Well, looking at how Keris usually steals stuff that big, she would most likely be dropping it into her Empire, which means using that ritual that taints the surroundings with Yozi Essence.
It would probably form a Demesne, of Metagaos, considering the environment, like the Hungry Mountain did.
That's not what she did to the hungry mountain. That was her Kimbery landscaping charm. The ritual she uses to pull stuff into her empire doesn't cause nearly enough corruption to do that.
Mind you, if she decides to destroy the place, dropping one of those right in the middle of it would be a pretty good way to do it. And it'd probably free the ship up, too.
That's not what she did to the hungry mountain. That was her Kimbery landscaping charm. The ritual she uses to pull stuff into her empire doesn't cause nearly enough corruption to do that.
Mind you, if she decides to destroy the place, dropping one of those right in the middle of it would be a pretty good way to do it. And it'd probably free the ship up, too.
The transfer ritual to take large things in and out of the Tiger Empire specifically requires that you be in an area already tainted by one of your Geomantic charms, which is exactly what she used on the Hungry Mountain.
It's just that she usually uses the Metagaos landscape charm for the transfer ritual, because it's easier to hide random patches of swamp and mutant flowers instead of flash flooding and poisoned groundwater.
You know, looking at Sargassia makes me wonder if there's a way could take the entire thing and send it sucking down bodily through Cecelyne to hell and Ligier.
... I mean, probably not, not without the wild zone calcinator or something to alter it beforehand, but it just seems like a fitting end to the place.
You know, looking at Sargassia makes me wonder if there's a way could take the entire thing and send it sucking down bodily through Cecelyne to hell and Ligier.
... I mean, probably not, not without the wild zone calcinator or something to alter it beforehand, but it just seems like a fitting end to the place.
If you can stay in control long enough and have the ability to locate one of the sea routes to Cecelyne, you could sail the ship at the center, and thus the entire 'island' manually.
If you can stay in control long enough and have the ability to locate one of the sea routes to Cecelyne, you could sail the ship at the center, and thus the entire 'island' manually.
Ligier'd start wondering if his birthday had come early. Never mind that demons don't celebrate birthdays, he'd start celebrating just because of Sargassia.
Sargassia incidentally serves as a sort of prototype/tutorial on how I depict the Wyld and Wyld Zones.
The Wyld isn't really a thing from the PoV of Creation. It's pollution. It's corruption. No, in the areas of the Wyld close to Creation, it's not that anything can happen. It's that the whole place is sort of hammered into a theme, and everything is off-kilter. And by and large, it has rules that you can learn. Things you can do to keep yourself safe-ish.
Sargassia incidentally serves as a sort of prototype/tutorial on how I depict the Wyld and Wyld Zones.
The Wyld isn't really a thing from the PoV of Creation. It's pollution. It's corruption. No, in the areas of the Wyld close to Creation, it's not that anything can happen. It's that the whole place is sort of hammered into a theme, and everything is off-kilter. And by and large, it has rules that you can learn. Things you can do to keep yourself safe-ish.
If you can stay in control long enough and have the ability to locate one of the sea routes to Cecelyne, you could sail the ship at the center, and thus the entire 'island' manually.
"Hey Keris, you know how the Memory of Baisha is awesome in so many ways, and a joy to sail on? Well, this isn't the Baisha - in fact, for every way that your boat is amazing, this boat is horrifically awful. Now get to the bridge, captain! And probably be quick, we really want to hit the sea route to Cecylene before we get pulled out of normal time and into Sargassian time."
Guys, if you think Keris is going to look at a mobile, steerable Wyld zone that she can manoeuvre to wherever she wants and then bite off a chunk of Bordermarches from with Infernal Wyld-Shaping to make anything she likes [1], and decide "hmm, I'm giving this to Ligier", then I honestly don't know what to tell you.
[1] Which she can continue doing so until the entirety of Sargassia is gone, the Southwest has a new custom-made island chain built to her specifications and she has a Shogunate-era jadesteel hull that she can refurbish into another warship.
Guys, if you think Keris is going to look at a mobile, steerable Wyld zone that she can manoeuvre to wherever she wants and then bite off a chunk of Bordermarches from with Infernal Wyld-Shaping to make anything she likes [1], and decide "hmm, I'm giving this to Ligier", then I honestly don't know what to tell you.
[1] Which she can continue doing so until the entirety of Sargassia is gone, the Southwest has a new custom-made island chain built to her specifications and she has a Shogunate-era jadesteel hull that she can refurbish into another warship.
It's not a matter to me of whether Keris is going to, it's just that taking Sargassia, sucking it down five days of blasted hellscape, into a twisted land where the denizens have been twisted into shape by their imprisonment, and finally taking leaving it in a brass and obsidian tainted paradise at the end?
Guys, if you think Keris is going to look at a mobile, steerable Wyld zone that she can manoeuvre to wherever she wants and then bite off a chunk of Bordermarches from with Infernal Wyld-Shaping to make anything she likes [1], and decide "hmm, I'm giving this to Ligier", then I honestly don't know what to tell you.
[1] Which she can continue doing so until the entirety of Sargassia is gone, the Southwest has a new custom-made island chain built to her specifications and she has a Shogunate-era jadesteel hull that she can refurbish into another warship.
Guys, if you think Keris is going to look at a mobile, steerable Wyld zone that she can manoeuvre to wherever she wants and then bite off a chunk of Bordermarches from with Infernal Wyld-Shaping to make anything she likes [1], and decide "hmm, I'm giving this to Ligier", then I honestly don't know what to tell you.
[1] Which she can continue doing so until the entirety of Sargassia is gone, the Southwest has a new custom-made island chain built to her specifications and she has a Shogunate-era jadesteel hull that she can refurbish into another warship.
....I still harbour suspicions that Keris's family somehow interbred with the Hibiki clan...either that or she's related to a certain Pirate Swordsman named Zoro (the one from One Piece, not the Dread Pirate Roberts).
This thing has been a fucking year and a half in the making. I kept shifting when it should happen and rewriting bits and... urgh.
Well. It's done now. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.
Keris has interacted with her po on more than one occasion. Most of those meetings haven't exactly been friendly. But this time! This time, she finally comes to terms with it - and bumps up her Id background in the bargain. Friends, romans, velociteers, lend me your attention for Trust Your Instincts; the all-new Kerisgame fictional extra!
So, what has this exercise in insanity got her, I hear you ask?
Well, quite a bit, actually. As well as shooting up all the way up to Id 4, it's initiated her into a custom-designed Heretical Pantheon-Anchored charm tree centred around her second soul. She immediately bought four of them - everything she met the prerequisites for. The mechanics of the background have been tweaked slightly to work via Kerisgame rules, so let's have a look at those along with her new toys!
Your po is your own inner demon, a strange synthesis of the second soul of men and a demon prince. Its passions whisper to you, empowering you should you follow its whims. The player should pick one Solar-style Limit Break that has a particularly symbolic resonance for how they envision their character and their most base nature to link to their lower soul. For example, if your character is decadent and has a weakness for fine things, they might have the Overindulgence Limit Break associated with their po. If they have a great compassionate heart it might have Heart of Tears.
Craven Cowardice: Terrified beyond reason, the character focuses on the most prominent nearby threat and goes to any lengths to escape, placate or divert it. So consuming is her panic that other dangers do not register until the first is dealt with. She will abandon her comrades, hand over her most prized possessions or destroy her beloved home in order to reach a place of safety. Should no dangers be perceivable she hides herself, too frightened to do anything that may draw the attention of imagined enemies or phantom foes. Partial Control: The character can pay some thought to characters or objects she values enormously, and retain enough awareness not to run from one danger into another. She must still do all she can to escape the most prominent threat she is aware of, however. Duration: One full scene if threats are present, five days if not.
Id 0: Your po is akin to the po-souls of mortal men. Perhaps it has not imbibed of the essence of the Yozis at all, or perhaps it simply sleeps, waiting for its moment. Then again, perhaps it was once awake but you beat it into submission. Cruel indeed can be the higher minds of men.
Id 1: Voluntarily, you may reflexively succumb to a Controlled Limit Break of the kind associated with your po. This lasts for a scene, and may not be terminated early. Once the madness ends, if the Limit Break meaningfully hampered you or caused you problems, you may roll your Id and remove a number of points of Limit equal to your successes. While this madness endures you are immune to any further Limit gain.
Id 2: You have learned to draw power from the nagging urges at the back of your mind. Stunts which channel behaviour in line with your chosen Limit Break have their rating increased by one dot.
Id 3: You have come to some acceptance of your base desires. Your Id provides a free 3-dot Style themed around the po in question (Lurking Predator Style).
Id 4: Infernals this in-tune with their po are almost inhuman in their human drives. You require one fewer scenes to develop or reinforce a Principle in line with their Limit Break. In addition, you gain a positive Principle towards your chosen Limit Break. This Principle can be eroded as normal, but you effectively spend a scene renewing it whenever you regain Willpower from sleeping or increase a trait with the help of your coadjutor.
Id 5: When one's own feelings fill one's mind, external influences are easily sensed. All emotionally-rooted mental influences targeting your character are Obvious during the scene which they are imposed. If you do not resist, then you will still act in line with the influence but you can sense its nature as something which did not spring from your own mind.
The ambush predator lies in wait, hiding from fearful prey and larger predator alike. It stealthily bides its time, striking with speed and surprise on its side and then withdrawing with its meal before it can be driven away. This style applies whether hunting beasts or men, as the principles of concealment and ambush apply equally to either. 1: +1 to finding cover in which to lay an ambush. 2: +1 accuracy when attacking an unaware target from cover. 3: -1 Difficulty to disengaging and escaping after an ambush, successful or not.
Cost: —; Mins: Id 1, Enlightenment 6; Type: Permanent Keywords: None Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: None
The Edgelands of Krisity are a foreign, fearful place - but to one who partakes of their nature, they are home. Keris gains the following powers as permanent enhancements from her union with her po-soul:
She suffers no penalties from thin air or high altitude, and is outright immune to asphyxiation while in Limit Break.
Negative effects stemming from fog or humidity do not affect her, including penalties, environmental damage and even sensory impairment.
With a diceless miscellaneous action, she can become invisible to things that sense fire essence or heat, such as the heat pits of snakes or red jade lenses. In Limit Break, vision-based Awareness checks are inapplicable against her when she benefits from concealment in fog or mist, unless she wishes otherwise.
The Difficulty to disarm her or to steal objects she is touching is increased by 2.
As a side-effect of learning this Charm, Keris begins to grow silver feathers amidst her hair. This is a permanent alteration to her base form.
Cost: 4m; Mins: Id 2, Enlightenment 7; Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: Indefinite Prerequisite Charms: Lurker in the Mists
Coiled around its treasures, the Serpent-King knows all. Its sensitive silver feathers can sense the least vibration of a shifting coin and detect the slightest divot on a damaged cup. While this Charm is active, Keris gains two bonus successes on all touch-based sensory actions, as well as doubling her successes on touch-based sensory rolls. These benefits apply to rolls using Abilities other than Awareness. In addition, her sense of touch becomes inhuman in capacity; she can accurately guess at an army's size by the vibrations of their footsteps, or target an unseen assassin by how their presence shifts the movements of the air.
Such sensitivity renders her vulnerable to those who would exploit it. Keris experiences a -2 external penalty to her MDV against social attacks based on or making key use of touch while it is active. Anyone observing this Charm in use may notice Keris's eyes become momentarily slit-pupiled and bestial with a reflexive (Reaction + Awareness) roll at difficulty 4. This telltale sign does not make the effects Obvious, so astute observers will have to draw their own conclusions. Should she enter Limit Break, Sinuous Sinful Pinions is automatically activated for 0m.
Cost: 7m; Mins: Id 3, Enlightenment 8; Type: Reflexive (Step 2) Keywords: Obvious, Social, Emotion Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Sinuous Sinful Pinions
Fear the apex predator; the lurking monster in the mists. Keris's features twist to mimic the bestial visage of her po-soul; her hair bleaching white, her eyes becoming slit-pupiled and her teeth turning silver and sharp. This shift startles and intimidates others, negating any physical or social attack made against her unless the attacker's player succeeds on a reflexive Valor roll at Difficulty 1. The attacker need succeed only once per action, no matter how many attacks he makes during a flurry. This Charm's effects are a form of unnatural mental influence, and characters can spend three Willpower to resist the effects of Snarling Lower-Soul for a scene.
Should this Charm be used while Keris is in Limit Break, a failed Valour roll imparts a vision of Pekhijira itself to the attacker; instilling an Emotion effect appropriate to the circumstances. In most cases this will be terror as the woman becomes a vast serpentine demon, but should a character notice her own fear it might instead inspire guilt or remorse over driving her to such a state.
Cost: 16m, 1wp; Mins: Id 4, Enlightenment 9; Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-Basic, Form-type, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Snarling Lower-Soul
Drawing on the union between hun and po, Keris's lower body elongates and twists into a monstrous serpentine form as her torso swells. At the end of the transformation, from the waist up she resembles a feral-featured white-haired woman with a mane of silver feathers, while below the waist she is a feathered serpent. Her fifteen-metre-long form has something of both dragons and felines about it, and her human torso swells by half its size again to match its scale; reducing mundane clothing and armour to tatters but leaving artifact coverings intact. The following benefits apply for as long as this Charm is active:
She gains all effects from Snarling Lower-Soul for free, including the alterations to her features, and counts as being in Limit Break for the purposes of Lurker in the Mists.
All Shaping effects which would transform Keris's body become Obvious to her senses. Any unwanted currently-active effects are shredded on razor-sharp silver feathers, including any unwanted mutations, and she may reflexively reject any further changes even while unconscious or otherwise inactive. Damage rolls from Poison effects are suspended until Keris returns to her natural form, but this damage is merely delayed, not avoided, and Poison penalties continue to apply.
All unwanted long-term derangements, Compulsions, Illusions and Servitude effects upon Keris from external sources are eroded over the course of the scene, dealing a level of aggravated damage for each such effect to a maximum of 3.
Armoured in silver and grown to inhuman size, Keris increases her lethal and bashing soak and her Move and Dash distances by (Enlightenment - 5) and adds (Enlightenment) to her Physique when performing feats of strength, gaining control of clinches or attacking inanimate objects. Her lower body, covered in razor-sharp silver feathers, can be used as an artifact bloodspike harness when clinching.
In Limit Break, this Charm becomes Reflexive, gains the Combo-OK keyword, and its Duration increases to "Until the end of the Limit Break", but may not be voluntarily deactivated.
Who can say what feats might be achieved at the furthest reaches of Exalted power, by the closest of unions with a po-soul equal in strength to an Incarna or a Primordial fetich? Surely such magic would be terrible beyond words; able to shake the very landscape or strike fear into the hearts of champions. Pray that such an event might never come to pass, for surely only the mad or desperate would choose to use such frightful gifts.
That was excellent writing. I've always enjoyed Keris interacting with her Souls. The Soul searching with their souls is one of the most interesting things one can do with infernals.
Ah, I see that Keris has gained the -Silver Haired Antagonist- perk (even if only partially). Now she only needs the Charm to deploy her Reality Marble Pekhijira's choking mists from her inner world whenever and wherever needed to become a respectable boss encounter for the good guys. I mean, in a stylish -sense, not in sheer power.
I wonder how this particular spirit journey would have affected Haneyl, who is currently away.
And her siblings. That kind of epiphany is something you'd expect with ramifications on her soul structure.
Are Id Charms limited to one at each level of Id, matched to Essence/Enlightenment? Or could Keris theoretically buy as many as you can come up with?
As to Kerisgame itsself, why did you pick Craven Cowardice as its Limit Break? From what I've seen of it, I'd have put its limit break as being based around stealing/hoarding.
It's really hard to read. Between the colored text and the way my phone lags when I try to open the doc, it's slowly gotten almost impossible. I won't ask you to change anything, but would you mind if I scrape the document and build per-chapter pages for it?
It's really hard to read. Between the colored text and the way my phone lags when I try to open the doc, it's slowly gotten almost impossible. I won't ask you to change anything, but would you mind if I scrape the document and build per-chapter pages for it?
Honestly, don't bother. I've been meaning to restructure the docs for a while anyway, and it was already on my to-do list for February. I might just use AO3 or something to set it up in a chapter-by-chapter format - which will also allow for wordcount and hit-tracking and downloads and other nice things like that. It'll happen sometime over the next fortnight, so just hang tight until then.
Question: how much do people care about seeing the distinction between @EarthScorpion's sections and mine? Should I find a way to keep that without colour, or just format the whole thing the same way as a narrative?
I like the distinction. The way its setup now, I can see your OOC discussions about intentions, rules clarification etc. If it was all just black on white, it would be much harder to work out who was who (Especially when who was writing changes author in the middle of a paragraph, as it sometimes does.). If you could find a way to make the clear without the colour that would also work, though those author changes mid-paragraph would be much harder to make clear. That said, if its an issue for colourblind people or people who just don't like the text-colour I'm not sure what the best method is.
