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Mare Internum: An Exalted Quest

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EagerListener said:
I want know more about the demon city, that sounds pretty interesting. We could try asking after he's done talking.
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It is, and I can not reiterate this enough, awesome. except when some of the 2e books ruined it. And, of course, some bad takes on it by the fans...

Ahem. Look, it's really cool, but it's probably not relevant to us. We can try asking one of the demons afterwards.
 
Found this quest when it updated recently and then immediately binged it in two days. The prose never felt like it dragged on - Vesper was funny, serious, and badass when the time called for it (and when the time did not call for it).

And now, I am going to fit several puzzle pieces together - and create cool names for each assembly. Crumplepunch may recommend against reading this post because it might influence you - the reader - in having paranoid thoughts in the future, but I'm posting this anyway because I have the power to do so. If I didn't have an account already I most likely wouldn't have posted anything, but I do have an account, and that makes all the difference.

Calamity from Below
1. Why did Yonris come to Hoxiahn?
2. What will happen if the Raigi use the Manse network?
3. What does Izumherat know is there in Hoxiahn?
4. What exactly is that well-armed and unmoving garrison at Ashglass? (the forward camp at the beginning, The Proud Do Not Endure 19)
5. How does the enemy have the resources and power to find and mummify fallen Dragonblooded so fast?
6. Why is everything grey?
7. How is this related to the beholder-esque entity at the bottom of the sea?

Bitter Water
Statement 1: In Interlude: Izumherat 4, it is stated that a blue-headed waif touches Second Rain's shoulder.
Statement 2: Logris visited one of the Manses herself.
Statement 3: When asked why Brindle was sent to Mei's tent, Logris deflected.
Statement 4: Logris sounds kind of like Yonris.
Statement 5: Pale Willow is dead. The enemy can use necromancy on Exalts. This may be unrelated to the previous 4 statements.

Definition Defiant
Second Rain was a sword, but Vesper does not have to only be a sword.
 
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For A Better World 173
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    • Broken25 said:
    [X] Presence, how are we doing socially?
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    Presence, how are we doing socially?

    PRESENCE: I won't lie, it's not ideal. Everyone thinks you're weird.

    Isn't that accurate?

    PRESENCE: You want people to think you're cool, right? You just don't know how to cultivate a mystique. You should say less embarrassing things.

    SAGACITY: You mean fewer embarrassing things.

    PRESCENCE: Shut up nerd! It's my turn.

    How do I say fewer embarrassing things?

    PRESENCE: Maybe you should just talk fewer generally.

    SAGACITY: You mean... never mind.

    Maybe we should run down my relationships with everyone.

    PRESENCE: Well, let's see. The first person we met was Fincher. Fincher's okay. I think we've turned things around from the whole flaunting her authority and attacking her second in command thing. And she really didn't like that we were doing to fight Mei. But I think we're past that! We're keeping each other's secrets, building a rapport, breaking rules together, we've got a good thing going.

    So she doesn't think I'm wierd?

    PRESENCE: Oh no, she thinks you're super weird. Like I said, everyone thinks that. But her especially.

    Okay, who else?

    PRESENCE: Next was Toothsome, one of Fincher's unit leaders. He seems to be the black market guy for her scale. He wants to sell you drugs.

    Why does he want to sell me drugs?

    PRESENCE: Because he likes money. Also because he sells drugs, and has correctly assessed that you want slash need drugs.

    Oh, okay.

    PRESENCE: He's also looking for you, apparently? Potentially to sell you drugs. Next there's Tulip and Wheeler, Fincher's scouts. Haven't seen them in a while, probably on account of all the scouting. They saw you talking to your sword and now they're kind of wary of you.

    Noted.

    PRESENCE: And there's Orison, Fincher's second, who you punched. He seems cool with it, but he also pranked you by somehow tricking you into breaking in the armory and hiding in a box, so well played I guess.

    I forgot about that.

    PRESENCE: There's Bowery, I guess? He seems perfectly normal. That guy has nothing to hide.

    AWARENESS: I can attest that Bowery has nothing to hide.

    Okay, good.

    PRESENCE: And there's Brindle. Something weird's going on with Brindle. He can change memories or something? He's a seecret Exalt on a secret mission and he has a note from the guy in your flashback scene. It's a whole thing.

    Flashback scene?

    PRESENCE: Don't worry about it. Point is, Brindle seems to need you. Whatever's going on with him, he's young and out of his depth and someone he trusts told him he needs to work with you, so he's cool. Also he's working as your scribe now, maybe? You'll be seeing more of him.

    Alright, sounds good. Who else?

    PRESENCE: After that you met Mei, Logris and Usamir all at once.

    Okay, what about Mei?

    PRESENCE: At first Mei seemed to hate you and possibly wanted to murder you in front of everyone. I don't know if she was actually allowed to do that! But she seems to have cooled off a bit, which is good, because she seems to be the most dangerous person around by a wide margin.

    So she doesn't hate me?

    PRESENCE: I think she still does, sort of? It's complicated, we haven't quite figured out what her deal is. We're going to talk to her later. If I had to guess, I'd say she wants to hate you but is kind of cooling on it despite herself. So, progress?

    Sounds like it. What about Usamir?

    PRESENCE: Usamir is the opposite, he hates you but he has to pretend to be polite despite himself. It's probably a Dynast thing.

    Why does he hate me?

    PRESENCE: Well, first it was just because you were wierd and talked back to him, now it's probably that you told everyone at the officer table about his secret ass scars.

    Oh, okay.

    PRESENCE: We don't actually know what Logris thinks of us. She does that whole thing with her face, you know? She probably hates you, given the prevailing trend. On the other hand, she's been pretty helpful, even though she obviously has her own agenda, which is also a Dynast thing. She might also be interested in you for... other stuff.

    What other stuff?

    PRESENCE: You know, Physique stuff.

    What, like wrestling?

    PRESENCE: Yeah, wrestling, sure.

    PHYSIQUE: We can definitely beat Logris at wrestling.

    PRESENCE: Then you met Rochar, the Palean auxilliary captain. She wants to give you money.

    Why does she want to give me money?

    PRESENCE: As a bribe, so she can get you to do other stuff.

    Oh, I see.

    PRESENCE: She wants you to get new arbalests for her bandieras, they're pretty good with them and not a lot of use without. I think she likes you? It's hard to tell, I think she was mostly impressed by your status and ability to kill people slash boast about it.

    Alright, who next?

    PRESENCE: Next you met Rooster. Rooster's great. He is ride or die for you and probably literally everyone else he meets. Gives good hugs. He's Fincher's best friend but you haven't seen them together yet. He's also really good at making things! He made us a new finger, which is cool. Seems like a good guy to know.

    Can he help us with the arbalest thing?

    PRESENCE: He can make arbalests but needs silk, which is actually one of the reasons why we're here, talking to the Bane of Kadj. Hopefully his demons can make silk.

    Who else?

    PRESENCE: Let's see... after that it was Feathers, I think?

    Who?

    PRESENCE: Feathers. She's an engineer lady who you keep running into and she is terrified of you because you are always committing antics.

    What did I do?

    PRESENCE: You stole her hammer and made a speech about how you were a secret genius.

    Oh, okay.

    PRESENCE: Later you were stuck on an elevator with her and told her about the boat/ship thing.

    I see.

    PRESENCE: Next person you spoke to was Cinnamon, I think. She's working as the aide for Logris, but was formerly working for Usamir. She helped you when you were stuck on the side of the cliff. She made you tea a couple of times. Seems like a good kid, but definitely should not be in a war camp. She does not think you are cool.

    That's fair. How many more people are there?

    PRESENCE: A few. Let's quickly go through the officers. Mercer is the old lady, she doesn't seem to like you. Then there's Ragara Sovar, who doesn't like you, and Ledaal Kendral, Usamir's second, who also doesn't like you. Then there's Rivers, who you exposed as a spy, so he definitely doesn't like you. Colter seems cool, you saved his life so that probably bought you some social license. Sen Yin seemed pretty indifferent.

    Okay, most of the officers hate me, then?

    PRESENCE: Seems that way. You also met Jades the navy physician. He was pretty dismissive of you but I think you impressed him at the autopsy. And there was Coppersmith, one of Mei's runners. She likes to gossip. Seems nice.

    Anyone else?

    PRESENCE: There's Iris the surgeon, I think she likes you. Seems like she's a retired legionary so she's generally respected. She even managed to talk back to Mei and get away with it. You might be working with her later. She's Lily's mother.

    Oh yeah, what about Lily?

    PRESENCE: Lily was a unit medic but you picked her as your aide. She seems a little bit wary of Dragon-Bloods. You've made a mixed impression; you performed really well in the battle and defended her unit, but you've also injured yourself a load of times and told her you only picked her because she's already seen you naked. I think she's a bit confused by you.

    That's fair. Is that everyone?

    PRESENCE: Well, there's the Bane of Kadj, who is still talking. He's a creepy sorcerer who keeps pushing demons as solutions to various problems the legion is facing. That's presumably why he's on this boat, with his demon-spiders patching it up. He doesn't give much away, so it's hard to say what he thinks of us. He seemed to enjoy working with us on the autopsy though. Mei doesn't like him. He does not like to be called Bane or Kadj or any other shortening of his stupid name.

    Alright, how are we doing here?

    AWARENESS: Still going, but it's getting a bit esoteric and he's going to have to notice you're not following soon. I'd say you can pick two more.

    Okay.

    [ ] Appearance, how are we looking?
    [ ] Awareness, what can we sense?
    [ ] Craft, what do we have on hand?
    [ ] Integrity, how are we feeling?
    [ ] Navigate, where are we?
    [ ] War, what's the situation?
    [ ] Wits, what's happening in here?
    [ ] Physique, how's the body doing?
     
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    • [X] Wits, what's happening in here?

    Edit : And come on, Presence. Exalted Third Edition has been very clear that it's not Physique stuff, it's Performance stuff.
     
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    We should definitely ask the Bane of Kadj for silk for Rooster for arbalests for the Paleans. I'm sure Mei will be totally fine with that and not at all frustrated at us trying to help.
     
    I just reread to get stuff fresh in my head and was reminded we got a new thought for demanding to see the demon's manager and also finished the Mysterious Stranger one, so
    [X] Thought Cabinet
     
    Parabola said:
    We should definitely ask the Bane of Kadj for silk for Rooster for arbalests for the Paleans. I'm sure Mei will be totally fine with that and not at all frustrated at us trying to help.
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    I think this is below Mei's... level of attention, and it's something we said we'd try and sort.

    So I'm 100% in favour of it and don't think it's worth distracting Mei with. She's just so super busy and such.

    What I really want to do is express a polite curiosity to Logris about how her fun Manse adventure went.

    Edit: I think we should consider asking
    '[ ] Integrity, how are we feeling?'

    Purposeful self reflection might reveal something Umbra has been denying to herself, and thus we would not have observed due to her being an unreliable narrator.

    On the other hand, we might run the risk of having more or harder rolls to resist drugs if we bring our attention to the fact our body is screaming for them.

    ----
    Also, I gotta refresh myself on how Thought Cabinet works.

    Edit edit:

    I forgot. We're not Umbra. Our name is Tenebrous Silken Vesper.
     
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    For A Better World 174
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    • T_of_A said:
    [X] Wits, what's happening in here?
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    Wits, what's happening here?

    WITS: What? Oh, I don't know why you're asking me. I'm not the one who senses things, I'm the one that reacts to things.

    Alright, what you could you react to in here?

    WITS: I don't know, they haven't happened yet. I guess if that sorcerer tried to cast a spell on us you could pick up that dagger and stab him.

    Yeah, maybe. What do you think, throat slash?

    WITS: No, he's got those symbiote things, that wouldn't work. He'd probably survive a shot to the heart or eye too. What you want is to stab him right in the left temple.

    Why there?

    WITS: That's where the speech center is! He'll stop talking.

    Oh, so he can't cast spells?

    WITS: Sure, yes, that also.

    Which temple did you say?

    WITS: The left one.

    You look down at your hands.

    THUMB 1: I'm the left thumb, don't listen to the other one.

    THUMB 2: That thumb is a fucking liar, I'm the left thumb.

    Just out of curiousity, what happens if we stab him in the right temple?

    WITS: That will impair his ability to remember music.

    Huh, weird. Maybe I can just stab him in both.

    AWARENESS: I think you should talk to someone else.

    Fair enough.

    [ ] Appearance, how are we looking?
    [ ] Awareness, what can we sense?
    [ ] Craft, what do we have on hand?
    [ ] Integrity, how are we feeling?
    [ ] Navigate, where are we?
    [ ] War, what's the situation?
    [ ] Physique, how's the body doing?
     
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    • For A Better World 175
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    • Orbmorb said:
    [X] Integrity, how are we feeling?
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    Integrity, how are we feeling?

    INTEGRITY: I don't know.

    What do you mean you don't know? I thought that was the whole point of you.

    INTEGRITY: It is, sort of.

    So how am I feeling?

    INTEGRITY: I'm your ability to assess how you feel. You don't know.

    That's why I'm asking you.

    INTEGRITY: Well, you feel pretty tired.

    Why do I feel tired?

    INTEGRITY: You woke up early with a broken arm, took some hallucinagens and had a battle during which you were wounded multiple times. You had a vision of transcendental beauty and beheaded a corpse. Then you had a light breakfast followed by an emotionally devestating letter. You exposed a spy and alienated your allies during lunch and then performed an extensive autopsy on the corpse you beheaded this morning.

    That doesn't sound right. How did I get here?

    INTEGRITY: After lunch you went for a swim in the sea and tripped out for a bit at a dangerously low body temperature. Then you limped to the other end of camp with hypothermia and talked to Fincher and Brindle for a bit and sexually harassed your new aide. And now you're here, talking to this guy.

    So why am I tired?

    PHYSIQUE: We're not tired.

    INTEGRITY: We're tired emotionally.

    Oh, that's fine then. I think we were already tired emotionally.

    INTEGRITY: Do you want to talk about our emotions?

    [ ] Not really.
    [ ] No.
    [ ] Absolutely not.
     
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