Dice Exalted Essence: The Young Exalts and the Sea OOC

[jaydude]

But what you're saying is there's no doubt a Full Moon is advancing on the palace in war form?

I don't know if I'd say that. I deliberately left it ambiguous regarding what form Garret's currently in, just in case Psychie wanted to have him change back before sending him towards a Realm satrapy's centre of government.

 

[Random Word]

Okay, I'll leave it to Psychie to clarify .

 

[Random Word]

With the number of monsters thinning out somewhat, Garret decides that he may be fine with no longer holding onto his war form and releases the Essence he had committed to it in order to take his human shape once more. He still keeps his daiklave in hand, though. There are enough of these things still running about to make that prudent.

When Tulak makes his announcement to the people in the palace, he adds his voice to that of the other Exalt. "Yeah, we're not from the behemoth! So let us in!" And in a lower volume, he adds, "Just don't try to kill us. That would really ruin my day."

Okay, so no war form, but glowing silver with caste mark visible?

 

[Psychie]

Slightly less likely to garner Insta-kill order, I hope.

 

[Random Word]

"Now, Shale. Can the garda bird handle a crew of 5 or do we need anything else?"

jaydude this is a good question. I'm guessing no, though Ijara would guess Garret could fly under his own power. I don't know if a Garda Bird can carry four people on its back, especially if one is made of solid orichalcum

 

[Rykon]

especially if one is made of solid orichalcum

Nonsense let the bird attune to Most Assurant like an artifact, what's the worst that could happen? hahaha

 

[jaydude]

jaydude this is a good question. I'm guessing no, though Ijara would guess Garret could fly under his own power. I don't know if a Garda Bird can carry four people on its back, especially if one is made of solid orichalcum

Did you assign it the Enormous Size quality? If so, I'd allow it for four of you (i.e. everyone not named Garret), although two of you might have to hold onto its legs.

Nonsense let the bird attune to Most Assurant like an artifact, what's the worst that could happen? hahaha

I let you get far up into the sky, then have Aigaion blast your ride back into raw Essence, that's what.

 

[Random Word]

Okay, I think I'd prefer the excellency over Enormous Size, as amusing as Enormous Size could be. Even if I did take Enormous Size, I'm getting the vibe that in Ijara's expert strategic assessment, attempting a flying assault on the behemoth has a very high chance of resulting in us being blown out of the sky for very little, if any, strategic benefit. Does that sound right?

Meanwhile, the behemoth is actively approaching us, and likely intends to reduce the palace and everything inside it to a fine mist?

 

[jaydude]

Yes and yes. Like I may have indicated before, Aigaion has a Hardness of 10, which the corebook indicates is best used for top-tier foes of Exalted with Essence 4 or 5.

 

[Rykon]

I've been operating under the assumption that we're already in the behemoth's attack range given the heap of rubble we're in. Whether we approach to retaliate or not doesn't change the fact we could be blasted apart right now.

Mechanically, I've done the math. Combining the storm's -2 penalty to all physical actions and air aspect anima ability gives us a buffer of -4 dice to Aigaion's ranged attacks while we're in the air, coupled with a potential defend other defense bonus of 7 Defense versus its attack -4. I'd be willing to take those odds for a round or two.

Even if that sounds cheesy, the worse option would be handing Aramitama to the Garda bird and proclaiming: "it's moving at full speed, the daiklave's effect says it can't be targeted by ranged attacks this round at all because speed," but that's a bit too munchkin for what should be the actual spectacle.

Suffice to say, we have options. And that's just the self-interest survival side of the equation rather than the an uphold our duty one like, "It benefits us to divide its attention from implosion bows and the like that should begin to broadside the easiest practice target in a siege engineer's life and give everyone a fighting chance," argument.

On that note, jaydude , would we be able to tell if the garrison is even still standing or capable of returning fire presently?

 

[Random Word]

It's true that mechanically that's a strong defense, though it could well have a very large attack pool, multiattacks, and even Charms that negate penalties on attacks. Worse, if Jaydude wants to make it especially deadly its hail of fire could be classified as an environmental hazard Misja has to roll against to avoid damage.

 

[Random Word]

Oh, and of course its attacks are likely unparryable, which makes defend other inapplicable unless you're a Sidereal. And probably AoE.

 

[jaydude]

On that note, jaydude , would we be able to tell if the garrison is even still standing or capable of returning fire presently?

If you had a telescope or a similar means of getting a zoomed-in view of something far away, you'd be able to check out Castle Vasong - the garrison's headquarters - without setting foot there. Otherwise, someone would have to physically go and investigate.

 

[EbonChevalier]

It’s not sedition if you were never a realm pig dog

 

[jaydude]

Does anyone want to have their characters mention the two Implosion Bows to the newcomers? Because while I could have the honour guard do that, I don't know how much sense it makes for them to spill such information to "Anathema", even under these circumstances.

 

[Psychie]

Aww, why not? Surely nothing bad could come of it!

 

[jaydude]

Please tell me the scholars actually report that. Also whether the records indicate how intelligent this thing is supposed to be, and how much it can sense. Is it vindictive? In what state were the settlements when it ended its attacks? she subvocalizes to Fabian. And consult with the relevant committees on exactly how many favours I'll have to call in to push the Realm to respond appropriately to this threat. One legion at least.

Fair warning, but this post will likely prompt a somewhat big infodump that'll take me a while to type up (though this is in no small part due to me currently staying with family at the moment) and feature a good amount of spoilers. Without giving away too much (yet), I can tell you now that Aigaion is a remnant from shortly before the Usurpation, the Sidereals of the time knew about it, and barring some destructive affair in Yu Shan that I'm currently unaware of, I can't see why the Sidereals of the present day wouldn't have access to such information.

 

[Random Word]

Spoiler: Of Secrets Yet Untold

jaydude So it isn't very intelligent, certainly not enough to rule anything on its own, and all it wants is for the city to surrender to it? Is there any reason not to immediately surrender to see if it stops bombarding the city? What would it even do with the city once we surrender? It sounds like something else was meant to take over once it receives the surrender, but unless this Twilight is now a Deathlord or someone else has control of it, then nothing would happen once we deliver our surrender. If someone is in control, we buy time for evacuation and potentially learn who it is.

Ijara is currently thinking about how she can surrender the city to this thing. Too bad she doesn't know infallible messenger - she might have to try to get suicidally close to it in order to try to communicate, unless another character can speak through storms or yell real loud.

Or perhaps it doesn't accept surrenders after the first few minutes? That would seem counterproductive to conquest, though. Perhaps an object lesson to future cities. If she doesn't know it won't accept surrender, it seems like she has to try given the lives she could save.

 

[jaydude]

Spoiler: Of Secrets Yet Untold

jaydude So it isn't very intelligent, certainly not enough to rule anything on its own, and all it wants is for the city to surrender to it? Is there any reason not to immediately surrender to see if it stops bombarding the city? What would it even do with the city once we surrender? It sounds like something else was meant to take over once it receives the surrender, but unless this Twilight is now a Deathlord or someone else has control of it, then nothing would happen once we deliver our surrender. If someone is in control, we buy time for evacuation and potentially learn who it is.

Ijara is currently thinking about how she can surrender the city to this thing. Too bad she doesn't know infallible messenger - she might have to try to get suicidally close to it in order to try to communicate, unless another character can speak through storms or yell real loud.

Or perhaps it doesn't accept surrenders after the first few minutes? That would seem counterproductive to conquest, though. Perhaps an object lesson to future cities. If she doesn't know it won't accept surrender, it seems like she has to try given the lives she could save.

Spoiler: Of Secrets Yet Untold

From the information Yu Shan has on hand, Aigaion would use its spawned monsters to keep the territory secure until Xandar - or another Exalt loyal or allied to him - arrived to formalize the surrender. But that was during the First Age, when Xandar and his cohorts were actually around. Continuing on with the Final Fantasy X parallels - in this case Sin carrying out a corrupted version of its original orders due to circumstances - Aigaion may not be aware that the Usurpation happened and its original masters are dead, in which case the Aigonites might remain in the territory indefinitely, waiting for a formal surrender that would never happen. And should Aigaion learn that Xandar and the other Solars were betrayed, overthrown and murdered by their Dragon-blooded and Sidereal subordinates, the results would probably not be pretty.

So far it's never been tried during the days of either the Shogunate or the Scarlet Empire - no-one ever considered such a thing before - but Ijara can certainly try and surrender on behalf of either the Realm, or whatever remains of Kyoma's leadership. She would have to get within Medium Range of Aigaion to initiate such a conversation however, and she would likely have to bring Aigaion up to speed on what's happened in Creation since Xandar's time. As indicated in the previous paragraph, this comes with its own risks.

Xandar having become a Deathlord is one possibility, but so far there's no evidence of this being the case. Another thing to consider is that the original Exaltation of Xandar - alongside those of his Exalt allies/subordinates - is back in Creation following the Jade Prison mass breakout, and Aigaion may well be bound to obey whoever has such an Exaltation. And said Exaltation may have been converted into an Abyssal or Infernal one by now.

As for the whole "counterproductive to conquest" thing, Aigaion does have the capacity to be pragmatic on occasion. But it also came from a time when the Solars had largely become rotten to the core, and top-level Solars and their marvels were much more commonplace. It and Xander would probably regard a depopulated and severely destroyed city as a minor setback.

 

[Random Word]

Spoiler: Of Secrets Yet Untold

Okay, so reincarnated Twilight is very plausible, but while the aigonites are keeping the city 'secure' what do they do? Do they kill everyone who goes outside? Do they just patrol and prevent any armed resistance but let citizens go about their business? Can people come and go as normal?

It seems like aigonite occupation may be considerably better than aigonite assault plus aerial bombardment.

If surrendering even buys a few hours of reprieve for evacuation, that seems massively beneficial, but if after surrendering aigonites still kill anyone who sets foot outside their homes, that's not nearly as helpful. If it buys a period of days while the master actually shows up to sign the treaty, and during that time people can evacuate or at least live their lives and not be murdered, that's amazing.

 

[jaydude]

Spoiler: Of Secrets Yet Untold

In past cases, they've allowed people to go about their business as long as there was no armed resistance, but they also didn't let anyone leave the city, even to do things like go fishing. Prevent enemies from escaping capture and all that.

 

[Random Word]

So would it be possible to do a sorcerous working to communicate with Aigaion (rather than trying to survive getting close enough to speak to it) while everyone else fights off the aigonites?

If I understand correctly, after surrendering we have to figure out how to smuggle ourselves and maybe some implosion bows out of the city, but the whole city won't be slaughtered while we do it.

 

[jaydude]

So would it be possible to do a sorcerous working to communicate with Aigaion (rather than trying to survive getting close enough to speak to it) while everyone else fights off the aigonites?

Sorcerous workings involve permanently changing the world. A magical working would probably be more appropriate, but those require you to have a Charm, Evocation, spell, or ability that would enable you to carry out such a venture.

If I understand correctly, after surrendering we have to figure out how to smuggle ourselves and maybe some implosion bows out of the city, but the whole city won't be slaughtered while we do it.

Yes. First though, Ijara would have to convince Aigaion that this is a legitimate surrender. And if Aigaion discovers that it's being lied to, it probably won't take it too well.

 

[jaydude]

Also, I presume you're aware that such a course of action might end up blowing your cover to the other PC's?

 

[Random Word]

Okay, so no magical options for communication. Got it. Oh well, it was worth a try. It's true we can't surrender on behalf of the garrison, but we could surrender on behalf of the civilian population and try to persuade the garrison to stand down after. Assuming any of them are still alive.

Also, I presume you're aware that such a course of action might end up blowing your cover to the other PC's?

Ijara's in a RD. If she drops it, she abruptly ceases to have ever existed . I wasn't aware, though. I'll try to puzzle out how she might blow her cover.