text: Even with all the care that Zaan, Silk and Tia can provide, it takes you about two days of full rest to heal your wounds and be back in perfect physical shape.
  Well, Zaan and Silk. The little saw-toothed Lunar is fairly knowledgeable in the field of medicine and under his care your condition improves much faster, and you can almost swear that physical contact with your newly-acquired Fair Folk pet's goo-like body could be having a soothing effect. She DOES feel a bit like a healing salve at times.
  Tia, on the other hand, was mostly an element of disturb during your healing process. Despite all her goodwill she clearly has no idea how massages work, or the difference between massages and groping. She also didn't stick to just massages... It's a wonder your wounds didn't actually re-open considering how rough she is / gets you to be. Fortunately you even managed to sleep some, mostly after completely exhausting her. A skill you're quickly developing as sort of a survival mechanism.
  You'd lie if you said you didn't enjoy every moment of her company, as usual, and the addition of Silk to the mix has spiced things up greatly. You're worried you might be developing a shapeshifters fetish (on top of any you might already have).
  Despite two days of inaction on your part (mostly used by your allies for expanding as far as possible the areas of stable Creation you've managed to lock out of the Wyld, and scouting into the more dangerous and chaotic Bordermarches), your enemy didn't sieze the initiative at all.
  If he were a normal, sensible enemy, you'd imagine he'd be busy building up fortifications, setting up ambushes and traps, and generally preparing defensively. But, honestly, you have no idea how a war fought in the Wyld, against a Fae noble, would even look like, much less play out. Which greatly troubles you.
  "You should sleep a bit more." you playfully warn her, as you exchange a kiss. Of course what you mean is that she should let YOU sleep a bit more.
  "...I'd love to continue from where we left yesterday night, Tia, but don't we have a war to fight? We can pick up after that." you invite her, wrapping your arms agains her waist and pulling her gently down onto your body.
  About five minutes later, you stand up and go and get dressed, leaving an utterly demolished Tia in bed. It'll be a while before she can join you.
  You SUSPECT she migh have been feeding on your and / or Tia's emotions, and that that might explain why the Lunar has been, these two days, even harder to satisfy in bed than usual (which was already pretty hard).
  "Should I fetch you something for breakfast?" your little butler asks. You can't help but realize that, after getting him completely desensitized to your and Tia's bedroom antics, he's now gotten quickly used even at having Silk around. You really hope that you haven't traumatized him, and that he won't turn out weird when he grows up.
  "Yes, thanks. Whatever you can find without too much hassle. And also something for Tia once she wakes up."
  After getting properly prepared, you consider a schedule for the day. Talon said that everything is "Ready whenever you are", which means that all the pieces are in place for the final assault. What should your next move be?
  >ask Silk to retrieve her baggage from the marsh and craft gossamer for you (alone/go with her/Tia accompanies her?)
  Get any last minute intel they might have, or any info they've picked up on the prince or his forces, then
  >>talk with (Talon/Zaan/Samiel/Dancing Smoke/Yaraon/Flow/your captains/Silk/Tia) first (about what?)
  The mass of pirates, seamen, brigands and cutthroats at your orders, who have gotten used to carry around all the iron they managed to put their hands on, might have survived the Wyld up to now, but they know that all they've done up to now has been in the Bordermarches.
  On one side, morale is fairly high, because your campaign has been successful up to now. But, they're clearly worried about what's about to happen.
  Rubeni, Quint and Alexei, their three captains, are there with you, having just rounded up their crews.
  These men, as fierce and well-armed as they are, could probably use some pep talk right now. You ARE about to face a supernatural enemy, after all: every bit helps.
  Secondary only, considering what I stated above. Something other to look forward to if they come out of this alive.
  >Remind them of their duty to Creation, and more importantly, everyone they know and love within it.
  >All of you are fighting to protect each other; so protect and watch for the man on your left and the man on your right.
  >You can't help but realize that, after getting him completely desensitized to your and Tia's bedroom antics, he's now gotten quickly used even at having Silk around.
  probably not, I imagine we make a lot of noise with Tia, and we do walk around most of the time completely nude
  that being said, we are totally taking his cherry when he is ready for it and can survive a night with us
  Tia's an actual anything, man included, and Silk is more of a monogendered non-person blob than a woman. What we need is a non-gender-fluid member sooner or later.
  pfft, that's like, a resources ••• purchase, I'm sure the queen has a stockpile (what self respecting monarch wouldn't?)
  For shame. Somewhere on this ship is either a woman trapped in a man's body our a strong woman living her life as a man. Are you saying they don't deserve representation in our non-traditional non-binary relationship?
  She may well, but we currently don't, and we've been riding Tia without contraceptives literally since the night we met her. I wouldn't be surprised if we're already carrying a litter of Lunar half-castes.
  She might be carrying a litter, and, depending on her knacks, they could be beastmen for all we know! (we *have* been fucking in the wyld, so she wouldn't even need the higher essence knacks)
  Dragon blooded are typically *very* picky with who they produce children, well, the women are anyway.
  That's true, I haven't looked at problem of those people from this perspective, albeit one would question if people describing themselves as gender-static aren't like that because of preconceived notions about gender dynamics they brought up from their upbringing in oppressive societies of Creation. Their lack of fluidity should be inspected if comes from concious choice after acknowledging possibility of gender reformulation or from suppression of willingness of changing their solidified gender paradigm by patriarchal ways of thinking.
  >a world where the greatest empire in the world has been ruled by a divine empress for the past 750 years
  >a world which was ruled by a warrior queen from the prehistoric Mandate of Heaven to the Usurpation
  So what you're saying is that you hate women and can't believe they can rule the world and society even with super powers, you misogynist rapist?
  It's basically the opposite of patriarchy. It's more or less an MRA nightmare of how society really works.
  >She might be carrying a litter, and, depending on her knacks, they could be beastmen for all we know! (we *have* been fucking in the wyld, so she wouldn't even need the higher essence knacks)
  depends on our respective essences as per exalted RAW. Ties go to Solars, so she may be carrying golden children
  She's much older than us, in terms of exaltation date. I have every faith they wouldn't be sun-children.
  "Men." You start, slowly pacing around the crowded deck. "Up to now, you've been raiders and bandits. You've been preying on traders, merchants and fishermen. I will not judge you for your life up to now." You tell them. "But now you have the chance to do something different." You point outwards, towards the rolling, smoking mass of the Wyld. "Today, we're going to plunder the enemy of Creation."
  "Not many can claim as much, can they?" You grin. "Be proud. Be proud and strong. And remember: our enemy specializes in tricks, manipulation and misdirection. Don't trust your senses. Don't trust what you see or what you hear. Stand close together. Support each other. But most importantly... out there..." You reach for and draw a pirate's sword, and point it to the sky. "...trust in this."
  "If you feel fear, seek refuge in iron. They can twist your fears against you, remember. But they can't twist this. Iron will stay true."
  "Move in groups. Stand with your captain. Never stray, never split up. If someone starts acting strangely, slap him on the head with the flat of your weapon."
  There's no general "yes, sir" like a disciplined crew would say. Instead, you're met with a variety of chaotic agreements as the crew breaks up and begins to comb the ship for anything useful. Tools, rope, food, extra weapons, a barrel of booze...
  You leave things to them, and head to the captain's room to meet with the gods and the other Exalted.
  Would have added 3 dice, so ne 1 success. Wouldn't have been enough to make a difference wo why waste the essence?
  Because the whole reason we got the charm was to lead and direct the troops today. Otherwise we would have gotten something else.
  Yeah, but even so I'd rather save our Essence for the fight. We have another freaking Behemouth to kill on top of Tarien Darian.
  In the captain's room, you meet with Talon, Zaan, Samiel, Flow, Dancing Smoke and Yaraon, gathered around the small round table there. The small room is crowded, and the air feels charged with Essence, like static electricity. A few minutes later, Tia and Silk join you, and you're ready to start.
  "What do we need to know?" You ask Talon as you step in. He's the one who spent the most time scouting the Wyld, after all, but he doesn't look too cheerful about his progress.
  "Silk's directions are correct, as far as I can tell. I found this Starleaf Tree. It seems to be the centerpiece of the Wyldland, or rather its crossroads. The chaos is so thick around it, though, that it would be impossible to mount an offensive from there. The mortals would just... die." Of course, he doesn't mean that literally. It would be much, much worse than merely dying. "And frankly I'm fairly sure that even we'd have a really bad time."
  Talon grins. "I and Samiel took him down last night." He explains, exchanging a glance and a nod with the Dragon-Blooded. "But, guardian or not, the chaos there is too thick for us to do anything from there."
  "Precisely." The wolf-like Lunar replies. "From the Starleaf Tree, we managed to find it, and then reverse-engineered a few routes from here to there that avoid the deep parts of the Wyld. More or less."
  "We can take a short route that moves through some thick Middlemarches close to the Tree." Explains Zaan. "More natural hazards and more likely to lose men along the way, but we could reach the palace with less risk of ambushes or being forced to fight a pitched battle. The second route is longer, but safer. If we take it, though, we're going to be easier to intercept."
  "Why?" Samiel doesn't understand. "He has a fortified palace. He has every possible tactical advantage if he fights defensively."
  "...How about we take a third option, and instead of the short or long route, we move straight across this Starleaf Tree thing? It's the shortest route, right? We have Silk. Can't she keep the Wyld under control so it doesn't eat us?" Asks Yaraon.
  "I can keep it under control near the Tree, which is common ground. But not in the rest of the Wyld, which is mostly Diroan's dominion."
  >Speak in favor of taking the long route, safe from the Wyld but more likely to be ambushed or forced in a pitched battle.
  >Speak in favor of taking the short route, safe from ambushes but more exposed to the horrors of the Wyld.
  >Speak in favor of taking the direct route, passing through the Starleaf Tree into the thickest Wyld. Silk will keep you safe, but Tarien Dorian will be there to fight you on his terms.
  Lets not go near the tree or fight a pitched battle, our men have been dealing with the Wyld for a few days now and have their iron, they'll have to make do
  What are the chances he would agree to a duel if it included the words epic proportions in the message? (only when he shows up we pile on him)
  pitched battles in Wyld space, deep or not, sound like no fun. And we can fight Dorian on the top floor of his castle, rather than in the middle of the deep Wyld
  >In your opinion, what would look most cool? Even cooler than anything Tarien Dorian could ever pull? The coolest of cool?
  How good is Maka's sense of tactics and strategy by now? Does she have any idea on which of these is the best idea?
  Its the Wyld. How often do such tactics work on the villain of the story? Or the main hero for that matter.
  We'd have to make sure Tarien Dorian looks like a punk, if we're doing this. If we're just giving him a cool-as-fuck opponent to fight this will make the story even better for him.
  No, we'd have to fight Dorian on our own. Otherwise he'll be powered up by the law of inverse ninjutsu
  >>Speak in favor of taking the short route, safe from ambushes but more exposed to the horrors of the Wyld.
  For no logical reason I now believe that Tarien Dorien is Dan McNinja. Yes, King Radical would be more appropriate for a Fae, but I'm still stuck on Dan.
  Ambushes our men can handle. The Wyld, less so. Though it would probably burn more of our Essence, so we'll just see how the votes shake out.
  Can we do a two-pronged strike? Maka, Tia and someone else can go to Dorian and tie him up in a cool battle. Meanwhile mortal army goes a longer way and slams him from the rear.
  >Speak in favor of taking the long route, safe from the Wyld but more likely to be ambushed or forced in a pitched battle
  How dangerous is the Wyld anyway? We got Heroism Encouraging Presence, so let's make the most use of it.
  Just as an idea how dangerous it can be: a Raksha Noble can fairly easily turn a mortal's lungs into stone and he'll die. Or, even easier, just say "The floor is now lava!" and it is now lava.
  >>Speak in favor of taking the long route, safe from the Wyld but more likely to be ambushed or forced in a pitched battle.
  "I think the shorter route is our best choice." You say. "As long as it's not excessively dangerous."
  "Depends on your idea of "excessive". We ARE going to lose people just moving through there." Talon warns you.
  "And how many are we going to lose to ambushes or battles on the other routes?" mumbles Yaraon. "Probably more."
  "I'm mostly worried about the effects on morale of seeing their friends being eaten from the inside by bugs made of mildew or their skin peeling off and walking away on its own." Talon frowns. "...But let's go with that. I hope we're not making a mistake."
  It takes about a hour to prepare everything. Your men are briefed and gathered, the barbarian tribes likewise, and the route is planned.
  Talon is going to move ahead and scout along the road. Zaan will move with the barbarians, and you with the pirates. The two forces will move together as left and right column of your group, each covering the other's flank.
  Flow, Smoke and Yaraon will stay back and focus on solidifying Creation and expanding it wherever possible. You should decide if to leave behind, on the ship, a contingent, or move with your entire force; what Samiel's role should be, since he's alone; and where should Regis stay.
  Seconded. Let's not leave anyone alone. Besides, it looks like they have a cute bromance blossoming.
  Huh, learned something new today. Honestly I just want to set Regis up with that cut maid we're planning to poach/add to our harem.
  Eh, he will be. Might need some training but I'm sure we could use Silk for much of- oh wait you aren't trying to break him and make him a little trap petboy. We probably shouldn't farm his training out to Silk and Tia then.
  "...How do you plan to get it back to the sea anyway?" Wonders Samiel, walking up to you. He has an iron chain around his neck as a choker, and tosses one at you. "Put this. Zaan's idea."
  "Oh, Samiel." You poke his shoulder. "Would you mind going out scouting with Talon? You seem to be a good team."
  "Can do." He nods. "We'll try and leave you signs to follow and warn you ahead of time if bad things lie in wait ahead."
  You're not sure how to reply to that. As you put the chain around your neck, you notice Tia has one on her own.
  "I'm sorry." You reply, noticing Samiel and Talon leaving to blaze a trail ahead of your main force. "I'll take it off later. But, right now... we have a war to fight, and a castle to siege."
  (Also, sorry for being slow today. I have another bit of AFK before I'll post again. Please be patient.)
  >"Oh, Samiel." You poke his shoulder. "Would you mind going out scouting with Talon? You seem to be a good team."
  Voting for [Heroism-Encouraging Presence], and for calling it [HEP] in the future because goddamn I can't touch type long words.
  Well, it'll help keep the Wyld from horribly mutating or killing more of our troops than it normally would. Also, don't forget the Wyld can warp minds as easily as bodies. People suddenly going insane and getting rid of most of the iron we have with us or stabbing their comrades to death for no apparent reason sucks for moral.
  I say use it. Marching through the Wyld is gonna be when they're really looking to their glorious Solar queen to lead them true.
  You guys, why the hell are you constantly conserving essence? We are going into danger and we want to use this now.
  because blowing 2/5 of our essence before we even meet the big bad means we'll have none left to fight him
  There is no more detail than that. It's an original character with no background - the only other picture of her is with her on her back, topless, her panties half-off. It's some dude's animu slut from a booru.
  We can go from zero to one with just a short break. It also makes zero sense to conserve when the intermediate dangers could be just as dangerous as the big bad.
  I'm inclined to agree, but the guy has a point. On our first day of this war, we blew through essence fast enough that we were all out by the time we fought the final fae of the day. We really do need to be careful with how this ammunition gets spent - most of our buffs last for a single scene, not an entire day.
  IPP, though, lasts for an entire day. We should absolutely use it. On top of that, we should try to always stay at Essence 4 or less, that way we're always regenerating. Whenever we're at Essence 5, we should spend at least a little on whatever we're currently doing.
  You begin your journey. Despite all the amount of iron you and your men are carrying around, you see the world around you really become freakishly distorted as you move further away from the small, stable island of Creation you've managed to carve out of the Wyld. The swamp turns into a flat grassland with a little eye on the top of each individual blade of grass, then in a forest with only one tree, endlessly repeated in identical clones, then a lake of still water you can walk on, droplets of it gently raining up to fall into a phantasmagorical city upside-down above you.
  The scenery gets more and more bizarre as you move on, and your men become clearly more and more stressed.
  No one is brave enough to walk up to you and say things outright, but you her them murmur about hearing calls and invitations, or the voices of long lost friends, or seeing in the distance beautiful hallucinations. Being pirates, unsurprisingly, most of them seem to feature booze, wenches or riches, or some combination thereof. wenches swimming in booze and wenches festooned with riches are common, but some of the more disturbed individuals report wenches made of booze, or booze wearing riches.
  Your advance has slowed down, as more and more often your men stop, begin to wander off and have to be brought back in line, or begin screaming or babbling incomprehensibly, at least until their pals pin them to the ground and smack a bit of sense back in them. With a lance to the other side of your formation, you can confirm Zaan's barbarians being burdened by the same problems.
  Turn around and flash them. Then start walking backwards in front of them. If that's not a big enough carrot to keep them back from the Wyld , I don't know what is.
  Pretty sure we rolled well enough to give an effective motivational speech for our crews and the barbarians. Are we even wearing a top at the moment?
  Even if he doesn't actually help, the act of prayer might help steel their nerves. Though i don't quite see the pirates as a faithful and pious lot, the saying about atheists and foxholes should apply.
  The situation takes a slight turn for the better when Rubel allows his men to open one of the two barrels of rum that they've been carrying along. That is, your progress stays just as slow, but for different reasons, and your men's morale, and ability to ignore the weirdness and insanity around them, improves. Though you can't be sure about their combat effectiveness.
  You're almost relieved when they later autonomously decide to open the second barrel and find it full of bees rather than alcohol.
  Once the panic has died down, you manage to make good progress, through endless valleys of broken glass, abandoned cities inhabited by disembodied points of light, and forests of copper trees made from song and music.
  Then there were the hills inhabited by xenophobic stone-carved totems with spider legs and prehensile tentacles, but everyone agreed to forget about that place.
  You follow the trail left by Talon and Samiel dutifully: iron nails hammered along the way, impervious to any attempt of the Wyld to move or destroy them. Still, the malicious nature of this realm is ever-active, and the world itself tries its hardest to conceal them to your eyes, slowing down your progress even more as you have to continuously check for them in order to be sure that you're on the right track.
  It's basically impossible to give a correct estimate of time spent in the Wyld, so you have no idea how long you've traveled after leaving the ship. But anyway, at a certain point, you see Samiel emerging from the distance, heading towards you hurriedly. He's limping a bit, bloodied, and overall quite distressed.
  If they're half as cowardly and superstitious as they seem I think a convincing argument that tUCS, the great fearsome demon or benevolent whatever, is on there side should help steel them.
  Your roll was on mental, not social. It was about navigating the wyld while putting your men under minimal risks, not inspiring them.
  The charm has the word "inspiring" in it, but it's not exclusively a morale thing: it makes Maka a more skilled commander all around.
  Huh, ok I was thinking about HEP completely wrong, thanks for the clarification. Also, nice top, very tribal. Did we think to work some iron in between the beads and charms?
  The gods are real in creation, so they can't be faulted for being superstitious. After all we can see the storm mothers are a thing.
  Cowardly...they're in a mind bending nightmare realm out of MC escher and Lovecraft crossed with a demented fairies imagination. Unless they are suicidal or Valor 4+, i can't fault them for that either.
  That happened on the island. During our attack on fae we suffered a lot of needless wounds because we did not spam Iron Kettle Body (which we definitely should have as it renders us immune to non bosses.) For that I think we should readjust our essence use upwards. It would be different if we did not have the quick break option.
  "Generally you measure distances in waypoints, but all the iron you people are carrying, and blazing a trail with iron nails, upsets the natural balance of the Wyld so much that I don't know what are the metrics behind our movement." Notes Silk and is promptly understood by no one.
  You realize that the wording "hostile terrain" in the Wyld takes a much more literal meaning, but he shakes his head vigorously. "Behemoth."
  "It's... It's kind of..." He hesitates, then struggles for a way to describe it. "It's kind of like this, with a... Well, it has two hands... I think..."
  "...Mayb- why am I even discussing this with you? Anyway, it's scary, and stupidly huge, and it got Talon!"
  Samiel gives him a "really?" look, but says nothing, and he backs up, lifting both hands. "...Fair enough. It was a stupid question." He admits.
  The Wyld follows narrative structure. If we try to sneak around the behemoth to save our own skins, there's a 100% chance that it will come out of nowhere in the final fight as dramatic reinforcements. On the other hand, once rescued, someone is safe for at least the next full act of the piece, meaning Talon will be safe to recuperate and, instead, be OUR dramatic reinforcements in the final battle.
  My paranoia says we should quickly tap Samiel with iron just to make sure it's him. Fuck trusting anything in the Wyld at face value.
  >Leave the troops behind and attack the Behemoth with only Exalted (leave someone with them? let Samiel rest a bit)
  depends a lot on what's running the bethmoth. Its probably not tied directly to a fae noble, which will make it weaker.
  >"Generally you measure distances in waypoints, but all the iron you people are carrying, and blazing a trail with iron nails, upsets the natural balance of the Wyld so much that I don't know what are the metrics behind our movement." Notes Silk and is promptly understood by no one.
  Man, we should probably have a sit down talk with Silk after we conquer this place about how fae and the wild work.
  "...Alright." you reply, taking off the iron chain wrapped around your neck. You lightly tap Samiel with it.
  "Not a lot, and I still have most of my essence." He replies, tapping his had where he evidently took some kind of blow to check the entity of the wound. "Why?"
  "I was thinking you could stay back here with the men. We brought them for a siege, but they're not equipped to fight a Behemoth." You explain, and the three captain emphatically nod in agreement.
  "Can't Silk stay? She'd be a lot more useful, since she can manipulate the Wyld and keep it under control."
  "Uh, not that easily here." She points out. "This area is under Tarien Dorian's domain, I only have limited influence here. Still, I guess it's something..."
  "...Samiel, no one thinks you're a coward for leaving Talon and coming to warn us." You can guess why he wants a piece of the action.
  Mind if I ask a Wyld question OP? Let's assume that this Wyld zone is large on the inside than it is on the outside, when we reintegrate it into creation is it going to shrink and stretch to fit the Creation around it, or could we end up with more territory than we initially lost?
  We want him in top shape, and he's the only one here who has need to heal. He can prove his mettle in a later fight.
  >Honestly I think hest the best leader we have available after ourself, so I'd rather he stay with the men and organize them for the nearly inevitable surprise attack by TD's forces. Surprise attacks are cool, right?
  Just want to remind you guys, the Wyld works on narrative structure. If we leave our allies behind while we go fight the behemoth, extras WILL die off-screen. We'll come back to find our captains and whomever we leave to guard them in a heroic last stand against hobgoblin hordes.
  Because Samiel needs to actually heal, and the narrative structure of the Wyld guarantees that - if the hero remains behind while their allies go ahead - the allies will fail and need further rescuing. Especially if the allies are romantic interests or have something to prove. Archetypes, tropes, and cliches are much more important than tactics or logic right now.
  Pretty sure this damsel also likes kicking ass and taking Names. Ain't nothing wrong with a power couple.
  Not if the camera stays focused on us. If it does, then our knight will disappear and will probably have their final words on-screen when we run across their broken form after they fail to return. That or slip into a long coma as they heal, rendering them unable to help in the final battle.
  I completely forgot to ask about another issue: Silk. Coming with you or staying with the troops to shield them from the worst of the wyld?
  the wounded warrior that feels guilty for having fled goes back into combat? Practically guaranteed to die.
  Yes and no. Remember, that while we are in the wild we still are of creation. Narrative structure has power, but not nearly as much as in a fight between to fae.
  It still has a huge impact on whether or not someone's going to get ambushed and what kind of force they come up against. If we leave our troops here, they'll get ambushed by just enough hobgoblins to kill the extras but not the heroes. If we stay here, then the people we send to fight the behemoth will die, get taken captive, or be sufficiently injured to report back on what happened and be unable to offer much more help.
  And we're the only one completely immune to being personally affected by Wyld warping. Aside from just the level of opposition they run across, our allies are going to have to deal with the results of their actions, their very minds, and so forth being warped to fit the scene.
  In other words, what we decide to do here will likely decide who and how many of our allies die, and for reasons entirely unrelated to tactics, reason, or logic.
  Dragon-blooded don't have a proper Shaping defense, and considering how Tia's mind got warped by Garnet, I'm pretty sure she's just relying on her tattoos.
  So, no. Our allies have imperfect defenses at best, and possibly no special defenses at all in some cases. The lives of our allies - ESPECIALLY the mortals - hinges entire on which story structure we play into.
  Either she stays with the troops or we absorb her for the duration of the battle to keep her safe and sweat her out later.
  I think only Zaan and maybe Talon have defenses against Wyld mental shaping. Only the lunars, solar and fae in the party have any resistance to physical shaping attacks.
  Even if he has it - which I doubt - he can't afford to spam it every scene and still be able to function at any real level. Irene could be expected to have it - for Samiel, though, I would be genuinely surprised.
  he lives on an island with a big fey presence,I think it would have been sensible of him to pick that up
  that's just because it's an Integrity Charm. He can it it as easily as we can Tiger Warrior Training, for example and Essence 3 really isn't much
  Which is our second focus. His second focus seems, if anything, Wood or Water. Certainly not Earth or Air.
  "...Alrignt. You'll come. But we need someone to stay behind in case the troops need someone who can manipulate Essence." You reply, eyeing Tia. "Can you stay behind?"
  "Well, not the behemoth, but I can promise that once we reach the castle, during the siege I'll be all for you!" You cheer her up, and it seems to work to motivate her.
  Leaving the two girls (?) behind, you, Zaan and Samiel hurry up along the path, following the Dragon-Blooded's lead until you reach a landscape of pipes and stripes jutting out of the terrain, looking equal part like artificial structures and like veins, naturally grown, from a monstrous steel body infesting the ground. There is an enormous amount of damage all around, with these structures smashed and crushed all around a giant, shapeless monolith that looks like as if it has fallen from the sky.
  "...Where's the Behemoth?" You ask him. "Did he do all the damage? It almost looks like that giant rock did it, falling here."
  You turn and face it, and, under your eyes, it opens like a giant, ravening maw, sprouting, like a tongue sticking out of a monstrous mouth, a... a...
  He could easily just simply not qualify for it. By his total lack of knowledge or interest in Irene's essence cannons, I'd bet good money on him not having enough Earth to learn such a charm.
  He came entirely of his own accord. Nobody sent him, and the queen isn't formally supporting any of this. He even said she was upset about putting himself in harm's way like this.
  Save it. We're holding out until we hit 10 experience again to either get Tiger-Warrior Training Technique or - if something is Moore urgent - something else.
  how about, after we finish off the fae, we spend a few sessions fighting lintha to get tiger warrior... and while we are still fighting the fae, we spend all our XP as we get it?
  Also, I think we should get twilight, night, and eclipse 3. they are very cheap and apply to a great many things.
  There's a very good chance we're going to have some downtime after fighting the fae. We won't be able to just go and fight the lintha. We don't know where their base is, for one, aside from vaguely to the south.
  So we should make sure we get Tiger-Warrior before we finish the campaign against the fae. We want to already be well and prepared to deal with any downtime we might stumble across when we stumble across it. Grinding up experience is incredibly unreliable to that end.
  I'm 100% on board with this. We should make Tiger-Warrior Training Technique our next purchase. If we don't, I fully expect that we'll not get enough experience by the end of this arc to actually put any downtime to good use.
  on the one hand, it seems wasteful to not put the downtime to good use. on the other hand there will be more downtime in the future, and if we don't have what we need now we could die, or we could lose someone important because we weren't powerful enough to support them in combat.
  Also, even if we don't go after the lintha immediately, we still have the plan to set up the trading company (by recruiting a merchant) and to press gang the remaining pirates in the area (we got 3 of the 9 who commonly frequent one island, there might be more that don't frequent it). so quite a lot of stuff to do, I don't know where you are getting the notion we are just gonna chill for a few weeks.
  Well, we're not going to just wander off the island until Silk is at least somewhat secure in her new territory.
  Right. But its a thing that will require us to stay more or less in one location while not taking up all or even most of our time.
  I think we might have different interpretations of the bargain we struck when we made Silk our pet. She isn't leaving our side for any length of time anymore and I don't think she's ruling a territory period. Those are things people do. She's a pet.
  Look, I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I just think we should clarify this with EF next thread because I'm weary thet what you're suggesting might undo the changes Silk made to herself when she agreed to our bargain, and then we have another unbound Fae Lord running around.
  In case you see this before next thread, any chance of Zaan re summoning that earth elemental or was in only up for digging the lava trench?
  The fact that she NEEDS to spend time in the Wyld, and that she's arguably going to be better both for herself and for you if she does, is indisputable, though.
  You'll have to balance how long she can spend in the Wyld doing fae things and how long she'll be at your side. Her becoming "a pet" basically means that, rather than negotiating this with her, you get to decide on your own.
  One of the nice things about the way fae work is that commoners become heroic when they get a chance to distinguish themselves. So if most of the nobles get clear-cut without the commoners being completely massacred heroic commoners start showing up to fill vacancies pretty quick.
  I wasn't aware of that fact... my experience with exalted comes from jukashi quests and a few webcomics (not by him) and whenever fae were involved it was implied that they can become beings of creation by spending long enough in creation itself.
  >Look, I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I just think we should clarify this with EF next thread because I'm weary thet what you're suggesting might undo the changes Silk made to herself when she agreed to our bargain, and then we have another unbound Fae Lord running around.
  She is unbound though. As near as I can tell, what happened is that we BEFRIENDED! her so hard that she developed a positive intimacy towards us and changed caste from artisan to entertainer.
  1) You don't need to set conditions, you can just tell her what to do. She'll be willing to go along with it, just... don't push it too far. She's a pet, not a slave or gossamer production machine or things like that.
  Also, outside of the Wyld their only way of regaining Essence is to Ravage mortals (i.e. damaging their souls and emotions permanently) so a fae with no prolonged access to the Wyld and who doesn't want or can't harm mortals is essentially useless.
  I'm not going to go into Fae caste technicalities because Maka doesn't know, it's not terribly relevant, and for all you know I might be changing or ignoring castes, but you're right: she's not technically bound by any sort of oath right now. There is nothing FORCING her to be your pet: she's doing it because she wants it.
  Honestly, we shouldn't get greedy with the gossamar. If we have something specific we want her to make, fine (but since gossamar is inferior to Orichalcum we should really just get maka a set of orichalcum equipment and be done with it).
  On an unrelated note, could one punch a behemoth into being a docile mobile platform for a fortress city?
  >Also, outside of the Wyld their only way of regaining Essence is to Ravage mortals (i.e. damaging their souls and emotions permanently) so a fae with no prolonged access to the Wyld and who doesn't want or can't harm mortals is essentially useless.
  Unless they have access to a penant and cryst. Since Silk is presumably going to come out of this with complete control of what's left of the wyld zones freehold that's not out of the question. Granted, you might do it differently, and even with both her regen rate wouldn't be stellar.
  >On an unrelated note, could one punch a behemoth into being a docile mobile platform for a fortress city?
  Theoretically, yes. Mask of Winter sort of did that. Of course, it required Solar Circle Sorcery. You're unlikely to manage to do it with just a normal punch. Or even a very good one.
  Depends a lot on how much they have to use their powers, how powerful the fae is, if they can feed off ambient emotions (which doesn't cause permanent damage), and how much they have available.
  If she doesn't do ANYTHING that requires Essence, a lot longer. But she's going to be basically a weird heroic mortal in power level, eventually.
  Minor question: last thread, she talked about reforging her sword and acquiring an army. Since she doesn't like fae, what would this notional army be made of?
  >Minor question: last thread, she talked about reforging her sword and acquiring an army. Since she doesn't like fae, what would this notional army be made of?
  Creatures made out from simple Wyldstuff. Basically dreams/nightmares given shape and matter from nothingness.
  If the Fair Folk are sentient Wyld given purpose, which takes on a mask and a persona in order to interact with Creation like they're on a theater stage...
  I see. and what was that earlier about kidnapping children and making them into... was it lizardmen?
  >so quite a lot of stuff to do, I don't know where you are getting the notion we are just gonna chill for a few weeks.
  But almost none of it requires spending full days at a time focused on it - and much of it really does require simply waiting for days or weeks at a time as it progresses. At any rate, Exaltedfag's version of Tiger-Warrior Training Technique only requires a few hours per day of down time using it - which, I should add, is actually MORE than the canon charm requires.
  I think you and I have very different interpretations of 'downtime.' Downtime is any time where you're able to spend hours of every day pursuing side projects instead of spending 24/7 focused on a specific task at hand. Right now, we don't have any downtime because we've been in 24/7 recruitment/battle for about the past in-game week.
  But after this battle we'll be doing things like securing lodging for our crews in Tianna, figuring out trade routes for gossamer goods, easing Silk into her new role, and so forth. And all of that count, for me, as 'down time' stuff. That's stuff we can do while also using Tiger Warrior Training Technique.
  Downtime is NOT time where we have a completely empty schedule - that's not a thing that exists for exalts even remotely involved in civilization. Downtime is any stretch of time where we have enough free time to pursue side tasks. And spending four hours per day to grind our followers up to Zenith 4, Dawn 3, Physical 3 warrior-monks is great.
  >I see. and what was that earlier about kidnapping children and making them into... was it lizardmen?
  technically, I think they also count as commoner fae, specifically the warrior type. WW explained the matter as clearly as usual.
  Also keep in mind that we established that there's a charm to give Awakened Essence to a number of mortals equal to your Followers background on top of that.
  1. will we gain enough XP to buy it in days, or weeks of doing that. (all sides of the argument are meta)
  2. are we so focused on not wasting this downtime (the first of many) that we are neglecting other important stuff that will come to bite us in the ass.
  >1. will we gain enough XP to buy it in days, or weeks of doing that. (all sides of the argument are meta)
  We should have enough experience to buy it at the end of next session. I could also see us having successfully or nearly finished the battle by the end of the next session. If we don't take that charm before the battle ends, I think we'll skip past the downtime too quick to pick it up and still put it to use.
  >2. are we so focused on not wasting this downtime (the first of many) that we are neglecting other important stuff that will come to bite us in the ass.
  Not really. We're already fantastic at fighting, leading people in combat, and social stuff. We also have a shaping defense and an environmental defense. We're pretty covered on most fronts - anything else we might get would largely, at this point, be making us even better at something we're already fantastic at instead of adding new options.
  Tiger-Warrior Training Technique, on the other hand, would let us have seriously good followers. Superhumanly strong and talented warriors who can talk a conman into a timeshare. It adds entirely new options, instead of just making us even better at our existing ones.
  Personally, I really want to pursue that. I want to be able to have competent, trustworthy, fantastic followers, instead of three crews of poorly-trained and cantankerous pirates. I want to add the new option, instead of enhancing an old one.
  >Personally, I really want to pursue that. I want to be able to have competent, trustworthy, fantastic followers, instead of three crews of poorly-trained and cantankerous pirates. I want to add the new option, instead of enhancing an old one.
  How would it make them trustworthy and fantastic? (It is worth noting that at the end of our training, they could actually overpower us)
  Our combat is really poor compared to other exalts, and for many things our dicepool is 4 (social + twilight/night/eclipse)
  We are about to try to set up merchanting to feed and keep our pirates loyal. But we are not actually all that good at it. So if we tiget train them and then botch it, we end up training them only for them to run away from us and become a major threat.
  Well they'd gain Drill every time you used the charm and trained something, so they'd become one of the most disciplined units in creation in short order. You can also raise their valor IIRC giving them a strong moral compass (of sorts) but the only way they'll become trustworthy or more upstanding (besides being well disciplined and valorous warriors who owe their new found prowess to your teachings) is by doing things the hard way (earning loyalty through charisma and action and setting an example they want to follow). Now if you had the Legendary Warrior and Legendary Scholar charms you can pretty much turn anyone into a veritable paragon.
  I meant in terms of having trustworthy skills. And they could already potentially overpower us. The bare minimum it takes to kill us with IKB is five mortals with good weapons and lucky rolls. They could kill their captain too. The point is they we're a good leader who gives them fabulous loot (in terms of gossamer) leads them to unrealistic victories (against the fae) and is their direct source of becoming even more badass (with further training as we ourselves improve). We're the gravy train - and that's before we keep using social charms to earn their respect and loyalty.
  And they won't just be stronger and better at fighting. They'll be more socially competent and tactically skilled too. At the moment, they're barely better than worthless - cannon fodder we have do drudgery tasks we find beneath us. With proper training, they would have the skills to actually be dispatched to accomplish things without us holding their hands.
  Which is still considered all-around exceptional for a mortal, according to Exaltedfag. We're bad at literally nothing. We're just less-amazing at it.
  I kind of see your point on the dangers of training them and then them going rogue, but our social skills are so huge, I doubt they would get to the end of our training regimen without loyalty.
  The fake: Summoned through Transient Work of Flesh and Bone these guys are almost laughably fake and entirely temporary. The classic: wave my hand and hordes of mooks appear.
  Cutouts: created by Awakened Dream Manufacture, these guys are the cardboard cutouts mentioned by OP. They can vary in strength from a random scrub all the way up to a godblooded. They have no true self awareness and can't become a noble.
  Extras: Warrior Commoner fae. These guys have next to no self awareness and are equivalent to line-less extras. However, its theoretically possible that if they stand around enough they'll eventually get to speak a line or two and transition into a secondary role as a heroic commoner.
  As a practical matter, the difference between cutouts and extras is that if Silk makes a bunch of Extras there's a decent chance one or two of them will become somewhat more competent and get a name as time passes.
  That reminds me. It takes one week of training fourish hours per day to give them a +1, right? Can we get the stat blocks of our average pirate to get an idea of how much time it will take to train them (during which time we'll be earning their respect and loyalty), how improved they'll be, and how useful/useless they currently are?
  At the moment, they need REALLY lucky rolls since our dicepool is vastly larger. Once fully trained our dice pools will be the same size
  It'd be nice if we could turn Regis into an Enlightened Mortal with Tiger Training and give him a Terrestial MA...
  We would still outclass any one of them dramatically with our charms. And they could already pretty reasonably kill us I'd they collectively ganged up on us. As long as we could reasonably take at least half a dozen with us - and even fully trained we still could - we still seem like an unassailable badass.
  And even then, it'll take, what, at least six weeks to train them all? If we haven't won them over enough in that time to trust their loyalty, I don't want them anyway. We have no use for incompetent people, and even less for incompetent people who follow us out of fear instead of loyalty.
  No, but their alternative is more mortal leaders, by and large. As long as we're at least add good as them in every way and ridiculously better in a few others, we're a better leader than functionally all of their alternatives.
  If you want, there's usually an Exalted General where you can ask questions. I'm not saying you're wrong to do it here, it's just I think we all like to blather about setting stuff regardless.
  Hobgoblins were explicitly brought up by the QM, and this quest is explicitly meant to be noob friendly.
  Hmmm. So, it would take five weeks - mute than a month - to get our troops up to our level. Yeah, that's definitely enough time to earn their respect, loyalty, and obedience with our social skills.
  Good thing he does not have his own Dancing Smoke, speaking of which, has Yaraon recovered from her affections yet?
  so what's everyone's opinion on looking at adding a dot or two in Mental, Twilight, Eclipse, and/or night?
  yes. Every charms is basically a superpower. A stat increase is just getting a bit better at something.
  keep in mind that abilities and attributes get more expensive the more you buy and charms have flat costs
  Keep in mind two other things: all dice-adders cost essence, and more powerful charms are unlocked only by higher skills.
  looks like we'll never get those higher up charms since everyone wants those to remain as our two dots dump stats.
  Please do remember that only a sliver of the player base is likely to contribute to a discussion thread this time of day. I'm pretty sure that the majority wants to raise our essence (Requires Twilight 3+) improver our seamanship since we will be fighting and leading naval battles against the Lintha and we'll want to trainup our sailors first (Dawn 3+ & Eclipse 3+) improve our social awareness, attract and defense charm pool (Eclipse 3+) and there's no way we're leaving Maka at Mental 2. Now, I'd personally like to invest a point of two in Night so we have sneaky options, but Maka's a brawler and honestly I don't trust this board to coherently lie to anyone for any length of time, so a punch priest we will remain.
  so long story short fuck everyone for not agreeing with you and that we should all shut the fuck up for wanting to add some dots right?
  I don't see the point picking up sailing abilities on a female character in the West and I would rather get a Zenith-based essence recovery charm than actually increase our pool size. If we could restore more essence between encounters, a larger pool would be irrelevant.
  The only thing I want Eclipse for is Bureaucracy/leadership, and the only think I want Night for is Athletics. Because of that, I would really prefer to focus on Dawn and Zenith for now.
  Also, new charms are unlocked by raising our skills. Increasing Physical/Social/Mental directly would be a disgustingly-inefficient use of our experience.
  Well, nothing stop us from forming a circle with some other Solars, right? It's best to specialize in two things: leading/fucking and fighting, and be one of the best in them, rather than spread out and be left behind.
  That said, are we going to actually bother with going to Gem in the near future? Tianna's good enough, we know Mikhail here, whose skills are a good balance to us, and now we have to care for our new pet and its Wyld zone.
  Correct. Up to you if you want to focus on your specialties and rely on other people more, or if you want to become more capable on your own.
  The possibility of teaming up with other Solars is there, but keep in mind that they will have their own stuff going on, and you will have to put up with them as much as they will put up with you. They will want their own slice of the cake, etc.
  In other words, they WILL steal some spotlight, and some freedom of action, from you. But hey, it's what happens when you team up with others rather than going by yourself, right?
  Entirely up to you. You might well decide to mount an expedition immediately after the current Wyld arc for all I know. The option will be there.
  Mikahil left. He's going to be gone for an indeterminate amount of time. In the mean time, even before retaking Gem, we promised our crews to start a kingdom in Wavecrest, and need Bureaucracy for both getting our crew paid and for running a religion, if any. Eclipse will be necessary as our tertiary ability.
  Gem's a long way off for now. We're going to want a solid foothold in the west, a strong army and a rapid transportation solution to cover the distance between here and Gem. And we're going to need to find an isolated patch of Wyld near Gem for Silk to graze on.
  You know, you can get a wyld mutation that immunizes you to a certain element, but you don't have to be in the corresponding wyld to get it. You can get "immune to heat" by getting a core of ice in the northern wyld, for example.
  Or maybe take a smaller island, turn it into a Wyld zone until the island can move. Then use it as a mobile base for our pirates and safe place for Silk.
  it doesn't work that way. Mind you, we could find a wyld zone near Gem, form a beachhead between it and the Tianna wyld zone and turn Tianna into an instant trading power. We'd have to take over the other wyld zone, but there is no other way this could possibly go wrong.
  We need that charm that lets us fuck anything. Realm will not expect losing control over their final weapon in such a way.
  Nope. You do need 5000-1000 mortal slaves working 5-1 years, depending on the power of the two locations being linked to create a breakthrough though. At least as per RAW. Who knows how OP will modify it. After all, its not like they stated a breakthrough is the only way to link such places.
  We could summon demons as slaves, I suppose, but it's pretty fucking evil no matter how you slice it. The exception would be finding a species of demon which literally exists to give its life in slavery. Considering the fact that a passage in Exalted literally says that there are so arbitrarily many species of demon that a Dumont can just name off traits they want and get a demon that has all of them...
  >We could summon demons as slaves, I suppose, but it's pretty fucking evil no matter how you slice it.
  really, guys? You all hate on Dancing Smoke for asking for some sacrifices and now you're planning to magically bind thousands of sentient being to slave labor, followed by a lobotomy
  They wouldn't qualify as mortals though. If we can use something other than mortals we might as well use hobgoblins.
  Only if it's a species of demon that's specifically into this as an aspect of their free will. It would be like if the South was built on the backs of a species that are genuinely into being dehumanized and worked to death.
  Even if they like it, I don't think that a high-Compassion character like Maka would find this agreeable. Unless you deliberately want to provoke her limit break.
  As a side note, I'm very ready for if/when that finally happens. I think it should be a fantastic chance for the playerbase to cut loose and sabotage our own plans.
  We certainly could! Limit breaks are a great, cathartic moment where players can take the house of cards they've been carefully and meticulously building and knocking them down with a huge giggle.
  That said, I remember there were 2 choices for virtues. I remember that we've chosen Compassion for one, but the other was not clear, was it Temperance?
  remember that we probably have a compassion limit break, so we'd do something like obsess over someone for a few days or try to help every suffering person we see
  I seem to recall us picking Conviction, Compassion, and Willpower on different occasions. Never Temperance or Valor.