[Exalted, ?] Most High
- Thread starter Rihaku
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meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
Full Ambition focus.
Usernames
Merc gonna merc ya
Full Ambition focus. Zao Armor is for him only. Besides, the faster we get to Adamant evocations, the better.
Also plan future encounters on the basis on what we get? Isn't that unfair? If we got the ability to ignore armor, would you send us unarmored enemies? Of if we can fly, you send flying enemies or have us fight in small spaces to negate the advantages we get?
The ability to create hurricanes is insignificant next to the power of the Ambition.
Rihaku
The Internet
Uh, the world doesn't scale according to your abilities. I'm talking about how Ulyssian approaches his problems, and what decision points should be. If he can fly, that changes how he approaches problems. If he can cut through any object no matter its Hardness, that changes how he approaches problems.
How relevant for our "I'm totally a DB" story would the ability to just shunt our suspiciously non-burning fire anima into a proper lightning armor be?
so the armor would help sell the story more then without it
Rihaku
The Internet
Okay, my rough manual counts shows Reckless Disregard with a fairly sizable lead, and Accept of course also with a fairly sizable lead. You guys can still vote for Evocations in the case that Disregard loses, since many people haven't voted yet, but in the meantime jt may be best to brainstorm tactics. They don't necessarily have to make mechanical sense, as long as they are cool and or sound practical.
My bad let me be more specific. I'm surprised we have such few stunts for the actual battle. Though that could be attributed to us not yet knowing what evocations we have, the benefits of our titles, and charms we can use for this battle.
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Rihaku
The Internet
You don't really need to know any of that, as long as it's reasonably well-written and / or creative, it will help even if you purport capabilities that are completely weird. The title descriptions are pretty specific, you should probably assume that war saint and killing perfection are added to Ulyssian's character sheet and not much else.
But it's perfectly fine to do a write in where he has all the storm armor Evocations, or something.
But it's perfectly fine to do a write in where he has all the storm armor Evocations, or something.
Rihaku
The Internet
You guys could also try to assemble a Perfect Brotherhood to oppose theirs, though you really only have good access to Hero for Earth and Saery for Water. Cant use Nilul since you're ostensibly Fire, can't use Moon since you're supposed to be dissociated, so you'd need an air and a wood caste. Can't use Zao for obvious reasons, but maybe Ivory's random wood caste matron could stand in, if she had some reason to actually be here?
Fanwork##
Battle stunt, 1280 words.
Burning tendrils leaped from outstretched hands, hungrily devouring the distance toward Ullysian. Before they could engulf him, gale force winds crashed against them, igniting on contact and turning the oncoming torrents of flames into a true firestorm. Slips seconds before he was consumed, radiant light bloomed in his hands to meet it, and for an instant, everything was lost under a deluge of colors and sounds. A red and yellow sea threatened to drown him, his sole succor, a solid bar of white fire burning nuclear bright in the grip of his armored hands.
It seemed that his defense would break, indeed, not only did it struggle to ward the whole of the flames, which crawled over its edges to lap at his bowed form, it appeared to thin, as if ready to fade moments from now. When it died in a flicker, only seconds after the beginning of the clash, all seemed lost.
A pitiful end for an Anathema, but young Solars tended to act foolishly, drunk on their new-found power.
Of the Immaculates Monks not directly engaged with their target, only the Water aspect stayed on guard, for she had learned much about the price of overconfidence. The Wood aspect had hanged back from the beginning, ready to come to the aid of his brothers rather than jumping in the fray. The Earth aspect for his part had been taught entirely different lessons from those life had inculcated to his leader. His natural strength and his many success had build expectations in him, and here he ceded anew to them, slowing his approach. Which is why he was slow to react when the blanket of flames was cut in two as the light flickered back, blazing even strongly than before. At the time the Fire and Air Aspect who had fueled it stumbled,dazed. Akin to puppets whose strings had just been cut, they vacillated for a time then tumbled to the ground.
The sounds of rushing and churning water at his back almost immediately after that, pushed Ullysian to act quickly. A whole pan of the firestorm had simply been extinguished on the spot. On the other hand, some of it was lingering, slow to die. As he spun toward the oncoming threat, his arm blurred, the speed of his movements summoning new current of winds and making the dying flames swell again, to rose upward in a wall of fire raised to met the wave upon which the Water Aspect rode toward him.
He rushed away under the cover of the resulting cloud of steam, his devouring stride carrying him strait toward the fallen form of his kin. He knew better than to leave a Sesus rise from his fall. Beside he could see that the Wood Caste had reached the Air aspect, dealing with the both of them know would dangerously slow him down. In the middle of his race toward his target, a thunderous rumble coming from the right pushed him to slow his advance. Just in time to avoid the surging peaks of earthen spears surge, soon standing arrayed protectively around the fallen Flame Aspect.
His steps didn't falter and he launched himself straight forward, his blade scything once. The upper half of the wall of rocky pillars detached themselves from their bases, and fell away, leaving to plunge into the newly opened gap. As he passed, his blurring feets impacted the falling pieces of stones before they could hit the ground. Descending straight down toward his target, sword point first, he saw from the corner of his eye the rocky constructs speed away.
Outside of his view, one exploded on the head of the crouched Earth aspect, seemingly without great effect. Still the blow had disturbed his focus, for the vibrations spanning outward from the place where his fist were buried abruptly ceased and the fissures stretching in a jagged line toward the newly raised rock palisade Ullysian had broken through closed. The others pieces of stones flew toward the Water aspect, as such speed that she had to slow her renewed charge to shred one with wiping tendrils of waters, and dodge another.
To the Sesus credit, the man was enshrouded in a corona of fire and seemingly ready to rise when Ullysian's blade, pushed by the momentum of his fall, punched straight through him. Skewered as he was, he still struggled at the end, his hands seeking his throat. They closed on empty air. Ullysian had no time to waste, even for kin.
Other of his improvised projectile exploded out of the ground in another series of kick, to fly toward the recovering Air Aspect and his guard.
They slowed down under a barrage of hastily raised wind, and the Wood cast launched himself on an interception course as he saw Ullyssian rush behind them. The Immaculate stance shifted on the run, warping into a perfect counter to the one he had adopted. He wasn't prepared for his sudden halt at mid range, and the flash of a suddenly elongated blade. Without waiting for the blood to settle, Ullysian whirled around, leaving the bleeding corpse before the widened eyes of the Air aspect.
He found himself face to face with a stampeding bull in the form of the Earth Aspect and immediately lunged aside, a giant fist rocketing past to crack the ground he had occupied like an egg. His leaning foe straightened and turned with a roar of rage on his lips, anticipating to see his retreating form. A mistake, for there was no headlong rush and no blitzing move now, only a two handed strike falling straight down. The Monk hardened skin had withered uncountable blows, which is why he shifted to a familiar guard, not even thinking to dodge. He didn't have time for wonder when the guillotine-like blow scythed through rock like skin and bones. He had no time at all to spare when the slash that followed took his head from his shoulders.
Ullysian rocketed forward the moment his blade had cleared flesh and bone.
Knowing what trailed behind, he sped up, muscles pumping to the tearing point, flying like an arrow straight toward the one he had left standing moments ago. The Air aspect, enraged beyond reason, hurled toward him on current of winds so violent that they had become visible to the naked eye. Swallowed by the gusts preceding him, his course didn't falter and they met in a clash of steel. Immediately it became apparent that whatever power rage afforded the Immaculate, his skills were no match for his own superlative swordsmanship. Even as cutting winds opened bleeding lines upon his face, he made his arm flow in a dazzling pattern, out-passing the wind enhanced speed of his foe. That fabricated swiftness and the weight of the buffeting wind against him had been the only things permitting to the man to last. He fell without a sound.
As silence begun to settle around him, the sorcerous wind's noise dying down as it dissipated with the death of their summoner, Ullysian gathered his essence, and waited, ears filled with the almost soundless beat of running steps. A last-second shift of position turned the death blow into a crippling one, the claws intended to pierce his armored chest carving into his collarbone, headless of the armor there. His attacker was less lucky and unable to ignore the jolt of lightning that followed, electric current rushing from his armored form through the metal of her claws she faltered. She recovered in even less time that he had thought, tensing for another strike before a second had passed.
He was faster still.
Battle stunt, 1280 words.
Burning tendrils leaped from outstretched hands, hungrily devouring the distance toward Ullysian. Before they could engulf him, gale force winds crashed against them, igniting on contact and turning the oncoming torrents of flames into a true firestorm. Slips seconds before he was consumed, radiant light bloomed in his hands to meet it, and for an instant, everything was lost under a deluge of colors and sounds. A red and yellow sea threatened to drown him, his sole succor, a solid bar of white fire burning nuclear bright in the grip of his armored hands.
It seemed that his defense would break, indeed, not only did it struggle to ward the whole of the flames, which crawled over its edges to lap at his bowed form, it appeared to thin, as if ready to fade moments from now. When it died in a flicker, only seconds after the beginning of the clash, all seemed lost.
A pitiful end for an Anathema, but young Solars tended to act foolishly, drunk on their new-found power.
Of the Immaculates Monks not directly engaged with their target, only the Water aspect stayed on guard, for she had learned much about the price of overconfidence. The Wood aspect had hanged back from the beginning, ready to come to the aid of his brothers rather than jumping in the fray. The Earth aspect for his part had been taught entirely different lessons from those life had inculcated to his leader. His natural strength and his many success had build expectations in him, and here he ceded anew to them, slowing his approach. Which is why he was slow to react when the blanket of flames was cut in two as the light flickered back, blazing even strongly than before. At the time the Fire and Air Aspect who had fueled it stumbled,dazed. Akin to puppets whose strings had just been cut, they vacillated for a time then tumbled to the ground.
The sounds of rushing and churning water at his back almost immediately after that, pushed Ullysian to act quickly. A whole pan of the firestorm had simply been extinguished on the spot. On the other hand, some of it was lingering, slow to die. As he spun toward the oncoming threat, his arm blurred, the speed of his movements summoning new current of winds and making the dying flames swell again, to rose upward in a wall of fire raised to met the wave upon which the Water Aspect rode toward him.
He rushed away under the cover of the resulting cloud of steam, his devouring stride carrying him strait toward the fallen form of his kin. He knew better than to leave a Sesus rise from his fall. Beside he could see that the Wood Caste had reached the Air aspect, dealing with the both of them know would dangerously slow him down. In the middle of his race toward his target, a thunderous rumble coming from the right pushed him to slow his advance. Just in time to avoid the surging peaks of earthen spears surge, soon standing arrayed protectively around the fallen Flame Aspect.
His steps didn't falter and he launched himself straight forward, his blade scything once. The upper half of the wall of rocky pillars detached themselves from their bases, and fell away, leaving to plunge into the newly opened gap. As he passed, his blurring feets impacted the falling pieces of stones before they could hit the ground. Descending straight down toward his target, sword point first, he saw from the corner of his eye the rocky constructs speed away.
Outside of his view, one exploded on the head of the crouched Earth aspect, seemingly without great effect. Still the blow had disturbed his focus, for the vibrations spanning outward from the place where his fist were buried abruptly ceased and the fissures stretching in a jagged line toward the newly raised rock palisade Ullysian had broken through closed. The others pieces of stones flew toward the Water aspect, as such speed that she had to slow her renewed charge to shred one with wiping tendrils of waters, and dodge another.
To the Sesus credit, the man was enshrouded in a corona of fire and seemingly ready to rise when Ullysian's blade, pushed by the momentum of his fall, punched straight through him. Skewered as he was, he still struggled at the end, his hands seeking his throat. They closed on empty air. Ullysian had no time to waste, even for kin.
Other of his improvised projectile exploded out of the ground in another series of kick, to fly toward the recovering Air Aspect and his guard.
They slowed down under a barrage of hastily raised wind, and the Wood cast launched himself on an interception course as he saw Ullyssian rush behind them. The Immaculate stance shifted on the run, warping into a perfect counter to the one he had adopted. He wasn't prepared for his sudden halt at mid range, and the flash of a suddenly elongated blade. Without waiting for the blood to settle, Ullysian whirled around, leaving the bleeding corpse before the widened eyes of the Air aspect.
He found himself face to face with a stampeding bull in the form of the Earth Aspect and immediately lunged aside, a giant fist rocketing past to crack the ground he had occupied like an egg. His leaning foe straightened and turned with a roar of rage on his lips, anticipating to see his retreating form. A mistake, for there was no headlong rush and no blitzing move now, only a two handed strike falling straight down. The Monk hardened skin had withered uncountable blows, which is why he shifted to a familiar guard, not even thinking to dodge. He didn't have time for wonder when the guillotine-like blow scythed through rock like skin and bones. He had no time at all to spare when the slash that followed took his head from his shoulders.
Ullysian rocketed forward the moment his blade had cleared flesh and bone.
Knowing what trailed behind, he sped up, muscles pumping to the tearing point, flying like an arrow straight toward the one he had left standing moments ago. The Air aspect, enraged beyond reason, hurled toward him on current of winds so violent that they had become visible to the naked eye. Swallowed by the gusts preceding him, his course didn't falter and they met in a clash of steel. Immediately it became apparent that whatever power rage afforded the Immaculate, his skills were no match for his own superlative swordsmanship. Even as cutting winds opened bleeding lines upon his face, he made his arm flow in a dazzling pattern, out-passing the wind enhanced speed of his foe. That fabricated swiftness and the weight of the buffeting wind against him had been the only things permitting to the man to last. He fell without a sound.
As silence begun to settle around him, the sorcerous wind's noise dying down as it dissipated with the death of their summoner, Ullysian gathered his essence, and waited, ears filled with the almost soundless beat of running steps. A last-second shift of position turned the death blow into a crippling one, the claws intended to pierce his armored chest carving into his collarbone, headless of the armor there. His attacker was less lucky and unable to ignore the jolt of lightning that followed, electric current rushing from his armored form through the metal of her claws she faltered. She recovered in even less time that he had thought, tensing for another strike before a second had passed.
He was faster still.
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Fanwork##
Reaction
Actions have consequences and pissing off our House means we have to deal with what happens when you piss off your House?
There is no way we could have known!
I mean, there are 150 other SOlars around, 300 Lunars and who the fuck knows how many DBs but apparently everyone else reaslly enough of a shithead and the forces opposing Creation are powerful enough that it ultimately all comes down to Uly saving everyone in the next two decades or everyone dies.
For Uly this has really been only a day since he was concerned with not being irrelevant in the world and he wasn't even remotely aware of how bad things really stood.
We on the other hand knew Uly would be Exalting as a Solar and expected to save the world since the start of this incarnation of the Odyssey and knew about the dire straight Creation was in even longer thanks to the previous quests and meta-knowledge.
It's not really surprising that unlike people who have been scheming about how to take over the Realm and gain more political influence since the beginning and had numerous opportunities to direct Uly into being more suited for that roll, Uly himself still gives a lot more argument to the weight of what he's actually good at and therefor should focus on than readers might think.
After all, he's still the guy who a day ago spent his entire time training to become as much of a combat monster as he possibly can be because that was the only way for him to advance and stay relevant with his skillset.
Uly himself was a lot less or even not at all involved in processes like discussing the purchase of the Presence Excellency, which prelude options might make him more capable at social stuff, whether we should be spending Solar XP on covering that weakness of his and so on.
While Uly certainly has a point in that focusing on what he's good at can lead to better results, there will be serious consequences to this decision and without Lea or even anyone who could come close to her skill or trustworthyness to cover that weakness, he'll be facing a lot more problems in that regard than Odyssial did, especialy since Odyssial was likely never in a situation as politically delicate and nigh impossible to solve with the strength available to him alone as Uly's situation in the Realm.
Normally, you'd expect any attempt of Uly's to resist an attempt by Nilul to socially influence him to be decided with pure willpower and integrity.
Continuing to push now would be like kicking a puppy.
I suppose that ambiguity between genuine niceness and self-serving sociopathy that she herself may not be able to draw a line between, is really part of the character's charm and why she manages to garner so much of my interest.
However that doesn't seem to be a piece of advice we've taken to heart.
That Nilul is actually willing to at least somewhat warn him that her own issues may be bigger than he thinks and that protecting her is not necessarily going to be easy or safe is rather endearing.
I can't quite express how sad I am about the fact that it doesn't make a reappearance for the sake of preparing Uly for Establish Connections.
I can't quite say whether Uly is right to dismiss Nilul's annoying theatrics that easily.
I mean, obviously Nilul isn't letting Uly hear them unintentionally and is in fact primarily just annoying him, but Uly does kind of lack the context of just how dark Nilul's situation is and this could easily be a double bluff on Nilul's part.
Making Nilul think Uly (and by extension Zao) are kind of fucking up their chances to pull this off by not following her suggestion could have serious consequences, because Nilul has almost no choice but to look out for number one.
And even if she accepts that increasing Uly's personal power is a viable way to get through this, not playing ball with House Sesus is still a course of action that will bring down negative attention on the Academy and Uly himself which potentially puts everyone else there, including Nilul of course, into more danger, which makes this somewhat suboptimal an approach for her, especially since Uly isn't always going to be standing next to Nilul where he can use his increased combat prowess to increase her safety.
Otherwise it also makes for a bright and flavourful contrast to Odyssial's Calibration.
Then again given that he's basically using Calibration's nature and his recent Exaltation to "cheat" himself into more power, largely by delving into Ody's memories before it becomes harder to access them again, it's probably to be expected that after he gets gimself started properly through actual training and memories start surfacing he switches to ridiculously intense meditation to drag up as much as he possibly can.
Then again, I suppose the only memories that wouldn't overwhelm Uly right now haven't reached either of those heights quite yet.
For all that we keep railing about Heartlessness 10, Odyssial was a lot more than just that stat.
His unyielding Fury against the Primordials and all the other facets going into being a truly ridiculous killing machine should really not be forgotten when considering what kind of person he once was, especially since the Heartlessness stat alone wasn't even remotely sufficient to get him to reach Greatness 10 and surpass even the Unconquered Sun.
Not long enough to get the full use out of Raw Power, but way too late to do anything about being absent from the festivities.
Shows rather well how much on the same wavelength they tend to be.
Lving the "and then get out" though. Nothing but an overprotective father can be that heartwarming by being a grumpy asshole.
That's just not fair.
It's also more than a bit hilarious that he didn't see this coming when she told him she wanted to give him something.
Still, asking Uly not to be suicidal is basically a lsot cause.
I can't help but think betting on Moon's general competency making this kind of thing unnecessary in the future is not going to stop Moon from giving him shit the enxt time he almost kills himself for one reason or another.
Might have something to do with how resilient Exalts are, but I like what it says about the signficance of the potential betrayal and relief Moon felt upon hearing the truth.
And now I have to think about a hypothetical quest where Uly Exalts as a Wood Aspect DB and Moon really gets her Perfect Brotherhood of Zao's students that she apparently was still firmly expecting to get at some point.
I still remember the last Quest where we were told so goddamn often that there is really no guarantee that Uly will get his Celestial Exaltation at some point.
I mean, from what little we know about Lea she doesn't really seem like Moon at all, so either it comes down to Odyssial when he met Lea being very noticably different from Uly when he met Moon or me overlooking something very significant.
Been getting advice from Nilul, eh?
On the other hand, I just want to slap her for saying something that's so obviously not going to clear things up for Uly.
Do you see what you've brought upon yourself?!
She's clinging to his arm with both of hers, "as was her custom", and he still doesn't notice?
Godammit, I can feel Nilul's pain.
Good for you, Moon!
I mean, I get his need to enforce the rights of wrathful fathers everywhere and beat the shit out of the guy who didn't listen when he told him to "say [his] piece, and then get out", but this is valuabelt training time you're wasting here!
Don't you understand?! WASTED TRAINING TIME!
What a travesty.
And now I suddenly don't feel as guilty more about arguing against spending our time with Moon.
Have to say this scene does illustrate rather well the nature, strength and signficance of the opposition we're apparently facing to anyone not that familiar with Exalted.
However I don't think Verona was introduced in this quest yet, though seeing how understanding his exact predicament here isn't essential to the story and given that he likely won't be that important, I suppose that's not too important.
Also, fuck Flame for this, though I suppose he was the only one that could make the complaint without it seeming even more ridiculous.
Them publicly announcing this already has the potential to deal us a lot of damage.
Slightly concerend that Moon messed up the ruse a bit here, but I suppose it's somewhat believable that with the "betrayal" being fresh enough that habit might overcome it and the outrageousness of this claim she'd forget herself for a moment.
I wonder though, does Ivory even know of Flame's signficance to Anys Syn's plans here?
Still while Sesus is obviously doing this intentionally, I wonder if they were aware how quickly the Immaculates would use this to make their own move.
After all, while House Sesus may have wanted to cause Uly and Zao some trouble after they insulted them like that, it's hard to tell how deep their displeasure really goes, especially when Siddies are doing their best to make things turn out as badly as possible for us.
Also interesting that the Earth Aspect is speaking up here.
Is he the best of them at provoking people or is he just speaking out of line because he really wants to kill us?
The most important think to adress is probably that "ought to be able to give a stronger accounting of himself" doesn't necessarily mean "killing us proves you're a DB", seeing how it might instead prove we're an extraordinarily powerful Anathema.
And once again, I'm kind of glad that the role he's pretending to fill is probably not wholly inaccurate given that Uly's skill at social deception is at least somewhat deficient.
He seems a bit too focused on getting his duel and too little on eroding Zao's support, so they can get at Uly later on.
Almost entirely forgot that Zao was also there and that they were publicly insulting the shit out of Lung Feng Zao.
I have to wonder how much of his fury is really faked here, because even if they are totally correct in their accusations, this is a pretty serious insult that they are apparently expecting to get away with and Zao has all right to demand a ridiculous amount of respect from people.
Odds are the plan was more or less that they simply play the very dedicated Immaculates and show themselves willing to do whatever is necessary regardless of how much of Zao's wrath they will have to endure personally, but the Earth ASpect was confrontational enough that Zao just became a lot more justified in telling them to piss off and be thankful he hasn't killed them yet.
3170 words
Reaction
Whaaat?!
Actions have consequences and pissing off our House means we have to deal with what happens when you piss off your House?
There is no way we could have known!
This is honestly still a bit hard to get my head around myself.
I mean, there are 150 other SOlars around, 300 Lunars and who the fuck knows how many DBs but apparently everyone else reaslly enough of a shithead and the forces opposing Creation are powerful enough that it ultimately all comes down to Uly saving everyone in the next two decades or everyone dies.
I suppose this is also something to keep in mind.
For Uly this has really been only a day since he was concerned with not being irrelevant in the world and he wasn't even remotely aware of how bad things really stood.
We on the other hand knew Uly would be Exalting as a Solar and expected to save the world since the start of this incarnation of the Odyssey and knew about the dire straight Creation was in even longer thanks to the previous quests and meta-knowledge.
It's not really surprising that unlike people who have been scheming about how to take over the Realm and gain more political influence since the beginning and had numerous opportunities to direct Uly into being more suited for that roll, Uly himself still gives a lot more argument to the weight of what he's actually good at and therefor should focus on than readers might think.
After all, he's still the guy who a day ago spent his entire time training to become as much of a combat monster as he possibly can be because that was the only way for him to advance and stay relevant with his skillset.
Uly himself was a lot less or even not at all involved in processes like discussing the purchase of the Presence Excellency, which prelude options might make him more capable at social stuff, whether we should be spending Solar XP on covering that weakness of his and so on.
This is kind of important to keep in mind, though.
While Uly certainly has a point in that focusing on what he's good at can lead to better results, there will be serious consequences to this decision and without Lea or even anyone who could come close to her skill or trustworthyness to cover that weakness, he'll be facing a lot more problems in that regard than Odyssial did, especialy since Odyssial was likely never in a situation as politically delicate and nigh impossible to solve with the strength available to him alone as Uly's situation in the Realm.
It is however a bit surprising how well Uly manages to articulate his internal conflict and heartfelt motivation here with so few words in spite of his atrophied social skills.
Normally, you'd expect any attempt of Uly's to resist an attempt by Nilul to socially influence him to be decided with pure willpower and integrity.
Heh, even Nilul acknowledges that he did well in presenting his case.
Continuing to push now would be like kicking a puppy.
It's kind of weird how any instance of Nilul being a good friend and for example clarifying her promise to do what she can with regretful explanations of why it won't be much comes with a slight undercurrent of questions like: "Is she really being genuine or is she just covering her bases and milking Uly for some potential guilt?"
I suppose that ambiguity between genuine niceness and self-serving sociopathy that she herself may not be able to draw a line between, is really part of the character's charm and why she manages to garner so much of my interest.
It's kind of funny how Uly's banter is probably dead serious, even when specifically (or perhaps unintentionally?) used to defuse tension with a somewhat humorous statement.
It's nice of Nilul to take this opportunity that Uly can't expect to be able to murder all his problems quite yet.
However that doesn't seem to be a piece of advice we've taken to heart.
The more solemn reminder of just how serious the situation actually is, not only Uly's but also Nilul's own, is probably appropriate here, espcially since this version of Uly doesn't actually know anything about how dire Nilul's situation is, beyond that she's an Anathema very capable of pretending to be a DB.
That Nilul is actually willing to at least somewhat warn him that her own issues may be bigger than he thinks and that protecting her is not necessarily going to be easy or safe is rather endearing.
Right, not even Uly could be that dense, so I'm going to assume he actually took the hint, is almost certainly trying to defuse the tension and is at most being slightly serious here.
Ah, the Incompetents Society. Good times.
I can't quite express how sad I am about the fact that it doesn't make a reappearance for the sake of preparing Uly for Establish Connections.
Well, that's certainly not ominous at all.
Hmm.
I can't quite say whether Uly is right to dismiss Nilul's annoying theatrics that easily.
I mean, obviously Nilul isn't letting Uly hear them unintentionally and is in fact primarily just annoying him, but Uly does kind of lack the context of just how dark Nilul's situation is and this could easily be a double bluff on Nilul's part.
Of course, even if that were the case, Nilul isn't giving Uly any reason to believe she wasn't just messing with him for fun's sake.
And again I can't help but feel this phrasing seems a bit ominous for some reason.
Making Nilul think Uly (and by extension Zao) are kind of fucking up their chances to pull this off by not following her suggestion could have serious consequences, because Nilul has almost no choice but to look out for number one.
And even if she accepts that increasing Uly's personal power is a viable way to get through this, not playing ball with House Sesus is still a course of action that will bring down negative attention on the Academy and Uly himself which potentially puts everyone else there, including Nilul of course, into more danger, which makes this somewhat suboptimal an approach for her, especially since Uly isn't always going to be standing next to Nilul where he can use his increased combat prowess to increase her safety.
Emphasizing just how goddamn weird Calibration can get is probably rather important for anyone unfamiliar with Exalted.
Otherwise it also makes for a bright and flavourful contrast to Odyssial's Calibration.
I'm actually surprised that his training is more meditation focused than his attempt to start training before Nilul interrupted him indicated.
Then again given that he's basically using Calibration's nature and his recent Exaltation to "cheat" himself into more power, largely by delving into Ody's memories before it becomes harder to access them again, it's probably to be expected that after he gets gimself started properly through actual training and memories start surfacing he switches to ridiculously intense meditation to drag up as much as he possibly can.
Yep, definitely delving into Greatness 10 Heartlessness 10 memories here.
Then again, I suppose the only memories that wouldn't overwhelm Uly right now haven't reached either of those heights quite yet.
Now that's rather interesting and probably important to remember.
For all that we keep railing about Heartlessness 10, Odyssial was a lot more than just that stat.
His unyielding Fury against the Primordials and all the other facets going into being a truly ridiculous killing machine should really not be forgotten when considering what kind of person he once was, especially since the Heartlessness stat alone wasn't even remotely sufficient to get him to reach Greatness 10 and surpass even the Unconquered Sun.
Really liking how the step by step description of waking up illustrates how long getting out of this trance actually takes Uly and how that in turn drives home how deep this trance actually was and in fact had to be.
Well, that's kind of disappointing.
Not long enough to get the full use out of Raw Power, but way too late to do anything about being absent from the festivities.
It's nice how Zao is so grumpy you can't really tell when he is and isn't particularly annoyed at the world.
Really love how minimalistic Zao and Uly's interaction apparently is when they aren't arguing about something.
Shows rather well how much on the same wavelength they tend to be.
Stating that Zao is being gruff almost seems redundant.
Lving the "and then get out" though. Nothing but an overprotective father can be that heartwarming by being a grumpy asshole.
Uly is being so thoughtful.
I'm getting the feeling that it's not going to be all that easy to not just endlessly repeat "DAWWW!" for the next scene.
Oh, god, I'm already feeling horrible for ever having argued to go partying.
That's just not fair.
The way Uly is being all careful and unsure of what to do is really rather adorable.
It's also more than a bit hilarious that he didn't see this coming when she told him she wanted to give him something.
Man, Moon is really pulling out all the dirty tricks in order to get Uly to stop with the suicidal stuff, isn't she?
Still, asking Uly not to be suicidal is basically a lsot cause.
Heh, he isn't even contemplating the possibility of listening to her request.
I can't help but think betting on Moon's general competency making this kind of thing unnecessary in the future is not going to stop Moon from giving him shit the enxt time he almost kills himself for one reason or another.
It's interesting how they both give the reveal of the truth more attention that questions about her physical well-being.
Might have something to do with how resilient Exalts are, but I like what it says about the signficance of the potential betrayal and relief Moon felt upon hearing the truth.
Just goes to show what kind of ridiculous conclusions intensely emotional moments and great fears can support, though I suppose Zao and Ivory piling the Social Charms onto their speeches could have had something to do with it as well.
More than a bit of an understatement, but I suppose this isn't really the time or place for phrasing that more seriously.
Moon's trust in Uly really is adorable, though the fact that this was in fact within Odyssial's capabilities is honestly all kinds of terrifying.
Nice to see him be a bit more realistic about this stuff, though the "a bit more time" is honestly adorable.
The two of them are just so god damn cute.
And now I have to think about a hypothetical quest where Uly Exalts as a Wood Aspect DB and Moon really gets her Perfect Brotherhood of Zao's students that she apparently was still firmly expecting to get at some point.
I wish I could have been as certain.
I still remember the last Quest where we were told so goddamn often that there is really no guarantee that Uly will get his Celestial Exaltation at some point.
That's just so goddamn adorable. Though I can't help but wonder whether seeing Heartlessness 10 Odyssial for a bit would get Moon to rethink this assertion.
The two have so much chemistry I really find myself wondering how Lea and her "design myself to be Odyssial's perfect partner" stick works into that.
I mean, from what little we know about Lea she doesn't really seem like Moon at all, so either it comes down to Odyssial when he met Lea being very noticably different from Uly when he met Moon or me overlooking something very significant.
Even after actual sparring sessions and not just the stuff Moon does to him after he's done something stupid again?
Smooth, Moon. Really smooth.
Been getting advice from Nilul, eh?
Sadly everything short of sandpaperis in fact literally too smooth for Uly to notice.
On the one hand, I sympathise with Moon over Uly's denseness.
On the other hand, I just want to slap her for saying something that's so obviously not going to clear things up for Uly.
Do you see what you've done, Moon?
Do you see what you've brought upon yourself?!
Bad Moon! You shouldn't take advantage of the mentally handicapped.
Uly's instincts really are way smarter than he is, aren't they?
She's clinging to his arm with both of hers, "as was her custom", and he still doesn't notice?
Godammit, I can feel Nilul's pain.
Apparently Moon managed to distract him enough that he forgot to ruin the mood by reading at a ridiculous pace.
Good for you, Moon!
I can't wait for Uly to get frustrated at historical inaccuracies when he can't distract himself with the pretty girl hangin onto his arm.
I do rather like that this scene is still not enough to keep him from training, though the fact that not being there might let Moon recover in peace more easily may have had something to do with that.
Goddammit, Zao.
I mean, I get his need to enforce the rights of wrathful fathers everywhere and beat the shit out of the guy who didn't listen when he told him to "say [his] piece, and then get out", but this is valuabelt training time you're wasting here!
Don't you understand?! WASTED TRAINING TIME!
What a travesty.
Well, fuck.
So House Sesus is really pissed, the Siddies are on the move and House Sesus is going to make things even worse for Uly soon. I stand with my previous statement.
And now I suddenly don't feel as guilty more about arguing against spending our time with Moon.
I'm surprised Uly actually values his own opinion on the amtter when he stayed away from Dynasts as much as he possibly could and was outright told how bad the situation with his family is twice now.
Then again I'm not actually sure Uly is quite aware how deeply involved with DB politics and the Wyld Hunt the Siddies actually are.
At least Uly sees no reason to complain about paths not taken and stuff. Gotta retain that optimism.
Well, at least the people here to kill us aren't pushovers, which is almost a compliment?
Have to say this scene does illustrate rather well the nature, strength and signficance of the opposition we're apparently facing to anyone not that familiar with Exalted.
However I don't think Verona was introduced in this quest yet, though seeing how understanding his exact predicament here isn't essential to the story and given that he likely won't be that important, I suppose that's not too important.
Nice detail with the tiger's claws. Makes her seem a lot more intimidating without interrupting the flow by tacking on some statements about how strong they are.
Also, fuck Flame for this, though I suppose he was the only one that could make the complaint without it seeming even more ridiculous.
Well, damn.
Them publicly announcing this already has the potential to deal us a lot of damage.
Slightly concerend that Moon messed up the ruse a bit here, but I suppose it's somewhat believable that with the "betrayal" being fresh enough that habit might overcome it and the outrageousness of this claim she'd forget herself for a moment.
Zao isn't losing any time to use this opportunity to discredit Flame either.
I wonder though, does Ivory even know of Flame's signficance to Anys Syn's plans here?
What a bag of dicks.
Still while Sesus is obviously doing this intentionally, I wonder if they were aware how quickly the Immaculates would use this to make their own move.
After all, while House Sesus may have wanted to cause Uly and Zao some trouble after they insulted them like that, it's hard to tell how deep their displeasure really goes, especially when Siddies are doing their best to make things turn out as badly as possible for us.
For all that Uly is comparatively kind of crap at social stuff it's easy to forget that his stats in that regard aren't outright horrible and that he's in general smart enough to come up with good strategies to approach an issue.
I'm a bit surprised that the test they are offering is in the area Uly is most proficient in, but I suppose part of that is that it makes it more likely he'll go for their trap, part that it'd be more suspicious if he refuses and part that he'd immediately die from failing in combat, so there's no chance of him escaping after failing and Zao would have to intervene for his sake immediately and openly.
Also interesting that the Earth Aspect is speaking up here.
Is he the best of them at provoking people or is he just speaking out of line because he really wants to kill us?
Well, given how one of Odyssial's chief flaws was more or less arrogance, I think Uly is pretty good at "faking" it now.
More than a bit of bullshit for multiple reasons.
The most important think to adress is probably that "ought to be able to give a stronger accounting of himself" doesn't necessarily mean "killing us proves you're a DB", seeing how it might instead prove we're an extraordinarily powerful Anathema.
Though given that it can be refused it's probably more an attempt to weaken Zao's political support and distract him from other concerns.
Luckily Odyssial is pretty much made of pure bullshit.
Good of him to cover his bases thoroughly.
And once again, I'm kind of glad that the role he's pretending to fill is probably not wholly inaccurate given that Uly's skill at social deception is at least somewhat deficient.
Yeah, I'm pretty convinced he's just impatient and bloodthirsty and was not necessarily supposed to talk up.
He seems a bit too focused on getting his duel and too little on eroding Zao's support, so they can get at Uly later on.
Heh.
Almost entirely forgot that Zao was also there and that they were publicly insulting the shit out of Lung Feng Zao.
I have to wonder how much of his fury is really faked here, because even if they are totally correct in their accusations, this is a pretty serious insult that they are apparently expecting to get away with and Zao has all right to demand a ridiculous amount of respect from people.
And here we see the Water Aspect taking control again.
Odds are the plan was more or less that they simply play the very dedicated Immaculates and show themselves willing to do whatever is necessary regardless of how much of Zao's wrath they will have to endure personally, but the Earth ASpect was confrontational enough that Zao just became a lot more justified in telling them to piss off and be thankful he hasn't killed them yet.
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I think part of it is that the consequences of Full Comittment were more than a bit galling, given that we took Raw Power for the XP and Power & Security for efficient XP spending and getting to hang out with friends.
A more moderate investment of XP in order to improve our chances would likely have made a lot better of an impression because it wouldn't have forced us to give away the benefits of both previous decisions.
As for why Accept won in the first place a lot of it is probably that people don't want to sit around while the Siddies slowly but surely dismantle Zao's political support and our position within both our House and the Realm in general gets more and more fucked over.
Negotiating could have easily backfired, especially since Nilul would risk a lot by publicly speaking out for us against the Immaculates and any resolution that doesn't thoroughly defeat the Immaculate's accusation may have just resulted in them coming back later with even stronger combatants because we are no longer a young Anathema.
Accept seemed like the only way to thoroughly defeat at least some of our opponents' plans and gain ground again and that it's the first actual fight we've been offered since the beginning of the quest that came with no other downside but "If you lose, you die" certainly doesn't help discourage the people wanting for more combat, when loss tends to equal death in a lot of serious combat.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
It's more like "Let's hope we can prevail, because either of our options to mitigate this risks a death spiral"
Our opposition is very, very clever, and very, very powerful--we can't afford to be bled by a thousand cuts. They've played their hand and expect us to deflect them somehow and cost us capital, because we have the power to expel them, and the excuse to do so. The best way of foiling a schemer is to break their stride before they can get it started.
This is a Significant risk, but prevents us from entering a death spiral, and rather effectively spokes their wheels from the conventional standpoint, given how they've all but straight up stated that "Either you're an Anathema and we rip you apart, or your story was probably true and you defeat us". We essentially remove their ability to attack us through the Immaculate Order without them expending siginificant resources and power building up another cause for assault and fabricating evidence.
I don't want to play into their hands when we're at enough of a disadvantage to begin with, and Zao won't always be around to spoke their wheels. Best hit them while it's "Only" Five Shikari rather then a full Wyld Hunt dropped on our ass while we're on maneuvers.
Our opposition is very, very clever, and very, very powerful--we can't afford to be bled by a thousand cuts. They've played their hand and expect us to deflect them somehow and cost us capital, because we have the power to expel them, and the excuse to do so. The best way of foiling a schemer is to break their stride before they can get it started.
This is a Significant risk, but prevents us from entering a death spiral, and rather effectively spokes their wheels from the conventional standpoint, given how they've all but straight up stated that "Either you're an Anathema and we rip you apart, or your story was probably true and you defeat us". We essentially remove their ability to attack us through the Immaculate Order without them expending siginificant resources and power building up another cause for assault and fabricating evidence.
I don't want to play into their hands when we're at enough of a disadvantage to begin with, and Zao won't always be around to spoke their wheels. Best hit them while it's "Only" Five Shikari rather then a full Wyld Hunt dropped on our ass while we're on maneuvers.
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Rihaku
The Internet
Hm, maybe a 70% chance of victory sounds too good to people. I should have framed it as a 30% chance of death.
Rihaku
The Internet
That's a lot of XP. If you guys manage to get the training off at the full rate, you might end up almost E4 before the training finishes.
But delaying them with Zao's influence would have bought you time to grow stronger. The Sidereals would have had time to act, but it's not as if defeating the Immaculates handles them permanently anyway. All the while, your faction is gaining strength while theirs is more or less static.
But delaying them with Zao's influence would have bought you time to grow stronger. The Sidereals would have had time to act, but it's not as if defeating the Immaculates handles them permanently anyway. All the while, your faction is gaining strength while theirs is more or less static.