Mare Internum: An Exalted Quest
- Thread starter Crumplepunch
- Start date
[x] Assume a cool-sounding pseudonym.
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
Oh gods, that's going to be awkward when we run into someone who knows who we are.
The Proud Do Not Endure 9
- Location
- ?
Yes, good. An opportunity to flex your creative muscles. You will remake yourself as someone mysterious and sophisticated, suave and erudite. You need a name that speaks to your soul, something dangerous and bold, yet subtle, beautiful and deadly. Hmmmm.
"I have decided."
Fincher has been filling a briar pipe and has finally lit it successfully. She takes a drag.
FINCHER: "Oh yeah?"
"I will be Tenebrous Silken Vesper."
She splutters and removes the pipe from her mouth. She looks up at you as though unwilling to believe you are still being serious.
But you are still being serious. You have never been so serious about anything, at least not as far as you can remember.
FINCHER: "Are you, uh, sure?"
"I am absolutely certain, yes."
She realizes trying to presuade you out of it is a lost cause. Your will has crystalized around this wish: that you have an awesome name.
FINCHER: "Well, is there anything else you want to know before we get to Ashglass, boss?"
[ ] Tell me about the siege.
[ ] Tell me about this island.
[ ] Tell me about the satrapy.
[ ] Tell me about your talon.
[ ] Insist on being called Tenebrous Silken Vesper at all times.
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[x] Tell me about the siege.
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
Well, on the plus side we should get good fortune for entertaining the pattern spiders.
The Proud Do Not Endure 10
- Location
- ?
"Tell me about the siege."
FINCHER: "Not much to tell, boss." she shrugs. "We're operating on old information and assumptions. We know that the Raigi were amassing to assault Ashglass, the satrapy, and we know the garrison failed to stop them in the field. That's how the commander, uh, Sesus something, I think, that's how he died. Or so it was reported. Everything's a bit chaotic."
"So we're just assuming there is a siege."
FINCHER: "Third Dragon's orders are to lift the siege and secure the city. If there's no siege I guess we're going to have an easy time of it."
"How big of a force are we talking about, here?"
FINCHER: "Two thousand at the most was the reckoning. The highlands can't support much more than that, in point of professional soldiery. So, you know, just do what you did before another hundred times, and we'll be fine."
WAR: Legion can reliably take greatly superior numbers with Dragon-Blooded support, but three to one at the outset is not preferred doctrine. This strategy is incomplete.
"Why only one Dragon?"
FINCHER: "One Dragon to lift the siege, working with local forces. The rest of the forward flight and harrier flight are moving in to subjugate the highlands. Should make landfall in a couple of weeks."
WAR: Another 2500 legionaries, led by a general and full command staff, and probably half that again in auxilliaries. They must be planning on wiping them out as they retreat to the highlands to regroup.
"Well, at least we have reinforcements coming."
FINCHER: "Yeah. Weeks too late. If everything goes to plan."
She looks nervous. You can't blame her.
[ ] Tell me about these Raigi.
[ ] This island is pretty weird, isn't it?
[ ] What can we expect when we get into Ashglass?
[ ] How's your talon?
[ ] How are you holding up?
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The Proud Do Not Endure 11
- Location
- ?
"How are you holding up?"
She looks up at you, as if to gauge the ill-intent of the question.
FINCHER: "I'm alright."
"Are you really alright?"
FINCHER: "Yeah, I am."
She sounds defensive.
"It's just that this is your first command and things don't seem to be going that well, through no fault of your own."
FINCHER: "Yeah, thanks, I noticed that too."
She sounds so tired it's hard to know if she is actually being sarcastic. Probably yes.
FINCHER: "Were you legion, boss?"
You consider the question. It's possible. You do seem to know a lot about how they work.
"Maybe."
FINCHER: "Guess you can't tell me how badly your first command went."
"No, sorry. I could make something up if you like."
She snorts with laughter.
FINCHER: "No, you're good, I've seen where that gets us."
Well, at least you cheered her up a little.
[ ] Tell me about the Raigi.
[ ] Tell me about this island.
[ ] Tell me about the satrapy.
[ ] Tell me about your talon.
[ ] That's enough for now, let's just ride.
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The Proud Do Not Endure 12
- Location
- ?
"What can you tell me about this island?"
FINCHER: "It's cursed, is what it is."
NAVIGATE: LEGENDARY
CHECK FAILED
"Cursed? Why do you say that?"
She shrugs.
FINCHER: "Toothsome says it's cursed."
"What's Toothsome?"
She jerks a thumb over her shoulder. You follow it to see a square-jawed male legionary following at a respectful distance behind you, leading another warhorse, this one laden with bags. He grins and waves as he notices your attention.
"Is that his real name?"
FINCHER: "I didn't ask."
You let the silence build for a short while before pressing further.
"Anything else you can tell me about the island?"
FINCHER: "Well, it's about, uh... shit, give me a second."
AWARENESS: She is counting on her fingers behind her back.
FINCHER: "It's two hundred ten by ninety."
"Miles?"
FINCHER: "Yeah, miles. Pretty big for a Western isle, I think? A bit smaller than Radimel's Seat. It's some ways west of Wu-Jian, but not part of Wavecrest."
NAVIGATE: She's probably from the south coast forests out by Dragonswrath, just over the inner sea from the Seat. Accent.
"What about its history?"
FINCHER: "Egh... really not the best person to ask. I know it's got some history with the Realm, before we took it. Something about a tiger."
SAGACITY: INCREDIBLE
CHECK SUCCESS
SAGACITY: Wait, a tiger. Is it possible that this island is not "Hojahn", but Hoxiahn?
What difference would that make?
SAGACITY: Hoxiahn was the final bastion of the sorceress-queen Yonris, the Seventh Tiger. She was one of the warlords who attempted to overthrow the nascent Realm.
Hear me out, is it possible that I am the sorceress-queen Yonris incongnito?
SAGACITY: No, absolutely not. Yonris lived during the late Shogunate and died centuries before you were born.
So you're saying there's a chance.
SAGACITY: I'm not going to entertain this nonsense. Talk to Presence if you want to entertain delusions of grandeur.
PRESENCE: We will be Tenebrous Silken Vesper, sorcerer-queen of panache.
THOUGHT GAINED: The New Black Jade.
"Hey Fincher, did you say there was a cadet house on this island?"
FINCHER: "Yeah, s'what I heard. Never met anyone in a cadet house. You?"
"Maybe."
FINCHER: "Right, right."
[ ] What's the deal with these Raigi?
[ ] Can you tell me anything about Ashglass?
[ ] How's your talon doing?
[ ] That's enough for now, let's just ride.
You can also review your Thought Cabinet, Inventory and Objectives at any time.
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The Proud Do Not Endure 13
- Location
- ?
"How's your talon doing?"
Fincher winces.
FINCHER: "Under the circumstances, could be worse. Eighty-four missing presumed dead before we even made landfall. Two of those I saw dead in the crash. Four incapacitated leaves me with thirty-eight able legion."
INTEGRITY: She didn't have to count this time. She was already thinking about these numbers.
FINCHER: "Most of them are down equipment. All of them have lost friends. A lot of them had family or dependents in the supply ships, and we have no idea what happened to those. We're short on food, we have no shelter. If we can't get into Ashglass we'll be reduced to raiding whatever farms the Raigi left over."
"No supplies at all?"
FINCHER: "Well, uh. We've got the horses. Already made a stew and soup out of one that got his legs broken in your scuffle. Beautiful creature, but bodies got to eat. Aside from that, not much forage to be had, sides from digging up what these farmers planted before they fled."
"How are the wounded?"
FINCHER: "Fine, thanks to you. Riding fixed, like you were. I'm a medical graduate, so I'll take good care of them."
For the first time you are accutely aware that your ragged tunic has ben cut to the shoulder to allow access to the shoulder wound you sustained in battle. It has been freshly bound with bandages. You marvel at your arm, mottled heavily with older scars of a similar sort.
"Is this your work, then?"
FINCHER: "Least I could do, boss. We'd all be dead without you turning up."
"Thanks anyway."
She shrugs, obviously embarassed. You decide to change the subject.
"What about non-legion?"
Fincher spares a glance over her shoulder. You look back to see the train of men and women following after you. Over fifty in all, and half that in captured horses. The bandieras and navy are huddled at the back.
FINCHER: "Six Paleans, of the thirty we set out with. We had a fang composed of those who had some Riverspeak to coordinate with them. All gone, so only I can speak to them. They're not happy. And they've lost their weapons, so our primary range advantage is gone."
"Weapons?"
FINCHER: "Arbalests. Vicious things. Paleans like to set up a little battlefield fortress with polearms and two-man heavy crossbow teams and fuck everything near and far. Makes for a good rallying point. No use now. I'll try to fold them into the regular order, but the language barrier is going to be a problem."
"And the navy?"
She spits on the ground.
FINCHER: "Twenty. Press-ganged marines to the last one. They'll desert us first chance they get, and I don't have it in me to say they shouldn't. Monstrous, what the navy does to our folk."
NAVIGATE: When in need of sailors, the navy often sweeps coastal cities for anyone they can get away with kidnapping and foricibly enlists them as working issues or marines. They are meant to be circumspect about this, but in practice it is an open secret that they sometimes take the working age populations of entire remote villages when there is no authority around capable of stopping them. Such things are the deaths of communities; the old left to starve and the young left to feral banditry.
"Our folk?"
She looks back to you, alarmed.
"Sorry, boss. Didn't take you for a Dynast, no offense."
INTEGRITY: You don't know who you are, and neither does she, but she let her guard down and lapsed into talking to you like a peer. This is her real feeling, and she won't make the mistake of showing it again if you shut her down.
[ ] Fuck the Dynasty, am I right?
[ ] They're just doing their part, same as us.
[ ] Maybe I'm just a Dynast who likes slumming with commoners.
[ ] What's wrong with Dynasts?
[ ] I don't have an opinion on this.
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The Proud Do Not Endure 14
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"Fuck the Dynasty, am I right?"
She chokes back a scandalized laugh, like a child delighted to hear a naughty word. She checks over her shoulder to make sure nobody is close enough to listen before responding.
FINCHER: "Yeah boss, you're right about that. We're all what they made us, right?"
"What?"
She looks taken aback at your sudden intensity.
FINCHER: "We are all what we are made. It's the motto of Pasiap's Stair."
A sword.
"Yeah. Yeah, I can see it."
FINCHER: "Still, you gotta be careful with that stuff. I don't know what kind of free pass you got, what with your position, but treason is treason. When they get you on that, there's no talking your way out of it."
"Right. Our little secret."
THOUGHT GAINED: Unbroken Rushes.
She grins with genuine, unalloyed happiness. Seems like having a little secret with you does her good.
[ ] What's the state of our inventory?
[ ] Can I get some of that horse stew?
[ ] What's the deal with these Raigi?
[ ] Can you tell me anything about Ashglass?
[ ] That's enough for now, let's just ride.
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[x] What's the deal with these Raigi?
The Proud Do Not Endure 15
- Location
- ?
"What's the deal with these Raigi?"
FINCHER: "Seems like they want to kill us."
"Yeah, I got that part."
FINCHER: "I dunno, boss. They're highlanders, from the mountainous region on the western edge of the island. They've got their own government, towns and castles and all that, that was paying tribute to the Realm through Ashglass.
"And they rebelled?"
FINCHER: "Yeah. Not just against the Realm, they've got some kind of feud with the local rulers, but I don't know anything about that. They sacked Slatewater, the second biggest settlement on the island. Destroyed a temple and killed the mission. Heathens."
She spits.
"What then?"
FINCHER: "If I'm remembering the briefing right, that's when the garrison marched in."
"And failed."
Fincher nods.
FINCHER: "Yeah, less than a third of them made it back, minus the commander. Gods know how they fucked up that badly."
WAR: DIFFICULT
CHECK SUCCEEDS
WAR: That's a fuckup and a half, alright. A failure of abject, catastrophic proportions. A garrison force should never let potential rebels grow half strong enough to face them in the field. If the satrap is too incompetent to defang them economically with tribute demands, the garrison should have moved to crush them long before they had any chance of threatening the satrapy.
"How could they let things get this bad?"
FINCHER: "How did they let their army grow too big, you mean?"
"It doesn't make any sense, does it? This island is sizeable but it isn't so big that they couldn't monitor it effectively."
FINCHER: "Yeah boss, I've been thinking about that, too. Maybe this Sesus guy wanted a big battle."
"Why would he want that?"
FINCHER: "Well... I'm just speculating here, but if you went to all the trouble of graduating from a fancy war college and getting strapped up for your big jade codpiece and all that, then maybe you'd get a bit pissy to be sent out to a little island in the middle of nowhere. You might want things to get bad enough that you can play hero for once, and blame it on the satrap when it's done."
EMBASSY: VERY DIFFICULT
CHECK SUCCEEDS
EMBASSY: What Fincher lacks in fine manners she makes up for in whatever this is. It's speculation, but plausible speculation. Under-supervised officials have done worse for less.
"I think you've got a mind for this stuff."
She makes a face.
FINCHER: "I'll stick to stitching wounds and shooting arrows, if it's all the same to you."
"Still, that doesn't explain how they underestimated the enemy so badly that he got killed along with two thirds of the garrison. You know what does?"
Fincher looks quizzically at you.
"And also explains the storms and my memory loss."
She grimaces.
FINCHER: "Don't say it, boss."
"Alright, I'll just think it."
Anathema.
SAGACITY: The presence of an Anathema might explain some of these oddities, but the Realm would surely have readied a group of shikari to accompany the legion if they thought this was a real possibility.
Maybe I'm the shikari. Maybe that's my secret mission, I'm a lone Anathema-slaying badass.
SAGACITY: That is definitely not true. You are clearly not a monk, you don't even have a shaven head.
But what I do have is skills.
THOUGHT GAINED: Diamond and Thunderbolt
FINCHER: "Anyway, like I said, probably about two thousand max. Lots of heavy cavalry, like those you fought before. Beyond that, I would be guessing."
[ ] I was thinking about Anathema.
[ ] Let's go over the inventory.
[ ] Got anything to eat?
[ ] What can we expect at Ashglass?
[ ] That's enough for now, let's just ride.
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[x] Let's go over the inventory.
The Proud Do Not Endure 16
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- ?
"So we're low on supplies. What have we got by way of gear?"
FINCHER: "What, weapons-like? We lost a lot of gear in the crash, but we've made some, er, recent acquisitions."
"Oh yeah?"
FINCHER: "Yeah, between spears and longaxes we have enough weapons for everyone. Helmets for most, too."
"Well, I could use some weapons and armour. Anything you can spare?"
Fincher whistles sharply and gestures behind her. After a few moments, Toothsome pulls up beside you, leading his impromptu pack horse.
TOOTHSOME: "Alright, Talon? How's our hero of the day?"
FINCHER: "Needing some gear, sharpish. You've got all the best stuff there."
TOOTHSOME: "Yeah, fair is fair."
He looks you up and down, sizeing you up.
TOOTHSOME: "Yeah, I reckon we can get you fitted, lady, so long as you don't mind wearing no dead man's hauberk."
He pulls back a covering on the packs over the horse's back. The horse bucks its head in response, and he pats its mane to calm it.
TOOTHSOME: "Take your pick. We're a little short on spears, but we can manage that if you need. Plenty of those big cavalry swords and throwing axes."
You pull your horse alongside his and look over his selection of recently looted weapons.
[ ] Pack light. Just a hatchet and padded jacket, no other armour. It worked for you before.
[ ] Compromise. Take the jacket, hauberk, gauntlets, hatchet, buckler and saber.
[ ] Full gear. Full harness, brace of hatchets, lance, saber and targe.
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TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
[X] Compromise. Take the jacket, hauberk, gauntlets, hatchet, buckler and saber.
The best loadout will always depend on the situation, but since we don't know what we're walking into, a compromise is probably our best option.
In particular, this being the West where being on the water is a frequent occurrence, full harness could be a serious problem with regards to inhibiting swimming, not to mention encumbrance generally.
Going without any significant weapons or armor is the sort of thing you only do if you've got special skills and charms that rely on it.
The best loadout will always depend on the situation, but since we don't know what we're walking into, a compromise is probably our best option.
In particular, this being the West where being on the water is a frequent occurrence, full harness could be a serious problem with regards to inhibiting swimming, not to mention encumbrance generally.
Going without any significant weapons or armor is the sort of thing you only do if you've got special skills and charms that rely on it.
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Compromise. Take the jacket, hauberk, gauntlets, hatchet, buckler and saber.
I never go for heavy armor, personally. And in case we do happen to be a badass shikari and better while in light armor, we can just take off some things.
I never go for heavy armor, personally. And in case we do happen to be a badass shikari and better while in light armor, we can just take off some things.
Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Compromise. Take the jacket, hauberk, gauntlets, hatchet, buckler and saber.
I have no idea what system we derive these mechanics from (I also haven't read Essence, yet), but it's prosaic and eloquently written. That is enough for me to join in this madwreck.
May the Most High Bless us.
I have no idea what system we derive these mechanics from (I also haven't read Essence, yet), but it's prosaic and eloquently written. That is enough for me to join in this madwreck.
May the Most High Bless us.
- Location
- ?
This quest isn't using Essence beyond (some of) its simplified Abilities. The check system has more in common with PBtA or the story's other main inspiration, Disco Elysium. I may introduce Charms and other effects later but they will be narrative in nature.
Thank you! I thought that a simpler and more prosaic style might be more inviting for the quest format.
PbtA is such a clean system and it's so extraordinarily adaptable. It's shocking to me that I don't see it used in quests more often.
- Location
- The North
I think there are some quests that use Ironsworn, a pbta system, as their primary mechanic. It's pretty interesting to see!