Over a Mug of Ale [For A Better Age]

Enlightenment is easy enough. There's a Geomancy Procedure available for purchase for 1 exp at Occult 3. Allows you to enlighten a mortal over the course of a day. At E5, only a botch can screw up the ritual, since the difficulty is 5 - Essence.


Keep in mind, though: enlightening mortals en masse is risky. It puts all the power they need to cast sorcery, use any artifacts, and learn Terrestrial Styles in their hands, with no way to supervise it. Aegis-Inserts are convenient in that they're easy to produce (Alchemy Procedure for it, though countermagic destroy the product vs. making them as artifacts), limit their possible uses, and are easy to take away (see the mentioned countermagic).
 
True. Depends how many Gunzoshas we want, how we vet them, and where we pick them from.


I can think of a few people who've proven they're willing to follow a certain Exalt to Hell and back... :wink:
 
I agree with enlightenment being a bit risky since defection becomes a problem, even though these should be the loyal soldiers. That also presents a problem with my sealing them into their armor option.


The problem with the aegis insets wasn't their difficulty of production, it was the shortening of the lifespan, since it sounds like Morkais wants to use the Fangs as the beginning of the corps, and Bjarn probably wouldn't be too keen on shortening the life of his beloved Fangs.


Weren't devout priests going to be enlightened? Once 40k was mentioned, it made me think of making special armor for the priests and making them Inquisitioners... but that might be a little much.
 
Oh gods. We really shouldn't be turning Icehold into the Imperium. It would go badly wrong.


... We're fighting mutants, we have various fiery preachers, a crusade, and a Viking-analogue who's both an inspirational leader and a very skilled warrior, with a sense of humour, noticable compassion, and a fondness for feasting.


I accidentally put Logan Grimnar in our Exalted game.


e: Yeah, the Fangs look like a good place to start for a Gunzosha corps, and you're right. Bjarn doesn't want them to die.


It's gonna happen eventually, of course. Potential tragedy there...
 
Yeah, does seem a little excessive to me.


Plus, just think how Bjarn'd react to that one. That awkward sense of duty's been getting in the way so far, what with the blue furry horde and all, but check his Intimacies again.


Yeah. That one.


More difficult if you're permanently sealed in power armour.


There are ways and means to try and make sure people are loyal, of course...


(There's a point- are there any Solar Charms that allow you to magically preserve an Intimacy in someone else, so it's hard to get rid of it? HSDD has that sort of effect, though it may also be a sensible one to go on the Custom list for Bjarn, possibly branching off You Can Be More- something dedicated entirely to making an instilled intimacy tenacious.)
 
Dangerous territory. Nothing would stop other Exalted and Spirits from coming up with something that does the same thing to you. There are PLENTY of Charms that temporarily instill Intimacies (commitments) and with enough time and repeated use they become normal Intimacies anyway.


Best way to go about it is just keep up regular use of UMI Charms (Linguistics combos and charms are great for this, being permanent and fire-and-forget), pick up Sun King Radiance, and pick up 3 purchases of Heavenly Mandate Marking. Eventually everyone in an area will wind up with a positive Intimacy to you, and be less-likely to erode it when they realize they function and act better while doing so in your name.


Hero Rides Away is also useful for this, if used at the end of a story (I totally am going to).
 
OK. Keikan would likely be enlightening people for his own reasons, wedding the spiritual welfare and temporal positions of law together. Martial-artist Police Forces/Inquisitors/Knights Templar. That said, Keikan probably -will- have a problem with human sacrifices, even as a form of punishment. If it was unwilling human victims, Keikan'd likely treat it as murder, and if it was as a punishment for crimes, he would likely be against it as such beings would be "unworthy to be sacrificed". Not that he'd be against executing capital offenders, he'd have problems with offering them up.
 
Ah, I'd forgotten Sun King Radiance. Fortunately I've got Integrity favoured- that one very much suits Bjarn, though it's four Charms deep, so I may well go for it.


I can't remember- did Snowflake's ancestry get publicly acknowledged at any point, or is it still kinda private?
 
MorkaisChosen said:
I can't remember- did Snowflake's ancestry get publicly acknowledged at any point, or is it still kinda private?
Click to expand...
Snowflake's ancestory has been publicly acknowledged by this point. It has been known since a few days before the raid.


Also when did my campaign start to look like 40K? I missed that memo somewhere.
 
OK, thanks.


It's more the characters that are reminding me of 40K, mine in particular. Completely accidental...


I don't think I got a response on potential Moonsilver in the armoury that Volund could "borrow"- is there any?
 
MorkaisChosen said:
OK, thanks.
It's more the characters that are reminding me of 40K, mine in particular. Completely accidental...


I don't think I got a response on potential Moonsilver in the armoury that Volund could "borrow"- is there any?
Click to expand...
Ah right, forgot about that. Yea, there can be some Moonsilver in the armory that Volund can borrow permanently. Perhaps a certain armor left from a certain someone from the Second War, and Realm forgot to bring with them when they were expunged from Icehold...
 
Here are some of the numbers I promised.


Fangs of the Gale- 100


Icehold Militia- 2,000


Icehold Archers- 500


Icehold Palace Guard- 50


Vanessa’s Mercenaries- 300


Valhal Warriors- 1,000


Valhal Elites- 50


You may divide them up as you wish. I will base the Fangs mass combat stats based on the individual Morkais has for them on his character sheet. The Icehold Militia and Valhal warriors will be based off of Whitewall Militia in Scroll of Kings. The elites and palace guard I will base off the Hastlani Militia Wing: The Steel Ravens. Naturally you guys can mix and match as you desire.


I will probably be changing some minor things like drill, magnitude (based on your decisions of course), and might based on a number of factors. Likely each unit will at least have a drill of 3 based on the drilling of the armed forces, and Bjarn’s charm.


Also here are the War ratings of potential notable NPCs. There are also a number of Icehold officers and Valhal chieftains ready to take command, most of their War ratings are at a 2.


Irkuk Woodcut: 3


Sharp Snowflake: 3


Duke Walks: 3


Volund: 4


Vanessa: 4


General Rivers: 4


Maiden: 5


Horizon: 5


I can give any additional information you might need.
 
Right, so the Fangs have picked up a few extras.


I think Bjarn'd prefer to be leading the Fangs personally, what with them essentially being his personal unit, though that may note be the most tactically sensible choice- it'd probably be more effective if he was leading a larger lump. Vanessa leading her mercenaries as a reserve was suggested earlier IC, and it'd make sense to have Maiden and Horizon leading some nice big lumps of Valhals.


How many Varajtul are attacking (approximately), and is there anything much to pay attention to outside the city walls?


Assuming it's basically the walls to defend, I'd suggest elite units behind the breaches, as they're weak points, with all archers and stuff on the walls thinning them out before they get here. Season to taste with amusing Exalted (and Dragon King) tricks such as assassination of leaders and Death of Obsidian Butterflies.
 
I’m going to go over the specifics later in my next post that I am working on for the Battle thread (and make it sound more pretty in my usual way), but here is the rough order of battle for the Varajtul:


7,800 Varajtul Infantry


250 Varajtul Wyld mutant-reindeer-cavalry


300 Ancestor Ghosts


10 Giant Wyld Moles


20 Varajtul Ancestor Worshipping Monks


1 God of the Varajtul


1 Warlord Krakvar


1 Wyld Mother
 
Asyk has focused on training the bowmen since that is his main combat ability, so he would naturally gravitate to taking a bunch of the archers under his wing.


Also, something I never asked before, but does the armory have any Dragon King tech hiding in the corner collecitng dust? Also, I'm interested in eventually getting a artifact that is bascally a bottomless quiver of arrows. Solars have Archery Charms that provide them with ammo, I just wish I had access to something similar.
 
I’m sure Asyk could find about two dots worth of Dragon Kign artifacts stuffed away in a corner of the museum portion of the armory as a curiosity piece. Collecting dust of course. :wink:


I see no issues with eventually picking up an artifact that has an unlimited quiver for Asyk.
 
Need to head to lectures, no time to post in the Battle thread- but I just want to mention the dynamic between Horizon, Maiden and their father.


:lol:


Very :lol: .


EDIT: Aggravated damage cuts right through that one Jade Mountain Charm, right? So Enemy-Castigating Solar Judgement could come in handy. I think Keikan has a chance to shine here, especially with the combination of Shedding Infinite Radianced Zenith anima and a battlefield full of CoDs...


Can any of us actually punch dematerialised beings?
 
Double post for time.


Having checked the Mass Combat rules, it seems they're much more forgiving than I'd thought to special characters with low or no War dots, as they can use the commander's instead- it's almost like they wanted it to be OK to have mass combat when only one or two PCs took War...


So the general shape I'm thinking of is to have our low-War Exalts as Heroes (except Jorik, who'd work best as a Sorcerer in a bow-armed unit that isn't led by Asyk), attacking whatever seems convenient themselves or lending their potentially superior attacks to a less meleelicious, but more Warlike, commander- looks to me like that might be a good way to take down a few of these enemy leaders, too, as with their low Drill, the Varajtul aren't exactly gonna be able to keep 'em safe.


Sound good?
 
...You do realize that declaring the entire enemy force as Creatures of Darkness gives Keikan free reign to -utterly wreck- them all. Especially since Keikan just took Shedding Infinite Radiance, which boosts his anima power, and Rising Sun Soul, which makes his Anima count as natural sunlight for all intents and purposes. Unfortunately, Keikan doesn't have any charms that explicitly let him punch immaterial things, nor does he have Ghost Eating Technique. I'm not sure how the Zenith anima power affects ghosts with regards to burning corpses either.
 
Asyk can affect ghosts and spirits while immaterial. Its one of his path abilities. 8) I don't suppose their ghosts will be desolid for much of the fight, though. They have to solidify to affect others, right?
 
Spirits need to be material in order to hurt (material) others and be hurt (by material beings). Or they need to be possessing something (which not all spirits can do). And to put Spirits down you need Ghost-Eating Technique. Or hope that knocking them around enough causes them to either slip into Lethe or Oblivion rather than just dissipate (for ghosts, at least; gods always reform). It happens, sometimes.


Also, Saro, sunlight only dissipates/hurts HUNGRY Ghosts. Hungry ghosts appear when a person dies a particularly unhappy death, and cease to be after 3 days when the Hun moves on to the Underworld or Lethe. The animalistic Po continues to camp inside its body and attack anything that approaches. Not sure if the same sunlight issue applies to the Po, but there's enough to suggest it doesn't to the Hun.


Edit: I mean, these ancestor spirits are already standing in sunlight. Rising Sun Soul probably wouldn't do a thing.
 
Happy to hear you enjoyed the interaction between Horizon, Maiden, and Nasamara Morkais. I had a lot of fun writing it myself.


Yes, Aggravated damage would cut right through that damage dice soaking charm.


Also I completely forgot about Icehold’s siege artillery for your guy’s numbers. Ooops.


From what I am getting so far, for the commanders we are looking at:


500 Icehold Militia: Bjarn


100 Fangs of the Gale: Volund Bearskin


500 Valhal Warriors: Maiden


500 Valhal Warriors: Horizon


300 Vanessa’s Mercenaries: Vanessa


No Leader Assigned


Icehold Militia- 1,500


Icehold Palace Guard- 50


Valhal Elites- 50


Icehold Artillery: 100


If you wish the swing the numbers up or down just say so.
 
That looks feasible- oh, and I've got a good reason for the first bit IC! At this point, it's much more useful for Volund to watch Bjarn's large-scale back- that is, be ready to come in with a unit and pull his fat out of the fire.


Plues, potential epicness with the good ol' mid-battle meetup- may not happen, but it'd be fun if it did...


A thought: if Asyk's leading his archers, we could put General Rivers with the artillery and make Jorik a Sorcerer in that unit, so the General (who doesn't quite seem like a front-liner in temperament...) can direct some fairly strategic stuff with Jorik, almost completely unharmed by his lack of War (it effectively drops his Archery by one, as it's capped by the General's 4), getting to be badass and mark targets, which are then destroyed in a rain of fiery doom.


The most important question:


Wuffy. Does that sound like fun to you?


(If anyone else has strategic ideas, please chip in- I may be imagining things, as my personality swings that way sort of way, but it feels to me like we've been fairly Bjarn-centric for a while now and I don't want to dominate the whole game. Thing is, I've spent a fair bit of time planning the battle instead of doing number theory today... :oops: )
 
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