This is the OOC thread for Return of the Scarlet Empress. Any questions or comments or OOC discussion is to be held here.
Campaign introduction:
Spoiler
“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.” - Cormac McCarthy
The Realm is on the brink of civil war. The Regent is an ineffectual man incapable of doing more than furious self-gratification. The endless games of intrigue and chance that have been the bread and butter of the Great Houses have escalated as the prize turns from primus inter pares to the Scarlet Throne itself. The Anathema emerge in greater numbers than ever before, the Shadowlands grow larger every day, and the Fae have not been this bold since the Realm was crafted. And we stand idle while all this occurs, too secure and too split between multiple loyalties to band together and focus on what is important.
This cannot stand. This cannot be how this Realm ends, clawing at its own throat while the wolves circle in. It is they who seek to bring our end. It is they who strike at the fabric of our morality. It is they who are responsible for this decay that we see all around us, and do nothing regardless.
I have walked this land for far too long to let it slide into moral decay.
Therefore, by the power vested in me by the Immaculate Dragons, by the purity of my faith, by righteousness of my cause, I, Castus Alcibiades, do hereby decree this new permanent Wyld Hunt- The Cleansing! - Speech by Castus Alcibiades, Prefect of the Immaculate Order, given before the Deliberative, RY 790
A Realm on the brink of civil war.
A demagogue attempting to unite it against a thinly scattered foe.
And all the while, the Lady and the Lowest prepare for the end.
industrious presents: The Return of the Scarlet Empress.
Welcome to my rendition of the Return of the Scarlet Empress. This game will begin shortly before her return proper, and will end when Creation is irrevocably changed in one way or another.
We will begin with a renewed Wyld Hunt, the last ditch effort of a demagogue to keep the Realm from falling into Civil War. Players who wish to play Terrestrials must begin as members of said Hunt; Sidereals are free to choose between Gold and Bronze factions, at least initially; those that decide to begin Bronze will join the Hunt under assumed destinies. For obvious reasons, other Celestial Exalts cannot be members of the Wyld Hunt.
List of Important NPCs (with some relevant information):
Spoiler
Grass Lightning - mortal widow of the commander of the Fort Waypoint. Has a bad leg. Doesn't like Anathema. Or Exalts in general. Survivor of Thorns. Motivation: Live a normal life in defiance of the designs of deathknights.
Mnemon-Caras Pell - Earth Aspected Terrestrial, sorcerous prodigy and Heptagram graduate. Part of the Cleansing, and apparently, a fanatic. Knows Flying Guillotine. Motivation: Currently Unknown
Sesus Meru - Fire Aspected Terrestrial, "good with camp work." Part of the Cleansing and a fanatic. Killed in action. Motivation: Kill the Anathema.
Matsui - Water Aspected Terrestrial, Master of the Even Blade Style, and mother figure to Rose. Very protective of Rose. Apparently once a Dynast, but "was an embarrassment." Motivation: Currently unknown.
Unknown Necromancer
Shattered Mirror - Abyssal Exalt. Necrotechnology master. Sorcerer. Kind-hearted. Assigned to a death squad against Penumbra. Motivation: Currently Unknown
Emerald Stormwrack - According to Child, a "hanger-on" of a Sidereal. Has a unique writing style. Gold Faction. Motivation: Unknown
Symphony of Chimes - Penumbra's Lunar mate. Arrogant, ruthless manipulator. Penumbra took his Manse. Spirit form of a badger. Motivation: Unknown
Forsaken Starfall - Chosen of Serenity and colleague/friendly rival of Child. Gold Faction, and apparently a member of the Cult of the Illuminated. Very, very attractive. Motivation: Unknown
Burning Waters - Some sort of supernatural being. Apparently wants to obstruct trade in Nexus. More clever than he appears. Motivation: Unknown. Something to do with the poor.
Some notes:
Stunting: Roll Three Sunt Dice after every post roll. I will tell you it's value in my next post. Stunts less than three will have dice chosen left to right.
Experience: Roughly speaking, every other time we go to a new page, consider that "a session;" If posts are shorter, it will take longer; longer, and it will take shorter. Not really much to say about that.
If you have to leave for something or other, I'd appreciate advance notice, so that other players aren't left hanging.
Tone: The campaign isn't supposed to be silly, but it need not be grimdark, either. It's supposed to be epic, and even epics have moments of lightheartedness and comic relief. Sometimes, everyone needs a breather.
Exalt Type and Caste: Aurora Caste Nocturnal Anima: An aurora of soft lavender, with ripples of green. At totemic levels, the image of an inverted crown forms above her head. Motivation
Turn everything on its head for long enough for everyone to see both sides.
Backstory
Sierra was born as the daughter of a rich, powerful noble of the threshold. Her life was charmed, it seemed-but fate had plans for her. As she neared her eighteenth birthday, unrest was filling the land her family rules-unrest in the lower classes, and even more so among the slaves her family traded. It would have taken but a single word from a dragon, or a chosen of the stars, to end the rebellion-but they didn’t.
For the star-children had plans. Sierra would die when the revolution reached her door, and she imperiously stood on her balcony and denied the problems of the pitiful masses.
At least, most of them had plans. But one had seen a chosen that he didn’t quite understand. A chosen that was never spoken of-A Nocturnal. His studies had taught him what attracted them, a destiny broken, and he sought to arrange one. Sierra was but one plan, as a web of essence buoyed her empathy, weakened her arrogance, and made everything perfect for what was coming.
When the mob came to her door, she did not slam it on their face. She did not pile insults upon them until an arrow found her head, her home was not burnt to the ground, and the death of her family did not leave the region ripe for realm conquest.
She opened the door for them, and offered her wrists in supplication. As the surprised, de-facto leader of the mob snapped his own broken chains around her wrists, her anima ignited-a shimmer of indigo and bright colours surrounding her, as a diamond of shadows glows upon her head, and visions of times gone and worries to come flashed through her head.
When they ended, she was down on her hands, the mob stepped back in trepidation, contemplating fleeing. She pulled herself to her feet, and gave the leader a deep curtsey.
The revolution tore through the city and the region, and the chained princess’ tale began. She aided her ‘captors’ in the beginning, and eventually led them to a safe region of undeveloped land, far from the reach of the vengeful guild and expansive Realm-and found a mighty manse there.
Since that first aid, she’s travelled Creation at length, bringing aid from below in all sorts of situations. But as of yet, she’s yet to notice either of the forces protecting her from the shadows. When she awakes, finding herself somewhere else, remembering nothing of the time in between, she doesn’t know why. When she glimpses a grinning face in the crowd, or a glimmering, glass edge blocks a blade coming for her throat, she doesn’t understand it-although her curiosity is growing, the face beginning to fill her dreams. It doesn’t click that the charm she learnt some time back to create another self is this figure-she assumes, as she had when it did not seem to function, that the charm was wasted.
The second figure is better hidden-the same sidereal who caused her fate to break and her life to continue. He watches, wondering when to reveal himself, and acts only when absolutely necessary.
Of course, he knows the truth of the other face, and has no idea what to make of it. For now, he watches, and waits.
Fateful Hand: Artifact ●●●
A deck of fifty five small sheets, each infused with fragments of the magical materials, these cards can be used in combat in a manner similar to throwing knives, and their hard, indestructible forms make them effective defensive weapons as well. (This allows the user of a Fateful Hand to use Thrown in the calculation of his PDV.)
The most spectacular powers they possess are their numbers-as long as the attuned owner retains the beautiful, calligraphic cover card for the set, the cards will never run out-any card separated from the deck by more than a few yards dissipates, returning to the bottom of the deck. What’s more, the phenomenal speed with which a skilled wielder can throw the cards allows the user to reduce the multiple action penalty on any attack action made with the cards by one.
Speed 4, Accuracy +2, Damage +3L/2, Defense +1, Range 20, Rate 5, Cost ●●●, Attune: 6 Tags: O, T
Charms 12 Free
First Dexterity Excellency
First Charisma Excellency
First Appearance Excellency
Ox-Body Technique x2
Alliance of the Alter Ego (App 1, E2, alter ego) (She learnt it deliberately but thought it failed)
Alter Ego:
Spoiler
Name: Lauren/Laurie Exalt Type and Caste: Nocturnal Comet Theme: Die Another Day-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umzSyqHSJxI&feature=fvst Anima: Streaking red comets in the air about her, and a haze of deep indigo, At totemic levels, the image of a droplet of blood appears above her head, its form identical to that of a comet. Motivation
Slay those who see the world in black and white, and work only for themselves and the black.
Backstory
Laurie exists because of Sierra’s charms, and he exists as he is because of everything the princess is and isn’t. The Princess lives through others, so Laurie is strong and confident. While they both seek a better world, the Princess seeks to lead the horses to water… and Laurie plans to kill those who will not drink.
A lot of what Laurie was belongs to Sierra’s dreams and wishes-she wished to be strong and proactive, and so Sierra is, but the Princess thrust into the real world wants nothing as much as someone strong to save her.
As odd as it is, Laurie wishes he could be the one to do so. But not yet.
Laurie, of course, knows the circumstance he and Sierra are in. He hasn’t tried to tell her yet, but can’t stop himself from appearing to her, now and then. Sometimes in his form, sometimes the female that his artifact can grant him.
While Laurie’s HEA is owned by a clueless Sierra with no clue what it means, the hearthstone bracers are less logical-they seem to fade in and out of reality with Laurie, who claimed them in a vicious battle against a dragonblooded. Laurie theorises, when he notices, that the bracers’ fate has gotten tangled, and while it belongs with him while he is there to have it, its current location the rest of the time is likely a Realm stockpile.
Manse ● (Gem of Holiness)
Whispers ●●●
Charms Free
First Strength Excellency
First Dexterity Excellency
First Intelligence Excellency
Ox-Body Techniquex2
Cometary Impact Technique (+damage, Str 4 E2)
Blast Front Concussion (+knockback, Str 5, E2)
Unhesitating Duelist Parturition (Instant Join Battle, Dex 2 E2)
One Stone, Two Birds (Dex 4 E2, attack two foes at once)
Flock and Boulder Strike (Dex 5 E3, attack (rate) foes)
Time Looping Tempest (Dex 4 E3, flurry at one target)
Cheaters Never Prosper (Dex 5, E3, take that PAs)
There Is No Sword (Stamina 4, E2, gives (WP) based DV) ((Permanent WP)/2, +Essence at night/calibration, +Whispers/2 if enemy is within fate)
Night Prepares At Dawn (Wits 3, E2, lowers speed of one chosen action)
Coiling Mobius Counterstrike (Wits 4, E3, block/counterattack retroactively)
Join Combat: 5
Attacks
Fateful Hand
Speed 3, Accuracy +15, Damage +6L/2, PDV 7, Range 20, Rate 5, Tags: O, P, T
Defenses
Dodge DV 8
Parry DV 7
There is No Sword 5 (+2 at night/calibration, +2 if enemy within fate)
Virtues
Compassion ●●
Conviction ●●●
Temperance ●
Valor ●●●●●
Intimacies
Sierra (Pity, sympathy, and a little love)
The World (An oddly optimistic cynicism: It sucks, but he WILL fix it.)
His Existence (Amusement)
Selfishness (Disgust)
Gender (Confused curiosity)
Emerald Stormwrack (Jealous Admiration)
Imaginary Friend Dialogue (Perception 3, E2, ohey they exist. Who are they?)
Helping Hand Assistance (Str 3, E3, they can interact briefly)
One Mind Monologue (Wits 4, E3, information can be shared when necessary)
What’s Mine is Yours Sacrifice (Stamina 4, E3, pass damage to alter-ego)
Living Beyond the Moment (Stamina 4, E3, delay damage))
Time Halting Aurochs Mastery (Stamina 4, E2, keep acting while incapacitated)
Death and the Broken Mirror (Stamina 4, E2, Dead daves are the enemy)
Road Smoothing Attitude (Stamina 2, E2, negates travel penalties)
Courtesan and Artisan Meditation (Cha 4, E3, +10 motes, regain motes by entertaining)
Too Pretty to Diex1 (App 3, E1 has an App 4 E3 repurchase. Adds App benefit to physical DV. repurchase gives duration)
For Later
Spoiler
Bedside Manner Acceleration (Cha 3, E2 positive attitude creation prana)
Laughing Pharmacist Placebo (Cha 4 E3 sexual healing go go go)
Retroactive Prevention (Stamina 3, E2, beat poison)
Interest Catching Camaraderie (Cha 3, E2, undodgeable social attacks when related to target’s interests)
Mind of the Mad Genius (Int 2, E2, retries are good!)
Night Prepares At Dawn (Wits 3, E2, lowers speed of one chosen action)
Words Outpaced by Echoes (Wits 4, E3, social block/counterattack retroactively)
Migration and Avalanche Onslaught (Dex5 E4, enhances flurry charms)
The Open Road Softly Calls (Stamina 3 E3, travel is meditation)
Undiscovered Country Pioneer (stamina 5, E4 chance die to see what you find)
Unintentional Contact Avoidance (Stamina 4, E2, beat poison harder, especially perfect ones)
Live Another Day (Stamina 4, E4, poison/disease causes renewal)
Die Another Way (Stamina 5, E5, delayed damage causes renewal)
Following the Heart’s Desire (Cha 4, E3, make people work towards their interests)
Darkest Night Hero (Cha 5, E3, you can be more based on your interests)
Limitless Cosmos Expansion (Cha 4, E4, your anima is calibration, people don’t attack you (aurora) knockback (comet))
Sugar and Wishes Remedy (Cha 4, E3, Chocolate fixes it!)
Cheaters Never Prosper (Dex 5, E3, take that perfects)
Cunning Metaphor Delivery (Manip 3, E2, Snekkity social attacks)
Truth in Humour (Manip 4, E2, delayed intimacy generation)
Too Pretty to Die (App 4 E3 repurchase. Adds App benefit to physical DV. repurchase gives duration)
Prettier than you Assertion (App 4, E2 uncaps prereq and lets the repurchase last for a scene, uncaps App in general for 1wp)
Personified Mask of Compassion (App 1, E2, boosts compassion channeling and empathy)
Broken Soul Reborn (App 1 E3 enhances renewals)
Alpha and Omega Epithet (App 2, E4, You are the Doctor.)
Strategic Unexpected Genius (Intelligence 3, E2, I have a cunning plan involving bunnies and airships…)
Parting the Veil (Int 4, E2, look at different times)
The Veil Sundered (Int 5, E4, interact with time illusions)
Walking the Skeins (Int 5, E5, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Time Travel)
All Your Piety and Wit (Wits 2, E2, undo an action)
Thither Moves and Slays (Wits 3, E2, illusion hides attack)
All Your Tears Shall Wash Away (Wits 5, E4 Undo a kill)
Uncanny Recognition Stance (Cha 4, E3, s’up I can borrow their backgrounds)
What’s Yours Is Mine Alteration (Manip 5, E3, they can speak)
Two Are Better Than One (Dex 5, E3, benefit each other)
Schismatic Unity Awareness (Int 5, E5, We are One.)
Join Combat: 3
Attacks
Fateful Hand
Speed 4, Accuracy +9, Damage +6L/2, PDV 7, Range 20, Rate 5, Tags: O, P, T
Virtues
Compassion ●●●●●
Conviction ●●●
Temperance ●
Valor ●●
Virtue Flaw / Flawed Virtue
Intimacies
Slavery (Guilty hatred)
Laurie/Lauren (Desire on so many levels)
Emerald Stormwrack (Protective affection)
The world (Sorrowful desire to aid)
Exalt Type and Caste: Aurora Caste Nocturnal Anima: An aurora of soft lavender, with ripples of green. At totemic levels, the image of an inverted crown forms above her head. Motivation
Turn everything on its head for long enough for everyone to see both sides.
Backstory
Sierra was born as the daughter of a rich, powerful noble of the threshold. Her life was charmed, it seemed-but fate had plans for her. As she neared her eighteenth birthday, unrest was filling the land her family rules-unrest in the lower classes, and even more so among the slaves her family traded. It would have taken but a single word from a dragon, or a chosen of the stars, to end the rebellion-but they didn’t.
For the star-children had plans. Sierra would die when the revolution reached her door, and she imperiously stood on her balcony and denied the problems of the pitiful masses.
At least, most of them had plans. But one had seen a chosen that he didn’t quite understand. A chosen that was never spoken of-A Nocturnal. His studies had taught him what attracted them, a destiny broken, and he sought to arrange one. Sierra was but one plan, as a web of essence buoyed her empathy, weakened her arrogance, and made everything perfect for what was coming.
When the mob came to her door, she did not slam it on their face. She did not pile insults upon them until an arrow found her head, her home was not burnt to the ground, and the death of her family did not leave the region ripe for realm conquest.
She opened the door for them, and offered her wrists in supplication. As the surprised, de-facto leader of the mob snapped his own broken chains around her wrists, her anima ignited-a shimmer of indigo and bright colours surrounding her, as a diamond of shadows glows upon her head, and visions of times gone and worries to come flashed through her head.
When they ended, she was down on her hands, the mob stepped back in trepidation, contemplating fleeing. She pulled herself to her feet, and gave the leader a deep curtsey.
The revolution tore through the city and the region, and the chained princess’ tale began. She aided her ‘captors’ in the beginning, and eventually led them to a safe region of undeveloped land, far from the reach of the vengeful guild and expansive Realm-and found a mighty manse there.
Since that first aid, she’s travelled Creation at length, bringing aid from below in all sorts of situations. But as of yet, she’s yet to notice either of the forces protecting her from the shadows. When she awakes, finding herself somewhere else, remembering nothing of the time in between, she doesn’t know why. When she glimpses a grinning face in the crowd, or a glimmering, glass edge blocks a blade coming for her throat, she doesn’t understand it-although her curiosity is growing, the face beginning to fill her dreams. It doesn’t click that the charm she learnt some time back to create another self is this figure-she assumes, as she had when it did not seem to function, that the charm was wasted.
The second figure is better hidden-the same sidereal who caused her fate to break and her life to continue. He watches, wondering when to reveal himself, and acts only when absolutely necessary.
Of course, he knows the truth of the other face, and has no idea what to make of it. For now, he watches, and waits.
Fateful Hand: Artifact ●●●
A deck of fifty five small sheets, each infused with fragments of the magical materials, these cards can be used in combat in a manner similar to throwing knives, and their hard, indestructible forms make them effective defensive weapons as well. (This allows the user of a Fateful Hand to use Thrown in the calculation of his PDV.)
The most spectacular powers they possess are their numbers-as long as the attuned owner retains the beautiful, calligraphic cover card for the set, the cards will never run out-any card separated from the deck by more than a few yards dissipates, returning to the bottom of the deck. What’s more, the phenomenal speed with which a skilled wielder can throw the cards allows the user to reduce the multiple action penalty on any attack action made with the cards by one.
Speed 4, Accuracy +2, Damage +3L/2, Defense +1, Range 20, Rate 5, Cost ●●●, Attune: 6 Tags: O, T
Charms 12 Free
First Dexterity Excellency
First Charisma Excellency
First Appearance Excellency
Ox-Body Technique x2
Alliance of the Alter Ego (App 1, E2, alter ego) (She learnt it deliberately but thought it failed)
Imaginary Friend Dialogue (Perception 3, E2, ohey they exist. Who are they?)
Helping Hand Assistance (Str 3, E3, they can interact briefly)
One Mind Monologue (Wits 4, E3, information can be shared when necessary)
Living Beyond the Moment (Stamina 4, E3, delay damage))
Time Halting Aurochs Mastery (Stamina 4, E2, keep acting while incapacitated)
Road Smoothing Attitude (Stamina 2, E2, negates travel penalties)
Courtesan and Artisan Meditation (Cha 4, E3, +10 motes, regain motes by entertaining)
Too Pretty to Diex1 (App 3, E1 has an App 4 E3 repurchase. Adds App benefit to physical DV. repurchase gives duration)
Bedside Manner Acceleration (Cha 3, E2 positive attitude creation prana)
Laughing Pharmacist Placebo (Cha 4 E3 sexual healing go go go)
For Later
Spoiler
Retroactive Prevention (Stamina 3, E2, beat poison)
Interest Catching Camaraderie (Cha 3, E2, undodgeable social attacks when related to target’s interests)
Mind of the Mad Genius (Int 2, E2, retries are good!)
Night Prepares At Dawn (Wits 3, E2, lowers speed of one chosen action)
Words Outpaced by Echoes (Wits 4, E3, social block/counterattack retroactively)
Migration and Avalanche Onslaught (Dex5 E4, enhances flurry charms)
The Open Road Softly Calls (Stamina 3 E3, travel is meditation)
Undiscovered Country Pioneer (stamina 5, E4 chance die to see what you find)
Unintentional Contact Avoidance (Stamina 4, E2, beat poison harder, especially perfect ones)
Live Another Day (Stamina 4, E4, poison/disease causes renewal)
Die Another Way (Stamina 5, E5, delayed damage causes renewal)
Following the Heart’s Desire (Cha 4, E3, make people work towards their interests)
Darkest Night Hero (Cha 5, E3, you can be more based on your interests)
Limitless Cosmos Expansion (Cha 4, E4, your anima is calibration, people don’t attack you (aurora) knockback (comet))
Sugar and Wishes Remedy (Cha 4, E3, Chocolate fixes it!)
Cheaters Never Prosper (Dex 5, E3, take that perfects)
Cunning Metaphor Delivery (Manip 3, E2, Snekkity social attacks)
Death and the Broken Mirror (Stamina 4, E2, Dead daves are the enemy) (Conviction)
Truth in Humour (Manip 4, E2, delayed intimacy generation)
Too Pretty to Die (App 4 E3 repurchase. Adds App benefit to physical DV. repurchase gives duration)
Prettier than you Assertion (App 4, E2 uncaps prereq and lets the repurchase last for a scene, uncaps App in general for 1wp)
Personified Mask of Compassion (App 1, E2, boosts compassion channeling and empathy)
Broken Soul Reborn (App 1 E3 enhances renewals)
Alpha and Omega Epithet (App 2, E4, You are the Doctor.)
Strategic Unexpected Genius (Intelligence 3, E2, I have a cunning plan involving bunnies and airships…)
Parting the Veil (Int 4, E2, look at different times)
The Veil Sundered (Int 5, E4, interact with time illusions)
Walking the Skeins (Int 5, E5, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Time Travel)
All Your Piety and Wit (Wits 2, E2, undo an action)
Thither Moves and Slays (Wits 3, E2, illusion hides attack)
All Your Tears Shall Wash Away (Wits 5, E4 Undo a kill)
What’s Mine is Yours Sacrifice (Stamina 4, E3, pass damage to alter-ego)
Uncanny Recognition Stance (Cha 4, E3, s’up I can borrow their backgrounds)
What’s Yours Is Mine Alteration (Manip 5, E3, they can speak)
Two Are Better Than One (Dex 5, E3, benefit each other)
Schismatic Unity Awareness (Int 5, E5, We are One.)
Join Combat: 3
Attacks
Fateful Hand
Speed 4, Accuracy +8, Damage +6L/2, PDV 7, Range 20, Rate 5, Tags: O, P, T
Intimacies
Slavery (Guilty hatred)
Laurie/Lauren (Desire on so many levels)
Emerald Stormwrack (Protective affection)
The world (Sorrowful desire to aid)
Experience Points
12/12
+1 Thrown (-4)
8/12
+12 exp!
20/24
Three die stunt!
21/25
Name: Lauren/Laurie
Spoiler
Exalt Type and Caste: Nocturnal Comet Theme: Die Another Day-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umzSyqHSJxI&feature=fvst Anima: Streaking red comets in the air about her, and a haze of deep indigo, At totemic levels, the image of a droplet of blood appears above her head, its form identical to that of a comet. Motivation
Slay those who see the world in black and white, and work only for themselves and the black.
Backstory
Laurie exists because of Sierra’s charms, and he exists as he is because of everything the princess is and isn’t. The Princess lives through others, so Laurie is strong and confident. While they both seek a better world, the Princess seeks to lead the horses to water… and Laurie plans to kill those who will not drink.
A lot of what Laurie was belongs to Sierra’s dreams and wishes-she wished to be strong and proactive, and so Sierra is, but the Princess thrust into the real world wants nothing as much as someone strong to save her.
As odd as it is, Laurie wishes he could be the one to do so. But not yet.
Laurie, of course, knows the circumstance he and Sierra are in. He hasn’t tried to tell her yet, but can’t stop himself from appearing to her, now and then. Sometimes in his form, sometimes the female that his artifact can grant him.
While Laurie’s HEA is owned by a clueless Sierra with no clue what it means, the hearthstone bracers are less logical-they seem to fade in and out of reality with Laurie, who claimed them in a vicious battle against a dragonblooded. Laurie theorises, when he notices, that the bracers’ fate has gotten tangled, and while it belongs with him while he is there to have it, its current location the rest of the time is likely a Realm stockpile.
Manse ● (Gem of Holiness)
Whispers ●●●
Charms Free
First Strength Excellency
First Dexterity Excellency
First Intelligence Excellency
Ox-Body Techniquex2
Cometary Impact Technique (+damage, Str 4 E2)
Blast Front Concussion (+knockback, Str 5, E2)
Unhesitating Duelist Parturition (Instant Join Battle, Dex 2 E2)
One Stone, Two Birds (Dex 4 E2, attack two foes at once)
Flock and Boulder Strike (Dex 5 E3, attack (rate) foes)
Time Looping Tempest (Dex 4 E3, flurry at one target)
Cheaters Never Prosper (Dex 5, E3, take that PAs)
There Is No Sword (Stamina 4, E2, gives (WP) based DV) ((Permanent WP)/2, +Essence at night/calibration, +Whispers/2 if enemy is within fate)
Night Prepares At Dawn (Wits 3, E2, lowers speed of one chosen action)
Coiling Mobius Counterstrike (Wits 4, E3, block/counterattack retroactively)
Join Combat: 5
Attacks
Fateful Hand
Speed 3, Accuracy +15, Damage +6L/2, PDV 7, Range 20, Rate 5, Tags: O, P, T
Defenses
Dodge DV 8
Parry DV 7
There is No Sword 5 (+2 at night/calibration, +2 if enemy within fate)
Virtues
Compassion ●●
Conviction ●●●
Temperance ●
Valor ●●●●●
Intimacies
Sierra (Pity, sympathy, and a little love)
The World (An oddly optimistic cynicism: It sucks, but he WILL fix it.)
His Existence (Amusement)
Selfishness (Disgust)
Gender (Confused curiosity)
Emerald Stormwrack (Jealous Admiration)
I ship you/Anyone./Infernal Gardevoir from outside the playground, by Recaiden//ExtendedSig
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
It's not normal, of course, and what's actually happening in Comet Kicker's brain is that she's using regular murder as therapy for worse murder. There's a breakdown in the works and all it needs is one good, hard kick.
That was an amazing way of choosing the final applicants. This is going to be great.
Name: The Penumbra That Shrouds the Dread Inferno Theme Song:Inside The Fire Caste: Day Anima: Darkness erupts from her skin, surging around her form like a dancing bonfire. Tendrils and flecks of darkness disjoin themselves from the central flame, morphing into screaming faces of the dead before quickly vanishing. Motivation: End slavery by slaughtering slave owners; killing every last one of said men, women, and children, of all races and in all realms of existence. Intimacies Amarakia (Utter Loathing), Miasa (Love), The Walker in Darkness (Hatred and Fear), Dragon-Blooded (Hatred), Opiates (Addiction), Jaki Cristo (Haunted Regret), Shattered Mirror of a Thousand Regrets (Respect and Gratitude), The Guild (Hatred), The Binding Shadow of Pleasure and Pain (Rage), Red And White Roses Strewn Across The Fields (Spite) Appearance
Spoiler
Background
Pre-Exaltation
Spoiler
All her life, the only thing ____ ever wanted was a chance, a single opportunity to improve her lot, to make her world better, to allow her to live a life of dignity. She never expected to become rich, to have luxuries, she just wanted the chance to be treated like someone who mattered. ____ never received that chance. Every day in her life she was treated as something to be used, not a person to be valued.
____ doesn’t know who her parents are. All she knows is that her family sold her when she was barely a month old. ____’s owner was a wealthy Dynast, named Amarakia, from Serrat. The Dynast was a whimsical individual who managed her slaves like toys, casting them about in different directions and giving them new duties constantly. This made it difficult for any of her slaves to form attachments, and punished them with separation if they did.
Despite this, ____ managed to acquire one close friend, Jaki Cristo, a fire haired boy who hailed from the Wavecrest Archipelago. She wasn’t old enough to love him, but they managed to make their lives bearable, and even fun at times. So when ____ formed a daring plan to escape, one that was almost impossible with one person, let alone two, she shared it with him. A few weeks later they both attempted to escape. They failed. They were captured quickly, ____’s plan might have worked if she was by herself but it was simply unfeasible with two of them.
Both of them knew that a harsh punishment was going to be involved, and both were frightened out of their wits. ____ simply tried to endure, but Jaki broke under the pressure. He tried to curry favor and lessen his punishment by telling them what ____’s plan had been, how she had convinced him to attempt it, how she had done everything. Amarakia believed him, and the situation amused her greatly, so greatly that she decided to make it even better.
Amarakia told ___ exactly what Jaki had done, breaking ___’s spirit, all while showing only the faintest hint of glee. Amarakia then gave ____ a life or death choice. Either ____ would execute Jaki immediately, or ____ would suffer the same fate. ____ chose life, and gained heartbreaking vengeance for the betrayal. Killing Jaki is one of the few things that haunt the woman that ____ has become to this day. The memory of his pallid face and soulless eyes staring at the girl who strangled him is the source of many of her nightmares.
After this affair, Amarakia deigned to treat it as an event of no import and sent ____ back to work in the mansion, a mansion where all knew of and many had saw what she did to Jaki. These were hard harrowing years, but ____ persevered. She was made to do the worst work, the hardest, most dangerous, and most disgusting tasks available, but she endured. Despite this ____ was attractive, and human nature being what it was she was not left lonely. She even had a child, a little girl named Miasa. It became the one ray of hope she still had in the world, the one source of joy in a life where everyone she knew hated and used her.
And then she was sent away to a different city and mansion, and prevented from taking her child. All she did was drop a vase, but for the ever whimsical Amarakia that was enough. Cruelty was an art for her, and when reminded of ____’s existence she jumped on the chance to make ____’s life worse. She knew that the true art of pain lay not in the physical, but in the death of hope as the spirit withers away.
A lesser woman would have given up this point. Her child taken away, driven from all the she had ever known, ____ declared that enough was enough. She knew she could not do anything immediately, but she would not stop fighting. In a strange manner, being sent away was a blessing.
____ was able to start anew, with people who did not know her past. ____ began to organize a rebellion. With nothing to hold her back ____ was able to let loose her natural talents. ____ began ferreting out other rebellious slaves, approaching them, and convincing them to organize and unite against their oppressors.
Her work paid off as she slowly formed a nuclei of rebellious individuals, all of who discreetly spent years recruiting for their cause. During this time she taught herself how to fight, taking what little hours of the night she had to herself, and passed these lessons on. She also developed other talents to aid the rebellions; those of the assassin, of the thief, of the poisoner. She served as the warmaster of the rebellion, and also as its greatest weapon. She silenced those who tried to betray the cause, and she killed the masters who came too close to discovering the rebellion.
Inevitably, rumors began to spread. The rebels knew that their masters would learn of the rebellion soon, and so ____ called her righteous army to order. In one single evening they rose up. The guards and slave keepers, weakened by poison and with many of their leaders assassinated, were overwhelmed with ease. All the slave holders in the city died that night, even the two Dragon-Blooded. To ____'s regret Amarakia was not present for this night of slaughter. The victory festivities were immense, the greatest event that ____ had ever remembered. Everyone knew that worse was yet to come, but they felt confident they could hold out against anything thrown after them.
They were wrong.
The cities in the Deshan slave states are made mostly out of wood, but with great encircling walls of stone. The reason for this is very simple; in the case of a successful slave rebellion, it is a trivial task to burn the city to the ground and kill every last slave. All the army has to do is watch.
A full brotherhood of five Dragon-Bloods stood at the sole gate of the city, taunting the inhabitants of the burning streets to try to make their way through them to get away from their fiery demise. Hundreds died attempting this very thing before ____ reached the gates of the city, flames licking at her heels.
Witnessing the grinning, laughing, disgusting Dragon-Bloods surrounded by mountains of corpses ____ did not even spend a moment in thought before she launched her assault. She utilized her years of practice, jumping from shadow to shadow, launching arrow after arrow, in a rapid onslaught intended to catch these monsters by surprise. For a brief moment ____ knew her purpose in the world, it was her destiny to break these evil beings, and lead the remnant of her people away from their deaths.
But this moment passed. The lead Dragon-Blood barely even looked her way as he shot forth a pair of arrows from his bow, severing both of ____’s tendons. ____ heard him brag to his fellows, but she could do nothing but lie in agonizing pain over the corpses of her followers and watch as the fire consumed the city. Finally the blaze reached the stack of corpses, finishing its onslaught with the burning of those already dead.
And so ____ died in a pyre made of those that she had lead to failure.
And so The Penumbra That Shrouds The Dread Inferno was born in fire and blood.
Post-Exaltation
Spoiler
The Walker in Darkness is the deathlord that gave Penumbra her second breath. He had been watching her for some time, and so had positioned a large force of undead lying in wait to ambush the army burning Penumbra's city. These undead attacked at the same moment that Penumbra rose from the pyre, the hungry ghosts slaughtering the army as Penumbra slaughtered the Dragonblooded brotherhood.
After the battle, a Daybreak caste Abyssal named Shattered Mirror of a Thousand Regrets greeted Penumbra. He guided her back to The Walker in Darkness, and tried to teach her some basic information on the way. It didn’t really stick, but Penumbra appreciated the attempt.
Penumbra spent two years serving the Walker in Darkness. Under his tutelage she perfected her talents, becoming a shadow that could kill the most protected of foes without ever being seen. She was taught how to hunt her quarry, how to trap them and prevent any of their allies from helping. She acquired greater knowledge of where best to strike organizations, how to cripple them with a few well-placed assassinations.
For these years, Penumbra served the Walker in Darkness well. Shattered Mirror had told her of the Monstrances, and warned her how they could be used to harm her if she disobeyed. He also told her of The Walker’s defenses; of how he kept each Monstrance separate, warded, and guarded in different manners. The extent of these defenses meant that a renegade prepared to destroy one Monstrance had little hope of destroying the others.
Penumbra understood well that the Monstrance was just another chain wrapped around her, a spiritual one instead of a physical. So during this time she did not let a hint of disobedience show.
Penumbra had only one ally amongst the Walker’s court, Shattered Mirror. Shattered Mirror is an incredibly affable and empathetic Abyssal, a wonderful oddity that made Penumbra’s life under her new master tolerable. She didn’t care much for any of the Walker’s other Abyssals, though she was only outright hostile with two of them.
One was a Moonshadow caste named The Binding Shadow of Pleasure and Pain, a former guild factor who had run vast portions of the drug trade across the Deshan slave states. Drugs are used as a means of control in these nations; almost all the slaves in these nations are addicted, and so the drugs can be withheld as punishments or incentives to work harder.
Penumbra is not an exception, a fact that she truly hates. Shadow exploited this facet of her personality many times, manipulating her as a way to pass the time. It didn’t always work, but it caused Penumbra to seethe at his presumptions. She might have hated him anyway, as she loathes the The Guild, but his actions cemented her anger.
The other was another Day caste known as Red And White Roses Strewn Across The Fields. Red is a very different type of Day caste from Penumbra; he is a spymaster and socialite that takes to the field only when necessary, preferring to let his minions do the job.
The animosity between Red and Penumbra came as a result of The Walker pitting them against each other. Time after time he arranged things so that one’s mission would interfere with the others. Neither of them realized this immediately, and so it appeared to them that the other was deliberately interfering with their own work.
Eventually Red pieced together what was happening and informed Penumbra. He was willing to let the matter be settled. Penumbra pretended to agree, but the damage had been done. She associated feelings of frustration and anger with him, so she did not actively try to ruin his works, but she was very careless when she knew he was involved.
It was at the end of her second year of service that Penumbra found the opportunity to destroy her monstrance and escape. The Walker’s citadel was attacked by a circle of Solars, intent on destroying him. When Penumbra saw The Walker go out to engage the Solars, she took her chance.
She did not know how to get past The Walker’s wards, but Shattered Mirror did, and he was more than willing to help her. With his aid, Penumbra was able to destroy her Monstrance
Unfortunately, The Walker returned to his citadel in a rage before the two of them could go destroy Shattered Mirror’s Monstrance. He had been alerted when Penumbra bypassed his wards, and broke off his battle with the Solars to return and punish her. Incidentally, this also meant that some of the Solars were able to escape, something that enraged The Walker even more.
Penumbra managed to escape his grasp, with additional assistance from Shattered Mirror, but she had to leave her companion behind. Penumbra owes Shattered Mirror a great debt, and is still looking for a way to repay him; she would try to free him, but she knows the limits of her power, and they pale in comparison to The Walker.
Penumbra has traveled far across the North and East nations along the coast of the Inland Sea since she has left The Walker's service. She has been indulging in her heart’s desire; killing slaveowners wherever she can and destroying Guild operations at every opportunity.
Penumbra has acquired a fearsome reputation as a result of her rampages. No one knows what she looks like, or even anything about her, except for the fact that she is an unseen bringer of death that leaves only corpses in her wake. Rumors have assigned her many names and the Realm is well aware of her existence, though they are as hampered by lack of identifying information as the rest.
Social
Charisma ●
Manipulation ●●●●●
Appearance ●(●) – The Black Exaltation did not repair Penumbra’s horrific burns; it only returned her body to full functionality. The burns cover large portions of her body, though not all. Penumbra wraps herself in a full body layer of clothing to hide these burns, and she is careful never to let them show. (Mechanically this is a mundane disguise to raise appearance by 1)
Backgrounds and Equipment
Whispers ●●
Penumbra has started to deepen her communion with the Neverborn.
Penumbra’s Armaments
The Walker in Darkness crafted many armaments for Penumbra’s use when she exalted into his service. The soulsteel used in these artifacts was made out of the souls of the army that had incinerated Penumbra’s rebellion.
Artifact ● - Dragon Skin Weave - Soulsteel Chain Shir
The lynchpin soul of this artifact is the Earth aspect that stood at the gates of the burning city. Flecks of minerals and gemstones are embedded into the soulsteel links.
Artifact ●● - Dragon Quintessence Crucible - Soulsteel Hearthstone Bracers
The lynchpin soul of this artifact is the Water aspect that stood at the gates of the burning city. Waves of a sickly green coloration, reminiscent of poison, roil across the bracers.
Artifact ●● - Dragon’s Heartstring Bow - Soulsteel Short Powerbow
The lynchpin soul of this artifact is the Wood aspect that stood at the gates of the burning city. The bowstring of this bow is blood red, and the grip is a scaled pattern of viridian flesh.
Artifact ●●● - Soaring on the Dragon’s Scream - Belt of Aerial Mobility
The lynchpin soul of this artifact is the Air aspect that stood at the gates of the burning city. Close inspection reveals that the belt’s rings are connected by a solidified link of air, and do not touch any of the other’s.
Spoiler
This artifact almost always consists of a belt formed of links of blue jade, and in First Age versions of this artifact, these links are usually inlaid with small amounts of orichalcum. When the wearer commits three motes of Essence to the belt, it sizes to fi t and can thereafter be comfortably worn with any garment. Anytime the wearer reflexively spends three motes of Essence to empower the artifact, she rises an inch or so into the air and can walk on air for the rest of the scene. During this scene, the wearer can walk safely over water, quicksand, pools of acid or rivers of molten lava. Alternatively, she can will herself to rise up into the air in a form of movement that resembles walking on air as much as it does true flight. The character can walk or run normally, and in combat, she can use both the move or dash maneuvers at her normal movement rate (which she can enhance with Charms normally). The character can use this item to move in any direction, including up or down. Moving using this belt requires no more concentration or effort than normal walking or running. This belt’s buckle contains a setting for a single hearthstone.
During the First Age, many Exalts wished to move swiftly and easily through the towers of Chiaroscuro and to the vast floating palaces that floated above the largest cities. Others used this item to enter and leave skyships with ease. In addition to being a convenient form of movement, there were also entire talons of Dragon-Blooded warriors who used these artifacts to allow them to serve as troops on board skyships. They could rapidly deploy from the ship to the ground as well as easily attack and board other flying vehicles as part of vast aerial battles. Today, these items are diffi cult but possible to create, and many dozens survive from the First Age and the Shogunate.
Artifact ● - Propelled By The Dragon's Flame - Perfected Boots
The lynchpin soul of this artifact is the Fire aspect that stood at the gates of the burning city. Streaks of dim red and orange flame dance under the soulsteel surface.
Spoiler
This artifact has been made since the early days of the First Age, but most modern examples were manufactured in Lookshy. Almost half of the Dragon-Blooded ground troops fielded by this martial state wear a version of this artifact. Once the wearer commits one mote of Essence to this item, these boots become the most comfortable footwear she has ever worn. This artifact keeps the wearer’s feet cool and dry in all conditions, and she will never develop blisters while wearing them. In addition to comfort, these boots also allow the wearer to both run and march considerably faster than normal. In combat, the wearer adds three yards per tick to all move actions and six yards per tick to dash actions. When walking long distances, the wearer can march at a speed of 10 miles per hour and can cover up to 100 miles in a day, allowing the wearer to overtake carriages and to easily keep up with all but the fastest mounted characters. In addition, the wearer adds two to her Strength when calculating jumping distances. This bonus adds directly to the wearer’s Strength if the jumping distance is multiplied because of Charms, additional artifacts or anima powers. One of the primary advantages these boots provide for Lookshy is that heavy infantry who wear these boots can easily keep up with cavalry troops, allowing Lookshy forces to be exceedingly swift and mobile.
Penumbra’s Operational Base
Manse ●●● - Grove of Briars
Penumbra encountered her lunar mate, Symphony of Chimes, not too long after she escaped from the Walker in Darkness. Unfortunately for Symphony, this meeting was not amicable.
It is a sad fact of creation that the Exalted are granted their power for greatness, not for goodness. Symphony is a ruthless Exalt with little conscience; he is a cunning and subtle manipulator cares who only for his goals, and not for those ruined in his path. This would not have made Penumbra hostile in of itself, but because of this trait Symphony was heavily engaged in the Guild’s slave trade, which made him into Penumbra’s target.
Penumbra spent a season ruining Symphony’s operations before she became aware of his existence. She quickly began her hunt, catching up with him at his base, a carefully tended manse. Symphony was not prepared for her assault, and barely escaped with his life. The only thing that saved him was that his spirit shape is a badger, which allowed him to burrow his way out of Penumbra’s reach.
Penumbra has since claimed the manse where the battle took place. The manse is well-defended; it was built to fend off assaults without the owner having to worry. Penumbra spent a long time ferreting out all of the manse’s secrets, and has given its Animating intelligence new directives. Should Symphony ever go back to his old haunt, he’s in for a rude surprise.
- Hearthstone: Orb of the Unnoticed Predator
Spoiler
This flattened sphere is patterned like the skin of a leopard. The stone prevents its bearer from leaving tracks, even in thick mud or fine dust, and eliminates all traces of her scent and the scent of anything she wears or carries. These benefits also extend to any animal she rides and to anyone she carries, but do not extend to any companions moving on their own. If the bearer moves in a slow and stealthy fashion, the stone also mutes any noises she makes and bends shadows to her advantage, increasing the difficulty of all Awareness rolls to notice her presence by 1.
Charms
Spoiler
Archery
First Archery Excellency
Splinter of the Void (Bloodthirsty Arrow)
Awareness
Third Awareness Excellency
Superior Sight Focus
Entropic Awakening of Sight
Personality notes: She is a little naive, innocent, playful, and pretty much affectionate. Beware he or she that is nice to her. ^^ (Or as the background will show, what she was at the start, what she became, and now back full circle. XD)
Appearance
Spoiler
Aya is a young woman, with soft and smooth skin of the light mocha coloring. She has a wealth of wavy long jet black hair that falls to her ankles. She is shapely with a slender waist, gentle hips, and large breasts, firm breasts. She has bright and curious green eyes, and she wears tight and revealing clothes, generally of the black and red coloring scheme, generally in silks, its low cut to show off her breasts' wealth and cleavage, and is short to show off her belly, a short split side skirt hang to her waist tightly showing the shape of her firm butt. She has a golden choker with a ruby at the center, an armlet of gold on her upper right arm, diamond earrings that dangle from her ears. A mesh of lesser gems glitter in her hair on her head.
Backstory
Spoiler
I zip around the corner panting heavily, tears in my nearly indigo eyes. I’m a dirty girl, with tattered rags for clothes, a strip of bandages wrap around my right thigh, my hair was once wavy and pretty its black with red streaks once one of my prize features, but now its filthy and tangled mess fills me with shame. Panting heavily I press against the warm dusty wall my hands pressed against my large breasts where my heart pounded heavily. Pain lacerated my wrists, my legs, and my neck, places where men’s hands, men’s leather, and men’s iron abused me. I hold my breath and I retreat deeper in the alleyway as men, angry haughty men rush by my hiding spot. Once the last of them had passed I curl up in the shadows and cry broken heartily.
From the shadows a sensual and seductive demoness slips from nothingness between moments and tosses back strands of long hair. I continue to cry, my arms around my bare and battered knees, my breast sting against the sweat and pressure, my forehead rests on my knees and I cry. But the demoness smirks.
“Very cunning,” she says softly as she comes beside me caressing my hair, “You made friends with two like you, girls whose futures are now very much set to be pleasure slaves.” I whimper and curl up tighter, the tears still flowing. “You gave them up, tricked them, how sad for that.”
“I wasn’t strong enough,” I say in my tear filled sobs.
“Yes, those men were certainly stronger,” the demon almost purrs, “but what does that matter. You have your life. A life you enjoyed.”
“It was all a lie,” I say bitterly, “I thought I was loved… I thought people cared…”
“These are fundamental lies,” she whispers into my ear, an arm around me holding me close, “This is so because people cannot love. The gods want you to be miserable.” Something about her warmth and the gentle scent was soothing my fear and sorrow.
“Gods? Yes,” I say peeking over my knees, my indigo eyes staring through tears at the next wall. “From their sanctums, their temples, they watch and lust, taking for us, making us into animals.”
“Yes. Animals, for if you are animals you cannot be empowered to overthrow them.”
I turn my eyes to the demoness my head leaning against her chest. “Empower…”
She smiles down at me, less like a demon and more of a mother or a lover. “Yes, my Masters have seen it in you. You are no animal. Not yet at least. They can grant you the power to assault the gods of this region. All you have to do is say yes to accepting this power, to let the Masters forge of you a weapon the likes Creation has yet to see.”
“Will the pain go away… the ache of my heart, will my betrayal be forgiven.”
She pulls me into an intimate embrace her lips mere inches from mine, my aching body against hers, we were so close now, we could almost… be one. She purrs slightly and runs her hands through my dirty hair. “We will forgive you.” And she kisses me, the feelings of passion growing in me, I could do nothing to resist. All I could say was, “Yes, I accept, fill me with the power, let it grow until I swear I can take no more.”
“Oh you will not burst, you are special.” And then the warmth, the pleasant passion arousing scent, embraced me, and darkness followed. In the alleyway shadow men crept forth standing around the crystalline diamond that we had become. My form was seen inside, curled into the fetal position; crimson light was growing around me. They picked up the floating crystalline diamond and carted it away through the shadowy paths of Chiaroscuro.
I relived my life, moments of joy and laughter while I lay inside. I watched myself grow from the precocious and mischievous child that tormented my parents and excited other children to the defiant fifteen year old. I relived those moments, the love and joy, the times that I had thought lost forever. I was a happy child, full of energy, affectionate and loving. In fact I made it a point to kiss everyone I met that I was friends with on the cheek. It got me quite the reputation. Being a girl who grew into her beauty I was always wondering why my parents would hide me when soldiers came. It was because of this that I ended up abused, afraid, and sad. I had slipped from my house one day and started talking with one of the soldier, my intent was to get him to chase me, have a little fun with the man. But before I could do anything to create this scenario he grabbed me and covered my lips. I struggled and all that but in the end I was bound and take away. It still hadn’t dawned on me that I might be in serious trouble. I bothered these men when I was tossed in a cage, I tormented them and things. And then more girls joined me in my cell, and they grew angrier at my antics. I didn’t damage my physically, they said it was for clients that I remain untainted and unmarred. This was the start of my downfall, happiness turned to sorry, trust became fear, the world and its gods were too unfair.
Suddenly I’m standing on a hill of green plains and colorful flowers, the warm wind playing with my long jet black hair, I am wearing nothing, only me, the flowers and the sun. “Where am I?”
A voice speaks, “You are in a place of your memories, it will protect you.”
I look around twirling as I go but see no sign of the voice. “Who…” as the words leave my lips as woman stands before me, her body gleaming with metal and essence, intense crimson eyes stare at me, I couldn’t tell if she was armored or not, but I could tell she was not clothed in the natural sense. Strange letters run along her voluptuous and shapely sides, lines and diagrams of some sort mark her arms and legs. “Why…”
She steps forward, “Because time is running short for me. I have only one chance, a chance to change what could be. You must not go to Malfeas, you must not trust your fellow Infernals, most of all the Yozi named The Ultimate Darkness must not win the coming war.”
I shake my head, “I don’t understand, what are these things?” She frowns deeply and approaches me.
“Witness for yourself and heed my warnings.” She grabs my wrist and pulls me close
A flash of memories assault my mind, darkness, misery, atrocities. Fire and smoke, dead and the dying, the twisted and the mad. She stands there… or do I, amongst the ruins of Chiaroscuro, her crimson light is the only light here, she is the only thing standing. A tear trickles from her face, I feel a nearly overwhelming sorrow and fear, a feeling that mirrored my own. “End the cycle…”
“SHE IS MINE! BE GONE GNAT!” The new voice is strong, powerful and it assaults us. I am yanked from the memory and pain strikes at every part of me. I’m falling and darkness engulfs me. My memories a bleeding from me and there is nothing I can do, every point of my life is fading but I do not fight to hold to them, I lay in the darkness and close my eyes, perhaps I would die?
I push through the darkness suddenly, feeling a slimy wetness around me, I push through thickness and wetness my fingers scratching at a hard surface. I struggle hard and time passes though I cannot tell. Instinct drives me now, with the desire to break free I slam and push, scratching and pushing and then it gives way, and a wet light mocha colored slender hand slips through the cracks I push and the other hand and arm slips through. I push my head through following my arms and then my shoulders, the material hold me gives away and my large breast brush against the open as I stand fully, I take a deep breath of precious air and I shake back my wealth of hair. The warm wetness of the place that I had been trickles slowly from my form. My now crimson eyes take in the scene around me and I see death, a dozen slain black cloaked lay in a pool of their blood. I step from the shattered diamond and gently rest my bare feet against the floor. The blood was fresh, their murderers were nowhere to be found.
“Hello,” I say and smile enjoying the sound of lilting voice, “Where am I? Who am I?”
A voice chuckles, “Precious. This is so precious. A woman slips from the shadows her leather armored form drawing my eyes to her. “Do you not recall your own name?”
“I am sorry,” I tell her and tip toe around the blood pools, towards her. “Can you help me?”
“You should have something to tell you these things,” the woman says with a pleasant smile which hides a cunning quirk. “Go ahead, ask it.”
I tilt my head and close my eyes. “Who am I?”
“Aya Crystalis,” came the calm reply, “you are the Passionate Caress, the Silken Kiss.”
And I look to the woman. “Thank you,” I tell her with a seductive smile. “May I know you?” She smiles and takes from the nearby wall a discarded black robe.
“That depends, sweetie, on what you will do with your power. The power of the Yozi.”
“What do I want,” I ask curiously and run my hands along my form and sighing happy to be free of flaw, free of pain, free of sadness. I was happy to be alive. “I nod, I want to protect people I want them to feel no fear, no pain, no sorrow. If I have the power do this then it shall be.”
“You are certainly confident. Very well, I shall travel with you for a while. I’m sure this robe will not satisfy you and I will not be satisfied until you are set appropriately on your chosen path.”
And so it was I joined with the woman who was called Smiling Rose and began to learn of a world that I had forgotten. A sense of hope filled, a hope for a bright future, it would just take a bit of time to make that bright future.
Sheet
Spoiler
Exalt/Caste: Infernal/Malefactor Motivation: Remove Misery, Pain, and Hate from the World Urge: Unknown at the Moment. Intimacies: Cecelyne (Reverence), Her beautiful appearance (Pride), People (Loving Concern), Negative feelings (Dislike), Misery (hate), Pain (dislike), Her power (Careless Abandon) [1 Scene Eroding], Elegance's 'Truth' (Confused Doubt) [Building?], Primal Elegance (Addicting Fascination) Anima: A swirling torrent of silver sands, flashing among the sands is a frenzy of red and black lightning silhouetting an winged demoness.
Patron Yozi: Cecelyne Favored: She Who Lives In Her Name
Artifact •• (Discreet Essence Armor Orichalcum, gifted to her by Smiling Rose after a month of getting Aya comfortable with being with power and keeping it in check.)
Past Life ••••• (Instead of reflecting a potentially righteous or broken Solar, this reflects Aya's desperate Devil Tiger from a ruined future that shoved a fragment of herself into Aya during her Exaltation. Where Current Aya is a ball of optimism and pleasure her future self is a self loathing desperate woman who will wreck Aya's or her allies plan's if they are not in her future self's idea of how to fix the future. Luckily Aya has succeeded so far to keep control of herself.)
Manse ••• (A vitriol aspected manse in the jungles of the South East, it is a black gold Pyramid with four twisted malfean iron pillars that spark with essence, with the help of Smiling Rose she acquired the strange harmonizing manse. The manse comes with a Stone of the Chrysalis which she uses to disguise herself from time to time.)
Unwoven Coadjutor ••• (Ara'Desirae, this Sukari demoness like all of her sisters are seductive predators, manipulators of information and wills, they are the assassins, thieves, and Information gatherers of Malfeas, and when they become attached to a person it generally lasts till the person is dead. Ara'Dessirae is affectionate and uses the gentle soft manipulations of love and lust to direct Aya in areas where Cecelyne deems important. When Cecelyne is not prodding Aya to action Ara'Desirae attempts to forge of Aya to be more like the Sukari.)
CHARMS
Spoiler
MALFEAS
Devil Hardened Body x 1 (free Adds:-2x3 -4x1 HLs)
CECELYNE
First CECELYNE Excellency x 3 (Free)
Sorcerous Initiation of Cecelyne
Transcendent Desert Creature
SHE WHO LIVES IN HER NAME
Factual Determination Analysis
Essence-Dissecting Stare
Mind-Hand Manipulation x 1
Principle-Invoking Onslaught
Ego-Infused Pattern Principle x 1
Pattern-Reassertion Touch
Wholeness Rightly Assumed (Bashing, Lethal)
Counter-Conceptual Interposition (SWLiHN's Flaw)
So, in the current character sheet draft, Skandi has points in Solar Bond. I have no idea who it ought to be, but it might be a good way to either tie the party together or result in interesting conflict if it's with an NPC.
Comments? Thoughts? Volunteers?
/evilgrin
Aevy
__________________
Quote:
Franks find that bloodshed and strife
Occupy most of their life--
The proper reward
For serving a lord
While ardently courting his wife.
Rose is a young-looking woman, with fair skin, bright blue eyes, and long, blonde hair which she keeps tied back. She generally wears a light blue hakama and kusode, with a long slashing sword at her side, sheathed and tucked into her belt. Her general expression is a serene smile on her face, although in combat her adopts a more stern expression.
Tektek avvie:
Spoiler
Backstory
Spoiler
Once, there was a young girl named Iliya, who lived in a village in the Northeast. An energetic child growing up, her childhood was shattered at the age of ten, when her village was attacked and destroyed by bandits. Iliya only survived through the intervention of a wandering Dragon-Blooded Even Blade stylist, Matsui, who arrived too late to save any others, but did manage to rescue the young girl before the bandits killed her. Although, at first, she intended to leave the girl at a nearby village, Iliya refused, wanting to come with Matsui and learn the blade as well.
"So I can help stop what happened to me."
Matsui didn't have the heart to refuse. The pair left the next day, and Iliya's training began.
It was hard. It took a long time to turn the girl with little more than determination into an able swordswoman, and the simple fact of the matter was the Matsui didn't have the ability to enlighten Iliya's Essence, so teaching her Even Blade Style was out of the question. But still... she worked. And as the years went by, the girl became a young woman. Matsui started to grow into a mother figure as well, as well as Iliya's teacher.
Finally, one day, when Iliya was eighteen, she and Matsui went into a town in the East. While there, they heard a rumor of a gang of swordsmen who were extorting the villagers around the area, and they went to investigate.
They found more than they expected. The gang consisted of five God-Blooded, who were more than a match for a mortal and a Terrestrial Exalted. Matsui was ganged up on by four of the gang members, while the fifth decided to chase the mortal off, or have some fun with her.
Iliya stood her ground, and prepared to fight a battle she had no chance of winning. A single moment of decision... then determination. The God-Blooded attacked.
And Iliya drew her sword, breaking her opponent's weapon in the same movement, then cutting him down, the symbol of the Dawn Caste shining on her forehead. One of the other four had already fallen to Matsui's blade, but it took Iliya's help for the remaining three to be defeated. In the aftermath, Matsui decided to help Iliya as she came into this new world. In her own words... "I know the legends of the Anathema... but the lack of change in your eyes puts the lie to them all, Iliya."
The pair's new dynamic was... different in some ways, and not so different in others. Matsui's still a mother figure to the young Dawn Caste, but in terms of outright combat ability, there's little Matsui can teach her. While the pair have now separated, both can still call on each other if they need to. Meanwhile, Iliya's taken on the name of her past incarnation. Triumphant Rose Guardian- or simply Rose.
Her plan's simple. As Rose wanders the East, she occasionally finds villages in trouble, or people who need help. As she helps them, her legend starts to grow. Not yet known as a Solar Exalted, but still known as a hero, her name's starting to filter outwards. As one who never strikes first, but always stands up for those who need help.
For when she is revealed as a Solar Exalted... then how could you call one such as that Anathema?
Sheet
Spoiler
Exalt Type and Caste: Dawn Caste Solar Exalted Anima: Numerous golden petals start falling in the air around her, following her movements.
Motivation: Prove the Solar Exalted are not Anathema. After that... she'll see.
[Note: Place [C]aste and [F]avoured tags, for clarity.]
Total without BP/XP: 28
(If using Dawn Solution rules, 4 free specialty dots, and Abilities can be raised to 5 without BP)
Artifacts and Equipment:
Artifact: ●● Orichalcum Reaper Daiklave, Golden Edge Important features.
This Reaper Daiklave is specifically made for the Wind-Cutting Blade Style, and while it is still four feet long, it is not, otherwise, much thicker than the average katana.
[Source]
Rose gained this Daiklave during one of her travels after Exalting. It had been in the care of a minor god, one of the few who recognised what she was (and, more importantly, that her past incarnation had owned the blade), and gave it to her after she helped it deal with a God-Blooded who had been bullying the village she had visited. At present, she mostly keeps it in Elsewhere, since she doesn't want to reveal herself yet.
Resources: ●●● Reason for value
Rose has assets across the East, mostly rewards from grateful townspeople for her aid. While she's never asked for such rewards, she's well aware that she has no income otherwise, and will, therefore, accept it if it's offered.
Spoiler
>[List of purchases, and sources]
Charms
Spoiler
Martial Arts Excellencies Charms Wind-Cutting Blade Style
War and Peace Preperation
Mountain Strikes The Breeze Technique
Wind-Cutting Blade Form
Steel-Shattering Gale Technique
The Wind Screams
Melee Excellencies
First Melee Excellency Charms
Call The Blade
Summoning The Loyal Steel
Dipping Swallow Defence
Bulwark Stance
Heavenly Guardian Defence (Conviction)
Iron Raptor Technique
War Excellencies
First War Excellency Charms
Rout-Stemming Gesture
Presence Excellencies
First Presence Excellency Charms
Enemy-Castigating Solar Judgement
Athletics Excellencies
First Athletics Excellency
Integrity Excellencies
First Integrity Excellency
[i]Charms[i]
Integrity-Protecting Prana
Total: 30/30
7 on a dot of Essence
3 on three dots of Willpower
3 on Bulwark Stance
3 on Heavenly Guardian Defence
3 on The Wind Screams
3 on Iron Raptor Technique
3 on three dots of War
3 on First War Excellency
3 on Rout-Stemming Gesture
Experience Points. Spent: 10 | Left: 2 | Total: 12
9 on Orichalcum Reinforced Buff Jacket
1 on a dot of Integrity
__________________
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Revlid
And so it was that Zaeed, Aang, Winry, Ezio, Sadoko and Snow White all set out on their epic journey to destroy The Empire.
Hmmm between the Solar, the Abyssal, and yours truly you have the choice of 3 different flavors for a Solaroid mate. XD
With that said, if the awesome Skadi would have interesting fun with Aya, then I'll be open for volunteering for the S.Bond Slot. ^^ (Aya I guess will be speaking in that red I have her name in.)
Name: Ragara Besi Exalt Type and Caste Fire-Aspect Terrestrial Exalted
Motivation: Burn brighter.
Snippets
Spoiler
A random bunch of snippets, because that's what I had. Not in chronological order.
Spoiler
The sorcerer Ragara Seyer had always sought after power; to see his enemies driven before him, to see the lost secrets of the past fall under his command, and to demonstrate that he alone could master forces that his fellows scarcely dreamed of.
At least, that was the idea. This time, he felt like he was in a little bit over his head. It was hard to see with all the sand everywhere, gleaming with a light that reflected no sun. He thought to hope for some wind, to cool his face, but instinctively recoiled from the idea. Wind was death in this realm, he knew without even being told.
And a voice, sensuous and seductive, whispered in his ear with silver promises.
Ragara Seyer disappeared for twenty-three days in that particular incident. If that was all that had happened, no one would have thought twice about it. Sorcerers disappeared on their own expeditions all the time. This time, however, he came home carrying a child, a quiet little thing with bright red hair - and grey eyes flecked with silver.
Spoiler
"Who said that?!"
Magistrate Apagoa had always been a proud man. Lean, greying and a bit sunken in features, he had been a tireless servant of the Empress all his life.
He had dealt with commoners, nobles and Dynasts alike in pursuit of his own particular justice, and now that the Empress was long gone, wouldn't take
anything from anyone.
So when someone dared accuse him of corruption at one of his own proceedings, he was right to be offended. He wouldn't have been angered exactly, but the description was particularly lurid. And had details.
The voice came again. Oh, he had been blackmailed before, but this was just amateur hack-work. Very incorrect details. He fumed, looking to the crowd of commoners that he had come to pronounce sentence upon - he had always preferred a personal touch. They all looked incredibly confused, and a little bit afraid. That was good.
"It seems you are harboring a dangerous criminal," he continued, his rage twisting to spite, "if he does not give himself up, this entire village will be disenfranchised." Of course, he had been planning on doing that anyway - they were sitting on valuable land that he'd wind up giving one of the Houses an excellent price for. Now they were afraid. Except for the one in the very middle of the crowd. Apagoa smiled to himself and motioned to his guards.
The one - short, and although covered by hat and cloak, not very large - was quickly surrounded by armed men as the rest of the rabble scrambled away from the confrontation. "Do you have a name, child?" The magistrate raised his hand. When he lowered it, the rabblerouser would be awash in steel. No one here would dare speak of what happened, and who would believe them anyway?
There was a tiny scratching sound from the figure. Apagoa cupped a hand around his ear, "what was that?"
And that voice, a tiny whisper like a thousand silver slivers, "I have no name to give to one such as you."
The hat flew, and bright red hair flowed free. The cloak flew, and fire started to sweep unbound. The peasants, who had been smart enough to get clear of what was going to be a very bloody confrontation, looked on in awe. A Dragon-Blood, here, now? They hadn't seen one in...
And that very old servant of the Empress had nearly enough time to soil himself before a winged comet was upon him.
He awoke very surprised to not be dead. Had it just been a dream, had he simply imagined it? A quick look at his surroundings disavowed him of this notion; a very quick smell at his surroundings even moreso. Unless he was in the habit of surrounding himself with chattel, half-naked and behind bars...
A quick chat with one of the guards would be able to get him out - he had enough to promise anyone anything they could ever dream of. Then he caught sight of himself in the puddle of water congealing on the floor of his cell, and more specifically, the pattern of bruises on his chest.
It read, "strong delusions; patient believes himself to be a Magistrate, and sometimes the Empress. Do not indulge these fantasies."
****.
Spoiler
"Ragara Besi."
It wasn't a question. Although she was only eight, she could tell from his tone.
"Why did you kill them?"
It was barely a question. He had already made up his mind, so she might as well say something that would surprise him.
"I didn't want to."
There it was, the look on a man's face when he reconsiders everything he's decided to do. A new Dragon-Blood and six charred bodies, nobody was going to really wonder what went on. Except her, it seemed.
There he was, carefully thinking about it.
"If I could teach you how to avoid it, would you learn?"
Now it was her turn to be surprised.
"You can do that?"
The man leaned on his staff, his bright yellow hair sparkling in the sun. He didn't look more than ten summers older than her.
"Young lady, you'd be surprised," he said.
Spoiler
She lit the candle, the tiny speck of flame illuminating the quiet room. She was supposed to meditate.
A whisper on the wind. "All you love will come to ruin."
She knew what it meant, just as she had every time it wended its way to her ears. But it didn't matter. It wasn't that the voice didn't matter: even if what it had said was true, it wouldn't have mattered.
Contemplating the candle, she could have snuffed it, of course. It would persist forever, preserved, unchanged. To burn brighter was to burn shorter. To keep it whole was to extinguish it forever.
That was the night she burned down the dojo, to see the beauty in what was transient.
Breeding ●●●●●
Whoever Besi's secret mother is, she must have been exceptionally powerful - she's got substantially purer blood than her father does. Is that even supposed to be possible?
+5 Personal Essence
+9 Peripheral Essence
-2 to mote cost of anima banner
+2 on roll to see if child Exalts
Manse ●●●
The Rose Labyrinth, a Wood-aspected manse; a hedge maze that continually reformats itself with thorny walls, but provides everything that a prospective seeker could need to survive an aeon wandering lost. Provides a Stone of Resilient Bamboo.
The Cavern Behind the Waterfall, a Water-aspected manse which is, unsurprisingly, a cavern behind a waterfall. It boasts a library on a number of subjects; however, all books are curiously hidden in conspicuous wooden chests throughout the manse that make a peculiar sound when opened. Provides a Kata-Sculping Gem.
Resources ●●
The coffers of House Ragara are boundless; she doesn't have much of a head for business but she's picked up a thing or two here and there. Literally.
Family ●●
Besides her father, the experienced sorcerer Ragara Seyer, Besi also has an aunt in the house Legions who maintains some fondness for her by the name of Ragara Iyu Jius.
Mentor ●●●
Jewel of the Summer, a Water-Aspected heretical martial artist and Besi's tutor in Crane Style. Where he learned it himself is another one of those secrets that people always keep from her.
The answer is probably Sidereals, because the answer is always Sidereals.
Artifacts and Equipment
Claws of the Mantis
Spoiler
This pair of jade hook daiklaves were made long ago, and could very well be considered to be the predecessor of the Flying Daiklave. Paired, but made of different Jade, one is associated with Earth and the other to Water.
These blades share a bond, and both blades benefit from the specialized treatment of black and white jade.
When used in combat, the wielder may throw both blades as one, and the blades are attracted to each other, attempting to strike one another. Such a throw may be done on any one target within (Essence x10) yards, but is resolved with Melee (or Martial Arts, as appropriate) as the subtle flows of essence from wielder to blades twitch them much like close combat.
Mechanically, each blade gets a single attack, subject to normal Charm usage. The blades working together provide a coordinated attack on the target, reducing his DV by 2 but dealing no onslaught. The blades return to the wielder's hands after an attack.
Sword Stats
Speed 4, Acc +2, Dam +6L/2, Defense +3, Rate 2, Th, O, *, Cost ●●●**, Attune 6**
*Add +1 to knockdown and stunning difficulty rolls.
**Cost and attunement is for the matched pair.
Jade bonuses have already been figured into the weapon. Each sword has the same stats. Paired, they are worth artifact 3. Apart, their resonance breaks down and each is only a standard short/hook daiklave, with it's particular treated jade bonus. For the white blade, remove 1 Damage and 2 Defense. For the black blade, remove 2 damage and the bonus to difficulty rolls.
Silken Armor
Soak 5L/3B, Attune 2
Does not count as armor, stacks with armor soak, cannot be detected as magical without essence-sensing charms
Jade Hearthstone Bracers
-1 to speed of attacks, +3 to dodge pool, hearthstone slot, attune 4
Jade Hearthstone Amulet
1 extra mote/hour respiration, attune 1
Charms
Resistance
Ox-Body Resistance x2
Integrity
First Integrity Excellency
Awareness
First Awareness Excellency
Dodge
First Dodge Excellency
War
First War Excellency
Martial Arts
First Martial Arts Excellency
Terrestrial Initiation
Pasiap's Humility
Moment of Danaa'd
Virtues
Compassion ●●●●●
Conviction ●●●
Temperance ●
Valor ●●●●
Intimacies
Ragara Seyer (Filial Duty)
The Realm (Curious Loyalty)
The Empress (Inability to Remember Why She's Important, No Matter How Many Times She's Told)
Music (Fascination)
Bonus Points 30/30
5 on Willpower
10 on Favored Abilities
4 on Virtues
4 on Breeding 3 to 5
1 on Family 1 to 2
2 on Artifact 3 to 4
4 on Favored Specialties
Hmmm between the Solar, the Abyssal, and yours truly you have the choice of 3 different flavors for a Solaroid mate. XD
With that said, if the awesome Skadi would have interesting fun with Aya, then I'll be open for volunteering for the S.Bond Slot. ^^ (Aya I guess will be speaking in that red I have her name in.)
The essential question is for which of the two party members would this sort of close connection be most useful for the two purposes of strengthening character focus and integrating into the inevitable party. Skandi's limit break is based around extreme loyalty to those people he has a positive Intimacy towards, and he'll have one pretty much automatically to his mate.
Aevy
__________________
Quote:
Franks find that bloodshed and strife
Occupy most of their life--
The proper reward
For serving a lord
While ardently courting his wife.
Motivation:Unite the Hundred Kingdoms under a single rule.
Intimacies: Sidereal Politics (exasperated disgust), Tepet Legions (regret), Realm (distrust), Infernals (Fear), Shield of the Stars(Friendship), Glass Lightning (Distant Affection), Forsaken Starfall, Chosen of Serenity (Friendly Rivalry), Unfettered Owl, Chosen of Journeys (Deep Respect)
Spoiler
He is standing on the balcony, overlooking the grand cityscape of Heaven laid out before him. Glorious and horrifying in equal measures. It reminds him of one of his few trips to Malfeas, though he'd never actually speak that. Too risky politically, never mind the potential threat if they thought him an Infernal.
So he wait, arms resting on the railing, and reflects. Not on what he's actually seeing, but on what brought him here. To his present circumstances.
He was one of the lucky ones, or so they say. With so much to do, and so much chaos, potential Sidereals aren't found till a scant few years before they exalt, a few even exalting before that. And some aren't found at all, dying through some random act. Maidens, but one relatively recent Chosen of Endings survived fighting in that whole Bull of the North Debacle.
A twinge of guilt there. It has seemed like such a rational and easy task: the house legions were getting too strong, and so the Empress wanted them blunted without showing her hand. Reasonable, and quite within Heaven's abilities, what with the Bull just starting his rise. So the legions were sent, and the Sidereals hampered them, Child among them. Then everything happened at once. The Empress dissapeared. The other houses, seeing Tepet vulnerable, pounced, and the Bull proved more powerful than thought. Next thing you know the Tepet legions are destroyed completely, not blunted. A huge political shake up in the Realm, only overshadowed by the Empress's disappearance.
Few really care about the thousands dead, on both sides of the fight. Even fewer about the Sidereals caught in the crossfire. Child does, though. It's one thing to have people die in order to save the world: Child's hands have more than enough blood on them from those, but they don't bother him. Not in the same way. But this, those men, they died for nothing, and Child helped kill them.
Before, he had been a rising star in the Bronze faction. The gold were hopeless dreamers and fanatics, after all. The Bronze had a plan, a method. They had kept Creation running for over a thousand years, and would do it for a thousand more. The campaign against the Bull changed that. He didn't turn to one of those brain dead Gold fanatics, but he couldn't trust the Bronze faction either. The Realm without the Empress was nothing, and no one lasts forever. And yet, no one had set up contingencies. There was no plan, just mad dash solutions to paper over the problem.
So he worked, doing his duties to the Bureau, but staying away from both parties. And he watched the world fall apart. Thorns. The Silver Prince. The Realm continuing it's slow crumble to Civil War and oblivion. The Solars and Lunars, back in force for the first time in memory. Every day it became more clear that if the Bronze faction ever had a plan, it wasn't valid any more.
"Brillant Boy's getting called into the headmasters office? Quick, someone make sure the Yozi are still in Hell."
A little start. He hadn't realized he was that out of it, for Starfall to sneak up on him. The little teasing does get him to relax, though. Turning, Child makes a little tossing motion as he chuckles.
"Hah. The only time I get called into her office is when I'm cleaning up after one of your messes. I have an appointment. Though, with you up here, maybe I'll be called in anyways...."
"You wound me," holding his hands over his heart, Starfall steps back, fake consternation on his face as he says the words, before dropping the smile as his eyes grow serious. "Honestly, though, I've been hearing rumors-"
"I'm fine. Just taking a sabbatical."
Starfall's jaw drops, and the balcony is silent for a long moment.
"You, Mr Work-A-Holic. Mr Didn't leave His Office for 3 days straight. You put in for leave?"
Slightly embarressed, Child rubs the back of his head. "Well, yeah. I guess I finally decided that I needed some time off. Hell, my hair's going grey, and I'm barely in my 5th decade."
Clasping Child's shoulder, Starfall gives a true smile. "Good for you. You've been working to hard, time to relax a little. Plus, now I know why the note that called me here was so happy."
"Oh?" The door to the office opens, a secretary god motioning for them to go in.
"Ayesha won the pool on when you'd finally give in."
Quick Summary for the rest:
He was in Thorns when it fell, and his escape was rather close. This is the point where he met Grass Lighting, a small child at the time, as well as Shield of the Stars. Eventually, they joined up with other refugee bands, and parted ways. Child left Grass Lighting with a family that ended up in Lookshy. Child has kept tabs on Grass Lighting, though, often enough that she remembers him to a degree.
Currently, the Vacation is to visit Waypoint fort, where her Husband is stationed, as well as to visit the coming of age of her first child.
[Note: Place [A]uspicious and [F]avoured (You get four) tags, for clarity.]
Total without BP/XP: 35, with at least 15 in Auspicious and Favoured.
(If using Dawn Solution rules, 4 free specialty dots)
Languages:
Old Realm
Riverspeak
Forest-tongue
Low Realm
Backgrounds, Artifacts and Equipment:
Spoiler
Backgrounds: Ever-Flowering Pagoda-Manse, ••, Lunar Aspect. Chameleon Stone(in powerbow)
This manse was formerly the home of a minor Bureau of Nature god. Eventually he moved up in the hierarchy of heaven, and was able to leverage his new position for a much nicer Manse. Child was able to acquire the manse from the deity, and now uses it as his home in Heaven. He hasn't changed much in the archive, though on occasion he does file less important documents in it.
Spoiler
Archive-Performance(Prayer), Craft Wood(Flower Arranging)
Magical Convinces-The gardens can organize themselves, or by the direction of the hearthstone bearer. The terrain or larger plants aren't changed, simply the patterns and locations of the flowers. There is also a record of all books currently located in the archive, as well as their locations.
Ever-Flowering Bounty-Flowers of any kind planted in the Pagoda's gardens will grow at an accelerated rate, Growing to full bloom within 4 days, and remaining in that state until they are picked. Once that happens, they last twice as long as normal flowers before wilting. The planting must be intentional.
Backing-Convention of Wood-•••-The fact that a former-Bronze faction independent has managed to last as long as he has in the Convention of Wood is remarkable. The fact that he has advanced to be a force within the gold-faction home ground, as it were, is nothing short of a miracle. Child tributes it to the fact that both sides view him as a known quantity, reliable in his way. He heads the Sub-convention on the Hundred Kingdoms, and has a position of power with regards to the Sub-conventions of Lookshy and Nexus.
Backing -Division of Battles-••-Child has some rank in the division, having been exalted for some decades and an exemplary record. The fact that Shield of the Stars helps lobby for him, and that he heads the sub-convention of one of the most warlike areas in Creation help solidify his rank.
Connections- Convention on Deathlords-•-Having been in Thorns when the Mask of Winters Struck, Child was inducted to the Convention on Deathlords as soon as he was found to be still alive. The fact that he did survive has given him a small amount on influence with the core members of the Convention, which has remained stead in the years since. Due to this and other actions he's had with the Deathlord's servants, he is on the Sub-Convention of Thorns, though remains a minor member there.
Connections-Bronze Faction •- While no longer one of their rising stars, Child did not burn his bridges when he left, and wise Bronze Faction heads recognize this. They also recognize that he has no real love for the Gold faction, either. So they hope to bring him back to the fold, but also see his use as a moderately bronze leaning independent working in the Gold controlled Convocation of Wood.
Salary •••- Being a reliable independent useful to both factions has it's perks. Namely, with both sides actively trying to curry favor, Child had easily obtained a relatively high salary.
Acquaintances ••-Working as hard as he does leaves little time to connect to mortals in creation. Still, Child tries, and has built up a few such relationships throughout the East. Many, oddly enough, are clustered in . If anyone has noticed this fact, or his numerous visits to the area, they don't see it as a problem.
Allies-••-Forsaken Starfall- A Chosen of Serenity, when the two met their was some worry that they'd end up killing one another, the half-brawl half-debate between them becoming quite heated. Instead, they became close friends and rivals. Starfall is more laid back that Child(though some jokingly say that Kejak is more laid back than Child, so that might not say too much). Both keep a runing tally of the number of times one has had to help or bail the other one out of some situation, a tally that Child is currently wining, though their is an argument about whether he's ahead by one or two. Starfall says that the incident in Nexus with the Guild Factor, A Fair Folk Noble, and a Lunar disguised as a Chow Chow doesn't count, because he had that tub of pink paint in reserve. Child says it does.
Allies- •-Shield of the Stars-One of the War gods of the Crimson Pavilion, he is something of an outlier, representing chiefly last stands and forlorn hopes. In fact, he acts as the godly liaison between the bureaus of Battles and Endings for this reason. The two met during the Fall of Thorns, Child fleeing for his(and the child's) life, while Shield was drawn to the place due to the sudden and completely unexpected number of both of his chief domains. The two helped each other get away (though Child will honestly say that Shield did most of the helping). Ever since, they have remained friends and allies.
Sifu- ••-Unfettered Owl-A Chosen of Journeys, Unfeettered Owl is the Sifu of both Child and Starfall, which is likely the reason the two first met. He is a master of Crane, Scarlet Patterned Battlefield Style, among others.
Artifact- ••- Short Starmetal Powerbow
Artifacts and Equipment:
Artifact: Short Starmetal Powerbow [What it is], fluff name
Speed 6, Acc 3, Damage 4L/2 range 250, Rate 2,
-Broadhead, +2L
-Fowling, +2B
-Frog Crotch, +4L, double soak from armor
-Target, +0, Piercing
Exceptional Buff Jacket: 5B, 4L, 4A, Mob 0, Fat 2
[Source]
Resources: X Reason for value
Spoiler
>[List of purchases, and sources]
Charms and Astrology
Spoiler
Colleges:
The Spear ••
The Quiver ••
The Banner •
The Haywain ••
The Key •
Archery Excellencies
2nd Excellency
[Charms]
Any Direction Arrow
Generalized Ammunition Technique
Virtues:
Compassion ●●
Conviction ●●
Temperance ●●●
Valor ●●
Virtue Flaw/Flawed Virtue:
Intimacies:
Languages:
??? (Native)
Willpower: ●●●●● ●●●●●
Essence:
Permanent: ●●●
Personal: Current 16(16) (0) [(Permanent Essence x2)+(Willpower)]
Peripheral: Current 33 (37) (4) [(((Permanent Essence x6)+Willpower 2)+Sum of all Virtues]
Bonus Points and XP:
Spoiler
Bonus Points:
10 Essence 3
5 Points Willpower 10.
6 points on Backgrounds
2 point on Ride 1-3
1 point on Archery 3-4
2 points on Linguistics 1-3
2 points on Dodge 2-4
2 points on War 2-4
1 point on Athletics 2-3
2 points Linguistics 1-3
1 point stealth 1-2
3 points on Generalized Ammunition Technique
1 point on The Quiver 1-2
Total: 36/36
[b]Experience Points. Spent: X | Left: Y | Total: Z
__________________
He fears his fate too much, and his reward is small, who will not put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.
-James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
Satomi by Elagune
This is not a character sheet. Pay no attention to that Sidereal behind the curtain!
Spoiler
Name Isa, the Old Man's Shadow (formerly of the Birch River Clan) Caste Chosen of Endings Anima A dim violet glow suffuses the air, soft and peaceful
Motivation: See that her mentor dies at peace
Backstory
Spoiler
Out in the forest, a woman (girl?) is digging graves.
She is brown-skinned, and dark-haired, and not very tall. She's pretty, in the same way that dirt is pretty: that is to say, not eye-catching, or pretty at all, really but still pleasant to look at if you are not too snobbish or cultured to appreciate it. Her hands are callused. Her arms are strong.
kcchhhh, kcchhhh, kccchhhhh, goes the shovel, and then kcCHNNK—the sound of metal against stone.
She puts down her shovel (an old square-bladed thing that once belonged to a legionnaire) and kneels down by the hole. With one hand she reaches in, feeling around in the dirt, and: yes, there's a rock here. Maybe a big one. She might have to start over. She stands and starts to dig again, scraping the dirt off the top and then digging down around the sides so she can see it better. Today she is lucky—it's not so big after all. She kneels again and pries it out with both hands, sets it next to the pile of dirt she's making. Later today she'll carry it to one of the cairns she is making.
kcchhhh, kcchhhh, goes the shovel. The sun climbs higher in the sky, watching.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't know why they argued. I was little back then: two, four, six, eight—but not ten. My mother was dead before I was ten, and afterwards how could anyone argue with her? My father would never say what they fought about; he didn't like to speak ill of the dead.
He didn't talk about her much.
My aunts and uncles and cousins talked about them all the time. (Not really my aunts and uncles and cousins, you understand; that's just what you call people in your boat clan. The elders are grandmothers and grandfathers, the adults are aunts and uncles, and everyone your age who's not actually your brother or sister is a cousin. Everyone is family, even half-blood girls with no father.) They told me my mother was a brave warrior, and had died a fine death against the Haltans. They wanted me to grow up to be just like her.
("What, dead?" I never actually said that; even when I was nine I knew there were some things you didn't say. But I thought it. Why do you want me to grow up and die in the Haltan forests, family mine? What is so sacred about blood spilled beneath the redwood trees?)
On my father the clan was less united. He was a warrior too, but not from Linowan. He was a soldier from the Scarlet Empire over the sea, here to help us face our enemies. They never went on raids, though; only manned the border forts. Some people thought he was a coward, though they rarely came out and said so. (Insulting someone's bravery is a serious thing with us. You do not do it unless you are looking for a fight.) Others said he was a fine fighter, but he didn't really understand us. He was a stranger.
Whenever they said that, I thought: I must be like him. Because I do not understand you either.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A cold wind whips through the woman's hair, whispering faintly in her ear. She can almost imagine that it has a voice, that she can hear the dead speaking. Maybe she can. This is Calibration: the sun is reddish and hot, the wind is bitter cold with the promise of winter to come, and the barriers between worlds are thin. Maybe the dead can speak to her.
Heaven knows there are dead aplenty here.
All around her there are bones: icewalker bones, tribal bones, men and women, Haltan and Linowan and Ardelese and Talinin and a dozen more, all scattered together with no care for what separated them in life; but most of all legionnaire bones, still wrapped in the rusted metal bands of their armor. They are old bones. Many are blackened by fire. Others are white and cracked with age. There is grass growing up through them. In another decade, maybe two, the earth will start to reclaim them.
Which is good, she thinks. There are far too many for one woman to bury.
Nobody comes here since that day five years ago, not even to loot the fallen. (Well, hardly ever.) The beasts won't touch the bodies. The place is not quite a shadowlands, but it is something very close. A forbidden place. Taboo.
Hardly anyone comes here.
But it is Calibration, and barriers are broken.
There is a man walking through the burnt trees.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's not so bad, being a gravedigger. You'll always have work.
(It's all right to make jokes like that as long as you don't laugh at them. The dead don't mind smiles, but they can't stand to be laughed at.)
Why did I do it? I don't know. It was just something that needed to be done. After the battle…
I wasn't in the war, you understand. Not properly. I fought the Haltans and the icemen for three years with the rest of my people, but I wasn't there for the end of it. I could see it, though. Everybody for a hundred miles could see it. Blazing sunlight, and terrible fire, and by the end miles and miles of forest scorched and twisted and burnt; and all the brave men and women the Scarlet Empire sent to fight alongside us were scorched and twisted and burnt along with it. Crushed beneath the Bull's fiery hooves.
Not my father. He was very lucky. I don't think he felt lucky, though; when I saw him afterwards he looked like he wished he had died. He was going home, and wanted to say goodbye.
Actually, what he really wanted was for me to go with him.
Maybe I should have. He needed me, I think, or needed somebody. And there wasn't much left for me among my own people, who love war. (Though they do not love losing, so we shared that grief at least.) But I didn't feel like I belonged with him. I love my father, but I have had enough of being a warrior's bastard daughter in a land that isn't my own.
So I walked away.
I started burying the dead.
Somebody ought to do it, you know? And it kept my hands busy. I needed that.
I dug. Day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year, digging rows of graves that meandered through the charred trees down the banks of the river. It's good work. Simple, but… clean, is the only word I can think of. Honest. It turns out I actually like working with the earth, and being alone in the forest, and even the dead are sort of comfortable after a while. I didn't know how long I was going to keep at it—the tribes said there were more than twenty thousand, I never dreamed I'd finish—but I didn't wake up wanting to stop.
People noticed, after a while. My family came looking for me, and when they couldn't convince me to go with them, they left some food to make it easier. Maybe they spread the word, I don't know. Boats occasionally stopped when they passed by my part of the river, and left gifts at the door to my little hut: food, new blankets or clothing for the winter, offerings for the dead. They weren't all Linowan, either; I recognized death-offerings from Bloody River, Talinin, Jarrith, the Shandir wood-tribes. Even Halta. People knew about the hermit in the woods who buries the dead.
I couldn't tell who to give the offerings to, of course. The bones are all tangled till I can't even tell which bones belong together, much less what tribe they came from or whose kin they were. But you know, if the dead can share graves (and they do), they can share offerings too. It's better than nothing at all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The man is old, maybe forty or fifty winters, with leathery skin and a face like an old cliff: craggy, tough, but a little worn away. There's a walking-stick in his hands, though he doesn't seem to need it very badly. He has green eyes. The woman leans on her shovel, watching him approach.
He stops and watches her back for a little while, and then he says her name. It's not a question.
She nods.
"You've been burying the dead for five years and five days." Also not a question. He's right, too, she realizes; down to the day. She nods again.
"It's time to go," he says simply. And, somehow, she senses that this is true. She was drawn here after the battle, and now she is drawn away.
"You could stay the night," she suggests, and wonders if she means to bed him. (Maybe. He's older than her, but that doesn't matter much; she doesn't get visitors very often, and it's good to feel alive when you spend so much time among the dead.) "The dead won't bother us as long as we keep inside." Truth. She has earned that much gratitude, even from the wild and lonely spirits that roam abroad on Calibration.
But the man is shaking his head sternly. "Better not to. We have a great deal to do, and not enough time to do it in. The Calibration Gate is close to here; if we hurry we can reach it before sundown."
"Where are we going?" she asks, a little dazed at the speed. She won't even get to say goodbye to the hut she's slept in for five years.
"Everything," says the green-eyed man, not unkindly, "will be revealed in time."
He holds out one hand, beckoning. She takes one last look at the forest, the dead she's buried and the dead she hasn't. It's not enough, but she could spend a whole life here and not do enough. There's always an ending.
She follows.
Life in Heaven
Spoiler
There are two people who have undeniably shaped Isa's life in Yu-Shan to date.
The first is the former bearer of her Exaltation, a Reckoner named Before-the-Dawn. An ardent member of the Bronze Faction, she co-led the efforts to halt the Bull of the North when he battled the Tepet legions; when all was said and done, her partner was dead in battle, leaving her to take sole responsibility for the destruction of Fallen Lapis and the death of its city father (among other things). She was tried, found guilty, and executed for war crimes. Reputedly a very intense woman, reclusive but (on the rare occasions she took part in politics) forceful and somewhat abrasive. Her legacy is not a pleasant one; Isa was particularly baffled to find that a number of spirits with ties to Ardeleth and the surrounding nations hold a grudge against her. She remembers herself as a victim of that war, not the perpetrator.
The second influence, and by far the greater, is Chejop Kejak. For reasons he does not disclose, he has taken a personal interest in Isa's education and training, more so than he has for any new Sidereal since Ayesha Ura. Why is the subject of considerable speculation among Heaven's denizens: Isa shows no unusual flair martial arts, or leadership, or sorcery, or anything else that would mark her as worthy of the elder Vizier's attention. She's a diligent student but not—by the standards of the Exalted—exceptional, except perhaps. A few think that, as with Ayesha Ura, the two are lovers; most believe there must be something more to it than that. Many have remarked upon her Caste, linking it to the rumors of Kejak's impending demise or weaving some other complicated plot. Whatever the truth, her long association has irrevocably tarred her with Chejop Kejak's reputation: his enemies are her enemies, his allies are at least polite to her, and even neutral parties are wary when dealing with her, for fear of being pulled into one of the Old Man's plots. Few believe she is more than a pawn; she is sometimes called Kejak's Shadow.
Isa herself does little to discourage this sort of thinking. She is content to play the humble neophyte, quiet and deferential to her elders. She rarely shares her thoughts; instead, her silences draw out others. She watches. She listens. Isa is patient; she knows she's young and has a lot to learn, and she intends to learn it, not waste time trying to make herself heard right now. For now… well, it's not such a bad thing to be overlooked sometimes. She often serves the Bronze Faction as a spy, both in Heaven and Creation.
Her Bronze beliefs are not as ardent as most believe, but she is genuinely loyal to Chejop Kejak as a person. He's is something of a second father to her; by now, she's spent more time with him than with her birth father. She may not agree with everything he's done, or even everything he plans to do… but she can tell he's opened up to her more than he has in a long time, and she's not going to betray that confidence. (Even when she sees the shadow of the Halta-Linowan War in the feud between factions.)
Not even Isa is sure what Kejak plans for her. If he wanted a successor, she thinks he must be a little disappointed: she's not the leader he is. Maybe in a few hundred years she could make the attempt, but there isn't enough time to groom her properly for that kind of position and they both know it. She suspects he simply wants someone he can trust, someone without any outside loyalties or ulterior motives… and maybe someone who can set his affairs in order after he's gone.
I'm thinking the first TRG was one of the Solars who wasn't really anywhere as bad as some of the others. Give some RP potential if she ever meets Chejop.
Also, will we have to roll to remember the Siddie PC?
__________________
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Revlid
And so it was that Zaeed, Aang, Winry, Ezio, Sadoko and Snow White all set out on their epic journey to destroy The Empire.
If we're noted as being on the same path, we should assume that we can met up, yes? And how far away from the fort are we?
Also, with your setup, are you implying that the Cleansing is on the Eastern Route somewhere, or is it elsewhere?
__________________
He fears his fate too much, and his reward is small, who will not put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.
-James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
Satomi by Elagune
Skandi is west of the fort heading east with a messenger, and Aya and yourself are heading west from the east. Penumbra is hidden near one of the routes (her choice). Both of you are nearly at the gates (a few minutes walk away)/
And the Cleansing is roughly a quarter mile northwards.
I ship you/Anyone./Infernal Gardevoir from outside the playground, by Recaiden//ExtendedSig
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thanqol
It's not normal, of course, and what's actually happening in Comet Kicker's brain is that she's using regular murder as therapy for worse murder. There's a breakdown in the works and all it needs is one good, hard kick.
__________________
He fears his fate too much, and his reward is small, who will not put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.
-James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
Satomi by Elagune
Tavar, if you could get your sheet filled out soon, I would be very appreciative.
Anyone who wants to react by saying something to someone, please roll Join Debate so I know what order everything is happening. If Skandi ends up going first, then most of your remarks will end up being drowned by the outcry.
Aelymar: One die stunt.
Wyld Hunt Group and Penumbra: Perception + Awareness, difficulty 3 to hear someone shouting. Difficulty 4 to hear Skandi's cry. The NPCs are too far away to hear, since you two decided to go scouting.
Ragara Soras Maren is the daughter of a minor branch of House Ragara, out. Her bloodline isn't strong; her grandfather was the offspring of Ragara patricians who manifested Pasiap's blessing unexpectedly. None of his children have Exalted, which is perhaps to be expected but nonetheless a little embarrassing. Maren is still young enough that she might conceivably Exalt, and word has it that her father called in several favors to have her sent with the Cleansing in the hope that the Dragons will bestow their blessing. It's not likely, though; Maren is awfully close to 20, and you can practically count the number of Dragon-Blooded who receive the Dragons' blessings after that age on one hand.
Conveniently, she was brought up in the Threshold, thus explaining why so few people can remember meeting her. She's more than a little in awe of the Dragon-Blooded she's traveling with... though a keen watcher might notice that she's more at home setting up a camp than most of them.
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Avatar by Kasanip; see her sketchbook here!
Sorry, I'll work on getting all the calculations done tonight.
Also, opps, didn't realize this was going into social combat.
__________________
He fears his fate too much, and his reward is small, who will not put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.
-James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
Satomi by Elagune
It really isn't social combat unless people want it to be. I'm just using Join Debate so that I don't have people getting their questions answered during a riot, and so that when people make big movements, more inconveniently timed posters aren't penalized.
But hey, if you want to try to counter Skandi's statement, sure, it's social combat.
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The Return of the Scarlet Empress OOC
by Recaiden//
