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Three Thousand Club
And do you want Hazel and John to have been part of the discovery process for the Manse, or have them arrive well after you've settled in to attempt to unlock more of its secrets?
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I'll have a think. Currently involved in a game of Wildermyth.We're here to tell fun stories, not boring ones. If you ever want to revisit the past to find out what went on there we can always jump back in time in flashbacks.
So now the question is, what sort of story are we telling about Atusa and her well established oasis-manse settlement in the desert? Political intrigue is presumably out for now. A slice of life about an idyllic desert commune? A horror story about things in the deep that should have been left undisturbed? A war story of invading Raksha? An adventure story of following up on clues in the Manse to find more treasures lost to the desert? There are a lot of directions you could go as a ruler of a small but prosperous settlement - though a lot of them admittedly involve politics. What sort of story would you like Atusa to have next?
I'm admittedly looking to play Atusa as a bit of a power fantasy. Namely, a renowned and charismatic warrior queen who can protect her people and win the loyalty and respect of those around her, and who ultimately becomes one of the most important, influential and powerful figures in the region.So now the question is, what sort of story are we telling about Atusa and her well established oasis-manse settlement in the desert? Political intrigue is presumably out for now. A slice of life about an idyllic desert commune? A horror story about things in the deep that should have been left undisturbed? A war story of invading Raksha? An adventure story of following up on clues in the Manse to find more treasures lost to the desert? There are a lot of directions you could go as a ruler of a small but prosperous settlement - though a lot of them admittedly involve politics. What sort of story would you like Atusa to have next?
In fairness, looking back on it, I did indicate that I wanted Atusa to unify the Faqari clans under her banner, that being the command the Unconquered Sun had given her upon her Exaltation. It just felt like a "Zenith" thing to do for me.Can do. I can see how having a liege crimps that narrative. My mistake was thinking we were telling the story of how Atusa came to unite and lead the southern clans. With Presence 4 + Charisma 5 + a few Solar Presence Charms, plus Dex 5 + Melee 5 + a MA up to the Form, I figured you'd persuade your way into leadership in short order, and kill/subdue anyone who wouldn't fall into line. Atusa can overcome any mortal's Resolve effortlessly, especially if it's a subject she believes in strongly, so it's only a matter of time before she persuades any group of anything she pleases, and she can win just about any naval engagement or defeat any mortal crew in boarding, so she can overcome some serious disadvantages in conquest. You were more reserved with your superpowers than I expected, so things were going to be a bit more of a slow burn, but I was fine with that. Keeping a low profile has advantages - like not attracting unwanted attention from powerful things before you're ready to take them on.
I think I'd like to stick to my original goal of unifying the clans not following the Ur Pharaoh, simply because it was my initial plan. As for Atusa's path, my current intention for the timeskip is to have it so that the Fayum Clan descends into violent civil war, with some or all of the brothers ending up dead, and the Fayum power bloc ultimately collapsing and dissolving. This would leave the Hematti and the other surviving vassal clans independent, and from there they'd go on to settle the area around the manse. Obviously it could use a little more detail than this though.We can absolutely instead have you be absolute and beloved sovereign of your own domain. Do you still want to aspire to ruling over all the southern clans, or are your aspirations limited to leading your people to prosperity and happiness? What does Atusa's path to becoming such an influential figure look like?
Okay. Who exactly are they going after again?I think Renna and Morrolan have large scale conquest in mind, so war is in the cards no matter which path Atusa takes, but her role in the war could vary significantly.
As far as I understand, the answer is, 'Yes' or 'All of the above'. I think Sherwood and Psychie expressed an interest in conquering literally everything and ushering in a new Solar+Lunar empire, but I will leave it to them to clarify.Okay. Who exactly are they going after again?
I understand. That's mostly what the civil war was about. The obvious suffering inflicted by the civil war, the weakness and immorality of the Fayum, and the possible death of one or all of the heirs would give Atusa lawful good justification for taking over by simply persuading everyone to swear fealty to her instead. That surreal moment when you're standing on the deck of a burning ship, the air thick with the scent of blood and burning flesh, and filled with the screams of the dying, and you realize you're all one people, sisters and cousins butchering each other for nothing, only serving to keep each other too weak to throw off the yoke of the Principate, and you decide no more. Or your spectacular success against the Fae in a crusade could cause a power bloc to form around Atusa as a messiah, with her adherents pushing her to take over to end the threat of the Fae once and for all. You can be Lawful Good and still break unjust rules to start a revolution to bring about a better world! The deck was also stacked in your favour in a few ways, including the thunderbirds are obsessed with all the ceremonies happening during daylight/sunset/sunrise and draping things in gold because they're lawful good emissaries of the UCS kicked out of Achaea by REDACTED, returned to restore justice to the land, and would flip to your side if you were outed as a Solar, leaving Chumiren high and dry.I wouldn't want her to rebel without an honourable, justified, non-selfish reason.
Sorry about that. Because Exalted combat is so heavy, I usually hesitate to roll JB for easy opponents and just declare a roll-off or let you narrate how you win if you're obviously superior, like with the crews assaulting your ship before Acekara. The Guardian has serious weaknesses - its excellency is keyed off of the severity of the laws the opponent has broken, and it's lawful to a fault, so there are ways to make it way easier to fight or even have it serve you by messing with the tablet of laws, but it was indeed designed by its creator to prevent even a handful of Exalted from being able to easily enter the armoury behind it without permission. It's a dangerous enemy. I shouldn't have had it abuse the falling damage mechanics against you, though - they're a bit broken in 3e. I should have reserved that for if Renna and Morrolan joined you in fighting it.feeling a bit ineffectual after Atusa's narrow victory against Acekara and her getting her butt kicked by that guardian
So they're basically the Big Bad Duumvirate from Atusa's perspective. Fair enough.As far as I understand, the answer is, 'Yes' or 'All of the above'. I think Sherwood and Psychie expressed an interest in conquering literally everything and ushering in a new Solar+Lunar empire, but I will leave it to them to clarify.
When you put it that way, I'm actually going to reconsider dropping the whole civil war plotline. It certainly ties in with my ambitions for Atusa.I understand. That's mostly what the civil war was about. The obvious suffering inflicted by the civil war, the weakness and immorality of the Fayum, and the possible death of one or all of the heirs would give Atusa lawful good justification for taking over by simply persuading everyone to swear fealty to her instead. That surreal moment when you're standing on the deck of a burning ship, the air thick with the scent of blood and burning flesh, and filled with the screams of the dying, and you realize you're all one people, sisters and cousins butchering each other for nothing, only serving to keep each other too weak to throw off the yoke of the Principate, and you decide no more. Or your spectacular success against the Fae in a crusade could cause a power bloc to form around Atusa as a messiah, with her adherents pushing her to take over to end the threat of the Fae once and for all. You can be Lawful Good and still break unjust rules to start a revolution to bring about a better world! The deck was also stacked in your favour in a few ways, including the thunderbirds are obsessed with all the ceremonies happening during daylight/sunset/sunrise and draping things in gold because they're lawful good emissaries of the UCS kicked out of Achaea by REDACTED, returned to restore justice to the land, and would flip to your side if you were outed as a Solar, leaving Chumiren high and dry.
What about, "Under my enlightened rule the clans will be safer, happier, and more prosperous. The Fae will be brought to heel, the pointless wars between the clans will end, and we will force the Sassarin to give us better trade terms by negotiating as a bloc. Plus Chumiren's kind of a dick." Sometimes you have to rebel because the Unconquered Sun didn't tell you to sit around and wait for the opportune moment to make everyone's life better, he told you to get it done. The laws of mortals aren't the laws of the Unconquered Sun, and the law isn't always just. Feudalism achieves its goals of collective defense and enriching the elite, but it's awful for everyone on the bottom.
All that being said, Atusa's internal conflict over whether to act for the betterment of her people if it means breaking their laws is great drama fodder, and could lead to character growth if PCs/NPCs help her develop a new perspective.
It's safe to say that I'm still getting used to the combat system of this game. And that with the benefit of hindsight, it might have been better for me to either pick a different martial art, or go with Melee Charms instead and use the extra 4 background points for something else. Back then though, I think I was just looking to experiment around and try something new, seeing as I already had a Melee-based fighter in Kuaidao, and I didn't look to see how Steel Devil Style held up in an actual fight.Sorry about that. Because Exalted combat is so heavy, I usually hesitate to roll JB for easy opponents and just declare a roll-off or let you narrate how you win if you're obviously superior, like with the crews assaulting your ship before Acekara. The Guardian has serious weaknesses - its excellency is keyed off of the severity of the laws the opponent has broken, and it's lawful to a fault, so there are ways to make it way easier to fight or even have it serve you by messing with the tablet of laws, but it was indeed designed by its creator to prevent even a handful of Exalted from being able to easily enter the armoury behind it without permission. It's a dangerous enemy. I shouldn't have had it abuse the falling damage mechanics against you, though - they're a bit broken in 3e. I should have reserved that for if Renna and Morrolan joined you in fighting it.
Acekara is tricky. It wasn't my intent to demoralize - 3e combat is a tricky beast to tune, but I should err on the side of making combat too easy, especially if you're fighting alone. I wanted to establish the Fae as a credible threat and I figured the Cataphract stats were dangerous but not overwhelming. If all five of you were there, obviously Acekara wouldn't last two rounds. One rule of Exalted combat is, against an enemy like a Raksha that doesn't have an Excellency and thus doesn't really depend on motes, it's really important to go big or go home. Full excellencies on everything until you run out to try to take the enemy down fast is generally the key, because enemies like Raksha that don't have excellencies or much in the way of expensive Charms will outlast you in a long fight. Wound penalties are brutal, and typically the first one to inflict them wins. The need for max excellencies is especially true for a Martial Art like yours, where net successes on your hits are extremely important for triggering your best effects. Against a strong opponent you basically need 18 hits on your attack roll to pull out your best tricks, which is why the MA is considered one of the weaker ones, and best at absolutely crushing foes you already outclass, or enemies that have high soak but low defences, where you might need a mere 9-12 hits. I'll make sure Atusa faces more enemies that are low defence, high something else to make sure you have a chance to pull off your more powerful attack Charms. Cleaving through large but undisciplined battlegroups like massive zombie hordes is a good example of something Atusa would excel at.
Edit: We can also look at making some house ruled modifications to buff it a bit. Maybe lowering the thresholds to 1.5x and 2x defense instead of 2x and 3x.
Ah, yeah, sorry about that. I was actually indicating that I wouldn't mind if you wanted to do the next scene, i.e continue towards the civil war starting in earnest. But I can understand if it wasn't quite clear.Yes, I was. You had said you wanted to set your own next scene, and hadn't indicated you no longer wished to do so, so I assumed you were saying you had changed your mind about what sort of scene you wanted to set.
Alright, so would you like me to skip forward to the presumptive end of the civil war and the point where Atusa reaches her breaking point, and fixes all the things?
No need to apologize - misunderstandings happen. I can see how you thought I'd read it that way. If you'd like to handle the skip you're welcome to.
For flavour, Sakhomet has found a way to carve his name on the tablet without the permission of the djinn, so during the chaos he'll claim the grudging loyalty of the Fayum Djinn and thus nominal command of their sandships, but committing a grave transgression against tradition in the process that makes him a lot of enemies. Kotahmun will claim the loyalty of around half the crews and a handful of thunderbirds, but have no ships for them to fly without the djinn. Chumiren will suddenly have half a navy with no ships, so will scramble to have the thunderbirds sort out a way to power his ships without djinn. They'll figure it out, but not be particularly good at it.
After all is said and done, Chumiren will have half the Fayum fleet with slow ships but deadly kites, Sakhomet will have half the Fayum fleet with regular kites and no crews, and Kotahmun will have half the crews and very few slow ships. If Sakhomet and Kotahmun come to an agreement, they'll be able to shore up most of their weaknesses. Regardless, all three will be heavily dependent on which and how many of the vassals they can call to their banner.
This split was designed to make sure the Hematti fleet was going to be a decisive contribution no matter which side it landed on - even if that side was opposing all three.
Hmm. When you put it that way, I'm probably going to stick to boosting my Resources to 4, at least for the time being.Getting to Resources 5 is a big deal. It's basically a logarithmic scale, so there's a big jump from 4 to 5. That's a share in the wealth of empires right there. There aren't many in Creation outside the Dynasty with Resources 5. The Despot of Gem, probably. The Ur-Pharoah and the most powerful of Sassarin princes. If Atusa captures and takes a sizable tribute from all of the trade in the southern desert, plus significantly enhancing the wealth of the desert somehow by adding new industries/extracting new valuable resources, probably through help from your sorcerously and scholarly inclined friends, I'd say that would justify Resources 5.