Dice Exalted 3E - Tale of a Falling Empire OOC

[Rykon]

Such is the life of a territory ruled by the "Electronic Arts" of the Exalted universe.

 

[Psychie]

Well, it would be just about as hard to convince Xandra to side with the Anathema and leave the Realm. She despises the Lunars, especially after one killed her uncle and father in front of her.

 

[D. Rex]

If you want to try and convince a very anti-Realm, anti-Dynast and pro-Solar populace to evacuate in the face of potential liberation, be my guest.

Me? Nah. The extent of my social talent is being so bad at hiding my thoughts that anybody who reads my intentions is effected as if I had just aced an instill intimacy of trusting me.

 

[Rykon]

Not going to lie, my last line of defense is sending Words on the Wind lines in a full Palpatine voice impression to make the Solars think they're going insane and that they are the demons we say they are. The confusion might buy us an hour or two.

 

[D. Rex]

Well, it would be just about as hard to convince Xandra to side with the Anathema and leave the Realm. She despises the Lunars, especially after one killed her uncle and father in front of her.

Fel would stand with her. While he hasn't the same ingrained hatred as Xandra, he is very much zealous of his families duty to much the same effect.



But also, he would not leave as he did already say that he would aid Satori. And he will stick to his word. Bitch better get grateful real fast.

 

[Rykon]

Ditto Psychie and D. Rex . I need to add it to his sheet, but with a father having died to the Battle of Futile Blood, I'd see Manato more likely to join the Seventh Legion than join a Solar. Besides, why play DB's to be second fiddle to Solar NPCs? That sounds like it would defeat the point.

I've been thinking if we somehow make this work, we'd either start building our own Legion, building an independent nation, or vying for power on the home front to steer the ship on a course that's not the mouth of Oblivion.

 

[D. Rex]

Ditto Psychie and D. Rex . I need to add it to his sheet, but with a father having died to the Battle of Futile Blood, I'd see Manato more likely to join the Seventh Legion than join a Solar. Besides, why play DB's to be second fiddle to Solar NPCs? That sounds like it would defeat the point.

I've been thinking if we somehow make this work, we'd either start building our own Legion, building an independent nation, or vying for power on the home front to steer the ship on a course that's not the mouth of Oblivion.

We could start by doing both. Building up our legion and going from House to House in to increase our support. Not only getting them to contribute to war against the anathema, but increasing our standing with them. By acting as a legion independent of the houses, we could maybe bypass some of the house rivalries, playing on their hatred for other Houses. As an independent group might be a better option for any house than any of those they despise to take over emergency leadership. Amd from there we seize power.

 

[jaydude]

Also everyone, while I have gone on about this being somewhat of a no-win scenario for you, bear in mind that not all of the Exalts Kirito saw at the head of the army will necessarily be Solars. Also, Manato and Harun did plan to get in contact with a number of pro-Immaculate mercenary groups within the area, and the handbook does list a "mercenary army" as being a Size 4 battle group/several hundred strong, so two of those could easily form a Size 5 group (over a thousand). Depending on how things go, you may be able to get a few thousand more fighters on your side.

 

[Psychie]

I don't mind the idea of a good war, I just want to make sure we aren't bringing a knife to a gun fight. If we have a decent sized fighting force, we can give it a go.

 

[Sherwood]

The city walls, siege weapons and the warstrider we have are all good force multipliers, so if we have the city watch along with a few thousand mercs, we could pull it off.

 

[jaydude]

The city walls, siege weapons and the warstrider we have are all good force multipliers, so if we have the city watch along with a few thousand mercs, we could pull it off.

That's largely what I was thinking as well, in terms of logic. Plus there's that Realm garrison at the orichalcum mine that Rykon wants to introduce.

 

[Sherwood]

If they can make it here in time.

 

[Rykon]

We can do that if we really want to commit to this fight, but in character I'm seeing Manato have doubts on whether he's ok with the group bleeding for Satori or house Ragara. "What's in it for us" while selfish, seems pretty valid given how outright hated and seemingly worthless the current administration is.

If not now, he'd ask the group in private after wards of what we want to make of Kandara's fate after the battle. Leaving Satori in power is pretty cruel at her current rate.

 

[D. Rex]

Also everyone, while I have gone on about this being somewhat of a no-win scenario for you, bear in mind that not all of the Exalts Kirito saw at the head of the army will necessarily be Solars. Also, Manato and Harun did plan to get in contact with a number of pro-Immaculate mercenary groups within the area, and the handbook does list a "mercenary army" as being a Size 4 battle group/several hundred strong, so two of those could easily form a Size 5 group (over a thousand). Depending on how things go, you may be able to get a few thousand more fighters on your side.

Do you worst, boss, I'm not scared of you. Half a dozen random exalts? Pttah! I spit at their feet! That is almost one for each of us.



Foolish bravado aside, we certainly have our work cut out for us. I swear a few main challenges we need to overcome.

1. Numbers. Because we have the defensive position. We can probably hold with 3000 for a little bit. But we probably won't have the number needed to switch shifts for fresh troops, and will be forced to send the injured back into the walls. And when we start losing bodies, we will be forced to spread our defenses thinner. We won't even have what it takes to charge out to meet them on the field without getting surrounded.

2. Inner turmoil. This could bite us really really hard. With the city watch prioritizing the city Defense. We won't have as many to keep the peace if the city does decide to cause trouble. All it takes is a mob of people to open the gates and we will be im deep doo doo. But. If we can turn their minds against the anathema, we may be able to recruit defenders from the civilian populous.

3. Fatigue. Our soldiers won't be the only ones getting tired. As we the dynasts fight, we will expend a lot of essence and Willpower. If the anathema forces constantly hammer us, as they have the numbers to do so, them we will be very lucky to find any time to rest and recover essence let alone sleep and recover some WP. Our main way of recovery may have to rely on pulling off hella stunts.

4. Supplies. I dont know how self sufficient the city is, but we are likely not going to have the stockpiles needed to feed the soldiers and city for any length of time. If we can't break the seige quickly, then this may be what causes our undoing if everything else pans out in our favor.

 

[D. Rex]

We can do that if we really want to commit to this fight, but in character I'm seeing Manato have doubts on whether he's ok with the group bleeding for Satori or house Ragara. "What's in it for us" while selfish, seems pretty valid given how outright hated and seemingly worthless the current administration is.

If not now, he'd ask the group in private after wards of what we want to make of Kandara's fate after the battle. Leaving Satori in power is pretty cruel at her current rate.

Such a point is definitely something worth pushing. I'm all for getting something out of helping Satori, even if Fel was stupid in offering his aid for free.

But, we can use the stress and pressure of the situation to mold Satori into a better ruler. Showing what she has taken for granted and using the fire of war to forge her into being a better person. Such as getting her to bend for her people, showing that she can be redeemed and will make sacrifices for them, and if we can get some of the civilians to have faith in her again, use that to show her that loyalty is to be earned and worth fighting for. Put her not just in a position of a ruler, but a banner of inspiration.

Definitely not right away. Satori most assuredly has some hard lessons to learn first. But if we are there when she reaches rock bottom, we may have a chance of turning her around.

 

[Rykon]

Keep in mind, that's an awful lot of effort to help out a house that put themselves in this position partly to kill and subjugate us, our kin, and all the small people that make our standard of living possible. The same house that builds little and extracts what it wants from riding the backs of the land, the people, and your debt. Any time we spend fixing one of them is time we could otherwise be spending on things like: raising an army to kill anathema, convincing the deliberative to appropriate troops from the houses to kill anathema, convincing third parties like the Guild or Lookshy it's in their best interest to kill anathema, acquire more funding and resources to better forge and maintain weapons that kill anathema, networking and building bridges with spirit courts that make a pass-time of sallying up their steeds and hunting parties to kill anathema, reform the religious order that is miraculously bad at getting people to want to kill anathema, or build families that will make a legacy built on going bravely out of their door into the wide world and kill anathema...

I digress... we'll have to consider such things in play, and I'm sure the following disagreement will build character (to better kill anathema).

 

[D. Rex]

jaydude
Just an idle thought... Given the high unwinnability factor of this campaign...

What are you plans if one of us dies, as just may happen? Do we write ourselves up a new Dynast come to give aid? Or maybe write up an anathema and fight against the remaining PCs just to mess with them, until we all fall and continue the rampage against the realm as the other side?

 

[Sherwood]

You are a troublemaker, trying to make up PCs to mess with other PCs. Evil man.

I like that about you.

 

[D. Rex]

You are a troublemaker, trying to make up PCs to mess with other PCs. Evil man.

I like that about you.

And here I was being nice and not asking Jaydude outright if I could play as Hazel as an npc celestial level sorceress and screw all of you over with the manic cat girl.


And as a side note, I really like that you like that about me. As it heavily encourages me to think along such lines.

 

[jaydude]

jaydude
Just an idle thought... Given the high unwinnability factor of this campaign...

What are you plans if one of us dies, as just may happen? Do we write ourselves up a new Dynast come to give aid? Or maybe write up an anathema and fight against the remaining PCs just to mess with them, until we all fall and continue the rampage against the realm as the other side?

I'll let you create new Dynast characters should your current one die.

 

[D. Rex]

I'll let you create new Dynast characters should your current one die.

I'll do the fun thing of bringing in a character related to the deceased character and have them swear vengeance

 

[jaydude]

I'll do the fun thing of bringing in a character related to the deceased character and have them swear vengeance

Go for it.

 

[Random Word]

Spoiler: tl;dr it's tricky

So Asuna hasn't pored over the maps and the dispositions of both sides yet, but Kandara has a few things going for it. For one, it must have a solid source of fresh water and access to trade for it to have grown so large. 40 000 people is a solid number in this era. Probably has a river. It might even have a harbour - it's a bit tricky to tell from the map. We know it has at least one or the other because there are docks. With a large river or a harbour resupply and reinforcement during a siege is fairly straightforward. If the walls are high quality our attackers face a serious problem: Feeding 15 000 people is very challenging.

Feeding 15 000 people from farmlands that have been largely bled dry is extremely challenging. Especially if we aren't near harvest time. Even if these peasants somehow love Solars so much they're willing to split their children's last loaf of bread with the soldiers, Satori's policies mean there just aren't many loaves left. There will be commons (forests, meadows, lakes, etc on public lands that anyone can hunt in), but they're already under pressure feeding the 400 000 people who live there, who themselves don't have enough to eat. Feeding 15 000 new mouths long term is going to be a big problem. The longer the siege drags on, the worse the problem becomes, and the more disillusioned the people become with their new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss situation. The soldiers will have to spread out quite far to forage, which will create openings for counterattacks. Meanwhile we can continue to ship food in by sea, and can afford to keep the city fed for quite a while.

Further, 3 000 of them are beastmen, and while the people may cheer the arrival of that probably-Blasphemous/Zenith they are not going to be excited about lion-people. They're a PR disaster and again, the longer the siege goes on, the more of a liability they become. The story of how Tepet Kirito's army was literally torn limb from limb by the wyld-tainted mutants of the Anathema's army is a double edged sword, but on balance probably worth spreading. I am willing to bet that is not what these people thought they signed up for. As has been pointed out already, Satori is awful but that sort of thing makes a compelling case for her replacement being worse. Satori is driving the reputation of the Realm into the mud locally, but she had to drive a long way. She's coming off 700 years of stability, safety, and prosperity under the Immaculate Faith and the mood of the people is likely more anti-Satori than it is pro-Anathema. Stories of beautiful and bewitching Faeries at the head of ravenous hordes of goblins are well trod cultural touchstones here, and coupled with the deep seated religious mistrust of Anathema that's likely only being papered over by hatred of Satori's policies, I don't believe the good will of the people is so solidly in favour of the Anathema that it will not be dealt a significant blow should stories like that spread widely. This golden hero may be pretty, but the truth of her intentions can be seen plainly in her soldiers. Anything we can do to bait the beastmen and the probably-Frenzied/Full Moon into committing more atrocities is a big win.

The bad news is they have fifteen Size 5 Battlegroups (That we know of), and we have, what, one? two? These had better be the Dragons-damned Walls of Constantinople if we want to hold until we can receive reinforcements by sea. Mercenaries will know they have us over the barrel and charge exorbitant prices to face down a bunch of Anathema, but Manato and Asuna both have wealth exceeding many Threshold kingdoms. We can hire the finest the Guild has to offer if we can delay long enough for them to arrive. With what little information we have, I think the entire battle is going to hinge on exactly how good the city walls are. We don't have anywhere near enough troops to meet the enemy in the field as anything but a brief and very dangerous delaying tactic.

The Warstrider is going to be difficult to deploy. We can't put it outside the walls without an army to defend it. It doesn't do much good on top of the walls. Its primary job is to stop a Legendary Size Lunar from smashing a hole in something we'd really rather they didn't, or, if that's not possible, counter charging the breach to hold it. That's not great, though, as that still leaves an ever increasing number of holes to defend even when Fel succeeds in repelling an attack, and I don't know if we have access to the kind of magic we'd need to field repair a city wall between attacks, though maybe we could hire the services of someone with that kind of expertise. Mnemon military engineer with the right artifacts could probably do it, or maybe a sorcerer with a lot of the right kinds of elementals.

As far as Asuna is concerned, the largest problem we currently face is that we know fuck all about the invaders. No names, no profiles, no dispositions. Not where they come from, what their supply situation is like, who their allies are, or what they believe in. This is the absolute opposite of how she's been taught to fight a war since birth. Never fight a battle you haven't already won. Know your enemy and they've already lost. Divide, harry, delay, disrupt, demoralize. She'll want to immediately take advantage of the steady flow of peasants joining the enemy army to start putting spies in their ranks. Some will be caught and some will be converted, but any information is better than no information. If she really cared about this, like if her Legion were stationed here, she might go spy on the enemy personally. Alternatively, if she could miraculously bait the Lunar and the Beastmen into splitting off to engage her in the field somewhere in view of the peasantry and even eke out a draw it could be a big propaganda victory.

This does not discount the important questions Rykon has raised about whether this is really the hill Asuna wants to die on. Satori may be beautiful, rich, and have huge tracts of land, but that's probably not quite sufficiently compelling enough for Asuna to go full Death Before Dishonour here.

Edit: If Satori wants to persuade her, she'll probably have to lean on Asuna's pride. If Asuna wins this battle she would be mentioned in the same breath as Tepet Arada - you know, before he fucked up and got all of House Tepet killed - Tepet Ejava, Cathak Cainan, and Berit. That's worth a lot to her, and I should put some intimacies in about wanting to prove herself.

 

[Rykon]

To your point on resources... if we chose the fight another day route, we have plenty of means to raise a fighting force that is loyal and reliable. The big threat here is what happens if that solar army goes from 12,000 to 120,000 just because of how fast they can generate elite troops (that's assuming there's a war supernal among them, probably a safe one). The only thing that will truly keep them in check is supply lines. A challenge that will be hamstringing us even more so in the long term I would think.

It was joked about before in character, but this is the kind of momentum that can topple an entire great house. Even if we regroup, we may avoid being their target for now, but who's to say for how long. If we step away and let the Ragara cohort fall, as they well deserve, we're going to need a plan to keep the Illuminated host from reaching a critical mass.

 

[jaydude]

I don't know if I should be giving you lot hints here, but I have had another thought on the situation, having read Random Word talk about using the Lunars' brutality as propaganda, and seeing everyone's IC and OOC opinions on how this conflict's likely to go.

My thought is that in a way, the composition of the Anathema forces - namely the amount of men and the number of Celestials involved - could theoretically be used against them. Besides the expected issues of supplies and logistics for such a large host, there's no way in hell any sane Dynast could ignore that kind of threat, if you lot are all this worried about it. If it was a smaller host, the other satraps and rulers might have been willing to let it savage Kandara, and then dealt with it once it was weakened and diminished. But if they know it's a force that could take Kandara without breaking a sweat, they might realize that they have to work together to defeat it, or they may well be steamrolled one after the other.