- Location
- Singapore
Ah. How intriguing....
thanks for the help. On a side note, using Creation's naming conventions, what would the various tools be called? Resplendent drill of unstoppable motion?
General Exalted Thread
thanks for the help. On a side note, using Creation's naming conventions, what would the various tools be called? Resplendent drill of unstoppable motion?
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
Ahah! But you missed the other three Fallen London references! And also the hidden text under every line!
... Wait, why i do feel like i just did a terrible error?
Anyway, the free Homebrew seem to have faded away, and a discussion about (an) artifact(s) seem to have taken its place.
My two cents: the Oadenols Codex has actually a pretty good guide about the power that every artifact level should have. (Even if the artifacts completely miss the point by a mile otherwise...) Basically, every artifact above two dots should have the same impact on the setting of a Sorcery spell: Three dots artifacts the level of a terrestrial spell, Four dots artifacts the level of a Celestial spell, Five dots artifacts the level of a Adamant spell. (One/two dots should have a personal scale impact, whilst N/A should have the impact of multiple Adamant spells.) Things that would impact the setting like a longer lasting Spell should be translated in manses. (Which isn't written in the Codex, but it is an easy conclusion to reach.)
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- Location
- Singapore
So basically, 1 and 2 should be stuff like guns, knives, and rifles. 3 should be stuff like machine guns capable of mowing down platoons. 4 should be like high powered mortars or Daisy cutters. And 5 are ICBMS?
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
More or less, though in context of Creation, the actual 'equivilent' to nuclear weapons are both Soulbreaker Orbs and Thousand-Forged Dragons, at least insofar as 'Big Boom' style weapons. TFDs push the metaphor pretty hard, as they're kept in silos, require specific security codes to launch, and were held by the Shogunate as a deterrent against all-out-war.
- Location
- Singapore
One would think that they could think of more interesting ones.
Like, say, the god-soldiers from Nausicaa. Or the fire beam from Laputa, castle in the sky.
- Location
- Canada
Wait, what did- Ooh...
Ok, I caught the reference to The Dawn Machine, but I didn't see the invisitext until now, and now I really want to see and maybe get a Starveling Cat for myself.
Starveling Cat, Starveling Cat, wraps around the neck like a cheap cravat!
- Location
- The Pagoda of Masks
IDK, a bomb that makes everyone's souls explode and a mecha dragon that eats all the ambient magic connected to the Manse before inflicting a cataclysm on the area seem pretty interesting.
- Location
- Singapore
OK, I remember this, but I don't know where I got them from:
One is stating that human souls are far more flexible than the ones of the divine. Which is why it is easier for the exalted and mortals to raise their essence than gods.
and the other is that the spark of exaltation slips in the gap between the hun and po soul of the human during exaltation, enabling them to channel essence.
Where did these come from?
One is stating that human souls are far more flexible than the ones of the divine. Which is why it is easier for the exalted and mortals to raise their essence than gods.
and the other is that the spark of exaltation slips in the gap between the hun and po soul of the human during exaltation, enabling them to channel essence.
Where did these come from?
The Nameless-and-Abhorrent Spider
Yidak Lord
Dead by Lucien's Hand
Faceless, nameless, lifeless; the Nameless-and-Abhorrent Spider crawls through the catacombs of the Labyrinth. Her name is a misnomer for she is no arachnid ever seen in Creation. The Spider is a spindly monster of limbs and blades and knobbled bone-skin as tall as a building, vaguely female in shape - but only vaguely. Where she walks, communication is impossible, for the world is twisted so all sense is drained from words and all is meaningless babbling. Her web is as black as night and razor sharp, and she spins it over the rivers of death to catch boats. Then when she comes upon them, she rips out their tongue and crams them into her gaping maw. Such is the destiny she makes for them. Sometimes she crawls out of the Labyrinth when prey becomes scarce, and brings wordless horror to the inhabitants of a city of the Dead, only returning to the depths when she is sated through gluttony.
Once the Spider was a half of a blue-eyed woman, lush and self-indulgent. Then the demon lord Lucien was called by a moon witch and he came across the blue-eyed woman in the night when she was in a drunk stupor, relying on her magic to hide her from ill-intent. He cut her throat and took her tongue, as the witch wished, and brought his trophy back to the sorceress. Did the witch feel that the magics she wove with the tongue of one of the Chosen of the Maidens were worth it?
Prince Skintaker
Yidak Lord
Dead by His Best Friend's Hand
It began, as many things do, with a fight over a woman, and ended in tragedy. Two brothers of the moon, divided by their love for their witch-sister, came to blows and when it was done one of them lay dead upon the ground. His spectre rose, and the hungry ghost returned the favour - and slew the young Lunar they had been fighting over, too. But Prince Skintaker was too mad and too hungry to know what he had done, for his reason had passed to Lethe, and so he still stalks Creation and the shallows of the Underworld.
The man who became Prince Skintaker was a man of great passions and desires, and his mad heart longs for sensation and feeling again. With the power of a lord of death he snatches up the bodies of mortals - men and animals alike - and devours their souls. Squatting in the vacant shells, the mad ghost mindlessly play-acts emotional scenes from his life; mimicry without understanding. Of course, those he has consumed rot from the inside out, but the flesh hides his form from the hateful sun, allowing him to taste the pleasures of life at least for a little while. Thrice he has tried to creep into that vice-ridden city, Nexus - and each time the Emissary has sent him running. Is it just indulgence that calls him to Nexus, or is it something else? The Nexan accent has a certain allure to him, and he pays attention to those who speak in that manner.
Weeping Lilly
Greater Yidak
Dead by Drowning
The light in Weeping Lilly was smothered by the dark waters of the Great Western Sea. Brave and valiant, she was a maiden of the Sun who sailed for the joy of it. Then the Dragonblooded came across her in ships of jade and burned her beloved ship's sails and while she was adrift they dragged her into the water and let it fill her lungs. They left her body to be eaten by sea creatures.
Her heart did not take kindly to that, and crawled out from her bloated corpse, snatching it up and swimming down into the darkest depths of the ocean. Now a pale-faced spectre haunts the West and she does not care about the running water nor the salt, for the sea was her life and it is her death. She cannot step foot on land, but this water-hag does not care. Sailors whisper that they have seen a beautiful woman sitting on a floating piece of wood during the night, weeping and combing her hair. The only sailors who tell these tales did not speak to her and did not draw her attention. Those who did doomed themselves and their ship. The taste of sea-bloated meat is the only thing that can salve her tears for her burned ship, and she cuts ships' rudders and riggings during the night and leaves men adrift under the burning sun. When they go mad and throw themselves into the water to escape, she is waiting for them.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Keris: "..."
Keris: "HAHAHAHA NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE"
Keris: *Expediated Retreat Methodology*
Oh, hey, @EarthScorpion, if you're still taking requests - a cursed crown-sword that promises victory in battle at the cost of sticking the resulting territory to you whether you like it or not. Sticking it in a stone optional 
.
.
Did you have a difference in mind between a Greater Yidak and a Yidak Lord when you were writing this up, or is that more plot hook fodder?
NonSequtur
a body
At a guess, it's Greater Dead/2nd Circle and Death Lord/3rd Circle in terms of power. So the last one would have been a new Solar, while the other two would've been more experienced Exalts. So the first two would have been Essence 4/5 or Enlightenment 8/9, while the last would have been, like, Essence 2/Enlightenment 7.
Alright, question:
Under 2E/2.5E rules, how would cooperative Feats of Strength work?
For example, that picture in the core book where Dace and Panther are lifting a porticullis while Swan scuttles under it, while Jade and Arianna hold off pursuit. How would the mechanics work? Are we using teamwork rules?
Because they don't look robust enough to represent that sort of thing.
Or am I missing a trick?
Under 2E/2.5E rules, how would cooperative Feats of Strength work?
For example, that picture in the core book where Dace and Panther are lifting a porticullis while Swan scuttles under it, while Jade and Arianna hold off pursuit. How would the mechanics work? Are we using teamwork rules?
Because they don't look robust enough to represent that sort of thing.
Or am I missing a trick?
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
Those would use the teamwork rules, yes. I don't think those rules work well for feats of strength, though; based on those rules, if you have a Strength + Athletics pool of 8, you can lift a horse (which gives us a weight range of 840-2,200 lbs/381-998 kg) and with the help of two friends you can lift a camel (which gives us a weight range of 880-1,300 lbs/400-590 kg). Adding another 3 friends lets you lift a yeddim (and using the African forest elephant as an estimate, that gives us a lift of up to 6,000 lbs/2720 kg).
From this, we can conclude that whoever wrote the feats of strength chart didn't actually research the potential weights of their examples and also that if we take 1,000 lbs as the lift for a pool of 10, you and 3 friends (maximum lift sum of 4,000) can somehow lift something that should require at least half-again the involved lifting power despite me using the lowest weight a quick google search gave me.
(You can actually put the point where you start lifting 1,000 lbs as low as 5 dice, because the weight range Wikipedia gives for donkeys is 180-1060 lbs.)
TL;DR this chart is dumb and those rules don't accurately represent the action being simulated.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It also thinks a hippo weighs a great deal more than a yeddim, lol.
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
... Goddammit.
edit: In case anyone was wondering, these are people riding what look to be African bush elephants, which are the biggest, and this is art from core of a guy riding a yeddim.
(Also, further research failure: male hippos weigh between 3,300 and 4,000 lbs, female hippos weigh between 2,900 and 3,300 lbs, and the book thinks hippos weigh 4,500 lbs.)
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Nah, that's just the extra weight of all the protective clothing you need to wear to try to lift a hippo and stop it murdering you.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Weeks in the making, the logs and analysis of Sunlit Sands, Sesson #2!
The Acutal Session #2 Logs
The Acutal Session #2 Logs
=== Shyft's Observations Session #2 ===
CNNT rewrite:
Craft as if Crude Tools, upgrades held tools by one level. Crude > Basic > Master > Flawless > Ideal. Can be used to craft magical (Master+) tools. Reduces construction interval by one step. Season to Month, Month to Week, Week to Day, Day to 5 Hours, etc.
Unlike last session, this one we both managed to agree would be longer, and not have as many interruptions. As I told Aleph before the session started, my current challenge was figuring out what to do that did not need additional Charms.
As far as capabilities go, Inks is able to out-design/craft almost any mortal and a fair share of specialst Dragonblooded who happen to live in Gem. She also has access to demon labor in the form of anhules (demon spiders), trident weavers (one of Aleph's custom demons), Herenhals, and Okidaci. Edit: We agreed that in order to safely employ Herenhals, I needed a Neomah to keep them calm. This however had the hurdle of the Neomah constantly making unbound Herenhals every week, so for the foreseeable future, Inks will Banish them.
[10:37] - So from session start to now, we're mostly in a 'dialogue' scene where Ahlam is offering exposition as Inks prompts it. The challenge Aleph and I have here is that we're trying to get a whole lot of information across to each other as fast as possible in an entertaining manner.
My actual goals for this session were to learn about the monopolies of Gem, get started on finding my own property to start running a business, and doing some design rolls for new sandships to give to Sulieman.
[11:03] - Here I'm trying to expedite things- and get a lead on utilizing that Sorcerous XP mechanic Aleph and I agreed on earlier; where using Sorcery to solve problems earns me more XP to spend on sorcery.
[General] - Unlike first session, where i had a lot more line-by line analysis, mostly what I want to say here is that Aleph did a good job of remembering 'Inks' as a character and her various traits, like her TIGER, her beauty and so on. I made a point to be very Bold and Brassy about how I acted in-game, doing Big Things even under compressed timescales thanks to CNNT.
Generally, a player will feel the most rewarded and validated when the ST remembers their character.
The actual plan for today was Exposition about Gem/Monopolies. I learned that it takes 30 talents of silver (at least) to start one up, to say nothing of taxes/donatives and bribes after the fact.
Right now I set to solving my financial problems with Demons, creating a very simple demon industry out of task-bound herenhals ,okidaci and neomah. The okidaci have hot bodies that can render various substances into gemstones via oxidation, which the Herenhals handle both the application and harvesting. The Neomah keep the Herenhals happy.
I also wanted to design sandships for Sulieman, but we didn't get to do that today. I'm fine waiting, when I can afford to learn a 'Design Faster' Charm or two under Lore at some point.
Designs in Sunlit Sands are persistent pieces of information that confer bonuses or applicaiblity to certain actions like building things. The Air Conditioning I built into Inks's first workshop is a Design, which I can propagate to other buildings later on.
Part of why I did this, is that I did not want to actually 'mine' gemstones, and we established that the Despot's monopoly is on the buying/selling of stones, not the acquisition.
I initially conisdered setting up an arms/armory, but i realized that adding high quality weapons to a place that isn't loyal to me is.. suspect judgement.
=== Aleph's Observations: Session #2 ===
[10:13] Inks maybe underestimates a little how intimidating the GIANT TIGER is to mortals. This may bite someone in the rear later on.
[10:28] I was surprised at how quickly Ahlam developed a solid personality, and I'm kind of glad that Shyft intends to keep him as a point of contact. It seemed more like I was discovering him than inventing, and exploring him some more appeals to the author in me.
[11:39] So here I start introducing complications. Inks wants heranhals to smash up the stone skins of the okidaci - but they need to sate their lusts. She summons a neomah to take care of that, but neomah need a tower to fleshcraft. She builds a facade to hide the tower, but that means she's getting unbound demons made, and also attracts attention because it is not normal to build a several-storey tower in under a week. Knock-on effects like this are much more interesting for players when they're the result of character action, and also let STs be a lot more smug about "you brought this on yourselves :3".
[12:37] I am really not used to characters as blatant, bold and brassy (or should that be bronzey?) as Inks. Shyft threw me several times over the course of this session with her sheer audacity and lack of fucks given. However, again in the theme of "consequences from player action", I took the opportunity to have many of the rumours and theories she's been drawing be /negative/, since she's not doing much PR and is more than a bit scary.
[12:58] Fun fact, I had a counter of + factors and - factors to a temporary "Rumours" stat, and was intending to track this until it hit 10, at which point the Despot would summon Inks to an audience. /She hit that level inside of a single session/. This woman, I swear. ¬_¬
[General] So Inks has made a good start, and I'm pleased with how she generates her own plot hooks. I'm doing a bit less behind-the-scenes work than I expected, mostly because I need the flexibility for when she does something off-the-wall crazy (I have ceased assuming that any action whatsoever is "too blatant" for Inks to at least seriously consider, up to and including "flash the Wyld Hunt"). I have a few plot hooks waiting in the wings, but I think they can mostly wait until after the first arc of "establish Inks in the city" is nicely played out.
CNNT rewrite:
Craft as if Crude Tools, upgrades held tools by one level. Crude > Basic > Master > Flawless > Ideal. Can be used to craft magical (Master+) tools. Reduces construction interval by one step. Season to Month, Month to Week, Week to Day, Day to 5 Hours, etc.
Unlike last session, this one we both managed to agree would be longer, and not have as many interruptions. As I told Aleph before the session started, my current challenge was figuring out what to do that did not need additional Charms.
As far as capabilities go, Inks is able to out-design/craft almost any mortal and a fair share of specialst Dragonblooded who happen to live in Gem. She also has access to demon labor in the form of anhules (demon spiders), trident weavers (one of Aleph's custom demons), Herenhals, and Okidaci. Edit: We agreed that in order to safely employ Herenhals, I needed a Neomah to keep them calm. This however had the hurdle of the Neomah constantly making unbound Herenhals every week, so for the foreseeable future, Inks will Banish them.
[10:37] - So from session start to now, we're mostly in a 'dialogue' scene where Ahlam is offering exposition as Inks prompts it. The challenge Aleph and I have here is that we're trying to get a whole lot of information across to each other as fast as possible in an entertaining manner.
My actual goals for this session were to learn about the monopolies of Gem, get started on finding my own property to start running a business, and doing some design rolls for new sandships to give to Sulieman.
[11:03] - Here I'm trying to expedite things- and get a lead on utilizing that Sorcerous XP mechanic Aleph and I agreed on earlier; where using Sorcery to solve problems earns me more XP to spend on sorcery.
[General] - Unlike first session, where i had a lot more line-by line analysis, mostly what I want to say here is that Aleph did a good job of remembering 'Inks' as a character and her various traits, like her TIGER, her beauty and so on. I made a point to be very Bold and Brassy about how I acted in-game, doing Big Things even under compressed timescales thanks to CNNT.
Generally, a player will feel the most rewarded and validated when the ST remembers their character.
The actual plan for today was Exposition about Gem/Monopolies. I learned that it takes 30 talents of silver (at least) to start one up, to say nothing of taxes/donatives and bribes after the fact.
Right now I set to solving my financial problems with Demons, creating a very simple demon industry out of task-bound herenhals ,okidaci and neomah. The okidaci have hot bodies that can render various substances into gemstones via oxidation, which the Herenhals handle both the application and harvesting. The Neomah keep the Herenhals happy.
I also wanted to design sandships for Sulieman, but we didn't get to do that today. I'm fine waiting, when I can afford to learn a 'Design Faster' Charm or two under Lore at some point.
Designs in Sunlit Sands are persistent pieces of information that confer bonuses or applicaiblity to certain actions like building things. The Air Conditioning I built into Inks's first workshop is a Design, which I can propagate to other buildings later on.
Part of why I did this, is that I did not want to actually 'mine' gemstones, and we established that the Despot's monopoly is on the buying/selling of stones, not the acquisition.
I initially conisdered setting up an arms/armory, but i realized that adding high quality weapons to a place that isn't loyal to me is.. suspect judgement.
=== Aleph's Observations: Session #2 ===
[10:13] Inks maybe underestimates a little how intimidating the GIANT TIGER is to mortals. This may bite someone in the rear later on.
[10:28] I was surprised at how quickly Ahlam developed a solid personality, and I'm kind of glad that Shyft intends to keep him as a point of contact. It seemed more like I was discovering him than inventing, and exploring him some more appeals to the author in me.
[11:39] So here I start introducing complications. Inks wants heranhals to smash up the stone skins of the okidaci - but they need to sate their lusts. She summons a neomah to take care of that, but neomah need a tower to fleshcraft. She builds a facade to hide the tower, but that means she's getting unbound demons made, and also attracts attention because it is not normal to build a several-storey tower in under a week. Knock-on effects like this are much more interesting for players when they're the result of character action, and also let STs be a lot more smug about "you brought this on yourselves :3".
[12:37] I am really not used to characters as blatant, bold and brassy (or should that be bronzey?) as Inks. Shyft threw me several times over the course of this session with her sheer audacity and lack of fucks given. However, again in the theme of "consequences from player action", I took the opportunity to have many of the rumours and theories she's been drawing be /negative/, since she's not doing much PR and is more than a bit scary.
[12:58] Fun fact, I had a counter of + factors and - factors to a temporary "Rumours" stat, and was intending to track this until it hit 10, at which point the Despot would summon Inks to an audience. /She hit that level inside of a single session/. This woman, I swear. ¬_¬
[General] So Inks has made a good start, and I'm pleased with how she generates her own plot hooks. I'm doing a bit less behind-the-scenes work than I expected, mostly because I need the flexibility for when she does something off-the-wall crazy (I have ceased assuming that any action whatsoever is "too blatant" for Inks to at least seriously consider, up to and including "flash the Wyld Hunt"). I have a few plot hooks waiting in the wings, but I think they can mostly wait until after the first arc of "establish Inks in the city" is nicely played out.
That was honestly fun to read.
A little more conventional Solar than the Keris Chronicles, but that makes it honestly more familiar.
Keep em coming as you can.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
I'm interested in hearing more thoughts if anyone has them.
- Location
- Library
It was very fun to read. I too was surprised by zero fucks given by the character, because she did more than enough to attract attention of every Realm's mortal spy and informant in one of the major cities, including the minority(?) cult/commune of Immaculate Faith worshippers[1].
The craft and long-term projects shine when there is only one player and I am very interested in game-play when there is much less emphasis on brute-force fighting.
Waiting for what happens next!
[1] I just assume that the biggest proselytizing religion in Creation has one community in most mayor cities.
I have not seen log for session 1, so is this 2/2.5E or 3E? If the former, she's going to continue to try to solve problems with Sorcery, and the "does not need additional Charms" thing isn't ironclad, then Inks(?) could solve some of her problems by learning Dragon of Smoke and Flame and Raising the Earth's Bones. Both are Emerald Circle Spells, so a mortal or God-Blooded Sorcerer could plausibly learn and use them, albeit only with great effort, and only Raising the Earth's Bones is more expensive mote-wise that Summon First Circle Demon, and even then if you don't spend any further motes on the binding whatsoever. So if you have a way to not have your anima flare up from summoning Demons, it should work for the other two spells.
With those two spells, she could find a sufficient amount of solid earth using the Dragon, sketch out the tower design, and then raise an up to three-story building in five minutes for the neomah to live in (presumably that would be good enough for them to work with?), in a noteworthy but not abnormal display of mystical power. You would hardly be subtle, but you wouldn't set off any alarms that you're something beyond the norm.
Summon Elemental might be good to pick up as well, since mixing it up might appease anyone who might look at you in askance for using so many demons. Mercury Ants would be a nice addition, since they could convert base metals into precious metals to set the gems in.