User:StarHawk/The Return Home

The Return Home

A solar game of few surviving First Age Solars coming back after 1500 years of sleep in the wyld.

They were hidden from sight in the beginning, to train. To focus their skills and become a closely knit circle. Then tragedy struck them. Their mentor, friend, and master of the manse, Storm on the Horizon was called away. But they would stay behind. Kept in a death-like sleep, they would remain until Storm could return. There they slept, kept safe only by the defenses of the manse. An era dies while they sleep and when they awaken, fifteen centuries have passed and everything they ever knew has been demolished. Its a story meant to be a culture shock for these characters. While they slept what was supposed to be a month, their world turned upside-down. It is meant to emphasize to the players that they should not only be aggravated at the state of the world, but that they should be throwing their weight around at every single turn. Powers from all over creation will hear about their presence at one point or another. It will be up to the players to make allies or enemies with these powers.

Prequel Segment

In the age of dreams, life for mortals was okay (extremely awesome compared to Age of Sorrows), but once you exalted, the quality of life only went up from there. You found that your "former self" left their life behind. Lovers you never knew, Circle mates you've never met, Manses and Artifacts of great power, all considered yours after exaltation. One you exalt, receive your mandatory training at the Exalted School of Philosophy, you were handed a new life from which you may live for up to the next 3000 years in comfort.

For these characters, it was much the same. After exaltation, you were approached and requested to attend the School of Philosophy in Hollow. There you were introduced to Storm on the Horizon, as well as your new circle mates; Samson, Forever Faithful Furious Burning Sun-Dragon, Tempered Stone of the Promised Age, Shadows Whisper, and Symphonic Crying Crane. The mandatory time for schooling passed quickly and effortlessly, over that time a bond was created between the six exalts, more than just teacher-student, but that of friends. Storm came to you before your mandatory time was up, and propositioned you into staying on as his student. Private lessons on his estate on the edge of the Wyld, where with his guidance you would become the most powerful circle of solars of the age. Having agreed, you were given only a small amount of time after classes ended before you were summoned to the Temple of August Flight. In the temple you became even closer friends with your circle and your teacher. It was harmonious, but it ended quickly. About three months into your elite training, Storm was called away, an urgent message that he could not get away from. Instead of leaving you without a teacher, Storm placed you under a magical sleep the night he left, telling you that you would sleep for about a month while he was gone, when he returned, you would wake up like no time had passed, and then you would of course continue your training...

Time spent asleep, felt no longer than sleeping one night. The dreams seemed vivid, the image of a golden tower toppling, the cries of a mother over a slain child, the rebuilding of something felt lost, and the image permanently etched into your brain of pure chaos engulfing light, leaving you in darkness as you wake up.

To continue to the Story Segments

Characters

Chapter two will be introducing new solars to the group, these new solars will be of the second age. Character creation will be standard from the core book, anything outside the core book will be up for ST approval. Also, I'd prefer not taking the background: cult, or backing. But that's more for simplicity, if it really fits the character to have such, just be prepared to explain and defend it if the time comes.

Also, new characters will have 100exp, after character generation. The characters have been exalted for some time (up to a maximum of 7 years) and have been on at least 1 major (campaign-like) adventure (not necessarily together), which I would like minimal detail about. I would also like names and one line description of at least 3 companions they've had over the years. (Exalts don't live long on their own.) These companions could be anyone, any exalt, or not, but likely will not appear in the game.

Lastly, these characters will have ended up in Varsi or New Lyken by day 1 Resplendent Air RY 680. Why or how are not important, they just do. And they will likely require a reason to remain in the area.

Retainers

Solars being who they are, will attract people that follow or accompany them wherever they go. As the solars increase in power, they will take their retainers, henchmen, companions, and followers with them. As a blanket rule retainers will receive half the experience the player is granted. This experience is up to the player to track, and up to the player to spend. Training times and costs remain standard for the retainers.

Houserules

Some rules that I feel have worked well in previous games.

Mandatory Stunting

In an effort to expand the players' competence with stunts and make the game more exciting in general all actions that can, must have a stunt applied. Players that don't include a stunt in their description will be asked to restate the action. At some point I will stop asking the players to restate their actions, allowing the normal mechanics to reinforce the value of creative descriptions.

Speed Limit

No combination of abilities, artifacts, Charms or other modifiers may reduce the speed of an action below 3. Any effect that would reduce the speed of an action below 3 instead increases the maximum rate by 1.

Movement & Excellencies

Movement (running, swimming, jumping, etc.) will be treated as a static value that may be enhanced with Athletics Excellencies per the normal rules.

Bonus Experience Points

In addition to the experience awards described in the core book on p.274 additional points may be earned in the following manner:

• One point will be awarded by the ST for any reason.
• One point will be awarded by consensus of the group for any reason.
• One point will be awarded for each significant contribution to the Wiki related to this series. Some examples include:
  • Writing a page of background for any character
  • Expanding a character's background by a page
  • Generating a page worth of story hooks for any character
  • Stating out any of my named NPCs
  • Naming and stating out an original NPC you'd like to see included in the story
  • Generating a page long, in character, account of the week's story
  • Creating a complete write up for a custom Charm
  • Creating a complete write up for a custom Artifact following the guidelines printed in Oadenol's Codex

There is no limit to how many points that may be earned in this fashion, but all contributions must be made to the Wiki.

Experience Table Changes

For the most part the experience costs and training times as printed in the Exalted core book will be used.

• Backgrounds will use the "costs points" option from the errata and will only be available through role-play or via a downtime narrative on approval.
• Martial Arts outside of the "Hero Style" native to the Exalt's type will cost 10 experience points per charm and require a base training time of (Ability minimum + Essence minimum) days.