Wyld Hunt

[Flagg]

I'm curious as to how many of you have used the Wyld Hunt as a major facet of your games.


If so, how were they used, and what was the result? How did it differ from what's been laid out in CotI?


-S

 

[Haku1]

It hasn't been used yet... but I do have it lying about... and it's on par with what the book has them... this would be at their lowest 'level'. Afte budget cuts. But hey... the Wyld Hunt is honestly screwed if they meet the Illuminated Cult Solars. Those boys and girls are just that shiney and experienced.

 

[Halfdead Frodi]

I've made some use of the Wyld Hunt...so far the Hunt has not succeeded in destroying a whole Circle of characters, but a 5 man Wyld Hunt team has successfully slain the leader of a barbarian horde, and taken down a Dawn Caste Solar, so not too badly. From what I've seen, like most DBs they tend to explode in a blast of death and destruction...lots of damage, but if you can outlast their essence pools, then you've got them. Frankly, they've generally been more effective against my PCs than the armies they've faced...but then again, usually if one army in on the field, so is another one.

 

[Jakk Bey]

I use the Wyld Hunt pretty extensively. With some modifications.


In my regular Exalted games, it is an organization that has been overwhelmed, and is now gearing up to deal with the new Solars. In that continuity, it had a long ass while of dealing with maybe five Solars showing up a year. If they were really busy, and then a few more incidents with messy Godbloods, Little Gods that were messing up and crapping over the place, and one or two Behemoths that were known to be sleeping, and keeping an eye on them, and soothing them back down into their nameless dreams.


With 150 new Solar Shards showing up, the Wyld Hunt is jam packed with missions that it just doesn't have the personnel to cover. So things have gotten missed.  The Bronze keep feeding them intel, but they just don't have the resources to cover them all.  The Bronze are overwhelmed by the sheer number of incidents as well, along with Infernals, Abyssals, and all sorts of other nasties showing up, and then there are the Alchemicals showing up too.  In all, the Wyld Hunt is loading up for bear, and the folks who are running it are going into Overkill mode for what they can get to.  They know that they're missing a lot, and just can't cover it all, yet, but what they can cover, they are going to kill. Not just kill, but leave a greasy stain on the landscape, and foul scent in the air.


And it still isn't enough. And they know it, which makes them hunker down, and be even nastier.


In my Modernis setting, the Hunt is much better organized, much better funded, and much more pervasive. It's populated by much more powerful DB's, who are much more mobile--in that setting, anywhere that there is a node on the Mana-Net, the Hunt can get to just by a simple spell--and they use that to be everywhere in the Realm, and the Spirits under their thrall are watching every major city, every temple, every township, and have tattle tells across the Realm.


Think more like the Agents in The Matrix--but with suits of many colors and lots of jack booted thugs that can get borrowed from the local constabulary. Operating in the Realm in that setting is damn near suicide for any Solar, but they still have their blind spots--in nearly every major city in the Realm is a Shadowland, and nearly every city has Abyssals or Infernals working quietly at gnawing out the heart of the city, just a few rooms, a few floors at a time. Whispering in ears, turning one or two there, seducing and influencing on the down low, and the Hunt is too concerned at regulating the population--which has a higher God Blooded population than the regular continuity--and keeping elementals and other Spirits in line as well.  The increase in Solar activity has caught them by surprise, but they've made up for it by jacking up the brutality quotient, and if that means destroying an entire city block, they'll do it, and then blame the Solars for it.


The Hunt in this continuity is feared by everyone, because it's not supposed to exist. There isn't a reason for it, because the Solars were wiped out two thousand years before. It operates under the guise of Imperial Agents, as Magistrates, as anything but the Wyld Hunt, but most folks know that if government agents in colored suits show up, bad things will happen. And accordingly, the populace isn't terribly welcoming to Solars of any stripe. It's just survival instinct at this point.


The only hope that Solars have is to keep a low profile, not do anything to garner attention, or get the heck out of the Realm toot sweet, and find some allies. And the Hunt is ranging out into the Threshold to find the bastiches, and anyone that would harbor them.

 

[psychoph]

I have yet to use them in my game, I do have an upcoming fight with 5 DB's that are all beginners with the same exps as the PC's.  I plan for them to  loose.


If I were to use the Wyld Hunt it would be for 1 of 3 reasons.


1.  Kill off one of the characters due to some non-story issue, like moving or something.


2. As prologue for a character to get to the point where they are, and then as a background to keep them on the move.


3. As an introduction for the characters to the Bronze Faction Sidereals, possibly muddying the Sidereal issue if they had meet up with Gold Faction Sidereals before.


I persoanlly took what the Ruins Of Rathless used as the Wyld hunt in that area to heart with my group.  What i remembre reading is that they sent I beleive a talon of DB's if the story of the Solars wasn't confirmed, with a upto a legion coming after, which I would include many sidereals in that, this i assumed was because the Ruins are so valuable, being filled with many many First Age Artifacts that could make a group of Solars almost imposisble to beat given the right artifacts.


So if I were to use them in the story I am running with 6 solars i would definitely make them nasty to deal with.  I would make sure that they would give experienced Solars a fight for their life and that they would be able to kill any beginning Solar that got it into their heads to stand and fight.  The way i described them to my players that have asked is that they know that for 1000 years this organization has been killing Solars without fail, assuming this is the public opinion, and that you don't want to meet up with them just yet for fear of death.


As a side note I have begun trying to write my stories with the eye towards giving my players situations in whihc they have the opportunity to do great things.  With that in mind I don't see going up against the Wyld Hunt as an opportunity to do great things as a beginning Solar, it is an opportunity to show your players there is somethign more powerful that you out there, and the DB's are to be some what feared for tehir ability to act in concert.  To amend my list I would add another instance where I would use the Hunt, and that is an opportunity for the group to save another beginning Solar from it.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Well, the way I used the Hunt was to put the fear of God into my cocky, overbearing PCs  :twisted:  They came to be feared by many a player. I remember one fight. It was an ambush. One of my PCs was in Mishaka I believe and he was a damn strong Solar, 200+ XP, and he had answered the door because it looked like one of the other PCs was knocking. Well the Air Immaculate disguised at him gave him a damn good run for his money. He was tossed out his window by the volley of attacks into the waiting arms of A Wood and Fire Immaculate.


It wasn't pretty. By the third turn, the Fire Immaculate had several arrows in his throat and torso and was down. The Wood Immaculate was dueling fates with him and the Air Immaculate was KO'ed. Finally I had the Wood use the Soul Severing Blow (don't know its real name) on him. He won the contested roll by one success. Then he plugged the Wood Immaculate. Needless to say, the PC was almost strung out as his character passed out in the street from the hit.


I use the Hunt to great thematic effect and as an efficient team. Sometimes they do their job, sometimes the chapter house has to look for new shakiri.  

 

[Persell]

Haven't used them much. Once I used an understaffed Hunt to bring some quick action and some knowledge of the Realm into the game (I usually like to keep my players in the dark). The other time I used the Hunt was as a plot device to show a player the strength of an NPC Lunar. So I am yet to use the Wyld Hunt as a major plot line. I will probably have to do it soon in the game I am currently running, though, and this thread have been inspirational so far. Hope it continues.

 

[Forn Clakes]

I haven't actually used the Wyld Hunt at all, but I too have been inspired to make good use of them with my upcoming Solar story.


Cheers all for some cool ideas,


~FC.

 

[Master of Malfeasance]

The most recent incarnation of the Wyld Hunt my players have encountered relentlessly pursued them from Arjuf to Tuchara, back to Arjuf, and down to the port there.  It seems that a Sidereal had a nasty fit of unbidden oracle and correctly predicted that the young nobility of a budding kingdom were all going to exalt in short order to fulfill some nebulous future stamped like a watermark on the loom of fate.


Since this kingdom was being considered for Satrapy, it was easy to offer to send these youngsters to finishing school and bring them into the clutches of the WH without any DB ever having to step off the Blessed Isle.


So the poor mortals were hounded in circles until they were collected by a Cult Sidereal and snuck out on their first mission.  Sadly for the oracle, the prophecy turned out to be self-fulfilling, because after everyone telling the players they were bound to exalt any day now, they got rightfully pissed when it didn't happen.  To that end, they went in search of what had trapped their essences and were surprisingly successful in freeing them.  They know that the Wyld Hunt is on their trail and are just about pissed enough to go back and hunt their pursuers.  


Guess they'll need a little extra encouragement.

 

[Shicato]

I regularly use the Wyld Hunt to encourage players to play smart solars.  AT times the Wyld Hunt has been a major presence in the region and the players know that if they use their powers in public then it's likely that the Wyld hunt will follow.  In my first game I also used it as a way to help me gauge the relative power levels of the PCs.  It's a very easy wa to send in opponents for the PCs without needing to develop in character reasons for them to want to attack the PCs.


In my current game though, the PCs haven't had to worry too much about the Wyld Hunt as the Wyld Hunt is not allowed to enter where they are as that would give the REalm too much access.


BTW I can't remember who mentioned the Ruins of Rathness figures but it's not a talon/legion of DBs that would be sent that refers to the mortal back up.    The number of DBs would be more like between 3-7 powerful immaculates 1 sorcerer and any local DBs that they can recruit (who could be very powerful themselves).  I imagine that if more than 2 Solars are seen then they would up both the numbers of mortals and DBs.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Here are the official numbers of that Rathess Wyld Hunt. The Hunt consists of between three to seven Immaculate martial artists with between 250 and 450 XP. Along with one sorceror who has Infalliable Messenger and Stormwind Rider along with demons if needed. They would arrive using Charms, sorcery or even a chariot of aerial conquest! Also, if the Storyteller deems it necessary you can send one or two warstriders. PLUS! They would have access to three to five scales of infantry from the local garrison upriver.


In short, you are going to have to bend over and grease up if that Hunt comes after you  :twisted:

 

[Andrew02]

In short' date=' you are going to have to bend over and grease up if that Hunt comes after you  :twisted:[/quote']
If you're grossly underexperienced, retarded, and insufficiently cautious . . . then maybe, yeah.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

The first thing I thought when I first read that sometime ago when I got Ruins of Rathess was good God! I had never seen something that massive as a Wyld Hunt in terms of power. Honestly, since Rathess is a massive campaign book with far reaching consequences I can see the Hunt itself being a main focus with that kind of power.

 

[Persell]

The first thing I thought when I first read that sometime ago when I got Ruins of Rathess was good God! I had never seen something that massive as a Wyld Hunt in terms of power. Honestly' date=' since Rathess is a massive campaign book with far reaching consequences I can see the Hunt itself being a main focus with that kind of power.[/quote']
I feel that, given the importance of Rathess as a potential renewed source of Solar power, that's probably why the Wyld Hunt is so powerful in this instance. The Wyld Hunt has supposedly been waning of late, and the 'normal' retinue would be five-ish powerful DBs from the realm including immaculates, with whichever local DBs they could scrounge plus troops to act as essence soak to deplete the solars before the big boys step in and claim the glory of anathema killing.


Throwing everything they have at any solars wandering around Rathess does give a clear signal that the Wyld Hunt can still be mobilised in great strength if necessary, despite the internal strife in the realm. Also makes you wonder what their scouting parties have found in the ruins that makes it so worth protecting... that or they are just WAY over-protective of an ancient site they're afraid the solars will use as a new base of operations.

 

[Jakk Bey]

Rathess is a special situation.


Most of the time, when the Hunt has dealt with Solars, they've had to deal with maybe four or five a year. And fledgeling Solars at that, just a little after their Exaltation...most times before they even get a chance to get their goodies from their previous incarnations.


With the ability to plan operations with the help of Sidereals who are in on the times and the places, it's not too hard to get enough troops and enough DB's to a place to put a smackdown on a fledgeling Solar. Especially when you know where they'll be, and when.  Easy to slip a blade into their bellies or slit throats when they sleep.  


A Solar hunt every few months in an average year  is easy to train and get folks in place. A Solar hunt every few days on an average year with so many Solar Shards back into play...it's easy to see how Solars can slip through the cracks.


The Bronze know when and where these Shards will return, they can't always get teams mobilized or in place to deal with them. And once Solars start up to their old ways, it gets harder to track them--a few uses of Stormwind Rider or a few Charms, and you can leave that Dragon of soldiers that were supposed to be a DB Circle's backup and support far behind. Add to the fun, of Gods, large and small, getting into the fun, the interaction with things Outside Fate on the Solars, and you can see the nightmare that the Hunt faces, once the Solars get a chance to survive those first few weeks that they're all shiny and new to their powers.


Which means that when the Hunt can finally track down a Solar, they'll want to load for bear.  This one isn't getting away in their mind, but the Hunt just can't mobilize like they used to, with the kind of precision they used to be able to.  


You can just imagine how the leadership of the Hunt reacted when the first reports came in after the Jade Prison shattered.


OK...here's the projections that our best scryers have produced. Look at them closely, as there have been some major revisions to the schedule.


--Um...Sir, are you certain about this. We only had three Exaltations projected for this year.  What in the Rings of Hotok is going on here. There are going to be sixty in the next week. And another forty in the next month alone.


Yes there are.  Best projections now look at better than 152 Anethema in the next year, alone.  That isn't taking into account the Behemoth situation up in Crystal which has to be lulled back down, the Lunar attacks to the South that have to be put back into check, and Rathess, as always, is going to be a drain to our resources.


--Sir, if these projections are correct,  then there is no way that we can cover all of these.  We don't have the manpower to cover the Realm alone for these. Let alone the Threshold.


No. We cannot. Not even if we recruited directly from the Legions. We have neither the time nor the luxury to field teams fresh, so we  are going to have to choose our targets wisely. Hit as many targets as we can, as fast as we can, and hope that we can track the Anethema outside the Realm to get to them later.  I suggest we concentrate our efforts first within the Realm, the Anethema erupting nearest the Imperial City being our primary targets. Then, as we can train new teams, we will deal with the others when we can get our numbers up.


--By that time, the Anethema can get a chance to go to ground.


Yes. If they get a chance, they'll start using their damned Sorceries and infernal Charms, and we are probably going to lose tracking over better than half of the targets within the first month.  Chances then are going to get worse, as the next wave of Shards that do nail reincarnate. For every one that we kill, another ten are going to be free. And then we still have to deal with a steady 10% reincarnating every year. We can only hope that they'll start to congregate, find each other, and then we can concentrate our efforts on those groupings to maximize our efficiency.


--But if the Anethema gather...Sir, we haven't dealt with an entire Circle for hundreds of years...


Nobody said that it would be easy did they? Now then, let's draw up operational plans. We have over a hundred Anethema to deal with this month alone, and that doesn't even count the Fey incursions, rogue God Blooded, and Spirits and Little Gods who are going to throw monkey wrenches into the works. And, from what I understand, we are going to have even more, because it looks like the truce with the Deathlords is going into the chamber pot as well...

 

[Persell]

There have been various reasons that I've deployed the Hunt, most of the plot devices. One time a Hunt that had been trailing the PCs was attacked by a larger force of Deathlord forces, in an attempt to create a battlefield Shadowland. Small things like that. I had some PCs participate in a Hunt against some Fey. Small things. Holds a lot of potential, though.

 

[Sherwood]

I set up a game running Solars to get wind of the Wyld Hunt was on the move after them.  They strutted around like they were all that, big time ass kickers, and these tiny little Dragon-Bloods were going to be taken to school.


The local Satrap mobilized several Fangs of troops to deal with the threat, including one Fang of Warstriders, supported by ground troops and three sorcerers.  One of the sneaky members of the group crept out and damn near crapped his pants when he saw the firepower lined up aganst the party.  The next several game sessions revolved around the group running for their lives, pulling out every trick in the book to get away.  Even so, one player was killed and another captured and hauled away.


The Empire is in many ways similar to the good ol' USA.  It is a sleeping giant with great power.  Just because it is sleeping, many count this as weakness - but its not.  Once the giant wakes up, God help you when you get in its way.  The Empire has massive resources at its disposal.  I showed the PCs that the seven of them are not really that big of a threat to a country with a population in the millions.  After that, when there were rumors that the Wyld Hunt was on the move, they stood up and listened.

 

[neuromancer]

On the Hunt


In my game I initially used the Wyld Hunt to provide my circle with a basic overview in terms of the realm and it was a starting challenge which got them moving over the country side.  The first group had little in the way of direct support.  It was a hodgepodge unit, taken from local DB's mixed with a much more experienced crew of DB.  They also had the support of a Bronze faction sidereal, who had been deployed due to the suddness of the threat.  What really kept the solars alive was two things.


1. Infighting


2. Mobility


 The Wyld Hunt chased them from Nexus to Chairoscuro, however due to the fact they were a large organized unit,  made up of roughly 300 mortal troops, where as the circle was a group of five solars with a mere 25 followers.  They quickly made signifigant headway.  With a combination of the application of Spy Who Walks In Darkness, Death of Obsidian Butterflies, and the stealth of the night caste of the circle, they nearly wiped out the mortal soldiers in one fell swoop.  Due to the fact that the 'veterans' of the hunt had never met thier new leader, the bronze faction sidereal.  Questions rose among them when he used Sidereal charms to fend of the intial strikes.  


 When the circle reached Chairoscuro they had commandeered a guild caravan. (Thanks to our guild affiliated eclipse) When the urban battle finally came, the support which the Hunt had counted on was suddenly confronted by both guild mercenaries, and the TriKahn's troops.  Neither of which had issued any sort of order to allow for the Realms interdiction.

 

[Bloody Teeth]

While I haven't actually gotten to use them yet, thanks to one games falling apart, I've found the Wyld Hunt needed quite often. In most cases they are a powerful force that demonstrates the power the Realm (and DBs) still wield. However, they are not quick to respond. Assessing the situation, gathering troops and resources, planning, and finally traveling to the problem area takes a lot of time, sometimes excessively so if the need appears small. I may eventually get into the overworked angle with underequipped and understrength forces, but hasn't happened so far.


In my current game, the Wyld Hunt will make an appearance to oppose my Cult PCs. I'm not sure how I will equip and decide on strength yet. Kinda waiting to see how effective the characters are first. I want a force that can send them running without causing a slaughter.