Dreams of the Second Age

[JayTee]

Oh right, shit, forgot we didn't have our Dawn. I am a derp.


But yeah, a Full Moon and a combat specced Night should be able to handle most problems without issue. I know I gave myself blank check as far as artifacts are concerned with Panoply and Arsenal 4, but I'd still like to explore the place and possibly get any loot before we decide to leave or not.

 

[Rykon]

Agreed, seems like a waste to bail without checking out the situation for ourselves instead of vacating after assessing the situation.


I'm still torn on whether I want to open the pandora's box of first age backgrounds, cause I -could- smother myself in skin mounts and hearthstones, but I'm not sure I want to hyper-munchkin this character. Though, I already backed off the Melee charm that simultaneously attacks all opponents within 700 yards of the user for the sake of having a plot.

 

[Varna]

So let’s get this party started.


What are the threats of Rathess?


Starting at the base there’s some several thousand feral stalkers roaming not only the streets but also taking hold of various buildings and apartments throughout the city. And we’re talking flooded: the book gives a brief example of three thousand. You can always assume there’s probably a few hundred more, just to be safe (one of the goddesses actively tries to encourage their growth you see). On top of those numbers are some five hundred or so hobgoblins with at least three fae nobles running around trying to lead them. So you’ve got this ferocious force of fae brand monsters and mindless ancient breeds infesting never everywhere on the damn map. This isn’t even getting into the un numbered wyld barbarians and cannibals. About 60 Dragon Kings are sane enough to be salvageable. They are completely under the thumb of the goddesses mentioned later on.


Fae Nobles are Fae Nobles. Shining by her-self wouldn’t have trouble dealing with them because she’s protected under ancient laws due to Eclipse powers. And if we don’t attack anything, the same could even be extended to the party. However constant party need to tear into everyone’s asshole would shoot that right in the face. They would love to help whoever was willing to stand against Filial Wisdom with every intention of backstabbing them. Book makes it a point to mention if you can diplomacy one of the goddesses into working with you, you could “probably” get their help for as long as it took to murder the elder Dawn Caste.


There are quite a few gods and spirits roaming Rathess.


The lesser spirits of Rathess are Vine Runners, elementals assigned to the plant life of the city. Some of them are actively protective of Stalkers and would be happy to see them return to their former enlightened state. Others, however, those that are generally signed to the significantly deadly carnivore plants that make up the surrounding territory actively sign up with the hobgoblins and wyld barbarians that roam both inside and outside the place in hopes of getting to eat whatever scraps they can get their grubby little leaf’s on.


The multiple celestial lions that guard the city; there’s at least three of the golden cats guarding important locations amongst the rubble. Any one of them can and will be more than happy to report to heaven about our return to creation. If they’re not trying to kill and devour us because we accidentally stepped into necropolis since they’re actively working with Han-Tha.


The ruins they guard are super solar complexities and tombs. They’re the ones that have the best first age leftovers. They also possess traps that do 30L damage every five ticks (That’s every five seconds, btw) and you are guaranteed regardless of charm or knack to suffer at least one hit of this 30lethal. And without the right charms you’ll be hit every five ticks by the same trap for as long as you’re in certain proximity to it. At least one trap in them will be of the piercing kind or just completely negate armor provided soak (ie gas attacks). Thankfully, sidereal and lunar traps only hit with the exact same thing at a “mere” 20lethal with the same piercing and negation of armor.


Leeayta is the Lizard Queen, a goddess that takes the form of Dragon Kings and does everything in her power to lift these beings back to sentience. Her final goal is returning the stalkers to sentience so that they may continue their capacity to war and worship the grounds she walks on. She’s probably the most able bodied and stabled amongst the known divine in the state.


Relza, Custodian of the Flying Tower, a goddess that takes the form of a bird woman. Her final goal is trying to re-arrange the former flight capacity of Rathess. Ie, she wants bitches to get her artifact ships up and running and zooming around; except she’s paranoid of anyone who tries to touch them and immediately goes through the throat of whoever does so. You could *probably* get her to sign up with promises you’ll stick around for the next decade focusing solely on getting her shit fully functional and her cults working again.


Shinning Flower, Mistress of Knives; looks like a completely normal human being. She runs the Stalker cult of catching people and ripping their hearts out in sacrifice to her and the UCS; which means the stalkers have been encouraged for years to catch others for sacrifice.


The leech gods, which are four monstrous gods that were so horrifying that even the primordial’s sealed them away, roam the under city as freely as anyone else. And actively fuck whatever they can to breed their horrible inbred under people population. Which is further backed up by ‘leech hounds’, things the size of Mastiffs (sizeable dogs). In them-selves they wouldn’t be a threat. Even a dozen or two of them would be almost manageable. Together with a mass of bodies and several terrestrial gods in an unspecified number can and will spell the end of a circle.


Then there’s Han-Tha. Han-Tha is an essence 7 god that has survived since the primordial war. He even had the chance to feast on the spirits of primordial’s at the war’s end and possesses a strong capacity to fuck exalts up who runs a corpse-eating cult and ritually bites into the flesh of anything he can grab. And actively seeks to consume whatever exalts he can catch because he thinks it’ll elevate him to the Unconquered Sun’s level.


And let’s not forget about the essence 6 solar he has in his grasp and more importantly *continues to hold*. He has enough social capacity that he can keep an elder exalt under his thumb. That’s something to be feared. As for the solar him-self – he has access to a properly trained group of soldiers and a comprehensive knowledge of the under cities working transits (quite a few of these are so broke down that it’d take time to get one of them functional), which he will use in earnest to corner and overwhelm us if we even think of setting foot into the lower city. He has a force of about 1,300, with about 200 of them being greater goblins and the rest being made up of stalkers, beast men and wyld cannibals.


He sends them regularly to the surface to patrol and runs attrition tactics against exalted; wear them down with numbers before moving in to kill them him-self. While the zerg rabble that don’t make up his several elite units will flee with enough force, his actual fighting units can be assumed to have been trained by an Elder Dawn Solar. It should be noted that he *only* has about 300 real troops that aren’t zerg rush number kills. Most are made up of light scales of 100, with his own super elites made of greater goblins that number around 40 to 50.


There’s also the active Lunar raid parties that like to hit the city and the Dragon Blooded explorers that slip into the place looking for lost age treasures. Said Lunar raid parties are probably from Ma Ha Suchi’s court, our neighbor. Ya know, the guy that hates the very concept of any form of civilization and keeps a wyld pen for holding people to rape for giggles. He has a known force of about 6-7k beastmen and an unknown force of about 30k that he keeps as hidden as possible. On top of his circle of younger lunars, the gods that he calls allies and him-self, an essence 7 lunar elder. And Raski will know about us soon enough too. The essence 8 lunar that waltzes around with 4 second circle demons and her own army with a thirst for solar level sorcery knowledge. And guess what’s going to happen the moment Ma Ha knows elder solars and lunars have returned and are trying to rebuild first age civilization?


By the way, while he’s not very close we’re still within a reasonable distance to the Walker in Darkness. A Deathlord. You know, those things that solo Elder Exalt Circles for giggles. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit.


And finally, the loom of fate detected us the moment we stepped out of that chamber outside of fate. If sidereals know us instantly or not, they will know eventually. Starting to spend essence like crazy warring in the above circumstances provided we survive or even win by whatever mad contrived method will leave us exhausted and open to a backstab from guess who? That’s right, the siddies with the most political and allied power in Yu Shan. Ketchup-chan says hi.


One more thing? You can’t summon third circle demons whenever you want. You can’t even summon regular first circle demons whenever you want. A third circle demon can only be summoned at calibration, with second circles only on the night of a new moon or calibration and a single first circle demon a day unless you’re using optional rules or a specific manse power.


That said, there’s an essence 7 occult solar charm that lets you summon them whenever you please. At the cost of every sidereal in existence knowing someone used it and where you are. On the fucking dot. And everyone within a mile of you for that matter. And just about anyone with the capacity to see charm use because flat creation allows it so. This is usually high tier perception charms of the supernatural but there’s plenty of people that want to murder us that have those.


So yeah, that's not even considering any twists made to the setting. Or the IC perspective which is still bad in it's own way which we've seen hints of the above. Thus Shining and Tyrant are not staying to poke around.

 

[Action Replay]

Exalted Detroit City is bad news bears.

 

[JayTee]

I think you might be overestimating our adversity, particularly the whole Loom of Fate. Remember, Creation at the moment is currently going nuts with activity and I doubt we even registered on the radar yet. Heck, I could probably use The Time is Now at least a dozen times before it gets noticed.


Even if that weren't the case, you're forgetting the following combo, which I went out of my way to set myself up for:


Hand of the Great Maker + Wyld Shaping Technique + Solar Sanctuary = Ever increasing zone of influence under our complete control. So, I think we'll be fine if we take a day or two to set ourselves up properly.


On the other hand, I bet Sherwood is just itching to kick me out of Rathess, as that would utterly destroy any foreknowledge I have about his plot. ( )

 

[Action Replay]

Heck, I could probably use The Time is Now at least a dozen times before it gets noticed.

Spoiler

Hand of the Great Maker + Wyld Shaping Technique + Solar Sanctuary = Ever increasing zone of influence under our complete control. So, I think we'll be fine if we take a day or two to set ourselves up properly.

That's the sort of thing and the above that brings us the full displeasure of the bronze faction in a most immediate manner. There's also the curious question of how you have 5 hearthstones to power those hands with no attuned manses or protoshinamic vortexes but I'm not going to poke into that if Sherwood hasn't.

 

[JayTee]

Uh, I don't need five hearthstones, I just need 1 level 5 Solar Hearthstone, which I have in the form of the Gem of Perfect Mobility.

 

[Action Replay]

With no dots of manse at all. You don't need 5, but on your sheet it says you have 5 of them. Mysteriously.

 

[JayTee]

Oh, haha, that's just me being a derp and recording it wrong. I don't have five Gems of Perfect Mobility, that would be stupid. I have Manse 5: Gem of Perfect Mobility.


Ditto with the others, I don't have three Hands of the Great Maker or four Metasourcerous Phylacteries. I have Artifact 3: Hand of the Great Maker and Artifact 4: Metasourcerous Phylactery. I wouldn't have enough dots for all that.

 

[Rykon]

Were I in the metagame mood to know all this in character before investigating here is my assessment of these obstacles.

So let’s get this party started.
What are the threats of Rathess?


Starting at the base there’s some several thousand feral stalkers roaming not only the streets but also taking hold of various buildings and apartments throughout the city. And we’re talking flooded: the book gives a brief example of three thousand. You can always assume there’s probably a few hundred more, just to be safe (one of the goddesses actively tries to encourage their growth you see). On top of those numbers are some five hundred or so hobgoblins with at least three fae nobles running around trying to lead them. So you’ve got this ferocious force of fae brand monsters and mindless ancient breeds infesting never everywhere on the damn map. This isn’t even getting into the un numbered wyld barbarians and cannibals. About 60 Dragon Kings are sane enough to be salvageable. They are completely under the thumb of the goddesses mentioned later on.

Mass Combat Unit Lead by Fae? That might take three flurries to kill by myself. Same goes for Feral Dragon Kings. Can also just induce rout by killing the Fae leader with a targeted DV halfing wave of flame from the sword.

Fae Nobles are Fae Nobles. Shining by her-self wouldn’t have trouble dealing with them because she’s protected under ancient laws due to Eclipse powers. And if we don’t attack anything, the same could even be extended to the party. However constant party need to tear into everyone’s asshole would shoot that right in the face. They would love to help whoever was willing to stand against Filial Wisdom with every intention of backstabbing them. Book makes it a point to mention if you can diplomacy one of the goddesses into working with you, you could “probably” get their help for as long as it took to murder the elder Dawn Caste.

Fair folk nobles are chumps, see above, shaping defense ruins most of their kit, even if we were in the Wyld.

There are quite a few gods and spirits roaming Rathess.


The lesser spirits of Rathess are Vine Runners, elementals assigned to the plant life of the city. Some of them are actively protective of Stalkers and would be happy to see them return to their former enlightened state. Others, however, those that are generally signed to the significantly deadly carnivore plants that make up the surrounding territory actively sign up with the hobgoblins and wyld barbarians that roam both inside and outside the place in hopes of getting to eat whatever scraps they can get their grubby little leaf’s on.


The multiple celestial lions that guard the city; there’s at least three of the golden cats guarding important locations amongst the rubble. Any one of them can and will be more than happy to report to heaven about our return to creation. If they’re not trying to kill and devour us because we accidentally stepped into necropolis since they’re actively working with Han-Tha.

They're all non-incarnae spirits. Not a threat. This character is spec'd as a rogue spirit slayer, with the skill set to slay them even while immaterial.

The ruins they guard are super solar complexities and tombs. They’re the ones that have the best first age leftovers. They also possess traps that do 30L damage every five ticks (That’s every five seconds, btw) and you are guaranteed regardless of charm or knack to suffer at least one hit of this 30lethal. And without the right charms you’ll be hit every five ticks by the same trap for as long as you’re in certain proximity to it. At least one trap in them will be of the piercing kind or just completely negate armor provided soak (ie gas attacks). Thankfully, sidereal and lunar traps only hit with the exact same thing at a “mere” 20lethal with the same piercing and negation of armor.

Concealment automatically fails against the character, who can perfectly pick locks and evade area of effect attacks while protecting the party from succumbing from the same.

Leeayta is the Lizard Queen, a goddess that takes the form of Dragon Kings and does everything in her power to lift these beings back to sentience. Her final goal is returning the stalkers to sentience so that they may continue their capacity to war and worship the grounds she walks on. She’s probably the most able bodied and stabled amongst the known divine in the state.


Relza, Custodian of the Flying Tower, a goddess that takes the form of a bird woman. Her final goal is trying to re-arrange the former flight capacity of Rathess. Ie, she wants bitches to get her artifact ships up and running and zooming around; except she’s paranoid of anyone who tries to touch them and immediately goes through the throat of whoever does so. You could *probably* get her to sign up with promises you’ll stick around for the next decade focusing solely on getting her shit fully functional and her cults working again.


Shinning Flower, Mistress of Knives; looks like a completely normal human being. She runs the Stalker cult of catching people and ripping their hearts out in sacrifice to her and the UCS; which means the stalkers have been encouraged for years to catch others for sacrifice.

See above, they can either submit or three flurries, glass of water, next.

The leech gods, which are four monstrous gods that were so horrifying that even the primordial’s sealed them away, roam the under city as freely as anyone else. And actively fuck whatever they can to breed their horrible inbred under people population. Which is further backed up by ‘leech hounds’, things the size of Mastiffs (sizeable dogs). In them-selves they wouldn’t be a threat. Even a dozen or two of them would be almost manageable. Together with a mass of bodies and several terrestrial gods in an unspecified number can and will spell the end of a circle.


Then there’s Han-Tha. Han-Tha is an essence 7 god that has survived since the primordial war. He even had the chance to feast on the spirits of primordial’s at the war’s end and possesses a strong capacity to fuck exalts up who runs a corpse-eating cult and ritually bites into the flesh of anything he can grab. And actively seeks to consume whatever exalts he can catch because he thinks it’ll elevate him to the Unconquered Sun’s level.

See above. Spirits they're adorable even at Essence 9

And let’s not forget about the essence 6 solar he has in his grasp and more importantly *continues to hold*. He has enough social capacity that he can keep an elder exalt under his thumb. That’s something to be feared. As for the solar him-self – he has access to a properly trained group of soldiers and a comprehensive knowledge of the under cities working transits (quite a few of these are so broke down that it’d take time to get one of them functional), which he will use in earnest to corner and overwhelm us if we even think of setting foot into the lower city. He has a force of about 1,300, with about 200 of them being greater goblins and the rest being made up of stalkers, beast men and wyld cannibals.


He sends them regularly to the surface to patrol and runs attrition tactics against exalted; wear them down with numbers before moving in to kill them him-self. While the zerg rabble that don’t make up his several elite units will flee with enough force, his actual fighting units can be assumed to have been trained by an Elder Dawn Solar. It should be noted that he *only* has about 300 real troops that aren’t zerg rush number kills. Most are made up of light scales of 100, with his own super elites made of greater goblins that number around 40 to 50.

One solar, against 9 Celestials, 7 of which are his Essence or higher. You have total annihilation. Heck you could reduce his army privileges and not even get hit or probably even attacked. Were that not the case, he can be caught away from the army and flurried to death just like any other Exalt fighting multiple other Exalts.

There’s also the active Lunar raid parties that like to hit the city and the Dragon Blooded explorers that slip into the place looking for lost age treasures. Said Lunar raid parties are probably from Ma Ha Suchi’s court, our neighbor. Ya know, the guy that hates the very concept of any form of civilization and keeps a wyld pen for holding people to rape for giggles. He has a known force of about 6-7k beastmen and an unknown force of about 30k that he keeps as hidden as possible. On top of his circle of younger lunars, the gods that he calls allies and him-self, an essence 7 lunar elder. And Raski will know about us soon enough too. The essence 8 lunar that waltzes around with 4 second circle demons and her own army with a thirst for solar level sorcery knowledge. And guess what’s going to happen the moment Ma Ha knows elder solars and lunars have returned and are trying to rebuild first age civilization?

Raksi isn't that combat capable and is probably prideful enough to attempt sorcery in combat, which will end in her near immediate downfall. Also being out numbered by similarly capable Exalts who have access to higher levels of sorcery. Ma-Ha-Suchi is in much the same boat as Filial Piety. Assassination? not that big a deal really.

By the way, while he’s not very close we’re still within a reasonable distance to the Walker in Darkness. A Deathlord. You know, those things that solo Elder Exalt Circles for giggles. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit.

While I agree a Deathlord is very much nope worthy, they are fucking everywhere and they are going to make themselves a problem regardless of where we go, and this is something we still have 0 depth on in character. Thankfully, rules as written prevent an outright one shot as long as perfects are up. The main problem is the mote pool difference between a Deathlord and the usual celestial. Unity of the Closed Fist fixes that problem right quick. At that point it's a matter of attrition, same as before. Alternatively the optimal strategy would just be drive-by Total Annihilation, maybe twice. By then they are down a large mote and willpower sink and can be taken down by a tactful group with proper planning and resource management.

And finally, the loom of fate detected us the moment we stepped out of that chamber outside of fate. If sidereals know us instantly or not, they will know eventually. Starting to spend essence like crazy warring in the above circumstances provided we survive or even win by whatever mad contrived method will leave us exhausted and open to a backstab from guess who? That’s right, the siddies with the most political and allied power in Yu Shan. Ketchup-chan says hi.

Sidereals and their martial arts aren't that big of a threat when you know their weaknesses, namely shaping defense, stalling, and sneak attacks. Also, not all of us appear on the loom but I do see your point most of us appeared in fate but with the amount of Fae in the immediate area in addition to Filial the change in status quo is probably really difficult to discern.

One more thing? You can’t summon third circle demons whenever you want. You can’t even summon regular first circle demons whenever you want. A third circle demon can only be summoned at calibration, with second circles only on the night of a new moon or calibration and a single first circle demon a day unless you’re using optional rules or a specific manse power.

I agree. Even if we could summon them on demand without alarms. I would advocate against bringing in an infernal tattler regardless of circle without the ability to wipe their memories. Which unfortunately we currently lack.

So yeah, that's not even considering any twists made to the setting. Or the IC perspective which is still bad in it's own way which we've seen hints of the above. Thus Shining and Tyrant are not staying to poke around.

If we find that we will have to take on the Deathlord and both lunars I agree that is definitely a moment, in character, in which picking our battles is a bit of a thing. Until that point, I've merely been role playing as if we know there's maybe one threat on our level that we significantly out number. I'm cool with pulling out as soon as we attempt to converse with the locals, leaving/not leaving witnesses as appropriate. What I'm trying to do by asking as before is trying to gauge what the party wants to get out of this story. I'd rather not be an obstacle or point of division, but I will at least play my character as hesitantly/questioningly following where appropriate.


On the note of retreat my main concern is: Where will we go that isn't parked next to a Solar hate train? and how long can we hold that up? My suggestion for this would be carving a new zone out in the Wyld that is outside of Fate, depending on where existing Manses are located and their fate status. Also, what is it we are needing to prepare? An army? I find that trying to lug around a notable mass combat unit around creation is just too much of a pain logistically for what seems to equate to a small and very temporary meat shield.

 

[JayTee]

Goddamnit, why is Memory Reweaving Discipline in Performance and not Presence? I need to check if there is a spell I can use to replicate that effect. It'll be cheaper than ability and charm investment.

 

[Rykon]

Oh check for Theft Of Memory, terrestrial circle. Combine that with Peacock Shadow of Eyes. Two of my favorite spells.


 
Derp, another good one if someone hasn't grabbed it yet is Dragon of Smoke and Flame for getting unlost.

 

[JayTee]

I only had so many BP when getting spells and charms, but those are now on my list to buy with XP!

 

[Myllinnia]

On the note of retreat my main concern is: Where will we go that isn't parked next to a Solar hate train? and how long can we hold that up? My suggestion for this would be carving a new zone out in the Wyld that is outside of Fate, depending on where existing Manses are located and their fate status. Also, what is it we are needing to prepare? An army? I find that trying to lug around a notable mass combat unit around creation is just too much of a pain logistically for what seems to equate to a small and very temporary meat shield.

And this is mostly the point Solistrae is attempting to get out of the other two. Sol is willing to leave, but if its as dangerous as Rathess then really we may as well take one of the Flying Towers, defend it and then slowly whittle away at the threats around it, making sure we have an egress in case things go south. But at the moment Sol just knows Rathess is corrupted and in need of a good fae hunting and while she has some combat tricks she is not a strong one and if half of the strong fighters leave then well she is leaning towards going where the defense is strongest. Heck... Sol does not have a single shaping or social defense. Oo Also we are shy one of the two Full Moons.


I should point out splitting us up is a bad idea. Though if I remember the former game... it was split into three. xD

 

[Rykon]

@JayTee Glad to be of help. If you would consider Unity of the Closed Fist also, we could definitely give Deathlord mote levels a run for its money.


@Myllinnia Couldn't agree more. What we need in character is information to justify our course. Where I believe we are currently approaching is a path that will likely end up with us either holing up in the wyld for half a decade or longer or hi-jacking the largest Solar tolerant nation to our whims, probably the Haslanti, and face rolling over some Realm forces for awhile. I mean, similar tactics seem to be scaring people away from Ma-Ha-Suchi and the Bull.


 

Heck... Sol does not have a single shaping or social defense. Oo Also we are shy one of the two Full Moons.

You aren't the only one considering acquiring a perfect social.


On a different note: I'm curious if acquiring the Tattoos be a worthwhile endeavor for the Lunars if we expect Fae to be a recurring thing.

 

[JayTee]

It might be a good long term solution. For the short term though, I think I can use my own Wyld Shaping to remove mutations and other nasty side effects of the Fae. I'd need to double check to be sure.

 

[Sherwood]

Wow. I missed a whole lot of posts in this thread. It makes for interesting reading, though, to see what everyone thinks.


So far, it looks like everyone is going to be rabbiting out of the city to one of the nearby manses controlled by a party member. Then, you can evaluate your options and make plans from there. Who's turf are you going to?

 

[Rykon]

Not sure where I wanna site mine honestly. There's a whole lot of nothin around Rathess on the world map. My gut instinct for this location is to pick places near Kirighast and probably between Denandsor and Nexus for my two manses. Though I'm fairly certain that's quite a bit farther than we're willing to go.

 

[Sherwood]

Its always up to you guys. If you decide to make your new empire based in the West around Wavecrest, that's cool with me, too. It just makes it a lot easier on me to have everyone on the same page instead of trying to split the party up. But, don't let that keep you from playing your characters the way that feels 'right' to you.

 

[Crocodile]

Okay, my freaking updates weren't coming in and so I didn't see this game explode with posts. I'll play catch up tonight and try to post something.

 

[Sherwood]

That's happened to me, too. No worries.

 

[Varna]

Its always up to you guys. If you decide to make your new empire based in the West around Wavecrest, that's cool with me, too. It just makes it a lot easier on me to have everyone on the same page instead of trying to split the party up. But, don't let that keep you from playing your characters the way that feels 'right' to you.

Gonna be dropping it on Abalone, actually, the main isle of Wavecrest. It'll probably be right next to her Volcano God father's Sanctum, which can go towards a few variables that kept raiders from reclaiming the thing.


On that note: the point of leaving Rathess isn't to escape the Solar hate train. It's going to be there forever and ever. The point is escaping from the completely shit situation that will kill us vs. moving away to a location that might kill us. If we can contact Leviathan or the elder member of his Solar worshiping council, we can set up allies with one of the strongest lunars in creation and his assortment of younger three to eight hundred year old lunars. And their armies of beastmen.


Get the Seneschals of the Sun King's on our side, then work on other Lunar groups like the Swords of Luna and build up a base of operations from that point to plan out things. And maybe even claim some of the super stonk artifacts that lay in the West from the first age to aid in our re-assertion of power.

 

[Sherwood]

That works for me. I just need to know what you guys want to do so I can plan.

 

[JayTee]

Again, Varna, I think you're drastically underestimating our overall capabilities. I feel confidant that if we wanted to, with a bit of planning and effort, we could retake Rathass and use it as our powerbase.


Plus, you know, no one knows we're here, so it's not like they're all gunning for us all at once. We got time.

 

[Action Replay]

Our goals in the west include gathering information, staying low key in building up a powerbase and nation initially, making allies of powers, gods, elementals, and exalts in the west, then eventually move to establish a hegemony of the islands. Possibly terraform more land if we ever get that far. As a general over view.


Being confident is one thing, but the line between it and overconfidence in Exalted usually comes down to a line so fine you need high essence perception charms to spot it. I'm not saying that with enough plot convenience and power abuse we couldn't eventually take Rathess. Depending on how intact we care for the city to be, yes we could probably take it in a day. The issue with that, is you vastly over estimate your own abilities and underestimate the enemy's. Do you honestly believe Han-Tha or Filial will be at just E6~7 when we could deal with that "so easily" as you said? That numbers are meaningless in front of my xyz crunch? That because I believe this enemy can't harm me that he really can't? If that were the case, we would have no story. For every time you do that, the GM has to rise to the challenge of giving us a challenge. If your first choice is murder it's face off or solar sanctuary, you are going to attract problems that cannot be solved by it. Problems that we really do not want to deal with at this point in time. Just remember, the first age solars/lunars were more powerful than us and still died out en masse.


The thing here is we are just outright going to be noticed at some point now that we are on the loom. There is 0% chance we will not be noticed at some point. We are effectively on borrowed time to get things set up in as low profile a way as possible until that time. Jupiter senpai has already noticed us as a matter of course, but is keeping that to herself. Pyter is part of the bureau and over time people will notice he is missing from where he should be. If you want to blow that time and announce we're here with solar sanctuary and a charm that will with no room for doubt get us noticed, that is your prerogative. Not being there when the bronze faction, deathlords, and realm come kicking in the door later to account for that is also a prerogative.


IC perspective, we came out of these cryo tubes to rebuild the first age without all the problems of the first age. Like extreme power abuse as the first and only option which is kind of running contrary to arguments I'm seeing here. Rykon doesn't see a point in "meat shields" or "money" from the sounds of it. The tag line is that this was a nation building game, and six people does not a nation make. There was indeed a point to the exalted raising and bothering with armies or money at all beyond giggles if you realize it or not. When your primary goal is to survive and rebuild it's sensible to take the path of least resistance to that goal. Hence why when my character hears, "Crazy and powerful solar and a just shy of chimera elder who hasn't been asleep" he severely reconsiders his starting location options. For all we know IC he could be a first age survivor like Ma Ha.


There is certainly a time and a place to use all those fun charms and abilities. That is part of the reason why we play a high essence game. This is not the time nor the place to start doing that imo. So I'm looking for a place where it would be and set up a time that we could do this without anyone being able to do anything about it by that point. Varna is the one with the manse and volunteered an alternative place, so I can't answer Pyter's question until we all know about it.


tl;dr version: Going on a journey to the west. Stay in Rathess or come with if you want.