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Through the Ages (Exalted CK2 Style Empire Builder)

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Turn Fifteen: The Hunt Begins
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    • 13 Descending Earth, Realm Year 628
    The Hunt Begins    ​

    It was the journey of the better part of a year--something that would be unthinkable for a lesser nation, but merely a tithe of Creation's Greatest Empire. Five Thousand Infantrymen, a veritable cabal of warrior monks, and enough of the Dragon Blooded to outnumber your entire Exalted contingent four to one.

    It was enough to tax even the mightiest of spirits--and indeed, you were wary of the oncoming force. They had little to fear, as the professionalism of the Realm's Legions was second to none throughout Creation, and they marched with the fire of conviction burning in their hearts, confident that they were doing a sacred duty.

    Given how they'd slaughter you, Neiya, and anyone who dared give you aid or comfort if they had an idea of your true nature--which would likely be most of your kingdom, you were inclined to disagree.

    Once your outriders had established contact with the Hunt's forward scouts, you were quick to second their services as "Guides". It was a fair show of your awareness over your domain, and a polite gesture to see that the Crown of Yilali was more then willing to 'Cooperate' with their investigation. You doubted that it would last forever, they wouldn't have come this far from their center of power unless they knew they'd find something.

    But it would buy you time, and perhaps you could weaken them somewhat before the moment arrived.

    Initial Disposition: 80 + 5 = 85, Well Inclined

    Fortunately, they seemed approving of the show of "Respect", and while your roads and facilities were certainly not the equal of the Realm's, they were far better off then even some near-Threshold states. Your elaborate information campaign executed decades ago also seems to have anchored in deeply enough with the public consciousness and rumour that they are showing a fair amount of restraint. At the very least, they haven't been seizing supplies from your outlying settlements out of distrust of what you've sent to them.

    They also seem... If not impressed, at least Satisfied with the tight controls your clergy has kept on the local spirits--though it is not of the Immaculate Faith (Which is clearly the one and true perspective), you have enough similarities with it that Neiya reckons they're considering how to "Bring them to the True Belief" rather then considering setting your country on fire. That's... Good, you supposed.

    They will be arriving at Karamat Hold today--you have already sent emissaries offering them temporary lodging within the Praetorium while they get their bearings, but they will clearly be interested in meeting with you--and while you can probably get away with passing the buck to someone else, it may raise suspicions among their number.

    Of course, you could hold an audience within the chambers of the Spire, which would give you close control of their initial activities... But while your magics are likely to hold against scrutiny, you cannot guarantee this--and of course, the chance always existed that you may mis-step and raise their suspicions further anyway.

    [ ] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)
    [ ] Delegate the Meeting (Kaiden meets with the Delegation. Interlude Ends, higher starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion)
     
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    • [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    A solar does not shy away from combat, whether it be martial or diplomatic!
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    Solar? What solar? I don't see any solars here.:p
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    Thank goodness for that solid roll.
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)
     
    If we were having a cloudrunner meet with them instead I might consider it, but not if we're shoving them off to a godblooded.
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    A king does not shy away from a social challenge

    Edit - things going fairly well so far
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)
     
    @Alectai
    When you say 'small', what do you mean exactly?

    And will Bolt help here?

    Lucienz said:
    Technically as part of the Bureau of Destiny. We'll probably end up killing Uvanavu, God of Health too. It's very unlikely he's going to fight "fate," especially when one of his closest allies Luranume, God of Luck is literally embedded into the structure of fate, and has a secret destiny that Luna gave him that he will one day fulfill. Honestly if Altren had all the information available to him, he and the rest of the Solar Exalted are more at fault with the inefficiencies and injustice of Heaven then any other beings. During the height of the First Age before the Solars went off the deep end, they worked closely with almost all the Bureaus to craft a world of new discoveries with universal healthcare while promoting and directing prayer towards the Gods that best suited their purposes while starving the Gods of famine for example of prayer. The result was a Heaven, very tied to the prosperity of Humanity. With positive concepts being promoted into power.

    If Altren feels there's something wrong with Heaven he should work to renew and fix it. The whole collapse after all started after the Solar Exalted apparently did something so disgusting that the Unconquered Sun decided to never speak with them again and retreated into the Crack that is the Games of Divinity. Thus removing a central oversight/auditor who really does take the interests of creation and sentient life at heart. Every structure is only as good as it's oversight, the failure to adhere to an ideal does not discredit it. Creation doesn't need a new structure, it needs to return to it's old one, one without the Great Curse. Honestly the only dissident god group in Heaven that I don't feel uncomfortable with is the Vindicators of the Game who want to destroy the Games of Divinity and force their leaders off crack. The world functions a lot better when you have an unlimited amount of bureaucrats who don't work for money and have an absurdly good understanding of what's going on. Think how well our world would function if at anytime the Secretary/Minister of Transportation could summon the God of Roads who can cut through all the partisan nonsense and just hand over a list with every road that is in good and bad repair, and who will happily help repair them for free or in-exchange for the road workers whispering prayers of thanks while they work. Heaven when it functions as it's suppose to is just too damn useful.
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    Yu Shan is fantastically large, and we've seen an absolutely miniscule part of all gods up there.
    I'd bet on there being PLENTY of gods who aren't happy with how things are, yet aren't assholes.

    Also our ability to fix up Heaven will be DRASTICALLY limited, given Chejop is there.
    He's gonna fight us tooth and nail, because he can't admit to himself that we could make things better without slipping in some "fuck you" measure against him and his work.

    Don't even bother considering reformation of anything like that as long as Chejop is around and the Bronze Faction is a thing, with the Empress and her Realm as their puppet.
    Hell I'm not even sure how it'd be easy to manage unless you really can get the Sun to come out and start being king of heaven again.

    (I'm not sure what this talk of Solars being to blame for Heaven being dependent on humanity, though...
    They have always seen humans as source of prayer, which is what the very economy of Heaven, their way of life, depends on)
     
    Meeting them personally will give us both give interesting character interactions and a good chance of keeping the Suspicion levels low. While the "immediately discovered" -chance is kind of scary, we need as much time as possible to prepare to have a chance against the Wyld Hunt at all, so taking low-chance risks now to mitigate future ones seems logical.

    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    Also, I just decided to read what is in the new Solar Bureaucracy Charms. Now, I hadn't touched much on those when reading the previous edition, so my reactions was basically something along the lines of: What. Seriously, what. I don't even.
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    Continuing on that line of thought, the Sun deciding to do his job as the King of Heaven, what exactly would happen?
     
    Lilithium said:
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    Continuing on that line of thought, the Sun deciding to do his job as the King of Heaven, what exactly would happen?
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    Things get better very quickly.
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    Finally time to put our awesome Diplomacy score to serious work :cool:
     
    Krain said:
    Yu Shan is fantastically large, and we've seen an absolutely miniscule part of all gods up there.
    I'd bet on there being PLENTY of gods who aren't happy with how things are, yet aren't assholes.

    Also our ability to fix up Heaven will be DRASTICALLY limited, given Chejop is there.
    He's gonna fight us tooth and nail, because he can't admit to himself that we could make things better without slipping in some "fuck you" measure against him and his work.

    Don't even bother considering reformation of anything like that as long as Chejop is around and the Bronze Faction is a thing, with the Empress and her Realm as their puppet.
    Hell I'm not even sure how it'd be easy to manage unless you really can get the Sun to come out and start being king of heaven again.

    (I'm not sure what this talk of Solars being to blame for Heaven being dependent on humanity, though...
    They have always seen humans as source of prayer, which is what the very economy of Heaven, their way of life, depends on)
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    Chejop is not even remotely as big an issue for any "Fixing Heaven" plans as the fact that we are currently a single Essence 4 Solar facing a likely death by a Wyld Hunt.
    By the time we are actually powerful and influential enough to do anything at all about the crap up there, there will also be other avenues to deal with the Sidereal establishment.
     
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    Lilithium said:
    Continuing on that line of thought, the Sun deciding to do his job as the King of Heaven, what exactly would happen?
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    Currently it's a question of if he can even do his job anymore. Between the allure of the Game of Divinities, his disappointment at the Solars and his burning out from the stress of being the most virtuous being in all reality, well it's a wonder he hasn't gone insane.
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    Definitely the way to go.

    It looks like Suspicion is the alarm stat - once it gets to a certain point we come to the climax. We'll have to keep an eye out for ways of removing it or slowing it.
     
    remember how we suspect a lunar is behind the confederacy? it might be useful to try pointing them in that direction.
     
    Pipeman said:
    Chejop is not even remotely as big an issue for any "Fixing Heaven" plans as the fact that we are currently a single Essence 4 Solar facing a likely death by a Wyld Hunt.
    By the time we are actually powerful and influential enough to do anything at all about the crap up there, there will also be other avenues to deal with the Sidereal establishment.
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    Could not agree more.
    Which is why I'm so relieved there's potential to get another Exalt to come out and help us, with no large-scale Lunar or even slight Sidereal aid forthcoming.

    Alectai said:
    Bolt from the Blue took your "Chance of Instant Discovery" from something along the lines of 20-30% to something much less scary.
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    So...
    5% or less?

    Aranfan said:
    remember how we suspect a lunar is behind the confederacy? it might be useful to try pointing them in that direction.
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    We need something that can start killing them.
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)
     
    [X] Meet them Personally (Interlude Continues, good chance of low starting Wyld Hunt Suspicion, small chance of greatly raising it. Very small chance of being discovered immediately)

    Somebody start writing Stunts for this sequence. We're going to need it.
     
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