Oh F&#$, I'm Exalted (Exalted SI)

[Ellf]

Bit of an intro before I post the first bit. I've had this sitting on my HDD for over a year now. I'm not sure how often it will get updated, but we'll see.

Here goes:

It happened in the blink of an eye. I sat at my laptop, looking through the latest job postings, I'd been unemployed since two weeks before my birthday after all, and then I found myself elsewhere. I stood in front of what could only be described in an altar, holding a cloth bag full of some sort of weight in one hand, and in the other I grasped an intricately designed mask, perhaps the most intricately designed I could imagine. The mask reminded me of a Noh mask from Japanese kabuki culture, with its swirling designs and multiple colors. The ambient light in the area caused the visible portion of the mask to shine green, reflecting off the polished stone, and around its feminine lips, silver flowed. The eyeholes of the mask were filled with a golden metal that trailed down the bridge of the nose to its tip. Whoever had been used as the mold for this mask certainly had been a beautiful woman.

The hand holding the cloth bag hovered over where it rested on the altar, precariously positioning the amorphous weight where the mask had once rested on a display container of polished red stone that reminded me of the mask's own. The display pedestal stood out of a slotted part of the altar, in which the light allowed me to see a spring of some sort that would allow the pedestal to rise or fall. Judging from the mask and the weighted bag, it likely would cause some sort of trap to go off if the incorrect weight were applied. Carefully, I released the bag onto the pedestal while moving the mask away from it, and I waited. The bag sunk down into the upstretched red stone arms of the pedestal, but nothing else seemed to happen.

I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding. "No more reading Cracked before bed. I don't even know what's causing this Indiana Jones dream."

My voice sounded odd, then it always did when I was dreaming. I could worry about that when I figured out just where I was. Dreams didn't always make sense, so the simplest matter would be to just accept things as they came. Obviously, I didn't sound like Harrison Ford, and being that he wasn't here with me, it would seem that I am cast as him in this dream scenario. Damnit, I'm an engineer, not an archaeologist, but old things always did have their appeal.

Stepping away from the altar, I decided to get a good look around the room. On the wall across the altar from where I had approached it was an intricately carved gold, silver, and multicolored stone mural. Gemstones and other stones helped to give the mural its life with the gold and silver outlining various people upon it. It looked like it depicted a queen getting deposed by an enemy of some sort, and her body being cared for by her subjects. If I was reading it right, it looked like she was buried somewhere in this… tomb? Temple? At least that's what the text below it seemed to indicate. Now, I couldn't read the text, of course. I've never really had the ability to read in dreams, but I was sure that I caught the gist of it.

"Huh. Queen Masque or something. Maybe this was modeled after her face. Nice details, dream. Now if only I could find…" the light source. Where was the light in here coming from? Being that this was a dream, it could easily have just been a hung light point, the way that one would in a video game level. Light sources were a different variable than what was casting them. Of course, this seemed to be an especially detailed dream, the light source might have been something else. A look back the way I must have come into this room showed me that wherever the light source was, it was bright enough to make it seem like daylight. There were no holes in the ceiling to let light in, and the torches that were mounted on the wall had long since been extinguished.

Odd. This was going to bug me until I figured it out. I started to pace a little bit. Back and forth, and something caught my attention. The light seemed to change with my movement, flickering slightly, ebbing and flowing as I stepped. That implied that the light source was somewhere on my body. When dreaming, it's easy to forget simple things like bodies, especially when you aren't all that fond of how you look normally.

I forced myself to look down. "Well, that's… different... not bad, but different…" My unfamiliar voice echoed out, filling the room. From looking down at myself, I couldn't tell how tall I looked or what my face looked like, but I could tell that at the least, I was in significantly better shape than I had been when I had last checked. While I didn't have a bodybuilder's body, I was at the least some sort of athlete. My body actually resembled that of a swimmer, lithe, thin with toned shoulders and biceps. My shirt and vest covered my chest, so I couldn't quite tell how muscular my torso was by looking at it, but I definitely didn't have a bulging stomach. Adding my pants, a belt and some leather boots to the ensemble, I looked to be a decent explorer. To top off this Indiana Jones-esque look, I even had a whip on my belt, with a knife next to it. The only thing missing was the hat, which was surprising for this sort of dream. Oh, and I also appeared to be glowing a golden light.

"Okay, so I'm the source of this light. Some sort of aura around me is giving it off. Right. If I weren't dreaming, I'd almost be worried." It wasn't as if any of this were real. If it were, I'd probably be… Well, I didn't want to think about that. This was a dream. A pretty boring one. "Right, I guess I could go look around a bit more. Maybe all my dreams are this boring, or maybe I'm just having a boring night…"

As I walked around a bit more, I noticed how the light caught on the mural in the queen's death scene. I hadn't noticed before as I was in awe of the entire thing (which, honestly, given how shit I am at art, I'm always impressed with anything better than what I can do). Her forehead glinted gold though she was outlined with silver. It glinted gold in a very specific shape. The sign of the setting sun, a golden smiley face was upon her forehead. Suddenly the mural made much more sense. The mask did too, now that I thought about it. Perhaps the Great Curse had gotten to her in some way, made her want to hide her face behind how she wanted to be perceived. Solar Exalted were funny that way… and mostly dead.

"Huh, guess my dream's more detailed than I thought." I said as I stepped back to walk around the altar. "The Twilight Queen's mask. Pretty good loot for a tomb like—"

I swear I saw the light flicker again for a second, but it probably only happened because I tripped and fell against the altar hard. Admittedly, it wasn't nearly as hard as I would have fallen if this were my normal body, but bumping the altar hurt. That… should have woken me up. I've had dreams where I'd been hurt before, and they usually woke me up when I was having them. This… didn't.

"Ow… fuck. That really smarts…" I immediately glanced to the altar's top. I'd bumped the altar in my falling, and the loosest item was going to… "Balls. That's... fuck!"

The bag had apparently been full of sand. When I bumped the altar, I must have somehow caused it to become torn, and it started pouring sand out its cloth sides.

"Okay. Not a dream. And I don't think I have a replacement for the sandbag. I'm glowing, in the tomb of a First Age Solar, because really, who else would have such a mural? And I apparently just set off a trap. And I'm glowing." I groaned at that last part as I started to reach out toward the mechanism. One thing went through my mind as I prepared for whatever trap was left. "Oh fuck. I'm Exalted."

 

[Ellf]

I'd like to say that I handled the facts of the situation with requisite joy and decorum, that I was excited, strong, brave and ready for whatever this tomb could throw at me in true Exalted fashion. I'd love to say that I stood up to the oncoming trap and defeated it with my bare hands, dismantling it, and studying it. To say that I took hold of my fate with both hands and embraced it.

"Nope! Not sticking around for this…" I'd love to say all of that, but I'd be a liar. I ran, leapfrogging the altar and down the hallway that must have been the way that I came in, or that whoever came in, but it really didn't matter. I needed to get away from whatever was coming before it came and got me. Was this brave? Of course not. It was simply smart.

The sound of rumbling rock on rock made me look over my shoulder. "You're kidding me. This has to be a dream. Don't care about the pain."

Lucas and Spielberg would be proud: a giant boulder accelerated down the hallway behind me. Let me say this, I would be dead right now if I were my normal self. I wouldn't have the stamina to keep running for my life as the boulder kept going. I wouldn't have the time to notice the disabled traps along the way.

"Dart trap… Axe trap… pressure plate there… who the fuck were they building this to protect aga… oh, right. Solar." There! Up ahead. That had to be safety. Sure the hallway continued down past, but if that was the only way out, all I'd have to do is wait for the boulder to roll past. I rounded the corner and went into the side hallway about twenty feet before turning to wait for the boulder to go by.

Oh, that was all kinds of wrong. The straight hallway was wide enough that the boulder should have just rolled by without incident. Hell, it probably should have started to slow by now. Instead it decided to break the laws of physics. "How the fuck can a boulder turn? That's just not fair."

So I started running again. There was definitely something to be said about the ability to run without losing my breath. I followed whatever my natural inclinations were when I moved, and I moved. My heart may have been beating three hundred times per minute, but I was keeping ahead of the boulder. Now that I knew it could turn, I found myself wishing I knew the actual layout of this tomb… temple… whatever this was. If I got trapped, I was dead.

"Oh, great job. Determine this isn't a dream, and manage to trigger the sentient death trap. Marvelous thinking…" It suddenly occurred to me, as I was simultaneously running and chastising myself, that I could not for the life of me recall my own name. Not really sure why it occurred to me then, but my mind does often do multiple trains of thought at once. I would have dwelt on it longer than I did at that moment, but my priorities were focused on a much simpler task. The boulder was rather insistent.

The hallway forked at the end. I had maybe ten seconds before I needed to make a decision. Left or right. Maybe the boulder wouldn't follow this time, or maybe it would but I'd find a way out. I really didn't want to think about the alternative if I chose wrong and it did follow.

I'm right-handed so I picked left. I could give some long explanation about the virtues about picking the opposite direction to my handedness, but I won't. I still had a boulder chasing me. Sure enough, twenty-five seconds after I had started down the hallway, the boulder was behind me once more.

Another golden mural ran along this wall. It was such a pity that the rolling boulder would probably scrape up against it as it chased me down. I couldn't tell the era that it was made in, but I'm not even sure I'd be able to tell if I could get a closer look. As it was, it simply just added another reflection to the light that came off of my Anima. I looked down the hall beyond the mural. The light from my Anima lapped beyond the mural about three feet before stopping at a stone wall.

"Balls." I reached the wall not long after I saw it. The hall was a dead end, and three tons of rolling doom continued down the hallway behind me. I was as good as dead. I was going to be crushed by the sentient boulder, ground to a paste. I would be flattened.

"No." I looked up, down, left, right. Nowhere left to run. The boulder was too big. I couldn't just move out of the way to avoid it. There was literally nowhere I could dodge to within this three dimensional space. I was Exalted, and I would not let myself die here. Four seconds away. Three seconds. Two seconds. One sec- I stepped out of the way.

There's no real way to explain how I did what I did. I couldn't go up or down. I couldn't go left or right, forward or backward. The only option for me to dodge the oncoming boulder at that point was to move out of the way, and the only way to move was orthogonal to all of those directions. There isn't really a name for the way I stepped, but for a few seconds, I was no longer there, but instead I was Elsewhere. I did it with my own skill, moving safely out of the way of the oncoming rock.

Having nowhere to turn, and apparently having no way to brake, the boulder crashed mightily into the wall I had been standing against only a second before. I stepped back into Creation behind it upon its impact. Cracks began to spider web their way through the boulder, and similarly, they did so for the wall. Tempting fate, I decided to reach out and tap on the murderous giant rock, and it collapsed into mostly dust save for a small rolled up ball in its center that remained floating above the ground, seemingly unaffected by gravity.

The wall in front of what had been the boulder similarly crumbled, revealing gleaming metal and more of that green stone, which given that I now knew where I was, I guessed it was probably more jade. Glancing down at the floating ball of rock, I watched as it unfurled itself and landed on the ground on all fours. It clearly had a canine-like body, and it probably came up to my waist in height. Despite its rather large size, it clearly seemed disoriented, and almost childlike. It was all I could do to not act like someone half my age around a puppy. This thing had tried to kill me after all.

"Here girl, come here…" Okay, maybe I didn't have as much control over that urge as I'd like. I couldn't really help it though. The stony dog seemed unconvinced. Luckily I didn't have to crouch down far so my head was on her level. "Come here, let me take a look at it, girl… I won't hurt you."

Sure, the dog had been at the center of a giant boulder that was trying to run me over, but that didn't mean that she was at fault. Whoever designed this tomb was. The stone dog started toward me, slowly at first. I was vaguely reminded of the description of Ancient Mai's Temple Guardian Statues in the Dresden Files, but those were full grown and regal… This one definitely resembled a puppy, especially when she came closer to me.

Though I knew she had to be made of stone, when I reached out to let her sniff my hand, her nose felt cold like any other dog. After she determined that I was safe, for whatever reason, I reached over to pet her and examine. She should have felt like a statue, I would have thought. Instead, her fur was soft, and it melted my heart. "How long were you in that rock, girl?"

She started wagging her tail, but she didn't answer. I wasn't sure she'd be able to answer at all anyway. I continued to pet her, and I ran my hand over the points where she might have been injured. I wasn't entirely sure how to handle something like this, my sister was the vet-in-training, not myself, but I saw that she probably had some bruising on her. I wanted to adopt this dog. Sure, she had been a boulder that had tried to run me down, but that wasn't her fault. It was the fault of whoever built this tomb.

"I'm going to be trying to get out of here, girl…" I blinked as my Anima flared brighter, wrapping around my hands. The dog started to pull away, but I reached over with my other hand to try and look at one of the injuries closer. I stuffed the mask into a bag I had over my shoulder so I could get a better grip. I then watched as the flames of my anima went over the dog, not hurting her. "Do you want to come with me, girl?"

A bit of an Earth-toned Anima flared around the dog, mixing with my own, and shortly afterward, my Anima pulled back, taking some of hers with it. "I… have no clue what I just did girl, but I think I adopted you…"

Suddenly a feeling of warmth suffused my being. I can't really explain how I knew, but the feeling came from the earth pup. She was an Earth Elemental of some sort, but she clearly wasn't a Diamond Dog. I couldn't tell exactly what she was, primarily because I couldn't recall the chapter in the spirits book that had to do with Elementals, but I at least could guess at her type.

Standing, I laid a hand on her head. "I suppose you're going to need a name if you don't have one already. We'll work on that once we get out of here, girl."

Now that I wasn't focusing so much on the dog, I could clearly see into the next chamber. Gold gleamed in the light I gave off, reflecting it with the warmth of the sun. The jade and silver bars in there were easy to spot, but the sheer size of the chamber caused me to balk. This must have been her burial chamber. I moved into it, followed closely by my new friend. It couldn't hurt to look around.

"Lord, please let there not be a ghost in here. I may be Exalted, but I really don't want to try and deal with more spirits." From what I remembered about Exalted souls, they were divided into parts, three with the exaltation. Upper Soul, Lower Soul, and Exaltation Shard were there. The Upper Soul went off and got reincarnated, Exaltation Shards went off and Exalted some poor bastard like myself who does something that meets the criteria, and the Lower Soul can stick around for a while. Often it just goes to the Underworld and dissipates into the Lethe, but occasionally it sticks around to become a Hungry or Angry ghost. I very much did not want to meet an Angry Ghost of a First Age Solar. Or a Shogunate Solar. Or really, any Solar ghosts.

Still, I was compelled forward both by curiosity and not really having any idea of where to go. This must have been the burial chamber, as evidenced by the massive almost sarcophagus-like coffin that was propped up onto an altar. Whoever this Solar was, her people loved her despite whatever she ended up doing to them once the Great Curse took hold. Oh hey, I knew about the Great Curse. Now all I would need to do is get to Yu Shan, find Lytek, and I could let him know about it. Of course, that'd assume I could waltz past a city full of Bronze Faction Sidereals, a number of Celestial beings, and the hundreds of Dragonblooded that the Realm had without taking a single scratch. Yeah, probably not going to happen for a while yet, if ever.

My first priority for now was to leave the tomb with my new dog. I needed to get out to see the sun, and complain to an immensely powerful yet non-listening entity about the situation I'm in. Sol Invictus was probably way too busy paying attention to his games than to pay attention to me anyway. Never mind that, the room I was in… It smelled… quite honestly, nothing like I had expected any sort of ancient tomb to smell. Given how old it was, the chamber should have smelled musty, like dead air. Instead the smell reminded me of roses, yet I could see no rosebushes nearby. This bothered me a little.

Given that I came in through a hole in the wall, there must have been some sort of doorway that could be opened to lead to another part of the tomb. I slowly made my way through amidst the stacks of gold, jade, silver, and what probably was orichalcum. I bowed my head to the sarcophagus as I passed it, and what happened next surprised me. The smell of roses intensified yet not so strong as to cause me to choke on the aroma, and the sarcophagus creaked open.

Normally, according to all known logic, I should have ran by now. I should have avoided the contents of that sarcophagus like the plague, and I should have tried to find another way out after getting far, far away from it. Something stayed my feet, whether courage or fear-induced paralysis, I could not say, but I watched as the sarcophagus slowly made its way open, revealing the contents within. I can't say that what I saw was entirely unexpected. The corpse was remarkably well-preserved, given how much time probably had passed since her passing. They had dressed the mummified corpse in clothing made of silk, and her burial mask resembled the mask that I had in my satchel, but etched upon her brow was the caste mark of the Twilight Solar.

"Still can't unsee that smiley-face…" I muttered, and continued to look around, my limbs tensing. Something had opened the sarcophagus… and it wasn't me. My eyes traced down the body, going over what had probably been a beautiful dress to the weapon at her side. Typically, when I think of Exalted weaponry, I think of massive swords, daiklaives like Volcano Cutter, ready to be used in combat against the enemies of Creation, smiting all foes in their path. I did not picture what I saw at this Exalt's side. Length-wise, it perhaps was as long as a Roman gladius, barely over two feet long from hilt to the blade's tip, but the blade was made of a mixture of green jade and a golden metal, likely orichalcum, and it had spikes coming out of it resembling thorns. The hilt was the stem of a rose, topped off with a rose-shaped pommel that was made with some sort of red jade.

"Am I still pretty?" An ethereal voice echoed around me, and I focused, looking for the source. I spotted a translucent overlay of a feminine form on the corpse of the Solar. The eyes of the mask seemed to be staring directly at me.

Politely, I nodded. "Yes, very." If I could keep my responses short and to the point, perhaps I could get away without pissing off the long-dead Solar. Oh, God… it was a ghost. A real ghost, of a long dead Solar, and I really didn't want to get into a fight with one of those.

The ethereal voice laughed, sending shivers down my spine, and a transparent hand reached out of the sarcophagus toward my face. The ghostly hand paused only millimeters from my cheek before reaching up to caress it. "Young one, aren't you? So smooth and new to your power, young Twilight…"

"I am… New, yes…" As in less than an hour ago I showed up. Brand new to these powers, yet they felt as natural as breathing.

"Mmm…" The mask stared at me, the hand reaching down toward my shoulder. It brushed down me from there to the small of my back. "Spin, young Twilight. I want to get a good look at you."

"I… what?" Oh eloquence, how you had left me. I really didn't know how to take this sort of thing.

"Spin around, young one. I want to see the Twilight who entered my tomb." I thought I had been creeped out before, but there was a funny feeling in the small of my back that had spread to my stomach. This wasn't right in any sort of fashion, but I did as the ghost said. I gave a twirl. Her laughter honestly sounded like echoing bells, not the dread sort of screeching I'd expect from a ghost of any sort. "Yes, yes… Oh, how precious you are, young Twilight. You are wonderful."

"Uh… thank you, ma'am?" It never really hurts to be polite, I supposed. Especially when you were dealing with something that could probably kill you on the spot, newly Exalted power boost be damned. "If you don't mind, ma'am, I would like to be leaving…."

"Mmm, but you have yet to enjoy the fruits of my trove, young Twilight. You made it in here, is it not your right to… pluck them?" I was going to ignore any and all connotations that could have had other than referring to her treasures in the room. It seemed a lot safer for my sanity that way.

"I was going to leave the treasure, ma'am. It's yours, and I have no right to it." Well, other than the mask. The mask was what let me exalt, and I had somehow managed to slip it into a vest pocket while talking and the ghost hadn't realized. The mask also got me my new dog, who seemed to be hiding behind my leg at the moment, but that was neither here nor there.

"Polite and wise, young Twilight…" I hoped that was the compliment it sounded like. "I am almost offended that you wouldn't even consider plundering these depths a little." No connotations, I swear. She was talking about the treasure, and that's my story.

"For such a young, wise, precious, polite and lovely Twilight, I suppose I must give you a gift." Her hand brushed across my forehead, and then simultaneously, the other went down my back again to just below my butt. The chill forced a shiver out of me, and the mask seemed to smile wider. "I know the perfect thing."

The ghost guided my hand toward the thorned sword she had been buried with. "This? No, ma'am, I shouldn't." I really wanted to get away as quickly as possible from this place, but with my current position near what had to be a very old ghost, I couldn't even think of trying anything.

"But you must, young Twilight. Take it, take Alarune and allow it to help guide you into your destiny, since you won't plunder my depths." My fingers wrapped around the hilt with care. I'd expected it to be cold to the touch, cold and metallic, but the grip felt warm and almost like a carbon fiber tube. I started to pull the tube away, and I felt her hands run down my sides as I did so. "It is too bad that you have decided to leave, but you are young and may yet come back to me. They always do…"

I involuntarily shuddered and pulled my hand back, taking the sword with me. I always did have a soft spot for blades, and it reminded me of something. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll keep it with me."

"See that you do, young Twilight. That daiklaive will do much for you that you will discover…" The mask tipped slightly, and then it turned toward a wall. With the scraping sound of stone on stone, the wall began to slide sideways. "That passage will take you to the exit. Protect yourself and come back to me…"

Her ghostly hands slid up my sides and down my back again, reaching further from the sarcophagus to do so, and then she pulled back. I glanced down at my new dog and pat her on the head. It was long past time to get the hell out of this tomb, and if the resident ghost was giving her blessing to do so, all the better.

"Goodbye, ma'am. Come on, girl, let's head out." I spun around in place to head toward the passage. That was a ghost, and she had been petting me like I was a dog or something. At least, I hoped that was what she had been doing.

 

[Ellf]

I was stalled on the next bit, but I'll probably finish it up after I finish the next chapter of Building Faith

 

[Khona Moshr]

Smart man he was polite while trying to get away from the most likely crazy ghost of a solar queen.

 

[Ellf]

Smart man he was polite while trying to get away from the most likely crazy ghost of a solar queen.

Click to shrink...

Crazy and... voracious, apparently. Plus, not pissing off the Ess10 ghost seemed like a good idea.

 

[Baran3]

"Okay. Not a dream. And I don't think I have a replacement for the sandbag. I'm glowing, in the tomb of a First Age Solar, because really, who else would have such a mural? And I apparently just set off a trap. And I'm glowing." I groaned at that last part as I started to reach out toward the mechanism. One thing went through my mind as I prepared for whatever trap was left. "Oh fuck. I'm Exalted.

Click to shrink...

I'm with you my friend.

100% with you here: You are FUBAR.

By the way, you should check your manly bits.

Despite the first impressions, you are androgyne enough (in your descriptions) to be... a girl...

Nice doggy by the way, and yes, bonding like this is more of an instinct, a want to have a loyal companion. Your character felt alone and reached for the first living being around to make a friend, or more exactly a familiar.

I need to reread my exalted lore, but i am almost sure of what sort of dog this is. A Hound of Autochton?

So a Twilight with "Dodge charms for everything" (reference to Keychain of creation) and being rewarded by probably the first bearer of your shard.

Alarune seemed to be a "plot device" kind of Daiklave. Be careful there, it should be easily recognizable by scholars.

Apart for your partial amnesia, you don't seem to suffer from the setting, but we'll see.:lol

 

[Ellf]

I'm with you my friend.

100% with you here: You are FUBAR.

By the way, you should check your manly bits.

Despite the first impressions, you are androgyne enough (in your descriptions) to be... a girl...

Nice doggy by the way, and yes, bonding like this is more of an instinct, a want to have a loyal companion. Your character felt alone and reached for the first living being around to make a friend, or more exactly a familiar.

I need to reread my exalted lore, but i am almost sure of what sort of dog this is. A Hound of Autochton?

So a Twilight with "Dodge charms for everything" (reference to Keychain of creation) and being rewarded by probably the first bearer of your shard.

Alarune seemed to be a "plot device" kind of Daiklave. Be careful there, it should be easily recognizable by scholars.

Apart for your partial amnesia, you don't seem to suffer from the setting, but we'll see.:lol

Click to shrink...

Dunno exactly. I kinda put "generic Earth elemental dog."

See here's the fun bit. The SI has general knowledge of the setting, but the SI doesn't have specifics. Though I've run several Exalted campaigns, most of them didn't actually take place in Creation proper. The lore for the setting is vast, and there's a lot for me to look through as I write this.

Next bit's partially written already, but it's not close enough to completion to post yet.

 

[Baran3]

Dunno exactly. I kinda put "generic Earth elemental dog."

See here's the fun bit. The SI has general knowledge of the setting, but the SI doesn't have specifics. Though I've run several Exalted campaigns, most of them didn't actually take place in Creation proper. The lore for the setting is vast, and there's a lot for me to look through as I write this.

Next bit's partially written already, but it's not close enough to completion to post yet.

Click to shrink...

Reread about the hounds...

A little too powerful, the smallest is 9 feet at the shoulder...

Well, an elemental is a perfect companion. You'll have to pass yourself for a sorcerer however since only a magic-user could have one (at least in the eyes of the public)

I saw you didn't answer the question about your character current body...

Still i Wonder what type of Twilight you are. You seemed modeled on Indiana Jones so far. Many interesting things to do with a whip and so many appropriate charms. You're going to overlap a little with a night caste.

Waiting for your next chapter.:lol

 

[Ellf]

Reread about the hounds...

A little too powerful, the smallest is 9 feet at the shoulder...

Well, an elemental is a perfect companion. You'll have to pass yourself for a sorcerer however since only a magic-user could have one (at least in the eyes of the public)

Click to shrink...

Boulder puppy is best puppy.

I saw you didn't answer the question about your character current body...

Click to shrink...

Something for the SI to worry about when at a safe area. Or when the SI ends up having to use the restroom.

Still i Wonder what type of Twilight you are. You seemed modeled on Indiana Jones so far. Many interesting things to do with a whip and so many appropriate charms. You're going to overlap a little with a night caste.

Waiting for your next chapter.:lol

Click to shrink...

The fun bit is I don't plan on explicitly calling out any charm names in this fic. Charm action is going to be descriptive only. Essence use will still happen, and it'll be obvious when it does, but the SI is operating a lot on instinct.

 

[Baran3]

Boulder puppy is best puppy.



Something for the SI to worry about when at a safe area. Or when the SI ends up having to use the restroom.



The fun bit is I don't plan on explicitly calling out any charm names in this fic. Charm action is going to be descriptive only. Essence use will still happen, and it'll be obvious when it does, but the SI is operating a lot on instinct.

Click to shrink...

Still, from the effect i think it was "Seven Shadow Evasion".

Well then don't write the name of the charms and let us, your readers, guess them. Should be fun.:lol

 

[Ellf]

Once the SI gets to a mirror, they'll get a better description as well.

Location spoilers: We're in the East, about eighty miles south of Nexus. I will also be using Exalted 3rd edition rules and setting for how several things perform, but dice rolls are not going to be involved. The character sheet I have is mostly for personal reference more than anything else.

I will also break the rules as necessary for narrative convenience.

 

[Zephyrosis]

I'm pretty hype. If this is even half as good as Building Faith it'd be pretty up there for Exalted fics.

I will say though that I've messed around with 3e and I definitely like a lot of the changes. The rebuilding of the lore is also pretty good, making things just more coherent and thematic. Dreaming Sea region is also a pretty cool area, being about as isolated as you can get from the Realm's power projection.

Either way I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this.

 

[Ellf]

Got my 3e physical rewards this past weekend, which brought me back to this fic. Next update will be worked on after finishing next chapter of Building Faith. (And while it's with prereaders)

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

"Polite and wise, young Twilight…" I hoped that was the compliment it sounded like. "I am almost offended that you wouldn't even consider plundering these depths a little." No connotations, I swear. She was talking about the treasure, and that's my story.

"For such a young, wise, precious, polite and lovely Twilight, I suppose I must give you a gift." Her hand brushed across my forehead, and then simultaneously, the other went down my back again to just below my butt. The chill forced a shiver out of me, and the mask seemed to smile wider. "I know the perfect thing."

The ghost guided my hand toward the thorned sword she had been buried with. "This? No, ma'am, I shouldn't." I really wanted to get away as quickly as possible from this place, but with my current position near what had to be a very old ghost, I couldn't even think of trying anything.

"But you must, young Twilight. Take it, take Alarune and allow it to help guide you into your destiny, since you won't plunder my depths." My fingers wrapped around the hilt with care. I'd expected it to be cold to the touch, cold and metallic, but the grip felt warm and almost like a carbon fiber tube. I started to pull the tube away, and I felt her hands run down my sides as I did so. "It is too bad that you have decided to leave, but you are young and may yet come back to me. They always do…"

Click to shrink...

First Age Solar Ghost: "It's dangerous to go alone. Take me this!"

At least the tomb was in a cave, not a lake, so you can dodge the obvious Monty Python reference.

 

[Ellf]

First Age Solar Ghost: "It's dangerous to go alone. Take me this!"

At least the tomb was in a cave, not a lake, so you can dodge the obvious Monty Python reference.

Click to shrink...

Heh. Yeah, true enough.

Anyone have suggestions for puppy's name?

 

[Baran3]

Heh. Yeah, true enough.

Anyone have suggestions for puppy's name?

Click to shrink...

Well, you could be classical and troll Creation: Lassie...

All right, let's see:

Ruby (or any precious and semi-precious stones)
Pebbles
Avalanche
Maud (reference to Maud Pie of MLP:FIM)
Amber
Brownie
Buffy
Caramel
Dora (the explorer)
Hazel
Laika
Muffin
Opal
Sandy
Tessa

 

[Yzarc]

You can go with the tried and tested "Bob".

 

[Ardion Prosili]

Whooo, Ellf story! \o/ Ambivalent whoo towards Exalted story! Emotional noise towards SI story! Will this be done 'dungeon crawler'-story style with dice rolls and what not or is it pure narrative?

For pupper's name, I say Jack. Jack of Ass if is bad puppers. Or Sedi. for Sediment.

 

[Ellf]

Whooo, Ellf story! \o/ Ambivalent whoo towards Exalted story! Emotional noise towards SI story! Will this be done 'dungeon crawler'-story style with dice rolls and what not or is it pure narrative?

For pupper's name, I say Jack. Jack of Ass if is bad puppers. Or Sedi. for Sediment.

Click to shrink...

Purely narrative. I'll be keeping a loose sheet for the character, but that's more for my reference than anything else.

 

[Ardion Prosili]

Purely narrative. I'll be keeping a loose sheet for the character, but that's more for my reference than anything else.

Click to shrink...

Any chance of seeing it or is for seekrit?

 

[Ellf]

If I release the sheet, certain bits will be redacted. Like the invocations of Alarune, certain aspects of the craft tree... certain other things.

 

[Ardion Prosili]

If I release the sheet, certain bits will be redacted. Like the invocations of Alarune, certain aspects of the craft tree... certain other things.

Click to shrink...

Duly noted! :O

I'm so excited~

 

[Mizu]

Spoiler: some errors

One thing went through my mind as I prepared for whatever trap was left. "Oh fuck. I'm Exalted.

Click to shrink...

Exalted."

because I couldn't recall the chapter in the spirits book that had to do with Elementals, but I at least could guess at her type

Standing, I laid a hand on her head.

Click to shrink...

her type.

This looks pretty interesting so far, Ellf. I know essentially nil about Exalted beyond what I read from a single Naruto/Exalted cross here on SV, IIRC, so I'll be looking forward to reading a tale set in the actual board-game world instead of crossed with something else. Got the impression it has quite the interesting lore behind it, see.

Why the decision to genderbend this time round? In your Dresden 'fic it happened due to being twins with Molly, and possibly for thematic reasons, so I confess to a bit of curiosity as to why here too. I enjoy genderbending avatar when playing games and such myself, but going off SV/SB trends most SI tend to retain their author's gender.

 

[Ellf]

Spoiler: some errors

Exalted."

her type.

This looks pretty interesting so far, Ellf. I know essentially nil about Exalted beyond what I read from a single Naruto/Exalted cross here on SV, IIRC, so I'll be looking forward to reading a tale set in the actual board-game world instead of crossed with something else. Got the impression it has quite the interesting lore behind it, see.

Why the decision to genderbend this time round? In your Dresden 'fic it happened due to being twins with Molly, and possibly for thematic reasons, so I confess to a bit of curiosity as to why here too. I enjoy genderbending avatar when playing games and such myself, but going off SV/SB trends most SI tend to retain their author's gender.

Click to shrink...

I'll fix the errors when I get home.

As for the decision on genderbending... I haven't decided. If it did happen here, it's a mostly inconsequential thing beyond what's necessary for plot.

Should be finishing up the next part tonight.

 

[Ellf]

Luckily, the ghost's directions didn't have me going around in circles until I died of either thirst or starvation. In fact, the passage was honestly more of a straight route that led toward the exit, which I believed was probably a different way than "I" entered the temple in the first place. Well, the person whose body I was now occupying. I didn't feel like I was possessing someone, but how could you quantify that? What did possession feel like for the possessor? Did it feel normal, natural? I moved my limbs like they were my own, felt the air on my face like it was my own, and I used my Exalted abilities as if they were my own. I didn't hear anyone else in my head other than my own voice, but I'm not even sure how that would play out.

Telepathy, as far as I knew, was a thing of fiction. The psychics who claimed to read someone else's mind the way they would a book were often just people who were extremely good at cold reading. How would I know that the thoughts in my head were not my own? Would they "sound" different? Would they just be thoughts that I knew I didn't think? How would that differentiate me from being someone who is schizophrenic? From someone who has Dissociative Identity Disorder? I couldn't know. I suppose, that's one advantage to growing up knowing that you don't have these things, as I did.

Of course, that was all moot as everything that has happened to me here so far kind of indicated that either I was insane or just in an insane situation. I was a Twilight Exalt. I couldn't remember my own name, though I remembered things about the world of Exalted. I remembered playing in several pen and paper games within that world, and that there were a few incarnations, the latest of which I spent money on to back.

All I knew at this point was that I needed to get out of the tomb, and as I walked the path out, my anima began to fade. I hadn't been using my essence to do anything on my way out, and if I was lucky, nobody would be around for long enough for it to fade to nothing. This was Creation. There were groups of people whose sole jobs were to hunt down and kill people like me. I couldn't let that happen. I liked living too much.

The passage opened up into the world in the grips of twilight. The sun had dipped low behind the horizon, but it had not yet relinquished the day to Luna. Stars dotted the sky, and it wasn't hard for me to pick out which celestial bodies were the five Maidens. The remaining constellations were significantly harder, especially since they only proved that I was no longer on the Earth I remembered. The air smelled… cleaner than the air I remembered. Perhaps it was. The mix of trees and grass along with a springtime breeze hit me and I breathed out a sigh. I looked out and saw the long grown-over path that led from the tomb; it had likely been a temple once, now the burial site for a long-dead Solar. The tomb stood in the middle of a clearing carved out from the deciduous forest that surrounded it. I couldn't tell precisely where I was, but I knew where I wasn't.

I wasn't on the Blessed Isle, no way they'd let a Solar Tomb stay that way as long as that one clearly had, nor was I in the North, the fact that I couldn't see my breath saw to that. The woods could have indicated somewhere in the East, but frankly, without seeing a map, I probably couldn't even place myself. Once again, the problem with this versus playing the pen and paper game: The ST could just tell you where you are, but a real person has to orientate and determine. I sincerely doubted that there were any GPS satellites in orbit around Creation, given its nature as a truly flat world.

A hint of smoke caught my nose, and as I continued to try and get my bearings, I spotted what looked to be a campsite, not too far from the tomb itself. Two tents were set up, and a fire was going, but I couldn't see who was tending it from my angle, so I decided to approach. Yeah, this probably wasn't the best of ideas or plans, but given that I had an elemental whom I had adopted with me, I wasn't extremely worried.

As I approached the fire, my dog, whom I really needed to give a name, tensed up. She looked around up ahead and sniffed, though she stayed at my side. A sound came from her that was almost the rumbling of stone on stone, and it took me a second to realize, she was growling.

"Easy, girl." I tried to placate her, and the sound abated, but she stayed tense. Her fur had started to stick up. It amazed me how much like an actual dog she was, given her true nature.

A jovial voice echoed out from ahead of me. Given the time of day and the state of the lighting, I had to look around a bit to find the source of the clearly masculine voice. I wasn't entirely sure what was being said, but the tone betrayed something of excitement.

Said excitement echoed on the features of the man speaking when I finally spotted him. His emerald green eyes literally twinkled, and, I'm impressed to say that his shaggy layered hair matched his eyes in color. Either that was an amazing dye job, or the man truly had green hair. He wore jade-green armor, and on his back, he had a sword that was easily half the length of my body. Balls. Of course the first person I encounter in this world is a dragonblood.

"…you even listening to me?" Oh, hey, I understood that. I don't think I used any essence, maybe I understood it already. It didn't sound like English, but like it had some sorts of familiar syllables and sounds to it. Whatever it was, I could probably speak it.

"Sorry, ears were still ringing a bit and I was distracted from the walk down." I said, attempting to reply in the same tongue that the dragonblood used.

"It's okay. So what was it like? Where's the gold, the riches?" I found myself looking over him for some sort of sign of house sigil, not that I'd be guaranteed to recognize it if I saw it, but the point was moot. He wore none visible. I really didn't know much about dragonbloods save for about ninety percent of them would want to kill me on sight if they knew what I was.

"The bulk of it's still inside. With the ghost. If you want to go in and disturb her, be my guest." I said, gesturing back toward the tomb. "I'm not going back inside."

"Ghost?" Green dude the dragonblood asked, and if I wasn't mistaken, that was a touch of fear on his voice. "So, it was the tomb? Actually undisturbed?"

"Yes. Well, it was undisturbed until today, when I disturbed it," I said, and then I frowned. Clearly this dragonblood knew me. Well, not me me, but he knew the me that was me before I became me. Maybe he at least knew a name for me that would work because I couldn't just go by Twilight. Especially around a dragonblood. For all I knew, he was Realm and would Wyld Hunt me to death because of what I was. Wait. "Why weren't you in there with me? You're the Exalt!"

"You were the one so eager to go inside!" He yelled in reply. "You were so eager that you didn't even wait for me!"

"So instead of coming in after me, you waited out here?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Okay, he didn't realize I was what I was. Not yet anyway.

"I was going to go in after you," he said, crossing his arms. "Eventually. When I got bored. Probably."

Scared of ghosts, maybe? Dark places? Tombs? He certainly expressed fear of something. What could he truly have been afraid of? I mean, he was clearly a Wood-Aspect in an area that'd benefit him.

"Well, I'm out now," I groused, crossing my arms. "No thanks to you."

God, that came out completely differently than I intended, and I still didn't know this dragonblood's name. Of course, it was surprising how long a conversation could go on without a single name being mentioned. I recalled having a hell of a time like that in college, where I'd run into someone, remember their face, have a full conversation with them, and then when they left, I had no clue who they were.

"Now, don't be like that… You did get some treasure, right?" My eyes flicked to where I knew my dog was standing. How was it that the dragonblood in front of me completely failed to notice the earth elemental dog? Did he seriously want treasure that much? Still… I did have two things.

"Some, yes," I allowed. "But I didn't dare take more, not under that ghost's watchful eye."

"No, no, I understand. This was the tomb of an Anathema, right?" That word. The disgust that he'd placed upon that word had to be drilled into him. It meant he was a follower of the Immaculate religion. Which meant that he probably was from the Realm. The question was whether or not he was of a noble house or not. He didn't seem to be acting that way, but then, my only exposure to any sort of nobility came from media. "Still, it is amazing that you made it through alone..."

I blinked. Something about that rang… well, not hollow, but off. "What, you were expecting me to die?"

"No, no! Of course not. It's just that unexplored Anathema tombs… they tend to be full of traps, and you don't have a scratch on you," he said. "And you clearly didn't awaken your blood; you aren't showing anything relating to your aspect."

Wait. What? Was that the reason he'd let this person go inside alone? Seriously? He was hoping that he'd exalt as some sort of dragonblood? Guess I cocked up that plan. Or Lytek did, or whoever designed the exaltation program. Solar trumps dragon. Period.

"I got lucky," I said simply. This guy obviously had some sort of closeness with the person I was inhabiting. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but there was at least some sort of friendship between them. Maybe. But if they were truly friends, why didn't I have him with me when I erm… showed up? Why was he out here? "Very lucky. There were a number of places in there that I could have died."

Maybe I was mistaken in thinking this wasn't a dream, but I didn't think so. The pain had been too vivid for that, even if it hadn't left a mark.

"But you didn't. You did the impossible and came back out..." Okay, I really hoped that I wouldn't have to do any fighting. That sword would cleave me in two if it hit me.

"With treasure," I noted. "And the help of an extremely grabby ghost."

"Ghost of Anathema… helpful?" He shook his head. "I can't include that in the report. Lady Tepet will have my head before she has someone tan your hide."

"Report," I said flatly, but inside I was cheering. A name. One I recognized. Somehow, house Tepet was involved in whatever this tomb thing was. I really was wondering how he didn't realize that I wasn't acting normally. Or was I? Did this person act the way I acted?

"You know, the one your mother ordered for the expedition," he said. "Or maybe you don't…"

That wasn't good. Him realizing that I didn't know much of what was going on would be bad for me. Any sort of realization that I was wrong… would probably end with a declaration and a fight, something I desperately wanted to avoid.

"I've been busy, worrying about this part of the expedition," I said, the lie coming easily to me as I said it, and I stepped forward. If we were going to have to fight, I wanted to be closer to him to make it harder to swing that damn thing at me, or maybe I should have backed off. "The tomb was trapped heavily."

He pursed his lips, thinking. "Fiora, I'm sorry, but I just don't see how you survived all of that."

"Skill and a lot of luck," I said, pausing for a second to mull over the name. Fiora. No clue what sort of name that was, but apparently it was the name of the person whom I was in. I supposed it was better than something crazy like Iron Bull of the North or something. Maybe.

Shit. I stepped a half foot to the side as the dragonblood swung his daiklaive at me. "What the heck are you doing?"

"You have pretended to be Fiora long enough, Anathema," he said, pulling his daiklaive up. Shit, it was brighter around here. Did I ping on my caste mark or something? Fuck. "Seeing as you don't seem to remember, I shall tell you who it is you now face."

"Oh, please do," I said, backing away and reaching for the whip. I didn't dare use Alarune here. I had no clue what it could do, and it'd be too lethal.

"You face the Wolf of the Eastern Wood, Elias Greymane. Soon to be Tepet Elias, if I avenge Fiora,"

"There's nothing to avenge if you don't make it about that!" I yelled out, dodging another swing of his daiklaive then lashing at his feet with my whip. Wow, that was surprisingly easy to do. Wait. Exalted. Of course it was. "Come on, Elias, we don't need to fight."

"Die, Anathema..." Elias swung again, and this time I flicked the whip up, parrying the blade with it, just as I heard the rumbling of stone on stone again. Then a living boulder slammed into Elias, pushing him back. My dog snapped its jaws at the blade, only to be thrown off as Elias's wooden aura popped up around him. It looked slightly woody of some sort, but I couldn't exactly be certain.

"Leave the dog alone, Elias!" I snapped out the whip again, this time catching him in the gut. I flicked the whip up, an aura flaring up around me as I did so, and the whip slapped across his face, leaving a small gash. "Sandy, come!"

"You won't get away with that!" Elias swung his blade once more, and I swear there was essence behind it. It flared green, and I barely dodged; I think it managed to nick my shoulder some.

Sandy, my earth elemental dog, seemed torn between attacking Elias again and running to my side. With a hard whistle, I made the decision for her as I turned to disengage from the Wood aspected dragonblood. Elias wouldn't let me go that easily, of course, so I instinctively flared my anima. Essence was so easy to grab, easy to use, but I still couldn't figure out exactly what I was doing to do it. I whipped at Elias's feet as I backed away into a full out run. I just needed to get enough distance between us.

"Elias, I don't want to fight you!" I called out honestly as I ran. "Just stop and we can talk about this!"

"I have no desire to listen to your honeyed words, demon!" Elias snarled. Fucking Immaculate bullshit. It didn't matter, the next bit I did almost entirely on instinct.

I knew I needed to do this, to get away from Elias, no matter where I ended up going in the process. So I focused on doing just that, flaring my anima, and I came to a complete stop, spinning so I could see Elias. Whatever this was, it'd take a bit of concentration to pull off, and I needed to get it done before Elias got to me.

Which, considering his distance… was actually easier than it should have been. Sandy stood near me, her own anima flaring up and intertwining with mine. The light wrapped around us in a blue and white corona, engulfing me piece by piece as Elias approached closer. He was still too far to do anything or interrupt what had happened. When the corona finally engulfed my face, the world faded around me. I was gone.