My Exalted2e Adventures

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My Exalted2e Adventures

Postby Zabasaz » 19 Dec 2011, 00:49

"two sidurreals, two sloars, two durrrgan bluhhhded, and a whole bunch of dragon blooded NPC flunkies (and possibly lunar mates)" - the Storyteller, on our party make-up

"walk into a bar."- Me

I decided I was going to make a thread to catalog an online game I am participating in over the next few months with some long time gaming friends around the country. My posts in this thread will come with each game session discussing the occurrences each game, the storyline and adventure, our character development, and speculation/interpretations/musings about the storyline and system from me and possibly my friends playing in the game or the storyteller (aka the ST.) Feel free to comment or inquire in this thread and I hope you enjoy it if you decide to keep up. The system is Exalted Second Edition but we're running it in the First Age.

For those of you unfamiliar, it is an RPG system published by White Wolf Publishing, who brought you other such game books as Vampire: The Masquerade and anything published under the "Sword & Sorcery" imprint for the d20 system, among other things. Before I get into the game and the characters, I'm going to explain Exalted 2e as fast as I can for you so you know what weirdness to expect. Exalted is considered to be "high fantasy," but wikipedia describes it as "mythic fantasy," because the game's developer tried to avoid going Tolkien with its game design and instead spread its inspiration across multiple sources of mythological inspiration. The game is also inspired by many sources, from video games like Dynasty Warriors to various animes, but it is unique enough not to emulate any too familiarly. The game could be called "over the top," logic doesn't seem to be present in at least half of the game's material, and yet somehow it entertains very well all the same. The setting and backstory of the Exalted world, Creation, is paraphrased here.

To start, I'll discuss with you the setting. In Exalted Second Edition you play during the Lost Age. Basically, when the Primordials who made the world were defeated by the Exalted on behalf of the Gods, who proceeded to give the world to the Exalted while they go play World of Warcraft. Some of the Primordials surrendered and were sewn inside a big Primordial's stomach, and he was sewn into his own stomach, and it hardly makes any sense, so I'm not going there. The rest of them died, but by dying their pretty much glitched the cycle of reincarnation and accidentally created the Underworld, with the void at the bottom where all things cease to be. The original goal of the Primordials when they shaped Creation in the middle of the twisting, formless chaos of the Wyld was to create and enjoy order - what greater order is there than the order of non-existence? No variation, no error, no chaos, just nothingness. When they died however they yawned out a curse in their dying breaths which is now referred to as the Great Curse. basically they cursed all the Exalted to go crazy.

Well, it eventually began to happen. The Solar Exalted, chosen of the Unconquered Sun, were given the world to run. The Lunars were made their personal bodyguards and mates, the Sidereals were made into their advisors, the Dragon-blooded into their footsoldiers, and the world was their oyster. Problem is, the Solars began to become jerks due to the curse and so the Sidereals basically herded them up for a banquet and wiped them out with the help of the Dragon-blooded, who they promised the world to. The Solars of course would just find new bodies and revive so the Sidereals made a special prison to trap their Exaltations so they couldn't - then they broke the universe a little so they would be forgotten by mankind and could operate from hiding to keep the world going without the Solars.

They turned out not to be very good at it without the Solars. Some bad guys brought them back on accident though but that doesn't matter because t his game takes place before the Great Usurpation, before the Solars were betrayed and wiped out. It takes place in the flourishing First Age, where technology and magick and martial arts were evolving and being awesome. The Solars ran the world, the Dragon-blooded were their subordinates, and the Sidereal jerks that would betray them haven't done it yet.

Aaaand I'm one of those Sidereal jerks. And some of our party maaay be Solars. In any case, the game hasn't begun yet as we're still assembling characters. When I finish or am almost finished with mine I'll show you.
Zabasaz
 
Posts: 58
Joined: 14 Dec 2011, 13:17

Re: My Exalted2e Adventures

Postby Zabasaz » 21 Dec 2011, 00:01

"Just wondering how possible it is for me to infiltrate an enemy unit after they run out of motes, find the officers, punch them into comas, and draw dicks on their faces with a sharpee." - Me, asking questions about mass combat called shots.

I'm almost done with my character sheet. In Exalted, there are no classes nor levels - your abilities and options are defined primarily by your Exalted-type and Caste. Since this is a First Age game, my options were Solar Exalted, Lunar Exalted, Dragon-blooded aka Terrestrial Exalted, Sidereal Exalted, or something not Exalted like a mortal (but I'd be oh so screwed.) Normally in a typical game after the First Age, you could also play as an Abyssal Exalted, an Infernal Exalted, or some other things like an Alchemical Exalted. When you pick an Exalted type, you can pick a caste which defines your specializations, personality, and innate Anima-related abilities. Solars are the Godkings of Creation, Lunars are their personal furry bodyguards who shapeshift and are basically pets given rights, Dragon-blooded are not as powerful as your Solars, but they're way more numerous and work well together, so they're like Solar footsoldiers. Sidereals are their advisors, Abyssals and Infernal are Solars corrupted by the dead and the imprisoned Primordials respectively, and I don't even know what is up with Alchemical Exalted except that they are robots. Abyssals and Infernals don't exist yet. I don't know if the robots do but you don't really see them much.

In the Great Usurpation, the Sidereals (like me) realized that the Solars are jerks and needed to be dethroned, so they wiped them out and imprisoned the superpowered piece of their souls so they can't reincarnate. Lunars were like "oh snap," and fled into the chaotic Wyld where they got some sweet tats and mutated a little. Sidereals broke the universe so they could be forgotten by mankind, the Dragon-blooded were largely used by the Sidereals to take down the Solars and were given the world to rule. The Great Usurpation hasn't happened yet, this game goes back a ways.

Since I'm a Sidereal, I had a choice of five castes:
Chosen of Journeys, who serve the goddess Mercury. They make sure journeys happen right, from point A to point B. Or something. They're Heaven's messengers.
Chosen of Serenity, who serve the goddess Venus. They make sure people are happy and satisfied when they do things satisfying, which pretty much ends up making their job have a lot to do with drugs and orgies. Or something. They're Heaven's courtesans.
Chosen of Battle, who serve the goddess Mars. They fight a war to make sure people fight wars right and love fighting. Or something. They're Heaven's soldiers.
Chosen of Secrets, who serve the goddess Jupiter. They find and collect knowledge and... I dunno. Keep secrets. Or something. They're Heaven's eyes.
Chosen of Endings, who serve the goddess Saturn. They make sure everything properly comes to an end, from a game of tag to the life of an old man. Or something. They're Heaven's gardeners. (WAIT, WHAT?)

I'm a Sidereal and a Chosen of Endings. My character's name is Mythsaron Dreaming Mantle. He's a Dream Ninja.

Sidereals are the Chosen of Fate. They can directly manipulate the Loom of Fate which controls everyone's fate from beginning to end, and their job is to make sure it works properly, that people are getting it tangled up doing the wrong thing, and to alter/manipulate/interpret fate in such a way that they feel benefits Creation's continued function and survival. This means they chill in Heaven in an office in the Celestial Bureaucracy and practice being Fate Ninjas until someone comes and gives them a job. Most of the time, a Sidereal job may amount to forcing a spirit or mortal who is goofing up the way the world works to stop goofing it up. Say you got a guy who grabs his axe, chops down a tree. The axe has a little spirit who will tell the tree spirit, hey, you should probably fall down now. The tree may fall to the north as it was fated to - but should it fall in the wrong direction or fall, say, purple, you send a Sidereal to go whip that into shape. Sidereals tasks can get pretty epic however, such as if you have a war that needs to be fought between good and evil, a Chosen of Battles may participate to make sure it happens right. A Chosen of Journeys may be dispatched to help a crew of merchants voyage across a sea ravaged by monsters to get the shipment of medicine to those who need it. A Chosen of Endings may come assassinate some terrible, evil figure who's end should come sooner than the end of those the figure wishes to murder.

To achieve their goals, Sidereals have a variety of tools; they have Astrology, which lets them make 'destinies' which you can apply on yourself or others to make good or bad things happen to them. Ascending/Descending destinies may be put on a man or say an army or a village to make the subjects have a good harvest or bad weather. Resplendent Destinies Sidereals will put on themselves, they're alternate identities. They would be important since breaking the universe made it impossible to remember Sidereals but their destinies could be remembered fine; however, that event has yet to happen, so those aren't so appealing.

They also have Charms, which is what an Exalted's powers are. Let's go back a step; remember when I said that there are no levels in Exalted, and no classes? Well, that considered, Exalted characters have a HELL of a lot more options and variety than say a D&D characters. You have twenty-five different skills (with some exceptions) to derive a pile of charms from. You spend XP to buy charms or permanent boosts to your abilities, attributes, and other things. An Exalted's strength is measured by their Essence score, and many charms require that you have a high score, so that's the closest they come to having a level. Sidereal charms usually have to do with altering fate in ways that aid their performance, but their most interesting feat is Sidereal Martial Arts.They're powerful. Let's make an analogy.

Normal martial arts allow you to punch through a brick. Terrestrial Martial Arts allow you to punch a boulder to pieces. Celestial Martial Arts let you punch a mountain to pieces. Sidereal Martial Arts allow you to punch a guy's soul, turning him into a little girl and tapping him in a mirror. They don't attack reality, they let reality attack you.

My character, Mythsaron Dreaming Mantle, is developing his own Sidereal Martial Art style. It's called the "Quicksilver Hand of Dreams," and it deals with dreams, sleep, and altering reality. In order to master it I must first master a Celestial style so I went with Throne Shadow style. In a nutshell, Quicksilver Hand of Dreams style basically allows me to punch you into a permanent coma, rip your dreams out and turn them into an impressive winter coat, be a forgettable, fleeting presence so it becomes near impossible to attack or find me, inject my own images and alternate realities into your dreams and senses to make you see something none of us see or see something different, or I could just inject myself in your dreams so when you next are having a dream I pop out and slash you in half with a katana made out of a dead God.

Two charms I get in the long run when I master the style that are truly interesting are one which lets me open a hole in Creation so a ton of the Wyld's energies come through (I'm more able to alter and control reality in the chaotic realm of the Wyld) or, get this, basically just control how an encounter plays out. I could make the enemies kill each other or posit that my character beat them all himself.

More about Mythsaron to come when I post again.
Zabasaz
 
Posts: 58
Joined: 14 Dec 2011, 13:17

Re: My Exalted2e Adventures

Postby Zabasaz » 22 Dec 2011, 23:52

"Operation Wyldhand has just concluded, which killed 44 million mortals and caused noticeable damage to the Loom of Fate, and the majority of solars both voted for it and considered it a roaring success." - the Storyteller

We've completed session one. Here's a log of the game itself, it was all role play with no dice rolls yet. Keep in mind Exalted is a complex game - in D&D, you crawl through a dungeon killing monsters. In Exalted, you crawl through the universe killing nations.

Right now, the Solars are causing a lot of havoc in the world that was given to them. They performed Operation Wyldhand - long story short they brought the chaos beyond Creation in it, let gigantic Fair Folk armies emerge in Creation, then fought them merely to test their defensive measures for Creation and just to have a good fight. This cause a lot of destruction (44 million died, the Loom of Fate was damaged, etc) and so we Sidereals are pretty much considering making them extinct. We're afraid they'll come up to Heaven and figure out our plot, take control of the Loom of Fate, and screw everything up forever. It may not sound that bad to you, but to me as a vested Sidereal player that's freaking terrifying. TERRIFYING. That'd be like if orcs in D&D figured out how to control all magic ever. Your wizard would be scared, too.

It began in a roadside inn. One of the players is a Solar named Five-Pointed-Eye, who rules a City-state bordering the Kingdom of another Solar (not a player) named Chiisai Tsuno. We were meeting these two Solars as well as another Exalted, Indomitable Jade Fish, to discuss matters of "grave importance." I came with another Sidereal, a more amateur one, named Audrey. Our aim was to inform them that their actions in Creation have, as we've seen in a vision, dire repercussions approaching in the future; the Unconquered Sun (a pretty badass God) will turn away from Creation, agitated and antagonized by their behavior. Tsuno did not come, instead his bonded Lunar arrived on his behalf. My character is normally rather aloof, slow, and relaxed but now he is urgent - he's a Chosen of Endings and likes to get things done fast, effectively; and he believes in dreams and visions more than anybody, knowing the truth behind them.

The Solars were accompanied by a retinue of Dragon-blooded soldiers, unlike us. I started by discussing some of the Solars' less... appreciable antics which had spiraled the world into multiple states and concepts of disrepair to set the stage for me basically saying, "Cut it out or we're screwed." Operation Wyldhand was my example, mentioned in the quote above. They didn't seem entirely... fazed by the massive destruction this operation caused to the world. More bummed that their war machines didn't do as well as they'd though in the defensive stress-test they were given. (Basically, the Solars let a crapload of the roaring chaos that is the Wyld into the world just to test their defensive measures against it. 44 million people died and a lot more got screwed up as a result.)

I went on to explain the inherent risks of their recklessness and... uh... craziness. Sure they pretty much damaged reality, but our main, genuine fear is literally that they'll simply piss off the God of Gods. Why? Well, because he's the Unconquered Sun, and if you antagonize him crap is going to go down. It's right to assume many of the Solar Kings were sent their own Sidereal messenger to inform them that they done goof'd, and it's safe to assume most of those Solars told them to F off and possibly went and destroyed a margin of reality's stability just to cool off, exacerbating the situation. Now they're just ASKING to be usurped!

With a little persuasion though, I was able to get them to agree to let us help them get the Solar Deliberative to listen and rehabilitate before something drastic needs to be done coughSolarextinctioncough. So we struck an accord to work together, the Solar Kings and their kingdoms/city states would devote their efforts to get the Solar Deliberative to wake up and we'd guide them in the right direction using our knowledge of the Fates - and to help, we'll trick them out with some badass Fate manipulation to make them more awesome.

Audrey's a fascinating addition to the party. Her Sidereal (like mine!) character I think is specialized towards making a "Destiny" for people or places, which basically are good/bad luck charms for the subject's fate. This can benefit us greatly, she can cook a good destiny, slap it on top of our nations and armies and stuff and we'll have an advantage many others lack - backup from Fate.
Jade Fish is a raw fighter who will probably kick most enemy's in the donkey for us, while Five-Pronged-Eye is a craftsman, so those two will kick a lot of donkey and make a lot of badass artifacts. Fish is a Dragon-blooded, Five is a Solar.
That Lunar npc has a pocket dimension where time passes at 20 times the pace, so we can get ten years of training/preparation in over the course of only six months. Exalted are pretty nuts, so I'm probably going to visit that dimension and use it to develop my martial arts style while practicing the other style. I may also pick up Avoidance Kata, which long story short is a charm that lets me dodge bad situations. Yep.
We're going to make posts that explain our time lapses whenever we, you know. Spend six months (loltenyears) doing something, then we meet for a session to rp the repercussions.

So that's session one. Your closing quote...

"So, a Sidereal came in and told us that the Gods are pretty mad. I'm gonna take a few sick days at the fringes of the world if you don't mind. I'll be back when the extinction event is over." - the Lunar, as paraphrased by me
Zabasaz
 
Posts: 58
Joined: 14 Dec 2011, 13:17

Re: My Exalted2e Adventures

Postby Zabasaz » 18 Feb 2012, 00:22

Whew, been shirking updating, so let me just fill you guys in a bit at a time. We're onto about session like 7 at this point, it's been a slow-moving game but it's about to get pretty hairy, soon.

Session 2 Game Log

So we've ventured into the Pure Chaos of the Wyld, protected from being warped by its chaotic energies via Anti-Shaping charms from Five-Pronged Eye, our Solar. Good, because though I am Wyld RESISTANT, I am not immune and have no access to Anti-Shaping effects as a Sidereal so I'd like avoid turning into a pile of soggy cookies or something. We came here because this formless energy can be turned into virtually anything with proper shaping charms so our Solar is basically making us a fortress platform out here, fit with factories to mass-produce his army and artifacts to outfit the soldiers.

One of our companions as I may have mentioned is a Lunar Exalted who basically created a pocket dimension (HYPERBOLIC TIME CHAMBER) where time passes way slower, so we can get decades of training in only ears back in the actual dimension we come from. Through this we've been training and crafting and preparing. I've been mastering martial arts styles and crafting dreamstuffs all in an effort to ultimately become a deadly martial artist who is both unkillable and of unparalleled lethality. I've come up with a variety of builds and some I couldn't employ due to either a lack of enough XP (Essence-Shattering Typhoon) or it not fitting my form (that Charcoal March of Spiders charm that lets me hit everyone I can see twice an action at the same time.) My build though not capable of doing THAT, is still fairly potent and meant for a more intimidate battle, like assassinating officers. Our other Sidereal Audrey has been performing astrological rituals to give us all good fortune and mastering her own martial arts styles, I shall be interested to see if she's as deadly as I am aiming to be. The Dragon-blooded are training, the Solar is tirelessly crafting, a war machine is underway.

And suddenly a gigantic army of Fair Folk begins marching toward us in the midst of the Wyld. Think of Fair Folk as DREAMY SPACE ELVES.
Storyteller (1:02:22 AM): At first it seems that an army is approaching them, as they see two nearly solid hordes of... beings... advancing upon their position. One horde is a hideous throng of all manner of giants, mutants, and demonic brutes, endlessly toiling at metalworks as great plumes of smoke erupt into the mad sky.
Storyteller (1:03:11 AM): In their midst is something like a dragon the size of a mountain range, its wings torn off, bound in chains, and with what looks like a cruel city of black rock in its back.
Audrey (1:03:41 AM): "Where did that come from?"
Five-Pronged Eye (1:03:46 AM): "Wow."
Five-Pronged Eye (1:04:00 AM): "Quick, everyone shut up and don't say anything, maybe it'll just pass over us."
Mythsaron Dreaming Mantle (1:05:53 AM): Pushing his hands together and reciting the text of a sutra, Mythsaron performed and elegant swaying of his arms, activating Trouble-Reduction Strategy and Clear Eyes Defense.
Storyteller (1:06:04 AM): The second army is that of a myriad of painfully beautiful creatures; they see angels, fairies, and nymphs of all description, in the midst of a great revelry. Sweet music and sounds of joy can be heard even from this distance, and in their center is a diaphanous being that resembles an upside-down tree, with endless quantity of tendrils all sheathed in precious metals and jewels,
Storyteller (1:06:18 AM): dragging clouds behind it.
Storyteller (1:07:15 AM): However, as the two armies get closer, you realize that they are not moving towards you... the land beneath their feet is stretching towards you. The sky above one army blazes red and smoulders black, and the sky above another army shines blue shot through with golden ribbons.

On their behalf arrives "Alexia Amir, Ornamental Emanation of the Metropolis at the World's End," one of the Fair Folk leaders there, who more or less asked us what we were doing in their domain. We began basically bartering conditions for them allowing us to remain here and make weapons of war - we had to not harm them, let them inspect what we did, and let them leave a shaped inspector with us. We agreed to alternate conditions including most importantly that they could not tell anyone from Creation what we are doing here - wouldn't want our plans caught on to by the Deliberative.

After agreeing and some talking, she extended a challenge from her brother to a duel with someone who would champion us, for sport as a sort of show of where greater warriors come from - Exalt, or Fair Folk. Indomitable Jade Fish agreed, and we ventured to their coliseum (after letting him prepare, which due to a bit of a creative claim about what time noon is on Creation was as long as he needed.) When we arrived, he had to fight, well... this.

Storyteller (3:18:50 AM): In the center there is a fair folk who stands approximately two hundred and fourty feet tall. His cruelly handsome face has a mustache and goattee made of flames, and a halo, looking suspiciously like that which belongs to a sidereal's anima banner, hangs from either of his horns; one is red, and the other is purple. He has two immense sandals, and you can tell that the soles are emblazoned with a symbol of the Unconquered Sun and of Luna for the left and right, appropriately; that he considers himself one to step upon the two strongest of all the gods is readily apparent. He wears robes looking as if they are made of magma, and he has what appears to be an appropriately sized grand daiklaive made of gossamer. His skin is pitch black and as glossy as obsidian.

Jade Fish actually beat this guy in an unarmed fight. The viewers of the spectacle basically went into a riot while we calmly (but hastily) left and the session ended.

Your quote:

The grim, bloodstained angel-looking shaped fair folk diplomat looks to him. "I'M TWO DAAAAAAYS OOOOOOLLLLLLLLD!" - the Fair Folk diplomat
Zabasaz
 
Posts: 58
Joined: 14 Dec 2011, 13:17


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