Dice The Redux of the Tale of a Falling Empire - OOC

[jaydude]

jaydude Don't forget that I'm still here. Just waiting for my chance to be introduced.

I haven't forgotten. But I was planning on introducing you in the next scene/after the timeskip. Apologies if I didn't make that clear.

Of course, I can certainly introduce you in the current scene if you wish. Perhaps have you come across the battle currently taking place.

 

[Sherwood]

No worries! I can wait. Just wanted to make sure you knew I had not forgotten about this.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Working on my post now!

 

[WlfSamurai]

jaydude is there enough space to keep at short distance on my mount and away from the lava to attack Steelscale at range?

 

[jaydude]

jaydude is there enough space to keep at short distance on my mount and away from the lava to attack Steelscale at range?

Heya. Sorry, but until Steelscale moves, he's at Medium Range from Taeran. However much that might change things.

 

[WlfSamurai]

No that’s fine. Just as long as I can safely keep out of the lava and throw at him.

 

[jaydude]

I'd like to use my stunt dice to buy Reflex Shot Technique.

Approved. Presumably you're using the milestone you got from the previous "session", so to speak.

 

[Rykon]

Hmmm... the spending dice for learning a charm got me thinking...

Assuming Manato still has unspent stunt dice from the defense, I'd like to pick up Many Attacks Technique this scene.

Edit: I don't know if he has a valid milestone yet though.

 

[jaydude]

Hmmm... the spending dice for learning a charm got me thinking...

Assuming Manato still has unspent stunt dice from the defense, I'd like to pick up Many Attacks Technique this scene.

Edit: I don't know if he has a valid milestone yet though.

You're allowed to spend minor milestones - of which each of you has earned one so far - to either learn new Charms or increase an Ability by +1. Assuming that you haven't used your milestone for anything else yet, you can go ahead and learn that Charm.

 

[Chowlett]

I think WlfSamurai was meaning he'd spend the stunt dice he just declined to use on the roll to buy the charm, as I did with the Excellency a little earlier.

 

[jaydude]

I've just posted a question on the Exalted Discord, and the two people who've answered so far say that you do need to expend Milestones to get Charms/Merits gained through Stunt Dice. From that, I'm guessing that the main advantage of using Stunt Dice in this manner is that you don't have to spend time training/building up the Merit in question.

Sorry if I've disappointed anyone here, but I think that's just the way it is. Otherwise, I fear players could theoretically pick up an additional new Merit/Charm every session.

 

[Chowlett]

That's fine - I did think it seemed a little strong! I didn't have a milestone in hand for the Excellency; do you want me to remove it, or just make it absorb the next Milestone I earn?

 

[jaydude]

That's fine - I did think it seemed a little strong! I didn't have a milestone in hand for the Excellency; do you want me to remove it, or just make it absorb the next Milestone I earn?

I'll let you do the latter, unless you don't want to have the Excellency anymore.

 

[Rykon]

Got a question for you jaydude while I'm considering options this round.

What happened to the 6 Power granted from Kitava's rally action? Was that forfeited because it wasn't used immediately?

I'm still trying to understand how things are supposed to work as we get rolling with this edition. So I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something in the rules.

On a related note, Manato should have 1 additional power for damage caused by the eruption point.

 

[jaydude]

I've looked through both the manuscript and the previous posts, and yeah, Manato should have gotten another 6 Power from Kitava's last Rally action, and another 1 power from the damage caused by the eruption point. I simply forgot to update the power ratings section accordingly, and for that I apologise.

I've corrected the power ratings section accordingly. With 7 Power, Manato can use a Decisive Attack against Steelscale if he does both a Move Action (Reflexive) and a Rush Attack in order to get across the two Range Bands between himself and the tyrant lizard.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Approved. Presumably you're using the milestone you got from the previous "session", so to speak.

Yeah, I'll use my milestone. Thanks and thanks for clarifying how it works.

Also, as we're talking about the rules, I don't think we get the upgrades within Charms for free after achieving the ability rating. We talked it, but I think I read some where that that's not how it works. You have to buy the upgrades. I don't know if that's true or not, but wanted to mention it. If it is true, my Charms are a mess.

 

[Random Word]

If I recall correctly, and it's been a while since I looked it up, unless a Charm upgrade specifically says, 'may be purchased' or otherwise speaks of an active cost, then once you meet its prerequisites you are considered to have it.

 

[WlfSamurai]

If I recall correctly, and it's been a while since I looked it up, unless a Charm upgrade specifically says, 'may be purchased' or otherwise speaks of an active cost, then once you meet its prerequisites you are considered to have it.

Okay, that's what we said last time. So, never mind then. Thanks!

 

[jaydude]

Good job, everyone! With the death of Steelscale, I'm going to go ahead and declare this "session" concluded. Everyone gets a minor Milestone, and seeing as I'm planning to mark this as the end of the Prologue, I'm gonna go ahead and give everyone a major Milestone as well.

Chowlett , Random Word and WlfSamurai , each of you gets a personal Milestone based upon the goals we discussed back in September: by landing the finishing blow on Steelscale, I'd think that Ferela would have endeared herself to Boroma and Netara. With Kitava's part in overseeing the hunt, the young king and his mother will have gotten the message that the Dynasts/Realm look after their own. And while Taeran didn't get to kill Steelscale personally, I imagine that her participation within the hunt would count for something.

Random Word , I'm also going to give you an Exalt Milestone, since I'm under the vague impression that Kitava had a long-term goal related to the smooth running of Kandara, and I'd say that overseeing the death of Steelscale would play a part in furthering that goal.

Also everyone, some of you may already be aware of this, but I'm planning to have the next "session" take place in Realm Year 764, after the Scarlet Empress's "official" disappearance and the sacking of Thorns. Solar Anathema will be cropping up in far greater numbers than before, the Silver Pact are getting bolder, and the Great Houses are starting to turn their attention to the Empress's vacant throne in the Imperial City. Naturally, Sherwood and Jontom will be joining the game at this point; I'm planning to have it so that Jontom's been hanging around Kandara for at least several months prior to the present day; enough time for him to become at least well-acquainted with everyone else. I'm also going to have it so that Ramuron was recalled to the Blessed Isle at some point between the hunt for Steelscale and the present day, seeing as the character's been retired from this game.

in regards to Kitava's planned ventures - elementally-enhanced sheep, geomantic works and bureaucratic reforms - I'm honestly feeling inclined to just skip over the mechanical handling of them, seeing as we're moving a year or so into the future. With her stats and resources, I'd say that's enough time for Kitava to carry out her plans, or at least lay the groundwork for all of them.

 

[Sherwood]

Too bad I wasn't there to get the yummy xp, too! No worries, though. There will be plenty to go around in the future to get me lots of good stuff.

 

[jaydude]

Too bad I wasn't there to get the yummy xp, too! No worries, though. There will be plenty to go around in the future to get me lots of good stuff.

Just a reminder; you get as many minor and major Milestones as the rest of the players. Those two are a communal thing; everyone has the same amount.

 

[Random Word]

Personal: 1
- Purchasing Mode Wise-Eyed Courtier Method
Minor: 2
- Sagacity 4 -> 5
- All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight
Major: 1
- Resources Tertiary -> Secondary
Exalt: 1
- Charm: Harmonious Academic Methodology

Over the course of a year Kitava has probably:

• Taught a sizable cadre of candidates chosen by the royal house, shaping them into peerless administrators and inculcating into them her personal values around the virtue and necessity of reform (raising Embassy and Sagacity to Primary in their pools, shifting their virtues to align with hers, and giving them minor and in many cases major intimacies towards innovation and government reform). [Harmonious Academic Methodology]
• Many of this cadre has, with her training and the new system of examinations, formed the core of the new royal ministry to enact Kitava's reforms, with the rest gaining appointments to other relevant ministries to ensure smooth and efficacious transition. With longstanding feudal tax privileges and monopolies under severe attack; the complex web of judicial, tax, and administrative districts rationalized; the tax and legal code revamped; price controls and internal tariffs lifted; and an infusion of low interest capital from the family partially underwritten by Kitava personally, business is brisk and the royal coffers are swelling but Kitava and her cadre of students have made a lot of enemies in the nobility, and while her reforms currently enjoy broad support amongst the peasantry and urban poor for removing hated tariffs and monopolies, should the harvest be poor she has left herself exposed to unrest amongst the masses from spiking food prices. Kitava will hedge against this by personally going heavily into debt to the family to import enough foodstuffs to stabilize the market if necessary, but if at the same time a significant portion of the businesses taking the loans she's underwriting default, she'll be financially ruined (again) and the family will be, uh, displeased.
• In consultation with Berengiere, mother of the Neomah, she has, armed with their secret names, summoned the most skilled Neomah, held a competition for the greatest prize sheep with extravagant prizes, summoned potent elementals, and had the Neomah create new species of elementally aspected sheep that breed true. [Sagacity 4 -> 5]
• Had the royal family award contracts to the owners of land especially conducive to one elemental aspect or another (likely their closest allies) to learn the trade of raising these new species. Expert staff including geomancers and savants resculpt the land and train staff in the complex art of their care and handling, all under Kitava's terrifying but effective supervision.
• Purchased the voices of slaves as raw materials for Berengiere to create wondrous textiles, then sold the wonders to rebuild her seed capital. In conjunction with generous loans from the family, she has acquired a diverse portfolio of assets in Kandara which have flourished under her expert management even in the short span of a year. This portfolio is calculated to maximize returns in the wake of her new reforms and the soon to be booming supernatural textiles industry. In particular, she's begun quietly but aggressively acquiring land that will need to be elementally aspected in scaling out the textiles business, and encouraging the royal family to do the same. This will eventually internally displace a lot of peasants and smallholders, making her yet more enemies. [Resources Tertiary -> Secondary, still heavily indebted and with dangerous liabilities but with significant positive cash flow and valuable assets]
• The exams have been introduced, and she has laid the groundwork but only just begun her grand reorganization of the royal ministries and the elemental assays, which will throw the government into chaos until everything settles down. The geomantic re-design of the capital awaits time and, well, capital, but the introduction of land use planning and building codes has allowed her to subtly reshape the city in preparation. Again, lots of displacement, development, and enemies and allies amongst winners and losers in the reshuffling.

With all the enemies she's making, she'll be leaning hard on her spies and the garrison to root out insurrection and crush it before it gets off the ground, and her allies in the burgeoning merchant class, the royal family, and amongst business interests on the Blessed Isle eager to enter the market to shore up her political position. Sedition will be punished ruthlessly, lest it stand in the way of progress. Kandara's military readiness is in shambles as the traditional sword nobles whose levies and retainers form the backbone of her armies are rather negatively inclined towards centralization at the moment, Kitava is actively working to break their capacity to rise against her, and she has yet to turn her attention towards building a Realm style legion loyal to the central bureaucracy.

The royal family may also be getting more than a little bit leery of how much personal power and influence she's accumulating, though I can't actually buy an increase to that merit until I get another Major milestone. Only her incredible force of personality, displays of power, and their growing coffers have so far kept them on side while she's upended basically everything with the breakneck pace of her reforms.

I forgot to note what Kitava's one spell is, and I think it should be Spoke the Wooden Face. Real-time communication across vast distances is incredibly useful for an administration and a mercantile empire. So that means Kitava can send and receive word from the Ragara family compound in Chanos and in the Imperial City in real time. There are probably large groves of such trees with servants standing by 25/7 to take and receive messages and the latest news. She probably has a tree set up in any significant administrative or economic hub in Kandara as well.

Edit: Oh, and of course enemies in the Deliberative and the Thousand Scales will probably have a field day with the way she's attacking the ancient privileges of families that can trace their lineage back to the Shogunate, and who have loyally defended the Satrapy almost since the founding the Realm.

 

[Sherwood]

Just a reminder; you get as many minor and major Milestones as the rest of the players. Those two are a communal thing; everyone has the same amount.

Awesome! Thank you. I'll have to do some reading up on how to record and spend them.

 

[jaydude]

Personal: 1
- Purchasing Mode Wise-Eyed Courtier Method
Minor: 2
- Sagacity 4 -> 5
- All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight
Major: 1
- Resources Tertiary -> Secondary
Exalt: 1
- Charm: Harmonious Academic Methodology

Over the course of a year Kitava has probably:

• Taught a sizable cadre of candidates chosen by the royal house, shaping them into peerless administrators and inculcating into them her personal values around the virtue and necessity of reform (raising Embassy and Sagacity to Primary in their pools, shifting their virtues to align with hers, and giving them minor and in many cases major intimacies towards innovation and government reform). [Harmonious Academic Methodology]
• Many of this cadre has, with her training and the new system of examinations, formed the core of the new royal ministry to enact Kitava's reforms, with the rest gaining appointments to other relevant ministries to ensure smooth and efficacious transition. With longstanding feudal tax privileges and monopolies under severe attack; the complex web of judicial, tax, and administrative districts rationalized; the tax and legal code revamped; price controls and internal tariffs lifted; and an infusion of low interest capital from the family partially underwritten by Kitava personally, business is brisk and the royal coffers are swelling but Kitava and her cadre of students have made a lot of enemies in the nobility, and while her reforms currently enjoy broad support amongst the peasantry and urban poor for removing hated tariffs and monopolies, should the harvest be poor she has left herself exposed to unrest amongst the masses from spiking food prices. Kitava will hedge against this by personally going heavily into debt to the family to import enough foodstuffs to stabilize the market if necessary, but if at the same time a significant portion of the businesses taking the loans she's underwriting default, she'll be financially ruined (again) and the family will be, uh, displeased.
• In consultation with Berengiere, mother of the Neomah, she has, armed with their secret names, summoned the most skilled Neomah, held a competition for the greatest prize sheep with extravagant prizes, summoned potent elementals, and had the Neomah create new species of elementally aspected sheep that breed true. [Sagacity 4 -> 5]
• Had the royal family award contracts to the owners of land especially conducive to one elemental aspect or another (likely their closest allies) to learn the trade of raising these new species. Expert staff including geomancers and savants resculpt the land and train staff in the complex art of their care and handling, all under Kitava's terrifying but effective supervision.
• Purchased the voices of slaves as raw materials for Berengiere to create wondrous textiles, then sold the wonders to rebuild her seed capital. In conjunction with generous loans from the family, she has acquired a diverse portfolio of assets in Kandara which have flourished under her expert management even in the short span of a year. This portfolio is calculated to maximize returns in the wake of her new reforms and the soon to be booming supernatural textiles industry. In particular, she's begun quietly but aggressively acquiring land that will need to be elementally aspected in scaling out the textiles business, and encouraging the royal family to do the same. This will eventually internally displace a lot of peasants and smallholders, making her yet more enemies. [Resources Tertiary -> Secondary, still heavily indebted and with dangerous liabilities but with significant positive cash flow and valuable assets]
• The exams have been introduced, and she has laid the groundwork but only just begun her grand reorganization of the royal ministries and the elemental assays, which will throw the government into chaos until everything settles down. The geomantic re-design of the capital awaits time and, well, capital, but the introduction of land use planning and building codes has allowed her to subtly reshape the city in preparation. Again, lots of displacement, development, and enemies and allies amongst winners and losers in the reshuffling.

With all the enemies she's making, she'll be leaning hard on her spies and the garrison to root out insurrection and crush it before it gets off the ground, and her allies in the burgeoning merchant class, the royal family, and amongst business interests on the Blessed Isle eager to enter the market to shore up her political position. Sedition will be punished ruthlessly, lest it stand in the way of progress. Kandara's military readiness is in shambles as the traditional sword nobles whose levies and retainers form the backbone of her armies are rather negatively inclined towards centralization at the moment, Kitava is actively working to break their capacity to rise against her, and she has yet to turn her attention towards building a Realm style legion loyal to the central bureaucracy.

The royal family may also be getting more than a little bit leery of how much personal power and influence she's accumulating, though I can't actually buy an increase to that merit until I get another Major milestone. Only her incredible force of personality, displays of power, and their growing coffers have so far kept them on side while she's upended basically everything with the breakneck pace of her reforms.

I forgot to note what Kitava's one spell is, and I think it should be Spoke the Wooden Face. Real-time communication across vast distances is incredibly useful for an administration and a mercantile empire. So that means Kitava can send and receive word from the Ragara family compound in Chanos and in the Imperial City in real time. There are probably large groves of such trees with servants standing by 25/7 to take and receive messages and the latest news. She probably has a tree set up in any significant administrative or economic hub in Kandara as well.

Edit: Oh, and of course enemies in the Deliberative and the Thousand Scales will probably have a field day with the way she's attacking the ancient privileges of families that can trace their lineage back to the Shogunate, and who have loyally defended the Satrapy almost since the founding the Realm.

Wow, this is certainly a lot for me to work with. Not that I mind, of course.

 

[Sherwood]

Using my Major Milestone to raise my Finesse to 5, and the two Minor Milestones to get a pair of Charms; Flow Like Blood for the first, and still deciding on the second.