['Neath Shattered Skies and Scattered Stars] Lance, Dawn Caste

Silent Wayfarer

Silent Wayfarer

This is my spirit animal



  • Name: Lance


    Caste: Dawn


    Concept: Smiling Proud Wanderer


    Motivation: Build his legend in Creation


    Intimacies:


    Passions


    Miss Fortune is my partner and friend (with benefits).


    I love a good fight; it's my reason for living!


    Beliefs


    Win or lose, do it with style. Do     everything with style. Style is life.


    Always spare worthy opponents; they make life more interesting.


    Always pursue good women; it's a compliment to them.


    Taboos


    Never harm a child, or permit them to be harmed. Why?


    Never harm a good woman; self-defense is permissible.


    Duties


    I am a sworn knight of the Lady; thus I am gallant and mighty.


    If there is a hole, it's a man's job to thrust into it!


    Background


    Lance doesn't remember not being Exalted. The earliest memory he has is waking up in a sumptuous boudoir, with The Lady of Charm looking down on him. According to her, she had found him face down in the snow, with a pack of direwolves fast approaching. She had her footmen shoo the beasts away, then brought him back to her Tower of Charm, where she nursed him back to health. She explained that he was Exalted of the Unconquered Sun; specifically, one of the Dawn Caste, who were peerless warriors and generals. This matched up with the instinctual skills and Charms he was beginning to recall as he searched through the dregs of his memories. Out of gratitude to her, and because he was unable/unwilling to resist her supernatural beauty, he pledged his service to her as a champion and bodyguard.


    This suggestion must have pleased The Lady, because she accepted his offer with a smile. He was taken and schooled in the various arts of battle; but he showed a particular aptitude for the disciplines of close combat and agility. In addition, he received an education in the arts of courtly etiquette and self-presentation. After all, there was no point in triumph if one couldn't do so in style. The Lady personally knighted him after his training was complete, and henceforth he was dubbed her Knight of the Sun.


    His daily routine typically involved going out and battling some horrible monster or faerie champion, defeating it in a stylish and dramatic way. At other times, he would stand by her side when she held court, eager to defend her person and her honor against the slings and jibes of her (boorish/slatternly) peers. The typical reward for his exertions was to share the bed of The Lady after the day was done, or perhaps to couple with a fair maiden. All in all, it was quite an agreeable arrangement; he fought, he spoke, and after that, he got to have sex with inhumanly beautiful women all night long.


    Though this state of affairs was hardly a burden on him (though death was always a risk in his profession), the routine began to wear on him. The heroic spark in his soul was beginning to wonder if there was something more than this endless pageantry, and eventually he broached the question to The Lady that he be granted leave to depart her kingdom and wander afield.


    As it turned out, Lance's novelty was beginning to wear thin on The Lady, and she agreed to his request; provided he returned periodically, with tales of heroic deeds and proof to match. And of course, he still owed her his life; but it would be terribly     gauche to keep mentioning it. Besides, it wasn't as though he was going to forget a sworn oath; she'd trained him too well for that.


 
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Alright, sounds good.Where did you get the Gunzosha Armor and Daiklave, and what exactly would 'Pet DB' Entail? What is his Oblgation (Gotta be a big one... Damn.)
 
Some sacrifices had to be made! Guess where the first xp are going...


Also, he's still insanely charismatic and pretty. So all things considered he's like the male version of Justin Bieber.


Backstorywise, there was an encounter with a capricious raksha noble when he got lost in the Wyld. Some... alterations were made.
 
Yeah, I see that in the mutations and flaws. I mean, it's the twinkiest statblock I've ever laid eyes on, but that's legitimately the sort of thing the Wyld does to people, some times. I imagine he was a few seconds away from permanent Wyld addiction when his exaltation flew in.
 
[QUOTE="Tepet Doneno]Alright, sounds good.Where did you get the Gunzosha Armor and Daiklave, and what exactly would 'Pet DB' Entail? What is his Oblgation (Gotta be a big one... Damn.)

[/QUOTE]
Now that I'm in front of a proper PC again...


Daiklave


During his trip through one of the Hundred Kingdoms, Lance came across the Shenjian Valley, and within it the Snow Tiger sword school. The school itself produced incredible swordsmen, but Lance didn't really care that much, except that the current generation's successor (called Fei) was exceedingly pretty and caught Lance's eye, and so he joined up for the express purpose of hitting on her. That, and because winter was coming and he didn't feel like trekking through the snow when he could be peeping at Fei taking a bath.


He soon found out that the local lord (Zhou Firescale) wanted the Snow Tigers on his payroll and Fei as a concubine. That last part annoyed Lance - he hadn't managed to seduce Fei yet, so he'd be damned if he let some no-name feudal lord get his hands on the woman he was eyeing. So when spring came and said lord arrived with his armies to take them both by force, Lance was there to help fight them off.


Thing is, the Snow Tigers were excellent warriors, but abysmal soldiers, and even a Dawn Caste couldn't be everywhere at once. Though he did a pretty good job leading his platoon to victory over their foes, Fei's unit was overwhelmed, and a lucky arrow shot dealt her a mortal wound. Needless to say, the Tigers' morale collapsed once they realised their leader had been felled. With her dying breath, Fei whispered the location of the Tigers' secret treasure to Lance, begging him not to let it fall into Zhou's hands, before she went to join her ancestors.


Now, at this point Lance would usually have legged it, being that there weren't any more girls in it for him and not being the sort who favored doomed last stands. However, as it turned out, Lance was pretty damn pissed at the waste of a good woman in some pissant little battlefield like this... and as he drew it forth from its scabbard, he discovered that the Snow Tigers' secret treasure was the orichalcum reaper daiklave Tiger's Claw. Needless to say, Zhou's armies found one man standing in their way as they advanced into the ruins of the dojo, and needless to say, Lance devastated them with divine prowess and righteous anger.


He left the valley after laying the heads of Zhou and his generals before Fei's grave marker to be her servants in the afterlife. Ever since, he's carried Tiger's Claw by his side, with a lock of Fei's hair as a charm to remember her by.


Tiger's Claw was once wielded by the Peerless Tiger General Yongwu, a leading duelist of the First Age who survived the initial Usurpation. Though he was eventually dragged down and slain by his treacherous Dragon-Blooded minions, the Snow Tiger Warriors he trained carried his daiklave away to Shenjian Valley, where they passed down their training through the generations. Tiger's Claw has had most of its powers sealed away with the death of its original owner and Lance hasn't tried to unlock them (it's not his sword, after all). That said, it is covered in intricately-carved glyphs that teach Yongwu's martial curriculum, lessons which Lance has learned as he studies the blade at night.


Allies


Pet DB's circumstances are... odd. Lance once worked for a potent entity (my original thought was Rabszolga, God of Slaves, but now I'm thinking it ought to be someone prettier, like some raksha noble, or the Lover) who had several Exalts in their thrall. One of them was Pet DB, who was a pretty young thing and caught Lance's eye. After the most recent job, he made a deal with his employer - in lieu of wealth and property, he wanted her as payment. Now, said employer might have also imposed an Obligation on him as well, but in the end Lance managed to snag pet DB.


Miss DB generally serves as Lance's sidekick and partner (and toy, but he does seem to care for her. Somewhat.) Due to the circumstances of her bondage, she was hit with a variant of Threefold Binding of the Heart that made her absolutely devoted to whoever her designated master was. That magic has faded, but because Lance actually does treat her nicely and will gladly defend her from people hassling her, she's quite happy to stay with him. Now, whether or not it's really love is debatable, especially with mindbending sorcery to complicate things, but she's had quite a few opportunities to leave, and she hasn't taken them.


I'm out of creative juices for the armor, but I'm sure I'll think of something.
 
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Hold your horses.


You're allowing us to take both negative mutations and flaws for extra BPs?


And you're allowing Enchanting Features 4 point version, the most broken social merit ever to be thought up?


I've gotta make some changes to my sheet, I think.
 
I'm taking negative mutations purely to balance the positive mutations (Check 'em!). And if the Almighty ST wishes me to remove stuff, by all means.
 
[QUOTE="Silent Wayfarer]I'm taking negative mutations purely to balance the positive mutations (Check 'em!). And if the Almighty ST wishes me to remove stuff, by all means.

[/QUOTE]
Mmm, I suppose balancing mutations like that is fair, and demons can give mutations as well as faeries.


Let me, by the way, tip my hat at you for recognizing the purpose of the dragonblooded: To serve as providers of Linguistics charms for their betters ;)
 
Esbilon said:
Hold your horses.
You're allowing us to take both negative mutations and flaws for extra BPs?


And you're allowing Enchanting Features 4 point version, the most broken social merit ever to be thought up?


I've gotta make some changes to my sheet, I think.
Click to expand...
Yep. Mutations are counting as Flaws, but they need a reason. His is Wyld, I believe.


Thanks for pointing out Enchanting features. That is pretty powerful, take it down a level please.
 
[QUOTE="Tepet Doneno]Yep. Mutations are counting as Flaws, but they need a reason. His is Wyld, I believe.

[/QUOTE]
My point was that he has 10 points of Flaws and 3 points of Negative Mutations (balanced by 3 points of Positive Mutations).
 
Esbilon said:
Mmm, I suppose balancing mutations like that is fair, and demons can give mutations as well as faeries.
Let me, by the way, tip my hat at you for recognizing the purpose of the dragonblooded: To serve as providers of Linguistics charms for their betters ;)
Click to expand...
;)


There's a few reasons why I changed Arika from a cheesy Elemental Boltspammer to a cunning linguist.


- she's his partner. Spewing 30L elemental blasts is going to overshadow him, and annoy the GM. Maybe when we're all wielding Creation-shaking power, but at chargen... no.


- DB Linguistics are quite potent; and they give her a lot of utility. Plus, it's the perfect excuse for Lance to jump in and defend her, or anyone they're With One Mind-linked to.


- Lance doesn't do oratory. But she can use Poisoned Tongue Technique on him to substitute his Cha+Perf pool of 5 with her Man+Perf pool of 9-12. Plus, it's quite thematic; she's not only his speechwriter, but his speechgiver too!


- She also gets to serve as an interpreter, so she can be useful to everyone.


Incidentally, if the mutations are a no-go, I'll nix them. Actually... Inexhaustible sounds perfect for those 2 points, if you count Negative Mutations as Flaws.
 
[QUOTE="Silent Wayfarer]
;)
There's a few reasons why I changed Arika from a cheesy Elemental Boltspammer to a cunning linguist.


- she's his partner. Spewing 30L elemental blasts is going to overshadow him, and annoy the GM. Maybe when we're all wielding Creation-shaking power, but at chargen... no.


- DB Linguistics are quite potent; and they give her a lot of utility. Plus, it's the perfect excuse for Lance to jump in and defend her, or anyone they're With One Mind-linked to.


- Lance doesn't do oratory. But she can use Poisoned Tongue Technique on him to substitute his Cha+Perf pool of 5 with her Man+Perf pool of 9-12. Plus, it's quite thematic; she's not only his speechwriter, but his speechgiver too!


- She also gets to serve as an interpreter, so she can be useful to everyone.


Incidentally, if the mutations are a no-go, I'll nix them. Actually... Inexhaustible sounds perfect for those 2 points, if you count Negative Mutations as Flaws.

[/QUOTE]
A character may not begin with more than 10 extra bonus points gained from Flaws. Mutations are separate and you can use the negative to balance the positive, but no more than three points of positive mutations (absolute value, not total mutation point value) may be applied to any one character.
 
[QUOTE="Tepet Doneno]A character may not begin with more than 10 extra bonus points gained from Flaws. Mutations are separate and you can use the negative to balance the positive, but no more than three points of positive mutations (absolute value, not total mutation point value) may be applied to any one character.

[/QUOTE]
Just to make sure, that means I could take 3 powerful mutations (Lidless Demon Eye, Wings and Stone Body to name three), but not 4 weak ones (Night Eyes, Wolf's Pace, Third Eye and Air Adaptation to name four), correct?
 
He said absolute value (i.e. not after balancing from negative mutations), and it was "points of mutations", not separate mutations.
 
Ah, I see. That seems harsh, basically outlawing concepts like People of the Air. Not that I want to play one, but jus' sayin'.
 
Esbilon said:
Rule #1 of Exalted combat: Damage isn't everything. It's not even the main thing.
Click to expand...
Well, you basically only need enough damage to threaten instant death per hit. Basically, 18 dice after soak is a strong guarantor of 7 HLs of damage, i.e. instant death. After that it's Acc stacking.


But... yeah. It's probably my fault for starting it, but I think I am going to shy away from crazy number stackings to prevent the ST from going mad. It upset a good friend of mine who STed for me before, and I feel bad about it.


He said absolute value (i.e. not after balancing from negative mutations), and it was "points of mutations", not separate mutations.

Esbilon said:
Ah, I see. That seems harsh, basically outlawing concepts like People of the Air. Not that I want to play one, but jus' sayin'.
Click to expand...
Well, if you want to play a person of the air, you can pretty much just take the mutation package as presented. Mixing and matching is pretty damn powerful...


Also, I did a fair bit of research for Devil Trigger Devil Tyrant Avatar Shintai myself. Lidless Demon Eye (unless you have Essence 6+ Essence-Dissecting Stare), Wings, Gargantuan (stacked) seem to be the best bets, especially if you have Scar Writ Saga Shield so increasing your natural Stamina adds Hardness. Unlike Lunars, you don't need tentacoo wapes.
 
[QUOTE="Silent Wayfarer]Well, you basically only need enough damage to threaten instant death per hit. Basically, 18 dice after soak is a strong guarantor of 7 HLs of damage, i.e. instant death. After that it's Acc stacking.
But... yeah. It's probably my fault for starting it, but I think I am going to shy away from crazy number stackings to prevent the ST from going mad. It upset a good friend of mine who STed for me before, and I feel bad about it.

[/QUOTE]
And there are so many other creative things you can do once you've hit someone. Grapple them, for instance, or poison them, or bad touch them in a myriad of other ways. If you have a realistic chance of taking damage at all, you're not playing a serious exalted combat character. If you have a realistic chance of getting hit, you're playing a risky combat character.

[QUOTE="Silent Wayfarer]

He said absolute value (i.e. not after balancing from negative mutations), and it was "points of mutations", not separate mutations.


Well, if you want to play a person of the air, you can pretty much just take the mutation package as presented. Mixing and matching is pretty damn powerful...


Also, I did a fair bit of research for Devil Trigger Devil Tyrant Avatar Shintai myself. Lidless Demon Eye (unless you have Essence 6+ Essence-Dissecting Stare), Wings, Gargantuan (stacked) seem to be the best bets, especially if you have Scar Writ Saga Shield so increasing your natural Stamina adds Hardness. Unlike Lunars, you don't need tentacoo wapes.

[/QUOTE]
A person of the Air absolutely needs wings, which is a 4 point mutation IIRC, breaking the 3 point limit.
 
Esbilon said:
A person of the Air absolutely needs wings, which is a 4 point mutation IIRC, breaking the 3 point limit.
Click to expand...
6 points, actually. Gliding Wings are 4 pts. Those are also kind of ehhhh.


That said, none of us here are playing engineered races... and if someone was, I imagine the ST would be enticed to allow the full package.
 
[QUOTE="Silent Wayfarer]He said absolute value (i.e. not after balancing from negative mutations), and it was "points of mutations", not separate mutations.

[/QUOTE]
Silent is correct: three poxes or what have you, so long as the total positive mutations are 3 or less.
 
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