- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chronicles of the Camarilla's Deathknight (Exalted/World of Darkness)
- Thread starter Amazing Abzan
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy Modern
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thanks for the input!
I'm not gonna hold a second vote on the title, but I would appreciate other people weighing in on whether it should be "Strider Of The Maelstrom Of Life And Death" or "She Who Strides The Maelstrom Of Life And Death." I can get to writing the next chapter regardless, it's a pretty easy thing to swap out, but I'm stuck on which one to go with.
On the one hand, "She Who Strides The Maelstrom Of Life And Death" sounds cleaner, but on the other, "Strider Of The Maelstrom Of Life And Death" is technically the one that won the vote. On the third hand, the vote gained traction before the title was changed, and most of the subsequent votes used the new title. So I don't know! I really could go either way.
My apologies for kicking this off, haha…
I don't have any strong preferences either way — the core of the title was "Maelstrom-Strider," someone who can walk through a storm of multitudes of obstacles and still come up on top to pair with Courage, and the Life and Death part naturally to pair with the narrative insomuch that it's a constant effort to maintain a true and proper identity. My private thoughts in a way is that it's easy to go all in on the vampire / death stuff, and that staying with the things you held in life and Before are a constant struggle, which paired further with that title. The part about constant effort is important, just as much as straddling opposites and facing adversity.
I will say that I originally went with something gender neutral because uhhh I was kinda shooting for an nb or gender-fluid character but if the gender identity is hard confirmed female I lean towards the newer title.
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- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You're good! I appreciate you coming up with the winning plan. And it's not a big deal, the two titles are very similar and I don't think anybody is gonna be super disappointed either way.
I like that a lot! Your explanation is much better than what I thought the title was about. I thought it was just a reference to Wraith: the Oblivion and its Great Maelstroms.
Haha! Gotcha gotcha.
I only learned about Wraith a couple days ago, but I mean, if you want it to be, sure
If you do want to know the origins of it though, it's a reference to a game I'm participating in and also FFXIV
[X] Plan: Somebody Call 911?
1.1
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You awaken to the feeling of your mortal frailties leaving you. Your dead heart doesn't need to beat, your dead lungs don't need to breathe, and suffusing your dead flesh is a feeling of raw power. It courses through your body the way your blood once did, and you feel yourself crackling with potential. You feel like you could fistfight a whole pack of shovelheads and come out without a scratch on you. It's like how the blood makes you feel, like becoming a ghoul felt, only pushed to an even further extreme.
You never realized being dead would make you feel so alive.
Then you taste iron on your tongue, and you remember the second step of the Embrace: the blood. Sweet, sweet vitae flows into your mouth and you eagerly lap it up, reveling in the way it mixes with the feeling of strength that already flows through you, and-
"What the fuck?!" Leila shouts, pulling her bloody wrist away from you as if burned. You give a piteous whine and reach out to try and bring her back, to get more vitae. She retreats even further, scrambling off the bed and staring at you, eyes wide.
"The fuck is wrong with your shadow?"
Your shadow? You glance down at yourself and… huh. You are boiling with shadow that's lined with blood red at the edges, like a wound in the world. It comes out of you in waves, surging outward and upwards like some sort of bizarre flame, only it leaches light from the room instead of adding to it.
"I have no idea what that is," you say confidently.
"Well can you at least cut it off?" Leila asks. "You're a walking Masquerade violation like this."
You frown and concentrate, sitting cross-legged on the bed and closing your eyes. You can feel the power within you roiling, overflowing your physical form and bleeding out into the world. There is a maelstrom inside you, but perhaps, with time, you feel that maelstrom might settle into a placid ocean.
"I think we just need to wait it out?" you say, opening your eyes and looking to Leila. She scowls, and you wince. "Look, sorry, but I'm obviously new to this. I'm sure I'll figure it out."
"What even is this shit?" Leila demands, annoyed. "You're not a fucking Lasombra, you shouldn't be doing creepy shadow shit."
"I don't know," you say. "But when you were Embraced, was there a… voice?"
Leila frowns and crosses her arms. "A voice?"
"Yeah, like after you died but before you came back as a Kindred. I heard a voice and it offered me, uh, basically everything the blood was supposed to give me: power and a way to survive past my death. But it said I had to give up my name and 'do Death's work.'"
"Huh. No, never heard of anything like that," says Leila. She thankfully looks more intrigued than annoyed now. "And what do you mean 'give up your name?' You're still-"
"Don't!" you shout, half in a panic. Leila's eyes widen in surprise. You both take a moment to process the fact that you just interrupted her, that you just told her what to do. It's not how things are supposed to work, but you can't help it; the thought of letting someone call you by your old name makes your skin crawl.
There's a tense moment where Leila stares at you, and you'd be holding your breath if you still breathed, but finally she nods.
"Alright, so using your name is a no-go, got it. What am I supposed to call you instead?"
"Well the voice called me, uh, 'Strider Of The Maelstrom Of Life And Death,'" you admit.
Leila snorts. "Yeah, no, I'm calling you Strider."
You shrug. "Works for me."
Leila sighs. "Right, clearly something went fucky during your Embrace. We'll figure it out later. Right now, I imagine you're starving, so I'll go find you someone to snack on. You will stay here until you figure out how to stop with the freaky shadows."
You give her a jaunty salute. "Yes ma'am."
"Good girl," she says, and a shiver runs down your spine. By her smirk, she knows it. "I'll be back soon."
And with that, Leila leaves your apartment, leaving you alone.
***
You pace back and forth in your apartment, anxious for Leila's return. Not only do you dislike being separated from her, but she'll be coming back with your first… well, your first victim, you suppose. Not that you're that hung up on the morality of being a Kindred, you've helped Leila hunt too often and benefited too much from her blood to have not gotten past that hurdle. Still, you've tried to steer her towards feeding on the willing or the deserving when you can, and you hope she remembers that when she brings you your meal.
Still nervous, you try and burn off some of that energy by shadowboxing, acclimating yourself to your new strength. The results are kind of astounding: you're very familiar with your body and all its hateful little limitations, so you're quite surprised to find them all gone. Or, if not gone entirely, at least much more distant. You're lightning fast and impossibly strong, far faster and stronger than a fledgling like yourself should be, and you're pretty sure you could be even faster and stronger with a little effort. But just as you're sure you could push yourself further, you're sure doing so would rile up that storm inside you and exacerbate the whole 'boiling with shadows' issue. Still, you're quite happy with your new and improved body.
The shadow boxing only entertains you for so long, but it lasts long enough that your shadows start to lessen. You go from overflowing with darkness to merely trailing it faintly in your wake over the course of coming to grips with your newfound strength. Curious, you decide to look in the bathroom mirror to see what the effect looks like from the outside. That's when you discover the mark on your forehead: it's a bruise shaped like a sun with eight rays, and it's openly weeping blood. How Leila managed to avoid mentioning that, you have no idea, although you suppose she was a bit distracted by your… everything.
You sigh. This waiting is torture. Maybe you should give Trish a call? She's been your best friend since high school, if there's anyone you want to talk to right now (besides Leila) it's her. But how much would you even tell her? How much of your life does she already know?
[ ][BFF Knowledge] You'd tell her everything, just like you always have. It's easier that way. (Your best friend knows about vampires. This is technically a Masquerade breach, but will make it easier to maintain a relationship with her)
[ ][BFF Knowledge] You'd hold back, just like you always have. It's safer that way. (Your best friend knows nothing about vampires. This keeps you on the right side of the Masquerade, but makes it harder to maintain a relationship with her)
You're about to dial the phone when a knock comes on your door.
"Yo, uh, Strider?" Leila calls through the door. "You ready for visitors? Because I've got somebody who's dying to meet you."
You double check yourself. You're leaking shadow, but in the dim light of the apartment it's hardly noticeable. Your forehead bruise thing is still there, but that' s easily passed off.
"Yeah, you can come on in!" you call out, emerging from the bathroom.
The door opens, revealing Leila in all her heart-stopping beauty and punk-rocker glory as well as… well, you don't know his name or the first thing about him, but the tight-fitting polo and backwards baseball cap are giving you frat bro vibes. The shit-eating grin certainly doesn't help matters either.
"Hey," says the man, openly eyeing you. You're normally pretty proud of your body (you put a lot of work into it), but something about his attention is making your skin crawl.
"This is Brayden," says Leila. "I've promised him a very special time with just the two of us. What do you say?"
"How'd you meet him?" you ask.
"Tinder," replies Leila. "He had all sorts of… eye-opening things to say about the role of women in society."
"Hey, I just call it like I see it," he says, still grinning.
Ah, so he's one of those. Well at least you won't feel bad about this.
You take a deep breath. You don't feel especially hungry, contrary to your expectations, but this… this feels important. Time for you to prove you're a Kindred.
"I'm ready," you say.
"Sweet," says the frat boy as Leila closes the door behind them. "So how are we doing this?"
In lieu of responding, you walk over to him, only stopping when your noses are practically touching. You stare into his eyes, searching for… something, you're not exactly sure what.
"Man, you are intense," he whispers, spoiling the moment.
Enough of this.
You grab him and, in one smooth motion, wrench his head to the side and bite into his exposed neck.
Immediately, raw power floods your veins once more, only to spill out again. You try to hold onto it, but it's no use: it's like you're trying to fill a bucket that's already overflowing.
"Ow, fuck!" he yells, trying to jerk away from you. You let him, too shocked at his reaction. Wasn't he supposed to be a blissed out, helpless mess right now? Where was the Kiss?
"Did you just fucking bite me?!" he shouts, slapping one hand to his bleeding neck. Leila immediately takes control of the situation, pouncing on him and sucking at the wound you made. Brayden goes boneless in her arms with a moan, proving that he's not immune to the Kiss. You just didn't inflict it, for whatever reason.
After a brief moment, Leila licks his wounds shut and releases the man , who stumbles and nearly falls before the two of you catch him.
"Wow," he says dreamily. "What…?"
"I think," says Leila, "that you better go, Brayden. Strider and I have something we need to discuss."
"Uh, are you sure?" he asks, regaining some of his composure. "I'm sure I can show you ladies a real a good time."
"Brayden," warns Leila, and you can feel her drawing on a bit of her vampiric Presence, looming larger in the room and in Brayden's eyes. "Out."
"Uh, yeah, later I guess," he fumbles, already reaching for the door knob. He stumbles out the door, still clearly woozy from both the Kiss and blood loss. He looks back at the two of you hopefully, but Leila shuts the door in his face before turning back to you.
"The fuck was that?" she demands.
"I'm sorry," you tell her sincerely. "I don't know, do you have to do something to make the Kiss happen?"
"You fucking don't, you useless fuck up!" Leila roars, fangs out. "I swear, if you're a fucking thinblood I'm never gonna hear the end of it, so you better not be a thinblood, got it?"
"Got it," you say, very aware that when Leila gets angry like this, it's best to let her calm herself down rather than intervening. Sure enough, she takes a couple deep breaths and stops bearing her fangs.
"Something is wrong with you," she decides. "You're some kind of weird thinblood thing, or maybe the blood just did something weird, I don't know. I think the Giovanni don't have the Kiss either, but what you're doing with the Giovanni curse and Lasombra shadows, I've got no fucking idea." She sighs, running her hand through her curly hair. "Look, I'm supposed to present you at Elysium first thing tomorrow night, but I'm thinking we might postpone that meeting. I'd rather introduce you to the guys first, make sure we've got some backup who know what to expect." You know that 'the guys' are the local Anarchs that Leila runs with. They're weak, barely just a handful of troublemakers and entirely in the power of the Camarilla, but your sire is committed to them.
"What about Elysium?" you ask. "Is it alright for you to put that off? Is it alright for me to put that off?"
"Eh, perks of being one of the Rabble, people expect us to be impulsive and do dumb shit. We'll probably get in hot water with the Prince, but we'll survive. Or we could face the Prince just the two of us, if you want?"
The way she says that, it's a legitimate question. She is asking for you to choose instead of making the choice for you. Your mouth gapes slightly, and Leila fidgets uncomfortably.
"Look, you're a big girl now, it's time for you to start making your own decisions. So what'll it be tomorrow night? The Anarchs first, or straight to the Prince?"
You think carefully. Having backup who know what to expect, who you know will actually have your back… that does sound nice. You're just not sure it's worth the cost of pissing off the Prince. Is it?
[ ][Tomorrow Night] Meet with the Anarchs first, get some backup.
[ ][Tomorrow Night] Present yourself at Elysium first thing, try to avoid trouble.
There is a 12 hour moratorium on voting. Please vote by task.
You never realized being dead would make you feel so alive.
Then you taste iron on your tongue, and you remember the second step of the Embrace: the blood. Sweet, sweet vitae flows into your mouth and you eagerly lap it up, reveling in the way it mixes with the feeling of strength that already flows through you, and-
"What the fuck?!" Leila shouts, pulling her bloody wrist away from you as if burned. You give a piteous whine and reach out to try and bring her back, to get more vitae. She retreats even further, scrambling off the bed and staring at you, eyes wide.
"The fuck is wrong with your shadow?"
Your shadow? You glance down at yourself and… huh. You are boiling with shadow that's lined with blood red at the edges, like a wound in the world. It comes out of you in waves, surging outward and upwards like some sort of bizarre flame, only it leaches light from the room instead of adding to it.
In Exalted Essence, anima is a measure of how much you're currently glowing. It operates on a 10 point scale, with you gaining 1 point for every mote you spend, and losing 1 to 2 points per scene that passes. There are different visual ranges and mechanical breakpoints. The mechanical breakpoints are at 3 anima (at which point your Active Anima Effect becomes, well, active) and 10 anima (at which point your Iconic Anima Effect becomes active). The visual ranges are as follows:
0 anima: you're not glowing at all.
1 – 2 anima: your caste mark is visible, but can be hidden. This is level is referred to as "Dim."
3 – 4 anima: your anima starts to become barely visible beyond your caste mark. You are wreathed faintly in shadow. This is referred to as "Glowing." Characters generally don't notice your glowing anima unless given specific reason to.
5 – 6 anima: your anima is obvious now, making you look like a goth super saiyan and leaching the light from the room. This is referred to as "Burning." Stealth attempts at this level suffer a 3 die penalty. Due to freshly exalting, you're currently here, with 5 anima.
7 – 9 anima: your anima is now visible from over a city block away. This is referred to as "Bonfire." Stealth is largely impossible at this level.
10 anima: your anima is visible from the horizon, and displays iconography unique to you. This is referred to as "Iconic."
0 anima: you're not glowing at all.
1 – 2 anima: your caste mark is visible, but can be hidden. This is level is referred to as "Dim."
3 – 4 anima: your anima starts to become barely visible beyond your caste mark. You are wreathed faintly in shadow. This is referred to as "Glowing." Characters generally don't notice your glowing anima unless given specific reason to.
5 – 6 anima: your anima is obvious now, making you look like a goth super saiyan and leaching the light from the room. This is referred to as "Burning." Stealth attempts at this level suffer a 3 die penalty. Due to freshly exalting, you're currently here, with 5 anima.
7 – 9 anima: your anima is now visible from over a city block away. This is referred to as "Bonfire." Stealth is largely impossible at this level.
10 anima: your anima is visible from the horizon, and displays iconography unique to you. This is referred to as "Iconic."
"I have no idea what that is," you say confidently.
"Well can you at least cut it off?" Leila asks. "You're a walking Masquerade violation like this."
You frown and concentrate, sitting cross-legged on the bed and closing your eyes. You can feel the power within you roiling, overflowing your physical form and bleeding out into the world. There is a maelstrom inside you, but perhaps, with time, you feel that maelstrom might settle into a placid ocean.
"I think we just need to wait it out?" you say, opening your eyes and looking to Leila. She scowls, and you wince. "Look, sorry, but I'm obviously new to this. I'm sure I'll figure it out."
"What even is this shit?" Leila demands, annoyed. "You're not a fucking Lasombra, you shouldn't be doing creepy shadow shit."
"I don't know," you say. "But when you were Embraced, was there a… voice?"
Leila frowns and crosses her arms. "A voice?"
"Yeah, like after you died but before you came back as a Kindred. I heard a voice and it offered me, uh, basically everything the blood was supposed to give me: power and a way to survive past my death. But it said I had to give up my name and 'do Death's work.'"
"Huh. No, never heard of anything like that," says Leila. She thankfully looks more intrigued than annoyed now. "And what do you mean 'give up your name?' You're still-"
"Don't!" you shout, half in a panic. Leila's eyes widen in surprise. You both take a moment to process the fact that you just interrupted her, that you just told her what to do. It's not how things are supposed to work, but you can't help it; the thought of letting someone call you by your old name makes your skin crawl.
There's a tense moment where Leila stares at you, and you'd be holding your breath if you still breathed, but finally she nods.
"Alright, so using your name is a no-go, got it. What am I supposed to call you instead?"
"Well the voice called me, uh, 'Strider Of The Maelstrom Of Life And Death,'" you admit.
Leila snorts. "Yeah, no, I'm calling you Strider."
You shrug. "Works for me."
Leila sighs. "Right, clearly something went fucky during your Embrace. We'll figure it out later. Right now, I imagine you're starving, so I'll go find you someone to snack on. You will stay here until you figure out how to stop with the freaky shadows."
You give her a jaunty salute. "Yes ma'am."
"Good girl," she says, and a shiver runs down your spine. By her smirk, she knows it. "I'll be back soon."
And with that, Leila leaves your apartment, leaving you alone.
***
Exalted Essence uses scenes as a unit of time. Some effects are stated to last a scene, some ventures only allow one roll per scene, mote recovery is on a per-scene basis, etc. In this case, as the scene changes, you lose 2 anima, bringing you down to 3/10 (Glowing). You are no longer a walking Masquerade risk.
You pace back and forth in your apartment, anxious for Leila's return. Not only do you dislike being separated from her, but she'll be coming back with your first… well, your first victim, you suppose. Not that you're that hung up on the morality of being a Kindred, you've helped Leila hunt too often and benefited too much from her blood to have not gotten past that hurdle. Still, you've tried to steer her towards feeding on the willing or the deserving when you can, and you hope she remembers that when she brings you your meal.
Still nervous, you try and burn off some of that energy by shadowboxing, acclimating yourself to your new strength. The results are kind of astounding: you're very familiar with your body and all its hateful little limitations, so you're quite surprised to find them all gone. Or, if not gone entirely, at least much more distant. You're lightning fast and impossibly strong, far faster and stronger than a fledgling like yourself should be, and you're pretty sure you could be even faster and stronger with a little effort. But just as you're sure you could push yourself further, you're sure doing so would rile up that storm inside you and exacerbate the whole 'boiling with shadows' issue. Still, you're quite happy with your new and improved body.
You have 5 levels in Close Combat, 4 in Physique, and 3 in Athletics. 3 levels in a skill represents a professional, even world-class level of ability. Anything above that is superhuman. Beyond that, you possess the Close Combat excellency, which lets you add 5 more dice to a Close Combat roll for a single mote.
So altogether you can roll 16 dice (4 Force + 5 Close Combat + 5 Close Combat Excellency + 2 stunt dice) on a Close Combat roll if you go all out. In terms of raw dice, this puts you on the level of an Antediluvian, though you lack many of their special tricks as of now.
So altogether you can roll 16 dice (4 Force + 5 Close Combat + 5 Close Combat Excellency + 2 stunt dice) on a Close Combat roll if you go all out. In terms of raw dice, this puts you on the level of an Antediluvian, though you lack many of their special tricks as of now.
The shadow boxing only entertains you for so long, but it lasts long enough that your shadows start to lessen. You go from overflowing with darkness to merely trailing it faintly in your wake over the course of coming to grips with your newfound strength. Curious, you decide to look in the bathroom mirror to see what the effect looks like from the outside. That's when you discover the mark on your forehead: it's a bruise shaped like a sun with eight rays, and it's openly weeping blood. How Leila managed to avoid mentioning that, you have no idea, although you suppose she was a bit distracted by your… everything.
You sigh. This waiting is torture. Maybe you should give Trish a call? She's been your best friend since high school, if there's anyone you want to talk to right now (besides Leila) it's her. But how much would you even tell her? How much of your life does she already know?
[ ][BFF Knowledge] You'd tell her everything, just like you always have. It's easier that way. (Your best friend knows about vampires. This is technically a Masquerade breach, but will make it easier to maintain a relationship with her)
[ ][BFF Knowledge] You'd hold back, just like you always have. It's safer that way. (Your best friend knows nothing about vampires. This keeps you on the right side of the Masquerade, but makes it harder to maintain a relationship with her)
You're about to dial the phone when a knock comes on your door.
"Yo, uh, Strider?" Leila calls through the door. "You ready for visitors? Because I've got somebody who's dying to meet you."
You double check yourself. You're leaking shadow, but in the dim light of the apartment it's hardly noticeable. Your forehead bruise thing is still there, but that' s easily passed off.
"Yeah, you can come on in!" you call out, emerging from the bathroom.
The door opens, revealing Leila in all her heart-stopping beauty and punk-rocker glory as well as… well, you don't know his name or the first thing about him, but the tight-fitting polo and backwards baseball cap are giving you frat bro vibes. The shit-eating grin certainly doesn't help matters either.
"Hey," says the man, openly eyeing you. You're normally pretty proud of your body (you put a lot of work into it), but something about his attention is making your skin crawl.
"This is Brayden," says Leila. "I've promised him a very special time with just the two of us. What do you say?"
"How'd you meet him?" you ask.
"Tinder," replies Leila. "He had all sorts of… eye-opening things to say about the role of women in society."
"Hey, I just call it like I see it," he says, still grinning.
Ah, so he's one of those. Well at least you won't feel bad about this.
You take a deep breath. You don't feel especially hungry, contrary to your expectations, but this… this feels important. Time for you to prove you're a Kindred.
"I'm ready," you say.
"Sweet," says the frat boy as Leila closes the door behind them. "So how are we doing this?"
In lieu of responding, you walk over to him, only stopping when your noses are practically touching. You stare into his eyes, searching for… something, you're not exactly sure what.
"Man, you are intense," he whispers, spoiling the moment.
Enough of this.
You grab him and, in one smooth motion, wrench his head to the side and bite into his exposed neck.
Immediately, raw power floods your veins once more, only to spill out again. You try to hold onto it, but it's no use: it's like you're trying to fill a bucket that's already overflowing.
"Ow, fuck!" he yells, trying to jerk away from you. You let him, too shocked at his reaction. Wasn't he supposed to be a blissed out, helpless mess right now? Where was the Kiss?
"Did you just fucking bite me?!" he shouts, slapping one hand to his bleeding neck. Leila immediately takes control of the situation, pouncing on him and sucking at the wound you made. Brayden goes boneless in her arms with a moan, proving that he's not immune to the Kiss. You just didn't inflict it, for whatever reason.
You have the charm 'Soul-Drinking Bite', which allows you to regain motes by biting people and drinking their blood. You regained no motes in here, as you are already at full motes.
Note that unlike vampires, your bites don't induce feelings of euphoria in your victims, so you'll have to be careful with feeding. You also can't lick wounds shut, though I'm ruling that you can bite in such a way that it's relatively subtle: the classic two puncture wounds on the neck.
Additionally, as an Abyssal, you have the ability 'Cruel Banquet.' Whenever you deal a level of damage, or else commit an action that frightens, subdues, or angers your target, you regain motes. 1 mote for a trivial target, 2 motes for an elite target (like an ancilla or a veteran vampire hunter) and 3 motes for a powerful target (like an elder or another exalt). This triggers once per scene outside of combat.
Note that unlike vampires, your bites don't induce feelings of euphoria in your victims, so you'll have to be careful with feeding. You also can't lick wounds shut, though I'm ruling that you can bite in such a way that it's relatively subtle: the classic two puncture wounds on the neck.
Additionally, as an Abyssal, you have the ability 'Cruel Banquet.' Whenever you deal a level of damage, or else commit an action that frightens, subdues, or angers your target, you regain motes. 1 mote for a trivial target, 2 motes for an elite target (like an ancilla or a veteran vampire hunter) and 3 motes for a powerful target (like an elder or another exalt). This triggers once per scene outside of combat.
After a brief moment, Leila licks his wounds shut and releases the man , who stumbles and nearly falls before the two of you catch him.
"Wow," he says dreamily. "What…?"
"I think," says Leila, "that you better go, Brayden. Strider and I have something we need to discuss."
"Uh, are you sure?" he asks, regaining some of his composure. "I'm sure I can show you ladies a real a good time."
"Brayden," warns Leila, and you can feel her drawing on a bit of her vampiric Presence, looming larger in the room and in Brayden's eyes. "Out."
"Uh, yeah, later I guess," he fumbles, already reaching for the door knob. He stumbles out the door, still clearly woozy from both the Kiss and blood loss. He looks back at the two of you hopefully, but Leila shuts the door in his face before turning back to you.
"The fuck was that?" she demands.
"I'm sorry," you tell her sincerely. "I don't know, do you have to do something to make the Kiss happen?"
"You fucking don't, you useless fuck up!" Leila roars, fangs out. "I swear, if you're a fucking thinblood I'm never gonna hear the end of it, so you better not be a thinblood, got it?"
"Got it," you say, very aware that when Leila gets angry like this, it's best to let her calm herself down rather than intervening. Sure enough, she takes a couple deep breaths and stops bearing her fangs.
"Something is wrong with you," she decides. "You're some kind of weird thinblood thing, or maybe the blood just did something weird, I don't know. I think the Giovanni don't have the Kiss either, but what you're doing with the Giovanni curse and Lasombra shadows, I've got no fucking idea." She sighs, running her hand through her curly hair. "Look, I'm supposed to present you at Elysium first thing tomorrow night, but I'm thinking we might postpone that meeting. I'd rather introduce you to the guys first, make sure we've got some backup who know what to expect." You know that 'the guys' are the local Anarchs that Leila runs with. They're weak, barely just a handful of troublemakers and entirely in the power of the Camarilla, but your sire is committed to them.
"What about Elysium?" you ask. "Is it alright for you to put that off? Is it alright for me to put that off?"
"Eh, perks of being one of the Rabble, people expect us to be impulsive and do dumb shit. We'll probably get in hot water with the Prince, but we'll survive. Or we could face the Prince just the two of us, if you want?"
The way she says that, it's a legitimate question. She is asking for you to choose instead of making the choice for you. Your mouth gapes slightly, and Leila fidgets uncomfortably.
"Look, you're a big girl now, it's time for you to start making your own decisions. So what'll it be tomorrow night? The Anarchs first, or straight to the Prince?"
You think carefully. Having backup who know what to expect, who you know will actually have your back… that does sound nice. You're just not sure it's worth the cost of pissing off the Prince. Is it?
[ ][Tomorrow Night] Meet with the Anarchs first, get some backup.
[ ][Tomorrow Night] Present yourself at Elysium first thing, try to avoid trouble.
There is a 12 hour moratorium on voting. Please vote by task.
[][Tomorrow Night] Present yourself at Elysium first thing, try to avoid trouble.
Since we did take Dusk, we could probably punch our way out of an Elysium gone wrong solo so it's not like we need physical back up and anarchs are likely to make the social parts harder.
Since we did take Dusk, we could probably punch our way out of an Elysium gone wrong solo so it's not like we need physical back up and anarchs are likely to make the social parts harder.
What does our character look like? I know we're female but that's it.
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@SavageC00KIE There is a 12 hour moratorium on voting! Your vote will not be counted. Please post a new vote once the moratorium is done.
And a reminder that there's two votes here, the vote on what to do tomorrow night as well as the one on how much your BFF knows.
And a reminder that there's two votes here, the vote on what to do tomorrow night as well as the one on how much your BFF knows.
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Ah, yeah, I probably should have worked something about that into the update. I'll make sure to include details about your appearance in the next chapter.
Haha wow okay yeah Leila is not really coming off great here!
In general, yeah, fuck it -- I made the best friend choice for a reason, and Strider desperately needs healthier social connection. I'm in favor of them knowing. That being said, them not knowing is a lot more narratively juicier to some extent, but yeah man wow okay I'm willing to sacrifice some narrative tension in favor of a closer more positive relationship.
That being said, it's not like her knowing about vampires wouldn't also have its own narrative hooks. She'd know the cause of her friend's decline, and Boston is the center of the 4th largest Archdiocese in the USA. Obviously, just plain holy water or whatnot isn't really effective against Vamps (and the Lasombra have a lot of influence there, as well as the Toreadors and Malkavians to some extent iirc), but the Society of Leopold and the Second Inquisition does exist. Not necessarily all great people, but uh, if you were in Boston, had a pop-culture understanding of vampires, and one of your friends was being heavily mentally influenced and hooked on the blood of a Vampire, what would you do?
(Or who knows, maybe Trish is Muslim or Hindu or whatever -- True Faith isn't restricted to Christianity. Apparently there's some lore about a guy with so much faith in the power of money he fended off a vamp with a credit card lol. But it's not really the key here -- what is for Trish is figuring out more about the supernatural and possibly getting access to real understanding and resources)
Leila being committed to the Anarchs is interesting -- it's not, like, unsurprising considering Brujah, but considering base survival instinct I guess they've got a decent or working relationship with the Camarilla because with the mentions of weakness, and Strider saying as much, it would be pretty much a bad idea for them to be opposed to the Camarilla. Which is basically said as much, considering "they're in the power" of the Camarilla. Which makes me disinclined to make use of them:
Because of this.
That being said, can we really trust Leila in and of herself to also not start shit...? Strider doesn't exactly have an unbiased view, but I guess Leila at least has a working relationship with other people -- I think one of the big vampiric traditions is that you can only Sire with the approval of elders. I'm not sure if she's tied to them, but Anarchs still do uphold quite a few of the traditions, I think?
In general, the last vote is pretty interesting -- maybe I'm reading too much into it, but obvious potential consequences aside, showing up with the Anarchs displays increased inclination to follow Leila's lead despite it probably leading to fun consequences with another authority, whereas showing up immediately displays more independence... but it's falling in line with another authority. That being said, I'm sure it'll interact interestingly with our other vote -- telling Trish would be breaking the Masquerade, so it's unlikely that by showing up we'd be more of a rule-following sort. However, with our Justice virtue, if we didn't tell our best friend and show up, we might have someone who's inclined to be a lot more of a stickler for Vamp rules.
Man, that was a lot of speculation because the reasoning for my votes is pretty simple.
Tell because I want to maintain the friendship, and Show Up because I'm afraid of the consequences the Prince can exert a lot more than Leila is. Those combat dice look SPICY, but Boston is a pretty important city. Let's not get off on a worse foot than we already are being a "fledgeling" and an Anarch.
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Love hearing your thoughts here!
Just a note on the Anarch stuff, the Camarilla considers the Anarchs to be part of their sect, and in places where the Anarch Movement is weaker they're forced to toe that line and participate as (at least nominally) members of the Camarilla. As implied here:
Boston is one such place where the Anarchs are best thought of as a faction within the Camarilla rather than a power outside of it.
If your main exposure to VtM is Bloodlines or V5, this is probably a bit different than what you're used to.
Interesting! Makes sense -- cool, thanks for letting us know. I wasn't sure since this is presumably the 21st century and I assume the Anarch Free State in California still happened -- albeit it's a moot point since Boston isn't like LA or whatever.
Let us choose our appearance, I'm sure we can be trusted with this
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Yup, it's 21st century, but I'm not using the 5th edition timeline, so if you're referencing the wiki things might appear a little wonky. I'm using 20th anniversary edition lore, which generally stops at 1999, and then I'm updating it myself from there. This means no Second Inquisition, no Beckoning, Anarchs are still nominally in the Camarilla, the Sabbat is still a major player, etc.
In general the 5th edition is intended as a soft reboot of the franchise as well as a way to smooth out the power levels so you're no longer hopelessly outmatched by elders. Since, as pointed out in the update, you guys can fistfight an Antedeluvian, I want to keep the scale and some of the deep lore of the 20th edition game. There's other reasons I've gone for 20th instead of V5 as well: it plays nicer with other splats for one thing. There's a Mage 20th and a Wraith 20th, but no Mage 5th or Wraith 5th. Also, it's what I actually own, so...
Indeed, what could possibly go wrong?Let us choose our appearance, I'm sure we can be trusted with this
Let us choose our appearance, I'm sure we can be trusted with this
Well, seeing how part of her backstory is "Impressed a Brujah with her combat skills"...
Have you seen the second episode of The Tithes?
The one with the Custodian lady?
Much shorter, of course.
Yup, it's 21st century, but I'm not using the 5th edition timeline, so if you're referencing the wiki things might appear a little wonky. I'm using 20th anniversary edition lore, which generally stops at 1999, and then I'm updating it myself from there. This means no Second Inquisition, no Beckoning, Anarchs are still nominally in the Camarilla, the Sabbat is still a major player, etc.
In general the 5th edition is intended as a soft reboot of the franchise as well as a way to smooth out the power levels so you're no longer hopelessly outmatched by elders. Since, as pointed out in the update, you guys can fistfight an Antedeluvian, I want to keep the scale and some of the deep lore of the 20th edition game. There's other reasons I've gone for 20th instead of V5 as well: it plays nicer with other splats for one thing. There's a Mage 20th and a Wraith 20th, but no Mage 5th or Wraith 5th. Also, it's what I actually own, so...
Indeed, what could possibly go wrong?
Technically in pure stats the generational maximums of an Antedeluvian are 10 so yeah an excellency matches them in the Exalt's ballpark, but the really scary things about them are the Elder Disciplines which are all charm and sorcery scale for scope.... but for an Experienced Exalt. What I am saying is do not go dig up the Eldest until we are at least Essence 3.
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I'm basing my conversion of the Antediluvians off of the stats Exalted Essence provides for 3rd circle demons and Deathlords (the Exalted version), meaning they'd get 15 dice in their field of competency plus a bunch of nasty tricks. So they're stronger than you are currently, but my point is you currently throw around about as many combat dice as they do when boosted by Excellencies. You're not strong enough to kill an Antediluvian as of yet, but you can probably give one a bloody nose. That's kind of insane and worth recognizing.Technically in pure stats the generational maximums of an Antedeluvian are 10 so yeah an excellency matches them in the Exalt's ballpark, but the really scary things about them are the Elder Disciplines which are all charm and sorcery scale for scope.... but for an Experienced Exalt. What I am saying is do not go dig up the Eldest until we are at least Essence 3.
But yeah, should probably wait until you're a bit stronger before you actually put that to the test.
Aaaah, yeah, I've been relying on the wiki a fair bit haha…
Good to know and to have most of the cards in the table. I'll try to dig some things up so I don't confuse myself then. No Second Inquisition is interesting, but the Society of Leopold should still be extant…
I have not actually lmao, but yeah I went and looked them up. Neat!
I'm honestly personally in favor of someone not Caucasian. It's a global society and America is presumably a country of immigrants, and both Exalted and WoD draw on a lot of non-Western stuff. Even if the Beckoning might not be a thing, there's still stuff like the Salubri and the Golconda, and the Week of Nightmares was kicked off in the Indian subcontinent. And Exalted of course draws a lot from wuxia and xianxia among other things. Someone who's family fled India because of the Week of Nightmares only to end up being Blood Bonded would be pretty deliciously ironic
It's all up to the QM nevertheless though
Yeah there's a lot of room between "Antediluvian" and the Prince, much less them and Leila, I assume
(Can't wait to find out that Leila is just a third generation shitposting for kicks in Boston)
I haven't updated my memories of the world of darkness for a long time, but as far as I remember in the Book of Nod, the appearance of a girl with the sign of the moon was predicted as one of the harbingers of the last nights.
Of course, Strider has the sun on her forehead, not the moon, but for vampires, especially old ones, this would still be a good explanation for her unlikely power.
Of course, Strider has the sun on her forehead, not the moon, but for vampires, especially old ones, this would still be a good explanation for her unlikely power.
Thanks, that is about how I thought it would work. There is another point in V20 that might be relevant when the system gets translated over. Vampires find it easier to buff their Attributes, they become stronger, faster, tougher, whereas Excellencies do what they say, make the Exalt supernaturally excellent at the Ability they are using, punching, performing, presence etc... So while Strider is doing the kind of things one might expect of a much older vampire she is not doing as one might expect a vampire to. Something an elder might notice if they pay attention perhaps.
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Yeah I'm basically pegging vampire "tiers" as roughly analogous to Exalted's circles of demons: Antediluvians and Methuselahs are akin to 3rd circles, elders are akin to 2nd circles, ancillae are akin to 1st circles, and neonates and fledglings are basically mortals who can spend their limited supply of blood* for brief spurts of power.
*One thing to note about how I'm converting things, btw, is that vampires do NOT get their blood (i.e. motes) replenished by the Breath of War like Exalts do: they have a limited amount of juice they can put out in a fight.
Yup, Society of Leopold is a thing, though they're not as dominant a setting element as the SI. The Second Inquisition very much warps the setting around itself and dictates a LOT about how Kindred society works (to be fair, this can make for some interesting stories), whereas the Society of Leopold is just an (admittedly prominent and successful) group of hunters.
Yeah, I'd intended to make your character nonwhite. Not even because of how Exalted has a lot of non-Western influences (although that is a good point), just because, well, why not?I have not actually lmao, but yeah I went and looked them up. Neat!
I'm honestly personally in favor of someone not Caucasian. It's a global society and America is presumably a country of immigrants, and both Exalted and WoD draw on a lot of non-Western stuff. Even if the Beckoning might not be a thing, there's still stuff like the Salubri and the Golconda, and the Week of Nightmares was kicked off in the Indian subcontinent. And Exalted of course draws a lot from wuxia and xianxia among other things. Someone who's family fled India because of the Week of Nightmares only to end up being Blood Bonded would be pretty deliciously ironic
It's all up to the QM nevertheless though
Hadn't considered the idea of the Week of Nightmares, I might actually steal that...
I do not own the Book of Nod (assuming your referring to like, the actual product that you can buy and not the in-universe object). It is currently on sale though, so that might change...
Regardless, a lot of Kindred are kind of obsessed with Gehenna, and it's been the Final Nights for decades at this point. It's definitely possible for people to call you a sign of the End Times once word gets out just how strong you are. They might even be right!
Hm, that's a point I hadn't considered. By my interpretation Excellencies do necessarily make you faster/stronger/tougher to a certain extent, but you're right that vampires don't really have skill buffs beyond the expanded trait caps of low generation. So to practiced eyes, you won't just look like a fledgling with unnaturally high Celerity or Potence or whatever, you'll also fight with the unnatural skill of an elder.
A lot of stuff is very hard to distinguish tbh. Buff Dex or buff athletics to jump over a fence, it is all the same.
aaand just in time for qm posto
aaand just in time for qm posto
"Welp, another fledge found a methuselah in torpor"
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