WaiyaddoNoDan/YouZhaoSession1

YOU ZHAO

First Game Session

The PCs

Reborn Vermillion Havoc
Traveler
Wu-Go-Ma-Xa

Summary and Random OOC Info

Havoc, Traveler, and Wu-Go are introduced to their new agency -- a cross-divisional effort to investigate and repair damage to Creation and fate left behind by the Solars. Their initial mission is to fix a minor and not-so-minor errors in Hollow, and then determine what's causing the Essence irregularities behind them. The anomalies are dealt with, and are confirmed to be the connected with a Solar killed in Hollow, but remain unexplained.

The session was mainly to introduce the players and characters to their roles in the chronicle. They have played Exalted before, but are leery of acting as servitors of some NPC commanding them all the time. None of the four (five, counting Kaksua's player) have either played or run Sidereals outside of the occasional NPC, so we all needed a bit of a warm up. I specifically avoided any combat of note or serious challenges so the players could have some idea of just what it's like to be a magical kung fu fate ninja loaded down with the Arcane Fate. Before the game we also went over Sidereal Astrology and Resplendent Destinies to some extent.

After the initial Astrology intro, I allowed the players to take as many Resplendent Destinies as they chose with an automatic unrolled Essence + College + 2 successes on their Effect Roll. This means they had Essence + College points to distribute between their Resplendent Effect pool and duration, with one Paradox die for each destiny and additional dice for duration as normal. For example, Havoc took three free Resplendent Destinies at a duration of one year each, therefore had six Paradox dice to roll. Any further Resplendent Destinies added or renewed during play will follow all the normal Astrology rules. This was a way for the PCs to start with an array of Resplendent Destinies without having to jump through all the horoscope-planning-petition-shmoozing-etc. hoops. If they haven't noticed that they can get FAR better results than Essence + College by going through those hoops, they will soon enough.

I made the ruling that while Havoc is wearing the Crimson Armor of the Unseen Assassin, he cannot be affected by Astrology, use Astrology, or wear a Resplendent Destiny, but he can use Resplendent Effects (as they function on creatures outside of fate). Any concern I had for the player abusing his access to Resplendent Effects and immunity to other Astrology was nipped in the bud when the player rolled 8 successes on his six Paradox dice. Ouch! In his words, "I will never use Astrology again."

The Beginning

Reborn Vermillion Havoc arrived at the address he'd received from his superiors. It was a run down old warehouse in a bad part of Yu Shan. After taking a moment of dubious thought to confirm the address, he entered.
Two younger Sidereals were already seated in chairs when he came in, and greeted him. They had no more idea of what was going on than he did. The entrance chamber was three prefabricated walls set together against the much larger exterior wall, leaving open air between the tops of the flimsy walls and the soaring ceiling of the warehouse. There was a door opposite the one he'd entered by.
None of the three were terribly impressed.
An innocently pretty, young-seeming goddess opened the interior door and poked her head through. She tells them that "Nuran" will see them now. Their sense of foreboding grew only greater as they walked down hallways made of yet more prefabricated walls within the warehouse. They eventually find themselves in a medium-sized audience chamber set with a screen, a podium, and four collapsible chairs in a small row in the center of the room.
They see a tall god with four sets of eyes that climb up his very tall head. He wears a simple bureaucrat's cap and a long-sleeved silk robe. He does not appear to have a nose above his wide mouth.
He greets them and suggests that they sit. Havoc declines. He insists they sit, and the Chosen of Battles grumpily does so. The god explains the he is Nuran, the administrative head of the Post-Usurpation Special Squadron -- a new organization created by the Divisions of Journeys, Battles, Secrets, and Endings, with one Exalt from each Division serving as its field agents. He is himself an undersecretary to Nara-O, head of the Forbidding Manse of Ivy, and sheepishly admits that they have... lost track of the Chosen of Secrets that was supposed to be present. Without further ado, he activates the screen and gives them their first mission.

The Briefing

Their mission is threefold.

• They must find and replace the feather quill in the second-story study of a merchant named Danah with a quill supplied by Nuran. He must not know that anything suspicious has taken place, and must absolutely not be harmed. Nuran indicates on a map of Hollow on the screen exactly where Danah's residence is, and mentions that he will give the team a map.
• They must find a man of no fixed residence called Lame Dog. Lame Dog was destined to die in a knife fight three days ago, and suffered a mortal wound. For some reason, he didn't see fit to die of his wound. He was known to prowl a sector southwest of the city heart, and any investigation should start there.
• These two anomalies are only the most recent in Hollow. Something in the city has caused a marked increase in errors of destiny in the vicinity, and such a thing could only be the result of powerful Essence manipulation. The agents must find and deal with the problem. Should they lack the means to deal with it, they should return with what information they have.

Nuran gives them the map and replacement quill, and suggests which gate they should use, and that they would find themselves some ways upsriver from Hollow itself.
The agents excuse themselves, and take about twenty minutes to reach the outer wall of Yu Shan using Havoc's dragon boat and the Gold Channel. They present their credentials to the Celestial Lions, and find themselves...

The Mission

...outside a stone gate of archaic but finely crafted design, on a grassy hill overlooking a great river. A small fishing village is visible to the west.

MEEP! It's almost 1am, and I have class tomorrow. I will finish this writeup later.

Comments

"Willing to listen to critique" is my middle name(s)!

Dan, sometimes you make me want to say HOLY CRAP! And I mean that as a complement. ~ G

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