Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)

TenMoreMiles · Jul 21, 2018

...If Maryam finds out about the bread dole she's gonna want to kill everyone in the city, isn't she?

BossFight · Jul 22, 2018

@Aleph do you have any images of what the wave and water pattern looks like? I'm having trouble picturing it

Aleph · Jul 22, 2018

rogthnor said:
@Aleph do you have any images of what the wave and water pattern looks like? I'm having trouble picturing it

So! I've mentioned before that this is effectively a Style that Keris is creating herself, which she's very nearly finished with - I'll probably add it to her character sheet after this arc concludes, whereupon she'll start smugly teaching it to Oula and Rounen. The style itself is, for those who can't be bothered to follow the linky:

Kymaaera Style (Expression)
An art style themed around abstract representations of the wind and waves, often with root or branch-like overtones that conceal hidden messages. Reminiscent of Southern styles, there are subtle similarities to certain forms of Hellish art in the flowing lines and bold strokes, and those who remember the beauty of the ancient Lintha might compare it to a partial reinvention of their aesthetics. Kymaaeran patterning can be painted or drawn, but is more often carved or embroidered - in its purest form, it is always engraved in silver. It serves as a unique identifier of its inventor; Keris Dulmeadokht, who uses it as a signature in much of her work.
1: +1 to find messages hidden in kymaaeran patterns.
2: +1 when carving or engraving kymaaera in silver.
3: -1 Difficulty to conceal a message from those not familiar with the artstyle.

Or in other words, it's a cryptographic style for hiding messages for her members of her Hui Cha mafia family and southwestern spies who know how to decipher and write in it. Broadly, it's an abstract style that has water, wind and plant themes, which can range from simple curves to complex interconnected bits. I'm not saying it's Tenno, buuuuuut it's basically Tenno. Slightly more flowing and curvy and stylised, but something in the same family as the Tenno alphabet.

(Scriptures of the Lover and Maiden and the One-Handed Maiden, for those interested)

And then those are worked into a more general decorative style that can easily hide the shapes and letters of Tenno-ese, from the simple to the elaborate, in a way that looks a bit like tribal tattoo styles or vector art. Sometimes they're basically just strung together plainly, like in the top left; other times they're worked into part of a pretty design like top right or bottom left, or even hidden in select parts of an elaborate abstract depiction of something like bottom right:

And then Keris slathers this on literally everything, making elaborate tree patterns with words hidden in their trunks and branches or repeating wind-wave borders along the hems of her clothes in which every other shape is a word - and most of the writing she puts into her work is just generic blessings of health or good fortune or protection or the like, so that even if an Investigationy person like Ney noticed it was a secret language, they'd be likely to conclude that it's only used for that sort of superstitious blessing stuff and not bother deciphering the language to the point of fluency or using translation charms every time they saw a piece (meaning the actually important secret messages slip through undetected). It means that Keris can do stuff like get a gift sent from a distant acquaintance (who is a spy) that turns out to be a very pretty pair of silver candlesticks - but the important bit is the embroidered cloth they were wrapped in, which has three months worth of intel sewn into it and looks like nothing more than a very pretty bit of packaging.

BossFight · Jul 22, 2018

This is really cool and very helpful, thank you

Academia Nut · Jul 23, 2018

Been sick and/or busy this past weekend. So now, onto actually reading.

((Keris can, if she wishes, spend XP to acquire dots in Firetongue (Harbourite) as a language Style. If she doesn't, this knowledge fades when her mother is no longer possessing her.))
((Keris will totally learn her mother tongue for 6mxp, and you are awful for setting this opportunity up solely to make that pun.))

I see ES continues to be terribu.

'It'll all work out,' she thinks, putting as much belief as she can into the quavering words. 'You'll see. She's angry now because she's unavenged, because she hurts so much. Once she's got revenge - once she's settled the debt. Then she'll be free. She can... she can say goodbye without the weight of the noose, and move on. Properly. Like it should be.'

Mother Before Daughter is a hell of a drug.

And then Maryam starts flirting with one chosen person - though she tries to talk as little as possible and thus is a lot more, uh, overt with her body language than Keris would like.

The whole experience is excruciating.

Keris's inner whimpers - already started by the discarded food, and raised in volume and frequency by the flirting - are a background chorus to the whole affair, and rather distract her from following the conversation or spending any more time working out what Maryam is doing. She's not sure, but she thinks her involuntary hair-twitches might have telegraphed her state of distress to Ney, if he's still watching, along with a desperate plea for any possible interruption to make the mortification stop.

That feel when your mother is possessing your body to flirt with strangers and you have to sit back and watch it happen, while also knowing that the guy you kind of like to at least flirt with is watching.

Keris screams, scrabbling for the bones, desperately clutching at them even as they dissolve in her hands. She tries to listen, to hear the essence-song and figure out how to stop them, but her soul is still flaring and her head hurts so much and she can't, she can't, she can only watch as they disintegrate and was it Ney did he do this did his sunlight kill her mama if he did she'll kill him she'll kill him or was it her was it her fault did she make this happen was it her being a bad daughter was it because she refused to let her mama out because she resisted because she betrayed her where is she where's her mama gone she can't be gone she can't be gone she can't be gone...

Hell of a drug.

"And perhaps that is why it hurts. You are running into your own limits. Perhaps what you are feeling is like the pain of an angyalka stopped from playing."

We gonna be seeing a Limit Break again soon?

"I guess 'keep moving' is all we can do," Keris sighs, letting the 'fat' jibe pass her by. She's not got the energy to argue it right now. "I hope she does come back, though. I hope... I hope this whole mess ends peacefully. Ends right."

She sighs again. "Even if I'm starting to think it won't."

The pain of now will be inconsequential to the pain for the climax of this arc, by the looks of things.

Keris doesn't want to believe that this is what did it. She really, really doesn't want to believe that that, of all things, is what did it.

Haneyl is a creature to be feared for her haranguing.

Keris, meanwhile, is gleefully contemplating how much more of her paperwork she can offload onto Rounen now. Sporadic bouts of giggling punctuate her plans, and not even the occasional glare over at where Ney and Rathan are fishing again can spoil her mood.

Oh Keris and your stubborn distaste for investing in Eclipse skills.

Ney flips the hand whose sleeve he rolled back, and the little confections flip up and into his hand. "I couldn't ruin the fun for you entirely, Kiss," he says with a yawn. "I mean, you want me to eat them and say-"
He pops one in his mouth, and his eyes widen.

"... these are really good."

Keris beams. Not entirely smugly. But still mostly smugly.

Ah, Nightoid flirting. Considered the most hilarious and safest to be close to of the Solaroid flirting styles, even if most people can't fully appreciate, or even perceive, it.

Yes, Eko explodes in Keris' head, yes she does! It's just the worst! Mama, Eko not-says quickly, you have to get him and not let him go and let Eko out so she can talk to him and have someone who's on her level. Eko is even prepared to let Keris do kissy things to Ney if it'll mean he's around more!

Eko interrupt!

"Excuse me?" Keris snaps. "Who is the occultist here? Who has more memories of her past life? Who actually has demon-tainted power?" She jabs a thumb at her chest. "Take it from the expert. I wouldn't argue with you about how to manage your washerwomen commando-scouts-"

"I'm pretty sure you've literally done exactly that at least twice, Kiss."

"Shut up," Keris insists. "So don't argue with me when I tell you Calesco is actually a deva. Descendent-spirit of a greater power that isn't one of the Yozis or one of the Dead. Get it right. And secondly, you shouldn't be throwing words like 'demon lord' around about my family in the middle of an Illuminationist capital, and thirdly..."

Oh Keris.

---

Anyway, all in all a good chapter with some interesting developments, but it is kind of hurting over the fact that the climax is pretty clearly going to come in the next chapter, possibly the one after that if the next chapter ends in a cliffhanger with Keris locating the target and then Maryam and her yidak showing up in the last line. Still, Ney and the interactions he brings remain the best new addition to the story.

Indivisible · Jul 23, 2018

It's kinda shocking to have Keris criticize someone else's lack of taste after all of those OOC remarks about her being colourblind before she exalted. I guess she likes bright colours arranged well, or she has different standards for architecture.

This arc had done a good job of showing that Mother Before Daughter is not the safe option among the Intolerable Burning Truths.

Aleph · Jul 23, 2018

Indivisible said:
It's kinda shocking to have Keris criticize someone else's lack of taste after all of those OOC remarks about her being colourblind before she exalted. I guess she likes bright colours arranged well, or she has different standards for architecture.

Basically, the thing that's making Keris twitch about Ney's place is that on the one hand the building itself is a very geomantically and architecturally Solar place - all tall buildings and straight lines and whites and golds and open spaces and stark art-deco lines and minimal clutter and so on, to make you feel like you're in a vast great hall of grandeur. But Ney has gone and decorated it like it's somewhere he'd have lived with his tribe - see his quarters, where everything is fabric walls and drapes and hangings and things feel a lot more confining and close and there's tonnes of trophies and knick-knacks and suchlike, to make you feel like you're in a giant multi-roomed chieftain's tent.

Keris can appreciate the "pure" Solar style (even if she personally doesn't like it very much, because while she does have a weird affection for sun-related aesthetics it's more Dragon King sun than Solar-Exalt sun), and she actually really enjoys the Harborite style, but when she sees the two clashing together it makes her inner interior decorator (that is to say, Zanara) want to bite through a spoon. If Ney had redone the whole building with his chief's-tent modifications, she'd really like the place, and if he'd just left it in the baseline Solar design that the naib no doubt came up with she'd turn her nose up and sneer, but the conflicting themes of the two make her teeth grind.

(Keris herself, incidentally, blends Adorjani and Kimberian themes in her personal style of preferred architecture - meaning high ceilings, very few straight lines, lots of organic curves and rising-and-falling halls and walls and windows that echo the wind and the waves, open doorless archways, open areas with water features and fountains and similar, not much in the way of furniture, sound-muffling acoustics and moving air, etcetera. She'll probably steal Ney's Harborite style, though, and see if she can blend it into her compound style when she starts building places.)

EarthScorpion · Jul 23, 2018

Aleph said:
Basically, the thing that's making Keris twitch about Ney's place is that on the one hand the building itself is a very geomantically and architecturally Solar place - all tall buildings and straight lines and whites and golds and open spaces and stark art-deco lines and minimal clutter and so on, to make you feel like you're in a vast great hall of grandeur. But Ney has gone and decorated it like it's somewhere he'd have lived with his tribe - see his quarters, where everything is fabric walls and drapes and hangings and things feel a lot more confining and close and there's tonnes of trophies and knick-knacks and suchlike, to make you feel like you're in a giant multi-roomed chieftain's tent.

Keris can appreciate the "pure" Solar style (even if she personally doesn't like it very much, because while she does have a weird affection for sun-related aesthetics it's more Dragon King sun than Solar-Exalt sun), and she actually really enjoys the Harborite style, but when she sees the two clashing together it makes her inner interior decorator (that is to say, Zanara) want to bite through a spoon. If Ney had redone the whole building with his chief's-tent modifications, she'd really like the place, and if he'd just left it in the baseline Solar design that the naib no doubt came up with she'd turn her nose up and sneer, but the conflicting themes of the two make her teeth grind.

(Keris herself, incidentally, blends Adorjani and Kimberian themes in her personal style of preferred architecture - meaning high ceilings, very few straight lines, lots of organic curves and rising-and-falling halls and walls and windows that echo the wind and the waves, open doorless archways, open areas with water features and fountains and similar, not much in the way of furniture, sound-muffling acoustics and moving air, etcetera. She'll probably steal Ney's Harborite style, though, and see if she can blend it into her compound style when she starts building places.)

To put it another way, Ney is still fundamentally a Harbourhead goat-herder in an even more real sense than Keris is still a Nexan street rat, because he hasn't sacrificed his past there as a sorcery thing. He organises his ninja squads as loose Harbourhead groupings, and mostly recruits from highlander tribes. He's not good at being a settled person - he's a pastoralist who gets edgy when he spends too long in one place.

As a result, even though the naib has given him a big fancy townhouse, he basically occupies it in the same way his clan sometimes occupies ancient ruins, hanging up rugs and draps.

The Sandman · Jul 23, 2018

So does that mean Ney will be very confused when he visits Keris after she seizes and reformats that Wyld Zone centered on an old Shogunate cruise liner and is confronted with a settled place that moves?

Bugs · Jul 25, 2018

The Sandman said:
So does that mean Ney will be very confused when he visits Keris after she seizes and reformats that Wyld Zone centered on an old Shogunate cruise liner and is confronted with a settled place that moves?

Funny idea, but probably not. He'd probably treat it like a nouveau riche tycoon would a luxury cruise liner - great for a vacation, but nowhere you'd want to live long-term.

Aleph · Jul 28, 2018

So, in response to the fact that it was getting way too long and also had a convenient midpoint; I've split the current arc into Family Matters; covering the time in Baisha up to the departure of Ali and his family, and Parenthood; covering the quest for Keris's mother. No comments have been lost, so this is just a simple reshuffling of the AO3 series.

meianmaru · Jul 31, 2018

Aleph said:
Kymaaera Style (Expression)

I meant to comment on this a week ago, but laziness struck.

As whole, I think this is very well done. And while it hasn't been obviously seen in its finalized form in-story yet, it seems like a logical step in the maturation of Keris from a lone operative to a legimate pirate queen and a mafia-matriach. I especially like that it is not just a cryptographic alphabet, but an art-style by itself. The timing for Keris to manage to bring it comprehensively together also fits nicely, as she has just started absorbing lessons from Szoreny, and thus the whole quicksilver-thematic with relating powers.

Hmm. Will it also be the spark for Keris to dip into Elloge's Charm -tree, I wonder? "Concealing hidden meaning" under artwork seems to fit her themes pretty well. Its a somewhat startling realization when you look to the descriptions and see how much hidden (and potentially synesthetic) information you can layer within already hidden method of communication with just a modest investment to her Charms. Even Solaroid peers would likely have a hard time cracking pieces of communication protected by them, at least if they can't be sure which of the art-pieces in Kymaaera -style are just art, and not secret messages between a hell-princess and her minions.

Anyway, the Style -hack in the whole is proving to be more and more interesting by giving additional personal consistent flavour for characters. Not OP powers, not min-maxed skill and attribute and Charm -spreads, but something evocative, maybe even unique. I love the little flavour text snippets for the Styles in the character sheet of Keris, and what they tell about her areas of competence and how she can and does approach things. I would imagine that using them in a game makes both describing and visualizing how a scene plays out much easier and faster, and also more cohesive when concerning specific characters in the long run.

EarthScorpion · Aug 4, 2018

Anyway, some tweaks to Kimbery, replacing the Kin Over State tree. It's mostly a question of overwriting that Charm, which was of... dubious utility, and replacing it with a much more conceptually solid "Yakuza Oath via Esoteric Order of Dagon" tree.

Pain-as-Witness Oath
Cost: 8m, 1hl; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Stackable
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Haar-Hidden Dealings

Cheap novels in the Realm whisper of foul vows sworn by the cultists of the demon empress Kimbery, who demands her servants desecrate their bodies prove their fidelity.

This Charm enhances a dramatic action where another character swears an oath and spends one willpower, witnessed by the Infernal. As part of the ritual, the swearer receives a Crippling mark on his body - this may take the form of a cult tattoo, ritual scarification, the self-amputation of the topmost joint of his little finger, or other forms of bodily alteration compliant with the themes and aesthetics of Kimbery. The Infernal seals the oath with her toxic, burning essence, which seeps into the mark. A character may swear up to (Infernal's Stamina) separate oaths.

If the character is about to break his oath, deliberately or otherwise, the mark twinges with agonising pain. This serves as a warning, making it Obvious that the action will betray his vow. If he does betray his oath, the character suffers a -2 wound penalty as a Crippling effect, the pain emanating from his Crippling mark. This penalty stacks per broken oath. Mundane medicine has no cure for the chronic pain, beyond amputation of the body part that bears the mark (or equivalent, such as burning out a cult tattoo with a hot iron). Supernatural medicine requires a charm roll off against the Infernal. Additionally, if the Infernal, demons who descend from her, or her priests see the mark of a traitor, the broken oath becomes Obvious to them.

This Charm can be repurchased at Essence 3. Any priests of the warlock who are loyal descendents gain this Charm, ignoring the Essence requirement, though they must pay the cost of the activation. For each 4m an unenlightened priest cannot pay, he may substitute it for one willpower or one lethal health level. These priests may only witness oaths which further the interests of the Infernal or an organisation she leads.

::Sidebar - PACTED::

For the purposes of Kimbery Charms, a pacted character is one who has sworn an oath of loyalty or servitude to the Infernal, or an organisation she leads, and the oath has been consecrated by Pain-as-Witness Oath

::End Sidebar::

Esoteric Inundation Investment
Cost: 15m, 1lhl; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Desecration, Combo-OK, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Pain-as-Witness Oath

Those who pledge themselves to Kimbery are lost. There is no escape from her depths - and the baubles she tosses your way cannot be worth damnation.

This Charm may only target pacted humans or spirits. The character must have reaffirmed his oath in some way in the current scene, whether by deed or word. Laying her hand upon his mark, the warlock floods him with malign essence, twisting her target down to the very core of his being and burning his oath into his souls. Not even the removal of the mark will now free him from its constraints; only a complete reconstruction of his body, or Exaltation, will do that.

The marked character becomes a native of Malfeas and a creature of darkness, a twisting that also grants 1-3 points of Kimbery-themed mutations of the Infernal's choice. With access to an appropriate tutor, he may now learn Spirit Charms for 10XP each that belong to First Circle demons that descend from the Infernal, or which she has internalised within her demonic library. Should a Crippling effect destroy the mark, he loses all access to these Charms immediately. If he lacks a mote pool, the character gains an initially empty 10m personal mote pool, which only regains motes through sacrifice to the Infernal (two motes per Resources value of the sacrifice). Upon learning this charm, the Infernal adds one First Circle Demon breed to her library, and may buy additional ones for 1XP each.

If the Infernal has the capacity to hear prayers, she may activate this charm as a Reflexive Charm in response to a successful prayer from a pacted character where he sacrificed a minimum of Resources 4 to her.

Benthic Sibling Vow
Cost: --; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Illusion
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Pain-as-Witness Oath

They say the vile cultists of the Demon Sea exist as a great writhing incestous family, flaunting the acid-burns on their soul given by their bitter demon-queen.

This Charm permanently improves its prerequisite. Pacted characters are modified in the following ways:

The character dreams of the deep sea and the warlock, its pelagic queen. Any horror he feels soon become adoration. As an Illusion, each time he regain willpower from rest, it counts as a scene towards building a positive Intimacy towards the Infernal, with an emotional context of his choice.
If the Infernal is beloved, the character finds himself drawn to his fellows. They receive one bonus success on actions to identify or locate other pacted characters. If he sees the mark of another pacted character, their nature as a devotee of the Infernal becomes Obvious to him. The Infernal enjoys the same benefits.
Pacted characters treat all characters they know to be pacted as companions for the purposes of Conviction, unless following orders to the contrary from the Infernal.

Red Tributary Envelopment
Cost: 1lhl, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Pain-as-Witness Oath

Demonologists know of the terrifying secret oaths of the cultists of the Demon Sea. Better to die than swear them and become one of Kimbery's brood, they say.

This Charm supplements a dramatic action to legally adopt a willing character. This can include adoption into organisations run as a family, such as the Lintha or many organised crime syndicates in Creation. As part of the process, the Infernal feeds them some of her body fluids. This is most commonly blood, though warlocks with a landscape body may have rivers or lakes that someone may sup from. From thereon in, this fluid flows in their veins, making them a descendent of the Infernal as a Crippling effect. This does not affect any children conceived before the adoption, but any future children will be the Infernal's descendents. These children 'naturally' descend from her rather than from a Crippling effect.

This Charm may be repurchased at Essence 4. Any priests of the warlock who are loyal descendents gain this Charm, though they must pay the cost of the activation. Individuals adopted by proxy are both the priest and the Infernal's descendents.

Bugs · Aug 5, 2018

EarthScorpion said:
Anyway, some tweaks to Kimbery, replacing the Kin Over State tree. It's mostly a question of overwriting that Charm, which was of... dubious utility, and replacing it with a much more conceptually solid "Yakuza Oath via Esoteric Order of Dagon" tree.

Pain-as-Witness Oath
Cost: 8m, 1hl; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Stackable
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Haar-Hidden Dealings

Cheap novels in the Realm whisper of foul vows sworn by the cultists of the demon empress Kimbery, who demands her servants desecrate their bodies prove their fidelity.

This Charm enhances a dramatic action where another character swears an oath and spends one willpower, witnessed by the Infernal. As part of the ritual, the swearer receives a Crippling mark on his body - this may take the form of a cult tattoo, ritual scarification, the self-amputation of the topmost joint of his little finger, or other forms of bodily alteration compliant with the themes and aesthetics of Kimbery. The Infernal seals the oath with her toxic, burning essence, which seeps into the mark. A character may swear up to (Infernal's Stamina) separate oaths.

If the character is about to break his oath, deliberately or otherwise, the mark twinges with agonising pain. This serves as a warning, making it Obvious that the action will betray his vow. If he does betray his oath, the character suffers a -2 wound penalty as a Crippling effect, the pain emanating from his Crippling mark. This penalty stacks per broken oath. Mundane medicine has no cure for the chronic pain, beyond amputation of the body part that bears the mark (or equivalent, such as burning out a cult tattoo with a hot iron). Supernatural medicine requires a charm roll off against the Infernal. Additionally, if the Infernal, demons who descend from her, or her priests see the mark of a traitor, the broken oath becomes Obvious to them.

This Charm can be repurchased at Essence 3. Any priests of the warlock who are loyal descendents gain this Charm, ignoring the Essence requirement, though they must pay the cost of the activation. For each 4m an unenlightened priest cannot pay, he may substitute it for one willpower or one lethal health level. These priests may only witness oaths which further the interests of the Infernal or an organisation she leads.

::Sidebar - PACTED::

For the purposes of Kimbery Charms, a pacted character is one who has sworn an oath of loyalty or servitude to the Infernal, or an organisation she leads, and the oath has been consecrated by Pain-as-Witness Oath

::End Sidebar::

Esoteric Inundation Investment
Cost: 15m, 1lhl; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Desecration, Combo-OK, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Pain-as-Witness Oath

Those who pledge themselves to Kimbery are lost. There is no escape from her depths - and the baubles she tosses your way cannot be worth damnation.

This Charm may only target pacted humans or spirits. The character must have reaffirmed his oath in some way in the current scene, whether by deed or word. Laying her hand upon his mark, the warlock floods him with malign essence, twisting her target down to the very core of his being and burning his oath into his souls. Not even the removal of the mark will now free him from its constraints; only a complete reconstruction of his body, or Exaltation, will do that.

The marked character becomes a native of Malfeas and a creature of darkness, a twisting that also grants 1-3 points of Kimbery-themed mutations of the Infernal's choice. With access to an appropriate tutor, he may now learn Spirit Charms for 10XP each that belong to First Circle demons that descend from the Infernal, or which she has internalised within her demonic library. Should a Crippling effect destroy the mark, he loses all access to these Charms immediately. If he lacks a mote pool, the character gains an initially empty 10m personal mote pool, which only regains motes through sacrifice to the Infernal (two motes per Resources value of the sacrifice). Upon learning this charm, the Infernal adds one First Circle Demon breed to her library, and may buy additional ones for 1XP each.

If the Infernal has the capacity to hear prayers, she may activate this charm as a Reflexive Charm in response to a successful prayer from a pacted character where he sacrificed a minimum of Resources 4 to her.

Benthic Sibling Vow
Cost: --; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Illusion
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Pain-as-Witness Oath

They say the vile cultists of the Demon Sea exist as a great writhing incestous family, flaunting the acid-burns on their soul given by their bitter demon-queen.

This Charm permanently improves its prerequisite. Pacted characters are modified in the following ways:

The character dreams of the deep sea and the warlock, its pelagic queen. Any horror he feels soon become adoration. As an Illusion, each time he regain willpower from rest, it counts as a scene towards building a positive Intimacy towards the Infernal, with an emotional context of his choice.

If the Infernal is beloved, the character finds himself drawn to his fellows. They receive one bonus success on actions to identify or locate other pacted characters. If he sees the mark of another pacted character, their nature as a devotee of the Infernal becomes Obvious to him. The Infernal enjoys the same benefits.

Pacted characters treat all characters they know to be pacted as companions for the purposes of Conviction, unless following orders to the contrary from the Infernal.

Red Tributary Envelopment
Cost: 1lhl, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Pain-as-Witness Oath

Demonologists know of the terrifying secret oaths of the cultists of the Demon Sea. Better to die than swear them and become one of Kimbery's brood, they say.

This Charm supplements a dramatic action to legally adopt a willing character. This can include adoption into organisations run as a family, such as the Lintha or many organised crime syndicates in Creation. As part of the process, the Infernal feeds them some of her body fluids. This is most commonly blood, though warlocks with a landscape body may have rivers or lakes that someone may sup from. From thereon in, this fluid flows in their veins, making them a descendent of the Infernal as a Crippling effect. This does not affect any children conceived before the adoption, but any future children will be the Infernal's descendents. These children 'naturally' descend from her rather than from a Crippling effect.

This Charm may be repurchased at Essence 4. Any priests of the warlock who are loyal descendents gain this Charm, though they must pay the cost of the activation. Individuals adopted by proxy are both the priest and the Infernal's descendents.

Is this going into the Book?

Aleph · Aug 8, 2018

Sooooo, yeah.

Things went a bit... off the rails, here.

I think I'll let Part 112 speak for itself.

(@EarthScorpion is an asshole though)

Extras:

<Upon seeing the dress>
EarthScorpion: You can free-write for a bit here. Ney wants to undress her and for some mutual entertainment before she dresses again - and strangely the massive bath Keris noted has already been filled and is steaming hot. Keris may or may not be up for that, but she does need to adapt the dress since it doesn't fit her perfectly - Diff 3 Occult roll to adjust it since it's actually fitted for someone rather broader shouldered and bustier than her.
Aleph: I love those tiger-dresses. Where did you find them?
EarthScorpion: I just googled "Somali dresses", because I take cues from Somali culture for the Harbourhead highlands.
Aleph: Hee~
Aleph: I can see why; Somalia's actually pretty close to Iran - close enough that Arabian Sea trade would have made it about as accessible as Harborhead is for Taira.
EarthScorpion: I think those are technically fusion culture ones - wedding dresses made in a Somali style for Somalis living in the West.
Aleph: Mmm. But yeah, they're very pretty and deffo Cinnamon things.
Aleph: For when she wants to be obviously exotic and foreign. : P
EarthScorpion: That was my logic, yes.
EarthScorpion: Cultural influence from being close together, plus the idea that some of the highlander tribes are ruled over and have interbred with with "arabs" (or Persians in this case).
EarthScorpion: Because Somalia's elite classes are descended from Arab invaders while most of the population are east african, and the two have interbred heavily.
EarthScorpion: Sigh.
EarthScorpion: You know, the thought occurs to me that if Keris wants to be extra, she can adjust her body instead of the dress.
EarthScorpion: (that's such a Haneyl thing to do)

Haneyl: "Grr! This strapless dress keeps on slipping! Time to make my boobs bigger so it stays up!"
Aleph: Heh. Yeah, but she's been holding to doing this whole revenge thing as herself.
EarthScorpion: Hmm, actually, how's Keris' skin tone compared to the women wearing those dresses?
Aleph: Yeah, they're pretty much dead-on for her skin tone
Aleph: Light brown, rather than black. Mocha, heh.

...

<Mahshid Atrai>
Aleph: ... this terrifyingly powerful force of faith and sun-worship and adamant black-and-white morality is turning out to be, uh. A lot ditzier than I'd expected her to be.
Aleph: dammit she's another usagian salina
Aleph: what is it with overpowered zeniths and being usagi?
EarthScorpion: Or she might be a Kiri with a backbone...
Aleph: Well, yes. God, she'd probably be Very Confused by Keris and Ney's actual relationship if Keris took him up on that offer to move in.
EarthScorpion: They should just love one another.

Calesco: *develops girlcrush on her*
Aleph: They don't love each other, but fight a lot and also sleep together a lot and seem to delight in getting one up on each other only sometimes they have a <i>serious</i> fight and almost-invariably-Keris storms off in a huff and refuses to be in the same room as him for a week without throwing knives at his head.

...

<Sighting the istandar>
Aleph: I do like that line. "Fangs concealed beneath painted lips; Maryam's daughter pastes a sweet smile across her face and sashays towards her prey."
Aleph: Oh, Keris. She's really taken that "daughter doesn't rest while her mother's killer walks the earth" line to heart.
Aleph: It resonates with her bones.
EarthScorpion: Yes. And, sigh. She is very certain she's not going to lay that duty on Kali
Aleph: God, yes.
EarthScorpion: Did you like this bit?
Aleph: Yesssss : D
Aleph: Saha lady showed up again, mwaa haa~
Aleph: And the nastier side of Mahshid. Fun fun fun~
EarthScorpion: If you put things together there, that suggests why Illana had been fed that info.
Aleph: They're trying to destabilise Malra, yes. She was meant to get at the tech there and funnel it into opponent-states.
EarthScorpion: Or the other way around. Either the Bronze Faction is acting against Malra, or the Gold Faction is trying to make it an untouchable-to-the-Realm state by feeding it all the advantages.
Aleph: Support Malra? Hmm. That would make it odd that she's speaking against Ney - unless he's too much of a rogue element who, hah, really isn't bound to it by more than money.
EarthScorpion: Or Ney's been erratic for the past month or so
EarthScorpion: (even by his standards)
Aleph: Heh. True.
Aleph: Also, heh. Re: not laying that duty on Kali... god, it's going to be fascinating mapping out the trauma-scars that Maryam leaves on Keris.
Aleph: Some of them may reach almost as deep as the ones Nexus left.
Aleph: Keris basically has three layers of permanent psychological scarring, and in order from the shallowest down, they're "Baisha (razing)", "Nexus (teenager)" aaaaand then the really really ugly stuff in "Nexus (child)".
EarthScorpion: Heh. Isn't it funny the Baisha stuff scars her less?
Aleph: Yeah. But then, that was the longest ago and was a single isolated - if horrible - incident.
Aleph: Whereas Nexus (teen) is the layer all the bad years without Rat are packed into.
Aleph: and Nexus (child)... well, there is a reason that Pekhijira's domain, the land ruled by a po whose defining passion is Fear, resembles a city like Nexus scaled up to match what it looks like through the eyes of a child.
EarthScorpion: She's like an evil puff the magic dragon.
Aleph: Maryam (vengeful ghost) will probably take either the #2 or #3 spot for depth, depending on whether it's traumatic enough to displace the stuff she got as a teenager or not.
Aleph: ... and honestly, the fact that there's doubt about that should tell you all you need to know about Keris's teenage years in Nexus.
EarthScorpion: poor keris
Aleph: : (
Aleph: She is repressing like fuck.

...

<post-session>
EarthScorpion: So, what did you think?
Aleph: hee
Aleph: it was great
Aleph: every time something new went wrong I was like
Aleph: "this cannot possibly get any worse"
Aleph: "oh goddammit"
Aleph: And poor Keris. All she had to do was keep treating the poisoning victims and not step in to help Mahshid, and she'd have been perfectly covered by all the confusion.
EarthScorpion: I, uh. I didn't actually realise you'd step in to save her. I thought you'd wait long enough to see that she wasn't dead, and then you could watch the fight and kidnap the istandar to heartrip.
Aleph: If she hadn't been pregnant? Keris would have done exactly that. : P
EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris.
EarthScorpion: She's heroic at the worst possible time for her.
Aleph: She is.
EarthScorpion: Stupid useless Compassion.
EarthScorpion: Still, that's going to win her a hug from Calesco.
EarthScorpion: And a screaming scolding from Dulmea.
Aleph: At least Ney will be able to point out that she was in town to try and find her papa, that she saved several important lives from poison and that her only actions in the fight were to hack off the arm of the thing attacking Mahshid and then scream at her to get treatment for her gaping wounds.
Aleph: Which along with his "Hell-tainted Solar Exaltation" theory should throw up some convincing dust, at least.
EarthScorpion: Yes. And things like this is why Exalted Modern and "secret Infernals" does not work.
Aleph: ... the fact that the naib wasn't there to actually see any of it will probably help, tbh. He won't be biased by seeing it first-hand. And her work on the victims was just FWT, so no cancer-seeds - just neat, precise work on getting them to not die.
EarthScorpion: Heh, yes.
EarthScorpion: Ney meanwhile is going to have his rival being an ass about things.
EarthScorpion: Any other thoughts? Didn't feel too railroaded?
Aleph: Nah, I liked it. I'm in two minds about the istandar - he would be a good addition to her bangle collection, but, mmm.
Aleph: At the same time, he's kind of more her mother's enemy than hers?
Aleph: So it's kind of appropriate that she leaves him behind to choke to death instead of taking his heart. Part of leaving behind Taira as a whole.
EarthScorpion: Yeah, fair enough.
EarthScorpion: If you hadn't gone straight to kill him, I would have played thing slower and let you Hitman things more and do things like scouting out the room for chandalier's to drop on him and stuff like that.
Aleph: Heh.
Aleph: Nah, she was always going to lure him away and either strangle or heartrip him.
Aleph: Or both. I was kind of planning on both, with a Gale as an alibi.
Aleph: Heh. This also, amusingly, makes two carefully planned assassinations that have been ruined by Sidereal involvement : P
Aleph: Keris will be Extremely Nettled when she realises that it is, in fact, Sidereals who keep getting involved in her carefully planned assassinations.
EarthScorpion: Oh yeah, so I'd be interested to hear your theory on what you think was going on there
Aleph: I'm pretty sure that Miss Gongsteeple over there was buffing or outright involved with a shahbanu assassination plot in order to destabilise Malra, since it's the more dangerous of the two in a bootstrapping-itself-upwards kind of way.
Aleph: Because I'm willing to allow that they could have snuck a few assassins with some poison in, but even with Ney distracted by Keris, a Greater Dead thing getting into the capital city without Exalted support has my eyes narrowing in disbelief.
EarthScorpion: Hey, there was foreshadowing earlier that Ney was having to go after infiltrators again.
EarthScorpion: Then he got distracted by Keris and Keris-related drama.

TenMoreMiles · Aug 9, 2018

Mahshid sounds like someone with very high Conviction. Brrr. I do hope her baby is okay, though if worst comes to worst the baby's probably developed enough to survive outside the womb and they can just do a c-section.

The Sandman · Aug 9, 2018

Speaking of Greater Dead, Maryam has presumably reunited with her Yidak at this point. So that should be a fun abomination heading towards a city where literally everyone is complicit in slavery to some degree.

I doubt the Greater Dead at the party was sent by a Siddie though. Undead monster attacking someone in their house and then being set on fire from a distance before it can spill any secrets? It's obviously Nazis.

Aleph · Aug 9, 2018

The Sandman said:
Undead monster attacking someone in their house and then being set on fire from a distance before it can spill any secrets? It's obviously Nazis.

Notably; Keris did not manage to hit it with Existence-Liberating Caress. So while it got torched, it's probably reforming in the Underworld somewhere (and thoroughly regretting its decision to attack an E10 Solar).

Indivisible · Aug 9, 2018

It's interesting that something that Keris has made the Sidereal's visual disguise method not work on her when it was fooling Ney. I wonder if that was they were using that Bureaucracy charm that makes people who consider themselves your superior (in an organization) unable to notice you, and Keris isn't part of that organization. I definitely think that they used that thought-stealing charm on Ney.

I thought that the sickly looking server was Black Ice Shadow before it turned out to be a Greater Dead. I suppose that merging sorcery and necromancy means that Sidereals can use the Dead more often.

That was a really great assassination. She managed to make it thematically appropriate while providing herself with an alibi, making someone else to take the blame, and making it impossible to know that he had targeted specifically.

I'm not sure how much Keris knows about Sidereals, but I think that realizing that Heaven has decided to take out the province would turn Keris off staying in Taira even if she did want to stay before. It could also sour Ney on staying in Taira, considering that the other Solars are employers as opposed to friends. Good thing that Ney knows someone who lives on the opposite side of Creation who has a couch he can crash on.

Azrael · Aug 9, 2018

Indivisible said:
It's interesting that something that Keris has made the Sidereal's visual disguise method not work on her when it was fooling Ney. I wonder if that was they were using that Bureaucracy charm that makes people who consider themselves your superior (in an organization) unable to notice you, and Keris isn't part of that organization. I definitely think that they used that thought-stealing charm on Ney.

Are you sure it wasn't just a Resplendent Destiny which Keris, being Outside Fate, is completely unaffected by?

Aleph · Aug 9, 2018

Not just Outside Fate, but Beyond Fate. She's running on an entirely independent Mythos bubble that's completely self-sufficient rather than merely being outside the Loom's influence and protection. Which means that, yes, anything that takes place entirely through Fate doesn't work on her. She sees straight through Resplendent Destinies - and in fact can't even tell when they're being used, which is actually kind of a weakness since it means she can inadvertently give away the fact that she's unaffected by it. It's entirely possible purple headscarf bitch was using one back in Saha and Keris was just lucky that it was the same gender as what she was seeing. And likewise, when the Siddie presumably used Avoidance Kata to nope out of Ney catching her red-handed, Keris was totally unaffected and remembered the way things actually happened, rather than what the Loom said happened. If she'd seen it go down, she'd probably have been very confused as to why nobody reacted to the Sidereal vanishing with a faint "pop".

Alas, Keris currently knows almost fucking nothing about Sidereals in the modern day. She remembers a bit about them from Yamal, because he was married to one (who Keris is determinedly hoping is long since dead when she thinks of her at all), and she vaguely suspects that the shitshow in Nexus was the result of Sasi's plans running into a star-chosen's, but anything more than that she's clueless. She hasn't even worked out what purple headscarf bitch is, other than "probably not a mortal or godblooded; likely a lot more powerful than she was pretending to be".

The Sandman · Aug 9, 2018

Purple Headscarf Bitch, meanwhile, is probably screaming into a Celestial telephone about how it would have been nice if her superiors had let her know about the Hell-tainted Solar-level Exalted blank spot in the Loom that just walked into her operation as the date of one of her targets.

Aleph · Aug 9, 2018

The Sandman said:
Purple Headscarf Bitch, meanwhile, is probably screaming into a Celestial telephone about how it would have been nice if her superiors had let her know about the Hell-tainted Solar-level Exalted blank spot in the Loom that just walked into her operation as the date of one of her targets.

Nah, that effect on Ney was almost certainly Avoidance Kata, which means she ollie-outed before things went to shit. The best she'll get is stories from the gala, which will only tell her that something with a red-and-silver anima banner that may or may not have been Hell-aligned intervened to attack the Dead thing. As @EarthScorpion has said earlier in the thread; that could describe quite a range of things beyond "so it looks like the Yozis have their own Exalted".

... honestly, the first conclusion I'd jump to would actually be "what the fuck is a Lunar akuma doing in Malra?"

EarthScorpion · Aug 9, 2018

Aleph said:
Nah, that effect on Ney was almost certainly Avoidance Kata, which means she ollie-outed before things went to shit. The best she'll get is stories from the gala, which will only tell her that something with a red-and-silver anima banner that may or may not have been Hell-aligned intervened to attack the Dead thing. As @EarthScorpion has said earlier in the thread; that could describe quite a range of things beyond "so it looks like the Yozis have their own Exalted".

... honestly, the first conclusion I'd jump to would actually be "what the fuck is a Lunar akuma doing in Malra?"

Keris does code as a Lunar hilariously strongly, it is true.

After all, she has silver feathers in her hair, uses a bunch of Charms that tend to be very "finesse" and when pressed turns into a giant snake lady with white hair and silver feather-scales.

fitzgerald · Aug 9, 2018

Onto the most important question:

Is a side trip to Harbour Head to acquire the fashion styles there in the offing?

Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)

rotating 梅长苏 in my head 24/7

Princess of Stabbity

Princess of Stabbity

╯‵Д′)╯彡┻━┻

So Zetta Slowpoke

Princess of Stabbity

The Devourer of Fiction

╯‵Д′)╯彡┻━┻

Princess of Stabbity

rotating 梅长苏 in my head 24/7

So Zetta Slowpoke

Princess of Stabbity

Sakura Saber

Princess of Stabbity

So Zetta Slowpoke

Princess of Stabbity

╯‵Д′)╯彡┻━┻