Green Sun, Black Shadows (CG/Exalted)

UberJJK · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Rifles are so undignified. Much better to use smaller and more streamline guns, like the ones they concealed on themselves.

Shaping defenses are crucial if you expect to be fighting people with Shaping charms. Given that we are mostly staying under the radar and our opposition is primarily mortals and Dragonblooded it's understandable that we decided to put Shaping defenses on the back burner. Unfortunate but understandable.

Enjou said:
This has the Raksha(?) using pistols. This allows for a more even playing field, as Lelouch also uses pistols. At the very least, the narrative won't be against Lelouch using a pistol, if he needs to. Our armor also has enough soak to be bulletproof, though it's been a while and I need to reread the damage rules to see what that actually means for us.

We have 5B/6L Soak, assuming we're wearing our Silken Armor of Zero under Loom-Snarling Deception otherwise it drops to 2B/1L.

According to Shards of an Exalted Dream Heavy Pistols have a Damage of 6L but given that they are hidden I figure we're probably looking at them having Holdout Pistols which have 5L Damage. That is low enough that we should be able to fully soak the damage however if they are packing AP rounds, which grant the Piercing tag, which normally takes off 4pts of Armor Soak but since we only have 5L of Armor Soak and it can't drop the value below 2 we end up with our 6L Soak being dropped down to 3L, leaving us vulnerable.

Anyways even if we can soak all the damage we'd still be hit with minimum damage, since it's Soak not Hardness, and thus still have one die of damage to roll against our Health. Of course given each die only has a 40% chance of taking out a HL it's not that big a concern anyway.

All this is assuming however that we're talking about a mundane pistol fired by mundane people. We have no way of knowing if they have Artifact pistols or what, if any, Charms they may be applying.

Tinkerer · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Fuck their shit up by denying them the narrative!

Damian45 · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Rifles are so undignified. Much better to use smaller and more streamline guns, like the ones they concealed on themselves

veekie · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Rifles are so undignified. Much better to use smaller and more streamline guns, like the ones they concealed on themselves.

Denying them the narrative is for people with Shaping Defenses. Otherwise they just force you

Delwgun · Mar 26, 2018

veekie said:
[X] Rifles are so undignified. Much better to use smaller and more streamline guns, like the ones they concealed on themselves.

Denying them the narrative is for people with Shaping Defenses. Otherwise they just force you

Does that mean that I have a Shaping Defenses as I am not voting to go along with Raksha on principle?

veekie · Mar 26, 2018

Delwgun said:
Does that mean that I have a Shaping Defenses as I am not voting to go along with Raksha on principle?

If you don't have a Shaping Defense, the way to beat the Raksha is to help them bend their own narrative into a trap for themselves(because they are as much a slave to their narrative as anyone else). Going head to head and saying "I reject your reality and substitute the truth" only works if you CAN do that with a Shaping Defense.

RogueInquisitor · Mar 26, 2018

veekie said:
If you don't have a Shaping Defense, the way to beat the Raksha is to help them bend their own narrative into a trap for themselves(because they are as much a slave to their narrative as anyone else). Going head to head and saying "I reject your reality and substitute the truth" only works if you CAN do that with a Shaping Defense.

Would this be a good enough trap?
This is the prologue. They're the ones who get killed to establish the stakes for the actual protagonist, and maybe confirm that there is something to investigate worth killing over, but won't actually get mentioned beyond the first act. Think like the other 00 agents in James Bond, or that guy that got cut in half in the Kingsman movie.
Heck, we're already a high-ranking operative in a nefarious conspiracy, we're exactly the kind of character that makes the kill in those stories. The fact we're flaring our (disguised) anima already just signifies we're a badass, and thus narratively important.

cokerpilot · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Rifles are so undignified. Much better to use smaller and more streamline guns, like the ones they concealed on themselves.

Zrayz10 · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Rifles are so undignified. Much better to use smaller and more streamline guns, like the ones they concealed on themselves.

Akuma-Heika · Mar 26, 2018

Delwgun said:
Fuck Raksha with a rusted rake.
[X] Fuck their shit up by denying them the narrative!

It's Raksha. Fae-folk. Fairies. Eldritch beings from the wyld and they are the most annoying things in exalted.
They are basically living narratives that somehow gained sentience. dont give into them and vote for something else than what they are trying to give us.

Pretty sure the strikethroughed write in option means we cannot.

[X] Time to make a break for it using their high-tech and gadget-loaded car.
For the lol!

A question, how many Lunars are still on Creation and how many ended up locked out in the Wyld when everything went screwy? Based on Seyrun's comments, the Wyld is separated from reality now (I am assuming this means the Deep Wyld and Chaos...does this mean the majority of the Raksha have been eaten since none could run to Creation after the failure of the Crusade leading to a new breed of Raksha that just eats Raksha? [leading to greater population densities to attract said raksha]). How do Bordermarches form on Earth?

Enjou · Mar 26, 2018

RogueInquisitor said:
Would this be a good enough trap?
This is the prologue. They're the ones who get killed to establish the stakes for the actual protagonist, and maybe confirm that there is something to investigate worth killing over, but won't actually get mentioned beyond the first act. Think like the other 00 agents in James Bond, or that guy that got cut in half in the Kingsman movie.
Heck, we're already a high-ranking operative in a nefarious conspiracy, we're exactly the kind of character that makes the kill in those stories. The fact we're flaring our (disguised) anima already just signifies we're a badass, and thus narratively important.

Thing is, we don't necessarily have to make enemies of them. Whatever they're here for, they're not here for us specifically, and their enemy appears to be a member of the Britannian military. Opposing them is one option (if a risky one, due to lack of Shaping defenses), but we could hypothetically side with them as a member of their team, or make ourself a third faction. I think it's quite inevitable that we'll end up being dragged into this somehow, because let's face it, we've made ourself Appearance 5 in our guise that has made us stand out, and showing our (false) Caste Mark has made us well beyond being scenery in this thing. So we may be better off forcibly injecting ourself in a way that lets us fit into the narrative without being Shaped into it.

Now, things to our advantage...
1. If we go with the guns option, we're pretty damn good with guns. In fact, we can use Calculating Dho-Hna Angles to make impossible trick shots, allowing us to insert ourselves as "the greatest gun user alive" or some such rot to fit into the cheesy spy narrative.
2. The guards here are using assault rifles, and this being Britannia it's no doubt the standard machine gun that their forces use. In which case we've got equipment that makes us completely immune to machine guns.
3. We could probably reach into our cleavage and use Fourth Soul Devil-Domain to pull out guns, flashbangs, grenades, smoke bombs and other things. You know Lelouch has put that to use and has a small armory in there for emergencies. And we can keep doing that, because it's cheesy and cliche and totally fits the theme they're going for here.
4. If we commit to opposing, we could use Nemesis Self Imagined Anew to really make ourself the nemesis character.

Possible Roles to play...
1. Britannian Secret Service agent. In opposition, we be the 'real' villain here, as this is but the opening act. Or be the pretty lady on the other side who inevitably gets seduced by the 'hero' somewhere down the line. The military guy is just a flunky who dies. For this to be a proper story, we of course can't be killed off so soon. Allied, we pretend to be their pissed off boss who is not at all thrilled that they got themselves outed to the 'traitor' guy currently confronting them.
2. Member agent of their own faction, there on the mission with them, or to keep an eye on them.
3. Member agent of another faction, like the EU. We save them as a favor.

Akuma-Heika said:
A question, how many Lunars are still on Creation and how many ended up locked out in the Wyld when everything went screwy?

Not sure, but most of them are long dead. Everyone who wasn't truly immortal when all that went down has long since perished, so pretty much only higher end gods, demons, or other spirits would still be around. So at this point all the Lunar Exaltations will largely be back on play on Earth.

Akuma-Heika said:
How do Bordermarches form on Earth?

Apparently some areas of the world just become Wyld zones on occasion for extended periods of time, though I believe this isn't permanent. Currently a large chunk of Australia is one. So it's not like there aren't access points.

NSMS · Mar 26, 2018

Enjou said:
Not sure, but most of them are long dead. Everyone who wasn't truly immortal when all that went down has long since perished, so pretty much only higher end gods, demons, or other spirits would still be around. So at this point all the Lunar Exaltations will largely be back on play on Earth.

With the obvious exception of Chimera.

Aoinfinity · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Rifles are so undignified. Much better to use smaller and more streamline guns, like the ones they concealed on themselves.

RogueInquisitor · Mar 26, 2018

Enjou said:
1. Britannian Secret Service agent. In opposition, we be the 'real' villain here, as this is but the opening act. Or be the pretty lady on the other side who inevitably gets seduced by the 'hero' somewhere down the line. The military guy is just a flunky who dies. For this to be a proper story, we of course can't be killed off so soon. Allied, we pretend to be their pissed off boss who is not at all thrilled that they got themselves outed to the 'traitor' guy currently confronting them.
2. Member agent of their own faction, there on the mission with them, or to keep an eye on them.
3. Member agent of another faction, like the EU. We save them as a favor.

Some good ideas there. I would prefer we not be their boss or a minder from their own faction, as that carries too much likelihood that we wind up escaping with them to chew them out, and our mission is to try to attract attention from the death cult, which we can't do if we leave. Honestly, the 'real villain/seduction target' options sounds best, as it fits with our 'dark seductress' concept we designed this disguise around, and it inflates our perceived importance to any members of the cult here. If we go for seduction bait, we'll probably be rather passive, perhaps briefly mistaking the man for our deceased brother or father. If we go for the 'real' villain, we probably let them wipe the floor with the guys with rifles before we trick-shot their guns out of their hands, or hit one of them with the stormcaster, forcing the other to abandon their partner and force a later rescue plot.

Enjou · Mar 26, 2018

RogueInquisitor said:
and our mission is to try to attract attention from the death cult, which we can't do if we leave.

Too late for that. The party is essentially over. People are going to go home once the excitement is over.

We've managed to get a clue to work with (the Earl's workers being sick) and can investigate from there. Imaginary might have managed to get some more information too. We've got enough that we can declare the night a success, if we want to.

RogueInquisitor said:
Honestly, the 'real villain/seduction target' options sounds best, as it fits with our 'dark seductress' concept we designed this disguise around, and it inflates our perceived importance to any members of the cult here.

Being Britannian Secret Service makes us stand out in the wrong way to the cult. They're not going to risk approaching us in that kind of event.

If we go for seduction bait, we'll probably be rather passive, perhaps briefly mistaking the man for our deceased brother or father. If we go for the 'real' villain, we probably let them wipe the floor with the guys with rifles before we trick-shot their guns out of their hands, or hit one of them with the stormcaster, forcing the other to abandon their partner and force a later rescue plot.

The problem with that is that it forces us into a route opposing them when we don't have a Shaping defense... which is very troublesome against this kind of foe.

GardenerBriareus · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Fuck their shit up by denying them the narrative!

Delwgun said:
Fuck Raksha with a rusted rake.
[X] Fuck their shit up by denying them the narrative!

It's Raksha. Fae-folk. Fairies. Eldritch beings from the wyld and they are the most annoying things in exalted.
They are basically living narratives that somehow gained sentience. dont give into them and vote for something else than what they are trying to give us.

God, I need to finish that rewrite of them I've been fiddling with. At least the rewrite means you can sort-of coexist with them. If they haven't chosen a narrative that inherently fucks up your goals or endangers you. And you don't mind them essentially stealing prayer from the local gods, because they feed by hijacking the Essence flow mortals normally produce through prayer by getting them to acknowledge/play into its chosen role. And you can keep them from establishing a freehold by suborning a demesne, because that touches the dragon lines in bad places.

And you can avoid everything going to shit if/when they manage to sufficiently sabotage the area's managerial divinities and/or geomancy that Loom glitches start to become a noticeable issue, at which point either Yu Shan sends someone to find out WTF (if you're reasonably distant from the Wyld itself) or the Outer Chaos slowly creeps in and stronger Wyld entities start circling as they spot an opportunity to infect the area's weakened Loom and subvert it, so now the area is being metaphysically run according to a SCD-tier Spawn of Chaos' chosen setting conceits instead of the laws of Creation.

Chaos has a nasty way of spreading, after all.

Still, these dipshits are either about to get killed and trigger a lockdown & combing of the attendees, or murder someone we could have used as an information source, neither of which serves our goals. My vote is to figure out a means of painting them as escaped mental patients; that would nicely undermine their James Bond gimmick.

GardenerBriareus · Mar 26, 2018

Akuma-Heika said:
A question, how many Lunars are still on Creation and how many ended up locked out in the Wyld when everything went screwy? Based on Seyrun's comments, the Wyld is separated from reality now (I am assuming this means the Deep Wyld and Chaos...does this mean the majority of the Raksha have been eaten since none could run to Creation after the failure of the Crusade leading to a new breed of Raksha that just eats Raksha? [leading to greater population densities to attract said raksha]). How do Bordermarches form on Earth?

Not the OP, but based on some conversations there's still plenty of Lunar Exaltations in play; presumably anyone that got locked out of Creation and couldn't find a way back in died, at which point their Exaltation peaced out back to somewhere with viable candidates to choose from.

My own contributions posited that there still exist back ways and secret paths that link Creation to the Wyld (Think entering the Hedge in Changeling: the Lost), as well as regions of former Creation that slipped free of what would become the Solar System and have essentially become Wyld-tainted pocket dimensions squirreled away in forgotten corners of reality - a few quite sizable, many of them inhabited by mortals or ex-mortals of various varieties, and most with at least some Wyld-born entities hiding from the Outer Chaos. The Border Marches generally form due to either the Wyld equivalent of a geomantic malfunction (one of the paths gets blasted wider by a surge of chaotic Essence and starts leaking, or a pocket dimension destabilizes and partially phases into Creation proper) or deliberate action from a thaumaturge, Sorcerer, or powerful Wyld-thing. The first Emperor of China made efforts to cultivate spots of Wyld-tainted land for various purposes, and he wasn't the first, or the last, to do so.

Alexander89 · Mar 26, 2018

ShadowAngelBeta said:
*Gives Alexander an exasperated look* ... Yeah, sure, whatever.

Enjou said:
Ok. Not exactly a small mistake given known consequences for it, but I'll trust you did it for narrative reasons. Not like anyone who is capable of noticing is going to care, given what's happening now.

I swear I have a good reason for that. I mean, it's not like I have things happen at random just to make things interesting. That would be wholly unprofessional.

Akuma-Heika said:
A question, how many Lunars are still on Creation and how many ended up locked out in the Wyld when everything went screwy? Based on Seyrun's comments, the Wyld is separated from reality now (I am assuming this means the Deep Wyld and Chaos...does this mean the majority of the Raksha have been eaten since none could run to Creation after the failure of the Crusade leading to a new breed of Raksha that just eats Raksha? [leading to greater population densities to attract said raksha]). How do Bordermarches form on Earth?

Enjou said:
Not sure, but most of them are long dead. Everyone who wasn't truly immortal when all that went down has long since perished, so pretty much only higher end gods, demons, or other spirits would still be around. So at this point all the Lunar Exaltations will largely be back on play on Earth.

NSMS said:
With the obvious exception of Chimera.

After 5000 years, even the remaining Chimera are dead (read: killed). Not a single canon Lunar is still alive, and the Exaltations have gone to new chosen. For the Raksha-

Enjou said:
Apparently some areas of the world just become Wyld zones on occasion for extended periods of time, though I believe this isn't permanent. Currently a large chunk of Australia is one. So it's not like there aren't access points.

GardenerBriareus said:
Not the OP, but based on some conversations there's still plenty of Lunar Exaltations in play; presumably anyone that got locked out of Creation and couldn't find a way back in died, at which point their Exaltation peaced out back to somewhere with viable candidates to choose from.

My own contributions posited that there still exist back ways and secret paths that link Creation to the Wyld (Think entering the Hedge in Changeling: the Lost), as well as regions of former Creation that slipped free of what would become the Solar System and have essentially become Wyld-tainted pocket dimensions squirreled away in forgotten corners of reality - a few quite sizable, many of them inhabited by mortals or ex-mortals of various varieties, and most with at least some Wyld-born entities hiding from the Outer Chaos. The Border Marches generally form due to either the Wyld equivalent of a geomantic malfunction (one of the paths gets blasted wider by a surge of chaotic Essence and starts leaking, or a pocket dimension destabilizes and partially phases into Creation proper) or deliberate action from a thaumaturge, Sorcerer, or powerful Wyld-thing. The first Emperor of China made efforts to cultivate spots of Wyld-tainted land for various purposes, and he wasn't the first, or the last, to do so.

This. Think of original Creation as an island and the Wyld as the sea. Here, in this CG/Exalted crossover, now it's similar to Materium/Immaterium of 40K, with the Wyld being a different dimension that can, on occasion, seeps through a crack.

Krain · Mar 26, 2018

I wonder if we can capture them?
Raksha could be a pretty decent gift to a Third Circle like, say, Ligier.

frozenchicken · Mar 26, 2018

[X] Rifles are so undignified. Much better to use smaller and more streamline guns, like the ones they concealed on themselves.

I'm honestly just backing up Enjou's plan because I'm super amused at the thought of the Raksha having their narrative interrupted by a grieving maiden who pulls off insane trickshots and has an infinite armoury of weapons apparently hidden in her cleavage. Bonus points if Lulu pulls out a rocket launcher or other similarly sized object.

...Granted, being too absurd in this situation might just make supernaturallly aware people think we're a Raksha as well. We'll want to watch the impression we give off.

RogueInquisitor · Mar 26, 2018

Alright, another possible idea: when the shooting starts, we draw the Brittanian pistol, and rush towards the disturbance like Taylor towards Lung. We show up just as things are wrapping up, point the weapon, then freeze, mistaking the man for our dead brother. It demonstrates some combat ability and willingness to risk ourselves (plus, we just tore into those two girls for cowardice - we can't just scream and run when things get dangerous now). We get involved in the Raksha's scene, but not as a major antagonist nor a Britannian agent.

Enjou · Mar 26, 2018

RogueInquisitor said:
Alright, another possible idea: when the shooting starts, we draw the Brittanian pistol, and rush towards the disturbance like Taylor towards Lung. We show up just as things are wrapping up, point the weapon, then freeze, mistaking the man for our dead brother. It demonstrates some combat ability and willingness to risk ourselves (plus, we just tore into those two girls for cowardice - we can't just scream and run when things get dangerous now). We get involved in the Raksha's scene, but not as a major antagonist nor a Britannian agent.

Honestly I see no reason to go for the dead brother angle. Really, it would be kind of creepy if nothing else, under the whole "target for seduction" idea.

RogueInquisitor · Mar 26, 2018

Enjou said:
Honestly I see no reason to go for the dead brother angle. Really, it would be kind of creepy if nothing else, under the whole "target for seduction" idea.

I was actually thinking that this would drop the 'target for seduction' angle, as we're little more than a bystander, and not an agent of some spy service. The dead brother thing is just to explain why we don't shoot them, and don't get shot in turn.

Enjou · Mar 26, 2018

RogueInquisitor said:
I was actually thinking that this would drop the 'target for seduction' angle, as we're little more than a bystander, and not an agent of some spy service. The dead brother thing is just to explain why we don't shoot them, and don't get shot in turn.

A bystander has no reason to get involved in the scene, and our caste mark is glowing. Besides, being more than a bystander Dragonblooded inserts us into the narrative better.

chrisleech · Mar 26, 2018

I have no idea what just happened after the Zalgo text interrupt. I have no idea who these characters are, and I can't follow what's going on at all.

Green Sun, Black Shadows (CG/Exalted)

Only Sane Man

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Here comes the rain.

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Probably evil, unfortunately.

Unlimited Blue Works

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Pet the pretty kitty? Y/N

Does not have a custom title.

Unexpected!

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The Finder of Things Left Behind