New to Exalted? Come here! (take 2!) [Forum] [Dice]

[Zachariah]

Ok, I am a night caste solar? Then I was paid to steal an artifact from the citadel's armory. Would that be awesome enough?

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

That works quite well, especially if you managed to actually get halfway out with it.

 

[Exthalion]

Would flooding the sewer system of Thorns with hypersaline sea water to throw up a powerful ward against the dead be appropriate?

 

[solyrflair]

Does the City of Thorns accept tribute from outlying villages and towns? If so, I might have an idea.


If not, I will go back to the drawing board. I can probably alter the concept I have pretty easily, but it might take a bit of reach to come from the burning sands up to Thorns.

 

[Exthalion]

Does the City of Thorns accept tribute from outlying villages and towns? If so, I might have an idea.
If not, I will go back to the drawing board. I can probably alter the concept I have pretty easily, but it might take a bit of reach to come from the burning sands up to Thorns.

There are several villages which are not in the shadowland which the Mask of Winters uses to continue to feed the city. There are at least two Marukan villages that he conquered seemingly for this reason. He apparently keeps troops or overseers stationed there to ensure the people work, which is consistent with most of the remaining mortals being slaves in all but name.

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Would flooding the sewer system of Thorns with hypersaline sea water to throw up a powerful ward against the dead be appropriate?

Niiiice. And within the scope of a mortal.


Yes as exthalion said there are a few outlying villages like that

 

[Exthalion]

There was no incessant drip of water, of the kind that drives a mind slowly to madness. There were no screams to chill the heart, those here were beyond even whimpering. There was silence and all caught in it were naked before its uncaring vastness. Some of the new prisoners, those who knew they were already broken but played the game regardless, shouted and rattled their chains. The silence gladly took in every noise they made, until there was no sound left to give and the silence remained unchanged.


Tian Feng, who stubbornly clung to that name, had not lost that game. He had never played it. He knew his stay with the silence was temporary, already the sound of steps approached. There would be silence again after, and perhaps he would succumb and let the tattered rags of sanity fall away to reveal the naked madness within. Perhaps he would not live long enough to. Either way, now was not the time to fight the silence. Not yet.


He spoke first as the figure was finishing the final steps to bring itself toward him. That was part of the act, and what could he do but play along?


"It wasn't though, not really. It was the quick way, the easy way, the way out. It was surrender. Maybe it was all there was, maybe the other way was too hard for anyone, but you are still here."


"I DID NOT COME TO COMPLIMENT YOU."


"You don't have to lie, neither of us do. We both know why you are here and what comes next. It was not resistance or rebellion no matter what the criers call it when you use it as pretext for crimes you had already resolved to do. It was grand theater, an act on the only stage that matters that signified and changed nothing."


"WHY THEN?"


"For this, this moment right here and right now."


The silence came back in, patiently waiting for him to continue. His interlocutor did not wait for such a tiny thing as a man.


"I didn't fight, when you reached me down there." He didn't bother to gesture toward the sewers. "You noticed that I think."


Perhaps I am playing that game where I pretend I made the silence go away after all.





"I was ankle deep in the brine when you came and I will swear that there was anger behind your eyes. That was the start of it. I saw the blood but it didn't frighten me, it was supposed to be there just like you were."


"ALL PART OF THE ACT."


"No." the man shook his head, "nothing so great as that. You were the audience, never an actor. That was my power, to take agency away from you and make you move in the path I had laid down. You did that to us, you were doing it to me even as I did it to you. Just for that once though, you stopped being you. The symbol that all the statues portray and that all the proclamations invoke is just a mask, and everyone can see through it. The other you, the cold, cruel, calculating thing that needs to be in control is what you really are. That is what I took away from you, that was how I spit at you in a way that you would be forced to notice. That is how I made myself matter."


"I GRANT YOU THIS, SUCH IS MORE THEN ANY OF THE OTHERS LET THEMSELVES HOPE FOR."


The mortal laughed, and there was a hint of the madness exposing itself like lewdly bared flesh at the edge of his tone.


"That is why you will fail, why all of this will fail." He turned to meet the terrible gaze and quickly averted his eyes.


"They hope to destroy you, to overthrow you, to drive you out. They hope to win. That is the hard path, the path I couldn't walk. That surpassing greatness, that excellence, is not what we were made for. To be more than we are, to push past the limitation we place on ourselves, is counter to everything human about us. Those who can, those willing to accomplish something, are not human anymore. They are our great shame, the recognition that we are responsible when we fail because there was more we could have been and done and given. It is they, not you, who are more then they are. They, not you, are Exalted."

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Didn't have to do all of that yet,

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

I'll most likely have a forum request up by monday eve at the latest. This weekend, the girlyfriend and I are going on a mini vacation. I might have it requested as early as tomorrow eve (or maybe tonight if all goes well)

 

[solyrflair]

Women may rule, but they can't command. That is the rule in the sand, but it seems to have changed when Jann decided to fight back.


She had been born as the third daughter and didn't have as many prospects as her older brothers and sisters. One sister was already married to a general, a brother married to a wealthy merchant house, another sister engaged, and a brother assigned to a powerful position. She was 12 and the family wasn't paying attention to her. Then the Farzati attacked. Her sister and General were killed early. The brother to the merchant house were imprisoned, their wealth gone. Her sister fled to another town farther away. Her brother killed in the fighting. She hid.


Two years later she was 14. It started out as a series of small pranks, but the people learned they could fight back, if they were quiet about it. Then she got bolder, one of the Farzati died and no one could find the killer. Then a few more died and she had a small group asking her about how she got away with it. The next was an open attack. By years end the Farzati were rounding up random people, but couldn't stop the killing. The following year, they fled, burning their town to the ground.


She promised to rebuild their city, but she didn't know how. But the Farazti had built their own. She formed an army, small and fragile, but they followed her. She raided their farms, raided their caravans, raided their homes. Then she attacked their town and razed it to the ground. The mercenaries they hired to fight against her were boarded up into a tower. She gave them a choice, join her at half cost, or she would strip them of their weapons and armor and kill half of them. They took the bargain, and she now had an army. Some of the Farzati joined her city, and the rebuilding started.


But rebuilding a major city takes large funds. And she had an army to feed. So she took them north at rumors that something big was happening. She could make money there. The first village was close to starving providing for to the Mask of Winters. She attacked the baggage train and gave back half the food as payment. The next was easier, but the third was heavily guarded, but she caught them by surprise.


The Mask of Winters didn't like someone playing with his supply lines. The army was larger surrounded her and her army broke, fleeing back to their home if they could. It was a death knight that hammered her with a mace, pile drove her to the ground. He dragged her back to Thorns, tossed her at the foot of his commander.

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Forum has been approved, just waiting on me to deal with it.

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Update to players: my tabletop D&D is tonight, romantic date tomorrow, and incredibly heavy drinking on Monday, so no significant progress will be made until after my liver recovers. It's just waiting in the box for me to clean up though so shouldn't take long after

 

[wingnut2292]

I'm still here I've written up my concept but I need to type it in. I'll do it after work tonight. sadly I work 4p-11p, but there's a chance I could be out as early as 9p. I was planning a disgruntled member of the Immaculate Choir, a castrato who's something of a martial arts prodigy.

 

[solyrflair]

That doesn't sound like a mortal, but I have no idea what an Immaculate Choir is. What did he do to get captured by the death lord?

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Oh, looky looky what's here:


http://www.rpdom.com/forums/darkest-before-dawn.6661/

 

[ResourceHog]

was wondering if there was room for one more player

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Possssssssssssiiiiiiibly. We'd be doubling up on Castes or having you as an Eclipse, but this isn't going to be an incredibly social game. How much do you know about the setting and system?

 

[Silent Wayfarer]

...I was hoping for a slot myself until it got ninjaed away...

 

[ResourceHog]

I know a bit about character creation. read a lot about the western island parts of the setting. most of my experience with exalted are worm/exalted crossover fan fiction though. That is what got me interested in exalted in the first place


.

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

[QUOTE="Silent Wayfarer]...I was hoping for a slot myself until it got ninjaed away...

[/QUOTE]
Yes, but you're also massively more experienced than the rest...thus why I recruited you for other purposes.

 

[ResourceHog]

*cough*

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

*cough*

Sorry, school and moving my girlfriend in with me. Busy weekend, ^-^;


Drop by the OOC thread and see if you can work out a concept that works with the other players. They happily decided to be all part of the same resistance group before things went down...makes character intros really easy,

 

[CactusAir]

Ah, so this is full up? I'll maybe watch from the sidelines then.

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Yeah, apologies, unsure if I can really work more in. Too many means I won't be able to teach all the players, :/

 

[Karsikan]

Well poo this filled up quickly.