[Exalted] Storyline, need feedback(My players stay out, Rob, James, Jeremy, etc.)

[clark411]

First, I know this is a d20 website, but I think we need an Exalted Message icon =)

As for the story.. How can they possibly fight off Mask of Winters? is he less powerful in your campaign then plotted out in the Abyssal book? The way I've heard of him, he's basically the Dnd Equivalent of the Pitfiend/Solar riding a Titan/Terrasque. The only reason the world is not destroyed is because he's maintaining control of his citadel.. anyone who dares fight him shall know excruciating death at the hands of millenia old traps of myth he has laid out with exacting precision.

Is that kinda the idea? it sounds like the kind of story that the Mask would create with the sole intent of having his foes try to find the weapon and fail as they fall into his web of deceit.

 

[Nightfall]

Not to mention Soul Reaver. Kidding.

I like to do some Soul Reaving. In any case keep up the good work Blacky.

 

[blackshirt5]

No, he's still very very powerful clark; but the whole point of Exalted is to be epic and fight against overwhelming odds, face excruciating death, and come out having changed the world, right?

 

[clark411]

Absolutely =)

I just always looked at trying to beat Mask of Winters like trying to flip gravity, or make the Wyld the center of the world.. or make the Celestial Mountain of the Blessed Isle an innie instead of the outie of creation. Diff'runt strokes.

 

[blackshirt5]

Hmm; dunno, I've just always viewed the Deathlords as extremely hard, but ultimately beatable.

 

[blackshirt5]

Also, to other Exalted DMs, I ask the question(since my game is gonna be focused, at least a little bit of it, around getting the old Realm back together, with DBs serving as the soldiers of the Solars): Could you see a Wyld Hunt team, granted an idealistic one, but still a Wyld Hunt team, deciding to 'cross the line' and join with the Solars?

 

[clark411]

An idealistic one would be full steam in destroying the Anathema for the good of the realm and the preservation of the Immaculate Order. Would an fantasy idealistic medieval catholic inquisitor, upon finding the devil incarnate, decide to join him?

If anything, it would take a member of the Wyld Hunt who was anything BUT idealistic to join the Solars.

However, if you just want to switch words and say "Is it possible that a member of the Wyld Hunt who, doubting the word of his faith in relation to what he sees, change to the Solars?" Absolutely. The best thing to emphasize in an Exalted campaign is that everyone is a potential ally or threat. When you give players as big a boot as you do by having them play Solars, the question that will be risen more often is not "Is that bad guy too much for us?" but rather "Hey, do we really need to kill him to accomplish our goals?"

So, I'm 100% for gray enemies, even the Abyssals. Give a Solar a Grand Daiklave in a black and white world and he'll turn it red. Give him a less obvious one, with Wyld Hunt members questioning their faith and even joining the Solars, and you'll get a lot of depth of character out of the game.

 

[blackshirt5]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking; after the Mask of Winters dies, even a few Abyssals might become not-quite-enemies(although not what I'd call allies) of the Solars in or around the final battle against the Scarlet Empress and the Ebon Dragon, including one with the corrupted soul-shard of one of the PCs.