Seventy Seven Ways to Kill a Vampire [Exalted vs the World of Darkness]

[x] Stay, and teach these impudent newcomers why all of Creation once feared the Exalted Hosts.

Never backdown from the metal tyrants. Overthrow their throne of lies and broken will, burn them from the consensus.
 
[x] Leave now, and let these technological nightmares fight this abyssal counterpart of yours.
 
2.3
2.3

"Fight well, brother," you say, and you leap out the window, cutting through the heavy curtain. Bolts of plasma and hypersonic tungsten darts track your mad dash across the clubroom, but your ghostly golden blades deflect them. You explode out of the thick, darkened glass and run down it, biting back a curse as you see the dozens of onlookers waiting outside. A few cops are desperately trying to herd them back, but whatever the things you fight were, they don't seem to be more of them.

An explosion rocks the building and something very large, very furry, and very much on fire is thrown out onto the street. It looks at you for one moment as you both land, the cops very cautiously pointing guns at both of you... only for something else to emerge from the burning rubble the werewolf was thrown from.

It was huge, with smooth insectoid armoured plating and rippling pitch-black artificial muscles visible through the few gaps in the plating. Four arms emerge from its shoulders, two ending in some form of multi-barreled, rotating guns with smoking barrels and two ending in what looked like electrified blades.

The crowd screams, mostly at the burning werewolf. Which you understand - it was very large, its claws were dripping sizzling blood, and it didn't really seem all that bothered by being lit on fire. But you sense something try to touch your mind, some delirious, supernatural fear - it could find no purchase, and you saw the wolf-man incline his head towards you.

The suit of armour raises its gun-arms and opens fire. Bullets tear at the werewolf's skin, sending sprays of red blood across the street, but it wasn't enough. It charges forward so fast it is only a blur, and its claws cut through the advanced composites of the suit's armour as easily as flesh.

You hear only a grief scream as the werewolf tears a bloody hunk of meat that had once been a man from inside the suit of armour. Blood drips down its jaws, and you find yourself alone on the street as the sound of gunfire and battle echoes from inside the Sunset Club. You feel your power fade as you let the essence go, sheathing your sword as you look around.

Nobody seems to be waiting for you, though you can hear sirens in the distance. Whoever these interlopers are, you hope Ivo isn't dumb enough to stick around and fight them. Maybe the werewolf will distract them, you hope.

You walk down an alleyway, put your katana and mask back in your bag, and begin to climb up to the rooftops. It's easy for you now the leap and climb up a half dozen stories, and you take a moment to rest once you do. You can see the smoke rising from the Sunset Club, the police forming a cordon between you and it, and the helicopters slowly circling overhead.

"It's a beautiful sight, to see that blight burning. Watching half the night folk in the city descend on the Sunset Club and blowing it to burning splinters is something else," a woman says. You spin around, and you see her standing on the edge of the building behind you - perhaps two stories above you. She's dressed in a fine black suit, with a black shirt and tie, and has long dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Leather gloves cover her hands, and she smiles slightly as you turn to look at her.

"Who are you?" you ask. Something about her seems off, but you don't get the sense of wrongness some things - the vampires, and whoever your dark mirror was - give you.

"That's an interesting question, Anna," the woman says, and she steps off the dge. She lands on the rooftop with you as though she was as light as a feather.

"You're one of those... mages?" you ask, your eyes wide as she says your name.

"Not any more than you are. I was... affiliated with a group of them before destiny found me. Much as you were, I was but one small cog in their war," she says.

"Their war?" you ask, confused.

"I see your teacher has told you so very little. The War, the only one that matters to them - the Ascension War. The conflict between the traditions, like your teacher, and the Technocracy - who you have just been introduced to. It is a battle for history, for reality itself, and we have so little time for it," she says.

"Is it about the, uh, consensus?" you ask, hoping that's the right word.

"It is, though mages have a terrible habit of overplaying their hands when it comes to the power of the Consensus. We have so little time left to us, and the world will need the Awakened before the end,"

"You sound like you think the world's about to end or something," you say.

"You can see the red star, can't you? Omens and portents and predictions, and all they say is that we approach the end of this age. Do you remember that typhoon in Bangladesh, the one that caused that war?" she asks, and you nod.

"I was only a kid when it happened, but..." you say, and you remember that week of chaos. Your parents had been glued to the news every night, and then suddenly it was all over and nothing really seemed to have changed.

"That was no natural disaster. One of the first vampires woke back up, and the hungry dead waged a war halfway across the subcontinent trying to stop it. They failed," she says.

"The hungry dead?"

"You will, I suspect, meet them soon. Blood-drinkers of a different sort, who rule the nights of Asia much as the Camarilla does in the West. It was not them alone, of course, who did battle with the thing vampires call an Antediluvian - but it was they who called the typhoon. When they could not disrupt the storm through their enlightened science, the Technocracy took a different tactic," she says.

"What did they do?" you ask, and you feel a sense of dread run down your spine. You know how many died that week - you've seen pictures of the towns broken apart by the typhoon.

"They unleashed a weapon more terrible than anything these nights had ever seen. A kind of spiritual neutron bomb that slew everything supernatural in a wide radius, with a relatively limited blast radius. Though, a ten kiloton airburst is still a ten kiloton airbust... and even a pattern of five of them merely managed to wound the Antediluvian," she says.

"Five fucking nukes and it was just wounded?" you whisper, horrified.

"Five relatively small, tactical weapons. In any event, the bombs killed the creatures maintaining the storm and allowed the Technocracy to bring their orbital mirrors to bear. That killed it," she says, and you feel somehow small for the briefest moment. Then, it seems almost that a part you rebels against that. You feel your essence, and you feel the warmth of the sun on your face.

"So if it's dead, how's that related to the end of the world?" you ask, and you dread the answer.

"Because that was one of them, and there are a dozen more still slumbering according to Vampire legend. The Traditions and the Technocracy both have been weakened, cut off from their great masters - and there are other things waiting for us in the dark. Things worse than Antediluvians,"

"What the hell am I supposed to do about it?" you ask, and she smiles.

"You are something new. Or, depending on your point of view, something very old. I can't claim to know why we returned, or where we've been for so long, but I know a little. You are one of the Exalted, a Solar of the Dawn Caste. I have seen you fight, Anna, and you carry that peerless skill out of legend and into these fallen nights. You have only touched the barest hint of your true potential, and already there are few who could face you. If you master that power sleeping within you... there will be none," she says. Her words ring with truth at some level beyond instinct or understanding, as if the world itself guaranteed her words.

"Who are you, then?" you ask, remembering the 'we' she used.

"I am one of the Sidereal Exalted, a Chosen of Battles. But you can call me Alice," she says, and she extends one of her gloved hands. You take it, and you see the mark of Mars burn red on her forehead. Your own cast mark shines brilliant gold, reflected in her dark eyes.

Where do you go from here?

[x] Back to Ivo's place, at least for a few moments - you need a place to lay low for a little, and it should be off the radar.

[x] Go to ground completely, and simply find somewhere unconnected with you to hunker down in.

[x] Write In
 
[x] Back to Ivo's place, at least for a few moments - you need a place to lay low for a little, and it should be off the radar.

We have a name for whatever we are now. Exalted, I don't think we've heard the name before, and at least two sub-types. Solar and Sidereal. Ivo's somebody we trust, and who presumably knows more about... everything than we do. I don't think we should stay there long, but we should at least check in and see if he's heard any of these terms before. After that...? Laying low, or maybe getting out of town all together might be a good idea. It would depend on what sort of fallout/manhunt offing the vamps sets off.
 
[x] Go to ground completely, and simply find somewhere unconnected with you to hunker down in.
 
[x] Go to ground completely, and simply find somewhere unconnected with you to hunker down in

Technocratic dragnet are going to sccour after us, let's hide.
 
The fact that, if the world wasn't close to ending, Alice would be trying to kill us is sad.

[x] Go to ground completely, and simply find somewhere unconnected with you to hunker down in.

I like Ivo, but we have played pur hand now. Time to bunker down and get swole.
 
[x] Go to ground completely, and simply find somewhere unconnected with you to hunker down in.

The fact that, if the world wasn't close to ending, Alice would be trying to kill us is sad.
Would she? I have to confess not knowing how being in WoD + Creation mix changes some things. For example, Bronze and Gold Factions or well...the entire infrastructure and plan Sids had.
 
[x] Go to ground completely, and simply find somewhere unconnected with you to hunker down in.


Would she? I have to confess not knowing how being in WoD + Creation mix changes some things. For example, Bronze and Gold Factions or well...the entire infrastructure and plan Sids had.

Well, remember, most of the Sidereals in Creation wanted the Solars dead, because they eventually became tyrants over time.

But since the WoD is already screwed in like ten different ways, and Yushan isn't there anymore, newly made Sidereals are all about helping Solars fix the world.

I will explain more when I am able to.
 
To elaborate, the Sidereals no longer have a broad institutional disagreement with the fundamental concept of "Solars are alive" by virtue of the fact that they no longer have a institution, broad or otherwise, to belong to.

Everyone except the Dragonblood are going in completely blind about who's who and why are you glowing?

All of the Celestials got chucked into the Black Vault in the bygone days of yore before the seas were bent.


As for why Alice would want to kill us, I think there's the implication that she was Technocrat affiliated and thus not fond of Reality Deviants.
 
[x] Go to ground completely, and simply find somewhere unconnected with you to hunker down in.
 
As for why Alice would want to kill us, I think there's the implication that she was Technocrat affiliated and thus not fond of Reality Deviants.

What I meant was, if Yushan was still around and things were the same as they were in Creation, then the Sidereals would still be trying to kill the Solars. At least, most of them.

Which is sad if you think about it. It took the world basically reaching a point where it's facing like 10 different Apocalypses to get the Sidereals and Solars on general good terms again.

And for those of you who didn't read the book and want to know what's generally different in Exalted Vs WoD:

1. There's no Great Curse anymore.
2. The Dragonblooded have lost just about all their power, influence, and Dominion. To the point where to even have a CHANCE at birthing a new Exalt, Terrestrials need to be born on top of a Dragon Nest (Nodes/Caerns/Freeholds). Most just end up as Dragon-Touched, where they have the Blood of Dragons but are normal people. Sometimes never Exalting.
3. The Neverborn are dead and gone, but their influence remains in Abyssal Resonance.
4. The Yozi are dead and gone, getting rid of the Caste of the Infernals.
5. The Infernals know the world is going to end, and are trying to literally build up their own portion of Hell that they can rule over when the world falls.
6. The Gods are all dead and gone.
7. The Technocracy has managed to get to Autochion and have taken some of his tech, including some dormant Alchemical Exaltations. The ones that show up on are earth have escaped one of the Technocracy's ships.
8. Autochion maybe in his Neverborn form and be Iteration X right now. No clue if that's true.
9. Most of our Charms last for entire Scenes, so just a single use of a strong Charm will keep up cool for the entirety of combat.
10. We don't have Motes anymore. We have Essence, and a certain amount of it. We can regain Essence in a number of ways:
  1. Every sunrise we gain 3 + Essence Rating in Essence, whether we can see the sun or not.
  2. We gain 1 Essence if we start a Scene at 0 Essence.
  3. Gain 1 Essence for every 15 Minutes we spend in a Dragon's Nest.
  4. In the Spirit World, we gain 1 Essence every three hours.
  5. In Dreaming, we gain 1 Essence every six hours.
  6. As a Dawn Caste, we can regain 2 Essence once per scene if we defeat a Supernatural Opponent or overwhelming Mortal Opposition, protect a vulnerable friend or ally, or use our Martial Prowess to protect or advance an Intimacy.
 
[x] Back to Ivo's place, at least for a few moments - you need a place to lay low for a little, and it should be off the radar.

Let's follow up on our plot threads
 
Even in the era of canon Exalted, not all Sidereals want to kill all Solars. There's two whole factions that don't. The Gold Factions wants to put them in charge again, at least nominally, and the neutrals just want everyone to shut up about Solars and do their jobs. Even in the Bronze Faction, a lot of the Sidereals don't really want to kill Solars, they just feel that the Solars are too much of a risk to let them do their thing.

But none of that matters because it is all in a social and political context of which even the echoes of its echoes have not survived. There's no Vision of Bronze, no Ketchup Carjack, not even any Bureau of Destiny anymore. Yu Shan is gone and there's not even any ruins you can visit. The Sidereals only know what fragments of lore they can glean from their divinations, and even that is hampered by the fact that they don't get past life dreams. Sidereal magic is about knowing what's going on now and what will be going on, not what already went on.
 
[x] Back to Ivo's place, at least for a few moments - you need a place to lay low for a little, and it should be off the radar.
 
Back
Top