Theo Anders and the Black Exaltation[Worm/Exalted][Hiatus]

Oooh, thanks.

 

Yeah if your not confidant writing sex scenes this is the way to go. The [CENSORED] was really funny in my opinion and nothing is worse than poorly written porn.

 

Well nothing stopping people from doing omakes (in the NSFW section of course) to fill in those scenes hint hint

 

If I were to create a thread for NSFW omakes and stuff where would it go? In the NSFW CrW or in the NSFW Quest sections?

 

Probably CrW, since it's just going to be a repository for Omakes and discussions about them. Without the voting aspect, it doesn't feel proper to have it in the quest section.

 

[NSFW] Naughty Omakes for Theo Anders and the Black Exaltation.

Go, go my questers write smut to your heart's content. Yes, the naughty omakes count for bonus XP too.

(Don't forget to vote here though. Remember to redo your votes for 06- Thunderstruck when you vote for 07- Loving the Lover's artifact selections)

Speaking of Artifacts, this, Bii, was why I kept you from creatively giving The Dark Prince a daiklave during character creation.

 

06 re-vote:
[X] "Of course. We will speak terms later." We are not asking his permission to speak of terms.
-[X] "Just one small thing, father. When you call me by my name, it reminds me of who I used to be. I don't like who I used to be. I mean no disrespect, but would you do me the small favor of using my cape name from now on?"
[X] Costume idea Bii: Looking at the color scheme of your power's lightshow... there is an inherent limitation to what you can wear as a costume. Black and Silver. Well... it's not like Hugo Boss didn't design a REALLY sharp looking uniform with that color scheme... yeah, no... Let's go with a medieval theme, of black ornate armor with silver highlights. Your symbol shall be a disc surrounded by a ring or is that a serpent.
[X] Cape name if different than the Dark Prince
- [X] The world isn't yet ready to call me The Dark Prince, except maybe in bed. On the streets, I'll use something slightly less pretentious, slightly more normal-sounding. For now, I'll go by...
-- [X] Aminon
07:
[X] One two dot Soulsteel Artifact
-[X] Soulsteel Reinforced Breastplate "God Cloth of the Grave"
[X] Purchases:
-[X] Lore ●●○○○ -> ●●●●○ (-8 XP)
-[X] Athletics ●●●○○ -> ●●●●○ (-5 XP)
Tempted to just vote for standard Soulsteel Artifact Armor (IMO: Way too much bling, too many wings, and that weird skirt thing) But the stats speak for themselves. I'll just pretend we are wearing something else so I can take TDP seriously. And our anima cloak hides it anyway.
Also, that is still the best SFW sex scene I've ever read in a while.

 

Theo's response:
[X] If I wanted to join the Wards?

Theo's cape stuff:
[X] Costume idea Bii: Looking at the color scheme of your power's lightshow... there is an inherent limitation to what you can wear as a costume. Black and Silver. Well... it's not like Hugo Boss didn't design a REALLY sharp looking uniform with that color scheme... yeah, no... Let's go with a medieval theme, of black ornate armor with silver highlights. Your symbol shall be a disc surrounded by a ring or is that a serpent.
[X] Cape Symbol: A disc surrounded by a ring or is that a serpent.
[X] Cape Name: The Dark Prince.

The Lover's gift(s) to The Dark Prince
[X] One two dot Soulsteel Artifact
-[X] Soulsteel Reinforced Breastplate "God Cloth of the Grave"

 

One dot Artifacts can be useful, but are mostly trinkets. The vast majority of them have been largely obsoleted by modern technology. A single two dot Artifact seems more likely to be useful, particularly one that posses unique advantages that can't be replicated by technology or our minions. A Daiklave would be the obvious choice, but we already a magic shadow blade.

My thought is to get something defensive, because TDP is rather squishy against anything he either fails to parry or cannot parry. Artifact Armor is an obvious choice since we don't have a Tinker who can maintain power armor for us. Expensive mundane armor can give decent protection, but it's heavier and more cumbersome. Most critically, it won't grant Hardness, the capacity to completely ignore weak attacks. Hardness also protects against environmental hazards such as fire. Normally running away would be a good defense against these, but not for idiots who insist on fighting dragons at close range with a pointy stick.

Sadly, we can't get Soulsteel Superheavy Plate(Artifact 3, Soak: +17L/B, Hardness: 11L/B). We can get a Soulsteel Reinforced Breastplate(Artifact 2, Soak: +12L/11B, Hardness: 9L/B). Well, we can if we can use the fact that the errata downgraded it from three to two dots. Otherwise things get a bit trickier.

Alternatively, we could get a Soulsteel Thunderbolt Shield, which gives a +3 shield bonus to TDP's DV. This still leaves him rather squishy, though large shields are a traditional tool of Dragonslayers.

 

I see it in the Errata as 2 dots. I look in the core books first and then the Errata, and it did get that dot reduction. I'd allow it.

 

[X] "Of course. We will speak terms later." We are not asking his permission to speak of terms.
-[X] "Just one small thing, father. When you call me by my name, it reminds me of who I used to be. I don't like who I used to be. I mean no disrespect, but would you do me the small favor of using my cape name from now on?"

[X] Cape name if different thanthe Dark Prince
- [X] The world isn't yet ready to call me The Dark Prince, except maybe in bed. On the streets, I'll use something slightly less pretentious, slightly more normal-sounding. For now, I'll go by...
-- [X] Tenebrae

 

Swift's charm wishlist v0.6. Needs detailing, prioritizing, sorting, etc.

Spoiler: DUSK

Archery/Firearms:
skip

Martial Arts:
Hungry Ghost Style (Luxury, only if the capstone works as advertised vs. parahumans)

Melee (Favored):
as much as possible

Thrown:
skip

War:
skip

Spoiler: MIDNIGHT

Integrity (Favored):
Eternal Emnity Approach -> Sunlight Bleeding Away. Want that overdrive pool, and Bright Days Painted Black is to be avoided.
Soulsteel Reaper Spirit
1st/2nd Excellency
Integrity Essence Flow -> Unconquered Hero's Faith (E4). Doesn't actively help redemption, but shows Theo that it's possible and saves us 6-8 XP per non-Permanent mirror charm.
Heart of Darkness / Lesser Horrors Scorned / Faithful Killers Reprieve
AVOID Immortal Malevolence Enslavement

Performance:
Morbid Fascination Style / Inescapable Massacre Technique
(primary branch) later

Presence (Favored):
Heartless Fiend Insinuation
Chaining the Weak (E4)
Killing Words Technique
Soul-Flaying Gaze
Hungry Darkness Prana / Light-Devouring Labyrinth
Poisoning the Will / Broken Heart Triumph

Resistance:
Flesh as Marble Stance
Hope-Slaying Resilience
Ox-Body Technique. Boring, low-priority, and practical. IMO we want the 1x -1 and 2x -2 health boxes each time, for the largest benefit (should we find a Malfean tutor).

Survival:
Fetter the Deathless Beast

Spoiler: DAYBREAK

Craft:
Annihilating Gaze (E4) and prereqs. If we can access the Malfean equivalents, those are significantly cheaper than grinding up to Craft 5.

Investigation:
Spider in Society's Web
Deception-Piercing Stare
Unholy Unwitting Pact
Soul-Invading Glance
Crime-Unveiling Wickedness / Hang High the Gallows (from the Lawyer charms). Lots of very useful stuff here, but none of it is favored.

Lore (Favored):
2 Excellencies
Dream-Slaying Defense / Nightmare-Carving Murmur / Enduring Dead Dreams (E4)
Essence-Draining Touch / Will-Feasting Onslaught / Virtue-Devouring Hunger
the hacking charms

Medicine:
Pitiless Triage Judgement / Venom-Bleeding Agony / Plague-Eating Kiss

Occult:
to be detailed later

Spoiler: DAY

Athletics (Favored):
lots

Awareness:
all (Sense) charms
Ominous Portent Method, though its mirror isn't available through UHF.
Piercing Gaze of the Unmaker

Dodge:
lots

Larceny:
skip

Stealth:
Shadow Cloak Technique and its extensions look useful, but they're sooooo expensive.

Spoiler: MOONSHADOW

Bureaucracy:
the whole damn tree

Linguistics:
Soul-Snaring Tract and all prereqs
Mystique-Spoiling Guess
Language-Absorbing Method

Ride/Drive:
skip

Sail/Pilot:
skip

Socialize:
the whole damn tree

Spoiler: If we encounter a Solar...

War:
Heroism-Encouraging Presence -> Tiger Warrior Training Technique ->Legendary Warrior Curriculum (E4). Martial training charms, superior to the Abyssal versions.

Survival:
Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit -> Element Resisting Prana -> Steadfast Elemental Emperor Stance. The Abyssal versions are nerfed so heavily that they aren't even worth it unless we want to turn Brockton Bay into a shadowland.

Lore:
Harmonious Academic Methodology -> Legendary Scholar Curriculum (E4) -> Terrestrial Edification Program (E5). Highly powerful training charms; Abyssals have no equivalent.

Awareness:
Surprise Anticipation Method. Mirror to OPM, but isn't affected by Resonance.

Larceny:
Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise -> Perfect Mirror. The second version isn't necessary, but the Abyssal mirror sucks.

Spoiler: If we encounter an Infernal...

Malfeas:
Hardened Devil Body: Like Ox-Body Technique, but adds 3x -2 health levels and 1x -4 level. Low priority compared to dodging, parrying, hardness-ing, soaking, or reducing minimum damage, but not a total waste. No rule I know prevents us from doubling up on both types of health extensions.
By Pain Reforged: Prereq for half the tree. Direct benefit is rather boring, nullifying all penalties from bashing damage for a scene, but works well with stacking OBT and HDB.
Scar-Writ Saga Shield I, II, II (E4). Permanent boosts to natural bashing soak, natural lethal soak, natural bashing hardness, and natural lethal hardness. Scales to STA and Essence.
Viridian Legend Exoskeleton I, II (E4): Scene-long magical armor. Soak 10L/10B; Hardness 10L/10B against regular attacks; Hardness 5L/5B against magic attacks; no hardness against charm use or artifact weapons; no mobility or fatigue penalty. Repurchase is much better, increasing duration to indefinite and allowing the VLE to combine with existing armor, for combined soak values, best of both hardness values, no mobility/fatigue penalties. Other powers specific to each component remain, but components may not be separate while charm remains active.
Nightmare Fugue Vigilance: Not the best anti-sleep charm - that's Kimbery's - but better than the Abyssal one.
By Agony Empowered: Upgrades BPR to apply to Lethal (and Agg, at E5) damage as well as Bashing.
Insignificant Embers Intuition: Prereq for the other half of the tree. Boosts Awareness checks of targeted individuals, but otherwise boring.
Dim Irrelevancies Unveiled: Normally useless on Earth Bet, but Skitzy ruled that Shards are kinda-sorta Essence users. Mote cost is cheaper than Solar/Abyssal equivalent All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight / Through Dead Eyes and it doesn't require Occult dots.
Skyfire-Seizing Repast: Reduces post-soak damage from 'purely energy-based attacks' by (Essence) and converts underflow into overdrive motes. (Requires an overdrive pool.) NOT NATIVE.
Sun-Heart Furnace Soul: 10m peripheral pool, can only be filled by use of Malfean reactors or deliberate effort - (Willpower rating) motes for a 1m surcharge. NOT NATIVE.
Green Sun Nimbus Flare: Gateway charm for tons of shit. Actual function adds 2hl unsoakable damage to any attack within (Essence) yards, for 3m each time.
Interesting charms behind GSNF include Godscorch Invective (fuck Breakers), Magnanimous Warning Glyph, Fealty-Acknowledging Audience (fuck moles), Cold Fire Desolation Brand, Rebuking Impudent Arms, Carapace Oven Trick (fuck Tinkers), and Star-Piercing Spear of Glory (sufficient dakka at E4).

Cecelyne:
Verdant Emptiness Endowment, Miracle Gift Mastery, Scoured Perfection of Form, Bestowal of Accursed Fortune, Gifts of Greater Glory (E4). Together, form the most powerful training charm in canon. Unlike the five Solar charms, it only works on individual targets.

The Ebon Dragon:
Loom-Snarling Deception. Same role as FID, but the disguise is much more real, it has no prerequisites and is significantly cheaper in both XP and time- because we wouldn't need to train Larceny and the Essence requirement is lower.

Expense comparison tables:
TWTT/LWC/HAM/LSC vs. VEE (down this page)
FID vs. LSD

Changelog:
v0.5 - first version
v0.6 - Split Solar charms into their own box. Added LAM. Added Solar charms HSMS/ERP/SESS and SAM. Added Infernal charms RIA, VEE/MGM/SPF/BAF/GGG, LSD.

 

SwiftRosenthal I love the 'the whole damn tree' bits.

 

That's probably fortunate for TDP, because I just had a great idea for a Soulsteel Discrete Essence Armor. It's basically magical girl armor. So why not make it from real magical girls? I may write it up as an omake later.

Am I correct in assuming that TDP doesn't have to worry about buying combos?

Also, are you leaving the Spectral keyword on Death-Deflecting Technique?

 

[X] "Of course. We will speak terms later." We are not asking his permission to speak of terms.
-[X] "Just one small thing, father. When you call me by my name, it reminds me of who I used to be. I don't like who I used to be. I mean no disrespect, but would you do me the small favor of using my cape name from now on?"

[X] Cape name if different than the Dark Prince
- [X] The world isn't yet ready to call me The Dark Prince, except maybe in bed. On the streets, I'll use something slightly less pretentious, slightly more normal-sounding. For now, I'll go by...
-- [X] Tenebrae

[X] One two dot Soulsteel Artifact
-[X] Soulsteel Artifact Armor

Pre-Errata, Lamellar is decent. Post-Errata, I think Reinforced Breastplate is better.

 

I'm really only keeping track of his mote usage(and resonance), and narrative is king. So he can have combos, or rather use them, but he doesn't have to buy them. I'm not going to ask for something akin to UCS's alpha strike, but if I see an interesting way charms can fit together (or you do) and they're all combo-ok, TDP can do it. It just seems storywise, and if Exalted were real, that combos would be a natural extension of having multiple charms.

As for the spectral keyword (+1 WP surcharge to first spectral keyworded charm in a scene used outside of a shadowland/underworld) I'm going to sit on the fence on that for a little while.

Point to Tanuki, but TDP is keeping the second point of Resonance this time.

 

Making a table to compare TWTT/LWC+HAM/LSC vs. VEE.

War 1	3 XP	18 days
War 2	2 XP	6 days
War 3	4 XP	12 days
War 4	6 XP	18 days
Heroism-Encouraging Presence	16 XP	36 days
Tiger Warrior Training Technique	16 XP	42 days
Lore 5	15 XP	immediate
1st Lore Excellency (Abyssal)	8 XP	1 day
2nd Lore Excellency (Abyssal)	8 XP	1 day
Harmonious Academic Methodology	16 XP	48 days
Subtotal (E3)	79 XP	182 days
Essence 4	24 XP	90 days
War 5	8 XP	24 days
Legendary Warrior Curriculum	16 XP	54 days
Legendary Scholar Curriculum	16 XP	54 days
Total	143 XP	404 days

First Cece Excellency I	16 XP	6 (12) days
First Cece Excellency II	16 XP	immediately
First Cece Excellency III	16 XP	immediately
Cece Inevitability Technique	16 XP	18 (36) days
Transcendent Desert Creature	16 XP	12 (24) days
Verdant Emptiness Endowment	16 XP	18 (36) days
Miracle Gift Mastery	16 XP	18 (36) days
Scoured Perfection of Form	16 XP	18 (36) days
Bestowal of Accursed Fortune	16 XP	18 (36) days
Subtotal (E3)	144 XP	108 (216) days
Essence 4	24 XP	90 (90) days
First Cece Excellency IV	16 XP	immediately
Gifts of Greater Glory (OP as shit)	16 XP	24 (48) days
Total	200 XP	222 (354) days

...We may want to rebalance the time-cost of Infernal charms from (Ability + Essence) weeks to (Essence * 2) weeks. In this case, that pushes the cost up to 354 days if GGG is obtained last. If it's done ASAP (i.e. Excellency -> TDC -> VEE -> E4 -> GGG -> else) it's only 210 days.

Edit: forgot the fourth Cece Excellency purchase.
Edit: Misunderstood Yozi charm repurchasing costs after checking the MOEP.

 

[X] evildice

 

Spoiler: Seriously, its not going to happen for a while, we'll see the next circle member first, but this will come shortly after.

There will be a fresh Malefactor popping up. It won't be pretty. Well, she will be. She's going to be the 'big bad' for TDP on a city level. It won't be pretty. At all.

 

I'm just going to say that I really appreciate it when grand quests can be completed through cunning, diplomacy, and other non-violent means.

Well, mostly non-violent. There's always that one asshole who ruins everything. S/he has to die for sure.

Spoiler

If that means TDP and the Malefactor add each other to their respective harems when it's all over, so much the better.

 

[X] Plan Bii

When plan A won't work.

 

[X] Plan Bii

So Name, we're going by Dark Prince?

 

[X] Plan Bii

 

[X] "Of course. We will speak terms later." We are not asking his permission to speak of terms.
-[X] "Just one small thing, father. When you call me by my name, it reminds me of who I used to be. I don't like who I used to be. I mean no disrespect, but would you do me the small favor of using my cape name from now on?"
[X] Costume idea Bii: Looking at the color scheme of your power's lightshow... there is an inherent limitation to what you can wear as a costume. Black and Silver. Well... it's not like Hugo Boss didn't design a REALLY sharp looking uniform with that color scheme... yeah, no... Let's go with a medieval theme, of black ornate armor with silver highlights. Your symbol shall be a disc surrounded by a ring or is that a serpent.
[X] Cape name if different than the Dark Prince
- [X] The world isn't yet ready to call me The Dark Prince, except maybe in bed. On the streets, I'll use something slightly less pretentious, slightly more normal-sounding. For now, I'll go by...
-- [X] Aminon
[X] One two dot Soulsteel Artifact
-[X] Soulsteel Reinforced Breastplate "God Cloth of the Grave"
[X] Purchases:
-[X] Lore ●●○○○ -> ●●●●○ (-8 XP)
-[X] Athletics ●●●○○ -> ●●●●○ (-5 XP)

 

It's why I commented that, also will we be using the God Cloth of the Grave as our costume? I hope so.

 

Questio is our Anima just spectral illusions or are there Charms that can make it corporal?