1001 Exalted 2e Encounters

The PCs oldest and best ally, their friendliest, their most helpful, stabs them in the back.


If it is an Ally that they paid points for, it was due to outside influence.  If it was something that grew out of play, it was an elaborate plot to lull them into a false sense of security, and now the trap is sprung.


My suggestion is for a jovial and quite talkative Akuma--one who repeatedly tells the PCs that they had plenty of opportunity to pierce his ruse--he is after all a fiend of his word.  That should drive them crazy to remember clues...


Retcon motives and clues at your leisure...
 
The PCs owe a favor to the Guild, a favor that has been sealed with the power of an Eclipse.  The Guild calls it in.  They give the PCs a mission to pick up a patrician prince and a large crate, escort the prince and the contents of the crate to the Guild headquarters in Nexus, and protect the prince and the contents of the crate until they get to the Guild headquarters.  They go to the village which just so happens to be several leagues from a shadowland, although the PCs may not realize this.  When they get to the village, they meet the prince, who just so happens to be a Ghost-Blooded.  He has with him a crate that is completely encased with several inches of lead and has no way to open it except to break it open.  The crate is on a cart pulled by horses.


Not many problems happen throughout the journey.  The Ghost-Blooded prince refuses to say anything about his business with the Guild or the contents of the crate, although he is quite polite to the PCs.  They stop off at villages for rest and supplies throughout the journey and may encounter bandits or barbarians, but it's nothing they can't handle.


Little do the PCs know, however, that inside the crate is an Abyssal Exalted, a Moonshadow Caste who is a servant of a Deathlord the PCs are fighting.  She is going to negotiate some deals with the Guild in Nexus and is doing this for safe passage.  Besides breaking the crate, she escapes it by using a small necromantic artifact that allows her to turn her body into an animated pool of blood for a few turns and can pour out of the crate through a pinhole and then enter it again the same way.  Whenever they stop at a village, the Moonshadow uses this artifact to come out to feed on the villagers without the PCs knowing.  This has caused a rash of mysterious deaths in the area and word gets around throughout the region of somebody murdering people.


The PCs are blamed and a mob of people led by several Immaculate priests confront the PCs.  Naturally, they don't know anything about and are trying to talk the mob down.  They may even be successful until a fang of Terrestrial rangers in power armor make themselves known and try to arrest the PCs.  These rangers are from Lookshy (or some other city fighting a Deathlord) who demand to take possession of the crate.  They have recieved intelligence that it's something of power from a Deathlord and are trying to intercept it before it gets to wherever the Deathlord wants it to go to.  The Ghost-Blooded naturally refuses to allow this and demands that the PCs fulfill their obligation to protect him and the contents of the crate.  The rangers tell the PCs to stand down.  The priests sees this as proof of the PCs wrongdoing and whips up the mob to try to punish them.  Naturally, things get very tense very quickly.


That's when the crate explodes and makes herself known.  Everybody gasps in surprise and then moves to action.  The rangers try to take her and anybody who helps her down.  The Immaculate Terrestrials see her as Anathema and attacks.  The mob attacks everybody.  During the melee, the Moonshadow quietly reminds the PCs that she is the contents of the crate and they have sworn to protect her.  She says this even as she casually slaughters the mob of extras, leaving the PCs to deal with the Terrestrials.


On the assumption that they go through with their oath, the PCs must race to Nexus while dealing with mobs led by Immaculate priests and units of the Lookshy military.  This climaxes when the PCs and the Moonshadow are just on the border of Nexus and right in their way is a fang of warstriders from Lookshy and a massive Wyld Hunt.


Once the PCs get through that and escort the Moonshadow in the Guild's headquarters, they are free of their obligations to her and may then try to assassinate her if they wish.  They do so at the risk of gaining the ire of both the Guild and the Council of Entities.
 
The Guild pays the PCs for a job.  The Guild has gotten word from an outpost in the Far North that they've found something of great import, and so the Guild will pay the PCs to go up and check it out.


The outpost is run by a skeleton crew of mortals and a few Terrestrials who are on the verge of cabin fever.  They recieve little news from the outside world and can't leave the building which protects them not only from blizzards but also the Wyld storms that often comes with them.  The outposters explain how they found a First Age tomb but don't have the manpower to explore it fully.  With the PCs there, they can.


They go to the tomb during a lull in the blizzard and Wyld storm.  Because it won't last very long, the PCs and NPCs must split up to explore all of it.  The tomb and its contents has been warped over the centuries due to the constant energies of the Wyld, meaning that most artifacts that were in there are warped as well, usually beyond use.  One thing they find is a series of stasis tubes that have all been compromised.  Inside the tubes are the skeletons of those who were in there, but these skeletons are warped as well.  All but one of these stasis tubes are like this - the last one is fully functioning and has been opened.  Recently.


The lull in the storm is about to end and so the party must hurry back to the outpost.  There, they look over and examine the artifacts they've found.  Little do they know, they've also let in a chimera, a Lunar who was put in stasis before the secret of the tattoos were discovered and has degenerated into a chimera over the centuries.  His mind has also been demented by the long stretch.


This chimera secretly hunts those within the outpost, drinking their hearts blood and taking their shape for a time, using Charms to hide his tells while he can until he takes those in the outpost one by one.  Those inside the outpost dare not venture out while the Wyld storm rages, and they don't know who to trust inside because it literally could be anybody.


The only way to know that it isn't them is by using moonsilver, for the chimera cannot stand its touch and its properties forces it to shift to its true form.


Will those inside the outpost be able to survive long enough for the Wyld to abate and escape?  Or will this chimera succeed in slowly stalking everybody who is trapped in the outpost with it?


Inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing
 
Thanks.  I love that movie.  When I saw "The Omen" I also saw a trailer for the remake of "The Wicker Man."  I picked up the original and watched it a few nights ago.  That's made me want to design a story out of that, but it's pretty tough.  Although the Immaculate Philosophy is the main religion of the Blessed Isle, it's quite common for gods to find worship in the Threshold.  I'd like to do it with a village full of demon worshippers, but I'm not sure how to subtly insenuate it to the players.
 
A group of Heroic Mortals and God-Blooded have discovered an incredibly large yasal crystal device that is able to contain hundreds of spirits within it.  As such, they have opened business in Nexus as excorcists, using First Age technology they found to drain the essence of a ghost or a demon until they trap the ghost or demon inside a yasal crystal and then transport it into the holding crystal.  They are quite successful in their business venture until it is realized by the city that the large yasal crystal device uses ambient essence to keep the ghosts contained within it, and that the more ghosts are trapped within it the more ghosts it sucks out.  The Council of Entities don't know this, but they do know that something is draining the manses of the city and have tracked it to this device.  As such, the Council demands that the device be shut down for the safety of Nexus.  When it is, the yasal prison is powered down which causes the ghosts and demons within to escape.  Now the city is under siege by hundreds of ghosts and demons and Nexus is looking to hire some heroes to help take it back.
 
In an attempt to get this thread jumpstarted again, does anybody have any story ideas inspired by Great Forks?  I've been trying my damnedest to come up with something, but no luck so far.
 
A company of mortal mercenaries have taken over a number of the Hundred Kingdoms, using weapons and finer armor than they should be able to afford or weild. Foul play is sensed but they are allied with the Realm. Hiring themselves out as a cheap but nonetheless effective Wyld Hunt.


It is rumored they have a knife that can capture Gods...among many other artifacts. The Three of Great Forks have offered a huge reward to capture this band's leader and bring him to justice.


(This is the bare bones of a very complex game I played in a while back)
 
Nice, CW.


Bachelor Party!!!


An old and familiar ally of the PCs is getting married and he and all of his allies are getting together in Great Forks to have a big bash before he ties the knot.  They're going to do anything and everything that can be done for fun in Great Forks, which is quite a bit.  While they're in the middle of all this fun, though, all of the enemies the PCs (all of them) hear about this and send agents to kill the PCs while they're distracted by the booze, drugs, women and animals of the party.  Will the PCs still be able to protect themselves and the partiers without bringing down the fun?  Let the hijinks ensue!
 
A Great Forks plot that I actually used:


A powerful Fae noble approaches the PC's. He tells them he will give them a major stash of cash if they will bring home his kidnapped daughter from a nearby Arena-fighter, one that's particulary vicious. But, they must be very secret and they must bring him his daughter within seven days.


Shortly therafter, as they prepare to face the dungeon that is the Arena, a second noble arrives, saying that he will give them another stash of cash as well as a mysterious reward, if they can fetch his daughter from the arena where she has been kidnapped.


So far, it's a simple fetch and get reward mission, except one of the Fae nobles is apparently lying, or something is tricky. Well at the Arena, it seems that the Fae princess actually doesn't want to leave at all, since she loves her precious Arena-fighter, who is only one fight away from being released. She pleads to the characters to help him win that fight so they can escape and live happily together ( The fight is otherwise arranged so that he shall lose, since the arena-master is scared he will come after him after all that he has tried )


So, three parties, all wants something that the other two can't tolerate. Hilarity ensues :P
 
A group of mushroom-like wood elementals living in a Bordermarches area have been subjugated by an Ancient Anklok. Most of them now follow him, swelling the ranks of an army already populated with bizarre Wyld creatures. The player's characters could care less, until the Anklok kidnaps the princess of their kingdom. Now, aided only by the remaining free fungus people and a Raptok called Yssi, they must fight their way to the Anklok's castle, defeat him and his forces and rescue the Princess.


Let's-a go!
 
Sheesh, you and your Dragon Kings.


The Solars, forced by penury and the pursuit of the Wyld Hunt, cross into a shadowland ruled by a puppet clan of ancient warriors who answer to the Deathlords.  These career warriors have taken under their protection the ancestor-spirits of a local tribe of peaceful nomadic gatherers, who serve the warrior clan in exchange for protection from the Deathlords.  Upon entering this land, the PCs are quickly spotted and come under heavy attack by the warrior clan, who eventually overpower them and take them before the ghostly monarch... who recognizes, with no small horror on his part, the Eclipse Caste in the Circle.  He stammers an apology and swears he didn't know, that he hasn't forsaken his oath of service to the Princes of the Earth.  Unfortunately, a runner has already been dispatched to the Deathlords to tell them of the PCs' arrival.  If the warrior clan recalls the runner, he could sell them out to the Deathlord in exchange for his people's autonomy... and if they kill him, they could have a full-blown native revolt on their hands.  Do the PCs aid this ancient, oath-bound ally and save their own necks by repressing an already brutalized tribe, or risk the wrath of the Deathlords AND a small army of war ghosts?
 
Jukashi said:
A group of mushroom-like wood elementals living in a Bordermarches area have been subjugated by an Ancient Anklok. Most of them now follow him, swelling the ranks of an army already populated with bizarre Wyld creatures. The player's characters could care less, until the Anklok kidnaps the princess of their kingdom. Now, aided only by the remaining free fungus people and a Raptok called Yssi, they must fight their way to the Anklok's castle, defeat him and his forces and rescue the Princess.
Let's-a go!
Click to expand...
>< I hate you, and yet...I can't look away from this blatant rip-off of Mario.
 
>< I hate you' date=' and yet...I can't look away from this blatant rip-off of Mario.[/quote']
The PCs meet the princess before that when she is kidnapped by a rather vicious Full Moon Lunar whose totem is that of a gorilla.  The PCs chase the Full Moon to an abandoned factory-cathedral that is full of barrels filled with volatile alchemical substances.  His anima fully flaring, he easily makes it to the top of the manse that is the factory-cathedral, but has nowhere else to go.  Now the PCs must make their way up to the top, all the while dodging the alchemical substances thrown by the Lunar (who, for some odd reason, calls himself Mule King even though he's a gorilla) and the reactivated security system of the factory-cathedral.
Click to expand...
 
To go for a more obscure rip off...


Just as the PCs are about to defeat the Anklok and rescue the Princess from him, an Alchemical city called Exor the Blade smashes the fortress with such forces that they are scattered.  He was sent by Autochthon the Great Smith to take over the area, which is rich with resources.  Along the way back to the Anklok's keep, the PCs discover that Exor's travel from Elsewhere to Creation has disrupted the gates that lead from Creation to Heaven.  There may be many gates between Yu-Shuan and Creation but they utilize one path.  This path has been split into seven pieces resembling stars and the task has fallen on the PCs to both find the star pieces and the princess.  Along the way, they meet up with other characters who will help them on their quest including Marsh, a cloud elemental who was raised by a No Moon frog sage, and Jino, a god who was traveling through the star path when it was broken who remanifested in a guardian much like the type that protects Denandsor.
 
Written for Jakk's Modernis setting but could be easily adapted for First Age Solars.


The Accelerated and The Exalted


There has been a rash of truck hijackings on the ultrahighway that spans the River Province.  These trucks belong to the Scarlet Dynasty and are being hijacked on their way from Greyfalls to ports along the Inner Sea.  The All-Seeing Eye sends the PCs who are Terrestrial undercover officers.  There they are introduced to the underground world of illegal hovercar street racing  in Great Forks because it's a street racing team that is pulling off these hijacks.


In order to get any street cred, the PCs will have to have to race against Toryeto Domenik and his team, the best street racers in the River Province.  Not having much real experience in street racing, the PCs obviously lose.  Unfortunately, they wagered pink slips on the race.  Fortunately, the Great Forks constabulatory arrives to break it up and the PCs are able to save Toryeto.  This allows the PCs to gain a level of trust with him.


The PCs gain even more trust when they help Toryeto during a confrontation with his rival Tran Jahni.  Taking them into full confidence, he hires the PCs to work in his garage and teaches them the ins and outs of street racing.  They have to keep this up in order to gain the contacts necessary to figure out who's behind the hijackings.


The bureaucrats of the All-Seeing Eye don't see it that way.  They see the PCs falling into this hazy world and think they're neglecting their investigation.  When more trucks are hijacked, their superiors demand a satisfactory close to this investigation.  This pits the PCs to make a choice between the community they have embedded themselves into and the people they have become close to or discarding their cover to discover who from the street gangs are carrying out the hijackings.


The PCs go with Toryeto's team to a street racing contest.  A member, a mechanic, races Tran for pink slip.  He loses.  Rather than give up his car to Tran, he drives off.  Tran later catches up to him outside Toryeto's and guns down the mechanic out of revenge.  It's bad, so bad that the PCs are forced to use their magistrate powers to get him patched up.  This blows their cover for Toryeto, who is shocked by this betrayal.  He leaves the PCs and goes with the rest of his team to make one final score.


The PCs have to stop him when they find out that score is actually a trap by their superiors to end this once and for all.


The PCs then have to race and try to beat Toryeto to the truck to save those they've become so close to.  They don't make it in time and it doesn't take long before Toryeto and his team are fighting for their lives.  Some of them get hurt, and the PCs make sure they aren't executed outright for their crimes.  Toryeto is the only one to get away.  The superiors want to go after them.  The PCs call that to a halt, saying they'll do it.


They know where Toryeto is.  He's at his garage, looking over a First Age hovercar.  It was rebuilt by his father and Toryeto rebuilt it after his father died in a crash.  It's a beast of a thing, something untameable and full of sorrow, and Toryeto would rather chance getting away with it than facing the wrath of the All-Seeing Eye.


He jumps in and drives it off and the PCs have to scurry to follow after him and make sure he doesn't get killed.  They are half successful - Toryeto crashes the ancient hovercar but, unlike his father, manages to survive.  He realizes he has something to live for now.  The PCs, seeing this power of character, give up their rides so he can successfully escape.  Their superiors won't like this, but when it comes to the loyalty of the brotherhood of the street, consequences be damned!


We'll find out what happens to them in the sequel...
 
Xeno


In the Wyld, no one can hear you scream...


The PCs, who are agents of the Guild, have just finished a grand adventure in the West and are now prepared to set sail for home.  Unfortunately, because of the reputation they had gotten because of their adventure, not many captains are willing to have them on their ship.


There is one man who is willing to have them.  He is the God-Blooded Yane Skevit, an experienced Guildsman and captain of a freighter ship who maximizes his profit by manning it with a skeleton crew and making up for the rest with his Charms.  His crew consists of Enak Hojn, a Heroic Mortal who knows more about the sailing than even the captain and executive officer of the ship, Unrelenting Riptide, a God-Blooded who serves as the ship's master-of-arms, Star-eyed Lamb, a Heroic Mortal navigator, Yefit Tokoko, a beastman Chief Engineer, Brett, a Heroic Mortal apprentice to Yefit, and Ash and Snow, a Terrestrial Half-Caste sorcerer and surgeon.  Capt. Yane accepts payment to transport them across the Inner Sea.


They set sail and all seems well for a few days until a furious storm suddenly rises that lasts for a week.  The ship becomes tossed and turned around so much that Star-eyed Lamb isn't sure of where their location at the end of it.  The ferocity of the storm caused them to be thrown off course and towards a Wyld zone in the Endless Ocean.  Much to their dismay, their supplies have also been tainted and spoiled during the storm.  In order to survive, they'll have to find an island and restock on supplies.


Luckily, they do find an island and they steer towards it.  The crew and the PCs split up to search the island for supplies to repair the ship and to restock on food and water.  As they explore the island, one odd thing that they may notice (Perception + Survival roll) is that there's no sounds of any fauna.


One of the groups consists of Yane, Enak and Ash.  As they explore the island, they come across a deep shaft in the ground and decide to explore it.  They shuffle down the hole and it eventually leads them to a giant underground complex with runes written in the Old Realm.  These are relatively simple signs that direct people through the complex.  As the exploration continues, it seems to be some kind of hidden sorcerous laboratory manse from the First Age.  Yane and Enak decide to continue exploring the place thinking that there may be precious artifacts more valuable than the cargo they currently hold.


Unfortunately, they're quite right.


They stumble across a gigantic stadium, the floor of which is covered with cocoon-like objects.  Enak, curious, gets quite close to one as Yane peers up at the tall ceiling of the place.  The captain never sees Enak become enthralled with curiosity as the cocoon unfurls and a skitterling emerges forth, giving only enough time for Enak to see it before it jumps at Enak's face and latches itself to him, its tail wrapping tightly around the man's throat.


Enak now unconcious, Yane and any PCs who came with the pair must carry the man back up to the shaft as the other cocoons start to open up behind them.  They are successful in getting to the surface and calls out to the rest of the crew to get on the ship because they're leaving.  While they were exploring, the others have restocked a lot of food if they ration it but they haven't completely replenished their coffers.  Those fixing the ship haven't had the time to make enough progress.  Yane doesn't care.  He's leaving now.


The crew and the PCs get on the ship and they set sail, the high winds of a coming storm spur them away from the island.  Ash proceeds to examine the thing on Enak's face.  Using his medical and occult knowledge, he concludes that the creature is a parasite that is connected to Enak not just physically but mystically as well since Ash is able to discern a flow of Essence between the two.  Because of this mystical connection between them, Ash does not recommend that they harm the creature since it could lead to Enak's death.  Yane, who has been a long time friend of Enak's, outright refuses any suggestion of killing the parasite.  Ash also refuses to let it be harmed as well, citing his academic curiosity for this unknown creature.


The rest of the crew abide by Yane's words; should any of the PCs try to insist that they do something, the entire crew will stubbornly reject it and will guard Enak from them.  If any of the PCs try to fight them, Yane, Riptide, Yefit and Ash are experienced enough to be able to win a battle against them.  After they win the battle, the crew ties them up and guards them, harassing them and forcing them to drink a special tea that keeps them from resting to regain any spent Essence.  They are kept like this until the situation becomes one where it's in the crew's best interest to work with them.


Otherwise, they just have to wait out the storm of wind, wave and Wyld that's surging outside.  After about a day the creature just falls off of Enak, it's body dessicated and shriveled.  Ash then gives him a check out and determines that he's physically fine.  All of the crew breath a heavy sigh of relief and Yane says that they'll have a little feast that night.


The food they scrounge from the island is cooked up and is delicious.  Songs are song and rum is poured.  The crew gets to really know the PCs and a feeling of cameradie instantly bonds the two groups.


The merriment quickly comes to an end.


Enak starts clearing his throat as everybody chats with each other.  He then coughs.  And coughs again.  He coughs and can't seem to stop.  He stands up, hacking.  The crew, alarmed, stands up and grabs him and he starts to go into convulsions, making him lay on the table.  He screams out in pain as his chest bursts with blood and entrails spurting all over the crew and the PCs.


From Enak's still hot corpse a small but frightful creature lifts itself up and they can allow stare in horror at lets out a shrill scream to announce its presence on Creation.


And before anyone can act it immediately jumps to the floor and scuttles to safety.  Despite all the horrors known to be out there, the crew is quite unnerved, especially after the horrible death of one of their own.  Yane then divides up the crew and the PCs to catch the creature.  Ash suggests that the creature try to be taken alive to be studied.  Yefit cites the law of the jungle and wants to stalk the creature before it can do what it did to Enak to him.  The two of them argue, both making good points.  The PCs can posit their opinions in this social combat as well.  Whoever makes the most convincing argument Captain Yane will agree with between capturing the creature and killing it.


Those on the ship are split up into pairs, with a crew member paired up with a PC.  As they search the ship something happens so that the crew members split up or the creature separates them and captures the crew members, although they think the creature kills them.


Should the PCs search the crew's quarters, they discover something very chilling in Ash's room.  There are a set of papers that are coded (Wits + Linguistics, diff 4 to decode).  These papers describe how Ash is actually a member of an underguild and he was commanded by them to use his sorcery to summon a storm to maroon the ship in an area where strange creatures were once reported to be long ago.  Ash did so and has written down what he has surmised what the underground compound was.


Apparently, it was a First Age magical labortory where dark and cruel experiments were carried out.  The Solar sorcerers of the First Age manage to use the chaos of the bordermarches to alter demons and breed true a new race of terrifying creatures that are both Wyld and Infernal.  These creatures, named "xenos" by the Solars, are created when the facehugger impregnates a creature and, through an ability given to it by the Wyld, warps the creature's Essence and body to allow the "birth" of the xeno.  In this way, the xenos could be a terrible weapon against the enemies of the Solars, decimating legions that could be used to give birth to even more xenos.  Fortunately, the Usurpation happened before this project could be put into effect and the Solars locked themselves in the complex but eventually died.  The Guild had managed to find ancient records of this project and sent Ash to connive of a way to find the complex and bring one of these xenos back so they can sell these living weapons to the highest bidder.


Now the PCs must make sure this creature never gets back to Creation and must destroy it as best they can.  To make sure it is killed, they can secure all escape routes and use the cargo of firedust and alchemical components for alchemical fire weapons to burn it while they escape on a life raft.  To make sure it can't escape, they'll have to draw it into the bowels of the ship to make sure it stays in the heart of the blaze.  As they hunt after the xeno, they find the other crew members wounded and grafted to the hull of the ship by a cocoon.  The xeno has captured them to be used as hosts to make other xenos.  The crew members, weak and in pain, whisper to the PCs to kill them.


The PCs should then continue trying to lock the xeno in the heart of the ship and set off the explosives while having enough time to escape in the life raft.  Should they do so, the PCs must still sail through the Wyld storm around them and make it back to Creation in one peace.  They should be able to get there.  Eventually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Similar threads

Sora No Kami
A vicious dance with death (RP 1x1 based on the song "My R") TW: Self-loathing, Suicune
Replies
1
Views
106
Sora No Kami
Sora No Kami
Back
Top