Essence of the Age (Exalted Quest)

You were going to conduct an assessment of the Watch, it was all well and good to have a reliable source of recruits to pull into your actual professional irregular operations corps, but the very fact that the Watch was a prime place to pick from them meant that the most obvious Best and Brightest were already spoken for. It was something of a mess from end to end, but you had a few tricks that should let you sift through the dross in good order, and pick up the handful with the right moral fibre needed to serve as your first reasonable recruits.

"You're going to do the spooky thing to them, aren't you?" Bryn asks you after you lay out your plan. "Are you trying to make me look like some evil queen?"

You meet her gaze with your own stoic mask. "Any who can resist my pressure is, by definition, one with a formidable foundation. Even if their skills and motivation are lacking, they can be trained given time and attention."

"Do you even have the time and attention to spare?" Bryn sighs, steepling her hands together in some manner of concern. "I'll already be pulling you in several directions until we can rebuild the bureaucracy and tally up our leads on the Enemy's play. That even assumes that nothing goes terribly wrong in the meantime!"

"If things go terribly wrong, then I will simply have to work harder" You explain. "Adapt, Grow, and meet the challenges of a rapidly changing scenario." It's obvious after all. "It's for these reasons that I was created, I would be doing a disservice to my Maker by operating at less than my potential."

You have no idea how humans manage, honestly, having to master every little trick and skill one by one. What happens if they get caught out of their aptitudes and have to make do with only what they know?

Of course, given Bryn's somewhat sceptical face, she doesn't quite understand this yet–even after you've spoken to her on the Rite of Reconfiguration and its capacities, but that's fine, she'll learn when the time comes what you can really do. You had a Mission, you had Charges under your protection. You would not be found wanting.

Intimacy Revealed: Hard Work Solves All Problems (Minor Principle)

Now, all you needed to do was your Bit, and everything would steadily begin to fall into place. You wonder how many people could withstand the pressure of your aura, should you choose to exert it?
It should be fun! You were confident that this realm had wonderful people who could carry the weight you needed.

---

You were Adelmar of Rosalia, and you had just made a terrible mistake.

In the aftermath of the Night of Wicked Blades, Lady Rozen Bryn had sent out a call to the best and brightest within the City Watch, to serve as the nucleus of the rebuilt Greycloaks–the finest irregular operatives that modern techniques and equipment could muster. Headed up by the very Sword of Bryn that had turned the tide–the Final Contingency of the Founder given life in the city's time of greatest need–it would be a place of untold honour to be found… That it would also be an opportunity to network with the other elites, and potentially even gain the ear of the Steward Herself? Well, that was just a bonus.

You were confident in your skills, your spearwork was well above average, and you rarely missed a detail during your investigations and patrols. You had even fought during the Night of Wicked Blades and held your own–you thought your position was a shoe in, a formality even.

You couldn't have been more wrong.

The first feeling was a sense of pressure, like someone had begun to walk on your grave. The words of the chatting Candidates went silent, as everyone raised their guard, none here were amateurs.

But against the thing that sauntered with the easy grace of an apex predator? None were its match.

Standing with uncanny balance upon a pair of spikes, marched a revenant clad in deepest black iron. A tabard of some strange material, only slightly transparent, was the only garment she wore–cinched at the chest with a jewel that appeared as an endless abyss. This was no indication that she was some loose woman though, as her eerily petite curves were all clad with impossibly form-fitting armour.

And the face! The only mercy was that only half of it was visible, a ragged gap in the mass of hair that would have mercifully shrouded it, if not carved loose by some dark witchcraft, revealing a pale-as-bone face. And the eyes! Yellow and burning with balefire, staring with disdain at each and every one of you.

The Thing frowned, and you knew now that your fate was sealed.

---

You are Arbiter of Iron Law, and you are disappointed. Was this really the best that the Watch could do? You hadn't even begun speaking when quivering knees and screaming candidates began to lead to a general collapse, retreat, or paralysis of the group!

They couldn't handle it! You hadn't even begun to test them, and they had already washed out! This was a disaster! You thought you'd have a little bit of work to do before they'd be ready to take up the Grey Cloaks, but you didn't think you'd suffer literally no viable candidates from the Watch's ranks!

What were you going to do!

[ ] If the Watch is no good, you'll have to cast a wider net! Go on a little walk through the town and see if anyone can handle the weight of your anima!! You're sure that you'll be able to find some people with a strong foundation to work with, though you might have to start training them completely from scratch. At the end of the day though, strong moral fibre is critical to have in those who are trusted to operate independently for extended periods of time.

[ ] They took an oath! If they're just being scaredy-cats, you're sure you can conduct some important remedial training! Go catch them all and give them some proper training, you were sure that you could make something of them with a little heavy practice! Of course, it'll be a bit of a pain to chase them all down, but you're sure you can outmanoeuvre them and stop them from disappearing if they think to back down on what they swore when they took up the Steward's Coin!

[ ] Maybe you're being a little bit unreasonable? dial down your Anima and pivot to pretending like this was just a little joke–a prank! You might be able to salvage this before everyone scatters. They still do have a fair amount of experience training, and if you lower your standards just a teensy bit, maybe they'll still work out in the end? After all, you did do the Spooky Thing–as Lady Bryn called it–maybe it's a little unreasonable to expect them all to handle it on their first day of testing? Maybe some with better character will emerge more organically?