Sootspice/IdeaPad

Brilliant Ashes, Diamond Dust

I'll have more details on, and possibly a write-up of, the session sometime between wednesday (when I plan on running it) and the weekend, hopefully. I plan on just using this page as a drop-off point for any ideas for future sessions.

Session One: Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Firewands

The first session of the campaign begins with the PCs arriving in Gem, which will (I hope) be the setting of the next several sessions or so, before inevitably being destroyed in one manner or another. I don't really have too much of a plot focus at the moment, as I was thinking more along the lines of tossing out several plot threads and seeing which the PCs find engaging. Another reason the planning for this session may seem a little loose is because at the moment, I really only have a good idea of the background and capabilities of one out of two (or possibly more) of my PCs. I should have a good hour or so before the first session to go over the other character/s with my other player/s before the session, but for now I'm working on little knowledge other than the primary concept for the character.

One of the characters is a prince of a Southern kingdom, run out of his lands after Exalting. He still doesn't really have a grip on his newfound abilities, and has been driven further and further South by the Wyld Hunt. He's arrived at Gem hoping to escape the eyes of any Realm loyalists or Immaculate lackeys. Concept-wise, he's a a well-rounded front-line leader, a noble man of action. The other character that will definitely be in the session is, from what I'm aware of, a Night caste bounty hunter. I'll have to iron out a motivation for being in Gem, as well as a couple open-ended hooks, before the session begins, but that shouldn't be a problem. I may have one or two more players join us at a later date (or possibly during the first session, who knows?), but I'm not too worried about that for now.

First of all, one thing I'm trying to do in the next several sessions is to introduce the more unique and exotic aspects of the Exalted world to the players. It's everyone's first time playing Exalted, so I'm trying to start the game off at a 7 or 8 before cranking it up to 11, just so everyone can be on the same page. I'll sketch out a couple ideas I've had on that as I go along here.

One of the ideas I like is having each session be under the auspices of a constellation, granting a certain bonus to actions related to the college's correlations, as well as having the college's themes and trappings pop up. Getting the players into the mataphysical side of Exalted should make running a non-Solar game at some later date easier, as well. At the beginning of each session, I'll go over what exactly that bonus entails. For example, this is what I had in mind for the first session:

Ascendant College: The Captain (All named characters gain a +1 die bonus to any stunt during this session involving adopting a stern demeanor, actions trained under drill, or the organisation of authority.)

Forgive me if things start to break down here, it's 4 in the morning and I'm running on manic creativity, ominous excitement, and energy drinks. Anyway, some ideas in point form... (Oh star-crossed Gem, let me count the ways you fall...)

• A couple things I wanted to focus on in the campaign are how Creation has botched every chance it has had to become something great, and has fallen further and further from the glories of the past, as well as placing the heavy burden of responsibility for Creation firmly in the PCs' hands, hopefully spurring them into taking up the mantle and guiding Creation to a new First Age (without, you know, the killing and the madness and all that icky squickyness).
• The first couple sessions will likely have several tuitorial-style portions built in, hopefully with an in-game justification for each. I'm trying to keep this as entry level as possible, without losing any of the flavor of Exalted.
• One of the ideas that's firmly wedged itself into my skull is focusing on exiled/fallen gods for the first couple sessions, to demonstrate both the animistic bent of Creation and to show them a touch of the Heavenly Bureaucracy at work. Again, just trying to get some of the more esoteric of Exalted's concepts in the limelight from the beginning.
  • Financed by House Trasti and run by a plethora of little gods, Gem's finest and most exotic gambling den: The House of Fate and Dice. Anything from across Creation can be wagered or wagered upon here.
    • A divinely pimped-out Plentimon of the Dice rolls into town, trailing ten thousand plot hooks behind him?
  • Plotting deep in the Southern deserts lies a twisted, hateful pack of exiled spirits and malicious ghosts: The Scavenger Court. They want nothing more than to tear Heaven and Earth apart and pick through the bones. Or maybe they want more, I don't know.
    • The Scavenger Court is led by Dust Leopard, the God of Ravaged Caravans Swallowed By The Sands. He thinks he's a big player in things, but you know what? He really isn't. In fact, the Scavenger Court itself is just one of a million self-aggrandizing groups of scheming losers across Creation. The PCs will probably just beat their asses in.
    • Possibly give them a small cult of followers situated in Gem? Doom preachers popping up randomly in the background, then getting their heads clubbed in by guards. Could also give the PCs a group of extras with which to stretch their muscles and get a feel for combat, if necessary. The Sand-Mouth Sisters?
• The PCs are caught up in the middle of a riot in the markets, as a group of mercenaries attempt to subdue the crowd. Nudge the PCs to side with the mercenary guard, if possible. Oh, and let the mercenaries actually be nice guys, because mercenaries always get the bum rap in games. Use introduction to mercenaries as <gasp>... something to channel plot hooks for characters through!
  • Have a couple mercenaries in the group (The Jazoha Tongueless Brotherhood? names names names...) befriend the PCs (if, you know, the PCs don't randomly decide to hate them). They could be essence users, but ideally of a lower power level than the PCs. They could possibly run the PCs through a more advanced combat tuitorial, in the guise of sparring/training exercises. I could toss in some teachings from the 1000 Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier, as well.
    • Winter Sun Desert Moon, grizzled god-blooded captain of the outfit. I could give him ties to the Scavenger Court too, if I decide I want him to be a Baddy McBadenstein.
    • Flame and Iron Dervish, a brash Fire Aspect outcaste Dragon-Blood, with a distinct fighting style focused on dual-wielding a firewand and a scimitar.
    • Snake Bone Yasal, battlefield occultist/thaumaturge of the outfit, could give a bit of info on setting metaphysics, or tuitorial on essence use.
• Who runs the Gem black market? Who's name is on the lips of every city official and merchant-slave in Gem? Who robs from Gem's rich and (at least, according to the stories) gives to its poor? King Rat, that's who! A faceless folk hero who single-handedly dominates almost every illegal activity taking place in Gem. Could have some sort of shady ties to House of Fate and Dice, if PCs get into that at all. Don't know what specifically, though.
  • A Lunar with past life connections with one of the PCs?
    • Several of the PCs? "King Rat used to be my wife?" "And my lover? Oops, shouldn't have said that out loud." <sound of everyone's limit breaking>
  • Planning a lower-class/slave revolt in the city? The riot quelled by the Jazoha Tongueless Brotherhood could be the result of his/her social engineering.
  • Could potentially be an initial plot hook for bounty hunter Night caste as well, with a massive price on head placed by Rankar VII.
• And if none of that interests the players, I can always go with the tried-but-true cult of Yozi worshippers trying to turn Gem into the gaping sandy maw of Cecelyne, the Endless Desert, through some city-wide orgiastic insane bloody bloodletting ritual of blood and guts and blooooooood that only the PCs can stop in time.
  • The cult is led by Father-In-Chains, a demon-blood who's alternate identity holds some position of power in the city.
    • Father-In-Chains is the son of Azmati-Odai, The White Earth-Blood Shallows, a second circle demon who takes the form of a winding narrow rivulet of milky white scorpion venom cutting sharply through the desert, a poxed old woman dressed in rags with the ground white jade dust pouring endlessly from her eye sockets, or a skinned and dried fox carcass with jerky, spasmodic movements. For good times, Azmati-Odai could be summoned as a precursor to the big ritual, something to occupy the PCs. Or maybe she's been there all along.