HammerOne/The Lost Masters

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The Lost Masters

The Lost masters Campaign has never been played, but was initially created to please a group of my friends, who was at one point interested in participating in an Exalted campaign. However in all our White Wolf games (primarily Vampire), we have always attempted to let players start out as fairly regular folks, to put the transition into the superhuman and the abilites thereof in perspective. Since the odds of a bunch of friends suddenly exalting at roughly the same time was very slim and none of my potential players enjoyed the prospect of playing young dragon blooded wannabees in a High school of the realm campaign, I came up with the following:

The basic concept for this campaign is that all potential terrestrial exalted, who haven't exalted some time during his or her teens are considered failures to some extend. Only those who exalt count, and a weak, stupid or even disloyal terrestrial still counts as more than his brilliant, beautiful and loyal, but unexalted relative. After their relatives have given up on them, usually somewhere in their mid- to late twenties, the only real value these “failures” have are as breeding stock and parents of potential new exalted children.

Quite a few of these failures resent being reduced to second-class citizen and breeding stock. Some become degenerates, slowly killing them selves with excess while embarrassing their kin as much as possible. Others flee, trying to make their own destinies as adventures or petty tyrants. A few simply kill themselves, breaking down with the immense peer pressure.

But a few unexalted are not contend with either death or a life as a lesser being. They feel that great power has passed them unfairly by, they feel cheated and will go out of their way to claim that power.

(The point here is that my players liked the idea of working for and toward their exaltation, something not really part of the Exalted way of thinking. So the idea was for the players to play really desperate potential Dragon blooded, who sought a way to move up into the ranks of the exalted by unconventional means).

Sometimes rumors and legends will arise throughout the realm about a great adventurer whose has uncovered an ancient relic whose magical powers has boosted him or her into the ranks of the terrestrial exalted, a great sorcerer who has discovered a spell to unleash exaltation under the right circumstances or perhaps some ancient master who somewhere in the wilderness has discovered the way to exaltation.

This campaign revolves around one such legend, called simply“The Lost Master”. According to this story, a mighty dragon blooded warrior and general, aspect varies but most agree on air, put down his blade and armor and began to study the immaculate text. Becoming a great master of the order's teachings, the lost master never the less had some sort of alteration with the leaders of the order. Some say they were jealous of his progress while other say his studies took him down forbidden pathways to secrets best left alone. Whatever the cause, the lost master left the realm and traveled into the wilderness. Here he supposedly builds a temple far from civilization, meditating and perfecting his secret techniques. This is often where the lost master quietly slips out of most people's memories, except for the desperate few, who are searching for a way into the good grace of the elemental dragons.

A few years back, rumors began to surface that the lost master's temple lay near a small handful of villages on the far eastern edge of the realm. Other stories told of how this "master" had found some way of unleashing a dynast's elemental nature. Most discounted the stories as another unfounded rumor, but a few and truly desperate set out to find the lost master.

There are two ways to start this campaign:

1. The players comes into contact with the story of the lost master in someway that is enough to convince them to try to seek it out. The initial vehicle of delivering the story to the players can come in one of several ways:

A.Players find some artifact, an ancient scroll, a battered shield, a mysterious statue etc, where upon a map and some mysterious notes tells of the whereabouts of the master. Packing up the players must flee the city, where they live to escape their relatives who think very little of such “excursions”.

B.One or more of the players are related to Yeh-Fu, a desperate, bordering on pitiful unexalted, now entering his thirty-seventh year. A self confessed, ”savant” meaning reclusive bookworm, Yen-Fu has little when it comes to influence, wealth or perhaps social graces that would make him a fitting party for a young woman of good standing. Yeh-Fus tyrannical mothers have made his life a living hell on the subject and Yeh-Fu is desperate for something that will give him some standing. One day Yeh-Fu contacts the players, who are his relatives. He tells that his studies has given him an almost certain clue to the whereabouts of the lost master. Afraid to make the journey himself, Yeh-Fu desperately pleads with the players to accompany him on his quest.

C.One or more of the players has an elderly uncle, an exalted himself, but never the less sympathetic to the plight of the players. Telling them of the story of the lost master, the kind uncle sponsors the player's quest for the lost master. (The uncle might actually be a government or immaculate order agent, who will later appear at the Temple with a military force and attempt to destroy it).

2.The players are already on their way to the Temple of the Lost Master and meet up in one of the last large inns/teahouses on the borders of the Realm proper before entering the wilderness outside.

On their way to the lost master's Temple, the player will undoubtedly face a number of obstacles.

At the Temple, the players discover that a number of potential exalted has created a ragtag village among what appears to be the ruins of the Temple. But not only people of dragon blooded lines come here, many are ordinary people dreaming of gaining the power of the dragon and becoming powerful and wealthy from it.