The Epic : Exalted e01

08/06/2012
The Epic
Exalted

Gaming remains one of my deepest and strongest passions.

Thankfully, tonight, I was able to run another game.  While the weather conditions were less than ideal, and it did require me to trek all the way to Katipunan, it was great being able to co-write another story with friends and add a bit of interactive drama and action without the worries of someone getting hurt. :-)

Urim and Mahar were my players and we had a session of Exalted: An Epic.  In this story, Urim plays Enos Ragara, a frontier sheriff who struggles to find a solution to their town suffering from an intense drought.  His family, an offshot of the Ragara Dragonblood line, moved to the frontier in a bid to escape the bigotry and cruelty they felt the Dynasty maintained.  But when the town shaman is found dead with one of his son's holding the murder weapon, the investigation leads to Urim learning that his son and wife have long been keeping a dark secret from him.  And that he himself may be one of the so-called Anathema as well.

Mahar, in this story, plays Maseta Amarilis, a former assassin of the Guild who had retired in hopes of finding a more fulfilling life.  But being married and with a child did not seem enough, so when the Guild Master asked her for one more mission, she felt more than ready to dive back in.  Infiltrating the tomb beneath the house of an old friend, Mahar learned of her Anathema nature and successfully steals an old brass timepiece which gives her a glimpse of the future.  A future where an old frontier sheriff dies from the maw of a massive tyrant lizard.

Mahar and her husband and stylist travel to the frontier and successfully stop the Tyrant Lizard from killing Urim.  But in the act, two more Anathema inadvertently reveal their natures.  Mahar's husband, and her stylist, also happen to be Solar Exalted just like them.  And while the four muse on where the fifth one could be, (as the stylist exclaimed, "There were always five weren't there?") none are aware that the Scarlet Empress, who had come back and retaken her throne, had detected their presence through the Realm's Defense Grid, and had called for her Valkyries to bring the Solars down.

The game is set in a time when the Scarlet Dynasty had recovered, the Empress had returned, and the Wyld Hunt had successfully destroyed practically all of the Anathema in the World.  And using the Eye of Authocton, any new resurrections were detected and immediately destroyed.

Welcome to Exalted: The Epic.

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This game was really a stress-release game for me.  In as much as an epic tale is in the works, I didn't bother to push for heavy drama like I normally do in my games.  Instead, this game flowed more like an episode of Naruto or Berserk with lots of innuendos, crazy antics and modern touches to give the medieval a twist.    Inspirations for the game ranged from shows like Alias to references from Cowboys and Aliens.

The Husband of Maseta was pretty much your perfect guy.  Handsome, big bodies and shy towards women.  Always good natured and very helpful, to the point of looking lost and bewildered when insulted.  An epitome of the Dawn Caste, Dargo Mag is a man of incredible strength and unbelievable power.  At one point, he hoists up a boulder clearly five times his height over his shoulder to clobber a tyrant lizard that was trying to climb out of a fissure in the earth.

The Sylist of Maseta was this squeaky little effeminate man named Hugo Voss, who claims his parents named him out of a joke.  He is a visionary, having invented Stiletto heels and a corset for Maseta to show of and at one point even suggests to Maseta (prior to realizing she was also, like him, an Exalted) to show of a new fashion look inspired by the Anathema given that they were all wiped out by the Scarlet Dynasty.

I anticipate the game will have five episodes at the most.  Unlike most of my games, here, episodes will not directly connect to the last one.  Instead there will always be an amount of downtime between game sessions to help further the explanation for experience adjustments.  This first game session had the players Exalting for the first time, so they barely had a clear understanding of what charms or caste they have.  Game session two will definitely move things forward with them having better understanding of their power levels.

One this is for certain, a showdown with the Scarlet Empress is most likely the way this game will end... unless there's someone else really behind the scenes moving things around.