[Exalted 2.5] Infernals: Heroes of Hell (LFM)

Started by Re Z L, November 23, 2012, 06:23:46 PM

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Re Z L

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I'm looking to get a game going, since I was recently inspired to piece together a bit of an adventure.  I'll get right into it!

Game:  The game will be using the Exalted rules, including everything in the Errata, as well as any Ink Monkeys supplements.  None of the books are explicitly off-limits, but some things may not work out based on what I have in mind, but I'll work with you to make your ideas work as best I can.

Characters:  Characters will be Infernal Exalts.  While I would like to have a good mix of castes, I'm not too concerned with it (as long as not everyone picks the same caste  ;D).  I'll allow up to 10 characters, and I'd like at least a minimum of 7.  They will begin as roughly beginning-level exalts and will (hopefully) make it all the way to the point where Devil-Tiger paths could be created, and potentially beyond.

Themes:  This will be something of a high-adventure game, but there will be plenty of different options available at any time.  Expect to be faced with many varied situations ranging from over-the-top action to subtler social manipulation to political intrigue.  Expect to travel all over Creation and be ready for many different environments.

Plot:  The Yozis have won and are freed upon creation--of course this new creation is just another hell.  The game will begin during the Althing Infernal held just prior to Calibration.  The characters are given a mission of utmost importance--but what could be so important now that the Yozis are already freed?  The characters were all alive during the freeing of Hell, whether they exalted before, during, or after the event is up to the player, however the final war took place several years ago and creation has enjoyed a relative "peace" under its new masters.

Map of New Creation

I'll be adding in more specific house rules and other information below.  If you have any questions feel free to ask, either in this thread or by sending me a PM.


Prologue

The Yozis always had a plan.  The plan was simple: escape.  The implementation, of course, was always the trouble.  And while many of their attempts could be considered little more than roiling against the bars of their prison, many others put small cracks in those prison walls.  The birth of the Infernal Exalts was the first real success of the once rulers of Creation.  The mighty Heroes of Hell went out into the world to work the Yozi's carefully constructed plans.  A score of different schemes, some more secret than others, all intertwined to form the beginning of the Second Great Usurpation.  The Sidereals chased ghosts in all directions while they were slowly corrupted from within, unwilling and unable to ask for help.  The Realm was steeped in decadence, too concerned with its own conquest and politicking to realize what the world was becoming.  The Solars chased glory on a personal level, too scattered and disorganized to mount any kind of change.  Abyssals played the petty games of their Deathlord masters who in turn ignored the true goals of the long dead Primordials.  And Lunars stretched thin across the world pulled by former mates in all different directions.

The Sidereals had to be removed first, they were the only ones with the connections and knowledge to stop the escape dead in its tracks.  They were continually tipped off balance, hints of plots here and there kept them busy hunting shadows until they reached the point where their leaders no longer believed that they knew what was truth and what was fiction.  It was only a matter of time before they would gather to conduct another deep look into the strands of fate.  Their hope for salvation and guidance was the web that trapped them and left them to their doom.  A betrayal years--if not centuries--in the making all culminated in the mass murder of the congregation of Sidereals.  Betrayed by some of their own kind (an as yet unnoticed "Brass Faction"), some gods, and carefully hidden Infernal Exalts, the slaughter took them all by surprise.  Some escaped, but were no longer safe within heaven.  Cut off from their resources, the scattered Stars were no longer a real threat.

It began with a whimper and ended with a bang.  Across creation the Dragon Lines groaned under the strain as the Blessed Isle was the first to undergo the change.  Black vitriol flowed along the essence lines beneath the surface as the corruption oozed outward from Meru.  Lesser Manses capping these mutating Demesnes were the first to undergo violent cascade failures.  They burst as the Infernal essence welled up beneath them seeking escape.  Reality shuddered and distorted with the explosions, leaving the landscape scarred and any who happened to survive the explosion mutated beyond recognition.  Within hours black smoke blotted out the sun, covering the isle in a deep darkness and the first sizeable crack in the Yozi's prison was created.  The most clever of the Yozis, if not the most eager to seek his freedom, slipped out of Malfeas and into Creation for the first time in thousands of years.  The Ebon Dragon, in the guise of little more than the shadow outline of a true dragon, roared forth and spewed his influence and power over the Blessed Isle as a dark flame from his gaping maw.

Kimbery's Dawn led the assault within the West, followed soon-after by Kimbery herself, summoned forth from the widening crack in the seals that separated Creation and Hell.  Demons spewed forth like blood from a wound upon the Blessed Isle, while the Yozi's pried open the hemorrhaging wound wider and wider to let themselves free.  Kimbery's whimsical emotions were kept in check by She Who Lives in Her Name.  The floating constellation of crystal orbs laid waste to island after island, transforming them and their inhabitants into her perfect, yet flawed, servants.  While the land belonged to She Who Lives in Her Name, the waters would always belong to Kimbery.  Aided by her devoted Lintha pirates, and the drones created by She Who Lives in Her Name, the war against the Silver Prince was over before the Deathlord could even contemplate a retaliatory strategy.  His city destroyed he retreated to Underworld where many of his fellow Deathlords were already being driven...

Ma-Ha-Suchi locked in a seemingly endless battle with the Fae, Lookshy trying to stave off destruction as demons boiled over towards their shores, Nexus content to let the rest of the world burn as long as they could turn a profit...  The scavenger lands were disjointed, not even the Confederation of Rivers could rally themselves together to mount a resistance.  An army seemed to grow from nowhere, barbarians from the middlemarches, renegade beastment, automatons reclaimed from Denandsor all marched from the far east pushing ever closer to the Confederacy.  Lookshy was fighting a war on two fronts, one naval the other land, and no one was coming to help.  Initially the Deathlords sought to capitalize upon this moment to spread as much death and despair as they could, but soon they realized the true depth of this reclamation effort.  They retreated to their Shadowland holdings and made ready to stave off the eventual siege.  The Hundred Kingdoms broke into One Hundred Wars, each at each others throats.  All the while the Infernals sat back and watched their pile of dominos fall one by one into place.  The East burned as it fought against itself.  They hardly knew how well they had been played for fools until the rivers ran red with blood and then boiled over with lava as the Malfean King came forth to claim his revenge.

The Cult of Silence grew slowly in the North.  No one noticed the quiet in the land of nothing but endless snow and silent winds.  As the Cult grew the power of the disparate barbarian tribes, the Haslanti League, Gethamane, and Whitewall shrunk.  Gethamane was trapped, a solitary island with no resources, and no way to survive without the help of the Cult.  Seals went into place around the city of Whitewall, cutting off the steady flow of free essence to Sol Invictus.  The Haslanti League continued as they did, driven on by ambition and greed, they cared only for themselves.  And the Bull of the North was pushed in just the right direction to go to war against them.  The engagement was long in the making, but as the flow of demons began and he saw the cloud of blackness cover the Blessed Isle to the south he knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be fighting two wars at once.  Not long after the roar of the freed Malfeas there was the silent whisper of Adorjan sneaking out into the north.  A deathly silence filed the whole direction of creation, and where sound came to contradict that silence death swiftly followed.

Cecelyne's invasion of the South was the most subtle.  She never seemed particularly interested in the overarching goal, instead focusing on minor battles here and there.  Tensions had risen in the South, and all it would take would be a single match to finally set them off.  Tribe against Tribe, Realm against Realm, trade routes shut down, dangerous mutants on the loose, safe havens in the desert destroyed or rendered destitute and no longer usable.  The desolation spread without notice within the desert, what few oases there were slowly withered and died, drying up entirely or replaced by bubbling vitriol.  Many places within the desert already bore her mark, it was a place ripe for reaping new subjects eager to wish away their souls just to get by another day.  When Cecelyne appeared within the South there was no one left to rebel, they had all already asked for her help, and now she had appeared to grant it.  Only the First and Forsaken Lion and his endless army of the dead remained, but he knew that he could not strike back yet.

As gates to Yu-Shan were captured hordes of demons began to poor into Heaven, lead by second or third circle demons.  The rushed to meet Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, who had already been defeated.  A being so tied to virtue would never be too difficult for the Ebon Dragon to undo, given time, and the Ebon Dragon had nothing but time for so very long.  It was necessary to have Infernals work to break his Temperance to destroy his perfect Aegis of protection.  After that breaking down his other Virtues came swiftly and easily.  Forced by duty he journeyed into Creation, rallying his fellow gods with him.  Without the united aid of the Exalted the battle was long, brutal, and bloody.  The corpse of the Unconquered Sun still lingers on the Blessed Isle, bleeding a stream of Orichalcum that runs together with a river of Vitriol.  Heaven became the last "safe" place to resist the Yozis, but now Yu-Shan was a prison similar to what Hell had been.

Now the forces of hell expand their control over Creation, repelling the Wyld, squashing resistance to their combined wills, and twisting their original creation into something much more perverse than it was before.

The Infernal Exalted are not forgotten, they are still used as effective tools against the enemies of the Yozis, however they are not the kings and queens the Yozis originally made them out to be.  They are simply tools to them now, tools that may soon outlive their usefulness.  Some of the Exalted have become dissatisfied with how things have turned out, though some revel in the chaos and destruction no matter their role.  Can the Infernal Exalts ever become the peers of the Yozis?  And when all of Creation is finally truly conquered, what will become of them then?

For a number of Infernals the Ebon Dragon himself has one more mission for them to undertake.
A&A

Re Z L

#1
CHARACTER CREATION

STEP ONE:  CHARACTER
Choose:

  • Concept
  • Caste
  • Motivation
  • Urge

STEP TWO:  ATTRIBUTES

  • Primary  8
  • Secondary  6
  • Tertiary  4

STEP THREE:  ABILITIES

  • Note five Caste Abilities
  • Select 5 Favored Abilities
  • Choose Abilities:  28 dots to distribute, 10 must be in Caste or Favored abilities, all Favored abilities must have at least one dot.  At least one dot must be in Linguistics to purchase Old Realm.
  • Specialties 4

STEP FOUR:  ADVANTAGES

  • Backgrounds 7 (maximum rating 3, must spend BP to raise higher than this maximum)
    Bonus Backgrounds:
  • Cult 1
  • 6 dots of Artifact none of which may be higher than 3
  • 6 dots of Manse none of which may be higher than 3
    Disallowed Backgrounds:
  • Followers/Henchmen/Allies/Contacts/Spies - Due to the nature of the game these backgrounds will confer no benefit, you may include it in your character's backstory but note that it will have no effect in game
  • Backing/Influence


  • Charms 10
    Bonus Charms:
  • All Castes - 3x First (Yozi) Excellency, Hardened Devil Body
  • Slayer - By Pain Reforged, Pathetic Distraction Rebuke
  • Malefactor - Transcendent Desert Creature, Hellscry Chakra
  • Defiler - Factual Determination Analysis, Essence-Dissecting Stare
  • Scourge - Wind-Born Stride, Sacred Kamilla's Inhalation OR Hateful Wretched Noise
  • Fiend - Loom-Snarling Deception, Witness to Darkness OR Cracked Cell Circumvention


  • Virtues 5 (maximum rating 4)

STEP FIVE:  FINISHING TOUCHES
Essence 3
Willpower 5
Intimaces up to Willpower+Compassion, one must be towards your Patron Yozi, or the Yozi connected to your Urge.
Personal Essence [Essence x 3] + Willpower
Peripheral Essence [Essence x 7] + Willpower + Sum of Virtues
Health Levels -0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, INCAP, plus any from charms

STEP SIX:  BONUS POINTS

  • Select Merits
  • Select Flaws, up to 15 points
  • Bonus Points 28

Note:  Virtues and Willpower cost 1bp to increase.  Charms are 4bp for unfavored and 3bp for favored.  Infernal Sorcery costs 4bp.  Essence may not be increased past 3.
A&A

Re Z L

#2
HOUSE RULES

Mutations

We will be using this mutations adaptation.  It offers a bit more flexibility and a little more uniformity.  Additionally it has rules for Craft: Genesis and a handful of charms at the end which are available for use.

Craft

The Craft ability is one ability.  Elemental crafts (the default crafts) may be used as normal using characters Craft ability.  Special crafts (Genesis, Necrotech, Magitech, etc.) require the character to purchase a specialty and meet some other prerequisites (the same prerequisites as used normally, using the highest of any Craft ability prerequisites).  Each Elemental category may be selected as a specialty as well.

Sorcery Initiation Charms

Purchasing any charm that grants access to Sorcery or Necromancy also grants the character one spell of the same level (Terrestrial/Celestial/Solar, etc.).
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Re Z L

#3
Players

Interest Check

  • Darkling - Slayer - Killer of small squishy things, and some not so small, not so squishy things
  • Zaer Darkwail - Slayer - Former Queen of all Solars, now Tyrant of deadly might
  • ShadowFox89 - Changing Moon - James Bond with whiskers
  • Jarick - Malefactor - The innocent Monarch
  • PaleEnchantress - Defiler - Creator of social structure and new hierarchy
A&A

Laughing Hyena

Where did this map come from and could you explain more about what might this entail?

PaleEnchantress

I havnt played an infernal yet and don't l know much about them (i know more about the yozis themselves)
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Re Z L

Quote from: Laughing Hyena on November 23, 2012, 06:28:02 PM
Where did this map come from and could you explain more about what might this entail?

It comes from the Return of the Scarlet Empress book.  It's a neat map to use to give a good idea of how much the world has actually changed, but largely immaterial to the actual game.

A number of strategies were used to free the Yozis, the characters are going to be assembled into a team that is in charge of ensuring one of those strategies doesn't fail.  Ah, but they're already free you say!  Well that's where the game gets interesting, but I don't want to get into too much detail   ;D

Quote from: PaleEnchantress on November 23, 2012, 06:32:09 PM
I havnt played an infernal yet and don't l know much about them (i know more about the yozis themselves)

Knowing about the Yozis is a great place to start when it comes to playing an Infernal.  If you know about Solars you know they exalt at the moment of some great heroic accomplishment (usually), well Infernals are humans who have a similar moment, but instead of succeeding they fall flat on their face just short of true heroic glory.  Then the Yozis swoop in to make them a deal:  serve us and you get to be a big god damn hero--or sometimes just wreak vengeance on the ones that tripped you up in the first place.

We'll be starting off pretty rules-light to begin with to kind of give everyone a chance to settle into their characters and become familiar with Infernal stuff.
A&A

ShadowFox89

 I'm interested, very very interested :D

I have a devil-tiger idea already set out, I've just been looking for a game where I could use it.
Call me Shadow
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Re Z L

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on November 23, 2012, 11:16:00 PM
I'm interested, very very interested :D

I have a devil-tiger idea already set out, I've just been looking for a game where I could use it.

Woohoo~

We're starting off small, but I'm hoping we get to that point.

I'll have some more setting information for everyone probably within a couple more days.  Hopefully house rules by then as well.
A&A

ShadowFox89

 I would ask how accepting you are of homebrew... but you're doing a devil-tiger game and that's all homebrew :P

I love November, we got so many new people to E who play Exalted.
Call me Shadow
My A/A

Re Z L

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on November 24, 2012, 01:39:27 AM
I would ask how accepting you are of homebrew... but you're doing a devil-tiger game and that's all homebrew :P

I love November, we got so many new people to E who play Exalted.

Very accepting  ;)
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ShadowFox89

 The best advice I got for doing DT charms, is the cannibalize the charms from others and mess around with the balance until the ST is happy.
Call me Shadow
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Zaer Darkwail

I show interest also for this game :). I have idea for slayer which I would like to play out. The idea is surrounded in using max ranked past lives background and having one specific first age solar bound to that background; Merela.

Anyways considering we start from small but also from point where we have supposedly 'succeed' in freeing Yozis (which also includes assassination of Sol Invictus had been carried out correct?). Or is this more the key moment where several plans are put on motion for final phase of most plans which should result freeing yozis (and they are not yet quite free from Hell yet).

Anyways my own suggestion is that we start hard capped at 3th essence (and the two freebie excelencies had been bought to 3th essence cap so no need sacrifice charm slots for them).

Pumpkin Seeds

Seems interesting.  Will have to sit down more fully to consider.  Haven't touched Infernals for awhile and most of my books are in storage right now.

Dracorion

I might join, but the only Infernal concept I have is "gottagofast".

Re Z L

Quote from: Zaer Darkwail on November 24, 2012, 05:01:16 AM
I show interest also for this game :). I have idea for slayer which I would like to play out. The idea is surrounded in using max ranked past lives background and having one specific first age solar bound to that background; Merela.

Anyways considering we start from small but also from point where we have supposedly 'succeed' in freeing Yozis (which also includes assassination of Sol Invictus had been carried out correct?). Or is this more the key moment where several plans are put on motion for final phase of most plans which should result freeing yozis (and they are not yet quite free from Hell yet).

Anyways my own suggestion is that we start hard capped at 3th essence (and the two freebie excelencies had been bought to 3th essence cap so no need sacrifice charm slots for them).

Sounds interesting, I do like past lives   >:)

Correct, most of the Incarna are dead, there some spots of resistance left, but mostly everything is settled down.  In fact your character histories could have been involved in key events like the killing of Sol Invictus.  The Yozis are free and are physically (spiritually?) in Creation now.

There's a good number of bonus points to bring yourself up to that level if you like, sacrificing breadth for more raw power, but I see the point and I'll think about it--though for now things will stand as is.
A&A

Zaer Darkwail

Ok, I thought very least all had reached essence 3 by time Usurpation was complete. Essence 3 is needed for several key charms. Also as general question are our chars top cream or did some other 'top cream' do the assassination of Sol Invictus? Also what about abyssals? Presuming solars are hunted down.

Re Z L

Quote from: Zaer Darkwail on November 24, 2012, 11:58:53 AM
Ok, I thought very least all had reached essence 3 by time Usurpation was complete. Essence 3 is needed for several key charms. Also as general question are our chars top cream or did some other 'top cream' do the assassination of Sol Invictus? Also what about abyssals? Presuming solars are hunted down.

Solars are hunted down, or converted when possible.  Abyssals are a little more tricky, some "renegades" work with Infernals, but generally the goals of the Neverborn and the Yozis are mutually exclusive, so they're still at war.  The same is true for Fair Folk.  Lunars fit the same category as Abyssals, some work with their Infernal mates, some are with the Solars, some are with the Abyssals.

I wouldn't call you all the "top cream" of the Infernal host, but you still could have been involved in the fighting/scheming.  You may not have dealt the finishing blow against Sol Invictus, but you may have been key in removing his Aegis.
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Cessali

I'm interested, possibly with the notion of a Desert Bodhisattva -- Malefactor favoring Adorjan, who Exalted in the wake of a great victory, possesses the Urge to see herself worshipped across Creation, and is actually interested in the well-being of others in Creation beyond their raw utility as prayer engines.

Do you want more elaborate concepts/sheets at this point?

Re Z L

Quote from: Jarick on November 24, 2012, 12:59:27 PM
I'm interested, possibly with the notion of a Desert Bodhisattva -- Malefactor favoring Adorjan, who Exalted in the wake of a great victory, possesses the Urge to see herself worshipped across Creation, and is actually interested in the well-being of others in Creation beyond their raw utility as prayer engines.

Do you want more elaborate concepts/sheets at this point?

General concepts at this time are fine, we can see how many players we get before we get into the real crunch of character creation   ;D
A&A

Zaer Darkwail

Hmm, ok. I could imagine my Slayer who had Merela past lives was key factor in breaking down Sol Invictus Temperance Aegis, as it would be quite damn epic scale shock for Sol Invictus face Merela, a pissed off version, coming at him with enraging fury in regards abandoning her during Usurpation (as I want RP that Merela remained mostly uncorrupt solar in first age who felt Sol Invictus had used/betrayed her during her death and was piss angry about it).

PaleEnchantress

You know who always seemed like a near classic example of an Infernal exalt to me?


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ExisD

I'll submit some interest, though I've been busy lately so if that's an issue I'll pull back. The basic idea I have right now is a made biologist, Kimbery and SWLiHN charms.

I can say more later.

PaleEnchantress

I'll most likly be going malefactor of defiler caste
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Re Z L

Updates:

  • Changed character creation.  Essence begins at 3, and cannot be increased with BP.  Bonus first (yozi) excellencies increased to 3.  This should better reflect your more experienced Infernals post-usurption.
  • Created a list of interested players.  If you didn't explicitly state you were interested in playing, or had some doubts, I labelled you as "tentative".  If that's not accurate let me know and I'll update it.
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