Now, As I tell Aleph later on in the log, I have a frustrating situation in meatspace- low agency, beholden to the whims of others, and far from the master of my own fate. Suffice to say, I was aiming for some pretty direct 'Get Shit Done' action in my pretend god-king games.
The session opens with an admitted indulgence on Aleph's part, but a well-spent one. Pesala is both adorable and a walking plot device, able to advance characterization with an incredible alacrity. This is a child character done Right, as opposed to monopolizing player attention.
Tiger-girl is totes adorbs. Non-zero chance I'll illustrate her at some point.
With a declared 'against-dead' Executive Assistant, and an Exorcist/EXECUTOR OF JUSTICE FOR THE OPPRESSED, Inks has suddenly taken in a windfall of good fortune. She has the drive, and now she has the talent to retale El-Galabi. Amusingly, Tatters and Pipera both have different attitudes towards the project, with the former being 'leave it alone' and the latter being 'when do we start?'
I had to do some log diving mid session, and from my interpretationof what Aleph already presented me, El-Galabi is kind of like a mini-mountain lord fiefdom, as far as what it could do for Gem. Arable land, potentially other natural resources, etc. It'd take a lot of work to really make it profitable though.
On that note, we discuss some of our mismatched understanding of Creation metaphysics and the idea of Shadowlands. I have deliberately not brushed up on a lot of the 2e mechanics in favor of trusting Aleph to present me with the necessary information to make informed decisions.
Now- this isn't to say that players shouldn't read setting books between games, or even setting books about the games they're in, but knowing when and how to implement that knowledge to enrich your play experience is a tough skill to master.
Related to this, is that Inks knows of two basic ways to remove Shadowlands- salt, which works but essentially ruins the land for farming, and Sorcery, of which she is only capable of Emerald Circle Sorcery. You'll note though that i personally default to writing TCS, CCS and SCS, despite that being one of Exalted's more clever 'propagandist' nomenclatures- Aleph almost always writes it as Emerald, Sapphire and Adamant Sorcery.
Anyway, the point is that Inks can use sorcery to cleanse the shadowland, and Aleph has now unlocked a thematic and mechanic notion that there are more than just the printed logical chains of spells rising up between the circles- not allthe time, but enough to be noted.
Now, Cost is a big thing with Aleph's style of STing- one I like, though every so often I wish she could be clearer with it up front- this isn't that she keeps secrets, she just hasn't practiced at ballparking a cost in game terms like I have, because I've been running 3-4 year long campaigns as ST, and learned the hard way how.
So cleansing with Emerald Circle is going to have a Cost, but unlike using Salt, it's going to have a surmountable cost, in keeping with the notion that Inks or a sorcerer in general is controlling great powers of the world with her will alone.
From that, Pipera and Tatters are nominally on board, and I take the opportunity to get things moving. A few sessions back, when we visited the Sun Market that in turn kicked off the Murder Plot, the slaver Inks encountered kept a Flame Duck and Fire Butterfly, the former collared, the latter in a cage.
As a brief overview, they're both Elementals in the 2e sense; Fire butterflies are vain, judgemental and flighty, App 4 and shallow. They're often bound as courtesans/bedwarmers, and they violently hate Gold, Orichalcum and things prettier than they are. (Gold and Ori being too pretty for them).
Inks is App 5. There is a reason why she did not personally release the Fire Butterfly.
Flame Ducks, meanwhile, are heroic, energetic and bombastic darlings, with a recognizable culture that adds some needed texture to their concept. This specific flame duck, however, has a bit of a tragic story.
After spending time tracking her down, threatening her new owner with vauge, Tatters-shaped implications, and buying the two elementals, Inks quickly determined that the elemental was 'newly formed' and then magically bound with those chains and collars as not to develop as a person. For those who don't know, most gods and elementals form more or less All At Once, with intact personalities and drives before developing even more personal affectations.
This spirit was denied that, specifically so that she could be a custom-designed slave.
I have to tip my hat to Aleph on this one, because it's such a simple thing that has awful implications. In hindsight, I wish I roleplayed a stronger reaction, but I wanted to keep things moving.
On the note of Moving, more mercantilism! We haven't settled down on specific rules yet, relying instead of ad-hoc judgement and rolls, but I labor industriously in the background because I love me some money games.
Anyway, After some hashing out, we start in Resplendent Water, and Aleph suggests that Inks focuses on local assets to grow and take over. Agreeing that its' a good idea, I turn with a will towards [Blank] Scorpion street- you'll notice I keep getting them confused, but hopefully when i control them, I will remember them better.
Aleph described Seventh Scorpion as 'dry' industries, manufacturing and raw material processing- note that a lot of fthe industrial effort in Gem is aboveground, as the cooler lava tube and cavern spaces are in high demand with low supply. Part of the genius of the cooling architecture procedure Inks developed is that it opens up more property for numerous kinds of use.
Moving on- Inks lives in Eighth Scorpion, which is 'wet' industries like tanneries, smoke houses, and so on, which is why the property value was so low originally. Eventually she's going to take all that over too, but right now, Seventh is where it's at.
Along the way, Inks employed Pipera to start looking at Banks, either to take over or to found her own- why do I want a bank? Because banks are a good asset to have that other people interact with- it's something that draws people to Inks; I want the NPCs of Gem to look at her as a financier as much as she is someone who needs money from them.
Finally, I get to use Harmonious Academic Methodology, which we severely houseruled as to avoid undue minmaxing- even then we kind of have a small problem with it, as it incentivizes small classes. We may have to review it later, but I trained about 10 people in 10-12 dots worth of stuff; Pesala now has Int 4 and Per 4. Remember, she's like five.
Fortunately, Ajjim stuck around for the classes too.
After the two business rolls, we resolved the season's worth of effort. Pipera got a great zinger in on Inks during that time as well.
Now, as it stands right now, in this game, Inks has multiple Resources backgrounds instead of just one, and has just acquired a new one, summarized as 'Seventh Scorpion Industrial Quarter', worth Resources 5.
Resources 5 - From our Houserules:
Equivalent to tens of millions $ per year / $30k - $300k a day
Large business (though still not a megacorp), or a multi-millionaire. Yeah, at this point whoever's on top is laughing.
One-time costs: Cost of a large rural or raw material property-asset, such as farmland or the deed to a rich, exotic mine. Cost to buy an existing masterwork craft; ancient musical instrument, historically significant sword, museum-quality art. Imperial jewelry (orichalcum and pigeon's-egg sized gems).
Ongoing costs: Running costs for a city hospital. Funding a fleet of caravans with regular trade routes.
Tying up a few more loose ends, Aleph gives me a heads up on potential paths to Mo' Money. Note that most everything so far is purely mundane endeavors- I'm not running a Factory Cathedral, or leaning hard on First Age Infrastructure or Shogunate Civic Works; This is all just straight time and effort.
The flip side of that however, is that Inks is vulnerable to magic on scale, as a competitor. Which may or may not come up.
Thinking aloud, my next step is probably going to be retrofitting or upgrading the local businesses according to Solar-derived principles and whatnot. It might not have as dramatic a return, but I like doing it and I figure it'd make the Despot happy too.
The last scene of the session went in a direction I had not fully expected, in which Inks invited Sulieman to dinner and to talk about business... and some pleasure.
The thing is, Inks is a lot more like Rankar or Janissa in how she views sex and relationships- maybe not transactioinal, but more benignly self-serving. I actually forgot that Sulieman had a strong commitment to his ideal of 'True Love', and that's part of what makes his character endearing and entertaining- i had no interest in eroding that, but at the same time, I was interested and confident in actually portraying a mutual relationship.
So what I initially intended as a fun, flirtatious punchline quickly became a discussion on the nature of relationships and how being an light-hearted tease and flirt can have unexpected consequences. Inks had already given Sulieman a 'free-spirit' speech a few sessions ago, but his commitment to his own ideals is strong.
And, amusingly, Sulieman's stubborn adherence to that keeps earning him points in my eyes and Inks's eyes. It's an odd psychological quirk, and why the phrase 'Hard to Get' actually bears a bit of weight. Or maybe I'm talking out my ass, I can't be sure anymore.
Either way, I made a point going into this scene that I wanted to advance Inks and Sulieman's relationship- maybe not to the level he wanted, but to make an objective move forward. Now, I'd be foolish not to acknwoledge the fact that baring supernatural involvement, Sulieman will only live a four or five score years, and after a burst of downtime, Aleph may yet quitely mention that Sulieman passed away on distant shores, or was claimed by the hazards of his profession- who can say?
Because Sulieman is... not yet an asest on my character sheet, there's an almost psychological switch I have to keep touching to remember that he is a person (or a model of a person in Aleph's head) and that I as a roleplayer want to model Inks as a well-rounded character as well. That's part of the fun and challenge of playing an RPG. Because he's not an asset, I don't have the compulsive need to protect or control him, and I am simultaneously more open about his fate being in Aleph's hands, and actively desiring to influence that fate.
Or, put more simply, Sulieman doesn't have plot armor, and may never have it. Inks would likely give him in-setting armor though.
