The Scrolls of the Monk is now entering Chapter Two, where PBP is replaced by Face-to-Face sessions.
Chapter Two begins several weeks after the last PBP post, and events have conspired to draw the four heroes to Nexus. Angel arrived first, travelling through the Underworld from Sijan, where he had successfully trained under Blood Tiger who then gave him the First Pulse Scroll. He has spent a few weeks in the city investigating the Five Shade Association, who hold a scroll, and The Guild, who hold another.
Halfway though these investigations he was joined by Nascent Blossom, who had been assured by Unity of Whispers that the Abyssal was a potential ally. It was Unity that had emerged from the guise of Ledaal Catala Meera once he was safely outside fate and with the help of his protégé and some astounded dynasts subdued an Abyssal, from whom Nascent Blossom took the White Veil Scroll. Unity was able to explain the machinations behind Nascent’s departure from Yu Shan, and gave some more information about the scrolls.
The third to arrive in Nexus was Leon Ardo, and his brothers, who emerged from the Firewander District. They had been guided through The Wyld by their master, who told them to join with a Sun-Child, a Star-Child, and a Fallen-Sun-Child. It didn’t take too long to track down the former two. This group had in their possession one of the four identical scrolls shown on the map, those of the Even Blade Style. This one was written by Resolute Brigada, who Leon Ardo had defeated with the help of a Faery bauble he picked up as a thank you for a surreal, but rather fun, encounter.
Finally, they were joined by Perfected Lotus, who arrived in a stormwind rider driven by, of all people, an immaculate monk. The monk felt that he owed his one-time enemy a favour for the latter’s help in exposing a fake Wyld Hunt in The Lap. The monk left quickly to seek an alliance with his one-time enemy, a so-called ‘anathema’ who had been the only one fighting the underworld-influenced sabotage of The Lap. This anathema had loaned Lotus the Golden Exhalation Scroll as a thank you.
After some amount of planning and playing it's become apparent that fixed locations for the scrolls are a bad idea. We'll have more fun if characters go to places they're interested in, and get the scrolls they want. I'll keep the original plan below because it might inspire some ideas, but it's almost entirely flexible.
First of all, all of the map references I give are to this map: http://hd42.de/images/exalted/Creation_Map_v7.1a.jpg which is effectively canon for this saga.
Secondly, I thought long and hard about ways to tell you where the scrolls were without giving you too much OOC information about their actual locations. In the end, though, I decided that if you had OOC information then you would be better able to visit the locations you always wanted. If a location you want to visit does not appear then please let me know - lots of the scrolls are moving, so some of them might suddenly appear on the radar.
We can assume that you characters can recognise from the katas on the map, which styles are TMA, CMA or SMA, so here they the locations, grouped in ascending order of power:
1. Five Dragon Style - Lookshy
2. Falling Blossom Style - Port Calin
3. First Pulse Style - Acquired
4. Golden Janissary Style - Gem
5. Ill Lily Style - Acquired
6. Jade Mountain Style - Mount Metagalapa
7. Seafaring Hero Style - A tiny island in the Wavecrest Archipelago
8. White Veil Style - Acquired
9. Crimson Pentacle Style - The small island on F8
10. Even Blade Style I -The Imperial City
11. Even Blade Style II - Just east along the coast from Chanos (K6)
12. Even Blade Style III - Cherak
13. Even Blade Style IV - Acquired
14. Golden Exhalation Style - Acquired
15. Lightning Hoof Style - Mishaka (P8)
16. The Path of the Arbiter Style - Gethamane
17. Terrible Ascent-Driven Beast Style - The woods in the centre of V1
18. Fivefold Shadow Hand Style - Acquired
Two scrolls are in the Underworld
19. Snake Style - Denandsor
20. Dreaming Pearl Courtesan - The top of the central mountain
21. Ebon Shadow Style - Nexus
22. Valor Style- Great Forks
23. Conviction Style - Apparently in the middle of the sea, A6
24. Righteous Devil Style - Chiaroscuro
25. Laughing Wounds Style - Thorns
26. Celstial Monkey Style - Rathess
27. Temperance Style - The middle of the desert, M14
28. Mantis Style - Halta
29. Tiger Style - Suspiciously close to where the map says ‘Icewalkers’
30. Earth Dragon Style - The Palace Sublime
31. Air Dragon Style - Whitewall
32. Water Dragon Style - Apparently in the middle of the sea, B8
33. Fire Dragon Style - Bluehaven
Three scrolls are in the Underworld
34. Citrine Poxes of Contagion Style - Speremin
35. Borders of Kaleedoscopic Logic Style - The Imperial City
One scroll is in the Underworld; Three are in Yu Shan; One is Malfeas.
Here are the relevant rules changes for the Scrolls of the Monk campaign. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated
Character Creation
Character creation uses vanilla rules. You also get 50xp to spend before the start of the game, without needing to worry about training times. You can also spend any xp you receive for your backstory before game start.
You may only start with charms from your exalt type's hero style. In this case, Sidereal Hero Style is Silver Voiced Nightingale Style, rather than Violet Bier of Gamebreaking Style.
You will all start with an artifact rated N/A, you lucky buggers. This scroll is made of the relevant magical material for you exalt type. On one side it contains instructions for learning the charms of Exalt Hero Style. On the other, it contains a fairly complicated map thing.
Experience costs
The experience costs for all charms are the same for everybody, and are the default costs for solars. Which gives a big old discount for lunars and sidereals. I know they start with more charms but.... solar and abyssal charms are better as exemplified by their excellencies, so I call it fair. You can gain xp discounts for MA charms in the following ways.
Any MA style: The Scrolls of each style acts as a tutor for the charms of that style, and also halve the xp costs and training times of anybody who learns from that scroll. This means that you can start off learning your Exalt Hero style charms at half price (4xp)
TMA: there is a charm in Dreams of the First Age called Swallowing the Perfected Lotus. It is a permanent charm that allows you to halve the xp costs and training time of any TMA charm. That charm is available in this game except the min essence is 3 (not 5) and the prereq is any CMA form charm (not the completion of a CMA). The min MA is still 5.
These effects stack, allowing anybody with the charm and the scroll of a TMA to buy up the charms for 2xp.
Gaining experience
Everybody gains 4xp per RL calendar month
What good is a martial arts saga without heroes of legend.
First we have Perfected Lotus, an itinerant martial artist; a dawn caste on the run from dynastic society, he has made the interesting choice of joining the wyld hunt. [La la la, everything's going to be fine... - Blackrat.]
Far to the west of Perfected Lotus is Hero in a Half Shell, who was once named Leon Ardo, currently trapped in a garishly coloured bubble of the wyld, pursuing the newly returned Shredder.
Leon Ardo is assisted by his three brothers, all now beastmen in the form of turtles
In the Underworld we have Angel, the first to find one of this targets, currently trainign under the ghostly creator of First Pulse Style
Finally, nearing Angel, we have Nascent Blossom a joybringer who seeks the collapse of The Realm and is currently on a Realm-funded expedition into The Bayou of Regret
‘Did you do it? Are they together?’
The younger of the two Sidereals sighed and patted himself down in a vain attempt remove some of the dust from his jerkin. He considered being sarcastic about the lack of greeting but thought better of it. ‘The ghost and the old rat seemed pretty amenable. I had to inspire the last one.’
‘Please tell me that you are not obliquely referring to a use of Subordinate Inspiration Technique?’
‘Well, yes, although I thought my implication was fairly direct.’
‘And you did this in spite of my request to make no direct contact?’
‘It’s not as if I invited him to a talk over tea. Would you relax? I’m relatively certain he had no idea I was there.’
‘Relatively?’
‘Well if he suspected that somebody else was telling him what to do, then he was strangely keen to follow their advice.’
The Harbinger sniffs, ‘Nevertheless, I do wish you would seek a greater variety in your training. A Vizier of your experience should not have to resort to such unsubtle methods.’
The final figure steps forward from the shadow of his own statue and breaks his silence. ‘I’ve trained him just fine. The job got done, didn’t it? And who else could have done it so well?’ He looks at his protégé and frowns. ‘Stop swiping at yourself, boy, you’re just moving the dirt around!’
‘I wish you wouldn’t be so cavalier about this. Are you forgetting what’s at stake for both of us?’
‘Of course not. I just don’t see how being grumpy about a successful job helps us.’
‘Because being so may well ensure the next job is successful!’
The elderly God merely harrumphs and mutters something under his breath. There is a slightly awkward silence. Above the ruins of the abandoned arena where this conversation is taking place, a cloud covers the moon. The wind blows, rustling the plates on the elder god's armour.
‘Actually, now that you mention complete disclosure...’ begins the younger exalt hopefully, ‘I was thinking that now would be a suitable time to tell me why you have me forever running around the three corners of Creation, and what Unity has got to do with anything?’
There’s another pause. ‘We could tell you...’ the elder God ventures cautiously, ‘but, of course, then we’d have to kill you.’
‘Oh. Then if it’s all the same to you, I’d just as soon stay in the dark.’
There is a momentary pause before it becomes obvious that the older sidereal is stifling a guffaw. The tension breaks and the God bends over amid sudden gales of, ‘Sometimes, boy, you are a complete fool. Go and get yourself cleaned up and we’ll tell you what we’ve been doing when you get back.’
The two remaining figures continue to laugh for a while as their companion leaves. Finally, they calm down, and the God finishes drying his eyes.
‘You’re not seriously going to tell him the truth are you?’
‘Him? Oh, Heaven, no.’
‘You don’t trust him?’
‘Do you?’
‘Not particularly. He’s very keen to impress now, but he seems fickle.’
‘You underestimate him. I do trust him, but he’s got too many enemies for me to take him into my confidence.’
‘Then what are you going to do?’
‘I assumed we’d make something up.’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know. Something with demons? That would explain why you’re here.’
‘Sometimes, and I want you to be clear on this point, I utterly hate you.’
‘I know,’ replies the God happily and the two lapse into silence, waiting for their colleague to return. The sound of metal-clad fingers tapping out a slow rhythm on a stone wall echoed solemnly across the clearing.
