H4, definitely.

It all started with a strange illness. The pattern of transmission was almost random, and the symptoms began with fever dreams and bouts of unprovoked aggression. Then the patients began to ask strange questions, showing an interest in reading and increased sociability. Then the tinkering began. What started out as tiny wooden figures turned into strange metal objects that could move on their own. After a few months of disturbing behavior, the illness flared into a disease. Hosts began to decry their neighbors and rulers as their machines took a turn for the violent. Monstrous golems crushed people in the street, piloted by sweating, bile-spewing witches preaching of judgement and sins unanswered. In the final days of that cataclysmic nightmare, there were those who admitted their guilt, spared by the infected only to be torn apart by their former neighbors and lovers for unforgivable sins. Those that fled chose to take survival supplies and blueprints rather than weapons and technology. And sadly (or happily?), they brought the disease with them.

The disease is now known as Mindburn, and it is both shunned and revered, a disastrous combination. Those under the effects of Mindburn begin to increase in intelligence as their brains are kicked into overdrive, but will develop permanent brain damage as the disease wears on. In the later stages, the host will develop the ability to telepathically read non-conscious memories, particularly secrets, as the host develops a permanent and intense fever, eventually killing any host who has not blown themselves up with their wacky inventions.

For this reason, the survivors have chosen to quarantine the infected on the far side of the lake, where they might find little more than rocks and sticks to make spears and kill each other when the telepathy kicks in. But there are those who, secretly, revere the disease as both divine gift and punishment, and seek to perpetuate a controlled spread that they might harvest the technology the infected create.

Time will tell what kills them first.

>>961459
I always forget that this is a public forum and people off of discord can jump in (even though you're in JamesLeng's Exalted server that this all came from)

But, this is as good a time as any to formally lay-out character creation rules. This is an Exalted 2.5 game.

All types of Exalts are allowed, but I'm going to keep myself limited to 4 players, which when factoring in that JamesLeng, magyeykun, and Santova are all starting by virtue of being involved in the creation of the seting, means that Kome makes four.

The character creation rules are as-standard for whatever Exalt type you're picking, with the exception of 12 extra bonus points, and DBs start with the rules for character creation from Lords of Creation for charms and BP costs, 8 extra background dots, and 10 extra skill dots.

Experience will be gained 3/scene (4/scene for DBs since they need the extra help to keep up)

For kingdom building, it's going to use a modified version of the Pathfinder: Kingmaker system, exact details of those modifications will be ironed out in play, but part of why the section of creation transported to Malfeas is so big is so we have time to test it in it's home field advantage.

But, I'm absolutely going to allow a fiercely regimented authoritarian society of mad scientists holed up in H4 with plague-bearing exiles spreading it's influence as one of the 6 NPC settlements.

>>961459
"Far side" of course being the end below the colossal wooden dam, so that if the situation deteriorated further before a cure was found, the fever-struck could simply be washed away at the pull of a lever.

Suuzen, by some called "Thrice-Generous" (since she charged almost nothing to use her mill while giving back more flour than the grain provided, and healed limbs severed in tragedy or honorable service, and taught even her demon servants to emulate the examples of Pasiap or Sextes Jylis), had consulted her old, wise Mother (who lived in a swamp far away) and learned that "mindburn" was more than an ordinary disease. Rather it was a sort of curse, from (or of?) a race or caste of 'gremlins' who once tormented the King of All Craftsmen, ages ago when Anathema ruled openly.

Mist rises above the dam. A flower is reshaped into a flying boat. A call goes out to farms all around the lake and mining towns in the hills above it: who is strong and brave enough to dare a visit to the rulers of that strange golden forest, and well-spoken enough to ask their aid with some hope of success? The boat can hold five passengers and almost half a ton of cargo, or more of one and less of the other, needing no crew but two small tarry homunculi and a silver statuette of a cat (well-known to the villagers for acting much as living cats do, but wherever it deigns to sharpen it's claws, rotten wood turns fresh and rusty metal becomes like new). If all goes well those emissaries might return the very next day... but not in the same manner, as flower-boats wilt after a single journey and can't be launched from just anywhere. All people and goods to be brought back should be ready to be carried by conjured beasts similar to horses.

>>961473
Stunt denied on the following grounds.

It contradicts the map and physics since H4 is sitting upstream to any existing rivers from lake Silverstep.

I’m not going to let you start out in a position where you can open the dam and wipe out one of the NPC settlements.

Also, we’re still pretty much in pre-production since the PC village hasn’t claimed a hex, and you have t put out an idea for one of the settlements (which I am 100% crowdsourcing from you right now)

Fiend, Adorjan favored
Iconic anima: a wheel of knives with smoke obscuring the center

Pyrian urge: Humiliate all who willfully deceive their superiors.
Motivation: Teach salmon to survive adulthood in Kimbery.
Essence 2, Willpower 10, Compassion 2, Conviction 2, Temperance 3, Valor 2
Strength 1, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3
Charisma 1, Manipulation 5, Appearance 1
Perception 5, Intelligence 5, Wits 1

Caste skills: Bureaucracy, Linguistics, Ride, Sail, Socialize
Favored skills: Craft, Martial Arts, Occult, Survival, War
Archery 0
Athletics 1
Awareness 1
Bureaucracy 0
Craft (Water) 1
Dodge 1
Integrity 0
Investigation 0
Linguistics 0 (native: bogling tribal dialect)
Larceny 0 (While Feigning Servitude +1)
Lore 5
Martial Arts 5
Medicine 2
Melee 0
Occult 3 (Art of Alchemy +2, Art of Demon Summoning +2)
Performance 0
Presence 1 (Offering Medical Care +2)
Resistance 0
Ride 0
Sail 0
Socialize 0
Stealth 5
Survival 1 (Medical Foraging +1)
Thrown 1
War 1 (Hit & Run +1)

> Cecelyne
Hellscry Chakra

> Kimbery
Mother Sea Mastery
Fathomless Poison Haven

> Malfeas
By Pain Reforged
By Rage Recast (air adaptation, cheetah's pace, fangs, fire adaptation, fogsense, glider, serpent's body, shark sight)

> Martial Arts
Root of the Brass Lotus

> Metagaos
Sprawling Marsh Indulgence
Hungry Devil-Weed Growth

> She Who Lives In Her Name
Factual Determination Analysis
Unshattered Tongue Perfection

> Backgrounds
Artifact 1: Path-Carving Boots
Artifact 4: Reaver Drone
Artifact 4: Resplendent Satchel of Healing
Artifact 3: Thorn Thrower
Backing (Ebon Dragon) 1
Cult 1
Demonic Familiar 2: Firmin w/ increased Dexterity & Intelligence (body double)
Demonic Familiar 2: Sesselja w/ increased Appearance & Stamina
Henchmen 3: boglings (one creeper w/ Emerald Countermagic, Hound of the Five Winds, and Raising the Earth's Bones, another w/ Dragon of Smoke and Flame, Floral Ferry, and Keel Cleaves the Clouds, daughter w/ charisma 4, manipulation 4, at least a little bit of Bureaucracy & Linguistics, and cover story as a wood-aspect outcaste DB)
Influence (shady demons) 1
Manse 2 (Silverstep Dam: Network Node, Provider, Subtle Breath of Sextes Jylis, mundane features include mill and fish ladder, produces a Stone of Mending Flaws),
Mentor 3: Mother Bog
Resources 1
Unwoven Coadjutor 1 (Tomescu w/ Strength 4, Wits 5, Integrity 2 (Demonic Religion +3), Larceny 5, Material Tribulation Divestment, Shattered Adamant Attack)

> Bonus points:
21 on backgrounds
4 on specialties
5 on willpower

> Intimacies:
The Ebon Dragon (filial piety)
Mother Bog (filial piety)
Boglings (affectionate rivalry)
Black Tide Style (covetous admiration)
Fish (protective hunger)
Poison-Based Extortion (sadistic glee)

Using Dreams of the First Age chargen rules to represent an established Dragon-Blooded (and keep pace with other Celestial-tier PCs), with 30 BP per ST

Name: Inyene Prem
Aspect: Earth

Iconic Anima: A massive stone edifice, studded with gemstones and mineral wealth
Motivation: Build and administrate a merchant empire

Attributes: [8/6/4]

[4] Strength 1 Dexterity 3 Stamina 3
[6] Charisma 4 Manipulation 2 Appearance 3
[8] Perception 2 Intelligence 5 Wits 4

Virtues: [Assign 5, capped at 4 w/o BP, +2 from BP]
Compassion 2, Conviction 5, Temperance 2, Valor 2

Soul:
Essence 4, Willpower 10
Personal 14, Peripheral 33
4/33 Peripheral Committed (Bulwark Librarian)

Abilities/Skills:
Caste: Awareness, Craft, Integrity, Resistance and War
Favored [3]: Bureaucracy, Linguistics, Lore

[skill dots: 12 preassigned, 10 caste/favored, 20 unrestricted (42 total), capped at 3 w/o BP
Bureaucracy 5 for 2 BP, Performance 4 for 2 BP]
[specialties: 4 free]

Archery 1
Athletics
*Awareness 1
*Bureaucracy 5 (Commerce +2)
*Craft (Fire) 1
*Craft (Earth) 3
*Craft (Wood) 3
Dodge 3
*Integrity 1
Investigation 1
Larceny
*Linguistics 2 (Native: Forest-Tongue (??? Dialect), Others: High Holy Speak, Old Realm)
*Lore 3
Martial Arts 1
Medicine
Melee 3
Occult 3
Performance 4
Presence 3
*Resistance 1
Ride 1
Sail
Socialize 3
Stealth
Survival 1
Thrown
*War 1 (Woodlands +2)

Free dots: Archery 1, Bureaucracy 1, Lore 2, Martial Arts 1, Melee 1, Occult 1, Performance 1, Presence 1, Ride 1, Socialize 1 and War 1

Charms: [10, 5 must be caste/favored]
Second Bureaucracy Excellency [Bureaucracy 1, E1]
Terrestrial Bureaucracy Reinforcement [Bureaucracy 3, E2]
Benevolent Master’s Blessing [Bureaucracy 2, E1]
Elemental Concentration Trance [Lore 2, E1]
Eternal Mind Meditation [Lore 3, E3]
Fivefold Resonance Sense [Occult 2, E1]
First Performance Excellency [Performance 1, E1]
Talented Improvisation [Performance 2, E1]
Dance of Flashing Swords [Performance 4, E2]
Auspicious First Meeting Attitude [Presence 2, E2]

Mutations, Merits and Flaws:
None

Backgrounds: [15 dots, +3 from BP, Manse 5 and Resource 4 for 6 BP]
Ally 2 (Dragon King Spouse, Senga)
Artifact 2 (Reinforced Breastplate, Bulwark Librarian)
Artifact 2 (Crystalline Bodyguard)
Backing 3 (Managerial Authority over Mining and Trading Business)
Influence 3 (Merchants, Tradesman and Crafters)
Manse 5 (Lunar aspect, Trestle of Lunacy)
Resources 4 (Green Jade Mine and Associated Business Interests)

Mundane Equipment / Resource Purchases:
Master-level Workshops for several craft skills

Intimacies: [max 12]
Senga (Love)
Business Empire (Pride)
Trestle of Lunacy (Protective Pride)
Family (Devotion)

BP Spent:
+30 free with chargen
-2 Virtues
-10 permanent Essence 4
-5 Permanent Willpower 10
-2 Bureaucracy 5
-2 Performance 4
-3 Extra background dots
-4 Manse 5
-2 Resources 4

Descriptions:

An exalted prince of the earth, and merchant lord of the threshold, Inyene Prem is a success story and inspiration! The first of his family to exalt in many generations, he has relentlessly built upon his humbler beginnings with boisterous cheer- reclaiming an ancient manse to serve as his home, trading hub and lumber mill, establishing a thriving mine upon a rich vein of green jade discovered himself, rediscovering lost wonders, building a network of trade and industry (providing wealth and work to a grateful and growing community) and winning the heart of an wood aspected artificer, whose works bring greater prosperity to his growing holdings and whose presence provides hope for the start of a dynasty.

In truth, the Dragon-Blooded is aware that his older wife is… not quite human. But she carries the blood of dragons nonetheless, they care for one another, they support each other, and when the time comes, their differences are not so great as to stand in the way of children. What more could any man want?

Inyene Prem’s appearance fits the stereotypes of his aspect- the Dragon-Blooded is tall and broad shouldered, skin a warm brown of freshly tilled soil, his darker hair pulled and tied back. His figure is easily made out at a distance as he moves through town, or on site at his businesses, as he is never without a gleaming breastplate of white jade, and is frequently in the company of otherworldly women- a silent attendant of gleaming crystal in pale ruby, and his lady wife, who appears as both a woman of noble bearing and a feathered reptile, depending on her mood.

Bulwark Librarian (Artifact ••)
A reinforced breastplate of white jade, with scrollwork and imagery evocative of scholarly rather than martial pursuits. Legend tells that it was once part of a set, belonging to an order of warrior monks dedicated to the protection of a temple library. If this is true, the order, and the library itself, has been lost since the time of the Contagion.

This artifact has a single hearthstone socket installed over the heart, increasing the fatigue rating by one (which matters not a whit when the Jade magical material bonus is in play).

Crystalline Bodyguard (Artifact ••)
An automaton built of faint red semi-transparent crystal, like fine wine diluted in a glass of water, rediscovered in the reexcavation of a long-collapsed mine. She usually serves as a silent attendant, carrying possessions and providing minor services to her master- until he is physical threatened, and she seamlessly transitions into violence.

A variant automaton of the same class as Symnelra. Instead of Martial Arts 3, Thrown 7 she possesses Melee 3, Martial Arts 7, and wields two exceptional crystal sais (+1 Accuracy, +1 Damage, +1 Defense) and does not produce crystal throwing darts.

Trestle of Lunacy (Manse •••••)
5-dot, Lunar Aspect, produces a Gem of Madness

An arch of living branches bridges a river, and astride that crouches a building of several stories (wider than it is tall), wrought in stone and silver, infiltrated with stands of that same living wood. This crossroads is a bustling hub of activity, with shipments of raw jade, lumber and alchemical components arriving by road and barge (unloaded automatically by vines unfurling from the underside of the living bridge, with no need for stevedores) and artifacts, alchemical concoctions and processed lumber departing by the same. Multiple storerooms stand stacked with goods; traders and merchants need not fear their product spoiling, as nothing within the walls ever seems to go bad. Those vermin that dare intrude quickly turn on each other in vicious, self-destructive fury. The interior of the factory is dizzying to behold, as the convener-analogues (an eclectic mix of living vines, stone rollers, and silver machinery) follow a convoluted multilayered curving paths, forming complex knots, Spirograph flower petals, elevated walkways reminiscent of Haltan treetop villages, with barely a straight line or square corner to be found. Those parts of the manse more concerned with human habitation and comfort are more sedate and orderly and regular in form- hallways, living quarters, store rooms, offices, meeting chambers, medical ward, kitchen, library, and even a calming enclosed garden, which keeps careful watch on the health of all those nearby.

On a fundamental level, the manse is something of a contradiction- order and stability, built around a core of madness. Or perhaps, it brings order, but only by drawing out the chaos and disorder around it, and distilling that poison in its very heart. The heathroom is twisted and disturbing to look about- organic and unnatural, a portrait of a diseased mind given form. In the very center of the this room hangs a silver cage, suspended by wires, in which a Stone of Madness forms.

CP Budget:
+10 free (Manse Rating x2)
+3 Maintenance (Holy Madmen)
A line of priest-equivalents who have donated their own mental stability for enlightening madness, and tend to the manse’s living components. They must be allowed to wander within the manse, and protected from violence, as they pursue their inscrutable tasks. Currently, five such madmen dwell within.
-5 Atelier-Manse (Water, Wood)
-3 Integrated Utility Artifacts (10 dots)
••••• Cargo Preservation Spindle (Rather than simply discouraging vermin, encroaching pests become crazed hunters of their own kind)
••• Diagnostic Garden (Alchemical maintenance requirement removed, such requirements are instead dependent on the manse’s essence)
•• Heart-Song Instrument (A large, bulky pipe organ, that would require a hearthstone for power if it were an independent artifact. Volume is adjustable by pedal, at the upper end, reaching a level comparable to Commanding Presence of Fire. It provides two bonus successes to performance rolls when used, but by the very nature of heart-song, this may only enhance social attacks sharing an Emotion you currently feel, or prayers that align with your Motivation)
-1 Magical Conveniences (5 total)
• Inset moonsilver wall panels provided automated inventories of cargo and storage areas
• Hanging vines that load or unload barges underneath the manse
• Medical area with tools with automated cleaning and sterilization protocols tied to central control, also useful for dishwashing (not weaponizable)
• Red-jade-infused industrial lianas for wastewater reclamation and hot showers
• Lighting fixtures that can be regulated with by touching a small moonsilver panel in each room, local settings can be overridden by central control
-2 Archive (5 topics)
Medicine (Plants and Herbology +1)
Blazing Fire PathIntroduction
Flowing Water Path Introduction
Shimmering Water Path Introduction
5 Terrestrial Circle Spells
Wood Dragon’s Claw
Burning Eyes of the Offender
Coin of Distant Vision
Peacock Shadow Eyes
Spoke the Wooden Face
-2 Central Control

Dragon King Spouse, using Sleeper chargen rules

Name: Inyene Senga
Breed: Raptok

Motivation: Construct a 4-dot respawn talisman for the neomah Irini
Urge (from tattoo): To exchange services for flesh and weave that flesh into unique creatures. (Usually satisfied with unique plant-based creations)

Attributes: [8/6/5, plus raptoks receive +1 Str, Dex, Sta and Per]

[6 +1 all] Strength 3 Dexterity 5 Stamina 4
[5] Charisma 2 Manipulation 4 Appearance 2
[8 +1 Per] Perception 6 (5 base) Intelligence 5 Wits 2 [+1 Perception from Dragon Tear Tiara]

Virtues: [Assign 5, capped at 3 w/o BP, +2 from BP]
Compassion 5, Conviction 2, Temperance 2, Valor 2

Soul:
Essence 3, Willpower 10
Personal 36 + 10 (Familiar 4)
13/46 Committed (6m Demon Ink Tattoo, 2m Dragon Tear Tiara, 5m Principle of Motion)

Abilities/Skills:
Breed: Craft, Socialize,Linguistics
Favored [5]: Awareness, Lore, Medicine, Occult, Performance

[skill dots: 35 dots, at least 10 must go to Breed / Favored, capped at 3 w/o BP
+6 Breed/Favored Skill Dots from BP]
[specialties: 4 free, +6 Breed/Favored from 3 BP]

Archery
Athletics
*Awareness 1
Bureaucracy
*Craft (Earth) 1
*Craft (Water) 2
*Craft (Wood) 5 (Original Research +3)
*Craft (Steam) 1
*Craft (Vitriol) 3 (Tattoos +1)
Dodge 1
Integrity
Investigation 1
Larceny 3
*Linguistics 2 (Native: High Holy Speak (Ancient Rathless Dialect), Others: Old Realm, Forest-Tongue)
*Lore 5
Martial Arts 1
*Medicine 3
Melee
*Occult 5 (Art of Elemental Wood +3, Art of Malfean Alchemy +1)
*Performance 1
Presence
Resistance 1
Ride 3
Sail
*Socialize 1 (In Human Shape +2)
Stealth
Survival 1
Thrown
War

Individual Thaumaturgy Rituals: [3 for 1 BP]
Summon Neomah
Summon Metody
Banish the Faithless Servant

Paths: [10 dots]

Breed: Growing Wood, Shaping Wood
Favored [1]: Yielding Earth

Clear Air 1
Clarity of (Hearing and Touch)
See the Winds of Essence (leap ahead [Compassion] only)
Solid Earth 1
Lithic Understanding
Shape the Earth (leap ahead [Temperance] only)
*Yielding Earth 1
Balm of Health
Repair (leap ahead [Compassion] only)
Flickering Fire 1
Flashing Agility
Fiery Prowess (leap ahead [Valor] only)
*Growing Wood 5
Verdant Understanding
Empower Cultivation
Empower Plants
Shape Plants
Alter Plants
Plant Walk (leap ahead [Compassion] only)
*Shaping Wood 1
Shaping the Beak
Alter the Trunk (leap ahead [Temperance] only)

Mutations, Merits and Flaws:
0 Creature of Darkness [from Demon Ink Tattoo]
0 Toxin (Aconite) [from Demon Ink Tattoo]

Backgrounds: [12 dots, +6 for 6 BP, Familiar 4 for 2 BP]
Ally 2 (Dragon-Blooded Spouse, Inyene Prem)
Artifact 3 (••• Bracers of Universal Crafting, •• Dragon Tear Tiara, • Winged Messenger Bauble)
Backing 1 (Lab Assistants)
Familiar 4 (Air Elemental Riding Dragon, Zacharias)
Manse 1 (Sidereal aspect, Mandala Hermitage)
Resources 3 (Substantial Allowance)
Sapience 3 (Neomah Demon Ink Tattoo, provides Weaving the Flesh, First Craft Excellency, Shapechange, Third Medicine Excellency, Principle of Motion and Toxin (Aconite) as a switchable mutation)
Savant 2

Intimacies: [max 15]
Inyene Prem (Love)
Interspecies Romance (Fascination)
The Taboo (Passion)
Innovation (Excitement)
Irini (Age-Old Friend)
Zacharias (Doting Pride)

BP Spent:
+25 free with chargen
-2 Virtues
-5 Permanent Willpower 10
-2 Craft (Wood) 5
-2 Lore 5
-2 Occult 5
-3 Six Breed/Favored Specialties
-1 Three thaumaturgy rituals
-6 Extra Background dots
-2 Familiar 4

Descriptions:

Glorious as the First Age was, it was not without flaw, and not all who lived in that exalted era were happy. All societies have their malcontents- those who do not quite fit in, who chafe against norms, who have opinions and desires considered strange or deviant by their peers. Senga of the Dragon Kings was one so discontented. A lover of innovation, frustrated with dogma, and curious about much that was considered taboo by her elders.

Unlike many Dragon King “sleepers” who survived the chaos of the usurpation and collapse of civilization, she is not crippled by grief, nor determined to rebuild what once was. Instead she is invigorated, eager to invent without restrictions, to take advantage of this new, post-apocalyptic situation to indulge interest that would have been strongly disapproved of “back home”. Such as interspecies romance, or tattooing herself with a live demon.

In the Age of Sorrows, Inyene Senga is not lost, rather, she has found herself for the first time. She has a home, her work, and love.

In her true form, Senga is a raptok- green scales a few shades lighter than rich vegetation, the crests of feathers running down her back and tufted on her tail lavender with the occasional spattering of blues. She paints her claws (delicate compared to those of other breeds, less so by human sensibilities) a similar shade and dresses in fine scholar’s robes. In her human form (or at least the one she wears most commonly, based on the Shapechange charm’s read of her husband’s desires), she appears as a slender eastern woman, of only slightly lesser height (Senja is not tall for a raptok, much less other breeds of Dragon King) with lavender hair and painted nails. In either, she wears the same suggestive tattoo on her thigh and wedding band on her hand. As far as the local mortal population is concerned, she is the wood aspect wife of their exalted merchant lord.

Mandala Hermitage (Manse •)
High on a forgotten mountaintop, many miles distant from the grand woodland home of Inyene Prem, lies an open-air sidereal manse, appearing as a carefully arranged mandala of ordinary stone. However, idle examination quickly reveals these patterns are far less transient than those mortal monks have created and swept away throughout history, and detailed study will reveal an encoded introduction to the secrets of the stars. At the very center lies an five-pointed indentation, in which the manse produces a Gem of Starlight.

In ages past, this place served as the home for a line of holy men, mountaintop hermits, studying the sky, sustained by their art, eyes glowing with wisdom. In this modern era, the line has been broken and the place is home only to a small population of lesser animals, sustained by the stars in this barren place, the light of which shines forth from unenlightened eyes.

Senga sought this place out using her memories from the first age, reaching the remote location with the assistance of her familiar.

CP Budget:
+2 Free (Manse Rating x2)
+2 Habitability 2
-1 Mutagenic (+2 Alternate Nutriment (Starlight), -1 Eerie Glow (Eyes like Distant Stars) )
-2 Archive (Art of Astrology +1)
-1 Well Favored Aspect

Neomah Demon Ink Tattoo (Sapience •••)
Senga first met the neomah Irini in the First Age, in her incautious youth. The Dragon King, frustrated with the mores and restrictions of her society, found an unexpected friend and confidant (and significant influence) in the demon. Without her help, the raptok likely would have failed to keep the full extent of her proclivities and discontent from her elders.

It was a surprise to both when, by a twice of chance or fate, they were reunited centuries later.

Irini is an exceptional neomah who has managed to survive the intervening years between the First Age and the modern era the long way round. She has attained Essence 4, learned several charms above and beyond those known by baseline examples of her species, and has successfully established a small cult in Creation more than once in the intervening centuries (though not currently). She agreed to be voluntarily rendered down to chalcanth and become a demon ink tattoo on Senga’s thigh; the raptok performed the tattooing herself, with her interspecies marriage to her Dragon-Blooded spouse serving as a (non-consumed) exotic ingredient. In return, Senga made a commitment to eventually construct a four-dot respawn talisman for her friend, a project that is currently incomplete.

>>967730
Whups, Dragon Kings can't raise paths above 3 at chargen without spending BP. So, have this correction to Senga's paths:

Solid Earth 3
Lithic Understanding
Shape the Earth
Empower Crystal
Become Stone (leap ahead [Temperance] only)

*Growing Wood 3
Verdant Understanding
Empower Cultivation
Empower Plants
Shape Plants (leap ahead [Compassion] only)

Here's a sheet for Kome's character, pending ST approval.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QsJ_4Ov-elU170e9mWCuF7_AVPESYgs9GXHx4JZT8kM/edit?usp=sharing

"If you're not in control of your own destiny, you're not in control of anything."

Those words still ring through Abby's mind as she marches upwards along the river, with no thought as to where she is going or what she plans to do on this seemingly fruitless journey. She tries for the thousandth time to banish these heretical thoughts, to deny this urge of rebellion, to go straight back to Lookshy and apologize for her infidelity and lack of conduct, taking whatever consequences may come, and just focus on giving the Boss the legal courtroom ass-kicking he deserves.

But she can't.

Years of hard-coded loyalty and professionalism, stripped away in an instant by the incoherently corrupt ramblings of a commanding officer who should never have taken office, never should have risen beyond citizenship, never should have commanded anything more intelligent than an animal, never even should have picked up a weapon in his miserable life, yet was praised for his acts of inhumanity as if they were not a completely subversive abuse of power. She supposes this was the tipping point; the praise. She wanted, desperately, to believe this was one of the inevitable epic failures that occurs when a gigantic realm-spanning organization has to keep track of millions of soldiers and thousands of officers, and would rather allow corruption to fester and spread than process billions of sheets of continuously-conflicting paperwork to possibly get it done. That is the narrative she wants to believe, but the support from his Gen in spite of the verified anonymous tip of his unprofessional and outright malicious agenda paints a different story. A story of endless incompetence and bigoted spite ruling over the strong and incompetent, where the hateful and the mad give orders while the competent blindly fulfill them.

And then she heard the words from that... that nobody, and Abby could believe no longer. No matter how hard she tried, her steadfast resolve had failed her. She just had to leave, clear her mind, stay away until she could find it in her to go back and save her team from the Boss and his bigoted stupidity. Her team-

At this point, she just didn't care about the Green sun or the alien sky or what have you. Her world had already turned upside down.

She just kept going along the river, her little tribe of fluffballs still following her. Maybe if she found a town or a city, she could finally figure out what she was doing in the first place. Maybe.

Alright, going over the four character sheets as posted, I’m officially signing off on them, and I don’t have anywhere on the map in mind to specifically put places but I know James Leng has already claimed H3 for the wood dam manse, Sidereal Manse J7, and Moonsilver bridge town in B4 or B6

As for the character introduction, great post, though one note I should point out is that Lookshy is one city, and actually cracks super hard down on incompetence, and the gentes basically try and raise an army of elemental Batmen (Batman’s?) and prevents incompetent people from getting into power by encouraging rising stars to challenge them rather than the standard nepotism and the like that happen in the Realm (though they also have no use for incompetent scions). But, something like embezzlement of funds to his Gentes resulting in the deaths of some non-exalted soldiers is a crime that would be hard to prove and would be basically political suicide to try and go after him for, especially as a former lost egg with no social safety net yourself.

The main thing left is to figure out the political stats of each of your kingdoms (and of the ones in the wilderness since you’re not alone) using the Kingmaker system, which is why claiming a hex is pretty important.

It occurs to me that, while inside the Trestle of Lunacy, Inyene Senga will be able to recover her entire uncommitted mote pool in less than an hour and a half. Might be sensible to have somebody continuously rotating little trays in and out of the lab, a dozen seedlings on each, to be blessed with the second step of the Growing Wood Path as spare moments and motes become available. Probably not enough for every single stalk of grain in a field of useful size (back of the envelope calculations suggest months per acre), but growing nutritious fruits and vegetables out of season, or trees and vines in otherwise barren soil, could be significant.

>>969574
That's a clever idea!

Occurs to me one of the first actions I should declare is Senga attuning to the Trestle of Lunacy, which is going to immediately put her into 15 points of XP debt.

Also going to declare, until further notice, every day that she's at the manse, Senga is going to spend an hour using the diagnostic garden to check the health of the local area. The dice pool for that is Perception 6 + Medicine 3 + 1 (from the specialty provided by the manse's archives) against difficulty 5. Should the roll fail, she'll reroll with the third medicine excellency.