get to pick up dice. There was even one that started from 0 XP that stole the sword of creation with sorcery loopholes... Then there's the "how is this even happening" type stuff with the Tyrant Lizard jogging at 120 mph on the open sea with some comparatively shrimp-sized dude on the back touting a Warstrider's Direlance in each hand. That's only the Solars too, not even a Sidereal or Lunar... or Infernal...

Yeah, 3E is much kinder to Dragon-Blooded, even if most of it is cause the silly-creep of other splats was dialed back a lot. I dialed back the optimization a bit myself with 3E too, so almost all of the more terrifying ones are in the previous edition. I'm going to miss the "You're doing what now?" reactions 2E encouraged. I'm definitely going to enjoy better Lunars and an actual playable version Dragon-Blooded as well. I'm both curious and terrified about what we're liable to see with 3E Sids. I just hope the old Yellow Path charm makes its way back this time around.

As for what we end up facing it could still get pretty bad though. Jay is well within the realm of viability to get you into a boxing match with a Kaiju-tier Mantis shrimp Lunar with a missile resistant bunker grade carapace. Thundering bowling ball hand punch and all. That'd still be a pretty impressive L to have to take though.


It's what I came to this site for originally, as some of you know. So I'm always up for more Exalted games.

I had been playing with the thought of trying to run one myself again, then things got decidedly unpleasant at the office. Our team is back down to two people again, and other departments are making life difficult. So I don't think I'll be able to have enough energy by the end of the day to weave together a coherent plot.

And here I was thinking my thrilling moments was making a cat girl with a big gun and pointy hat or one of the stereotypical mecha anime protagonists. Just gonna keep making my weird stuff!


Lol I'm looking forward to seeing how much Jay is going to beat me down.

 

[D. Rex]

And all those rp ideas sound great! I'll join all of them. Somehow. Rykons too.

Any of those sound great to me as well.

Also note, there a canon Deathlord in the West you can leverage if you wish. I think it's the Silver Prince in the Skullstone Archipelago. It's been a long time since I've looked at any of it, so I might be mixing something up somewhere.

Other than the Scavenger lands game I've not had many long-running games as a player for Solars in 3E. So if I had to vote I may favor a 3E Solars game for my own variety in the present. More important than that though, go with what most appeals to you and I'm sure we'll all have fun.

I haven't been playing Exalted with you all very long. But I'm definitely looking forward to any long running exalted game that I don't find myself at the tail end of.



And I think I know which Abyssal your talking about! Hating his own side and sympathetic to creations side, but a slave to the meghkonica whatever thing that holds his soul. Sent there to keep him out of trouble, I think.