Dice [OOC] - To Stand Against the Crimson Tide

[Red Shadow Claws]

I was going to go with drawing power from darkness and shadow, not the others.

Yes, come to the dark side... we've got cookies... :-)

 

[Sherwood]

Yes, come to the dark side... we've got cookies... :-)

Mmmmm, cookies.

 

[Eonivar]

If the only problem had been creating a sidereal, we could have worked it out.

Well that is kind of the problem. I am getting serious analysis paralysis trying to figure out what skills and charms to make for this Sidereal. I want to play and I can make time to write, but I cannot spend any more brain power on trying to go through all of these charms. It is true that the effects are often contrary to the ability the charm falls under. They do try and point you in the general direction in the draft but it has been a bit overwhelming with me over last weekend with everything else going on.

Me, too. Hopefully your Real Life issues are resolved quickly.

Its a more long term issue unfortunately. Last weekend was very stressful and things are settling down. So I want to come back to this.

Of course. If you change your mind in future, or if there's anything at all I can do to facilitate your participation, let me know. I tossed out the idea for three players as an example, but I didn't intend to preclude more.

Yeah I am changing my mind here, but I am wondering if the Sidereal is a good choice here...and yet I am not certain on what else to play. Is there a type of exalt here that I could make that would fit the plot we are building? I mean I guess we could add in another Solar, Lunar, or Abyssal..(I do not have any copy of the Abyssal book). I like what has been established but I am not sure on what I could participate in it with. ( I made a Liminal in Essence that I really liked but did not get to use, but I think we are going 3rd edition stuff here)

I am open to ideas here...I am happy to make something that fits well with the story and other characters.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Well that is kind of the problem. I am getting serious analysis paralysis trying to figure out what skills and charms to make for this Sidereal. I want to play and I can make time to write, but I cannot spend any more brain power on trying to go through all of these charms. It is true that the effects are often contrary to the ability the charm falls under. They do try and point you in the general direction in the draft but it has been a bit overwhelming with me over last weekend with everything else going on.

Its a more long term issue unfortunately. Last weekend was very stressful and things are settling down. So I want to come back to this.

Yeah I am changing my mind here, but I am wondering if the Sidereal is a good choice here...and yet I am not certain on what else to play. Is there a type of exalt here that I could make that would fit the plot we are building? I mean I guess we could add in another Solar, Lunar, or Abyssal..(I do not have any copy of the Abyssal book). I like what has been established but I am not sure on what I could participate in it with.

I am open to ideas here...I am happy to make something that fits well with the story and other characters.

Then am gonna make you a strange offer, if the ST agrees. I am willing to give up my Abyssal slot, and make a Sidereal instead.

Alternatively, you could well play an Exigent, maybe one of the City Father, so you have a base charmset of the Architects.

 

[Eonivar]

Then am gonna make you a strange offer, if the ST agrees. I am willing to give up my Abyssal slot, and make a Sidereal instead.

Alternatively, you could well play an Exigent, maybe one of the City Father, so you have a base charmset of the Architects.

I like your abyssal I really do not want you to give her up. And I do not have the draft of the Abyssal book to make an abyssal. I have Essence, the Solar 3rd Edition, and the Lunar 3rd Edition, and the Sidereal 3rd edition Draft.

I think the Exigent would be a blast, but I do not have that book either.

 

[Random Word]

We have all the books, and can happily provide them to you. All sorts of Abyssals body swapping with Sidereals shenanigans are permitted between consenting adults.

Let's take stock of what we have:

We have a mother who dies buying her daughter enough time to activate a war manse to save the city, both drawing their Second Breath in the process as an Abyssal and Solar, respectively.
We have a dock worker who draws his Second Breath as a Lunar defending his shiftmates (and incidentally, a lot of very expensive merchant shipping vessels) from invaders.
We have a Solar pirate who, having skirmished with the massive enemy fleet for weeks, now finds himself trapped in a besieged port and fighting with his crew, some very frightened House guard, and some shanghaied dockworkers to hold the docks.

We have a very strong connection between mother and daughter, a strong connection between the dock worker and the mother through a Solar-Lunar bond, and a tenuous connection between the pirate and the dockworker of camaraderie in battle. So the bond we'd ideally like to shore up is between the pirate and the rest of the party.

We can lean on bonds all day by introducing the pirate's lunar bondmate. This gives the pirate a strong tie to someone, but doesn't obviously give the pair of you a strong tie to the rest of the party.

We can definitely have a desperate god (or gods, if you're feeling transgressive and risky and want to be patchwork) of the people of the island call for the flame of Exigence in their hour of need. We would want your character to be personally known and liked by the other PCs who grew up in the city. Possibly you hired the pirate if you're an important civic or rligious official. Note this is sort of mechanical hardmode, as Exigents involves a lot of making your own Charms, unless you're mostly happy with the Architect charmset. I'm down for supporting you in this if you're excited about it.

Ties are really less about splat and more about who you are to the other characters. Splat can follow naturally from a great narrative role. Sjet's estranged father (wandering master thief/scavenger lord, gifted Sjet some artifact that let her later get into the Manse to study when no one else could?) is a role fraught with drama, but does nothing to resolve our orbiting pirate problem. Unless estranged scavenger-dad has a history with pirate.

 

[Sherwood]

The idea of having Sjet's father having left her the needed key to get into the manse is a good one. Perhaps a Sidereal set some events in motion to put her in the right place in order to have her ready to exalt as a Solar, and her mother's Exaltation was an unforeseen twist of the meddling in fate.

 

[Sherwood]

A quick question. How widely known are we after our actions of repelling the attack on the city? After all, we have an elephant-man that was running around the docks, and another pair of Exalts at the war manse blowing up bad guys with its death ray, not to mention the other Exalts running around.

Are we public figures? Or have we managed to keep our identities secret?

 

[Random Word]

How widely known are we after our actions of repelling the attack on the city?

I intend to open moments after your exaltation, with the repulse of the invaders anything but certain. Your iconic Animas will draw attention, but exactly how much will be revealed of your identities, and to whom, will be established in play. There will probably be a price in blood for the people of the city to pay if you want to keep your identity secret.

One option for Sjet and Droplets is to barricade yourselves inside the manse for a few hours until your Animas go down, then try to sneak out through some back door. Certainly everyone on the docks will know Garret is Exalted.

 

[Psychie]

Fair enough for me.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

I intend to open moments after your exaltation, with the repulse of the invaders anything but certain. Your iconic Animas will draw attention, but exactly how much will be revealed of your identities, and to whom, will be established in play. There will probably be a price in blood for the people of the city to pay if you want to keep your identity secret.

One option for Sjet and Droplets is to barricade yourselves inside the manse for a few hours until your Animas go down, then try to sneak out through some back door. Certainly everyone on the docks will know Garret is Exalted.

Something I've been thinking. It could be that the Lunar leading the Bronze Tide, was the one that killed Droplets, only to see her rise moments later as an Abyssal.
It could further cement his desire to conquer the city...

 

[Eonivar]

We can lean on bonds all day by introducing the pirate's lunar bondmate. This gives the pirate a strong tie to someone, but doesn't obviously give the pair of you a strong tie to the rest of the party.

I have thought of an idea for a Changing Moon Lunar...here is her initial story, still lean on detail and I am open to changing the story and you all's ideas.

Esme was born an orphan on the streets of <somewhere>. She had a tendency to get into more trouble but also seemed to have a knack for getting out of said trouble. She fell naturally into the underworld, taking jobs, falling into a gang. Then one day a job fell through, her gang were killed, and she could not escape, and that was when Luna reached out to her.

The person who caught her and killed her gang was also a Lunar of the Silver Pact and took her under their wing. Esme was given the tattoos of the Silver Pact and taught on how to use her new found talents. Her mentor even taught her a way to defend herself using Ebon Shadow Martial Arts. She followed her Mentor, a Merchant and Data Gatherer of sorts. Her mentor would use her as a scout to gather intelligence for his dealings. Her mentor was a circle member of one of the Bronze Tide and took her to the Cinder Isles, and placed her skills into the Service of the Bronze Tide. Esme was uneasy of the Bronze Tide but did as her Mentor bade. All was fine until her Mentor was killed in a raid by a pirate that had been plaguing the Bronze Tide. Esme discovered treachery withing the Bronze Tide though that had basically set up her mentor for death. Esme in investigating this situation was assigned to gather intelligence on the Bronze Tide's next target, an island with a floating castle.

She arrived a month or so in advance of the invasion and found she liked the place. It was familiar to her in some way and that she found friends there.

By an odd coincidence, she discovered that the pirate that killed her mentor was based on this very island, and when she found him, she found more than she bargined for when the pirate in question was familiar, her Solar mate from a past life. She did not know what to do or how to react. That was when the Bronze Tide then attacked, they had gotten impatient (as they do) and attacked ahead of schedule.

She may have befriended Garrett and/or Sjet during her stay on the island.

Esme will be Dexterity and Perception focused...with heavy charm sets for Awareness, Dodge, Stealth, Larceny, and Martial Arts. I see her using knives or her body as weapons. She does not use Hybrid form, but she does use miniscule forms. I am thinking her spirit form is a humming bird or a crow. I already have her initial charms selected.

We do not have to have Crocodile 's pirate be her Solar Mate if they do not want that, we can set up something else.

As I said I am open to thoughts and ideas for this character and I am happy to make any changes. Please let me know any ideas or suggestions for Esme and her story.

 

[Crocodile]

I mean I'm open to my Eclipse having a Solar Mate poking about. He'll be big on just trying to make the island survive and thrive with his naval antics and mercantile scheming. My running idea is a man of northern stock that thanks to the slavery his forefathers ended up more in the West but kept their tribal name for their family. He's obviously felt some draw to this place but his business has shifted this way in piracy and trading. He's used to brawling due to his piracy days as a crewman before he came up and managed to get his own ship.

He definitely like to schmooze and talk, aside from needing some obvious talent to keep his crew in line and remain in command.

I suppose the question is when my guy exalted? Would it have been while harassing the Bronze Tide fleet or sometime before or after?

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

I mean I'm open to my Eclipse having a Solar Mate poking about. He'll be big on just trying to make the island survive and thrive with his naval antics and mercantile scheming. My running idea is a man of northern stock that thanks to the slavery his forefathers ended up more in the West but kept their tribal name for their family. He's obviously felt some draw to this place but his business has shifted this way in piracy and trading. He's used to brawling due to his piracy days as a crewman before he came up and managed to get his own ship.

He definitely like to schmooze and talk, aside from needing some obvious talent to keep his crew in line and remain in command.

I suppose the question is when my guy exalted? Would it have been while harassing the Bronze Tide fleet or sometime before or after?

A daring raid, or even staging the coup of the old corrupt ship's captain could well trigger an exaltation.

 

[Sherwood]

I am really looking forward to this game.

 

[Random Word]

On that note, how are we on character creation? We can get started without full mechanics for characters, so long as we have the narrative hammered out.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

I still have to finalize my character's history, but I have spent 54 out of 55 xp, and I think I've calculated everything.

 

[Crocodile]

I'm just working out character sheet at the moment. I have a pretty clear idea for one Pandemos Xalax. I'll have gone with his seizing control of his ship as his point of exaltation before things played out.

 

[Sherwood]

I'm set and ready to go.

 

[Psychie]

Garret is good to go.

 

[Eonivar]

I will get Esme entered this weekend. I have a lot of her built already.

 

[Crocodile]

I'm working closing shifts but hoping to use tonight to get my sheet on paper. I'll start hammering out it's post tomorrow when I have my day off for all the editing.

 

[Random Word]

Equusheart is completely new to Exalted but would like to join our merry band of misfits.

Here is my best attempt to explain the party to someone who knows nothing about Exalted:

To set the stage, your city is having a bad day. Or maybe not your city, maybe just the city you, unfortunately, happen to be in at the moment. The Bronze Tide, a marauding fleet of over a thousand ships, are pillaging and plundering, having overwhelmed the city's defenders.

We have Sherwood playing Sjet, the Twilight-Caste Solar (Yer a Wizard, Harry! If summoning demons doesn't solve your problem, you haven't summoned enough demons yet. We can fix him! We have the technology! Insufferable know-it-alls.) who drew her Second Breath fixing and activating an ancient weapon to destroy the Bronze Tide fleet. Now it's broken again, and her dead mom is bleeding all over her books. Ew.

We have Red Shadow Claws playing Sjet's mother, an exiled former priestess of an ancestor cult, the woman formerly known as REDACTED, now Droplets of Blood in the Chilly Wind, Midnight Caste Abyssal (Have you welcomed the darkness of our personal lord and saviour Oblivion into your heart? Have you considered that all existence is a futile and painful struggle against the inevitable forces of entropy, and your attachment to life is only prolonging your suffering? Why wait? Die today, and never again feel hunger, pain, or cold!) who died trying to prevent the dread Lunar warlord Lukha Palash and his personal guard from breaching the Manse powering the weapon, granting her daughter protection against avada kedavra buying her daughter enough time to activate the weapon. Much to Lukha's surprise, when he ran Droplets through and tossed her aside like a ragdoll she refused to die, instead swearing her soul to one of the terrifying ghost-queens of the Underworld, the Black Heron, rising again to chant something in the baleful unholy glossolalia of the Neverborn that made everyone who heard it bleed uncontrollably from all their orifices, killing most and forcing the rest to flee. Now everything is great! Oh, except for that pesky oath to serve a terrifying ghost-queen of the Underworld and exterminate all life. But, like, other than that.

We have Psychie playing Garrett Jacobs, a dock worker who drew his Second Breath as a Full Moon Lunar (Hulk smash! Rip and tear! It will not die! Oh god, why won't it die? Reach heaven through violence.) valiantly fighting to save his shift from the raiders attempting to seize the ships in the cothon. Some Lunar Exaltations have a bond to another Exaltation that transcends reincarnation. Garret's Exaltation shares such a bond with that of Droplets of Blood in the Chilly Wind, so they're suddenly BFFs. Their shared interests include murder, not caring when their limbs get chopped off, and efficacious home recipes for getting bloodstains out of upholstery.

We have Crocodile playing the inimitable upstanding businessman and occasional pirate Pandemos Xalax, the Eclipse-Caste Solar (You fool! We pinky swore that oath before Heaven! Now you're doomed! Can't touch this, na na na na. Tonight we dine in hell! All my favourite restaurants are there. Master and Commander.) hired by the city to harry the oncoming Bronze Tide fleet in the hopes of diverting it away, he now finds himself and his crew trapped in a city under siege and must plan his greatest death-defying escape yet - pardon, did that dockworker just turn into an elephant? Why is that crow staring at me, and is it... blushing?

We have Eonivar playing down-on-her-luck-no-longer street kid with a heart of gold Esme, Changing Moon Lunar (Would the real Satrap please stand up? My god, was that man just mauled to death by a hummingbird? Have I got a bridge to sell you! You merely adopted the night. I was born in it, molded by it.) who is currently in the form of a crow stalking her ex from a thousand years ago who she is technically supposed to kill to avenge her mentor but he's really cute and there was that one time her mentor killed all her friends.

 

[Psychie]

We have Psychie playing Garrett Jacobs, a dock worker who drew his Second Breath as a Full Moon Lunar (Hulk smash! Rip and tear! It will not die! Oh god, why won't it die? Reach heaven through violence.) valiantly fighting to save his shift from the raiders attempting to seize the ships in the cothon. Some Lunar Exaltations have a bond to another Exaltation that transcends reincarnation. Garret's Exaltation shares such a bond with that of Droplets of Blood in the Chilly Wind, so they're suddenly BFFs. Their shared interests include murder, not caring when their limbs get chopped off, and efficacious home recipes for getting bloodstains out of upholstery.

Technically, Garret is a Casteless Lunar, since he just Exalted and hasn't had a chance to get his Caste Tattoos on yet. But yes, he has all the murder that a Full Moon Caste has in their hearts.

 

[Equusheart]

Lol, sounds like quite the motley crew. So, are Castes like the different character classes?