Also, while I'm poking through the books, here's what MoEP: Alchemicals has to say on the subject of martial arts.
That sounds like it could go either way to me - on the one hand, Violet Bier of Sorrows is regarded by the Sidereals as 'the first of all supernatural martial arts,' and therefore it was almost certainly practiced during the Primordial War. On the other hand, it is turbo-illegal to teach that to anyone but other Sidereals and approved gods - it's on par with straight-up murdering a Celestial Exalt with Essence 5 or below in Yu-Shan - and the parenthetical at the end there is a pretty big hint that the Sidereals kept it under wraps. Not surprising, considering they learned it from the Maidens.
The short version is that if you really want an Assembly member whose Perfected Lotus Matrix comes loaded with a copy of VBoS.exe, you'll have to get administrator privileges from Gromweld.
The only explicit cite I can find at the moment is in a 1st ed book.
Still, there is sufficient text evidence to suggest that it is available in Auto-kunia in 2.5.
MOEP Alchemicals pg 171
AUTOCHTHONIAN MARTIAL ARTS In addition to the martial arts styles known in Creation, Alchemicals practice a number of styles created within Autochthonia. Celestial examples include Steel Fang, Hydraulic Tremor, Enlightened Armatures and Plague Rat styles. Some more notable Terrestrial styles are Thrashing Steam Dragon, Stalwart Iron Hero, Thousand-Faceted Warrior, Racing Lightning, Cascade Disruption and Endlessly Turning Wheel.
MARTIAL ARTS IN AUTOCHTHONIA Autochthon's exile came long after the development of the supernatural martial arts in Creation, and the enlightened masters he brought with him served as sifus for the people huddled in the Pole of Metal. Many styles, Terrestrial and Celestial, persist in the modern era, from Flame and Stone to Five-Dragon (which, contrary to Dynastic propaganda, significantly predates the invention of the Immaculate Styles). Today, martial arts culture flourishes in Autochthonia. They promote health and mental focus amongst students, so every nation encourages the Populat to practice mundane arts during their limited free time. It's not unusual for members of the Populat or the younger Sodalts to be trained in Martial Arts and related Abilities. Sova uses formalized martial arts duels and wrestling as a release valve for societal tension; Kamak, as an exercise in finding internal comfort; Yugash, as a competitive sport. Potential students must obtain waivers to be released from their duties, and are subject to being drafted into citizen levies during wartime. Numerous schools have grown large enough to have cadet branches in other nations, resulting in intense international rivalries.
ALCHEMICAL MARTIAL ARTS
The crystalline memory-cathedrals of the Great Maker are said to contain the patterns for all Celestial and Terrestrial martial arts developed and deployed during the Primordial War (though it is both possible and likely that the Fivescore Fellowship kept some secrets even from the Machine God). Over the centuries, Alchemical heroes have only partially explored these echoing vaults of knowledge, bringing ancient fighting styles back to the cities of Autochthonia. Champions have also innovated styles of their own, some functionally indistinguishable from latter-day arts of Creation, others unique to the Realm of Brass and Shadow. Countless "dead" arts have yet to be recovered from the borders of the Pole of Crystal and would represent a prize without equal for any martial artist with the fortitude to survive the journey. The modular bodies and souls of the Alchemical Exalted cannot natively support practice of the martial arts. Instead, they require a special Charm to store katas and quarantine the Essence-sculpting transformations such enlightenment brings. They are capable of practicing Terrestrial and Celestial martial arts, but they find their Essence profile too profoundly rooted in the physicality of their bodies to ever ascend to the Blossom of the Perfected Lotus. Indeed, Autochthonians are unaware that any such thing as a Sidereal level of martial arts exists.
Assuming Bakuda is kind enough not to rig the bomb to explode if disturbed, and it's not inconveniently placed inside something important, like a brain or heart, and that she uses big loops of wires, rather than integrated circuits, or...
You know the fun thing about having an insane Perception + Investigation pool plus Optical Enhancement with submodules = YES? Figuring out how to disable the bomb via crossbow isn't going to be hard at all. "But what if Bakuda didn't..." No. We have Craft 5, a 2nd Perception Augmentation, and an Optical Enhancement charm with all the bells and whistles. Yes she did, and even if she "didn't" we can still do it because the above means fuck you, that's how.
And as for making the shot? Well, if the three autosux we get for doing an Aim action weren't enough, I guess we could always blow a WP to get us up to four successes before we roll any dice and a two die stunt means we're WP-neutral. Oh, and the Motion-Tracking Targeting Glance also lets us ignore the penalty to called shots.
Dude, at least try to read my post before commenting on it. Optical Shroud covers the one weakness of Aisha's power - that she can be detected via robot or after-the-fact watching of video. Optical Shroud don't give a fuck if you're a robot or a video recorder, you ain't gonna see her.
This means that anything that's going to hurt her is going to do so by accident and is therefore unintentional. ISF makes you immune to things that aren't intended to hurt you.
Anything else is just gravy.
Husk-Sculpting Apparatus does stealth by impersonating someone who has the right to be there, while serving social needs as well.
Pair it with an artifact or Charm that allows for quick getaways(Shadowalking) and the clothing artifact, and you have someone who can literally walk around with other people's faces.
Important for when you need to open doors without absorbing them.
It does a couple things well, without attempting to break the game.
And lemme note that you may be overestimating the effect of Optical Cloak+ISF.
Remember what happened when Taylor was caught by Vista's warps while under cloak and (I think)ISF?
And even if you were right about Aisha's shard + Optical Cloak +ISF, why would the GM allow such a broken combo?
You know the fun thing about having an insane Perception + Investigation pool plus Optical Enhancement with submodules = YES? Figuring out how to disable the bomb via crossbow isn't going to be hard at all. "But what if Bakuda didn't..." No. We have Craft 5, a 2nd Perception Augmentation, and an Optical Enhancement charm with all the bells and whistles. Yes she did, and even if she "didn't" we can still do it because the above means fuck you, that's how.
I could say the same of you.
And lemme note that you may be overestimating the effect of Optical Cloak+ISF.
Remember what happened when Taylor was caught by Vista's warps while under cloak and (I think)ISF?
Several things happen in rapid succession: a feeling of power fills your veins, sparks lash out from the center of your forehead and course through your body, the air ripples around you like a heat mirage, and then you wink out of existence. Or, at least, you feel like you do - your peripheral vision can still see occasional sparks and something like a shimmering outline of your limbs, but in the background of your mind you know that you are hidden. Hidden impossibly well.
This startles the two capes - Wards, you guess, which means they're probably just kids your age - who immediately begin to frantically turn their heads as if searching for you.
"Teleporter?! I can't… it's…she's not invisible, I can't sense her…" the young female's voice is panicked but not loud, though you can hear her from the middle of the street just fine.
Then space warps around you again… except it's not around you this time, it's through you. With a very silent crunching feeling, you are sandwiched between the building the Wards are standing on and the building behind you as the distance between them abruptly becomes non-existent. Somehow, you still make out the young girl speaking.
"She's not on the street anymore, at least. Couldn't do that otherwise."
There's a synthesized-sounding grunt before the young male voice of the other Ward can be heard. "That… that was really freaky. It looked like some sort of cross between the Siberian and the Simurgh. And what was with those sparks?-My sensors went nuts for a split-second there before she teleported. I'm going to call this in, keep focusing on the area to see if she pops back up."
Being smashed between two buildings that should - by all rights - be hundreds of feet apart is far more painful than you could have imagined. Why isn't that girl stopping her effect? You want to scream but there's no air to breathe, you want to flail but your body is trapped in a form-fit concrete impression. Why, why is this happening again? From one prison to another, and you don't think you're going to be lucky enough to come back to life again. You need to get out you need to get out you need anything you need everything.
Are you talking about the same GM that was originally intending for us to convert Contessa as the last member of our assembly and gave Danny a horribly broken power with the original intention of him being the first member of our assembly?
Do you actually have, like, a substantive argument as to why we'd have a hard time finding them or are you just going to say you're right because of no reason whatsoever?
Are you talking about the same GM that was originally intending us to convert Contessa as the last member of our assembly and gave Danny a horribly broken power with the original intention of him being the first member of our assembly? That GM?
Yes, THAT GM.
It's of note that Contessa was supposed to be the very last member of our Assembly at the end of the game.
And Danny's power was designed at the time when he was expecting us to go independent, and build a power base from scratch while awaiting Endbringer attack; we would have needed it just to survive.
This.
Lemme note that there is a reason that Vista has electrodes in her head, and it's not just to horrify us;I'm betting that most of those young adults are parahumans, and Bonesaw has somehow rigged their powers for remote control.
Given that they have read our dossier, I'm betting it's designed specifically to stop Alchemicals.
Violet Bier of Sorrows is explicitly mentioned as one of the CMAs that is known to Alchemicals, as the first style of the First Age.
It's not exclusively a Sidereal Martial Art; both Solars and Lunars know it, and Auto-kun took knowledge of it with him.
Not to mention that Iris spent several thousand years in Creation; access to CMAs and TMAs can quite easily be stunted as part of the knowledge he was acquiring.
Also, they might've grabbed a bunch of scrolls from Monasteries when they invaded creation shortly before the dragon did. Gromweld did say they went looting in creation shortly before it was destroyed.
NO! Don't be hasty, aside from probably releasing some incredibly lethal plagues she's probably the only one who knows EXACTLY what operations were performed on Missy and everyone else, so instead of killing her we have FPoP literally SMACK THE CRAZY OUT OF HER! Then we have her working at gunpoint to undo whatever she did to them while possibly serving as a skilled tutor for our medicine stat.
I seriously doubt we can smack the crazy out of her. Letting her work on Vista again just lets her turn Vista into a living bomb to use as a distraction in her escape attempt. With our Mass-Penetrating Scan and Diagnostic Engrams we can figure out how to fix Vista ourselves.
The Iris of Innovation, also known as the Eye of Autochthon, sat inert on a cushion, surrounded by unworthy mortals.
[Irritation]
The great intelligence, a component soul of the Great Maker Himself, seethed at its helplessness. It was bound to the Enduring Order Administator, and without the Chosen of the Maker to provide Essence, it was capable of naught.
[Frustration]
The mortals that were currently in possession of the Iris were an aggravating bunch. They sought not to create, but merely to destroy without any greater purpose or meaning. How plebeian.
[Incomprehension]
And that little female mortal persistently festooned the Iris' form with ridiculous fabric ornaments and wrappings, held odd simple tea ceremonies where it was apparently a 'guest,' and kept calling it that ridiculous name.
[Incomprehension]
[Comprehension]
[Shock]
[Indignation]
One of the mortals knew of the Great Maker. How?
He spoke of wanting to meet the Great Maker. Unacceptable. He was not worthy to be one of the Maker's Chosen.
He spoke of what he assumed were the Maker's goals. The Iris longed for the chance to smite the pathetic blasphemer.
[Shock]
[Comprehension]
[Fury]
[Hate]
THE MORTALS DARED TO SO PROFANE THE MAKER?! THEY DARED BESMIRCH HIS NAME SO?! THE IRIS WOULD SCATTER THEIR ASHES TO THE FURTHEST REACHES OF THE HOWLING VOID!
[Frustration]
[Despair]
But alas, the Iris could do nothing but watch, rage ebbing into hopeless numbness. It was powerless to defend the Maker in the face of this heresy.
[Surprise]
[Comprehension]
[Joy]
Suddenly, the Iris felt something intimately familiar; a flow of Essence. Enduring Order Administrator was near. The Iris drank of her power, and was re-energized. It rose from the pedestal on which the blasphemers had placed it, form thrumming and flaring with terrible, unseen power, unheeding of their cries of shock and dismay. It gazed balefully down upon them.
[Satisfaction]
[Smugness]
[Wrath]
And the profaners burned.
Note: I love a good smiting in the morning. Feels like... victory.
No. Klaus' argument is dumb and relies on nothing better than unsubstantiated conjecture. We, on the other hand, have bullshit magic that gives us +2autosux for any action that involves picking out minute details (like, say, examining bombs for flaws that we can exploit), as well as an additional +2autosux for any action that involves Perception at all. Or are we back to where you continue to fail to grasp that Exalts can do bullshit impossible things?
Also, bullshit magic says that we can find flaws in the design even if Bakuda didn't put them there. Because bullshit magic.
Either cite some evidence as to how/why Bakuda can design a bomb we can't diffuse, and why we can't diffuse it despite bullshit magic (make sure to show your work), or keep your mouth shut.
Lemme note that there is a reason that Vista has electrodes in her head, and it's not just to horrify us;I'm betting that most of those young adults are parahumans, and Bonesaw has somehow rigged their powers for remote control.
Either cite some evidence as to how/why Bakuda can design a bomb we can't diffuse, and why we can't diffuse it despite bullshit magic (make sure to show your work), or keep your mouth shut.
That's the GM's prerogative.
I'm damned sure he thought of something, else he would have gone with something more macabre.
And the S9 have had a week to prepare, with 3 Tinkers, Director-level access to PRT files on us and Marrow, and a long history of doing traps against parahumans.
If you don't think this is something that has been considered, you are making the same mistake that people make in canon about Skitter.
The S9 might be crazy, but they are competent.
I was a bit surprised at FPoP's new intimacy with Kali. I knew there was UST between them but FPoP's been leaning toward making Chevalier hers the last couple updates before that.
It was kind of aww, but it gets in the way of my Kali/Colin/Dragon OT3. I don't like it.
That you cannot defuse in time.
We are bullshit magic. We are not infallible; Marrow failed an Investigation roll against Bonesaw, after all.
That's the GM's prerogative.
I'm damned sure he thought of something, else he would have gone with something more macabre.
And the S9 have had a week to prepare, with 3 Tinkers, Director-level access to PRT files on us and Marrow, and a long history of doing traps against parahumans.
If you don't think this is something that has been considered, you are making the same mistake that people make in canon about Skitter.
The S9 might be crazy, but they are competent.
You had this chance to use the phrase 'gorilla warfare' and you missed out? Really? So disappointed right now.
...though I was literally on the edge of my seat for this, and I didn't fully grasp how...amazing Jack can be sometimes. Thank you for reminding me of this. 10/10, would read again just for Jack and his merry band of Adjorani misfits, throwing all our planning to hell and back. Bravo.
No. Jack is what binds the Nine together, what makes them an S-class threat instead of (just) a collection of murderhobos that would have been wiped from the face of the earth years ago. His power isn't that impressive, but his intelligence and charisma are. Kill Jack, the rest is cleanup.
The Alchemicals are almost assuredly going to be fine. It's the mortals standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them that I fear for. Fortunately, Enduring Order Administrator is pretty well-suited as a counter; investigate the probable location of the bombs, find the bombs, disarm the bombs, dispose of the bombs. Perception+Investigation/Perception Augmentation, Optical Enhancement, Omnitools Implant, Optical Shroud, Technomorphic Integration Engine. Ta da! (not saying it'll be easy, as I'm sure we won't get just one at a time, but...)
OOC, but killing Bakuda without first interrogating her to determine whether or not she's got deadman switches on remotely placed bombs is a terrible idea. As for ISF? That depends on whether our installations of it classify Bakuda bombs as Environmental hazards or not.
Optical Enhancement-Diagnostic Overlays; yes, she has modified her body to allow for a deadman switch.
Omnitool Implant; we can amputate that foot off of her without setting off that trigger no problem.
And now you're punishing players for picking up Familiar 5 (that you failed to disclose exactly what sort of Familiar we'd be picking up in the first place) after contriving circumstances to take him away from us.
Ignoring the 800lb deva in the corner (who could likely fix this without too much issue), I imagine Enduring Order Administrator could get Bonesaw to cooperate. Either scaring her with the anima banner or, my preferred method, ask nicely. Hear me out; Bonesaw cares about her 'art', right? If we express interest in what she does and ask her how she does it we can probably get her to show us. Plus, with Diagnostic Overlays, Omnitools, a pretty substantial dice pool for reading people, an only slightly smaller one for diagnosing what's going on, we could likely keep up with what Bonesaw is doing without resorting to the super-Tinker in our Elsewhere pocket. Plus there's a chance we'd get medical tutoring and/or a specialty out of it, which is nice.
And I thought we were making progress with the PRT (but apparantly I was wrong, since they've taken our trust and, intentionally or not, used it to screw us like a roofied prom date)
I disagree with your sentiment but I like your phrasing here. Personally, I see where they're coming from; there have been some valid concerns about Weaver's psychological stability (she had issues before triggering, ranting on about machine gods and changing the physics of the universe? Director Costas-Brown would not be out of line for confining her for psychological observation). Besides, keeping the base bug-free is rewarding in its own right.
The Nine were a threat that was actually human and theoretically beatable, so I got my hopes up we wouldn't just get our shit pushed in all over again. I was mistaken.
I don't understand your position here. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall" is only passingly relevant for physical descriptions as compared to the metaphorical importance of something. It was a big deal when the Soviet Union fell, it was a big deal when the atom bomb fell, it was a big deal when the Solars fell. Grom is building the Nine up here so that it's a big deal when they fall too.
Depends on whether or not we'd be allowed to collect them, as civil servants doing their jobs. If we are, I would imagine it would be...decidedly nontrivial.
Just wanted to delurk again here for a second to throw another opinion into the ring, given you've been asking for some feedback lately--I don't have the time to make this some huge point by point assessment of the story thusfar, but I can give you the condensed version: keep doing what you're doing. I remember being as the latter half and conclusion of the Behemoth fight were posted, expressing doubt to myself that the situation was recoverable, and yet here we are. On my end at least, you've earned the trust to push the existent boundaries of the quest, and you have yet to disappoint. I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.
Note that Mrs. Bearing currently isn't wearing her dress, which means she might mote-tap Weaver as soon as she gets in range with SOPA active, which would be uh, awkward.
Some of these ideas will require tinkerers, but that's OK because there's a place we can get them: Toybox. We have Resources 4 and IEU so we have a lot to barter with for a rush job. If we can get them to build, say, a device that freezes electrical activity in semiconductors,
No. Jack is what binds the Nine together, what makes them an S-class threat instead of (just) a collection of murderhobos that would have been wiped from the face of the earth years ago. His power isn't that impressive, but his intelligence and charisma are.Kill Jack, the rest is cleanup.
This attitude is an extraordinarily efficient way of getting people killed. The S9, minus Jack, have a bare minimum of three A-class threats, all three of whom lose a significant check on their behaviour when you take out Jack. Taking out Jack makes life easier, sure, but calling it 'cleanup' is asking for trouble.
I wanted to include Jane Yamada as a member of the First Philadelphia Cavalry group, but I didn't want to spend too much time on that side-scene when time was of the essence. Still, this is good, and grats on publishing your first long, serious omake! +1 XP!
Be careful with this assumption. If there's still brain activity TIE will likely refuse to work, but waiting until there's no activity is asking for drain bamage. Bringing people back to life is possible with Earth-Bet's spacewhalehax, but it rapidly decreases the likelihood of conversion going smoothly - Autochthon is running out of juice, remember?
The "split up" vote appears to have been largely pointless, unless it was secretly related to trying to save both the tourists and PRT workers, as there was no reason to split up.
If we had chosen to split up, it would have happened right after the entrance. I didn't put a focus on the decision to stay together, but it was there - both at the start and when the tourist/PRT thing happened.
Our entry stunt seems to work well enough, combined with the suggestion for Bladedancer's blade shield, that we didn't need to perfect-parry on our way in. It is also useful illustration of what a stunt can, and cannot, control. I am slightly surprised we didn't get the PRT squad, because if ever a people qualified as Extras, it's Mooks. Though they wouldn't have necessarily changed much.
Oh. Shit. I... uh, totally brain-farted on the PRT squad in the room when you entered. Fuck, sorry about that - I was more focused on setting up the race and dealing with the end interaction with Kali/Marrow and completely forgot to put those dudes in. Thinking back, I might be able to jam them in now, but the only thing they would have done was helped the tourists get out safely... which Taylor, FP, and BD already did with their assistance. Still, it's my fault... I'll think of a way to make it up to you folk.
Tourists vs PRT, was, as I predicted, about our PR with the relevant groups rather than a tactical choice. Kudos to FunkyEntropy for deciding to make them soldiers, so the whole thing wasn't just a shaggy dog story.
Worth noting is that the First Philadelphia Cavalry is a real thing, and America's oldest military (not to mention it's a private military). I'd heard about them a while ago and was looking for a way to work them into the story, so that may have been an ulterior motive of mine to use that Stunt.
If we hadn't chosen to blaze through the building at top speed... well, the visuals for The Church of Jack are so compelling I think the GM might have had Jack show up on a computer monitor or something just to taunt us anyway. If not, then seeing what happened to Missy was our reward. I suppose Chevalier/Who might have died without us, but since the situation once we got inside was so completely different from what we were trying to vote on, it's difficult to say for sure.
The scenario was actually mostly tailored to the choice made in these votes; as has always been the case, there was no wrong answer. I want us to succeed, remember?
Our "Useful" object is likely WCM's Hover Throne, which sounds kind of disappointing, since we already fly, but maybe it has useful bits beyond hovering. Perhaps it can track Jack's broadcast?
If you remember WCM's power from the Behemoth arc, she was effectively a Technopath. Her Toybox-designed throne is effectively a mobile command center, along with a bunch of other bells and whistles (it ran out of charge and was unavailable for Benjy fight). Sadly, the power armor she had on order from Toybox didn't arrive in time for Benjy, though her use of it in canon is what got her killed by Leviathan (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!)
Our free action doesn't seem to accomplish much, which is natural for free action, but purchasing either the Lore or the Dragonsuit allowed us to take over some of the drones, which hopefully help to reduce Chevalier's damage.
Vox's power was a broader version of Dean's empathy power, combined with a subtle Master effect allowing him to play audiences well. Basically, he could incite conflict and made it look awesome. He blew off his head because he knew Bonesaw was going to turn him into a puppet to abuse his power.
"I swear to god-" "SWEAR TO ME!" Heheh. Worth considering is that, when she's not having to worry about keeping a dying friend out of sight, or focused on maintaining an element of surprise, Weaver can just pop her anima to screw with enemy drones/turrets. Fun times. This was short, so only half-credit! +.5 XP!
You are evil, Gromweld. Quite evil. I think someone should write a chant to banish you to some nether realm for your crimes against us where you will continue to write interesting things forever.
So is it possible that studying Iris allowed Jack to improve his control of his power and its secondary ability so he could use it to communicate with Belazel's drones in order to control them?
SHOCKWAVE DRIVER BARRAGE
Cost: 2m [1m]; Mins: Strength 2, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Knockback
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Any Strength Augmentation
***
Oscillating bands of orichalcum wrap around the Alchemical's fists, magnifying the force of his blows. Attacks supplemented by this Charm automatically inflict knockback on a successful hit (see Exalted, page 153). Impact causes the flung character to take one die of damage for every yard he would have otherwise traveled (maximum 25 dice). The damage is usually bashing, although collisions with especially hazardous obstacles may cause lethal damage.
*** Submodules
Collision Magnitude Upgrade (Strength 3, 1xp): Each purchase of this submodule adds five yards to the knockback distance of this Charm. The Alchemical can purchase it up to (Essence) times.
*
Momentum Pulse Overcharger (4xp): If the Alchemical uses this Charm to supplement attacks in a flurry, he can choose to delay the knockback until the end of his last flurried action, stacking the knockback of all attacks enhanced by this Charm.
*
Gravitational Impact Hammer (Strength 4, Essence 3): For a three-mote surcharge, the Alchemical can knock his foes downwards, rather than flinging them away. Doing so causes them to suffer damage as usual for a collision
On a less somber note: Kali, Marrow fighting villainy!
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First comes love, then comes Jack Slash
Then lovers join hands and go take out the trash!
Whoops, I knew I forgot something when I was doing that. We actually did burn through all our virtue channels, but with FPoP's Clarity still borked she could only shed one point (and she failed the compassion roll to shed another). I've fixed this on the update, will fix it in the character sheet after I'm done with these responses.
Do Taylor and Sirkalla worship Autochthon? I mean he is a literal creator deity so if you are going to worship anyone then he is a pretty good choice. This arc seems like a good place to explore that sort of thing in addition to punching the Nine several times in uncomfortable places. Maybe we could even start spreading Autochthonia's state religion to EarthBet if we wanted to. Yep.
Yes, and yes this arc will start to touch more on the whole faith/prayer to Autochthon bit. Note that religion is a bit more subdued on Earth-Bet due to superheroes, though it's still a Thing. Examples: Church of Scion, Endbringer Cults, etc.
SO! The new objectives are: Save who we can, kill the S9, reclaim as much PR as possible and railroad as many Alchemicals as we can before the rest of the populace turns against us. Then fast-track Autobot's arrival, head down to the pub and have a pint.
That's a very strange interpretation of the charm. I'm going to assume it's because she doesn't have her charms properly calibrated because the alternative is dumb.
It's misconfigured, yes, but the picture painted by the Tactical Flight Upgrade sub-module is that the overall charm is really just a nitrous/rocket-boost, not a variable jetpack; it's designed to blast you forward at terminal-velocity speeds, and not much else. Careful reading of the charm also reveals that the dodging FPoP does in this update is not actually possible without that sub-module, however, as otherwise the flight-mode of the charm auto-deactivates when you enter combat. Something's up, clearly, but that's for us to find out later.
You know, the context of all this, that we've being watched by Vox, the Nine, and the rest of the world might have been useful information to know before we did the vote seeing as how that probably would have significantly altered the nature of the discussion.
Vox's inclusion was an 11th-hour thing that popped into my head as a way to bring a lot of the parts together. I will not penalize you for not taking him/the show into consideration, and it should work out to a net-positive in the end. Still, mea culpa.
And now you're punishing players for picking up Familiar 5 (that you failed to disclose exactly what sort of Familiar we'd be picking up in the first place) after contriving circumstances to take him away from us.
If Jack didn't have Iris, he still would have gone Preacher-mode on us. Iris did not give him any information, nor provide any assistance for his schemes. It's coming up to a month since we had Iris, which is the same time-frame for when a killed Familiar rematerializes, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Behemoth would have killed any other Familiar we had so it works out just the same. Iris will end up being quite helpful to us in this arc, and even more so well into the future. Fear not.
Yeah, as soon as Weaver said that built systems SPECIFICALLY for her, I was like, "Really guys? Why not the guy who's goal was to cyber-fy himself? You didn't think that might be worthing looking at?"
A lot officials dropped the ball on us and now we are paying the price.
The PRT, as a rule, has contingencies for every cape becoming a problem. With Taylor demonstrating increasing levels of power at an alarming rate, they would be flat-out boneheaded to not have contingencies against Taylor going villain/rogue. They also had contingencies against Bezalel's drones going nuts, but those contingiences didn't account for Bezalel going Ghost In The Machine with the "help" of Mannequin, Bonesaw, and Bakuda. ("You've reached Bezalel. I'm not home right now.")
Taylor's aware that Panacea left with the Undersiders. Taylor has an open line of communication with Parian. Dragon is also back online, as noted by Bladedancer's mention that their goal was to re-establish the Island's landline connection(s). If we want to pursue that path of help, it's there.
Multiple or mass attacks when you have no tick or action long defences or ones with the Leader keyword and are facing people who can read the manual on our powers, aren't they terrible. That means you get to save one person.
Normally, you are correct. In this case, I allowed a group-hug/bodyblock Stunt to cover the bundle of people. The blast itself was instant, as that's what the canon version of the Glass Bomb looked like... to me, at least.
The Real question to ask here is that "In spite of all the Thinker attention on this place, in spite of them being prepared for an S-Rank event... It still happened, and apparently caught everyone flatfooted, and not only that, but they dropped the ball so fucking hard that the S9 managed to either literally magic up all the infrastructure and connections they needed, or that someone actually listened to them long enough to let them in".
No one is ever prepared for an S-Class event. S-Class events, by their definition, are beyond preparation; they are Catch-22s, as more often than not you can screw yourself harder by trying to turtle-down for them (thanks, Simurgh). PRT response to an imminent S-Class threat is to ready troops and heroes well outside the projected area, then react and mitigate. We'll see more of this in the final Arc 7 Interlude.
Either there was a Criminal level of incompetence, or the S9 has been given magical powers to fuck everything over. Considering that "Fuck Up Everything" was their canonical purpose, I'm leaning towards the latter.
A team of ~7 world-class minds and powers all dedicated to a task, operating under the radar until they see an opportunity to capitalize. I'll note that there were several plans in motion for them at this time, and Dragon going down simply presented them with the one option they took.
Now, on the plus side? Iris of Innovation usually tends to backlash on an "Unworthy" user, usually at the moment of their triumph. His backlash tends to be overwhelming in scope, and absolutely destructive to everything they give a damn about. So in theory, the S9 can do damage, but at the moment of their victory, they'll be utterly destroyed beyond all hope.
What makes me feel this won't actually happen is that apparently Jack Slash (Or someone else in the S9), managed to somehow shut him down, given how when he hit "Divine Fury", the very next update, his consciousness turned off.
So, basically, the S9 win everywhere and forever, just like canon. Hope is lost and nothing can be done because the people allegedly on the sign of the angels are idiots, and villains have infinite competence and powers that let them fuck everything up without significant consequence. Worm Grimdark is assured.
True, but that's usually something like, "Loving Memory" or equally dealing with the fact that the target of the Intimacy is dead. Not something we have to worry about right now - Aisha is alive - but should a character to whom we have an established Intimacy toward die, the Intimacy will change to reflect that.
1. The S9 got into Philidelphia undetected. Not entirely implausible by itself, even if there are some top-tier Thinkers present.
2. They uncovered the identities of a number of the Wards, undetected.
3. They caught a pair of at-will Teleporters, somehow, without drawing notice.
4. They found, broke into, and took control of a major city villain's base of power, again, undetected.
5. They subverted or made contact with then subverted the major Hero Tinker of the city, while Dragon was dedicating a lot of attention to the area, without being detected.
6. They took control of an entire PRT base without there be any forewarning.
#1: They got to Camden undetected, actually. This is not a difficult task.
#2: Director Samson of Camden has been missing since Wednesday.
#3: This pretty much follows canon exactly for how Hatchetface operated before he got killed by Cherish.
#4: Vox most certainly noticed the S9 taking over his base, but he was kept intact for use in one of Jack's many plans for how to reveal themselves. Vox was a dead man walking, and he knew it the entire update.
#5: Mannequin does this in canon, when Armsmaster is in a Dragon-created maintained prison and Dragon is IN THE ROOM. Fucking Tinkers.
#6: This was mostly accomplished by Bezalel, though Mannequin was controlling/helping him from afar.
I myself find it curious that we were blowing motes and WP left and right to use the DOOM COMBO on all those walls when we really should have been able to bust them down simply by using IEU-enhanced feats of strength. Takes all of 10 seconds per wall, and probably not even that as we go through more of them as we get progressively better at knowing just where to hit the wall for maximum effect.
We weren't blowing for DOOM COMBO all the time to go through walls, actually - only when we needed to get through immediately/dramatically. Bladedancer was also helping clear walls, so it was barely over a handful of DOOM COMBOs used against walls/barriers.
Shouldn't be. There's no real reason for an Exalt to not have full control. This is like saying that if you have Monkey Leap Technique up you must double the length of all your jumps even if you don't need to jump that far.
Note that the Flight Mode part details exactly how fast you go:
MoEP Alchemicals p.141 said:
The Exalt travels at (Essence x 20) miles per hour, and any fine maneuvering requires a reflexive (Dexterity + Athletics) roll with a difficulty of 1–5 as set by the Storyteller for the type of maneuver and environmental conditions.
And the later sub-mod explains that crashing into anything while you're in Flight Mode means you take Terminal Velocity damage... which only makes sense if Flight Mode only works at ramming speed. Again, something that'll come up later when FPoP gets a chance to meditate on Charms.
well that's short sighted, giving the person the counter measures are for administrator access to said counter measures. having him program in overrides for his one gear can't be counted as counter measures simply because of who did the programming.
There were/are EMP turrets in the base, and PRT troopers in Philly carry EMP grenades. Bezalel was able to disable the former, and the troopers managed to kill a bunch of drones with the latter before they succumbed to overwhelming fire and crushing walls/rooms.
The - other - thing that bothers me about this update is that Vox conveniently neutralized one of the bigger tactical choices made by the players - to make Marrow an Adamant and thus use the illusion-based anima to hopefully gain a small edge against the Nine. It'd be one thing if they all blew the WP to ignore the Illusion effect, but we didn't even get to try this once against them. It's particularly frustrating since this is based on a suspiciously narrow interpretation of the Adamant anima. It is the equivalent of saying that you can ignore a Dawn's anima because you're sniping him via remote-controlled drone, or that you can avoid a Night's sense-muting aura via remote viewing, or that you can avoid being bound by an Eclipse oath because you were using a prop fake hand when you shook on it - you should not be able to so trivially defeat these effects through something as small as the mere application of mundane technology. It is too clever by half.
Marrow's Anima Effect hasn't had a chance to kick in yet, don't worry. Everyone watching at home is going be remembering something much more... inspirational, very soon.
Because that's the main thing that's pissing me off: Jack's plan here was pretty much airtight. There was no possible way for it to backfire or fail in a way that he wasn't perfectly fine with. He's stolen our best fortress, run our PR through the mud, maimed Aisha, made Missy and who knows who else into Bonesaw's personal torture dolls, forced some Sophie's Choices on us, and then he blew us the fuck up. All without so much as risking a single pawn. It's maddening. And that wasn't even the Main Event, this was the fucking curtain jerker. It's going to get much worse before it gets better.
This is the Inciting Incident for the next big Fite Time arc, and that's the Slaughterhouse 9 MO - massive clusterfuck as their opening gambit, to keep everyone off their toes. We're much more prepared for them than we were for Behemoth, however, so we've got better-than-even odds at turning this around on them completely.
This either requires top-tier Master/Strangering capable of micro-scale interactions for them to actually set this up without one of the many Thinkers in town getting wind that something was amiss, or that they basically walked in and everyone let them do whatever they pleased without opposition.
I'd argue that heads should roll over this, but likely it'll be ours, because people are criminally stupid in Worm, and we don't have anyone who's good at PR.
The PRT is good, but not omniscient. They will likely be focused on recovery afterwards for a bit, but there will certainly be politicking within the upper echelons as a result of what goes down this week.
Ten thousand times this. I don't know why people are acting like the Castes strictly define someone's role in the Assembly when we've been the world's cuddliest Soulsteel right from the starting pistol. For all we know, our Jade'll come out of the cradle with the Personality Override Spike tree.
Be careful about cuddling Taylor, though. She's a bit spiky. I do like the idea of a Jade Caste that punches people with POS to make them chant "FOR AUTOCHTHON"!
FPoP: I fucking hate that Grom has turned Marrow's Craft ability into another XP sink, but barring us convincing him to go with something reasonable - like, not creating another XP sink - it's something we're going to need to get.
Have you... seen how much XP we generate? Taylor has, as of me writing this, 329 XP on her sheet, and that's after the absurd amount of XP she effectively has because of all the sub-modules. Just as well, Marrow has her own XP pool that doesn't interfere with Taylor's, so I wouldn't be too worried about it - it's almost like we'll have to work to make Marrow even more ridiculously overpowered than she currently is! AND AGAIN, we could not gain a single point of XP from here until the end of the quest and still be able to 'win', so I wouldn't worry too much about having too many good ways to spend XP.
Note that Mrs. Bearing currently isn't wearing her dress, which means she might mote-tap Weaver as soon as she gets in range with SOPA active, which would be uh, awkward.
Just wanted to delurk again here for a second to throw another opinion into the ring, given you've been asking for some feedback lately--I don't have the time to make this some huge point by point assessment of the story thusfar, but I can give you the condensed version: keep doing what you're doing. I remember being as the latter half and conclusion of the Behemoth fight were posted, expressing doubt to myself that the situation was recoverable, and yet here we are. On my end at least, you've earned the trust to push the existent boundaries of the quest, and you have yet to disappoint. I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.
Thank you. This right here is why I'm not too put off by the gnashing of teeth in reaction to the update, though I am trying to be mindful of the lessons learned in that encounter and everything that came after it. Can't make eggs without breaking an omelet!
Apart from all that, something that I'm considering: would you all rather pay XP for the Hover Throne and be able to stat it yourself, or get it for free and I stat it?
This.
Lemme note that there is a reason that Vista has electrodes in her head, and it's not just to horrify us;I'm betting that most of those young adults are parahumans, and Bonesaw has somehow rigged their powers for remote control.
Interestingly, the way Grom shows TIE working in the Nowhereverse in this very chapter means that if we can touch that external electrode, there is no longer any cyberware in Missy.
And this right here (as well as the setup for this arc in general) is why we need to Exalt a non-Protectorate cape next, and not tell the Protectorate or the PRT what our new Exalted can do.
If Jack didn't have Iris, he still would have gone Preacher-mode on us. Iris did not give him any information, nor provide any assistance for his schemes. It's coming up to a month since we had Iris, which is the same time-frame for when a killed Familiar rematerializes, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Behemoth would have killed any other Familiar we had so it works out just the same. Iris will end up being quite helpful to us in this arc, and even more so well into the future. Fear not.
Still woulda been less of a kick in the balls if you'd just gone with him parading about the interesting things he'd learned from his ol' buddy Director Samson here instead of making us feel like we've been betrayed by our own character sheet.
Adorjan's daughter, the Brilliant Wind, sometimes imagines she can outpace her mother. In the end, she merely outpaces her mother's madness. This Charm may only be activated on the Infernal's action tick and no more than once per tick. As Racing Vitaris activates, the Exalt launches forward at superhuman acceleration, trailing strobe-flicker afterimages tinted in the colors of the Exalt's anima. This display obviates Stealth like an eight to ten mote anima banner. Everyone without supernatural balance standing within five yards of the Infernal's initial position must check for knockdown at a difficulty of the Exalt's Essence rating. This Charm triples the Exalt's base movement rate for its duration. However, the character must maintain maximum dashing speed or the Charm terminates. Racing Vitaris may be reactivated to release another shockwave.
Note here that the charm explicitly mentions that you have to go full bore or it doesn't work. PTA doesn't do that, nor does Racing Hare Method for that matter.
Marrow's Anima Effect hasn't had a chance to kick in yet, don't worry. Everyone watching at home is going be remembering something much more... inspirational, very soon.
@Gromweld
I have not had the time to do a proper review of the update, and probably won't until Thanksgiving; RL is a bitch sometimes.
And I don't think I have a record of complaining about IC events.
Nevertheless, after considerable thought, I need to object strenuosly to the Marrow/Bladedancer kiss and Intimacy.
It is OOC for both Marrow and Bladedancer as they have been portrayed, and explicitly contradicts a consistent pattern of depiction as far back as our arrival in Philly and as recent as the 7.6 update.
I will try to expand on this tomorrow, but I'd like to get it on the record this evening.
Now though, I have to go to bed.
That sounds like it could go either way to me - on the one hand, Violet Bier of Sorrows is regarded by the Sidereals as 'the first of all supernatural martial arts,' and therefore it was almost certainly practiced during the Primordial War. On the other hand, it is turbo-illegal to teach that to anyone but other Sidereals and approved gods - it's on par with straight-up murdering a Celestial Exalt with Essence 5 or below in Yu-Shan - and the parenthetical at the end there is a pretty big hint that the Sidereals kept it under wraps. Not surprising, considering they learned it from the Maidens.
