Saturday, September 13, 2014

Third Party

The gang of men in red sweatshirts was suddenly assaulted on three sides: A flying jump-kick that struck like a comet, a werewolf tearing through the steel wall, and an electrified steel door that exploded off its hinges. Two were dispatched before the fight even began. There was a brief standstill, some bantering, until Bill Smoke lost his patience and ordered his men to kill them.

This fight operated in the same way as Papana and Shiver's first fight against the gang at the warehouse-arena. The gang members came at them three at a time, and they used their Techniques as both attack and defense. And just like last time, Papana did surprisingly well against the gang members, while Shiver struggled. Unlike last time, however, they had Eric to help. Within the first few rounds, Papana delivered a particularly devastating blow, causing the unstable floor to come loose and crash downward onto the first floor. At the same time, Eric used his mastery of wind to carry him and his assailants upward onto the roof. The gangster at the center of the vortex received a barrage of electricity continued to soar upward after the rest landed on the roof, flying off into the distance like a faulty blue lightbulb.

On the first floor, Papana and Shiver continued beating the snot out of the gangsters. They seemed to be handling the fight quite well. Papana was simply stomping the gangsters attacking him, while Shiver held his own. Feeling like he was missing out on the party, Eric took his group down from the roof, destablizing it. Once Papana had defeated his six assailants--made much faster with a potent Overdrive--one of the ones targeting Shiver was ordered by Smoke to target Papana--with a goddamn rocket launcher. Papana saw this and immediately rushed forward. He managed to knock the gangster backward, but not before he fired off the rocket, which, due to a Mugen's burning fist in his face, was sent exploding into the roof. Shards of rusty steel and molten slag cascading down, prompting everyone to make Dexterity rolls to avoid the shrapnel. The trio was hit a time or two between them, but two gangsters were lethally impaled. Not too long after, Eric finished off the last of his assailants, and turned his focus to the man who had attacked him at the warehouse-arena, preventing him from helping Papana rescue Shiver.

The greasy man, whom Bill Smoke addressed as Georgie, slid forward, almost as if he was gliding along the ground. After his first attack, Eric complained that he would have to replace he was wearing, due to Georgie's foul appearance: patchy hair, greasy skin, and a tattered trenchcoat that looked like it had been dipped in a vat of oil. Eric fought him with lashing winds and bolts of electricity, while Georgie used a fluid fighting style and a black ichor similar to oil. He tried his best to debilitate Eric with it, but the Ryujiin was able to avoid it and drop Georgie with a shock to the head.

The gangster who fired the rocket launcher managed to survive Papana's fist, and continued to avoid his attacks for a while. The Mugen triumphed eventually, however, and took on Knuckles, a large, muscular man with numerous brass piercings. The two exchanged fierce blows, their opening attacks both shattering the earth and sending much of the debris skyward. Twice, the falling shrapnel sliced into Knuckles, but the large man pulled the pieces of metal out with no apparent pain. One of Knuckles' attacks even removed one of Papana's Health Stocks. Papana came back with renewed force, however, and dropped him with a blazing fist to the gut soon after.

Before Shiver could finish off the last of the gangsters attacking him, the gangster turned to flee. On his way out, Bill Smoke took off a satchel and handed it to him. Shiver then turned his attention to Smoke. Rage bubbled up like burning quicksilver at the memory of the man in the red sweatshirt trying to wolfnap him. Shiver attacked him with relentless fury, while Smoke tried to knock him away with powerful blasts of green fire. Shiver built up his Overdrive and delivered a particularly devastating attack. Not only did it cause Smoke to lose two Health Stocks, it also knocked the gang leader unconscious. Even if he had survived, he would have lost another Health Stock the next round due to Shiver's attack. In fact, Shiver was the first of the three to defeat his "big bad," even though he started after Eric.

Shiver then took off after the satchel carrier, who had one other gangster to help him. They fled through the sagebrush and cheatgrass in the moonlight, heading toward a small patch of trees. Shiver bounded after them, using his superior speed to quickly catch up. When he came level with the gangsters just at the entrance of the woods, he instead went up onto a small ridge and looked at them, his silhouette against the moon. Twin orbs of seething silver glared at them, then Shiver threw back his head and howled. It was soon answered, as a pack of wolves rallied to him, The two strongest advanced, then charged toward the gangsters at Shiver's command. Meanwhile, Eric had defeated Georgie and took off after Shiver and his prey. Using surges of wind, he caught up and managed to get up a tree while the gangsters were intimidated by Shiver's howl. He hurled a lightning bolt near them as a distraction. The gangster with the satchel bolted into the forest, while the other one pulled out two submachine guns and unloaded both clips in desperation. Bullets sprayed wildly, all of them missing their targets, while Eric's precision lightning strike dispatched him in a single attack, long before the wolves attacked--though they were appreciative of the hot meal.

Meanwhile, Papana had been struggling with Knuckles a little bit. Even after he had defeated the abnormally large man, things prevented him from assisting the others. As he made his way toward the woods, debris from his exchange with Knuckles began falling from the sky--including the solid metal door that Eric had originally dislodged. Despite his strength, the door was too heavy for him to lift. So, he fired a bolt of solar ki at it, which indeed removed it from his person, but left him far behind the others.

Back at the woods, the man in the satchel tried to escape, thinking that everyone was focused on his sacrificial companion. However, he received a rude surprise when Shiver suddenly appeared and gave him a crippling slash across the back. Before Shiver could do any more damage, the carrier rose up in defiance of gravity and levitated several feet in the air. Eric arrived and tried to electrify the hovering carrier, but he simply shifted to the left or right and easily dodged the attacks. Shiver, with his superior night vision, then noticed a figure in the darkness, barely discernible from the shadows.

"Well met." the shadow said, taking measured steps forward when he felt Shiver's eyes upon him. He was clad in black cloth finery, his dress sharp and tasteful enough to gain compliments from Eric, and a long black leather trenchcoat completed the look. Strangely, however, he wore a visor with a short beak and splayed feathers made of black crystal. Shifting ropes of utter blackness spilled from his lifted hand, coiling around the floating carrier.

At this point, Papana arrived, having finished with his ordeal with the door. "Give us the satchel, and we won't have to hurt you," Eric said.

"Indeed? Then we have a problem. You see, I want the satchel, too."

"We can settle this peacefully." Papana offered, followed up quickly by Shiver's suggestion, "Yeah! Like an arm-wrestling contest!"

The shadow man laughed at this. "If we must compete over the satchel, I will agree to your challenge by arm wrestle." he lifted the unconscious carrier into a nearby tree, wrapping the shadow-ropes around him and the tree. He then chopped a different tree with his hand, shearing through it and creating a level stump. He rolled back one of his sleeves, exposing almost luminescent white skin. He placed his elbow on the stump and looked at the trio. "I'm waiting."

Papana stepped forward and grasped the shadow man's hand. The contest began instantly and they struggled dead even for several minutes. Using their Strength scores, they began a race to three net successes over the other's scores. They rolled high successes on each roll--3, 4, 5, and even 6 on 4-die pools. However, they rolled exactly the same number of successes on each roll! Papana began shining with a brilliant golden aura, while shadows blacker than night gathered around the shadow man. The air itself compressed with tension, and a dread hush fell over the woods. Finally, the tension snapped, and the shadow man slammed Papana's hand into the stump, shattering it into kindling. The shadow man smiled in triumph, then climbed up the tree with his prisoner while the trio discussed what to do next. Papana urged them to honor the agreement, but asked the shadow man to at least tell them what was in the satchel.

The shadow man obliged them, closing the satchel and putting it around himself. "The locations of the Tennin dojos, as well as the Scrolls of Power. Until later." he said, then vanished into the shadows of the woods.

Eric immediately called up Sensei, telling him they had important information to share. An hour later, back at the Dojo of Fallen Stars, the trio told Sensei and Bitter Opal the bad news.

"Do you know what you've done?" Bitter Opal snarled. "Each of the Scrolls of Power are protected by a Tennin dojo. You've just given our most important locations to the enemy!"

"Why are we getting our heads bitten off?" Eric argued, "We didn't know what was in that bag until it was too late, and neither did you." Opal pursed her lips but did not contest Eric's point.

"What are these Scrolls of Power, anyway?" Papana asked.

"Powerful Tennin artifacts. They have capability of bestowing the powers of the different forms of the Exalted, even upon those who are not of the same class. They are only given to those who prove themselves truly worthy of receiving such power. Now it appears that the forces of Yomi Wan want them to increase the strength of their armies."

"From the description of this mysterious man of the shadows, it does not sound like an agent of the Yama Kings." Sensei observed.

"It could have been a servant of the Shadow of All Things." Opal countered.

"True, but the servants of the Shadow are not an honorable group in any sense."

"What does that mean?" Eric asked.

"It was one of the Shinigami, the Shadow Priests." Sensei explained.

"...who haven't been seen in over a thousand years." Opal retorted.

"I believe they have been biding their time, just like the Yama Kings, just like the Tennin." Sensei then focused on the trio, "These Scrolls of Power must remain within the protection of the Tennin. We have been working for years beyond count to prepare our own armies to contest the forces of Yomi Wan. The Shinigami are an unknown force, so we must assume that they are enemies as well, even if they are not allied with Yomi Wan. We cannot allow the Scrolls of Power to fall into the hands of the Yama Kings or the Shadow Priests."

"Why exactly are we fighting for the Tennin?" Shiver, now in human form, asked Eric.

"Well, I am because she's hot." he explained, gesturing to Bitter Opal.

Shiver blinked in confusion, "She is?"

"Why don't we call them up? Let them know that their dojos are in danger?" Eric asked.

"Our dojos are often in remote locations, especially the ones housing the Scrolls of Power." Bitter Opal explained, "Furthermore, the mystic powers of the Scrolls interfere with any modern devices. We will contact those we can, but our most important dojos will have to be notified in person."

Papana stood up then, a strong confidence radiating from him, "Then I guess we need to go spread the word."

---

What did we enjoy?

  • Stunt destruction. Everyone got to destroy some scenery in this session: Blake destroyed a wall with a flying kick, then a floor with a downward fist; Eric broke through a roof in two different directions; and Shiver tore through a wall with his claws, then actually sent a guy flying through the air so hard that he cracked a supporting beam and caused the building to tilt. Even I got to bring the roof crashing down with a rocket. It feels satisfying to destroy things without having to worry about the object's durability--because it just feels cool.
  • Fighting styles. Mass combat and single combat feel different enough to call for different strategies, but similar enough to not be alien to each other. Blake, for example, greatly enjoys mass combat against extras and being able to defeat several of them with a single attack. Wade, on the other hand, prefers single combat because he seems to have better luck there.
  • Botching. This is one of two new rules we introduced in this session. Botches happened quite frequently tonight, especially when the extras were trying to avoid falling shrapnel. We decided that botches on noncombat rolls merited a few extra penalties. We may apply this to combat in the future, maybe with botched rolls causing the incoming attack to be treated as Victorious.
  • Varied combat. One of the biggest complaints about Exalted 2nd Edition was the phenomenon known as mote attrition. That is, battles were decided by who ran out of motes first. This doesn't apply in Burn Legend. Even if this system's motes, ki, are depleted, you are still able to fight with a great deal of strength--you just lose access to your best techniques, not all of them. Here's to hoping that Exalted 3rd Edition fixes this problem!
What did we not enjoy?
  • Nothing! This was an all-over great session!
  • Little big bads. Actually, my one complaint is that my antagonists went down quickly. Two of the three dropped after their first Health Stock loss, while Bill Smoke lost two in one attack and then dropped. So much for that climactic fight...
What did we learn?
  • Mass combat kind of sucks. At least for werewolves.
  • Doors hate Mugens.
  • Full die pools. They're nice to have.

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