Kremlin KOA
Beastly Member
This post is part asking for advice, and partly testing a thery on the nature of these boards.
For thoumultse who have not read the invsible fortress sections of the Time of Tumult, the rest is spoilers
For thosewho know a bit abotu the campaig I am running the question isright near the end.
SPOILER ALERT
Okay brief description of the party (First ed chargen with +20 freebie points to put solars a little better than other exalts and counter power creep, I also use 2xp = one freebie point instead of the standard XP system)
1 Dawn Caste from the east: a roaming avenger who exalted when the DB who murdered his father as a child came back and killed his wife(for not sleeping with the DB). He is currently trying to learn sorcery as a means to heal the corruption of an Abbyssal who was his former lifes lover in a former life (damn first age reincarnation)
1 Zenith Caste Scion of the realm who fled after his exaltation, and whose best friend came with him (a DB, obviously) He has plans to return to the Realm when it is Imperative, and become Imperator.
1 Twilight caste from the north: Born in a fishing village, his exaltation came as his ship was boarded by sharkfolk and a Lunar exalt. He eventually made peace with them in exchange for the village no longer shark fishing. He is attracted to the Shark lady, but has unintentionally caught the eye of the Lover Clad in the Raiment of tears (who the Dawn Caste hates with a passion)
2 moreplayers join later and their chars are described below
Everything from now on is spoilers
On the way in they found a guy who had gotten lucky. The Twilight almost paupered himself buying the treasure (the dog head)
Okay they found out about the planned Wendigo hunt on the first day, and decided to stop it
The Zenith went to chat to the mortal Guards of the Larger DB camp. he has made some friends there.
They stopped questions by Mahina by having the DB retainer reveal himself as an Outcaste looking for enough treasure to buy his way back into a house.
The Dawn and Twilight made small talk with one of the DBs (the most skilled tracker in the group of 12) he is fairly mortal friendly (thinking they are mortals) and he talks to them about various things, and how much he dislikes Lahor, at one point joking "Hell I'd even consider joining with anathema to be free of him"
They caught a little girl spying on their tent, they interrogate her (gently) and find otu that her daddy taught her to spy on other merchants he dealt with (he was a travelling merchant who was born in, and winters in, the town.) and after the Dragons killed her mommy and daddy she has earned food money by spying on tent people and selling the info.
They adopt the girl, feed her, and make sure she is comfy.
They discover (from the girl) that one of the earth aspect DBs has a truly perverse prediliction, so bad that even other DBs would be disgusted, and that as a result, a few kids have gone missing in town.
They decide to enflame Lahor by killing aid Earth DB and making it messy
The dawn caste goes in first and knocks on the basement hatch, the DB exits the (soundproof) basement ans asks what the mere mortal wants. The dawn replies "I was told you guys hunt Anathema."
The DB suddenly looks interested and replies "yes?"
The Dawn answers "then there is something I need to show you." and reveals his Caste mark bumrushing the DB at the same time and beginnign the murder.
The Danw and Zenith complete the murder, using only peripheral essence so the Kid (who isn't dead yet) doesn't see anything. They knock the guy out and the rest join them inside.
The DB retainer has a custom charm that mildly muddles memories (not sure if such a charm officially exists, but hey. this one only workson mortals and only up to an hours worth of memories) He uses this on the child and leads her out of the basement.
The three debated on how to punish this "sick fuck" and eventually decided on letting one of the Twilight's pet demons do its worst (this incidentally caused the demonwho was slave type before to hit limit break and become courtesan type. The level of emotion and artistry asked of it was pretty big here)
The result is best described as "making a series of flesh puppets and making artistic dioramas." No I will not elaborate further.
That demon is now a serious enthusiast (living arsenal before anyone asks)
They also had it write things on the walls indicating the Wendigo did it.
Next morning they headed north to find the wendigo and make alliance with it against the remaining 11 Dragons. (who are now hurried and underequipped)
They meet the Wendigo and begin to bargain, the issue of Trust comes up and since they have no Eclipse, The Wendigo suggests that maybe a Celestial Lion can seal the deal. The lion asks a different price, it wants the little girl that was spying on them, it will not say why.
What truly frightens them is the fairly significant and obvious steps this lion took to arrangefor this irl to be there at that time (including helping her escape the camp and follow the circle. They eventually agree, thinking she will die. She is taken back to Yu Shan to live and learn to be the Priestess of the Lion (who turns out to be her Grandaddy). ANd the Lion also agrees to help kill the murderers of its child.
Wendigo goes off to prepare ravine for avalanche and ambush, then a Siddie somes up and talks to them, giving some advice about how to avoid a disaster caused by a mistake of the Wendigo. They listen and find out tat this Siddie is part of a conspiracy to help the new Solars, and that he has already interfered in their lives to make sure that tey were all at the same pub where a wyld hunt would appear to stop ONE of them, a wyld hunt large enough to kill ONE Solar generally dies against 3 + a DB.
Session has ended there
_________________
Oh new update
Got two more players
One playing a night Caste Bow assassin with ALL the BWB dodge charms
Former Nexus Mob Hitman, Â Unfortunately the Don was the type to follow the Immaculate Philosophy devoutly
the other playing an eclipse ala the Dread Pirate Wesley
_________________
events since
They have killed the DB force led by Lahor, except the one who joked about being willing to join anathema for ths gig... they gave him the 'join anathema or Die' option. He is following them around
they made it to the fortress, only to find the siddie dead at the entrance.
they have spent a day exploring it
they discovered Mahina insane
They discovered the prison room and worked out what the shackles do (incidentally the Dawn got angry at the twilight over that... as he was the guinea pig)
they theorized that since the shackles dispel enchantments, that they might cure the mad DB
THey return to the dining room to find that the two DBs travelling with them to have also gone mad.
They shackle all three up in the cells and find that their sanity returns..
they come to the conclusion that the DBs will be safe if they stay near a Solar, since it appears to be a Defence system against DBs that the Valet was unfamiliar with.
So they left the Bragons with the choice of staying near a solar at all times or suffering the eternal tea party of madness
the Retainer si stayng with his zenith friend
The Water caste ranger is staying with the group, mostly the Dawn and the eclipse (he is eclipse oath bound to be nice to them)
eventually after much discussion and negotiation, Mahina agreed to an eclipse bound oath and isspending time around the Twilight (the only one to be really nice to her) she is currently plotting to get as much sellable treasure as she can and use it to parlay her way into leadership of House V'Neef. Her opinion of the party is that they did save her, but some of them are as mean as the anathema stories suggest, but some seem nice... she is no longer an Immaculate order fanatic, but he doesn't trust the party yet.
The twilight found Bax's body (gotta decide what a marble cloak does), his 'manse construction' book, and the tablet of demon control.
The dawn wants to use that demon force as the spearhead to build an army against the Mask of Winters (he is friends with a Renegade Moonshadow of that deathlord, who has a crush on him)
Aformentioned renegade Moonshadow finds the place and has a dire warning for the party about assassins sent by the Lover clad in the Raiment of tears after the dawn caste.. the Zenth caste attacked her and the Dawn was ready to defend her... as they almost came to blows, she slipped out.
Te zenith had a dream from the US about redeeming Abyssals and about how trust and teamwork are important for his children
the Dawn went raiding the tombs whileeveryone was asleep and has the tomb loot in a pile ready to divide it fairly amongst the PCs when tey wake up.
my thoughts,
Should I have it that the Abyssal was an apparition (shapechanged spirit servitor) being used to cause infighting? Yes/no votes and reasons
I was gonna kill off a Dragon blood to raise the tension level, want votes on which one
Retainer: points for the NPC:
* Paid for with char points
* Loyal to the Zenith, not the party
* Childhood friend of the Zenith and confidant
* Helped interpret the dream and agrees that healing the Abyssals is the answer... for the ones that WANT to be healed
* dislikes the Dawn caste and believes he is an expendable weapon
* killing him would escalate angers between those two.
Water caste Hunter:
* friendly to the dawn and the eclipse
* Not so friendly to the zenith
* new char, so minimal emotional investment by PCs
* Dawn's player might think I am playing favorites as he is trying to get this guy to be his retainer
* would escalate fighting between zenith, dawn, and maybe eclipse... but not by much
Mahina:
* friendly to the Twilight
* would create a brand NEW set of hostilities, as the Dawn caste is EASILY framed for this one.
* least emotional investment.
* Some of the party believe her to be an immaculate fanatic.
* Module NPC and one with skills to seriously help them out in the fortress
* is formenting distrust while alive
* would increase that if she were dead.
so which one should die next?
(yes I kill off my ST pet chars first as that way the party have a chance to scooby doo it before losing members... but if they drag their feet I will start killing PCs... and if that doesn't hurry them I will begin killing players
_____________
For thoumultse who have not read the invsible fortress sections of the Time of Tumult, the rest is spoilers
For thosewho know a bit abotu the campaig I am running the question isright near the end.
SPOILER ALERT
Okay brief description of the party (First ed chargen with +20 freebie points to put solars a little better than other exalts and counter power creep, I also use 2xp = one freebie point instead of the standard XP system)
1 Dawn Caste from the east: a roaming avenger who exalted when the DB who murdered his father as a child came back and killed his wife(for not sleeping with the DB). He is currently trying to learn sorcery as a means to heal the corruption of an Abbyssal who was his former lifes lover in a former life (damn first age reincarnation)
1 Zenith Caste Scion of the realm who fled after his exaltation, and whose best friend came with him (a DB, obviously) He has plans to return to the Realm when it is Imperative, and become Imperator.
1 Twilight caste from the north: Born in a fishing village, his exaltation came as his ship was boarded by sharkfolk and a Lunar exalt. He eventually made peace with them in exchange for the village no longer shark fishing. He is attracted to the Shark lady, but has unintentionally caught the eye of the Lover Clad in the Raiment of tears (who the Dawn Caste hates with a passion)
2 moreplayers join later and their chars are described below
Everything from now on is spoilers
On the way in they found a guy who had gotten lucky. The Twilight almost paupered himself buying the treasure (the dog head)
Okay they found out about the planned Wendigo hunt on the first day, and decided to stop it
The Zenith went to chat to the mortal Guards of the Larger DB camp. he has made some friends there.
They stopped questions by Mahina by having the DB retainer reveal himself as an Outcaste looking for enough treasure to buy his way back into a house.
The Dawn and Twilight made small talk with one of the DBs (the most skilled tracker in the group of 12) he is fairly mortal friendly (thinking they are mortals) and he talks to them about various things, and how much he dislikes Lahor, at one point joking "Hell I'd even consider joining with anathema to be free of him"
They caught a little girl spying on their tent, they interrogate her (gently) and find otu that her daddy taught her to spy on other merchants he dealt with (he was a travelling merchant who was born in, and winters in, the town.) and after the Dragons killed her mommy and daddy she has earned food money by spying on tent people and selling the info.
They adopt the girl, feed her, and make sure she is comfy.
They discover (from the girl) that one of the earth aspect DBs has a truly perverse prediliction, so bad that even other DBs would be disgusted, and that as a result, a few kids have gone missing in town.
They decide to enflame Lahor by killing aid Earth DB and making it messy
The dawn caste goes in first and knocks on the basement hatch, the DB exits the (soundproof) basement ans asks what the mere mortal wants. The dawn replies "I was told you guys hunt Anathema."
The DB suddenly looks interested and replies "yes?"
The Dawn answers "then there is something I need to show you." and reveals his Caste mark bumrushing the DB at the same time and beginnign the murder.
The Danw and Zenith complete the murder, using only peripheral essence so the Kid (who isn't dead yet) doesn't see anything. They knock the guy out and the rest join them inside.
The DB retainer has a custom charm that mildly muddles memories (not sure if such a charm officially exists, but hey. this one only workson mortals and only up to an hours worth of memories) He uses this on the child and leads her out of the basement.
The three debated on how to punish this "sick fuck" and eventually decided on letting one of the Twilight's pet demons do its worst (this incidentally caused the demonwho was slave type before to hit limit break and become courtesan type. The level of emotion and artistry asked of it was pretty big here)
The result is best described as "making a series of flesh puppets and making artistic dioramas." No I will not elaborate further.
That demon is now a serious enthusiast (living arsenal before anyone asks)
They also had it write things on the walls indicating the Wendigo did it.
Next morning they headed north to find the wendigo and make alliance with it against the remaining 11 Dragons. (who are now hurried and underequipped)
They meet the Wendigo and begin to bargain, the issue of Trust comes up and since they have no Eclipse, The Wendigo suggests that maybe a Celestial Lion can seal the deal. The lion asks a different price, it wants the little girl that was spying on them, it will not say why.
What truly frightens them is the fairly significant and obvious steps this lion took to arrangefor this irl to be there at that time (including helping her escape the camp and follow the circle. They eventually agree, thinking she will die. She is taken back to Yu Shan to live and learn to be the Priestess of the Lion (who turns out to be her Grandaddy). ANd the Lion also agrees to help kill the murderers of its child.
Wendigo goes off to prepare ravine for avalanche and ambush, then a Siddie somes up and talks to them, giving some advice about how to avoid a disaster caused by a mistake of the Wendigo. They listen and find out tat this Siddie is part of a conspiracy to help the new Solars, and that he has already interfered in their lives to make sure that tey were all at the same pub where a wyld hunt would appear to stop ONE of them, a wyld hunt large enough to kill ONE Solar generally dies against 3 + a DB.
Session has ended there
_________________
Oh new update
Got two more players
One playing a night Caste Bow assassin with ALL the BWB dodge charms
Former Nexus Mob Hitman, Â Unfortunately the Don was the type to follow the Immaculate Philosophy devoutly
the other playing an eclipse ala the Dread Pirate Wesley
_________________
events since
They have killed the DB force led by Lahor, except the one who joked about being willing to join anathema for ths gig... they gave him the 'join anathema or Die' option. He is following them around
they made it to the fortress, only to find the siddie dead at the entrance.
they have spent a day exploring it
they discovered Mahina insane
They discovered the prison room and worked out what the shackles do (incidentally the Dawn got angry at the twilight over that... as he was the guinea pig)
they theorized that since the shackles dispel enchantments, that they might cure the mad DB
THey return to the dining room to find that the two DBs travelling with them to have also gone mad.
They shackle all three up in the cells and find that their sanity returns..
they come to the conclusion that the DBs will be safe if they stay near a Solar, since it appears to be a Defence system against DBs that the Valet was unfamiliar with.
So they left the Bragons with the choice of staying near a solar at all times or suffering the eternal tea party of madness
the Retainer si stayng with his zenith friend
The Water caste ranger is staying with the group, mostly the Dawn and the eclipse (he is eclipse oath bound to be nice to them)
eventually after much discussion and negotiation, Mahina agreed to an eclipse bound oath and isspending time around the Twilight (the only one to be really nice to her) she is currently plotting to get as much sellable treasure as she can and use it to parlay her way into leadership of House V'Neef. Her opinion of the party is that they did save her, but some of them are as mean as the anathema stories suggest, but some seem nice... she is no longer an Immaculate order fanatic, but he doesn't trust the party yet.
The twilight found Bax's body (gotta decide what a marble cloak does), his 'manse construction' book, and the tablet of demon control.
The dawn wants to use that demon force as the spearhead to build an army against the Mask of Winters (he is friends with a Renegade Moonshadow of that deathlord, who has a crush on him)
Aformentioned renegade Moonshadow finds the place and has a dire warning for the party about assassins sent by the Lover clad in the Raiment of tears after the dawn caste.. the Zenth caste attacked her and the Dawn was ready to defend her... as they almost came to blows, she slipped out.
Te zenith had a dream from the US about redeeming Abyssals and about how trust and teamwork are important for his children
the Dawn went raiding the tombs whileeveryone was asleep and has the tomb loot in a pile ready to divide it fairly amongst the PCs when tey wake up.
my thoughts,
Should I have it that the Abyssal was an apparition (shapechanged spirit servitor) being used to cause infighting? Yes/no votes and reasons
I was gonna kill off a Dragon blood to raise the tension level, want votes on which one
Retainer: points for the NPC:
* Paid for with char points
* Loyal to the Zenith, not the party
* Childhood friend of the Zenith and confidant
* Helped interpret the dream and agrees that healing the Abyssals is the answer... for the ones that WANT to be healed
* dislikes the Dawn caste and believes he is an expendable weapon
* killing him would escalate angers between those two.
Water caste Hunter:
* friendly to the dawn and the eclipse
* Not so friendly to the zenith
* new char, so minimal emotional investment by PCs
* Dawn's player might think I am playing favorites as he is trying to get this guy to be his retainer
* would escalate fighting between zenith, dawn, and maybe eclipse... but not by much
Mahina:
* friendly to the Twilight
* would create a brand NEW set of hostilities, as the Dawn caste is EASILY framed for this one.
* least emotional investment.
* Some of the party believe her to be an immaculate fanatic.
* Module NPC and one with skills to seriously help them out in the fortress
* is formenting distrust while alive
* would increase that if she were dead.
so which one should die next?
(yes I kill off my ST pet chars first as that way the party have a chance to scooby doo it before losing members... but if they drag their feet I will start killing PCs... and if that doesn't hurry them I will begin killing players
_____________
