Need help with new campaign

[DasDom]

Back in the day, I run a D&D campaign which was a total blast, aside being a D&D campaign... Now I'm tasked with running a new campaign, I thought about unearthing my former project, and transfer it to a setting/system I'm much more comfortable with...Exalted!


But now I'm a bit unsure how to fit my campaigninto creation , so I hope for your collective wisdom.


The plot summarises basically as the following(I got rid of elves and vikings):


The game takes place on an island inhabited by warring tribes. A young wizard found a mysterious entity, with which he made a pact.The entity with whom he made the deal was in fact a component soul of an ancient god, who was smitten down and imprisoned at the dawn of time. Armed with magical lore and power granted by the beast, he went and conquered the island, making himself King and the worship of his benefactor the only legal religion. The god thus gained power from worship, and as his power spread, it visibily tainted the land, rendering it barren and cursed in places.


The actual game starts a hundred or so years later, with the monarchy firmly in place. A hidden Loremaster trains a champion to free the land of the kings reign. Some others join them on this quest. The first thing they are supposed to do is finding a golden book, which contains the lore neccessary to battle the evil poisening the land. Advised by the book, the heroes have to collect magic gems bound to the elements, which brought together create a mighty essence of life itself, able to bind the beast and heal the land.


The twist of this whole setup is that the benevolent loremaster and the tyrannical king are one and the same person. The King tries to get his hands on the essence of life because with this essence he could ascent to godhood himself and thus escape the service for his master. All his attempts to gain the book so far failed due to his nature being tempered with by his master, so he needs real heroes to best the tests and convince the powers guarding the book to hand it out. Since he can't find some, he takes upon himself to train some himself.


After the betrayal being revealed, the heroes have to face both him and his master to save the island and possibly the world (rampaging ancient god of evil are bad for real estate value and such...)


My major problem is twofold:


1) How do I fit in the whole ancient godbeast pact into exalted? And what about the taint, which is really important? (Deathlords come to mind, but they might bit a wee bit powerful, and fairly obvious...discovering the connection between King and taint was one of the cooler parts of the first run) While the king shouldn't be Deathlordlevel unbeatable, he needs henchmen able to challenge exalted.


2) How to fit the island into the political landscape of creation...exspecially with the religious angle(siddies or censors or even Immaculates might find this monotheistic religion really...odd...although it's going to be well packaged)

 

[MorkaisChosen]

Ancient Godbast pact? Well, maybe taking inspiration from Keychain of Creation, you could say it's a borderline-Behemoth Yozi-loyal God, probably of a concept that's not big right now.


The rest? Dunno.

 

[Arrghus]

1) Cecelyne, the Endless Desert is a Yozi, a titanic, world-creating entity composed of dozens of smaller, each individually titanic entities known as Third Circle Demons (who then each have their own smaller parts, but that's irrelevant here). Five thousand years ago, at the end of a great war in which reality itself was reshaped so as to be almost unrecognizable compared to how it was before, she was imprisoned in a pocket dimension crafted from her own body.


Part of her powers, as explained in The Manual of Exalted Power: The Infernals, involves creating Holy Lands, small areas tainted by demonic power to become patches of utterly inhospitable sand (including the rock beneath). If you pray to Cecelyne in such patches, the chance she notices increases, and the patch also grows in size (though if it gets too large, ten square miles to be precise, Yu-Shan's sensors start going off)


Another part of her powers is the proverbial deal with the Devil. Cecelyne grants you power, wealth, what have you, and in return you have to do what she wants or get hit with an Eclipse Oath (in other words, any attempt to go against her will be met with a botch). While this power isn't technically available to her Third Circle Demons', Cecelyne's nature is defined by the aforementioned critters, and it is extremely unlikely that she doesn't have at least one dedicated to making deals (let's call it Ibaalis, the Desirous Tempter, Ninth Soul of Cecelyne). There is a version that makes you even stronger, called an Investiture of Infernal Glory, or Akuma, but that one costs you your free will, permanently, so it doesn't seem very appropriate here.


Oh, and if you want mooks, make him a Sorcerer, possibly of the Second Circle. Have him summon demons till his ears bleed. Profit. Also, you can snare other people with aforementioned wish-granting.


2) Creation is huge, man. Just put the island properly far away from the Realm, no problem. The censors are corrupt and lazy, the Sidereals are overworked (demonic pirates, alien faeries and the second most active Deathlord also roam the area, which, btw actually has fewer Siddies in it than the others, so uh yeah) and the Immaculate Order, while powerful, has a limited reach post-Contagion.


3) My own stuff here. Sorry if I dumbed it down too much, didn't know how much you knew, better safe than sorry. Bring back the vikings, dude, vikings are awesome and totally appropriate in Exalted's "everything and the kitchen sink" mentality (elves, less so, since they're roleplaying, soul-eating monsters from outer space in this setting).

 

[MorkaisChosen]

Oh, definitely put the Vikings in. I'm told they're not uncommon in the Northwest.

 

[DasDom]

@Arrghus: Thanks!


I've got nearly every sourcebook from 1st edition and the whole 2nd, 'cause I inherited a whole collection. I even read most of it, but I tend to get lost within the material...Dumb down how much you want, if your ideas are this great.


-Cecyline is a fantastic idea, haven't thought of her somehow.


-Not sure about Vikings, I love Martial Arts, and I'm not sure how my players will react to Kung-Fu Vikings...although this sounds like an awesome pitch: There be Kung-Fu Vikings!


-I could possibly stick the island into the bordermarches, protected by a reality engine, I wouldn't have problems with Yu-shan looking for the demon isle...also more Maneating Elves from the Outer chaos...


-Urges: As I understand it, an Urge utterly replaces the motivation of the Akuma, thereby leaving the King without wiggle room...what options do I have? And did I get this right: formely mortal/human Akumas can use celestial circle sorcery/martial arts?!

 

[MorkaisChosen]

Kung-fu Vikings? Three words. Seafaring Hero Style.


No idea what it's like 'cause I don't have Scroll of the Monk, unfortunately.

 

[Persell]

Sounds like a cool idea for an opening story, but be prepared for a group of Exalts to chew through this scenario in 2-3 sessions. Less if the players have a good grasp on the system.


It will give the players an excellent power base to expand from though.

 

[DasDom]

The players have NO grasp of the system, so I'll start slowly and see how it goes...

 

[Persell]

If they're mortals you can expect them to die if someone looks at them hard. Mortals lose. Period.


I would recommend not starting them as mortals, except maybe quick scenes covering their exaltations. What better way to get your players into the head space of Exalted than setting up the situation you described, then letting the players realize they can resolve in a few sessions what would have taken months in D&D.

 

[DasDom]

Yeah, that sounds like an idea...I've started with mortals once before, and now they've got a huge imbalance between ruling a nation of 12 Million people and their personal growth as exalted...to the point where I took them to Rathess. Now they can "level" in peace before getting assailed by my personal version of Raksi, who is an Akuma with Solar circle Socrery in my game...she'll start fighting the conflict "assymetrically" by sending some 2nd Circle demons to torment the players nation...


As for the King: how about making him an inheritance 5 Demonblood? He would have already initiated into Sorcery as a mortal, he could use terrestrial martial arts and spirit charms (essence plethora!). I could use other Demonblooded as Henchmen, and demons as shock troops (pun intendet), perhaps the odd corrupted dragonblooded thrown in for good measure.


For a almost completly mundane island, this should be enough to rule in blood, but also give the players a fighting chance.

 

[Arrghus]

Okay, that's impressive. Thanks for all the compliments. Unfortunately, I'm terrible at game balance, being easily distracted by all the shiny fluff, so I have no idea how well a Sorcerer demonblood would fare (I suspect he'd get curbstomped, though). Depends on what kind of Exalts the PCs are too, I guess.


Kung-Fu Vikings is an awesome idea. Since this is the Bordermarches, though, you better make them mutant Kung-Fu Vikings, just to be sure (or better, Half-Walrus Kung-Fu Vikings).


Yes, becoming an Akuma costs you your free will, meaning zero "wriggle room". A series of Endowments and other divine blessings, however, does not, and Third Circle Demons have something called Panoply Charms, unique powers which a prospective patron could very possibly use to give the King some unique, special edges.


Akumatizing mortals is generally frowned upon, and there's no reason not to make it an Outcaste DB. By the Rules As Written, however, "mortal Akuma" do gain access to Sapphire Sorcery, but not Celestial Martial Arts (a logical extension of that same RAW, however, would allow them to learn CMA as DBs normally do).

 

[josiah42]

If they're mortals you can expect them to die if someone looks at them hard. Mortals lose. Period.

NOooooooo! I disagree.


We started off my Solars game as heroic mortals and did a good nine scenarios of adventuring around on the Blessed Isle. It was a lot of fun, and because there were less mechanics to worry about the story moved very fast. They fought off a Chakra Orchid outbreak (Oadenol's), local gods, jadeborn, underfolk, First Circle Demons and more. Mortals only seem underpowered when you prop them up against the over the top Exalted. Heroic Mortals are roughly equivalent to D&D characters. /soapbox


Still, everything is bigger in Exalted. I'd recommend the island have multiple cities on it. Well prepared Exalted are capable of dog-piling on things that are vastly superior to them (see also Primordial War). I've had my Essence 4 group kill several Essence 6 DBs. I'd be concerned they'd tear through a Demonblood unless he plays it safe. Second Circle Demons would be good hench for the Exalted. Why not make the king an Infernal and give him more xp than the party? That should mitigate the dogpile effect and allow for a reasonable size campaign. One more thing, the gems to restore the island? Either that's reagents for a custom spell or they should plug into a First Age artifact.

 

[Ncolic]

I think if you make the king an Infernal (which actually fits the story perfectly, selling his soul to gain power but not losing free will). Make him high essesnce like 6-7 ish with past lives 5(or even 6 dot) background , and he is trying to assend to primordialhood not godhood. the loremaster could be the first age solar in the king, who was one of the few survivors of the primordial war (who never died before and thus 6 dot on past live , he is very powerful and can influence the king quite a bit).


And then your chars can play solars (i dont think any other "good" exalted would fit here and succeed in the quest). You can make the players begin as mortal heroic characters. King will open their chakra's (aka enlighten them), teach them some terrestial martial arts ; i belive enlightened mortals can go as far as essence 3. After they face few challenges they can exalt as solars as a reward and there on you can power up your game quite abit.