So, it's been awhile. Like, two weeks overdue. One of the reasons for this is that school started up again two weeks ago, and I've been having a hard time adjusting to the new schedule, as well as conditioning myself to the mental and emotional demands of being a teacher. It's amazing how much you can forget in a couple of months! That leads into the second reason I didn't post sooner: I didn't feel proud of posting the contents of the game. I was tired, and it showed in the way I ran the game.
I don't like being a "Railroad GM" because I think the narrative should come from the players, mostly. When I brought this up with the group this last Thursday, they said it was alright; they had fun, and sometimes being railroaded is necessary, especially when the objective isn't clear. So, on to the recap!
Papana and Shiver spent a few days recovering from their injuries. It takes 12 hours to regenerate a single Health Stock, so Papana was resting in the sauna for about three days straight. He devoured everything in sight afterward. The three of them then used the training facilities to develop their abilities (after having received 9 XP at the end of the previous session). Sensei had a policy where the neophytes would essentially be target practice while the masters developed their new techniques, in order to learn from personal (albeit painful) experience. Eric also footed the bill to reinforce the walls of the Dojo of Fallen Stars with inches-thick steel cores and wooden facades in order to prevent the recurring destruction Papana did upon the building while training.
One evening, once all the neophytes had headed home, the gang and Sensei were watching TV while eating Chinese takeout. A news anchor appeared and gave a brief report:
"The Scarlet Empire is issuing a worldwide congregation in order to establish a central governing body to encourage cooperation between the Great Houses. The congregation's location is being kept secret, but is said to be taking place within the next two months. Pope Francis has sent an envoy to the Scarlet Empire in order to establish goodwill between the two religious city-states, and seeks to talk with them about their supernatural condition, in order to understand their part in God's plan.
"Contrary to the Pope's stance, Russian President Putin's administration has declared that they are very uncomfortable with having a new neighbor with 'demonic' citizens. The Obama Administration has yet to release a statement disclosing their position on the Scarlet Empire.
"In other news, troubled actress Vivian Carlisle revealed her ongoing affair with Senator Robert Ferguson, a self-proclaimed 'family man.' This is her second publicized affair. She has stated she will check herself into sex addiction clinic. Cain Romulus, lead singer of the rock music group Eye and Tooth has come under allegations of using band funds to support the Hellraisers terrorist organization. The Hellraisers themselves have publicly announced their affiliations with the Yama Kings. Romulus has denied any such affiliations with the Hellraisers and has fired his bookkeeper, whom he says is the one who was siphoning the funds.
"Finally, Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay have had a falling out over their co-directing of a film based on the Exalted--the future of the film is currently unknown."
Sensei contemplatively stroked his long white beard. "This Cain Romulus fellow. The reporter said he was working with the Hellraisers, and the Hellraisers openly work for the Yama Kings." his tone grew serious, "Papana, you and your friends must investigate this further. A public figure with a lot of money is something we don't want supporting Yomi Wan." Papana, Shiver, and Eric looked at Sensei in confusion, all of them asking, "Why?" At this moment, a woman walked into the "dining room."
"Ah good, you are here, Bitter Opal." Sensei said as the woman bowed to him. Papana noticed that Sensei looked at her much the same way he looked at him. She wore a kimono of pure white hemmed with grey, an expression as serious and hard as steel on her face. Where Eric's Tepet companion had a cascade of flowing black hair, Bitter Opal's hair fell straight and true, almost rigidly. "These three need a brief history of Yomi Wan."
Bitter Opal smiled, then addressed the three: "Yomi Wan is known as Hell to many cultures and religions. It is a place of demons and vice, and the stronghold of the Yama Kings. They, the Yama Kings, are governed by the Demon Emperor. He has grown discontent with his territory, however, and seeks to expand his tyranny. He himself cannot enter this world, because his power is too great and he would shatter the world. As such, he must conquer this world through proxies."
Papana piped up at this point, "If Hell is a place of vice and sin, it sound like a hell of a lot more fun this this world. Why would the Demon Emperor want more?"
"It is his very nature, firstly." Bitter Opal explained, "And while Yomi Wan is indeed a place of wanton debauchery, it is also a realm while a green sun blasts the land with harsh radioactive light, and emerald flames consume everything in their path."
The group perked up at this. They remembered their encounter with the man in the red sweatshirt, who had been able to hurl balls of green flame and also fire them out of his motorcycle.
"The Hellraisers are only the first who openly support the coming advent of Yomi Wan. There have been many secret organizations throughout history, all of them setting the stage for the Demon Emperor to conquer this world. We, the Tennin," she indicated herself and Sensei, "have hunted down vermin like the Hellraisers and destroyed them and their foul nests. But we Tennin are too few, and the Demonspawn of Hell grow too great in number. We have begun asking for help from among those other Exalted we can trust." she gave a brief nod to the group. "We must stomp out the Demonspawn wherever they show themselves, and this Cain Romulus fellow is a good a start as any. Unless you have any better leads?"
"As a matter of fact..." Papana said as he rushed out to where he had been working on the motorcycle he had stolen from the man in the red sweatshirt. As he did, Shiver explained the situation to a confused Sensei and Bitter Opal. Papana returned with two items he recovered from the motorcycle's saddle bags: A key and a cellphone. "We encountered someone who used those emerald fires from Hell." Papana told Bitter Opal, "And he tried to steal my dog."
"I could probably get someone from the tech department to hack into the phone, see if we can get more info." Eric offered, already dialing a number on his phone. The tech guy, Steve, made his way down to the Dojo after about half an hour and started running illegal hacking systems, paid for under the table by Eric himself without his personal assistant's knowledge. After hacking into the phone, Papana called up the first contact in the phone, Al. Al seemed very surprised to be receiving a call, and, in his confusion, revealed that the owner of the phone had been dead for several weeks, after having been thrown into the ocean with cement blocks on his feet. He then abruptly hung up. Steve took the phone, found a number listed as "BOSS," then proceeded to hack into other phones in the original's list that shared the mutual entry. He then used the phones he successfully hacked to triangulate the position of the BOSS' phone, located in a remote area about an hour's drive away. He also found out that the same number was also listed as "Bill Smoke" in two of the other phones. Papana fired up his motorcycle, Shiver clambered into the sidecar, and Eric revved up his new bike: A sleek thing of cobalt and chrome, complete with a diode at the branch of the handles where blue electricity crackled. They roared down the freeway, following the GPS tracker on Eric's phone.
They arrived at a dilapidated mill with long streaks of rust and a single lit window, but no other buildings around. The trio entered it boldly, shoving aside a very squeaky door to enter. Papana punched the rusty latch off, then heard a soft tong as if from far away. They found themselves in a large, dark room, the only light source spilling weakly from the far side, the door latch wobbling at the foot of the stairs. Footsteps clanged down the stairs, revealing a man in a red sweatshirt. He saw the trio, shouted an expletive, then opened fire at them with a submachine gun. Papana and Eric fired bolts of energy at him, annihilating the stairs but knocking the gangster upward. Knowing they had lost the element of surprise, the trio vaulted up the stairs, Shiver transforming into his hybrid Spirit Form in preparation.
At the top of the stairs, they saw a naked bulb and a window, out of which they could see their motorcycles. Only a few feet away was a very solid steel door and when they put their ears to it, they could hear very faint sounds on the other side. Papana boldly pounded on the door, calling, "Your pizza is here!"
Obvious footsteps pounded to the door, stopped, then pounded back. Papana banged on the door again, "Come and get it!"
This time, many more footsteps loudly approached the door. Shiver slipped out of the window and crawled along the side of the building where the rust had weakened the metal enough for his claws to pierce through. On the opposite side, he was able to look through a tiny hole in the rust and saw about twenty gangsters, all armed with guns, facing the door. Behind them stood three very familiar figures: Georgie, Knuckles, and the man in the red sweatshirt. On the other side of the door, Eric shared a plan with Papana quickly. He summoned up a mighty gale as Papana leaped out of the window. Eric then used the gale to redirect Papana in midair--straight into the side of the building, Papana's fist burning with sun-ki as he smashed through the rusted steel. At the same time, Shiver ripped apart the rusted exterior and bounded through with a terrible howl. Shots rang out and bullets filled the air...
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Despite the amount of text above, we actually had a relatively short night, as Wade had to answer a call at work, which delayed us by about an hour. And, as you can see, we didn't do any actual fight, but man will we start the next session with one! Despite not getting to kick any ass, we still liked that we had an opportunity to roleplay and explore our characters.
Blake decided that Papana has a very protective stance over Shiver, despite Shiver's ability to very much take care of himself. This relationship was seen last time when Shiver was being wolfnapped, but Papana consistently refers to Shiver as his dog, implying not ownership but a mutually deep connection.
Wade found that he was having Shiver out of his wolf form more often, as it is difficult to communicate with others as a wolf. This shows in-game, as Shiver has opened up a little to his comrades.
Jaime fleshed out a lot of Eric's business background, adding Steve the tech guy and his personal assistant. A little was also revealed about his past: He barely graduated from high school and dropped out of community college. Even so, he learned what he needed to and became one of the most prominent businessmen of the world.
On a side note, it appears that the group as a whole has been focusing on roleplaying and character development. Sure, the focus of this game is to kick as much ass as possible, but this session was almost entirely devoted to roleplaying and setting the stage for the next chapter in the adventure. In our FATE game, there has also been a lot of time given to character development. Blake's character managed to impress the "bad guy" of the current area, while my character has a budding romance with one of the local ladies. All of us where genuinely bummed out that our time in this dimension was coming to an end and we had a serious and mature conversation about it--a rare thing for our group. I'm certainly not complaining about this development, but it was just something I noticed.
I'll try my hardest to get a post up in a more reasonable time frame this time around. If there's anything in here that catches your attention, let me know!
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