Over a Mug of Ale [For A Better Age]

Character looks good thus far Momo.


So it seems we are in the middle of a disagreement on exactly what to do. The main points of contention seem to be:


1. How to deal with Harbinger


-You either want to try and fight his army, or try to strait up assassinate him.


2. What to do with Diamond Refuge.


If anything I can set up a voting thread to help deal with this issue, but we need to try and get this back on track.


Edit: I'm also considering throwing out another unexpected plot I was thinking about triggering to give you guys something to do.
 
Asyk is all for taking down the deathknight. Forces of the Underworld are the kinds of thing he fought against in the name of the US all his life.
 
I'll see about getting a new thread up in the next couple of days to get this game moving again considering we seemed to have stalled to a certain point on this issue.
 
Sorry about me falling down on the job as of late. I've just been completely weighed down by work (worked the past seven days strait at work) and school. I hope to try and get some momentum going again in a few days when I can get a day off.
 
Sorry I am so damn slow with character creation. Especially with this much XP it can be daunting, but I am almost done whittling down all the charms and spells I was looking into.
 
So I finally finished slogging through all the books and picking out which charms/spells I want and trimming it down to what I can afford.


Two things:


1. I went over by 1xp, I can change my combo if this isn't cool.


2. Could Ash and Tears Banquet, page 34 of Glories Luna, be brought down to Essence 4, Int 4 so it is more in line with the knack to assume demon forms? I have seen this as a common house-rule.
 
magnificentmomo said:
So I finally finished slogging through all the books and picking out which charms/spells I want and trimming it down to what I can afford.
Two things:


1. I went over by 1xp, I can change my combo if this isn't cool.


2. Could Ash and Tears Banquet, page 34 of Glories Luna, be brought down to Essence 4, Int 4 so it is more in line with the knack to assume demon forms? I have seen this as a common house-rule.
Click to expand...
Both of those sound fine. We can just have a XP debt for the first issue.


I should have a new post up Thursday.
 
I got in unexpectedly late today due to unforeseen problems, and its taking me a bit to get back into the groove of writing. I’ll make it a priority to get something up this Friday.
 
Sorry everyone, just hit a busy period over the past few day. I plan to have a post up on either Sunday or Monday depending on how things turn out.
 
I should have a new post up either Friday night or sometime Saturday. Work has just been eating up my time as of late.
 
So I realize I'm behind on XP expenditure as well as going over just what Ann was doing during the year of downtime (much less grand than everyone else, but also important). Try and get that done soon.


Edit: so just double-checking, our XP totals for chapters 3 and 4 total up to 64, right? (18 pages*3 + 10 for a year passing)
 
So unless my above math was wrong, I've spent my exp. Unless you object, Archie, I've gone 4exp into debt.


I'd also like to make a request: may I go into 12 more debt in order to pick up a final dot of Conviction? It'll all be paid off at the end of the scene.
 
Alright everyone, we are reaching near the end of the current chapter, and so we are going to need to decide what we are going to be doing next. The Skandir are of course still and issue, what's to be done with Diamond Refuge needs to be decided and acted upon, and Yu Shan has deccided to throw you a curve ball.
 
So since it's taking forever for me to get something up regarding the past in-game year, owing to the fact that playing an Eclipse with the right focuses can allow you to get a bunch of stuff done very fast, I'm just going to go ahead and post the approved write-up of events Ann worked on.


If I find myself strapped for a way to make it shorter (or, at least, easier to read) I'll just post it into the IC thread, too.


First of all, the conclusion of the story he'd ride off to contact outlying Icewalker tribes, using Hero Rides Away to hit Icehold and the Valhal with an Intimacy.


Using the advice of the Valhal he'd get in contact with those tribes not currently within Deathknight-held territory, and offer them the option of collaboration and eventual absorption into the military and culture that the Fulcrum is building. The benefits for this are many: guaranteed shelter and supplies during harder months, aid when needed, and bragging rights. Use of Listener-Swaying Argument ensures that those tribal chiefs who don't accept are likely to be murdered and replaced by their fellows, and those entire tribes which adamantly resist (likely because they pride themselves on strength and brutality) find their stubborn leaders thrown into the distance by Horizon-Hurling Tactic.


Those chiefs and wisemen/wisewomen who accept are branded through Heavenly-Mandate Marking, and instructed to pray regularly with updates on the region. They are given a leopard-standard banner treated with Signs-As-Symbols Methodology, intended to ward off Varajtul and other attacks, and prevent conflict with other Icewalker tribes that have been brought into the fold.


The gods of these tribes are coerced; they cannot reasonably go against the will of their tribes, in most cases, but are assured that, as part of this effort, they will be incorporated into the prayers of EVERY assimilated tribe, lessening their individual power over their groups but increasing the prayer they receive. Tribes are encouraged to do this through orders and through the use of Taboo-Inflicting Diatribe.


Upon returning, Anoké uses his 2nd Bureaucracy Excellency and Speed the Wheels to accomplish a number of things. First he sorts out the economic and social issues that come with abolishing Icehold's feudal system, and the purchase of property and relocation for those centered around the Icehold manse's construction. He oversees and handles the dividing up of the late nobility's land.Most of the land near the city is prepared for farming, intended to be set within the manse's eventual range. However, large sections of it are used to construct small-to-medium towns, to make good on promises to the tribals as well as all the other benefits that come from having a place ready for settling and expansion. An aerie is constructed some distance from but still within sight of the city, to house and train feral pterok.


Icehold's shipyard is expanded, and more boats are ordered into construction, increasing their navy by orders of magnitude within the year. At the same time he sees to it--likely with aid from Alfruin and Narrante--that services expand to the construction of airboats as well, unable to deny the tactical advantage air superiority provides.


Rock is quarried down from the region's volcano, and used to begin building roads, first among the Fulcrum-controlled regions outside the wall--such as Valhal territory--then further out; none come close to approaching "nearby" cities, but they serve as a foundation as well as an invitation to them.


The materials and labor for these projects comes from many sources. The predominant source of exotic materials is acquired from the Guild, through use of Cen's oathsworn agreement and applications of Insightful Buyer Technique, making even the most obscure things easy to obtain. Slaves are purchased from the Guild, and given an option between a year of military service or a year of construction/farming work, followed by freedom, citizenship, and a chance for further employment if they desire it; in the meantime they are fed and housed on Icehold land.


Lumber is obtained by deforesting the immediate outskirts of Icehold, making way for further expansion. Icewalkers are deputized into this work in exchange for shelter, alongslide slaves, paid workers, and even some younger Iceholders who have volunteered as part of a more-extensive program to explore other avenues in life after the expanding of available jobs within the society. Food is also obtained by exchanging equipment for meat with assimilated tribes, as well as traditional farming and trade through the Guild.


Once the production Manses are up and running, there is a brief period where they are used to build useful tools and items for the city (ploughs, clothing, simple machines) before they are put into service creating Perfect Breastplates, Perfect Spears, and Perfect Shields. These are distributed to the army, and some to those tribes who have shown diligence and loyalty in their new pacts. The farmland, now free of pests and unideal temperatures, produces massive stores of food which are initially gifted to and then traded through the Guild, holding up Anoké's agreement with Cen. Some food is "given" to assimilated tribes, skirting the boundaries of this oath as they are technically a part of the nascent soon-to-be empire. The rest is kept; fear of shortfall evaporates quickly, with the realization that the expansion of usable land and the protection the manse provides against Ascending Air means that hard months are over with.


The city's yozi cults are made the focus of an eradication campaign; propaganda and reward posters treated with Signs-As-Symbols Methodology see mass confessions, as well as intelligence against the most-resilient cells. Confessors receive a variety of punishments related to the severity of their crimes and the level of aid they provide. The worst receive a painless, private execution and a quick burning, while the most minor get off with small fines and perhaps a period of indentured servitude. They all receive repeated conditioning through Linguistics Charms, to make certain they will not relapse. Cultists captured through testimony are put to death.


The "adopted" orphans of the nobility are housed within the palace, given dorms, and on a regular basis are brought out to train with Anoké, Glorious Blessed Horizon, and Bjarn, preparing them to learn Golden Janissary Style. They are regularly subjected to UMI, through kind letters from Anoké, leopard-standard cloaks, and Presence Charms. By year's end the eldest among them, no older than 13 or 14, are the equals of Icehold's soldiers. Some of them are granted the gift of enlightenment, and learn the most basic Golden Janissary Charms after personally being called to kill a captured Yozi cultist. The eldest are placed in charge of the youngest, and all bear the leopard mark over their hearts.


God-blooded and Dragon-Blooded are not drafted to serve Icehold. However, they are encouraged with contract and monetary incentives, and many have their decision influenced through the many Charm-enhanced pieces of propaganda art and posters that eventually come to fill the city. These messages range from anything as large to "join a social program" to things as small as "be polite" or "get an education."


By year's end the surrounding territories are filled with Icewalkers in metal armor and wielding fresh weapons, who bow their heads to the noonday sun and regularly make trips back to Icehold to share the spoils of their hunts, or who lend to other nearby tribes who also pay tribute to the gods of the hunt, all carrying the banner of the white-gold leopard. A road stretches a quarter of the way to Diamond Refuge, like an extended hand. The military and workforce of Icehold swell with young men and women looking to break from their fathers' professions, recently-civilized Icewalkers, and soon-to-be-free slaves. Stomach-high walls mark the boundaries of crops, villages, worker barracks, and future planting areas. Dozens of ships are docked in the port, airboats ready to be inflated and launched at a moment's notice. In the distance, along the coast, supervised feral pterok fly the skies, assisted by their intelligent brethren as they begin the trip towards sapience. The occasional worker shortage is supplemented by summoned elementals, always treated decently and rotated out, not wishing to earn their disdain.


The Icehold Manse towers above it all. From his home and office near the peak, Anoké looks out across the changed landscape as he meditates and dictates, listening to the wishes and prayers of the lands and peoples the Fulcrum has claimed, handing down papers and orders from on high.


So yeah. Speed the Wheels, a fast mount, oathsworn trade deals (aided by Insightful Buyer Technique), and free access to a summonable workforce allows for a whole lot of things. The brainwashing, too. The brainwashing helps.
 
I mentioned this before but not publicly: Since Anoke started gathering Icewalker tribes and collecting them like trading cards, Alfrun's started recruiting from their ranks to train the Fifth Arm's sorcerous regiment. Only around a dozen or so students, all of whom need to be trained in the occult and initiated into the sorcerous mysteries, who gain a lot of power and status, in exchange for swearing an oath of service to the Fifth Arm.


Next time we need a summoned work-force, or are crafting proper artifacts, or have need of spells for turning the tides of battle, we should have a far easier time of it.


Eventually, anyway.


In the meantime, I have something I'd like to do. Gonna run it over by PM.
 
Asyk has seen just how useful Obsidian Butterflies has been in defense of the city, and so has plans to hammer basic sorcery knowledge into the heads of his kind, also. Having a dozen Pterok casing that spell side by side to sweep a battlefield is a bonus that can't be overlooked.
 
I should be able to get a post up either Monday or Tuesday. Just been having a busy weekend.


I recommend you guys decide on what you want your next move to be considering you have a number of options available to you.
 
I've suggested this privately, now to toss it out there: Since things like preparations to confront the Skandir and what-not are not my domain, nor the domain of a few others, I suggest a side-quest for those without an interest in politics. Alfrun, knowing a great battle approaches, will suggest seeking out the means to ensure victory soundly for Icehold and the Fifth Arm. Namely, this will be done by going somewhere dangerous (the Wyld, a shadowland, a demense, a freehold, etc.) and getting exotic components with which to build grand tools to allow the warriors of Icehold to take the day.


I'm thinking three 3-dot artifacts (maybe one of them raised to a four dot) at the moment, one for Bjarn, one for Anoke, one for Asyk, which will make combat against the dead far easier.


It's good old fashioned barbarian questing!
 
Sorry for the delay, this week has just been unexpectedly busy with me working the past 6 days, and getting called in unexpectedly.


But to get back to business, I kind of like the idea of the exotic materials quest for something fun and unique to do. Whatever you guys would like to do. But we do need to have an idea of what our next step will be. I am working on bringing Momo’s character into the fold, and I will try and pull the trigger on that as soon as I can.
 
At the moment, the best place(s) I can think to go component hunting are:


-Marama's Fell


-A local freehold


-Rajtul


The three artifacts I'm thinking of building are:


-Draugodr; a daiklave that seers the flesh of the undead and the epherma of spirits


-Gjaldangr; a bow which can fire arrows that transform into nets or disappate non-lethally against their target


-An unnamed Infinite Resplendance Amulet for Anoke


In Marama's Fell, we can get a lot of useful components for Draugodr, such as a ghost willing to become a part of the artifact. In a Freehold, we can get literal glory incarnate and the brightness of conviction for the IRA. On Rajtul, we can find the fossilized bones of the Pterok who sacrificed themselves for their own kind.


I'm sure we can find all the components we'd need in one place, but these are really the best for each.
 
So have we lost MorkaisChosen?


Anyway, Ann's got himself a new plan. He wants to hold a meeting in the manse, try to gain Nasamara's attention through sacrifice, and pick his brain to get an assessment of the situation in Heaven.


Regardless of how that pans out, he also wants to see about getting in contact with other Exalted currently of note, most notably the Directional Animals, so as to assemble a delegation representing Solar interests at large in the world currently, in order to present a more unified face when they are called to Heaven (as well as serve as a warning for things to comes; this is For a Better Age).


Also maybe discuss tightening their grip on trades by turning Cen Contractor into a potential agent/Charm vector in the Guild.
 
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