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Mors Rattus posted:Explicitly no. That entire book was unhappened. Well, the whole "Scarlet Empress and Ebon Dragon" pairing was hinted at as far back as the original Dragon-Blooded splatbook (and, well, Kindred of the East), so it wasn't anything new to 2nd edition or Return of the Scarlet Empress. Mind, that book was a mess on a number of levels, but that plot thread was essentially always a part of the game through both 1st and 2nd editions. I don't recall if it was ever actually spelled out but she basically had clearly used some dark rite or power to activate the Creation Defense Grid (especially since she went in with allies and was the only one to emerge) and eventually whatever price she had to pay for that came due.
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May 16, 2019 20:23
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kommy5 posted:Maybe this is elsewhere, but... what is the plan for after the Realm? This ageless conspiracy has a desired end state for the people there, right? There are different views and factions within the Silver Pact, but for the most part the impression I got was that the most likely "good" outcome involves the Realm fragmenting and the Lunars taking over the Threshold then moving in and taking apart the Blessed Isle once the dust settles. Replace Terrestrial rule with Lunar rule piece by piece
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May 16, 2019 20:27
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kommy5 posted:Maybe this is elsewhere, but... what is the plan for after the Realm? This ageless conspiracy has a desired end state for the people there, right? They'll figure it out after they conquer all of Creation.
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May 16, 2019 20:28
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“What we do next” is what Raksi and Ma-Ha-Suchi fought over, and there’s a few ideas being tossed around but until the Empress vanished, everyone thought they had several centuries to figure out the details.
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May 16, 2019 20:31
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One idea advanced in 2E was that the Lunars will replace the Realm with... no Realm. There won't be a single central hegemon any more, whose rise and fall influences the fate of the whole world. There will instead be a range of independent polities who will cooperate on some things and not cooperate on others and who will rise and fall and be replaced over time.
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May 16, 2019 21:58
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Mors Rattus posted:In first edition, Raksi was a monstrous Lunar elder who led a nation of ape-people in pursuit of Solar Sorcery, which she could never get. Does she still want to be like you~ou?
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May 17, 2019 00:26
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LatwPIAT posted:Does she still want to be like you~ou? If she does, run.
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May 17, 2019 00:49
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In 2E the Lunars had the idea of the Thousand-Streams River. The goal was that they wanted himan society to be strong enough to defend themselves against Raksha etc without needing exalts to do it. But rather than the uniform "civilization = weakness" from 1E, every lunar has a different idea of what 'strength' means. So many of them set up/influence their own little societies, without interfering with each other, then pull back and see what happens to their nascent civilization. If it thrives, good. It was strong. If it crashes and burns well we learnt something and hopefully refugees will carry the good parts of it with them when they scatter. Rinse and repeat.
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May 17, 2019 01:40
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Thesaurasaurus posted:If she does, run. Luckily it is a lot easier for Lunars to get shapes without killing the target in this edition. Also a lot easier to do sacred hunts. No more stalking a mouse for six hours.
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May 17, 2019 04:10
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Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Warning! The two power sources in this game are named P.P.E. and I.S.P. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Violence, War, Magic & the Supernatural Somehow, I haven't made fun of this very much. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:The fictional World of Rifts® is violent, deadly and filled with supernatural monsters. Other-dimensional beings often referred to as "demons," torment, stalk and prey on humans. Other alien life forms, monsters, gods and demigods, as well as magic, insanity, and war are all elements in this book. So, let's make up for lost time: the power sources are: Pee-Pee-ee and Ay es Pee. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Some parents may find the violence, magic and supernatural elements of the game inappropriate for young readers/players. We suggest parental discretion. Also consider that, though previous books have had mention of outhouses, there's no such mention in the Coalition War books. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Please note that none of us at Palladium Books® condone or encourage the occult, the practice of magic, the use of drugs, or violence. I guess what I'm saying is there's a reason the folks don't pee in Tolkeen. There's a reason the folks don't pee.  Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge part 1, "Ain't like killin' a yuman child." No introduction in this book, it goes right into the fiction.  Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Dedication  The notion of Dog Boys being psychically "leashed" would make a lot more sense. We get an "uncensored video letter" from Sgt. Deon Canton, in which he drunkenly explains to his wife that it's okay to kill civilians and children in Tolkeen because they're monsters in a painful phoenetic weepy-drunk accent. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Half of em' eat da sholdiers dey kill. Jush rip 'em up, like a cat does a drat bird. And god ... oh god, help those who git demshelf captured! God, Baby, I seen whad's left of our boys who git captured. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:If dat means blashing an entire town, sho be it. Murder chil'ens. Dem D-Bee kids ain't yuman. Dey jush baby monshers thaz all. Monshers dat hate us. If dey grow up weez be fightin' dem next. Da horror would jush continue. Sho 'sterminate dem now. Ain't like killin' a yuman child. 'Sides wadda you do win ya sheen kids, I mean little Chil'ren ... five, shix yearz ol' turn out ta be a friggin' monsher or magically 'guised mage or shumthin' worst. Better ta shoot it down. I... I ain't proudda whash we gotsha do haf duh time, but it's neshessary to shurvive ... ta win. Somebody hazta die. It's war. We also get a report to General Drogue from Ike Flint (both from the previous book, Coalition Wars 2: Coalition Overkil) who tries to warn the General that something bad is coming from Tolkeen, though it's largely just a gut feeling. However, a Colonel McDaniels has it wiped before it ever reaches Drogue. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:"... The Coalition Army operates on fact and science not gut feelings, superstitious hunches and odors carried on the wind..."  "About friggin' time we got some cool art." Tolkeen's Heroes We get told that the forces of Tolkeen are getting a second wind in terms of hope, and are willing to engage in any war crime in the feeling that it'll lead to an end to this. But enough of that! Instead, we get New D-Bees. Only one of these, the Auto-G, will be relevant later, but we've got a book to fill, so let's dump in some filler on early!  This looks neat, but I'm not sure it sells "shapeshifter" in any sense. The Auto-Gs are rare shapeshifters who claim to originate on Earth, and are powerful enough to literally imitate a humanoid race or individual down to their biometrics, DNA, P.P.E. levels, and psychic aura, if not the mind, memories, or bionics / tattoos / scars of anybody they duplicate. Mind-readers might be able to suss them out, but Dog Boys and Psi-Stalkers won't notice them (any more than they'd notice the individual being duplicated). Most people have never heard of them, and those that do largely consider them to be mythical. Chi-Town was the first to discover them, and is terrified of their existence- though such knowledge is highly top secret. The Coalition can detect them by running a test for an enzyme Auto-Gs can't hide, but generally believes the Auto-Gs to have been destroyed in purges a century ago. Most believe that they're human mutants like Psi-Stalkers. Some think they were created, either by pre-cataclysm science or by the Gene-Splicers. However, they're not known to exist in other dimensions, pointing them to most likely not being true D-Bees. However, a recent attempt on Emperor Prosek's life discovered an Auto-G as one of the attempted assassins when running an analysis on their corpses, who apparently intended to copy and replace one of the Proseks. As such, security around the Emperor is now at an all-time high. Most Auto-Gs look like humans, and can only shapechange by eating a genetic sample from the target they seek to duplicate. They can generally only duplicate "mortal" humanoids, though they can copy M.D.C. beings as long as they're not "supernatural beings" or "creatures of magic" - a vague definition, but keeps them from copying dragons, vampires, or the ilk. They can just become a member of the race whose DNA they consume, or copy the specific individual. They also get any specific powers or psionics related to that race, though they can't learn magic. They're smarter, stronger-willed, more healthy, and prettier than humans with no real weaknesses, though they can't become more than 40% bionic without dying (whatever that means), or develop psionic or magic powers (save for psionic powers they duplicate). They get some basic psionics, mainly to mask their powers and block mind-reading, and can take any O.C.C. that doesn't involve cybernetics, magic, or psionics.  "Babylon 5 was cancelled, and so was Deep Space 9, so... only thing left for my bumpy head was RPG supplements." We also have the D'norr, aka Devilmen. No Go Nagai inspiration here, so don't worry about that. They're generally seen by humans as demonic tempters, but truthfully they're more peaceful and benevolent than most Earthlings. Those that get past their appearance discover a generally gentle and scholarly people. Cyber-Knights are generally familiar with them and like them. It's ironic do you get it, they look monstrous but they're not did you get it the first several dozen Rifts pulled this twist, going back to the Zembahk in Rifts World Book 2 and many, many times since, here it is again. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Also known as "melonheads" by the Coalition and "Horned Red Brother" by many Native Americans. Oh, good to know. They're more charming than humans, but slightly less pretty, and get a horror factor "at least until one gets to know one". I'd like to think it'd take more than just some horns and Star Trek bumpy-head to inspire fear in the jaded folk of Earth, but I'm no veteran world-builder. They get some free knowledge of math, art, and anthropology, and can take pretty much any scholar or magical O.C.C., though magic is new to them.  Don't worry, his chin is worse than his bite. Lastly, the Larmac are detailed. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:This D-Bee has appeared in the illustrations of various Rifts® books including the RPG and Psyscape™, but as never been described. Well that ends here. Yep, it's time to take an old D-Bee pic from the core and make it a race!... and to be fair, they do get new art. Largely, they're lazy lizard-looking folk who are actually mammals. They're willing to work hard or take dangerous risks for a "big score", but only if they can be assured that they're earn time to party and relax. To be frank, they feel like a lot of classic racial stereotypes - one wonders how they ever crawled out of their dimension if they're so lacking in ambition or drive. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Also known as "lard butts" and "lazy lards" by the Coalition and others who find them to be worthless, obese miscreants. In any case, they're strong and tough mega-damage humanoids who lack in charm and beauty. They can roll for psionics like humans, but have a reduced chance of them. They can take a variety of classes, mostly from Rifts World Book 14: New West, and their class list is a who's who of non-magical, non-combat garbage classes, from the Vagabond to the Saloon Bum. It's not clear if you have to roll psionics to take a Psychic O.C.C., but... some can. Probably the best non-psionic classes they get access to include the Highway Man, Wilderness Scout, or Trapper-Woodsman. quote:Trapper-Woodsman O.C.C.: I- Many become Psi-Cola addicts (a drug from Rifts World Book 12: Psyscape) in order to get access to psychic powers. They get a nickel penalty on initiative and a penalty against illusions, for those rare times illusions come up. Lastly, there's a weird rules "clarification" that comes up in these race descriptions. One of the unanswered rules questions is if nonhuman attribute scores get the "bonus" attribute die humans get. See, humans roll 3d6 for attributes, and if they roll a 16+ plus, they get to roll and add a 4th die. But what about races that roll 2d6, 4d6, or 2d6+5 for an attribute? Well, some of these races note they get a bonus die - for example, D'norr get a bonus did on Affinity if they roll an 18 or higher on their 2d6+12 score. It's not clear if this is a general rule or only for specific races and attributes - Auto-G get a bonus die if their Mental Endurance of 2d6+8 rolls a 17 or higher, so it's not even a consistent number to hit. Well, it's another Palladium® mystery! Next: The Coalition's Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 07:02 on May 17, 2019 |
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May 17, 2019 04:28
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The dedication was like Coffin died. Although I guess he was dead to Kevin.
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May 17, 2019 04:44
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Probably not just yet, but the pot was definitely starting to boil at this point.
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May 17, 2019 06:58
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Huh. There's a brief passage in... I think it was the core book or Sourcebook One, that includes the phrase 'D-Bees and Auto-G's'. Wonder if KS got tired of people asking what the heck and auto-g was.
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May 17, 2019 12:31
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Fangs at the Gate: How To Fight An Empire The three primary strategies of the Silver Pact in fighting the Realm are attrition, defensive withdrawal and open warfare, in that order. Of course, their approach is decentralized, and different Lunars interpret the Pact’s goals differently, acting independently. This doesn’t disrupt the Pact as a whole, but can definitely gently caress up individual theaters if personality conflicts or ideological arguments get in the way. Further, many Lunars directing local insurgents have no direct hierarchical control over their mortal partisans, who can end up acting independently and causing problems. The Pact does, at least, offer training in how best to handle the advantages of a decentralized approach and cover for its weaknesses. Attrition focuses on the defeat of Realm infrastructure and logistics in the Threshold. The Realm is heavily reliant on these things, and the Pact isn’t. Imperial troops need paved roads for fast movement, supply chains for food and money to pay the troops and maintain the economy. The Dynasty’s strength is also rooted in Dragon-Bloods, who don’t reincarnate the way Lunars do. Attrition therefore takes the form of irregular warfare. Lunars might lead detachments of regular troops, raiding parties, rural partisans, urban rebels or all kinds of spies and assassins. Their focus on speed and stealth lets them target vulnerable points without direct engagement with Realm troops, forcing the enemy to scatter its forces to ward them off. Further, attacking the supports of the legions undermines Realm power. Lunars intercept supply trains, destroy aqueducts or bridges, flood mines, burn down granaries, poison wells, destroy tax records, burn farms, murder Realm loyalists in the satrapies and more. While doing this, they harry the Realm’s troops, draining their resolve and numbers slowly. Losing infrastructure cripples the Realm but has no real impact on the Pact’s capabilities, which shifts the balance in their favor in the region. The guerrilla tactics the Pact favors take advantage of terrain, climate and other advantages that foreign troops are unlikely to be able to use. Mountains, for example, are slow and hard to cross with little food to gather, especially in winter, and even a small force or base can hold a pass or mount an ambush. Forests aren’t much faster, often have dangerous animals and are good for ambushes. Deserts and tundra are hard on supply lines, and extreme temperature can be deadly. Using floods, droughts or scorched-earth tactics can make all this much worse. Of course, such strategies favor marginal victories over decisive blows. The Realm’s sheer number of reserves means that tending to soldiers demands more resources than recruiting new ones, and completely cutting off transport and resupply along one route may compel the Realm to clear the place out in force or shift to a longer but safer route.. Small victories, on the other hand, mean that the Realm tends to think they can handle what’s going on, letting the Pact bleed them indefinitely. The Pact doesn’t want to beat the Realm outright, most of the time, but rather increase their expenses. The higher the cost of imperialism, the more the Realm must force from its subjects, and the more rebellions it causes. The Realm does understand how guerrilla warfare works; they’re not stupid. No amount of preparation, however, can really prepare a soldier for the realities of it. Even the best-trained legions, when dealing with partisans and rebels, tend to see enemies hiding behind every civilian face. In war, especially with Lunars sabotaging the logistics, the legions and auxiliaries both have to support their supply trains by foraging. In civilized areas, this usually means pillaging, stealing from the cities and villages – not just food, but wealth. These and other abuses earn the locals’ hatred, making them an excellent Lunar recruiting tool. Morale and public opinion also get affected by Lunar successes. When Pact-backed insurgents see actual progress and intermittent success, they inspire dissent and embolden others, raising morale for rebels throughout the Threshold, even those without Lunar ties. The Imperial legions tend to be fairly disciplined in dealing with civilians and less prone to abuses. It’s the auxiliaries that are the real problem for the Realm there. Many are casually violent even towards their own people, ready to steal at a moment’s notice. Foreigners? They’re even easier to take from. While legion officers take their share of plunder, the wealth of the Dynasty and patrician families means that few of them bother to take all of the paltry wealth they run into. Why bother? Leaders of the auxiliary troops, on the other hand, tend to see pillaging as a privilege of rank and a necessity to pay their satrapy taxes towards the Realm’s tribute demands. Lunars don’t particularly care that Imperial auxiliaries are satrapy troops rather than directly Imperial – it’s still the Realm’s fault, just at one remove. Besides strategy and training rebels, Lunars also get involves in combat directly. Their particular talents often excel in guerrilla warfare, and it isn’t rare for a shahan-ya to personally involve themselves, or at least ask groups of younger Lunars to do so on their behalf. War leaders might lead their forces through hundreds of miles of enemy territory to strike at a vulnerable target, miraculously avoiding the foe or tearing them apart personally. Rebel Lunars infiltrate satrapies to rouse riots and rebels, and witches can divine the secrets of Realm generals and princes, exploiting that knowledge to undermine them. Shapeshifting, of course, is the most distinctive Lunar tool here. One might turn into a tyrant lizard to rampage through a battalion or sink ships as a kraken, while another infiltrates the enemy as a mouse or spider, or turn into a personal chef to poison a meal or a guard to open a gate. Even the Dragon-Bloods themselves aren’t entirely safe in their palaces, nor the Sidereals in the Heavenly City. Shapeshifting has psychological power as well – when every animal or person could be a Lunar, who can be trusted? Faced with this uncertainty, morale dwindles and wealth flees. (Note, however, that Dragon-Bloods at least have their Sworn Kin to rely on, as it’s fairly easy for them to sense if an imposter is an imposter via direction checking, and also they can tell when their Kin get killed.) Mystic power is no less valuable. Spirits can be influenced or called on for spying or combat, and sorcery can lay terrible curses, scry on things, transport forces, ruin crops and cause all kinds of issues if you don’t much care about the consequences to infrastructure. However, the Lunars are not unopposed in this. Dragon-Bloods may be weaker individually, but they must never be underestimated – they are heroes as well. Sidereals, while busy with their own strange concerns, can also see through many Lunar tricks with relative ease and have many of their own. Even mortals can minimize the threat of Lunar infiltration if they’re clever. Rulers and Guild factors with specific reasons to fear Lunars often house their guards communally, surround themselves with pets trained to hunt vermin or hire mystics of their own to ward off sorcerous assault. Signs of potential Lunar activity, such as someone acting out of character or vanishing without trace, will cause alarms among those with reason to be wary. Sidebar: the addition of magic means real-world tactics aren’t always the only thing to focus on. Exalts aren’t the only magic-users out there, either. Mortal sorcerers, thaumaturgists and god-bloods may not be as powerful, but they can be significant allies or problems for strategy and tactics. Spirits are also sufficiently present in conflicts to care about. Even minor gods will have powers, including the ability to spy while invisible and immaterial. Ghosts, while usually less powerful, are even more knowledgeable about mortal ways, especially their own cultures. Artifacts, manses and hearthstones can be seen as valuable infrastructure in their own right, as they might increase fertility, speed travel, cure disease or more. These make tempting targets for Lunar sabotage or theft, as a result. Creation also has strange, ancient sorceries lying around and the mysterious, unique behemoths that wander the land, plus First Age ruins and weird beings from outside the world, any of which could be dangerous – or useful. The Pact has an edge over the Realm here in finding and learning about these things, which means they more often have the chance to exploit them or turn them into traps for the Dragon-Bloods. Approach two is defensive withdrawal. Lunars that practice this focus on strengthening and protecting their own dominions, rather than trying to grind down the Realm directly. Many do so out of personal reasons, such as protecting their kin or birth culture. This still serves a strategic purpose against the Realm. A fortified dominion is an obstacle to Realm expansion, after all. Defenses might not even be military – isolation, mobility or sorcerous protection are all useful – but usually these domains rely at least in part on force of arms. They might maintain a regular military and fortifications to repel Realm legions, and the power of a Lunar protector often enriches such dominions to the point where these standing forces are quite professional. They also benefit from irregular warfare. Scouts and raiders can spot invaders far before they arrive, harrying them en route to weaken them, while spies and saboteurs interfere with Realm agents and camps nearby. Assassins kill nearby Realm allies, weakening their threat. Defensive withdrawal, however, is often a temporary role for Lunars. They might initially focus on sheltering their dominions not for their own sake but to develop a strong military in (relative) safety. Once their martial potential is achieved, they can then direct it to a more aggressive stance. With the vanishing of the Empress, many dominions, such as the Empire of the Bear, have been putting such offensives into practice. The final approach, open war, is the rarest. Some Lunars are not satisfied with slow attrition. They don’t want to bleed the Realm – they want to break it now. Some are angry and impatient, others unwilling to see the Threshold suffer longer. With the Empress gone, the timetables are shifting, and open war is seen by some as the logical move. Open warfare, however, requires a very different approach. Lunars using this strategy, like the Realm, need forces capable of large-scale engagement. This means not just professional soldiers, but possibly conscripts, militia or feudal levies, plus training and logistics. Armies need steady food and pay, plus equipment. Not all Lunar dominions can assemble a force to match even satrapial garrisons or auxiliaries, let alone the legions. Training a professional army and sustaining it in the field is extremely expensive, and few nations can afford it without pursuing imperial conquest themselves. These armies must also approach war the way the Realm does – construction forts, seizing land and cities, making bridges and roads and controlling strategic locations. They have to hold territory. Historically, this approach has not played at all to Lunar advantages when dealing with the overwhelming force of the Imperial legions and their dozens of Dragon-Blooded champions except in remote regions far from the Blessed Isle, such as the Caul. Now, however, the Empress is gone, not wielding the legions like an invincible blade. The Great Houses squabble over what remains of them. With their forces withdrawing to the Isle, a dominion’s armies can muster without nearly as much fear of retaliation. Without that immediate fear, they can also forge open alliance with neighbors. Regular warfare need not be a conflicting strategy with irregular warfare – they are complementary, and even dominions focused on largescale war will deploy irregular forces. Hell, even the Realm does on occasion. Likewise, Lunars focused on attrition might use regular military forces to distract their foes from pursuing the partisans. So…what’s the endgame? Each shahan-ya and their school has their own vision of the future of Creation, free of the Realm. Some want to rebuild the Old Realm’s glories under a Lunar Deliberative. Some seek a world free of all empires and tyrants. Many wish to exterminate the entire bloodline of the Scarlet Empress in vicious pogroms, while others think the Dragon-Bloods can be redeemed as soldiers of the Pact. So far, the Pact has focused on the destruction of the Realm and put off debate about what comes next. For most of its history, the destruction of the Dragon-Blooded hegemony has been a distant enough thing that it made no sense to get into internal fights over what happens after. Now, though, many Lunars think it’s time to finally determine what it’ll be…and that’s likely to cause some conflicts. Next time: The shahan-yas
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May 17, 2019 13:55
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Warhammer Fantasy: Paths of the Damned Part 2: Spires of Altdorf Finally, the good villain So this adventure has kind of sucked so far. Wolfgang was serviceable but not great. The main plot was a boring dating sim. Brute Squad has not been paid, and Katiya is enjoying pointing that out to Liniel and noting that this seems to happen every time they 'network'. Because the next section can be set any time in the adventure, and because I've already distributed the 900 EXP they've earned so far, we'll be saying the sections with Carlott the surviving thug cultist's increasingly ridiculous attempts to kill the heroes happen after they've already destroyed Wolfgang and the Dagger and are hanging around trying to figure out who they can get to foot the bill. Besides, Frederick has told them he has something for them but needs a couple weeks for it, and they hope it's money. The bits with Carlott trying to kill your PCs are legitimately the best part of the adventure. For one, Carlott is a unique character with a good hook. It's fun to see an evil cultist with a ton of money and a powerful magical treasure (the coin that makes sure other Chaos people will hear her out) who has no goddamn idea how to use them. Her attempts range from the laughable to very serious threats, and she's a good mixture of incompetent comic relief while reminding you that an idiot with a shotgun is still dangerous so to speak. Also, generally, Chart is best at the humorous part of Warhammer, and Carlott is allowed to just be funny. We're going to get hardened action movie sniper with a crossbow. We're going to have the littlest Khornate who believed in himself. There's a mirror match with a leveled up party of mutant adventurers! You can fight a guy's flesh and skeleton separately! This is the actually fun part of the adventure. Things kick off while the party is off getting drunk and staying away from Frederick. They're staying at his estate because hey, it's free room and board, but they still kind of find him annoying and they've had more than enough of Altdorf's 'high society'. They did have to drag Liniel away from the elven embassies and her desire to Be Elf for awhile (Something not mechanically supported until 4e, sadly), but once they get a couple beers in her she's carousing like the rest of them. As they're out drinking, a little boy scampers up to their table and asks if they're 'the Brute Squad'. A big lady paid him a whole crown to deliver a letter, and he's really excited about that. Someone who throws a crown at a delivery boy has money, and Brute Squad would like to be hired by people with money, so they accept the letter and open it. Out pops the best Khornate demon ever. The Letter Demon is a sad little monster, who isn't intended to be a real challenge for the heroes. But his backstory is great! He's a three foot, tentacled Khornate squire. His job back at the great brass and iron fortresses of the dark lord is polishing better Khornate's weapons. Carlott was able to get his help easily by telling him she believed in him and that he could totally kill the PCs, and he's so excited to actually fight something instead of taking care of weapons all day! He's...he's not very good at fighting (WS 33, SB 4, TB 3, 12 Wounds, 1 Attack). Most of the party is surprised enough to be afraid for a moment, though, and he's really excited about that! He starts a speech about how he'll challenge their greatest champion and can't help but chatter excitedly about how happy he is to be here before Otto yells and stabs him in the head. And nearly puts him down in one blow. He does actually manage to hit Otto back, and we'll say Otto isn't in full armor because hey, they're out drinking, so he even inflicts 3 Wounds! He's drawn blood, for the first time in his life! You go, little Letter Demon. Dream big. He gets completely curbstomped by the Imperial duelist in round 2 as everyone else recovers, but dangit, he tried. The Letter Demon is obviously meant to be an easy opponent to warn you someone is trying to kill you. The whole tavern is in an uproar, with people trying to protect their beer or their friends or running for the door, but they shortly notice the heroes have already killed the demon and are detaining the little boy who delivered the letter to ask a couple more questions. He has no idea what the heck happened, and the letter itself just bears the mark of the Crimson Skull cult. So, they know it's a survivor from Middenheim. They let the boy go before he ends up in trouble with the Hunters and the innkeeper approaches, asking if he can buy Otto's sword for triple the going rate. Otto shrugs and sells it to him, reasoning he can use the money to buy a proper fencing rapier. If you sell a weapon 'used to kill a demon' to the innkeeper, he makes the tale of the time Adventurers fought back a demon in his tavern a big part of his advertising. The number of demons and the heroism of the Adventurers grows every year, until a couple years later Brute Squad will come through and hear excited stories from regulars about how Adventurers and patrons sealed a portal to the Chaos Wastes in this very bar and saved the whole city. I really like this little encounter because as mechanically simple as it is, it's A: Good form to warn the players they have a mysterious Khornate cultist out to kill them and B: It's a fun way to do it. Little details like the innkeeper trying to make an advertisement out of the battle are the kind of thing that make Warhammer fun. Warhammer has always been partly a comedy setting, much as I've played and run a lot of dramatic adventures in it. This is the same setting where it logically followed that my apprentice Witch Hunter PC had to debate a magical witch's familiar cat on existentialism for an hour to distract him enough to get Monsieur Fluffles to the wizard vet without getting his face clawed off. This is the setting that has squigs, for God's sake. The most excited little Khornate Intern getting crubstomped and turned into a tourist attraction is a great example of how Hams can be really funny while still being in-character for the setting and not throwing itself off. Leaving the bar, now with an unarmed Otto, the party is then jumped by 6 lads with clubs for attempt number 2. The Per test not to be surprised is -10, but Pierre has entered Verenan Investigator and picked up Keen Senses. Using his clever french detective powers, he deduces that the demon must have been a distraction and not a serious attempt on their lives, and there must be a second group. Again, we'll assume everyone is only in Light armor of some kind because they were out drinking, not out fighting, and wearing chainmail and plate everywhere is heavy as gently caress and kind of rude for the city. Unsurprised, they now face 6 extremely outmatched basic thugs, none of whom want to die. Otto slips on his knuckle dusters and shows off what Street Fighter does. He also actually uses Strike to Stun, punching two of the assailants with his suddenly effectively 76% WS. He has to use a little Fortune to hit the 65% Str checks (Pummeling, 55% Str), but he knocks two of the six men out in round one with Stun. Solveig, not wanting to be outdone, does the same and similarly manages to Strike to Stun a third thug with her bare hands. Given the thugs are supposed to flee the second they're losing, and seemingly unarmed people just beat the poo poo out of three of them in less than ten seconds before they could attack, and the others are drawing swords and guns, the thugs flee or surrender at that point. Like a lot of the criminals in this adventure, they don't want to die (and they were paid in advance, with a huge bonus if they brought the PCs' heads) and are pretty miffed about being pointed at apparently expert badasses. So they tell the PCs everything about who hired them. The description matches the description from the messenger boy. They also get the name of the bar the Protagonists were hired at: The Three Beards. With nobody dead or really seriously injured once the three recover, the Brute Squad sends the men on their way. No harm, no foul. If you turn them over to the Watch, they get flogged publicly and then released. But the night isn't done yet. Because up above, a hard man with a five o'clock shadow, a dramatic backstory, and a crossbow is tracking the heroes after their fight with disposable action movie mooks. This is Adelbert Greft, a hardened killer and professional crossbow sniper hired by Carlott. You only spot him with a -30 Perception check 'if the players are, for some reason, looking for a sniper', so he's going to get off his first shot. He's actually pretty terrible at everything but shooting, but his entire thing is shooting, so you know. The interesting thing with Adelbert comes if the PCs capture him. His first shot hits the 'least armored' character, so we'll say he goes for Solveig, trying to hit her unarmored head but missing and hitting her in the back for 6 Wounds. She winces, the party turns, and Pierre easily makes the now Per+0 test to spot the sniper. Liniel draws her bow and yells 'SUPPRESSING FIRE!' in Eltharin, so the others assume it's some kind of cool elven battle cry except for Pierre, who understands her. She also shoots Adelbert twice, despite his cover and range, rolling 02 on d100 twice. Doing 12 Wounds. Realizing he's picked the wrong target, he tries to flee the second story building he's in, but remember: Katiya is extremely fast in a foot chase. Players still have to make Agility tests to chase him through the crowd, and Adelbert has to do the same. After a fairly long chase, he stumbles and smashes through a cart full of cabbages and the heroes corner him. Now, Adelbert is just a hired gun (crossbow), and if he's turned over to the Watch as an assassin, he hangs. But the party has noticed something thanks to their brilliant Bretonnian archeology detective: These thugs and servants don't seem to realize they have anything to do with Chaos. He can tell them where he was supposed to meet his employer, how much he was paid (10 gc, 2 gc per dead PC; kind of cheap for the level of trouble he was walking into) and generally tries to claim it was all just business. He knows nothing about any cult stuff. Until Pierre shows him the letter and cult mark and explains. Adelbert, you see, hates Chaos. A lot. His father was killed by a Beastman and he originally got into sniping to get revenge. He believes the PCs immediately if they have any evidence, after all. He tells them he's going to get revenge on his evil employer, because an action movie character hired by a wicked employer always does. They decide to send the assassin back at Carlott while they resolve to hunt her down themselves. If this happens, Adelbert becomes a GM's resource. He won't just find and kill Carlott for the PCs without their input, but at GM's option he can show up at the final battle with her, or future battles with her minions, provide a single, highly accurate crossbow shot from the shadows, and then fade away mysteriously, probably while monologuing. This is another fun touch to this part of the adventure: Almost everyone from the criminal underworld Carlott works with turns on her immediately if they find out she's a Chaos Cultist, because they aren't idiots and gently caress Chaos. Similarly, the various thugs and hirelings being willing to talk because they're just here for the money and Carlott's an out of towner anyway is a nice touch that gives the PCs some clues. Next Time: It Gets Weird
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May 17, 2019 14:48
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Fangs at the Gate: First Among Equals The shahan-yas are the leaders and great philosophers of the Pact, each followed by students that support them at councils. They may be old or young, friendly or not, but each has earned the respect of many peers. Together, they speak for and guide the Silver Pact. The game has no exhaustive list of them, but rather gives a bunch of examples to inspire the GM on using shahan-yas, whether the ones as written or new ones they come up with themselves. Ma-Ha-Suchi, in the First Age, was an honored champion of the Old Realm, beloved by Solar kings and peasants alike for his honor. The Usurpation destroyed all place for honor and respect, however, and Ma-Ha-Suchi has largely moved on from his ancient past. With the Solars gone, he saw the Lunars as the only legitimate inheritors of the Old Realm, and he fought the Shogunate to reclaim that throne. In his day, he led immense armies of beastfolk against the Shogunate, seduced generals, tore down ancient First remnants to deny them to the usurpers and made alliances with Lunars and mortal nations alike to spread terror through the Dragon-Blooded host. Once the Shogunate was destroyed, he believed, the Pact could raise a new Lunar Realm to rule all Creation. However, the centuries have left Ma-Ha-Suchi weary. His powerlessness in the face of the Contagion and the Fair Folk invasion broke his confidence, making him question himself for the first time. The rise of the Realm from the Shogunate’s ashes only made it worse. Even after all he had done, all the Pact had done, and the arrival of two apocalypses, the Dragon-Bloods still sat on the throne of the world. Despite his failing confidence, he fought the Realm still, raising armies from the devastated Threshold to hurl against the Blessed Isle. This ended after his best friend Raksi, the Queen of Fangs, and many of their mutual allies rejected his ideal of a Lunar Realm, which started a feud that nearly destroyed the Pact. Ma-Ha-Suchi fell into despair, withdrawing to the Nameless Lair to avoid dealing with others. He still opposes the Realm’s expansion, but he is far from the fiery general of his youth. On the other hand, the Empress has vanished and the Solars, impossibly, return. Ma-Ha-Suchi’s long seclusion is finally ending. He wonders now what other impossibilities may come in this time of chaos, and once more he has begun to raise his great armies of beastfolk and started to reach out to the Pact. He will strike when the time is right, when the Realm’s grip weakens. Even now, he calls his students and their allies to muster their forces, that they might reclaim the East and pave the way for the Lunar Realm. Ma-Ha-Suchi rarely speaks of or with other Pact members, preferring to send his trusted followers to councils in his stead. Only in the most critical or personal circumstances stir him from the Nameless Lair, such as opposition to a Realm invasion within his territory or the death of a fellow First Age elder. He and Raksi have not spoken to each other for some time. While she was once his closest ally and friend, her rejection of his dream of a Lunar Realm and the conflict that came of it remains a raw wound between them. Despite their geographic proximity, Ma-Ha-Suchi avoids her as much as possible, even at major councils where both feel they must attend. He extends this scorn to her followers and allied shahan-yas, too. Despite his isolation, he is friendly towards a small handful of Lunars outside his own school. Former students who have moved on to other shahan-yas remain welcome unless they’ve sided with Raksi. He also maintains a few old friendships – the assassin Shadow-Rending Razor comes by to visit every few years to reminisce under the mask of discussing Pact business, and Ma-Ha-Suchi maintains a lively written correspondence with Tanisa Ring-Eater, frequently referencing late First Age poets from the Dreaming Sea. Ma-Ha-Suchi also maintains contact with the Shadow Fang Vanguard and has attended a few of their councils over the past few centuries. His desire for a unified Lunar Realm aligns him more with them than many of his Pact peers, and they’re more open to his vision than they are the rest of the Pact, though their leader, Tayan Silver-Crowned, doesn’t trust Ma-Ha-Suchi because she sees him as a possible challenge to her authority. The Vanguard reject the Pact’s non-hierarchical nature, believing in firm central authority. They split off from the Pact centuries ago. They have only a few Lunars, most in the deep Northeast near the ruling autarch Tayan, who is advised by the First Age elder Feather Drenched in the Blood of the Fallen. They believe they will soon have new recruits, as they feel their message resonates all the more now. Their relations with most of the Pact are complex – they share the same goals, and many Pact members see them as part of the Pact still. More than a few Vanguard members attend Pact gatherings and are welcomed, and while they tend to be less friendly towards Pact members, they don’t usually turn them away. The big point of conflict is recruitment, with Vanguard and Pact Lunars occasionally fighting over who gets to recruit a young Lunar, either verbally or with blows. Both groups censure these feuds when they escalate, though, or drive the new blood away from both groups. Ma-Ha-Suchi gives visitors to his Nameless Lair little direct attention. His beastfolk lieutenants or Lunar students offer hospitality and report to him any favors the visitors request. If he is feeling gracious, he’ll tell them to do it for him. Only rarely is he interested enough to actually meet someone personally. Occasionally, his dark moods or indecision make him wait days or even weeks before he can muster up a response to a guest, and he’s also been known to snub visitors with associations to Raksi or other people he dislikes, leaving them indefinitely without answers. When he went into seclusion, Ma-Ha-Suchi stopped recruiting students. He has rarely accepted them when they came to him, and only those recommended by more like-minded shahan-yas or his former students were taken in, with no active efforts to court any political support. Only recently has he changed in this, as his agenda now seems possible again, but will need many more followers to achieve. He has a lot to offer – he knows tons about warfare and offers a chance to lead beastfolk armies against the Realm. He knows social engineering and intrigue as well. He treats his students brusquely, though he’s not nasty or cruel – he just rarely shows emotion and has little interest in personal connections. His dream of a unified Lunar Realm means he needs Lunars that can work together in a more structured hierarchy than the Silver Pact. He believes it is of utmost importance that his charges learn to cooperate under difficult circumstances, so he often assembles them into Circles and tests their teamwork by giving them overlapping authority or rearranging leadership at a whim. He sees no particular need to explain himself when he does this, and his responses to success and failure can be unpredictable based on his mood. Despite his taciturn manner, however, he still has several backers in the Pact that have no personal ties to him. His opinions are well known, even if he rarely speaks of them these days. Eastern Pact members that favor a Lunar Realm back him in council for the most part, even on unrelated issues, and he even has folks advocating his views as far away as the Caul. Some followers of note! Kathaka is a passionate, driven bully who heard about Ma-Ha-Suchi through stories of his past heroism. She was disappointed when she met him personally in the Nameless Lair, but she believes she can bring back the old legend. She is a tall, powerful woman with fists that hold the power of horse’s hooves. She has pledged herself to Ma-Ha-Suchi, and she thinks of herself as something like his daughter. She spends little time in the Nameless Lair, instead focusing on fighting the Realm on many fronts, but she always brags when she comes back, hoping to win her shahan-ya’s praise. Ma-Ha-Suchi feels mild affection towards her but thinks she’s a child following him more out of hero worship than actual belief in his cause. He sets her Circle tasks that will challenge not only her skills but her ethics, as he worries she will prove unreliable when he really needs her. Ranotis na-Raya was the son of a rich Guild factor who Exalted when fighting to free himself from bandit kidnappers. He returned home with countless stolen faces, quickly becoming his father’s greatest ally. He met Ma-Ha-Suchi ten years ago while trying to establish a trade route, and he essentially fell in love with the guy, giving up business to study under him. Ranotis constantly jokes with his shahan-ya, though he’s earned only a few laughs over the years. He believes Ma-Ha-Suchi conceals a warm, sensitive soul under the aloof exterior which he hopes in vain to reach. The old Lunar sees the youth as the inverse of Kathaka – a man who has no interest in Pact politics but naturally inclined towards building a Lunar Realm. He teaches Ranotis intrigue and subterfuge while trying, subtly, to turn him against his father and the Guild to ensure his mortal ties don’t make him undependable. Anja Silverclaws does not care about Ma-Ha-Suchi or his cause, but she’s willing to support him at councils to get what she actually does want. She’s a Thorns expat, dedicated to fighting Mask of Winters and his pet regime, and she sees Ma-Ha-Suchi as a potential asset in that fight. She doubts he’d lead forces directly against Thorns, but she urges him to pressure other nations in the region that trade with them by using beastfolk raids and diplomacy to oppose the Deathlord. In exchange, she backs him politically, occasionally teaches his students and reports everything she learns about Mask of Winters. Ma-Ha-Suchi does have some interest in the Thorns situation, but for him, Mask of Winters is a lower priority than the disappearance of the Empress or the returning Solars. He considers her fixation on Thorns a distraction from the Pact’s true goal, and were it not for her lack of interest in establishing a personal relationship and her wisdom in not asking him to solve her problems for her outright, he probably wouldn’t consider helping her at all. Next time: Raksi, the Queen of Fangs
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May 17, 2019 15:03
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Fangs at the Gate: APE LAW Raksi is based out of Mahalanka, built on the ruins of the First Age libraries of Sperimin. She is their monster-goddess, a scholar with few peers in this fallen age. She can usually be found researching lost lore in the ruins or holding decadent court before her Lunar followers and apefolk warriors, devouring raw flesh and potent drugs. She is the Queen of Fangs, genteel and violent in equal measure, beautiful and terrible. It is never clear how much is her true self and how much is an affectation to gently caress with people, and she wields that inclarity as a weapon in Pact politics and her dealings with other Exalts. With her allies, though, she is not all that much more open. Only her closest confidantes know how much of her depravity and cruelty is an act. Even her greatest foes in the Pact, however, must admit that Mahalanka has prospered under her guidance and her sorcerous might. She is worshipped as a goddess by those nations that dwell in what she has termed her Thousand Fangs Army Total Control Zone, and she rewards her worshippers with miracles. In the First Age, Raksi was a skilled but not celebrated occultist and philosopher that studied the nature of Essence and the soul. The Usurpation is what forged her into the Queen of Fangs, pushing her to embrace the monstrosity she has become. She won great respect in early Pact for the crucial role she played both in reshaping the Lunar Castes and in the creation of the moonsilver tattoos, alongside a number of other mystics and crafters. She also won acclaim for the terrifying power she brought to bear against the Shogunate, creating sorcerous abominations and reclaiming monstrous things buried since the dawn of time to send at them as well as calling down hundreds of curses from the pages of the Book of Three Circles, a great repository of sorcerous lore. She regrets nothing of what she has become and does not ever wonder what might have been, had she chosen otherwise. She loves being Raksi. Despite her age and power, Raksi’s actual influence in the Pact is limited. After her feud with Ma-Ha-Suchi, she withdrew from politics for the most part and turned away from personal attacks on the Realm to refocus on rulership of her dominion and arcane studies. In the long term, she wants to replace the Realm with a countless array of Lunar dominions spread patchwork across Creation, each ruled by an independent Lunar autarch beholden to none. Despite her seclusion, she is still renowned as a terror and monster-queen that unnerves other Lunars even though her loyalty to the Pact is unquestionable. She prefers this, as she believes soft-heared and idealistic Lunars must be forced to confront the atrocities that are required to destroy the Realm if they are to serve the cause properly. If she has to be the one to throw them into the deep end of horror, so be it. Raksi expects any Pact Lunar passing through the Total Control Zone to visit her in Mahalanka, where she greets them with decadent pleasures, sorcerous teachings and monsters. Her most gruesome displays are reserved for rival shahan-yas and their followers, ranging from vivisection of Dragon-Blooded prisoners of war to the service of live infants on platters for their honor to bloodsport between her apefolk champions and enslaved demons. It’s not just out of sadism, either – unnerving or pissing off her political foes distracts them from pursuing their goals and deprives them of calm and clarity. Raksi maintains contact with a handful of friendly shahan-yas and former students, whom she doesn’t force to sit through her theatric monstrosity. Her occasional visits to them and attendance at councils do, however, still get flamboyant displays of sorcerous might. She enjoys many-winged conveyances that fly through the air, legions of demon servants and summoning up temporary palaces. The Queen of Fangs’ biggest allies among the shahan-yas are Ul of the Burning Eye and the hedonist Wings of Ivory, who share her belief in Lunars having total authority within their own dominions. Other Eastern shahan-yas are careful of her power even if they disagree, and they tread carefully around her and her allies. She also maintains a correspondence with Rukshara-Who-Remembers, who recalls occult secrets even Raksi has lost to time. Ma-Ha-Suchi used to be her closest ally, but she has come to despise him and his allies. She believes his dreams of a unified Lunar Realm are both foolish and against her own ambitions as god-queen of Mahalanka, and she is very bitter over his rejection of her ideology and the consequences it had on the Pact. She amuses herself at council by needling and provoking any of his followers who happen to be present – or the old Lunar himself, on the very rare occasions that they’re in the same place. Raksi is easily the best sorcerer in the entire Silver Pact, which alone brings many students to her door. At any given time she is likely to have a small group of followers studying under her, and dozens of Lunars across Creation claim her as their shahan-ya, visiting every so often or corresponding by magic. She offers sorcerous training, knowledge of craft or spirit lore, and information on the lost arts of the First Age, though her would-be students are often put off by her carefully cultivated reputation for cruelty and decadent monstrousness. She especially enjoys living up to the rumors new students have heard of, though she shows a different side to those that have the intellect or will to earn her respect. For them, she draws back the veil of exaggerated awfulness to show her human side. These are her few, precious friends, and she treasures them dearly. She still gives excellent training to her less successful students, of course, because doing poorly by them helps no one, least of all her, but she definitely plays up the terrifying god-queen persona to motivate them and test their dedication. Followers: Dark Eyes is Raksi’s lieutenant and enforcer, her envoy to the peoples of the Thousand Fangs Army Total Control Zone. He brings her will and encourages the best warriors he finds to undertake the sacred trials that will transform them into apefolk. He has never impressed the Queen of Fangs enough to be one of her favorites, but she appreciates his loyalty and combat skills. He values her approval but has yet to see the real Raksi behind the monster mask, and he fears her as much as he respects her. Three clans within the dominion, the Red Scars, the Get of the Tigress and the Devil Braids, have started to worship him as a living god, second only to Raksi herself, and among those tribes, Dark Eyes enforces his own will alongside hers. By his decree, slave-taking in war is forbidden and slavers are killed on sight. He isn’t sure he should tell Raksi about this, as he’s not sure if she’d view it as insubordination or a show of initiative. In truth, the ingenuity required to win the tribes over and transform their beliefs is something Raksi prizes, but if she learned of his actions because they became an obstacle to her goals, her anger might overpower her respect. Weyna Who-Sees-Much was never prepared for life with Raksi. She is a young and brilliant scholar that sought out Raksi for teaching shortly after her Exaltation. She found Raksi and Mahalanka to be more than she could ever dream of when it comes to lore, but she barely had time to study, as she was forced to attend Raksi’s debauched parties. It was at one of these banquets that Weyna managed to win Raksi’s respect by speaking out when a live infant was served to an emissary of Ma-Ha-Suchi. Raksi was surprised and delighted, and she gave guardianship of the child to Weyna as a reward. Weyna’s not got a lot of time between the kid and her studies, but Raksi demands only the best for the child she has declared her goddaughter. Tangaxoan is a raitonwoman who once served in the theo-military of Ixcoatli. She is devoted to Raksi’s political ideology, wholeheartedly embracing the idea of countless Lunar autarchies. She also finds Raksi’s drive and ruthlessness highly admirable. Driven by her Essence fever, Tangaxoan is no longer able to put up with Ixcoatli’s atrocities, and she has joined a coalition of rebels to drive out the priest-soldiers from conquered lands and establish a new Lunar dominion, free of the oppressively rigid hierarchies that crush slaves and the lower castes. Next time: Sha’a Oka, the Black Lion, His Divine Lunar Presence
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May 17, 2019 17:18
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So, a crazy murder-machine who believes her strength gives her the right to decide what sacrifices other people get to make, huh? I'm guessing the goal is generally 'kill Raksi at some point?'
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May 17, 2019 17:25
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Generally, yes. She even has a statblock later to make it easier for this to be facilitated. Her actual goal of “arbitrary numbers of independent nations” is fully supportable by PCs, but she is not at all a good person even slightly.
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May 17, 2019 17:52
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Raksi is now terrible in the same way any brutal, tyrannical autocrat is terrible, instead of being terrible in the way that late-90s White Wolf was terrible.
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May 17, 2019 21:17
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Warhammer Fantasy: Paths of the Damned Part 2: Spires of Altdorf Well, that was a bit bullshit This update contains both the most fun, and the worst designed, encounters in all the Carlott arc. You remember Chart's advice in Renegade Crowns to make sure that if players don't have a chance of detecting something, its first attack misses? Yeah, he's going to forget about that (to be fair, Renegade Crowns was written after this so it might be a reaction to a mistake here) and that's going to partly spoil what is otherwise a genuinely interesting encounter. Having dealt with Adelbert and given Solveig time to treat herself and Otto's minor injuries, the team has spent a couple days starting to look for their mystery assailant. They've also picked up a Rapier for Otto, because as funny (and surprisingly effective, they're currently Damage 4 and 76% WS, he could probably punch out a Chaos Warrior) as his fists are an actual weapon plus his shield gives him his free parry back. They're meeting up at their quarters in Frederick's manor (the encounter normally assumes an inn, but anywhere that inexplicably has a big mirror will work) when Carlott's most serious assailant hits. She's hired a dark wizard to conjure a special, specific invisible Chaos Demon into the world. He's lured it by promising it with his spell that for every PC it kills, it gets 1 day in reality to do whatever it wants and enjoy all the realness. Chaos Demons love being in reality, even as they also love trying to destroy reality. Like a moth to a flame if the moth was also a fire-fighter. That's an awful metaphor. Anyway, this horror is completely silent and unseen, unless it and its victim are both reflected in a mirror together. In that case, it manifests and PCs can fight it by the reflection of themselves and the monster in the mirror. They won't take any penalties for this; it's the only way to kill the thing so giving them -20 or -30 would be in bad form. Its profile is unclear; it says it attacks with psuedopods and causes SB damage, but not SB Damage, necessarily; I ran the fight as it doing d10+5 (It's SB 5, it's a pretty significant monster) but if it actually just does 5 damage an attack that would make it much easier. It's going to jump the party by fiat, and more annoyingly, the wizard has 'a magic spy' that just tells him when the PCs are asleep or when as many of them as are going to sleep have gone to bed. This is poor form, especially as it doesn't anticipate that the PCs might have someone with Magical Sense like Solveig. The critter will then automatically hit a sleeping character (remember, if you're asleep you take +d10 damage, too) and start the fight, with no chance to spot it prior. This is a dick move, especially as IF it does d10+5 this is now 2d10+5 vs. an unarmored PC who can't dodge. 7-25 wounds, with no defense and a big component of your DR off. If this killed someone (or made them Burn Fate) they'd be pretty within their rights to be pissed at the GM for hitting them with something they have literally no way to avoid. If the demon hits someone and inflicts any Wounds, it also causes a blood drain; the character keeps taking 1 wound a round for every wounding hit they've suffered until the mirror demon is dead. This is, outside of one fight on the failure route, the hardest fight in the book. The demon is WS 50, SB 5, and has 25 wounds and 2 attacks, but it has an Achilles' heel: It has no DR at all, just TB 1. Even unarmed characters can punch the heck outta this thing once they realize what's going on. It also doesn't have any defense abilities like Dodge. The real issue is that backstab, and the possibility that between needing someone to hit a Per test to realize it has a reflection and becomes real when reflected and everyone needing to make Fear tests when it appears, the team might lose multiple turns. Also, they aren't in their armor. For our purposes, it picks a target randomly, going after Katiya. She's very lucky on the damage roll and 'only' takes 8 out of her 15 Wounds on the first blow, screaming bloody murder and waking everyone immediately. The Per test part is easy, since the whole party tries and Pierre has a 70% chance anyway. He spots the thing and fails his Fear test immediately, even after using Fortune, but Solveig uses one of her minor spells to break him out of Fear immediately on her turn and he's able to warn everyone. Everyone but Liniel is able to (with Fortune) make their Fear tests as most characters spend round 1 grabbing weapons and positioning themselves with the mirror, while the beast keeps trying to kill Katiya. She also takes a -10 to everything with it wrapped around her. Thankfully for her, she's got Dodge and a good Agi and manages to dodge the next hit, then...well, they pile in. Katiya burns some more Fortune to ensure two hits, recognizing an emergency, and if there's one thing this write-up's segments should suggest it's USE FORTUNE whenever you're in an emergency. It's a huge part of what keeps PCs alive. DR 1 doesn't do well against a Damage 6 Kislevite, and Solveig's punch finishes the thing off after Katiya slices it up. It's a short, brutal fight if the team makes the Per and Fear tests, but that initial backstab is just a huge dick move. Which is a shame, because the basic idea of the fight is cool. It could be a neat, tense scene if the monster was stalking them individually or something, but instead it just ambushes the team, then dies. Once again, I'm convinced the low DR and huge damage demons take in these early Paths of the Damned books are why they invented Daemonic Aura for Old World Bestiary and onward. Katiya gets fully healed by Solveig, but she's still a bit shaken. The party goes out the next day to continue their hunt, and then Liniel takes a leg of mutton to the face as a shopper flies into an insane frenzy. Soon, people all over the crowd are just going berserk with Frenzy and coming right at the PCs as they find themselves assailed by hausfraus and bargain hunters. While Solveig and Otto hold off the frenzied shoppers (that's their profile title!) with Strike to Stun and improvised weaponry (they're trying not to kill innocent people, the book assumes you'll feel the same) the others try to figure out what the hell is suddenly driving people insane. Liniel spots a single young man running through the crowd with a Per-10, touching people in the crowd and driving them mad. Anyone stunned or reduced to 1 or less Wounds also recovers from the frenzy immediately, which is making Otto and Solveig's job easier. The three other characters try to grab the hooded boy driving people mad, and get a nasty surprise when it turns out to be a worm-headed Chaos creature. And also when it drives Pierre into a mad frenzy and sends him at the other two. He was not up for WP-20, even with Fortune. While Katiya takes a pick to the face from Pierre for 7 Wounds (she's having a really bad update) Liniel sees little other option and double-taps the creature. Her pistols come through again, dropping the insane monster and immediately ending the Frenzy in all around. I don't especially like this encounter primarily because the normal book encounter makes it clear the creature doing this is a child. Monster or not, not really big on a part of an adventure that expects the heroes to shoot a ten year old kid, and there are no options besides killing it. It hates everyone and wants you dead. The basic idea of the PCs being surprised by frenzied shoppers and then possibly one of their own once they grab the villain is fine, just I'd prefer an actual villain to an insane child. Carlott's attacks have been getting more dangerous, as you might notice. The last one is her capstone, designed to prod a group into trying to put a stop to her, not actually knowing she's out of tricks at this point. She's found five heavily mutated and Chaos-following Adventurers and gotten them together for a mirror match with the PC party, and the mutant party has an edge: Their Spy is a terrible fighter but her mutation makes people untouched by Chaos prone to overlooking her. She's been watching two of the fights and knows a bit about the team's strengths and weaknesses, but by now the heroes have had enough bullshit that they're going about their business fully armed and armored. Beatrix the Spy will be used to lure the heroes in by shooting at them ineffectively with a bow, then the three mutant Pit Fighters (High WS, good S and T, decent armor, but only one attack) and the corrupted Journeyman Wizard they've got with them will ambush them. Now, unfortunately for the Mirror Match party, the Brute Squad is an unusually combat heavy party. The joke is they almost all picked combat promotions because of the Knight Bullshit at the end of Ashes. By this stage, only Pierre and Solveig lack for a second attack, and Solveig still hits like a truck and Pierre is about to get his second attack soon. Most of the team is in decent armor, and has full armor coverage, unlike the mutant fighters (They have AV3 Body, AV 1 arms, 0 elsewhere, because they all have mutations stopping them easily wearing head or leg armor). The mutants are honestly quite outmatched in terms of combat ability. Their one equalizer is they have a wizard and the heroes do not, and the mutants both picked the battleground and actually manage to surprise the Brute Squad, despite Pierre existing (He picked a bad time to fail at things). Thankfully for the heroes, Beatrix the Spy stays out of the fight (She's a terrible fighter and is waiting to run away), so when they're set upon by a woman with a two foot neck , her lamprey-eyed sister, and their masked axe-murder sister (the three Pit Fighters are sisters) they only have to deal with 3 hits. Surprise doesn't stop Reactions, though, so Katiya and Otto stop their attackers and only Solveig takes a hit. Unfortunately for her, it's a max damage two-handed axe hit for 9 Wounds. And then she gets followed up on by Burning Blood. One of the projectiles from the wizard bounces off, the other nails her for another 9, inflicting Critical 4 on the poor Ulrican. She nearly loses her left arm, and has our first instance of Blood Loss. Every round, there is now a 20% chance she bleeds to death until she stops the bleeding, and she has a chance to lose the arm after the fight. That's not good. Solveig uses Heal on herself, gritting her teeth and trying to stop herself bleeding to death, and is thankfully successful. Rolling Tough, she'll also keep the arm, but drat is she going to be messed up for a bit. Crits ramp up in lethality extremely quickly. As an aside, one of the suggestions for the fight is if the wizard is kicking your players in the dick, you can feel free to have his magic go wrong at any point. If it does, his normally fluid skin (his mutation) decides to leave for good and leaves his screaming skeleton standing in the street. At that point, the skeleton's screaming draws the guilty gooey flesh back to him and skeleton and blob of flesh tag team your PCs, but are much less of a problem than the wizard. I just thought I'd point out that's metal as hell. Liniel decides she's got to support the Ulrican and double-taps the wizard, as is her way. Those guns are really doing work. Sadly, this deprives us of screaming flesh/skeleton tag-team but she adds yet another unprotected wizard to her kill count. Otto Maneuvers the axewoman out of combat with the Ulrican and steps into her place. From there, the fight proceeds much more normally, lasting a few more rounds as the heroes trade blows with the mutants, but their larger number of attacks and much better gear show. While Otto takes a few hits, nothing as awful as what happened to Solveig comes up again, and soon enough they've put the mutants into crits. At which point they surrender. More importantly, the mutants can tell the PCs directly where Carlott's base is, at a warehouse in the slums. Normally, you only get the mutant fight if you fail to find her sooner, but I couldn't deprive this writeup of all the Carlott arc encounters and had to show off the possibility of screaming skeleton tag team. Curiously, there's actually no long-term need to keep a broken/mangled limb in a sling for weeks like in 4e; if the character doesn't lose the limb, they'll be fine as soon as they're stitched up. Solveig blesses herself with healing, healing one more wound with magic, but she'll still need to wait a day before she can recover any further; Heal goes by encounters and by days. You can Heal once per encounter where you're injured, and then Heal again every day. Heal is absolutely critical to getting back on your feet quickly, though the team sadly lacks a Surgery character. Surgery would give +20 to 'don't actually lose the limb' tests, too. Now knowing where Carlott is, and that her name is Carlott, the team goes to get Solveig some rest while they add another name to The List. Next Time: The End of Altdorf and the Rise of Team Mustache
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May 17, 2019 21:17
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Night10194 posted:So, a crazy murder-machine who believes her strength gives her the right to decide what sacrifices other people get to make, huh? That's usually what people end up doing, but to me that feels like completely missing the point of a game like Exalted. I feel Raski is best served as someone who actually likes and gets along with solar exalts. If anything she's probably enthusiastic about their return because for once she can finally meet a sorcerous peer. Thus making her a natural ally to any twilight caste who she will shower gifts and attention upon if you accept her advances. Of course, on the other hand, she eats people (and why shouldn't she? She's literally a god in the flesh, do you care what pigs think about bacon?). That last part was a joke, but it's worth pointing out that animals in Exalted actually have some pretty legitimate claims to sapience so if your character isn't vegetarian than that does raise some questions about how much poo poo you can talk on Raksi.
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May 17, 2019 21:25
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Raksi is great because she is a very effective and playable example of the excesses of the Silver Pact while remaining a potent ally against the more pressing dangers of the Realm. She's being used in this edition to make it clear that Lunar warlords are not inherently going to build a just world - in fact, she practically shouts 'you must be morally compromised to stand a chance at winning a guerilla war' with her whole god-empress display. She's also a really good candidate for PCs to declare 'we will never be like you, and we will still defeat the Realm' against. And also a good candidate for their horrifying but useful ally! I also love that Ma-Ha-Suchi is now Megrims Conan, and the return of the Solar Exalted is the thing which allows him to believe the impossible might be possible once more. His makeover for this edition is extremely cool, and he would be a fantastic mentor figure. E: also I figure Raksi is much more useful for challenging PC notions of divine right than suggestion that she could be right about the great chain of eating; her political position is "as a living god-monster, I have the right and power to rule my territory absolutely and eat humans for fun" - a clear extension of "the Exalted have divine right to rule and the Celestial Exalted should take over the world again" and also "nobody has any right to tell me what to do, I will do good as I see fit." Raksi is living that life, and it's awful and she needs to be confronted. Joe Slowboat fucked around with this message at 21:31 on May 17, 2019 |
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May 17, 2019 21:27
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Joe Slowboat posted:Raksi is great because she is a very effective and playable example of the excesses of the Silver Pact while remaining a potent ally against the more pressing dangers of the Realm. She's being used in this edition to make it clear that Lunar warlords are not inherently going to build a just world - in fact, she practically shouts 'you must be morally compromised to stand a chance at winning a guerilla war' with her whole god-empress display. Ma-Ha-Suchi as Conan is absolutely cool. It's hard to do worse than previous editions when it comes to Ma-Ha-Suchi and this one is not only an improvement, but actually good. I'm honestly surprised Raski get poo poo talked more than Ma-Ha-Suchi when people talk about the Lunar elders.
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May 17, 2019 21:35
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Ithle01 posted:Ma-Ha-Suchi as Conan is absolutely cool. It's hard to do worse than previous editions when it comes to Ma-Ha-Suchi and this one is not only an improvement, but actually good. I'm honestly surprised Raski get poo poo talked more than Ma-Ha-Suchi when people talk about the Lunar elders. It's really easy to forget that Dreams of the First Age made it so that Ma-Ha-Suchi's issue was that he used to be a sexy seducer type and he was mad at the world that he got warped to have horns and hooves. (Ma-Ha-Suchi has always been presented as Goatwolfman, his spirit shape was a wolf but it had horns and hooves for some reason. Before 3rd Edition, it was Wyld warping before he got his moonsilver tats during one of the apocalypses; it is now a deliberate choice on his part, he took the Charms that let you chimerize your spirit shape with another animal.) Also the less said about the beastman camps in the Nameless Lair in 2e, the better. e: but generally, all Lunar elders in past editions have sucked. Leviathan was probably the least bad, because he was just Depression Whale. Which, uh, actually gets called out in 3e, several other shahan-yas are extremely mad at Leviathan for spending the better part of a thousand years in a depressive funk.
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May 17, 2019 21:58
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Mors Rattus posted:It's really easy to forget that Dreams of the First Age made it so that Ma-Ha-Suchi's issue was that he used to be a sexy seducer type and he was mad at the world that he got warped to have horns and hooves. (Ma-Ha-Suchi has always been presented as Goatwolfman, his spirit shape was a wolf but it had horns and hooves for some reason. Before 3rd Edition, it was Wyld warping before he got his moonsilver tats during one of the apocalypses; it is now a deliberate choice on his part, he took the Charms that let you chimerize your spirit shape with another animal.) I was actually fine with all of the elders being batshit crazy mutants, it's sort of a big part of the game after all or at least it is to me. My problem was that they were badly written or that the writers elaborated on things they shouldn't elaborate on. For example, the Nameless Lair. All you have to say is 'you don't want to know what happens in the Nameless Lair' and leave it at that, but second edition poo poo writers had to go and elaborate and .... why would you do that. Everybody with half a brain can figure out what it is, you don't need to go making it explicit like a moron.
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May 17, 2019 22:17
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I mean, it's not like they aren't batshit crazy half the time anyway. Wait'll we get to Ul and his genocide plans!
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May 17, 2019 22:22
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OMG WHFG I'm throwing my support for Screaming Skeleton/Liquid Flesh on 2020! I'm guessing by now every party maintains and notarizes two important lists, the Hit List(you a dead man) and the poo poo List(gonna wish you were dead).
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May 17, 2019 22:29
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Mors Rattus posted:I mean, it's not like they aren't batshit crazy half the time anyway. Wait'll we get to Ul and his genocide plans! Yeah I definitely like almost all the new devs have done with regards to setting changes, but it's one of those cases where I'm a bit leery of letting the fans write the game you know what I mean? Exalted fans are the worst, I should know I've been one for close to 18 years.
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May 17, 2019 23:17
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Ithle01 posted:Yeah I definitely like almost all the new devs have done with regards to setting changes, but it's one of those cases where I'm a bit leery of letting the fans write the game you know what I mean? Exalted fans are the worst, I should know I've been one for close to 18 years.
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May 17, 2019 23:20
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Mors Rattus posted:e: but generally, all Lunar elders in past editions have sucked. Leviathan was probably the least bad, because he was just Depression Whale. I don't think it was particularly Lilith's fault that she was Creation's oldest battered spouse, but it's a fair point. I'm curious to see what her new deal is.
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May 17, 2019 23:34
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Dawgstar posted:I don't think it was particularly Lilith's fault that she was Creation's oldest battered spouse, but it's a fair point. I'm curious to see what her new deal is. I mean, no, it's the writers' and it was a bad decision.
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May 17, 2019 23:38
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Fangs at the Gate: A Nemesis Plot Sha'a Oka was born into the wars of the Shogunate, and he is one of the finest warlords the Silver Pact has. He is the undisputed commander of the battles on the Caul, and while his doctrine of open war is counter to the methods of most shahan-yas, his charisma, legendary status and tales of triumph draw many young Lunars to him. He does very little to convince them to drop any of the larger-than-life beliefs they may hold about him and is happy to have anyone willing to fight the Realm do work for him. He is called the Black Lion and renowned for fighting with his vicious claws and fangs in his war-form as well as for his brilliant leadership of the Caul lionfolk in battle. However, for many on both sides of the war, his greatest achievements are his multiple deaths. Mnemon Jazura killed him and burned his corpse, at the cost of the lives of her Hearth and her own arm. At the Battle for Pericanth Bridge, he died holding off the massed forces of the Scarlet Empire while his allies and warriors retreated. The Sidereal Noh the Beetle tore his soul from his body and cast it into the wheel of reincarnation. Eeach time, his death was mourned by the Pact and celebrated by the Realm. Each time, he returned, revealing that his death was actually an ingenious ruse. Some believe he is truly immortal; this is not true, but he doesn't discourage the rumor, as it raises his followers' morale and his prestige. Sha'a Oka was one of the people on the Caul when it vanished, shortly into the reign of the Shogunate. He was the only one who returned with it. He rarely speaks of his experience, and only to his most trusted followers. They know that he remembers all of his centuries of the Caul's absence from Creation, and that in that time he experienced something, but he seems to have no words for it, except cryptic musings. He claims a profound spiritual affinity for the Caul, speaking of it the way others might speak of a beloved sibling or a Solar mate. Whatever happened to him, it has left him estranged from many of his peers and followers. He has many allies and devotees but almost no friends, confidants or lovers. He spends most of his time performing strange rites or meditating on the Caul's mysteries. The remoteness of the Caul from the Blessed Isle allows Lunar warlords to gather their forces even in close proximity to the island's Imperial Port, and its spiritual significance means a disproportionate number of Lunars want to free the land from the Realm. Sha'a Oka has capitalized on this in the war he's been fighting for centuries, building up a peerless reputation for aggression. Other shahan-yas that favor open war on the Realm, like the berserker Blood Nail or the necromancer Seven Obsidian Leopard, align with him at council, and some even travel to meet him or join his war for a time. Mainstream Pact advocates of attrition war disagree with his agenda, but they value his role in bleeding the Realm of heroes and troops. They're usually less happy when he emboldens others to wage open war outside the Caul, though. Raksi and Aum-Ashatra are both outspoken foes of Sha'a Oka, yelling at him for what they believe weakens other fronts. The Black Lion is happy to play politics to strengthen his own stance, and he maintains ties to more traditionalist shahan-yas in the South and West. When his followers move on, he encourages them to join those who have supported him and discourages association with his more outspoken political foes. While Leviathan is a powerful and influential shahan-ya in close geographic proximity and could potentially be a strong ally, Sha'a Oka refuses to give the benthic ruler any of his time. He resents the years LEviathan spent in sunken Luthe, unwilling to commit himself to the cause, and a century of activity is not enough atonement to the Black Lion's mind. Sha'a Oka's charisma draws in many followers, especially young Lunars who aren't satisfied with the slow strategy the Pact tends to favor. He is happy to teach them, but he expects them to devote themselves to the Caul crusade. He spends very little time with his followers, as he has much work across the vast island, and he prefers to train them by placing them in important positions in the campaign. For many, it is an education in war, but he also has jobs for schemers and spies, such as infiltrating Faxai to sabotage or steal, and he has work for mystics in forcing alliance with the local spirits or Fair Folk. In the rare time he does spend with his students, he speaks rarely except in brief grunts of approval, despite the fiery speeches he gives his assembled forces. Conversations take persistence, and even then, he rarely seems to be paying his full attention to them. Students that want more personal attention are often better suited to other local shahan-yas. The greatest followers of Sha'a Oka are the four Lunars he has entrusted to guard the shrine-cities of the Caul, each a shahan-ya in their own right. They are his most trusted disciples. Third Daughter of the Leaves is 300 years old, but burns with no less fury against the Dragon-Bloods than the day she Exalted. She wields deadly witchcraft against the Realm, and she deeply admires Sha'a Oka's total commitment to the cause as well as his wisdom and mystery. However, her allegiance is to the cause, not the Black Lion. If a more powerful general came, she would change her allegiances without a second thought. Skathra Venomchild is barely a part of the Silver Pact, but is one of the few close friends the Black Lion has. They have a shared strangeness compared to other Lunars, for Skathra embraces an ecstatic madness in their worship of Luna, which leaves them in the best place to empathize with the incomprehensible experiences Sha'a Oka had on the Caul. Few others see the warmth and humor Sha'a Oka shows to Skathra, and no one else has been nearly as kind or understanding to them. Skathra adores violence and terror, and they are happy to wield them against the Realm if it helps their friend. Sandswept Garda-Empress leads the hawkfolk clans of the city Sekima, harrying REalm forces across the Caul. She is driven by a personal hatred of the Realm, and therefore has been made Sha'a Oka's second-in-command. She is far, far less patient with the inexperienced, young and naive than the Black Lion is, and she is very quick to judge his followers. Lintha Haquen Fia-Shaw Flowers Unbending in the Storm is the scourge of the Imperial Navy and Sha'a Oka's envoy to a branch of the Lintha family that lives on the Caul. Her loyalty is unquestionable, but she disagrees strongly with the Black Lion over the value of alliance with Leviathan. She thinks the benefits far outweigh any grudge over his past inaction. She doesn't want to undermine her shahan-ya's authority, but is secretly working on a number of undersea joint ventures with Leviathan and his school, away from the Caul. Many of Sha'a Oka's other students have gone on to become close allies. Enemy Ghost of the Black Wave Reavers first studied war under him, and the Reavers are promised to Sha'a Oka's service, should he ever need them. Lukha Palash of the Bronze Tide has never met the Black Lion, but is a strong supporter of his ideology. Next time: Leviathan, the Great Whale
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May 18, 2019 00:51
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Mors Rattus posted:I mean, no, it's the writers' and it was a bad decision. I didn't mean to imply you thought it was the characters' fault or something like that, just that it always bummed me out to read. Looking forward to General Sulkfish.
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May 18, 2019 01:46
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I really enjoy how the Silver Pact in 3e is really clearly an engine for turning Enkidus, divine apex predators, and boundary-walking beasts into a coherent military force against the Realm. It's a project for convincing young Lunars that their individual struggles are part of a larger war against the Realm. And it's mostly successful, because most of them come from societies oppressed by the Realm - but the logic of 'we must topple the Blessed Isle' is fundamentally underwritten by a golden age most Lunars don't care so much about. That Ixcoatli lieutenant of Raksi's is a perfect example. She's putting the Pact into practice... against the Ixcoatli, a lesser empire that the Lunar Elders would consider completely unnecessary to fight. Individual Lunars don't come into the world knowing they need to fight the Realm, they get taught it by Wyld Hunts or by Elders. So you have this really interesting tension between the local concerns of PC-age Lunars, who want to protect their homes and people, with the ancient grudges of the others. Like, Raksi and Ma-Ha-Suchi would both like to see the Dragon-Blooded broken as a force, not just because of the Realm's depredations, but because of the Shogunate. Lookshy is as much their enemy as the Realm, while to a young River Province Lunar, Lookshy is a much more complex institution. It's a really good texture and space for Lunars and I legitimately want to run a Lunars game and bring the Silver Pact in, which I have never really wanted to do before.
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May 18, 2019 01:53
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yea new Lunar elders are much better, the explicitly bad ones are more general 'extremely powerful despot' than 'weird stereotypes and stupid shock attempts' bad and you've got stuff like Leviathan going from Sad Fish to Sad Fish But Still Working As Best He Can. Basically as mentioned already the core point of 90% of elder Lunars is 'they likely have more noble intents/backgrounds than many in their power level, but they've spent so long being the whipping divinities of the world despite all that power most have fallen into their worst natures.' Except now instead of 'so most of them are loving animals or whatever' it's stuff like 'Leviathan's sorrow holds him back from fighting as full as he could' or 'this character's rage at the empire leads them to making rookie mistakes' and all. Ya know, because passion, for good or bad, is a major theme of Lunars, and naturally their elders would represent that well.
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May 18, 2019 01:59
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Joe Slowboat posted:So you have this really interesting tension between the local concerns of PC-age Lunars, who want to protect their homes and people, with the ancient grudges of the others. Like, Raksi and Ma-Ha-Suchi would both like to see the Dragon-Blooded broken as a force, not just because of the Realm's depredations, but because of the Shogunate. Lookshy is as much their enemy as the Realm, while to a young River Province Lunar, Lookshy is a much more complex institution. I mean. That attitude's not likely to last long; not when Lookshy is every bit as serious about killing Lunars as the Realm, and in fact that's one of the very few areas where the two will actually cooperate.
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May 18, 2019 02:05
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yea you're not wrong that 'ancient grudges vs pressing issues' is a major element to PC Lunars interacting with their world but Lookshy is perfectly fine to slaughter Lunars like the Shogunate. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that coming as a surprise to a group of young Lunars without a hard grasp of the politics of their foes, who assume Lookshy will be more pragmatic than the Shogunate and wind up finding themselves dealing with a different kind of foe. 3e is a lot better at making it more clear that the elders' ancient grudges can be toxic, but they usually are also genuinely earned too.
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May 18, 2019 02:10
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sexpig by night posted:yea you're not wrong that 'ancient grudges vs pressing issues' is a major element to PC Lunars interacting with their world but Lookshy is perfectly fine to slaughter Lunars like the Shogunate. Oh yeah, any Lunar that tries to make friends with Lookshy will be murdered. My point was more about the anti-imperialist, anti-Realm position of the Pact: Lookshy is the reason the Scavenger Lands aren't under Realm control right now, and so there's an inherent tension between their treatment of Lunars (murder) and their position viz-a-viz the Realm, as seen from the Silver Pact perspective. To an Elder this is an immediately comprehensible puzzle, the Shogunate is the underlying quality of both that makes them evil. To Lunars who are more concerned with the Realm's treatment of the Threshold (not just they themselves or Lunars in general)... Lookshy has been successfully fighting off the Realm for centuries. It's an interesting situation for the River Province, generally, and I really like that the Silver Pact is a robust enough political entity in 3e to have this sort of multi-dimensional relationship, in which different Lunars might prioritize 'fighting the Realm's empire' more or less highly than 'preventing Immaculates from sending murder squads after me, specifically.' And a particularly clever, lucky, and player-character-like Lunar would encourage Lookshy and the Realm to fight, dragging both down simultaneously.
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May 18, 2019 02:21
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yea you can very easily have a good Lunars game where the point is less 'BEAST MODE MURDER THE DRAGONS' and more 'the dragons are loving us bad, but they have just as many fractures as we do, if we can get them to eat eachother we can make it a multi-pronged strike'. There, in fact, are a few Elders who are already 100% on this trolley and would make very fun characters to use in the game. I know '3e fixed it' is a running theme for Exalted in this thread but Lunars is really a great example. Dragons were always the more interesting faction, you just had to refine it down and polish up the concepts and all, but Lunars went from lovely generic barbarians who mechanically sucked rear end unless you did like...one of two 'good Lunar builds' to this really cool blend of savage barbarian high fantasy funtimes and a more brutal 'other side of the coin' version of politics than DBs offer.
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May 18, 2019 04:00
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