Exalted: Orgiastic Triumph of The Chosen OOC

[SwordsOfTheDane]

Hey y'all after a bit of work and discussion, our Venerable Lord GM has granted me passage. Here's my second skin.

Roaring Winds
Lunar Exalt: Full moon caste
Essence 3
Willpower 8
Essence pools 19/40

Attributes
Strength *****
Dexterity *****
Stamina *****

Charisma **
Manipulation **
Appearance *****

Perception ***
Intelligence ***
Wits ****

Abilities
war
Athletics **
Awareness ***
Dodge **** (close combat *)
Integrity **
Martial arts ***** (Natural attacks ***)
Resistance **

life
Linguistics *
Stealth **
Survival **

wisdom
Lore***

Backgrounds
Solar Bond ****
HeartsBlood **
Backing (Swords of Luna) ***
Contacts ****
- Malus Greatbear, Icewalker Chieftan
- Regara Vedus III, Caravan Trader
- Gutterrunner, Imperial City Thief and Info Broker
- Seven Slights, Former Immaulate monk, Arjuf

Virtues
Compassion **
Conviction ***
Temperance **
Valor ***

Charms and Knacks
Shifting Knacks
Deadly Beastman Transformation
Humble Mouse shape
Towering Beast form

Excellencies
First Dexterity Excellency
First Stamina Excellency

Healing charms
Bruise-Relief Method
Halting the Scarlet Flow

Soak enhancement charms
Armor-forming technique

Damage enhancement charms
Claws of the Silver Moon

Fury charms
Relentless Lunar Fury

Essence regaining charms
Might Bolstering Blow

Heartsblood Library
Mouse (1/1/1)
Great Eagle (5/3/3)
Tiger Shark (6/3/6)
Dog (3/3/3)
Horse (4/3/3)
Needlefish (2/3/3)
Giant Spider (4/3/2)

Combos
None yet

 

[Armphid]

It took me long enough but here is Cunning Starfire's character sheet. Canny players will notice some very interesting things on it.

I'll also note two things about her; one, she is a very experienced Lunar who has been alive for almost two centuries already, and two, she is not a full time cast member but is an Ally (for now) who will move in and out of the story. She has not and will not steal anyone's thunder, that is not the intent. But she should make things very interesting.


Name: Cunning Starfire

Exalt Type: Lunar
Caste: Changing Moon
Spirit Animal: Panther
Willpower: 8
Essence: 4 (5)
Essence Pool: 18/42 (19/46)

Attributes:
Strength - ***
Dexterity - *****
Stamina - ****

Charisma - ****
Manipulation - ****
Appearance - *****

Intelligence - ***
Perception - ***
Wits - ***

Abilities:
War
Athletics ***
Awareness ***
Dodge ****
Integrity ***
(F)Martial Arts ***** (Natural Weapons ***)
Resistance ***

Life
Larceny *** (Breaking and Entering **)
Linguistics ** (Forged Hand Writing **)
Performance ***
Presence ***
Socialize ***
Stealth ***
(F)Survival ****

Wisdom
Lore ***
Occult *** (The Wyld **)

Backgrounds:
Artifact **** - Cache Egg
Artifact ** - Orichalcum Wedding Band
Backing (Swords of Luna) **
Backing (Sun King Senechals) **
Backing (Hungry Widow Society) ***
Followers *** - 100 member tribe of barbarians/panther beastmen
Heart's Blood ***
Mentor ***
Reputation ***
Resources **
Solar Bond ***

Merits and Flaws:
Intolerance: Raksha - **
Known Anathema - ****
Dark Secret - **

Virtues:
Compassion - *
Conviction - ****
Temperance - ***
Valor - **

Charms & Knacks:
Knacks
Deadly Beastman Transformation
Humble Mouse Shape
Towering Beast Form
Prey's Skin Disguise
Golden Widow Method
Twin Faced Hero
Internal Form Mastery

Attribute
First Charisma Excellency
First Dexterity Excellency
First Manipulation Excellency
First Stamina Excellency
First Wits Excellency

Balance & Grace
Graceful Crane Stance

Damage Enhancement
Claws of the Silver Moon

Disguise
Hide of the Cunning Hunter

Feint
Butterfly Eyes Defense

Speed & Extra Action
Wasp Sting Blur
Twin Fang Technique
Octopus and Spider Barrage
Lightning Stroke Attack

Combos
More and More!
1st Dexterity Excellency -> Twin Fang Technique -> Wasp Sting Blur

Inescapable Starfall Assault
1st Dexterity Excellency -> Octopus and Spider Barrage -> Lightning Stroke Attack -> Butterfly Eyes Defense


Heart's Blood Forms*
Raiton
House Cat
Field Mouse



Background Details*

Cache Egg: an extremely rare artifact that allows Cunning Starfire to store items in it indefinitely Elsewhere. She uses this to carry trade goods and survival gear wherever she may go, as well as clothes or tools for her infiltrations and masquerades.

Orichacum Wedding Ring: This artifact is paired with a Moonsilver Ring; when she wears it, Cunning Starfire knows the direction her Solar mate is in, as well as a general notion of how far away he is, and general physical/mental condition.

Backing: Cunning Starfire is known to belong to both the Swords of Luna and Sun King Seneschal political factions within the Silver Pact. She is a noted member and has some pull but is not a major player in either. Her membership in the Hungry Widow Society is not known to any but those in the society and is a very closely guarded secret.

Followers: Cunning Starfire is the chief of barbarian tribe in the Southeast; mostly barbarians but some are beastmen she has birthed/sired, including two half-caste children.

Reputation: Cunning Starfire is considered "Ikth-ya" among the Lunars of the Silver Pact, respected and fairly well known. Her deeds mostly involve cunning and duplicity, usually tricking forces of the Realm or others into action against nearby raksha/Wyld areas.

* - Reflects what she has revealed so far or is currently known. More will be added as it is revealed.

 

[Armphid]

Milestone!

Hello all.

So, we have reached the first major storyline milestone; most of the group is together, a new antagonist has been revealed, another may be developing, and new plot threads aplenty dangle before us.

Since this isn't a traditional gaming session with clear session/story endings, I will be borrowing a mechanic from the Dresden Files games and award XP at significant moments in the story. When spending XP, please let me know what you intend to do in a PM or in Chat just so I know and then be sure to update your character "sheet" here in the OOC.

I'm also going to take a fairly soft stance on training times for things. Spending weeks and months in training doesn't fit well with this kind of story telling unless everyone is training for the same purpose. It slows things down. So here are the rules for how we'll handle training times:

Attributes: Show training occurring in posts to justify raising the attribute before you spend the XP and it can happen more or less when you spend the points. If you haven't shown that the character is trying to work on or develop an attribute or ability beforehand, it'll take some time showing it in posts over time in game.

Abilities: For Caste/Favored Abilities, there's no training time. You get better at it because you're an Exalt and you're a bad ass mother fucker. For non-Caste/Favored abilities, do a scene in the thread that shows your character is working on it or show it happening in the background of a few scenes. It can be very brief. There'll be an example of this in my next post.

Charms: Immediate unless Sorcery in which a brief scene must show the character studying the spell or Eclipse/Moonshadow Caste learning Charms of another type of being, in which they must be taught by a member of that group in a similar scene. For Martial Arts Style Charms, a training/practice scene/montage tag is encouraged but is not necessary. Combos similarly do not need to be shown being trained on-screen; part of the fun is busting out a big, new signature move that no one's seen and letting them go "It can't be! Impossib-" before being reduced to pencil sketch.

Virtues/Willpower: No training, happens immediately.

Essence: Immediate up to 3 dots, after that you will need to include scenes of the character meditating or doing other things to show that they are actively trying to increase their personal power/understanding of Essence over a period of time negotiated with the GM (Me!). It won't be the months needed by the chart in the Core Rules and it need not be the only thing a character does. As a side note, if XP are saved/spent for this purpose, Essence raising can occur suddenly/immediately if it is dramatically appropriate.

Example: Scarlet Star has a strong positive Intimacy to Tor and has spent the XP to raise her Essence but hasn't had the time yet to write out actions that show the raise taking place. In the group's first battle with an Infernal Exalted and his Akuma allies, Tor does down and may be dead. Scarlet goes into apocalyptic fury and retaliates in a detailed post that shows the strength of her feelings and her full power being unleashed. This could be used to "catalyze" the Essence raise and make it take place now. Kind of a Dragonball Z inspired thing.

New Traits: Learning a new Trait requires the kind of scene/threading mentioned for Abilities. Backgrounds can also be bought or raised this way but must be worked into the story in co-operation with the GM. These can be spent and built-up over time before being fully developed or usable.

Do these rules make sense? Do they seem fair? Let me know and we can work on this together.

Now, for the good stuff! The characters currently active in the story all receive 20XP for this Milestone. Those accepted but not currently active will get 12XP, as they got some bonus XP for other things.

At this point, the writers currently active in the thread will get a chance to to write a "montage-style" post to cover the group's remaining time at the farmstead and then we will move on. The characters not currently active will be able to join in as has been discussed with me.

 

[HookerBoots]

I've spent my XP, picking up the 1st Medicine and 2nd Performance Excellencies, and building a combo I've named "Punishment en Gavotte".

I also made the changes that we talked about, switching the favored statuses of Craft and Medicine, which enabled me to do both.

 

[Armphid]

I should also mention that I'm applying one of my gaming group's standard house rules to this thread as well.

If you don't like how your character plays or works out after the first adventure (this milestone serves the purpose) you can re-work the point allocations and even re-gen the character from the ground up if need be. For the currently active characters that would be now, for the ones who'll be coming in, that'll be at the next milestone.

I have also spent Tor's XP. Here's the break down
I had 6 unspent points from the original 45 + 20 = 26 XP
Call the Blade - 8
Summoning The Loyal Steel - 8
1st Dot of Lore - 3
Increase War - 3
Increase Awareness - 4
Total 26

 

[Kinkerhell]

I nominate Tor for a three-die stunt after the fact (which would give him 1 xp), for his scene with CS after Scarlet and Winds' duel. That vignette actually got quite a reaction out of me.

 

[Kinkerhell]

3,1,8,9,6,7,1,2,7,2,3,9,3,3,4,6,8,2,

Six successes on the performance check to get the guards and immaculates to buy what Scarlet is selling, but at 7 appearance. Thank god for MDV penalties!

 

[Armphid]

Hook wrote up the action, but you did it. They are totally faked out of their boots and off on a wild Anathema chase. Only a handful of the monks stayed behind but the rest of the Immaculates, the bulk of the troops the satrap brought, and the Dragon-Blooded with them were all lured away.

I'm also saying that your action is stunt-worthy. Well done, indeed. I'm saying that's worth two-dice; use them to recover Essence or you can bank them for her next dice action.

 

[Kinkerhell]

Tepet Ryelle
"The White Rose"
Terrestrial - Air Aspect (Shadow Dragon)
Willpower: 10
Essence: 3
Essence Pools: 24/49[65]{25 Committed}


Attributes:
Strength - **
Dexterity - *****
Stamina - **

Charisma - ***
Manipulation - **
Appearance - *****

Perception - **
Intelligence - ****
Wits - ***

Abilities"
C - Linguistics - **
C - Lore - ****(*** Underworld)
C - Occult - ****(*** Thaumaturgy)
C - Stealth
C - Thrown
F - Bureaucracy - ****
F - Martial Arts - *****(*** Implanted Weapons)
F - Presence - *****
Awareness - ****
Integrity - ***
War - *****
Performance - *
Ride - *
Athletics - ***
Dodge - *****(Melee Attacks)
Melee - *
Socialize - *

Languages:
High Realm
Low Realm
Old Realm

Virtues:
Compassion - ***
Conviction - **
Temperance - **
Valor - ***

Merits and Flaws
Legendary Breeding
Wanted
Sterile
Dark Secret

Charms:
1st Dodge Excellency
1st Occult Excellency
1st War Excellency
1st Lore Excellency
1st Presence Excellency
1st Martial Arts Excellency
Shadowlands Circle Necromancy
Pasiap's Humility
Moment of Daana'd
Ravaging Blow - (Dark Messiah Style)

Thaumaturgy:
Art of the Dead - Adept Degree

Backgrounds:
Reputation - ***
Artifact - *****
Artifact - **
Breeding - *****
Manse - ****
Family - *
Connections - * (Raiton's Nest)

Combos:
None.

Ryelle's Panoply:

After losing her eyes and both hands and forearms to burn trauma, along with several lesser injuries after a dispute with a Fire-Aspect at the House of Bells, Ryelle was chosen for a joint experiment between Pasiap's Stair, the Palace of Untamed Storms, and the House of Bells, which was designed to create Dragon-Blooded warriors who could match Lookshy's Gunzosha warriors on the battlefield, without the need for aegis amulets, Gunzosha armor, and all of the ancillary support that goes with a Lookshy commando. To that effect, parts of Ryelle's body were replaced with clockwork and sorcerous constructs designed to augment her already considerable fighting prowess.

Prosthetics of Clockwork Elegance - *****
(Arms)
Carved from white jade, Ryelle's arms are a masterwork of the artificer's craft.
The arms are sculpted to look like perfect but normal human arms, and the white jade matches Ryelle's snow-pale skin perfectly. The arms themselves are far superior to a normal human's however, being able to move faster as well as granting her increased strength. Perhaps the most impressive thing about these arms is that if Ryelle bends her fingers into a gentle curve for a moment, she can cause three-inch claws of black jade to extend from her fingertips, which function as razor claws.
[Black Jade Claws: Spd 5, Acc +4, +6L, Def+4, Rate 3, Paired]

Prosthetics of Clockwork Elegance (Eyes)
Ryelle's eyes look and function just as normal eyes do, but their appearance is a product of cunning artifice. The cobalt-blue lenses sharpen her sight, and make it so that any amount of light at all is as daylight to her.

Dragon's Tear Tiara - **
Ryelle's white jade tiara holds another hearthstone, but more than that, it amplifies Ryelle's ability to practice thaumaturgy and understand necromancy, her abilities with which constitute her darkest secret.

Perfected Boots - *
These knee-high boots are made out of black leather with white scrollwork around the cuffs of each boot, and have white jade soles and heels. In addition to adding five inches to Ryelle's height, they are extremely comfortable, and allow her to walk quickly and for long periods, keeping up with cavalry or wagons on a march, and allowing her to outdistance any foot troops without magical aid.

Azure Ribbon Armor - **
This "armor" is actually nothing more than a jadesteel ribbon of very, very fine mail. The links are a light, pale blue, bespeaking the blue jade that went into its construction. The ribbon is a handspan wide and several feet long, wrapping around Ryelle at the hips, across her breasts, mantling around her shoulders and up her back, with a length of it trailing about her legs. It appears to be both erotic and non-functional, but the air-aspected jade is armor, and when attuned to an air-aspected terrestrial, the ribbon will shift, slide, and jump in the way of attacks as if carried on the wind. However, being such light, fine mail, the ribbon can turn even the sharpest blades but offers almost no protection against weapons that do damage by dint of blunt force.
[Azure Ribbon Armor +8L/+2B, Mob -0, Fat 0]

Skin-Mount Amulets - ** (Twice)
Ryelle has two of these devices. Unlike Scarlet's, hers are unadorned sockets of blue jade that sit in the dimples just above her ass.

Manses
The manses that Ryelle is attuned to are three in number and widely diverse in power. Two of them, Dragonhome and Cloudrider Aerie, are both in the Tepet ancestral region of Lord's Crossing Dominion. The last, Zephyr House, is actually located in Nexus.

Dragonhome - *****
Dragonhome is a manse of indeterminate age and aspect, though any geomancer who lays eyes upon will know immediately that it was not built by an Elemental Prince, but by an Anathema. She will also know that it is old, old, old. The manse itself is situated in the mountains above the city of Lord's Crossing, a great bastion of grey stone, with a fifteen foot wall around a five-story central structure. The wall is as much art as artifice, a perfect circle shaped to look like a great sleeping dragon, the gap between its tail and mouth serving as the gate. This wall is what gives the manse its name.
The manse itself is extremely defensible, and the builders put an eye toward keeping it that way. This place is a fortress, no more, no less. If Tepet Ejava has to make her stand in Lord's Crossing, this is where she'll do it.
[Hearthstone - Seven Leaping Dragons Stone]

Cloudrider Aerie - **
This manse is...peculiar, to say the least. Situated on top of the highest mountain in the dominion, this manse is obviously Air-Aspected. It appears to be almost like a flower, a crystal stalk six hundred feet high but only twenty feet across at the base, supporting the entire manse complex on top. The central stalk has "petals" that stick out at irregular intervals, and anyone approaching the manse from the ground can spend five motes of essence to cause a luminous, blue-and-silver bridge to span the distance between each petal. As one advances, the path will disappear from behind the traveler and appear in front of him.
[Hearthstone - Gem of Quick Thought]

House of Roses - ****
The House of Roses is located in a prominent district of Nexus. A small but powerful Wood-Aspected manse, it appears to be nothing more than a four-story manor of pale tan stone with green jade accents. The gardens are what are truly impressive about this place, overflowing with roses of all types, sizes, and colors. There are other plants as well, some of them not nearly so benign and harmless as a rose. Since Ryelle attuned to the manse and took up its hearthstone, the small garden of roses in front of the house have all bloomed pure white, with black or blue hearts.
[Hearthstone - Gem of Life's Song]

 

[Kinkerhell]

Physical description:

Tepet Ryelle is an Air Aspect's Air Aspect. Her legendary breeding makes her caste marks so obvious that anyone who's ever been anywhere in the realm can recognize her as a dynast.

Her hair is blue, the pale blue of the outer edge of a lightning bolt, touched with the faintest shades of lavender, and is perfectly straight. It falls to mid back, and she usually wears it bound back into a ponytail, with wisps of it framing her face. If she's in courtly dress, she'll put it up into any number of elaborate arrangements. In it sits a delicate-seeming white jade tiara, set with a single crystalline gemstone, the hearthstone from Cloudrider Aerie.

Her eyes are the only other thing of color about her. Between her delicately arched blue eyebrows are a pair of phenomenally large, bright blue eyes. The big, pretty orbs are nothing more than a cunning lie, however, for they are creations of artifice, not nature. The whites are perfectly white, unmarred by blood vessels or discoloration, and the lenses are polished sapphires. They are superior in every way to her old eyes, and beautiful besides, but if one gets close enough, the lie is shown for what it is.

Her pretty, bright blue eyes sit in an equally pretty face, with a small, pointed chin and high cheekbones. Her skin is the white of virgin snow, paler even than Scarlet's almost-translucent alabaster flesh. Ryelle's skin is matte white, colorless completely, not even showing veins or blemishes. Below her eyelashes, there isn't even a hair anywhere on her body to mar the perfection of her snowy skin. Her lips are full and a pale pink, and her mouth is small, with a pouty lower lip. She has dimples when she smiles, and small, very white teeth below her small, delicate nose.

Her head rest on a slender, long neck, as graceful as a crane, which trails into a delicate collarbone and slim shoulders, and down into graceful, slender, perfectly-sculpted arms. Only if one looks closely could one see that the arms are of the same nature as Ryelle's eyes. Carved of white jade and animated by essence and magitech alike, Ryelle's arms are like the rest of her; beautiful, perfect, pale, and surprisingly deadly. They are stronger, faster, and more graceful than they have any right to be, and the nature of their construction combined with Ryelle's coloration serves to hide very well the point where warm skin because cool artifact. Her fingers are long and graceful, slender and articulated, with perfectly manicured "nails" that are usually painted a blue to match her hair. The nails nicely overshadow the ports where her black jade claws can slip from, to kill and rend before disappearing just as easily.

Ryelle is tall for a dynastic woman, standing five feet and seven inches tall, with the long, slender legs of a ballet dancer or martial artist. They are usually bare above the knee, her small, dainty feet and toned calves tucked into her black, white-accented boots, which make her stand taller still, at an even six feet. Her slim thighs, toned and supple and all lean muscle, flow up into a pair of slender hips with slightly pronounced hipbones. Her nethers are barely covered by a segment of the long blue-jade and steelmesh ribbon she wears as her only clothing, which trails blow her hips, leaving hipbones, waist, and the top part of her pubic mound bare. It wraps deliciously around the top of her left thigh, across her ass, then winds its way up her back, following the curve of her waspish waist and slender torso.

Her waist is tiny to the point where one might wonder if she's starving or a model for a realm fashion house. On her back, above her ass, where the dimples would be on a normal, slender person instead rest two hearthstone sockets, riveted in place with tiny pegs of blue jade. Both are filled with hearthstones. Her torso is also slender, and while one can't count her ribs, it seems that she wouldn't have too far to go before one could. Her breasts show no evidence of her near-inhuman slenderness, being high and round and full. They aren't huge, but they are larger than one would expect on a woman so lithe, and capped with small, cherry-red nipples, the only spots of color on her entire body. Her breasts are covered by another loop of the same jadesteel ribbon.

 

[Armphid]

Ryelle looks fantastic; in more ways than one. I am eager for her to show up in the thread and blow the doors off of things.

I also love protective armor that doesn't cover at all. Ahh. Go, cheesecake armor!

 

[Armphid]

I always hate to double post.

Anyway, the siblings here are making a joint Social Attack against Ivory Dawn. If Hook wants to roll it out, we'll post the math but we may just work it out in the thread.

Dragon-Blooded have some interesting social Charms, did you know?