Keris helped someone else navigate to somewhere!!!
Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)
- Thread starter Aleph
- Start date
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
Elly is quite useful, isn't she? She's got a sense for business, an instinct.
You can tell she's a Hanyel demon.
I can't wait to see how she infects Saata even more. I mean she's got her vines in the Blue Sea Masters fairly well, but what'll be her tactics going forward, how would say infiltrate the Colleges of Saata?
You can tell she's a Hanyel demon.
I can't wait to see how she infects Saata even more. I mean she's got her vines in the Blue Sea Masters fairly well, but what'll be her tactics going forward, how would say infiltrate the Colleges of Saata?
Session 130
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ah, Part 130. This is a fun chapter. After @EarthScorpion dropped a bomb on me at the end of last chapter, he decided to follow it up with a second bomb at the start of this one. Apparently, it was his belief that I've been having it too easy lazing about on Saata and corrupting these fat pirate lords, so a tense, challenging miniarc was in order. One with high risks, high stakes and very high rewards. We resolved it over the course of two sessions, of which this is just the set-up... so speculate away about what's coming up next, hee hee. : 3
This chapter is a fun chapter and I absolutely loved how you said that you were really missing Ney. At any rate I think that you'll have to retrieve the item before you frame the captain and the fun way of doing that would be to steal everything and hide something from the crimes in her house where it can be found after she is killed. As for the framing itself I'm wondering if you could use either Rathen's light or the plant control to take control of her without anyone noticing.
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Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
Metagaos has his flesh shaper charm, yes? If I remember my reading of it, it could even work on dead organic matter. Such as say, a hidden shrine dedicated to the Yozis that appears old, but well used, carefully hidden such that his servants did not even know about it.
I'm happy to see those Sun-devouring alchemists returning. That was such a neat concept.
It's good to seeing Keris' family again. My anticipation towards seeing Hany and Haneyl interact can only grow.
It's good to seeing Keris' family again. My anticipation towards seeing Hany and Haneyl interact can only grow.
I just love how the option of going on a murder spree didnt even occur to Keris.
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
A shame that framing the magistrate as the agent of something else likely wouldn't have worked. Probably as a figure in a cult dedicated to a different Yozi, aiming to remove the competition.
That or stealing a boat from the dock and making it look like the cult leader had escaped. This would have involved stealing the harbor chain somehow, most likely.
That or stealing a boat from the dock and making it look like the cult leader had escaped. This would have involved stealing the harbor chain somehow, most likely.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Incidentally, this happened in the Discord, and I feel it deserves a place here:
Aleph: So this is Atiya-relevant.
Keris: "So wait, Viscount Greenie is pretending to support Baron Bear's arranged marriage for his son to the Frizzy-Hairs' heir, but actually she's going to tell the Queen so she steals a march on him? I get that the Frizzy-Hairs will want to wed their heir to her second son for the crown supply contracts, but how's she going to force Baron Bear to marry off his son to... who even is she going to want the poor boy to marry?"
10-yr old Atiya: "She's gonna get him to marry into House Fuzzyshark, 'cause they're really loyal to the crown! And she can threaten Baron Bear that if he doesn't agree to it, she'll make a royal order to appoint his heir into the royal army for the war against the block monsters! That'd be a big honour, so he wouldn't be allowed to refuse it! But his heir would probably die, 'cause the block monsters have a way bigger army!"
Keris: "Huh. And Bear's second son would make a shitty heir and bring his house into ruin. Malicious of her. She's really something, your Queen."
Keris: "Also, Viscount Greenie is worryingly smart. She's getting the crown's favour for this, but still looking like she's in Baron Bear's camp."
Keris to Sasi, later: "... and then Viscount Greenie got Baron Bear framed for treason and executed, and the Queen sent his heir off to the war anyway, which put the Bear fortune under House Fuzzyshark's control until the next generation comes of age. Greenie got promoted to Chief Financial Minister and Acting Lady of the Play Area for it, meaning she's now pretty much the third biggest political figure in the bedroom and still hasn't made any moves that weren't behind the scenes. Publically she's always just been making pretty conservative choices and alliances and being the least-controversial figure for appointments to new positions."
Keris: "I'm, uh, starting to think she may be inspired partly by me."
Sasi: "... dare I ask how Kali and Ogin fit into this web of intrigue? The Last High Queen of An Teng must have been a remarkably capable woman, if Atiya takes after her."
Keris: "Well, there are rumours about a Pale King Beyond The Door who's sending the endless savage hordes of barbarian block monsters into the bedroom from the Corridors of the Wyld, and one or two common soldiers from the War At The Threshold have reported a great army massing near the Distant Stairwell, so I figure Ogin's probably going to make his entrance soon and the survival of the Bedroom Kingdom will depend on whether or not the Queen's marshalled all her forces into a cohesive whole."
Keris: "And of course the Six-Limbed Behemoth that looms over towns and armies hasn't been sighted for a while, but it's probably going to be drawn back across the horizon by the conflict when the war heats up and cause untold devastation with its destructive powers. Many lives will be lost."
Keris: "Although technically it's the Six-Limbed Behemoff."
Keris: "Atiya still hasn't got the hang of that one yet."
Aiko: "That reminds me, Aunty Keris. Please deliver this missive to Atiya. And this one to Ogin. And don't read either. They contain my instructions for the agents of the Brass Society who operate within both kingdoms."
10-yr old Atiya: "She's gonna get him to marry into House Fuzzyshark, 'cause they're really loyal to the crown! And she can threaten Baron Bear that if he doesn't agree to it, she'll make a royal order to appoint his heir into the royal army for the war against the block monsters! That'd be a big honour, so he wouldn't be allowed to refuse it! But his heir would probably die, 'cause the block monsters have a way bigger army!"
Keris: "Huh. And Bear's second son would make a shitty heir and bring his house into ruin. Malicious of her. She's really something, your Queen."
Keris: "Also, Viscount Greenie is worryingly smart. She's getting the crown's favour for this, but still looking like she's in Baron Bear's camp."
Keris to Sasi, later: "... and then Viscount Greenie got Baron Bear framed for treason and executed, and the Queen sent his heir off to the war anyway, which put the Bear fortune under House Fuzzyshark's control until the next generation comes of age. Greenie got promoted to Chief Financial Minister and Acting Lady of the Play Area for it, meaning she's now pretty much the third biggest political figure in the bedroom and still hasn't made any moves that weren't behind the scenes. Publically she's always just been making pretty conservative choices and alliances and being the least-controversial figure for appointments to new positions."
Keris: "I'm, uh, starting to think she may be inspired partly by me."
Sasi: "... dare I ask how Kali and Ogin fit into this web of intrigue? The Last High Queen of An Teng must have been a remarkably capable woman, if Atiya takes after her."
Keris: "Well, there are rumours about a Pale King Beyond The Door who's sending the endless savage hordes of barbarian block monsters into the bedroom from the Corridors of the Wyld, and one or two common soldiers from the War At The Threshold have reported a great army massing near the Distant Stairwell, so I figure Ogin's probably going to make his entrance soon and the survival of the Bedroom Kingdom will depend on whether or not the Queen's marshalled all her forces into a cohesive whole."
Keris: "And of course the Six-Limbed Behemoth that looms over towns and armies hasn't been sighted for a while, but it's probably going to be drawn back across the horizon by the conflict when the war heats up and cause untold devastation with its destructive powers. Many lives will be lost."
Keris: "Although technically it's the Six-Limbed Behemoff."
Keris: "Atiya still hasn't got the hang of that one yet."
Aiko: "That reminds me, Aunty Keris. Please deliver this missive to Atiya. And this one to Ogin. And don't read either. They contain my instructions for the agents of the Brass Society who operate within both kingdoms."
Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
I see now why Atiya was considered the doom of An-Teng by Noh.
Session 131
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hee hee hee. Part 131. Or as it's also known...
AND NOW, THE HEIST!
Sorry again @EarthScorpion ^_^'
But it was fantastic, holy shit. I think this is one of the best short arcs Kerisgame has run yet, and one of Keris's coolest missions. This style of Night-caste infiltration/extraction, espionage/theft, sabotage/assassination cover-up/frame-job type mission - "empty circle gambits", as Keris would call them - are where she really shines, and this one was balls-to-the-wall stones-in-the-zone amazing. And followed up by some really great character stuff! Small wonder I was awake and alert right through to 4am without even realising how late it was getting.
I don't think I have the time or focus to even begin to sum up all the cool stuff from this session I could talk about here, so I'll leave it to you guys to pick out bits for a while and then maybe come back in when things have settled some more and I can make a coherent and reasoned analysis of things.
Extras:
AND NOW, THE HEIST!
So. Yeah. This was a long one. And we did it in one shot, too. I came out to Zany at something like half two in the morning, and it was gone 4am by the time we finished.
Sorry again @EarthScorpion ^_^'
But it was fantastic, holy shit. I think this is one of the best short arcs Kerisgame has run yet, and one of Keris's coolest missions. This style of Night-caste infiltration/extraction, espionage/theft, sabotage/assassination cover-up/frame-job type mission - "empty circle gambits", as Keris would call them - are where she really shines, and this one was balls-to-the-wall stones-in-the-zone amazing. And followed up by some really great character stuff! Small wonder I was awake and alert right through to 4am without even realising how late it was getting.
I don't think I have the time or focus to even begin to sum up all the cool stuff from this session I could talk about here, so I'll leave it to you guys to pick out bits for a while and then maybe come back in when things have settled some more and I can make a coherent and reasoned analysis of things.
Extras:
EarthScorpion: Anyway, how was that as a session?
Aleph: <3 <3 <3
Aleph: so gooooooooood~
Aleph: so so so good hee~
Aleph: This will be one of my favourite sessions to reread, I can already tell.
Aleph: : 3
EarthScorpion: I did basically come up with this Triumphant Air miniarc to mix things up a bit.
EarthScorpion: And the whole magistrate stuff turned out super tense from some good rolls from him, and below average from you.
Aleph: God, that roll when the abbess almost saw me.
Aleph: Also his roll at the end. I knew there was no fucking way he was going to get 16 sux on 19 dice, but you took so long to respond I slowly went from eager to confused to concerned to worried to dread as I thought he'd somehow nailed it and you were having to write up him FIGURING IT OUT.
Aleph: it was toooooorture~
EarthScorpion: You know, if you'd wanted to be a drama queen, you could have gone up to him in disguise and congratulated him in passing.
Aleph: ... if I were Zanara, I absolutely would have.
Aleph: If Keris envied him, she probably would.
Aleph: But she's a coward, and he scares her, and she didn't EH him so she doesn't have that spite and the rush of beating him.
EarthScorpion: Well, at least you stared at him as he left and showed the audience you were the real villain in his story.
...
Aleph: Sigh. Dammit Zanara.
EarthScorpion: oh nara
Aleph: And hee. Kaliiii~
...
EarthScorpion: So, yeah. You're online, I'm up - how was the game LWC? Now we're both a bit less exhausted, let's get the feedback done
Aleph: Okay, hmm. So I was concerned for a moment that the talky stuff at the start with Dulmea was the sign of things lagging, but we rolled from that into actual action pretty well.
And this brought assassin-mama-Dulmea back into the spotlight, which is always fun. The rolls were great; squaring off against the magistrate was fantastic and nearly getting caught, while gut-wrenchingly terrifying at the time, was a brilliant piece of characterisation and drama.
EarthScorpion: Yes, that was a bit of brute force to lay out that you had to commit some strategic time to this.
EarthScorpion: Because I wanted to lay out this strategic duel where two strategic actions contested each other
Aleph: I'm, heh, aware that the temple wasn't as much of a challenge as it could have been, but I was having fun showing that Keris really is super-scared of the Immaculate Order, and directly attacking their places terrifies her even when it's not rational.
Aleph: Passing Off Blame massively pulled its weight here, I'm so glad I got that Charm. And it beautifully showed why Keris is so, so dangerous as a saboteur.
EarthScorpion: Yeah, some of that was that I sort of wanted to establish that Immaculate temples aren't dungeons. They're fortified locations, but they're not constantly vigilant.
EarthScorpion: (unless they have reason to be)
Aleph: Yup! I knew that, as a player, but I felt it fit her character to be scared - and it was scary enough, and the reaction disproportionate enough, that Keris noticed she wasn't being entirely rational. So I have justification for some character development there, if I want.
EarthScorpion: The, heh, "hot icon" thing was meant to be a nasty little trick, but the hand thing happened. If you had burned yourself, I'd have had you roll WP to avoid screaming out and drawing attention.
Aleph: Hee~
Aleph: Yeah, so, amusing story with that.
Aleph: I was halfway through succeeding at the Endurance+Ath roll and typing "yeah, she ignores the wound penalty if it's bashing due to By Pain Reforged, and actually does she even take any wounds given her skin is as tough as steel", and then remembered Twisted Demon Hand.
Aleph: And, as you saw, rolled to see if I used the right (left) hand, to be fair about things.
EarthScorpion: i also forgot the hand.
Aleph: Hee. It's fun when you set something up and the player figures out a way around it using a use of a power you'd forgotten or not considered, isn't it? : 3
EarthScorpion: Heh.
EarthScorpion: I really, really didn't expect you to Zany confess at 2:30 am (or so soon at all) so that bit was entirely off the cuff and I was majorly flagging during it.
Aleph: Yeah, I really sorry am sorry about that. I was unusually not-tired, didn't see the clock, and didn't realise how late it was getting. If I'd noticed I would have asked to split the session. Are you feeling okay?
EarthScorpion: I mean, I woke up at half ten, so six hours sleep is tolerable.
Aleph: Good to hear. How did you find things, apart from that?
EarthScorpion: I was tired enough that I nearly played a card I've been saving for a while, but I decided not to even though it seemed like a good idea at the time.
EarthScorpion: (it was not a good idea)
Aleph: urk
Aleph: a... good card, or a bad card?
EarthScorpion: Yes
Aleph: : S
EarthScorpion: Otherwise, I super enjoyed the Triumphant Air mini-arc. It was super-snappy and mixed things up and Keris got to show terrifying Keris rather than soppy Keris-mama.
Aleph: ^_^
Aleph: Terrifying Keris is fuuuuuuun~
EarthScorpion: Also, one thing I very much noticed in restrospect was that isolating Keris from most of her souls and from her babies made things go much, much faster.
Aleph: heh, yes
Aleph: I was actually kind of kicking myself that Rathan was in my soul, because if he'd been out, I could have mist-covered the temple for my heist.
EarthScorpion: Heh, that's one of the few Kerisgame sessions that got ITRG intense
Aleph: : D
...
Aleph: Oh, mhm
Aleph: While I may have started way too late, was Keris's explanation of souls to Zany and Ali - where she had to backtrack twice and be like "okay, start over, imagine you liked art so much that the feeling could walk around on its own" sufficiently understandable-to-Creation-normals? Heh. I was thinking of making an Occult roll to see if I'd explained it in simple enough terms to convey the basic gist, but she seemed to get it. : P
Aleph: ... also man, Zany really chose exactly the right question there.
Aleph: "So what you're saying is that your souls are the things you care about as much as heroes in stories and legend whose passions drive them across Creation."
Aleph: "What are they? What do you care about, Keris?"
Aleph: I don't think Keris even realised Zany was basically profiling her with that question.
EarthScorpion: Well, she's from the brainier side of Keris's family.
Aleph: : D
EarthScorpion: And of course, something about her lingered with Keris enough to name Zanara after her.
Aleph: Heh. Keris just said that to get her to imagine a Principle strong enough to take form all on its own, and didn't realise that Zany heard it and thought "interesting; so you're telling me there are at least six things you care about that much".
EarthScorpion: Zany is a not-very-well-educated peasant woman who's been ill most of her life.
EarthScorpion: That doesn't make her stupid.
Aleph: Heh. While I did like at the end where Keris was basically just "I am too emotionally exhausted to even care about the fact that you two want a private conversation to decide if I'm evil or not; I'll even remind you to go have it outside my ridiculously-long hearing range while I get Zanara to play me pretty music and cheer me up".
EarthScorpion: Heh. Keris probably only managed to have this talk because she was running high from Envious Heart WP and success.
EarthScorpion: (Then she went and ruined it for herself.)
Aleph: Yup. This wasn't being pressured into talking and succumbing because of high Limit, she put on her big girl socks and made the decision to have an emotionally-tiring-but-necessary adult conversation.
Aleph: ... seriously Keris, you're running at Limit 7 and not doing yourself any favours. If you hadn't won against the magistrate, if all your preparation and effort were for naught, you'd probably have Limit Broken on the spot.
...
EarthScorpion: Hee. The fact that Kali is a massive extrovert while Ogin is all shy is an adorable difference.
Aleph: Hee. Yes, I was going to say. I did adore how Kali was basically like... utterly delighted in a way that's honestly more dog than cat. Tail(s) wagging, vibrating with friendliness and affection, just totally overjoyed to have PEOPLE! NEW FRIENDS! PETTING! BEST FRIEND!
Aleph: so cute~
EarthScorpion: Heh. That article about how exhausting it is to have an extreme extrovert as a child and how society doesn't really support it was a big inspiration.
Aleph: While, hee, I feel like Zany's going to wind up one of Keris's more useful advisers. She's smart, in a practical kind of way that merely very-intelligent people aren't.
EarthScorpion: Eko nods. She thinks the Baishan smart genes just skipped a generation with mama.
Aleph: She's... hah, yes, that's it. Zanyira is smart enough to see solutions that are obvious in retrospect and come up with ideas that anyone could have thought of.
Aleph: That's a really useful kind of intelligence, as far as Keris is concerned.
...
(From the Discord)
EarthScorpion: Zany is a mortal who is willing to tease one of the killiest beings in Creation. There is a reason Keris named Zanara based on her.
horngeek: Does she know just how lethal Keris is?
Aleph: She was there when Keris obliterated the Vakotans.
EarthScorpion: So she knows Keris can basically eliminate an army.
Aleph: She was also at point-blank range of Keris's social sledgehammer suite.
Aleph: And she's still willing to poke fun.
Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
You sure do have a habit of posting these just right when I'm going to have to wait for them.
- Location
- my house
Another game already? You spoil us!
Also what exactly counts as a delusion, seems you could use your statue to make people think anything
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
With the talk of Zany, I can't help but think:
"Keris grew powerful because she exalted, but Zany was cursed with her weak heart because the gods knew it was the only force that could restrain her."
"Keris grew powerful because she exalted, but Zany was cursed with her weak heart because the gods knew it was the only force that could restrain her."
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
So how zany is Zany, exactly? 
Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
So what exactly did the statue do? Can Keris use it for anything now?
13 successes. That was one tense game of cat-and-mouse.
Why do I feel like the card that was not played was the magistrate showing up in Saata? He seems to be making a tour of satrapies.
Why do I feel like the card that was not played was the magistrate showing up in Saata? He seems to be making a tour of satrapies.
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
I'm putting my bets on the statue essentially being a bespoke artifact for Dark Shrine's Icon, regardless of whatever else it may or may not do. It fits the description of such an icon already and such a thing would allow Ligier to be able to use the family who owned it as intermediaries for all his cults in the southwest --- fitting what we actually know of Danadu Mara --- which seems like something that would have appropriately significant value to him to begin this mission, but which could also be sacrificed since he had a backup in the form of a personally loyal Infernal in the region.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Whatever it is/does, Ligier is unlikely to be happy that it's been partially purified and some of the Ligerian essence within burned up and converted to Fire essence.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Just going to say that while the Keris family dramas are always good, this miniarc and the heist against the naib really stand out for pushing Keris. Actually, what's really fun here is that since she is fundamentally a villain she very much acts rather than reacts, so that is always good.
Also, I am trying to picture how this would look from the other side of things, and all I can say is that if perspectives were flipped Keris would be the retconned in villain who was always in the background, turning the victories of the heroes into failures without even noticing, and the fans of the series would probably be hugely pissed at her existence as they would consider her an asspull by the authors for cheap drama.
So probably just as Keris would want
Also, I am trying to picture how this would look from the other side of things, and all I can say is that if perspectives were flipped Keris would be the retconned in villain who was always in the background, turning the victories of the heroes into failures without even noticing, and the fans of the series would probably be hugely pissed at her existence as they would consider her an asspull by the authors for cheap drama.
So probably just as Keris would want
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
Just going to say that while the Keris family dramas are always good, this miniarc and the heist against the naib really stand out for pushing Keris. Actually, what's really fun here is that since she is fundamentally a villain she very much acts rather than reacts, so that is always good.
Also, I am trying to picture how this would look from the other side of things, and all I can say is that if perspectives were flipped Keris would be the retconned in villain who was always in the background, turning the victories of the heroes into failures without even noticing, and the fans of the series would probably be hugely pissed at her existence as they would consider her an asspull by the authors for cheap drama.
So probably just as Keris would want
Thanks Academia Nut. Now I have this mental image, where after the whole controversy of 'The Villainess in the Shadows' reveal and her 'retcon' into the setting without any hints earlier on, with the fan-rage involved... The writers give an interview, and when the interviewer asks why they did the retcon, they all just look at each other, sigh and face palm. Then one of them starts talking about how 'Shadows' actually isn't a retcon at all. Their fans are well aware that they're trying to keep the series from being stale and relying too much on old clichés, at least not without giving it their own spin. Well, right back when they were coming with the main characters on the team, they decided they needed a 'mid-arc villain' to have the team fight. And if they were going to do that, might as well do it right and integrate them into the background of the early episodes from the beginning.
So they did, then wondered just what the mid-arc villain was going to be... Then someone said 'Why don't we just have the villain use all the major villain clichés that are appropriate for how she's set up, it's just she does them right, rather than dumb or crazy or cheesy.' Everyone loved the idea, and thus 'Shadows' was born. Then we come to the accursed decision that lead to all this controversy over the 'Retcon'. Because remember how I just said we planned her to be the mid-arc villain of the first series? Well, when we were trying to figure out just what she was going to do, having determined who and how she was doing these things... The team had a big fight and no one won. Until Johnny had the ever so bright suggestion to just role play her actions in response to the team and setting.
So we grabbed a role playing system that we could mess around with using minimal effort to resemble the setting, mocked up some character sheets for her, the team and the initial minor villains and assigned roles to the people on the team. Kerry, our lovely plot director was made GM, Jenny, in charge of organising the villain side of the plot ran Shadows as a Player Enemy Character, and the rest of us played the team and extras as needed. Then the rolling began and the curse was discovered. You see, Jenny was just getting fully in character and playing Shadows how we all saw her by this point... And the dice loved her. They also hated the teams attempts to discover her, dear god, all the crit successes on the teams behalf countered by the even better crit successes by Jenny... The botches on finding the one critical clue that would lead to Shadows existence being discovered... Jenny managing to perfectly psych us out so we end up further from discovering her presence than we were originally...
Look, Johnny is the accountant for the group, and even he's lost count of just how many new sets of dice we bought or borrowed trying to escape the curse. Did I mention that 'Shadows' was getting better and more experienced, with better gear and resources too, as she kept succeeding, not just the team? And that this was also whilst Kerry as the GM kept intervening to keep things more or less on track for how we wanted the plot to go? So it got to the mid-arc when Shadows should have been revealed and not only was she so unknown that it looked like she was about to start dating Katherine in-universe without anyone knowing, but she was just so flat out better than the Team that she'd curb-stomp them. So we made her the end-arc boss, only for the same thing to happen...
However by now, we'd all grown to love her too much so we just made her the 'hidden enemy' and watched to see where things would go and if we'd ever bring her in. Which eventually, as seen on the last episode, she did. And it's hilarious how it happened. You see, we'd finally decided to have 'Shadows' go big and pull off a major action. If she won, we'd end the role-play because the Team would be utterly crippled and never bring Shadows into the actual show because she won. So we had the game go on, with the penalties on 'Shadows' the worst ever. And she went in, just trivially defeating the problems with ease like normal, until that one roll. The Team had realised something was up but couldn't figure it out. So they did a major action of their own to find out what it was, and Shadows rolled to avoid discovery... And her dice pool is a third the size of the Teams but she loses by a single success. So now we roll to see just how much the team finds out, and by a single point they beat the threshold to actually figure out that yes, something really was going on... But the don't know what, who, when, or anything else really.
Then the game really kicked off, and Shadows luck turned. The Team had discovered her existence and that she was up to something... Then what she was up to... And closer and closer they going, until her luck returned and it looked like she was finally about to pull it off and win... Then you get The Event. It's the final roll before Shadows wins. Even if she fails, she's still going to escape and come out ahead, but the Team will be in trouble and have problems appearing everywhere... It's also her best dice pool against an average one from the team, and it's individual, not the whole Team working together. The rolls for the Team happen and... thoroughly average.
We know how 'Shadows' rolls by this point, so we all groan and sigh, getting ready to pack up and say goodbye to 'Shadows' when Jenny does her rolls. At first nothing unusual, except Jenny sees concerned but she has re-rolls to fix any low rolls. Then she re-rolls again... and again. Each time getting more and more concerned. At this point the rest of us have picked up something strange is happening. And then Jenny does the final re-roll, and she just goes quiet. A good minute or two later, Kerry asks her what's going on, and just tell us how badly 'Shadows' has defeated the Team. And Jenny just looks up and goes "Guys? What does this mean? What do I do?" and reveals her rolls... Not a single success. From her largest dice pool, and with what had to be three or four re-rolls to help. Then we look at the actual dice more closely, and realise it's not just no success... half the dice are natural ones... So it's an extremely massive botch... On one of the most critical rolls in the entire campaign.
We just all sit there starting at the dice, then looking at each other in the yes. Even Kerry and Jenny. And I'm pretty sure the same sentence is going through all our heads at this point: "Well, damn. What do we do now?". Thus was sparked a frantic fortnight as we tried to figure out if we actually wanted to use those results, which turned out to be yes as nothing we came up with that was good actually broke the setting... And once we had determined that, just how we'd go about creating the episode and what it means for the future...
…
Oh dear god, this just got crazy. I mean, it's odd... But can you just imagine what would come from the interview and show if this was true? XD
Well, depends on whose story the other side is.
In Ney's story, for example, she's just the femme fatale assassin and thief who showed up in one arc with a story about finding her family, wound up sleeping with him, and right when the readers are going "Ah yes, she's not so bad, clearly he's seduced her into reforming her ways" she vanishes having pulled a huge heist on the naib and got into the position where she could have assassinated him if she'd wanted to.
On the other hand, for your average DB or Solar party, yes, she's the hand of Kubo in BS retcons and ass pulls.