After last session and my big combat analysis post, I felt as if there was a... loose end. Nabijah may've been an employee, but she didn't respect Inks- and would not build Intimacies the way Inks would prefer. So instead, it was time to throw down!
I'll let the fight speak for itself a bit, calling out a few things we could've done better.
Firstly, I capitalized on a function of how Exalted handles 'Join Battle' and First Actions. Maybe we did this wrong, but as far as we can tell we did it right- Inks starts Shaping Skin of Bronze, and Aleph prompts Join Battle. Now in my case I hedge my bets with a Virtue channel... and Nabijah rolls a zero. This is going to be a trend.
The biggest tactical weakness of Sorcery is the lack of defensive option- spells like Virtuous Guardian of Flame or having bound demon bodyguards mitigate it- but I had neither of those so I opted instead for Invulnerable Skin of Bronze.
By doing it this way, the 'pre-fight' action eaten up by 'Join Battle' is the Shaping Sorcery, and then I only have to wait until my next acting Tick (which is technically 0) to join in and Cast. Now that I think about it, I should have rolled Join Battle a 2nd time to 'Rejoin' battle (because sorcery ostensibly takes you out of combat time).
Either way though, it worked out about as well as I wanted it to- I got to cast my spell, I got Nabijah good and pumped, and FITE FITE FITE started.
Now overall- this is in microcosm, where storyteller shines as a combat system- the small, intimate battle. If I had any issue with it, it was that it was a fairly 'white box' sort of duel, but not every fight needs to be a sweeping setpiece battle with over-the-top environments. The next fight though, I hope we can jazz up a bit more!
As it stands, the fight overall was a very nice if simple tactical ballet of flubbed rolls. For my part, I made one critical mistake near the end that cost me 'the fight', but I'll get into that later.
So- Nabijah does not know 'Sorcery' from much else, but Inks calls herself a sorcerer as part of her taunting- this was a calculation on my part, because I wanted to tapdance on her 'Blood myself' princple - you'll note i use intimacy/principle interchangably, so apoliges in advance.
By the same token, Nabijah is clever enough to recognize 'Maji' being involved, so she asks for Muta to be allowed- and I admit I did not expect this level of civility and 'due process' from her. Even so she failed... but Inks said yes anyway, because doing so helped my agenda.
To really underscore this- my agenda in this fight was not to kill Nabijah- but to hear her respect as a peer. Win or loose didn't really matter, so long as I gave it a good run.
So Nabijah and Muta are now combatants- and you'll note that we had some issues with tick tracking, but we figured them out. Aleph intitially did run it as 'ticks = duration of action' until i reminded her of 'ticks are how long it takes to refresh'.
During the taunting, I tried to establish scene elements like the pillars and slumping ruins/tents of the outskirts of Sun Over Water, but it didn't quite pan out the way I wanted to.
Now, I had planned out this fight in my head before starting it, and Aleph did
not know everything I had planned. So when Muta charged in, she took the cue that I was originally saving for Nabijah- because see, none of the Dehya had seen Chroncile yet.
What follows is a series of near misses and hits, as Aleph said off-channel -
Aleph
I'm pretty sure she missed that first attack in large part because she had to flurry it with a Dash to reach you
and was thus at a -3
Your DV only barely beat her.
Shyft
True enough!
Aleph
aaaand the tide has just turned against Inks
However, had she just been fighting Nabijah, she'd probably have won by now.
(muta mvp)
(best brave hyena, even when the dice fairies tease and mock her)
But now Inks is down four (lethal) health levels, prone, held inactive in Muta's jaws, and has an angry Nabijah standing over her with a chopping sword.
Shyft
still a wonderful learning experience on multiple levels
Aleph
It is a testament to how bullshit the Exalted are that it took the Strength 4 butch powerhouse and the giant hyena a good half a minute to get her here.
And that they spent more than half of that being slapped away or evaded with what looked like trivial ease.
Shyft Today at 1:30 PM
And I never actually revealed that I was Exalted
Keris
that too, yes
though, you know
summoning the fuckoff giant golden daiklave out of thin air was probably a hint that you're something
(Inks managed to force three Valour checks on Nabijah - one of which she actually failed before countering it with her "Blood Myself" Principle.)
Each blow stands for itself in the log, but the important thing are those three valor channels- it doesn't matter that they failed or were resisted- that the were prompted in the first place is a
huge boon for how the game 'feels' to me as a player.
On top of that, the other standout element of the fight scene was the dust cloud- invoking it as an environmental hazard meant that suddenly it became a tactical resource. I could have hid inside it and forced Nabijah to rely on other senses, or moved to escape it so my pools would remain unpenalized.
The major big hit of the session was when Inks hopped onto Muta, then overhand swung Chronicle into Nabijah- who tried to
parry a grand daiklave. And she did a pretty good job of it too, all things considered! I only managed to inflict 3 HLs of bashing damage- note that I was pulling every single blow this fight, I was
handicapped while Nabijah was swinging with lethal damage all the time.
After this though, I made one major miscalculation- though many of you will likely gnash your teeth at another example of 2e's lethality- I did not boost my DVs against Muta's clinch action. If I had, I would have had been able to continue the fight and likely win. The other tactical choice was that through this entire fight, I had not let my anima flare totemic.
That meant no Twilight Anima power, no 'Subtract Essence from damage successes'. If I had my anima running, Inks would have been
un-injured for many swings more if not the whole fight.
Now that was a choice- because I didn't want to reveal to the Dehya that Inks was an Exalt right away- even if they realize more and more that she is far more magical than even they are.
But I did not do those things, and thus I got clinched, meaning Muta's crush and Nabijah's cleavage strike beat me down super-hard. Hard enough that I could not break free. My pool to get out of a clinch is 3d before penalties, and as discussed, if I channeled Survival, I would've sounded Weaker and 'Lost' the actual goal.
So I didn't, and tried to surrender... but Nabijah is not a temperate or compassionate soul. She continued the fight past the point it needed to be- but she had the presence of mind to downgrade to her fists instead of her weapon... That didn't end well for her.
Ajjim and Windroarer intervened- the fight was over, and all that was left was firming up the relationships between Inks and the Dehya. All and all a successful event!
After the fact, we cleaned up, treated some wounds and Nabijah revealed that she has a very potent power over people she's injured- a power Inks felt firsthand, and thankfully can get out from under relatively quickly. And amusingly, we are introduced to how Chronicle behaves in the hands of someone other than Inks.
Also I love Call the Blade. I really do.
So with that scene, I accomplished pretty much everything I wanted to do, even if I failed the bonus objective of 'Win the fight' Having reshuffled the pecking order, Inks's normally compassionate nature shines forward, and we do some Medicine-ing to take care of the lingering aches.
Finally, we get back to Gem. We left Gem back in Descending Wood, so now it is the 27th of Ascending Air. We missed a few cues here sadly, but after sorting that out, we agreed that Inks would head home for Mysterious Mystery Plothook that segues neatly into El-Galabi.
I'll let the log speak for itself, save for the following: DUN DUN DUUUUUNN!
