Game running blahs

I might be getting tired of running my Exalted game.  I might be tired of running period.  One of my players asked if I would be willing to give up the GMs hat and let him GM, even if it were with his rules.  I responded with a hell yes.  Excuse me a, Hell Yes!!

But really I was thinking of a longer gap.  I have another friend who runs all the other games I play, have played for longer than three sessions, has been ill and when he suggests that we play, my answer is in the affirmative— even though I would like to say no.  His games are too structured, no not that.  His expectations for stunting are too high.  I deliver a stunt and he ignores it.  I try really hard to make something cool in my description and I achieve the lowest stunt possible; it loses the fun for me.  It feels like my friend the GM gets to have all the fun.  His strict adherence to experience means that I never have a powerful character that can do stuff.  His control makes me feel like I am just a pawn in the game.  My playing style does not lend itself to his game.  He complains that I start to become part of the scenery and become a secondary character to his story.  That is how I feel, and that is why I inwardly cringe when he suggests he wants to run a game.  

I ask myself if it is me?  Is it all in my head.  It might be.  It might be that our lives and our desires have diverged more and more over the years and being friends is the reason we are still friends.  I look at our mutual friends and I see I have diverged even further from them in the last two decades.  I am their friend because of my first friend.  Is that enough?  

My friend was dying and I was there for him.  I will likely lie to him and tell him that I have had fun the next time he runs a game.  I am friends with him more than just the games and the two decades of being friends… I love his children too.  

I am tired of running my game.  I am tired of running the game and not playing.  I wish that someone might decide to run, or that it ends.  I hope their style is something that I can play and have fun.  It has been a long time since I have had fun playing in a RPG.  

I begin today to set down the new setting that I want to run.  Who will play in it?  Will Jaguar decide she wants another kick at the can?  Natural20 will play, but she is my love, so she will endure my games to stay close to me.  The Practitioner will likely be good… but if he is too busy that is fine.  I have learned my lesson and won't invite the Schmuck.  After that I don't care.  I might take time off and not run at all.  I don't know.

CANCER—Cancer—cancer

CANcer. The word that strikes fear into people's hearts.  I am resolved to not give it that power.  It is one of the many ways that people can die.  Well, no.  It is not one disease but many.  It is not really preventable and it is.  What I mean by that is that some people are more susceptible to some forms of cancer than other people and there are things in the environment that can increase your chances of getting cancer.  There are things that you can touch, ingest, and breathe that can all increase your chances of contracting cancer; there is even a special word: carcinogen, for these things.

People die from cancer every day.  People also die of heart disease, strokes, car accidents, and hundreds of other things.  But none of those strikes as much fear as Cancer.  People even talk about fighting Cancer, and winning wars against Cancer and most often losing wars with Cancer.  

Cancer is a replication error in our DNA.  The affected cells uncontrollably reproduce and grow and stop the normal use of the cells.  It spreads and affects other cells in the body and then you die.  

There is tons of research being invested in search for a cure for cancer, but should it be framed in terms of fighting?  I mean is that useful.  No one really wants to die, but we all do die.  It is the first fact of life.  Life means death.  Life consumes life to stay alive.  And one day you die.  And cancer is not really preventable, at least not in the sense that you can do anything to prevent it from happening eventually.  You can live healthily for your entire life and then still get cancer.  You can conversely live poorly and drink and smoke to excess and not ever get cancer.  Because that's life.

It is sad when a child gets cancer, tragic.  It is sad when a family member gets cancer.  It is sad when a friend gets cancer.  But we all die eventually, some sooner than others.  It is a fact of life.  It is also a fact of cancer that sometimes the treatment is worse than the disease.  Unless you have children then I don't think anything is worse than the thought of leaving them alone in the world.  

This year I have a family member that got cancer.  I also have a friend my age who got cancer.  What you need to know is that you discover what is important in life, with your life, and try to make the best of it.  Tomorrow you might step of the curb and get creamed by a bus and never know the things that are really important in your life.  That is a gift of knowing that you are going to die, before it happens.  

But really get treated for cancer.  Try to get better.  But don't fight it.  Don't declare war on it.  You are declaring war on your body when you fight cancer, remember that. But still, we want you to live longer with us.  We want you to live.  

I want my family member to live many more years, and I want my friend to live to an old age too.  I hope they crack the problems of cancer before another person close to me gets it… before I get it, so I can look forward to being hit by a bus, or a car accident, or heart disease, dementia, or a stroke.  

I will die one day.  Before I do, I want to learn my friend's lesson of valuing the important things in life, friends, lovers, and family.  Not work.  Not video games.

Now back to that video game…

The Battle For Whitewall: background, plan and actuality

The battle for Whitewall is not one that will be a victory for the forces of the living.  It will be a rout.  A total rout.  The characters will need to come to that conclusion if they are to save the people of the city, it will not be through battle.  

The Enemy: 

The Thrice Dread Achiba and Marama will announce that they, the rulers of the East and the West Fell have united their rule with the destruction of the Holy Road and the corruption of the Jewel of the North shall consummate their Union.  

The Attacks have been brutal and far reaching, and it turns out that the barbarians near Whitewall have been gathered in support for the forces of Undead; they have attacked from the North and have burned the fields that were not yet ready for harvest which drew the forces out of the walls for the Undead to attack and destroy.

When the attacks began, the assault involved skeletal trebuchet and unholy ammunition that exploded and burned with green fire that lit the marble aflame.  A terror weapon that only one in ten hit the wall, the rest ignited the city in a seemingly random fashion.  Accidentally striking garrison buildings and shrines many places of great sentimental meaning for the populous.  After the initial barrage was done, the city was burning but the walls were intact.  Moreover, things were looking up for the people of Whitewall, in their time of need the Unconquered Sun seemed to decide to defend his City and no less than Fifteen Solar Exaltations filled the city with the their light and filling them with hope…

This should send the Characters into a cold sweat.  

Although multiple Shadowlands have opened within the city, they expect to have these closed soon and since the walls have held and there are no breaches, these shadowlands offer no strategic beachheads to the Underworld.  Yet.  

When the Characters arrive, the city that was optimistic has become a city in ruins.  The attacks that seemed to be random within the city have resulted in a deflection of the essence through the city and the ineffective attacks against the city were designed to weaken the Geomantic stability of the walls and the fifteen Solars betrayed the city attacking the city and its forces at key places.  Five were in the conference with the Syndics at the time and the Syndics have not been seen since

Stage is set.  

The enemy launches its second attack in a coordinated strike against the city from within and from without.  The first assault only finished a few hours before, the Holy Road has been compromised, but the assault was repelled from the the city by the exaltation of numerous Solars.  The overjoyed Syndics are meeting with five of the new Solars when the second attack begins.  The plan was to destroy one or two of the Syndics, hoping to remove Yo-Ping first and then the others, but since the Syndics appear identical, that is unlikely.  Tired from the recent battle, Luranume, falls quickly in the battle and is destroyed.  Surprise does not last long and Yo-Ping is able to evoke the sign of Peace and this battle ends, he and Uvanavu flee before the Abyssals can destroy them too.  This battle was coordinated by the Black Sun as the city was assaulted a second time.  The ineffectual attacks against the wall in the first battle weakened it enough that the attack from within causes the wall to breach and the breach breaks the holy protections on the city and the shadowlands link through the city with the outside.  When the characters arrive on the scene, the battle appears to be untenable, but a number of actions seem to suggest that victory is still possible, it is not.

A quick assessment of the battle will lend to three possible strategies:

A victory is still possible, if the characters decide that this is the only option, to fight then let them fight.  The Black Sun IS on the field and he cannot be defeated in personal combat by any of the characters as of yet. With a wave of his hand, any being with five or less permanent essence, will be slain.  Demonstrate this before they try to engage him: Glacier leads a force of spirit blooded and militia before the Thrice Dreaded Achiban and his mighty Soulsteel Gore-Maul rises and falls many times on her assorted foes, as he obliterates one he stares into her eyes across the field, she crumples and dies; her hungry ghost rises to lead her now dead forces against the living.    

If the characters choose this action it will be a battle where they must avoid directly facing the enemy and destroy his leuitenants only, the Abyssal Exalted.  If they engage the Deathlord directly, they will die.

Character death.

The second option is to recognize that all is lost here and flee.  Whitewall will be turned into another concentration camp and the populous will be slowly put to death, spreading Marama's Fell all the way to Gethamane over a few months and from there to the Haslanti league in less than a year.  The Slave States will fall well before that, a million undead joined the ranks will be slaughtered easily, but the entire North will be lost, which was the Black Sun's only goal.  Creation will sputter and cough.  The other Deathlords will be forced to act.

Smart characters will realize that neither option is a good one.

There is a middle road.

They can accept that the battle is over and Whitewall has been killed, but make the victory empty for the Black Sun.  Fight the forces of the Black Sun, but not to engage its leaders but to delay the eventual defeat.  Accepting that the forces that fight against the Black Sun are going to die, and that they will fight to allow the bulk of the citizenry to flee and escape.  The city is a city of artificers and has the highest levels of education outside of the Realm, but really since the end of the First Age.  It might occur to them that they could bring the populous to Denandsor.  

Practitioner: bring the populous to Denandsor and fill the City of Makers with people that can make things.  He will have to devise a spell that can do this for him.  He has to move 5-600k people in one move.  When The Black Sun realizes this is their strategy, it will personally try to stop him.  And it can and will unless the Black Sun can be delayed.  

His salvation will be Rakši she will have discovered his movements and seen that he will be low on power and that this will be her time to pounce and destroy her nemesis, only when she arrives in Whitewall she will see a greater danger and she will step up and defend The practitioner at a critical moment.  The Black Sun cannot outright kill Rakši and so they will battle and provide a reprieve for him.  When the actual casting of the spell is ready she will return, nearly dead and will pass out at his feet, but just before she will reveal that with an act of will he, possessing the gift of Brigit, can sacrifice years of his life to grant him success at a sorcerous endeavor beyond his means.  Which is why Brigit died many years before her time, a mystery of the First Age.  She intends on being there when he exceeds himself to pick up her Gift from his corpse.  He can buy success with his lifespan.  Feels his age when he uses it, a wisp of white hair, sore joints which go away except when it rains etc.

Vael:  sorcery quest, humiliation, romance quest.  He must lead the people to the site where the spell is to take place, he must lead the huddling masses to safety.  He is met by a woman, a blonde woman, ash covered face who is shepherding a group of orphans from the city through the under ways.   She insists that she needs to go with him every foray he makes points the city, she knows where the people might be hiding and, "Stop being silly.  I know this city better than you and I know the Language too. "  It might be Bertrod.

She claims some heritage as a grand daughter of a Solar, they are not as rare in Whitewall as elsewhere.  

Deepwater: battles everywhere that need being faught.  Engaging in battles with roaving foes in battle formations leading against the foes of Creation.  Pick up battles rear guard actions moving behind large groups of refugees, attacking when necessary and moving with her charges and then moving back into the city.  Or moving behind the enemy with some beleaguered allies and pulling off a victory that causes the enemy to pause and shore up its lines, allowing more refugees to make their escape.  Abandoning those troops or leading them to defend some crucial junction against the hoarde.  This battle is both demoralizing and necessary occasionally it will become clear that the foe she faces is the Black Sun, who will kill her if she fights him.  As Marama, the ghost punches her sub commander and she sees his ghost punched out of his corpse and begin attacking his troops, experienced Dragon Blooded officers….  Her option to flee and fight another day or to die fighting a foe she can't defeat.  

The Nameless Wolf:  he will try to save Whitewall at all costs, so it will be tricky.  The Black Sun sees turning his former Solar Soul to be the greatest achievement, but we also is not blind to losing sight on his goals.  If the Nameless Wolf becomes too much of a hinderance, he will decide that he could begin again with a younger less jaded Solar and kill him outright.  If it comes to that, he will have one last chance to fight another day, the Green Lady will step out and interpose herself and take the brunt of the attack saving Nameless.  She will turn and say, he is a foe beyond your power right now, Fly you fool!  For all their power, there are foes beyond their measure.  

When he kills someone with Essence, the body falls like their bones were removed, and from there a ghost rises defiant against the Deathlord, but over seconds the ghost bleeds from their eyes and takes on a deathly pall and turns on its former allies and begins to grimly scythe through the ranks.  Iron Siaka, Ayed, any who oppose him,  Lunars, all.  When he encounters a higher essence Creature, they take a knee, staggered by the attack but they then rise shaken and continue unharmed, but only just.  This is a warning shot at the character in question that they are out classed here.  

If he chooses to fight the Spirit blooded commanders and Iron Siaka will die in the assault.  As with Ayed.  Cut scene to the office of Lytek working away in his office polishing a letter to some Godling about what he learned from Stalking Jaguar.  There is a sound, a plinking as a soul shard drops into his "IN" basket, he is startled and he gets up to take a look. A second and a third plink fall into the basket as he reaches it, he withdraws a golden light of a Solar SoulShard and another of a Sidereal's.  Cut back to another character going last to The Nameless.  

If the Nameless, gets this in the end he can sit in key locations and aid the retreat by picking off leaders  

=+=+=+=+=+

Prep work, a list of names, names of Solars in the fight and Sidereals and Lunars.  A list of Abyssals.  a list of spirit blooded.  Cast of notable characters in other words.  A list of notable locations and key sites, places where battles will be fought and lost.  

Betrôd Kawai of the Dancing Sun Beam, mother of a little boy with golden hair age 1, named Lupis.  The child is Nameless's but she does not acknowledge him as the father.  Lupis is popular among any of the citizens of Whitewall.

Commander of Guardians Western Province: Steadywater Hammerhands. essence 3 Daughter of a local Glacier now a commander in the Militia

Antdrin Meltyl Lightsteel Hammerfast, Cheif Smith of Whitewall. Essence 5 in times of war Antdrin is called to lead a force of Militia.

Jafar the lunar guild trader

Gerd Marrow-Eater essence 4 of the Haslanti League, comes down to support because he knows that the league requires trade with the South to sustain the League.  

Shepard of the North Star Essence 4, native to Whitewall.  

Iron Siaka, essence 4.  With the party when they enter Whitewall

The Green Lady.

Ayed, Khan of Dawn with the party when the worst happens essence 4

Rakš enters the fray to save? The Practitioner

A bunch of Lunars, god blooded and a couple Sidereals.  Plus a few Solars that headed the call to come to Whitewall— the Solar Propagandist and her group, Orixia and three others.  Nix informs that she is on her way but is three days out.  They will all die. 

******

This is a truly horrible and costly loss for the players and Creation, but it is also a rallying point and a place where the forces protecting Creation realize that they are fighting a common foe and their foe has been preparing for a very long time.  The next few sessions will be about meeting the factions and putting aside amenities and starting anew.  The Sidereals will feel that there is a lot to discuss, but they will begin by opening up the vaults of Heaven for the Solars that are on side.  And they will give up some of the artifacts that are associated with each SoulShard.  They will still hold back some of these artifacts because even after some 1200 years of research, some of the artifacts have unknown qualities, but these have known effects and are well documented from early in their life.  If pressed they will say that some of the artifacts have mixed Soulsteel and Orichalcum, some where made by welding the souls of third circle demons to them…. 

The Practitioner will have a constant companion of Rakš who will bide her time suggesting things that he could do that would cause him to expend his soul faster so that she might recover the artifact empowering his spells.  He will also have an artifact in the form of a staff, that doubles the essence recovery of the wielder but reduces the essence recovery of others.  It also creates a bubble that automatically deflects missile fire when held and magnifies the power of any hearthstone in some way.  Armour and a weapon

Deepwater Siaka,  has her new sword of The Practitioner's creation, will be given Armour that increases her appearance dice and effects by half her essence, but intimidation by her full essence, reinforced Breastplate, a goremaul that when swung scatters water that burns creatures of darkness and flowers sprout where the water lands.  Game effect causes aggravated damage and counters Shadowland creating effects, used in shadowlands it heals them in a minor way.  

If Jaguar is called to the meeting and she is awarded her own artifacts she will give up the ones that she has taken from the Black Sun's rebirth site, the cloak of shadows, Mask of Eternity, and Last Cut.  The Sidereals have no artifacts for the Nameless, because they could not be recovered.  Last Cut is a knife.  When used against any creature and essence is expended equal to the victim's essence, their ghost appears before him and can be absorbed to allow perfect interrogation.  It allows the user to know what they know as long as the essence is committed.  Must be used as a coup-de-gras.  It has no weight and once attuned will appear in the owner's hand when it is needed.  Mask of Eternity allows the owner to assume any form that he has killed.  Used with the blade even the magical detection will fail.  The loom of fate will even record the user as the person he is playing.  The appearance in not superficial,  any artifacts that the victim was using will be created and can be used.  Special innate powers are also replicated, such as dematerialization.  The Cloak of shadows quick travel through Creation by entering a realm of shadows.  It is Creation but appears different.  Movement is between shadows and all senses can be extended through these shadows.  Due to exposure to the Neverborn Void of Desires and the creator of these artifacts, these artifacts are cursed. They are the type of things that Chejop would disallow and keep from the Characters.  Using these artifacts leaves the character open to the whispers of Void of Desire in the least bit.  

%%%%%%%

Timeline.  

Dawn: Arrival in the city

The city is celebrating and festive.  There is smoke hanging over the city and there are parts of the city that are still burning

The meeting with Leaf, his description of the attack on Whitewall. 

• loss of the Holy Road

• the Coordinated attack by Barbarians and the Dead

• the catapults that fired green fire into the city that burned the stone

• how the walls held

• multiple small Shadowlands opened up, but none breached the walls and so no beachheads were formed

• how the Unconquered Sun came to the rescue of the city by choosing citizens as Solars, 15 of them that drove off the attackers and saved the city.

• how the Syndics are meeting with some of the Heroes of the Darkest Hour!

Zenith: The Real Attack

Once there is panic about the Syndics meeting with some of the 'Solar Exalted' that saved the city the real attack begins.

The attack is three pronged from outside the city, 

• there is a second assault by the Barbarians from the North-East, 

• an attack from the South-West led by Marama herself, 

• and an attack from the South-East led by the Thrice Dread Achiban.

• There is also a quiet attack on the gates from within led by five Abyssal Exalted disguised as Solars.  

• five city units are being led by fake Solars and are acting to cause disruptions in the ranks and attack other units.

The attacks from the North and from within are stoppable, the one from the north is not even by Barbarians, but by ghosts and zombies that died recently they are led by a Dawn Caste Solar, one of the surviving Companions and they appear to be charging the undead.

Shortly afterwards if no one is still heading to the Syndics place, smoke will be seen rising above the palace.  Otherwise the encounter proceeds as normal.

The remaining five Solar impersonators are leading the largest battle units against the city's enemies.  

Hard events: 1) Marama and the Thrice Dread Achiban succeed in their assault and breach the Walls, any PC that stands against them will be joined with two or more Exalted Types that will die, and one that won't.

2) it is clear the city is without Leadership, one or more of the Syndics have been murdered.

3) the intent with the catapults is finished, to create a disruption to the essence gathering of the city, the city is broken.

Additional effects include: 

•possibly the Gates being breached, 

•a force scales the walls— the barbarian walking dead or they enter through the gates

•troops in chaos in the city

Twilight: Cut scene to Lytek's office:

Plink.

Plink, plink.

Plink, plink, plink, plink, plink, plink

Back to characters leading the assault on Marama and the Thrice Dread Achiban.  They see the effects of a direct assault by a Deathlord.  Up close and personal.

The Choice: to Flee, to Fight, or to save the people but lose the city.

Flee the city falls. Everyone dies, the characters live.

Fight the characters die a Hero's Death, and the city is destroyed.

Save the people.  Fight to delay, fight to slow the fall of the city, while the Practitioner creates a spell to move the city's inhabitants, some where else.  

Night: Best Laid Plans

Arrival of Exalted of the North, Lunars of the Haslanti League and other points near

If they chose to fight, make it clear They Will Die.  Kill Leaf, Sister Estella, Jafar characters that mean something to them.

If they persist, they die.

They can re-choose saving the people, but instead of 500k survivors, 300k survive.  

They need to direct the defense of the city and attack to slow the invaders while still evacuating the people.

Nameless an assassin who can pick off enemy commanders

Practitioner who needs to cast the ritual spell

Deepwater needs to pull the defenders to key locations to die or live

Messenger needs to rescue and lead refugees through the Underways to safety with a guide, Bertrod, who speaks Air Speak and knows where people might hide.

Complications:

• Moving between locations where a Deathlord might be

• Rakš lands on the ground next to the Practitioner just as a Deathlord arrives to disrupt and kill him, destroying the groups chances.

— she then reveals to him that the artifact allows more than what he thinks.  He can channel his life essence to succeed at sorcery, in exchange, she gets the book when he dies.  Brigid had a much shorter life than she should have and her writing talked about how she aged noticeably during the war and afterwards went into seclusion.

Communication with Nameless and Deepwater can only be facilitated by Messenger, so he wears two hats, rescuer and messenger in truth.  Sorcery quest, dawn.

Eventually, Black Sun becomes aware that he is losing his prize, striking unoccupied sections of the town, assaulting minimally defended choke points finding less and less inhabitants stymied by the characters becomes enraged and starts leaping through the streets trying to find the elusive characters.  

Eclipse: spell is cast

Denandsor The Empty City, empty no longer.  The Assault was launched and the city captured and enveloped by a Shadowland.  The Ghost Marama and Achiban declare their joint rule of the Fell.  Everyone in Creation and the Underworld knows something momentous has happened, but nothing for sure.  The characters know.  The Bronze faction knows.  The important people know.  The cost has been high.  Of the 8-10 Solars, four survived.  The Sidereals suffered two or three deaths, the Lunars suffered the worst with 20+ dying, Gerd, and Several other un-replaceable leaders.  It becomes clear that if anyone less than 6 essence, dies against a Deathlord.  

+=+=+=+=+=

That was the planning

All the planning in the world, like when making a battle plan, goes out the window when the first player hits the ground.

The players skipped the initial stage where they found out about what had happened in the city and ran right to the encounter at the city center, where the Abyssals pretending to be Solars paid their respects to the Syndics.  The battle was a fixed encounter and going early started the second battle early.  The Syndics were attacked just as the players entered the palace and the God of Peace dropped a peace bomb ceasing combat just as the characters entered the room.  The God of Five-Fold Luck in Battle was dead, but the Peace bomb allowed the god of health and the god of peace to flee.  Of the three, the loss of the God of Luck, was ironically the luckiest thing to happen.  When the players entered they attacked the Solar impostors and surprised them, killing all five attackers.  The players then opened up the portal of the god of peace to his sanctum and bade him return to the city as a symbol for the people.  They were convincing.

Next the players went to fight the four pronged attack on the city.  They split up and launched attacks on the Thrice-Dread Achiban, Marama and the Undead Barbarians, leaving only the bombardment of the city to continue.  The Messenger assassinated the barbarian leader and Deepwater engaged Marama, and The Nameless against the Achiban.  They noticed that the two seemed to gain power to destroy people at will and turn them into ghosts and figured it was the Deathlord assuming their forms and using them to tear apart the forces of Whitewall.  They co-ordinated their attacks to attack the hosts when they were both not being possessed.  They used the Nameless's and Messenger's enhanced hearing to do it and it succeeded.  Deepwater Siaka armed with ghost killing power even permanently wiped Marama out.  

The Practitioner who had been holding the center on hearing that there was another force in the city trying to open the front gate, rushed to stop it.  The first session ended with Marama throwing open the front gates of the city and leveling a death curse at The Practitioner.  I let him sweat a bit.  This was the Deathlord appearing in person.  At that moment Rakši, the lunar that had been stalking him dropped out of the sky and interposed herself between him and the Deathlord.  She yelled in fury, "He is mine to kill, not yours!" and then to Practitioner, "Run you Fool!"  

The next session was a private interlude between Rakši and the Practitioner, where she explained that she had learned stuff about the Artifact that had possessed him, that it can be bequeathed on his death and that it could use his life force to power his spells to do the extraordinaire.  

The players regrouped to determine what they could do to save the city, to save the people if the city were lost.  The practitioner determined that he could do either and elected to save the city, but he would need time to do so.  The others went off to halt the advancement through the two holes in the walls and the wide open main gate.  Holding back the armies was only part of the goal, they had to also remove all the city inhabitants from the path of the armies.  One of the locals decided that she would do this if she could get some protection.  Messenger volunteered.  (This was to be his Dawn quest for Sorcery, humility and it would introduce a romantic subplot meant to give him reason to reform).  Bertrôd lead him around the city picking up stray citizens and escorting them to the meeting point.  When things got difficult he could call down attacks from The Nameless Wolf.  He was suspicious of her and when his resonance broke and his presence began to injure the people, she held him and told him that he was a good person and that he would deliver them from this disaster.  

Deepwater battled through the masses and fought with Solar allies beside her, but one by one they each were killed by the Deathlord.  Some heroically throwing themselves away to slow the progress of the Deathlord.  Much of the city was in a Shadowland and much of it was overrun.  At last the Practitioner completed his spell that removed the bulk of the undead from the city and the surroundings.  Faced with no army, the Deathlord retreated.

The city was dead.  The people living in it just did not know it.  It was surrounded by shadowlands, many in the city itself.  The lands around were scorched.  The crops in the field, rotting or burned, churned into the earth.  Most of the people saved, but the city was cut off completely to the south and the North was in deep trouble.   The holy road was still destroyed, Wallport was still occupied.  Things are bleak.  They have stores of food for a month, maybe a year if the granaries are carefully sifted through.  

In the end the Sidereal Exalted led by Chejop, open the stores of Solar equipment taken and hidden in Heaven and gift it to the surviving characters, because although they firmly believe they will destroy Creation, they are the only thing standing before an earlier demise from the enemies of Creation.  

More intense, more rain from 1°

I know everyone has been hit over the head about how these new breed of hurricanes are a result of Global Climate Change.  It is hard to imagine exactly how big these storms have gotten and why they are more powerful than they were before.  It all comes down to water one degree Celsius temperature increase.  What qualifies me to tell you, nothing really.  I have a university degree in Geography-Biology, which is the study of the 200m of the Earth where life exists, it involves an understanding of weather and the impact water has on the environment.  It involves an understanding of how life interacts with the environment.  It is enough to explain this subject in simple terms and to explain the simple processes that are at work.  Simple things can have a massive effect.

One degree!  How can one degree have such a significant effect?   it comes down to water.  Hurricanes are big storms that start close to the equator they are big enough that the Earth's spin has an effect on them.  It is not the spin that makes them strong or big though, it is the water.  Warm air and warm water.  The air is warm because it is sitting on the water and since the water is about a thousand times as dense, the water has a greater effect on the air than the other way. The water we are talking about is warm equatorial water, the warmest in the ocean.  It warms the air and the air picks up water that evaporates.  An interesting property of air is that the warmer it is, the greater the carrying capacity it has, meaning that it can hold more before it is saturated.  At lower temperatures the carrying capacity remains nearly constant, but at higher temperatures it increases rapidly with each incremental rise in temperature.  So the warmer the air, the more water it can hold.  

What does that matter.  Water is lighter than air.  Liquid water is denser than gaseous air, but water vapor is much lighter than air.  One mol of water weighs 18g one mol of oxygen weighs 32g, nitrogen is 28g, so you can see at air holding water is much lighter than dry air.  This means that wet air rises.  The wetter the air the faster it rises.  Rising air cools.  As air cools its carrying capacity for water drops and the water precipitates out as clouds.  Another thing happens when air rises, it reduces the air pressure on the surface of the Earth.  Wet rapidly rising air reduces the air pressure more than dry air.  This creates a low pressure zone.  Air from regions of greater pressure rush towards areas of lower pressure and this is called wind.  So wet air rises and creates clouds and a lower air pressure at the surface and thus wind.

As the hurricane forms e low pressure becomes greater and greater.  The air from increasingly greater distances gets drawn into the center to replace the air rising.  The air is spinning, because the air closer to the equator is moving faster than the air further away, because the Earth's rotation.  On a sphere, the the equator has a further distance to travel in the same time so its speed is greater.  So the air spins and just as a figure skater spinning slowly with her arms out, as she brings her arms in she speeds up, so to when the winds reach the center of the storm they speed up.  So this creates the spiral shape and the wind speeds at the center.  The center is a huge vortex the winds heading straight up and around leaving the very center calm.  That is a hurricane simply put.  So what does 1°C do to change that?

One degree increases the carrying capacity of air a lot.  The air is that much lighter than it would be without the extra heat.  When the air cools, that much more water is turned into clouds.  Warmer oceans create larger and more powerful storms, but not necessarily more stronger storms in terms of wind speed.  Hurricanes are rated in terms of wind speed at the eye of the storm.  Bigger storms have bigger eyes so they might have smaller wind speeds than if they had a more compact eye.  But the destructiveness of a storm can't just be measured in terms of wind speed, because the swath of destruction in a bigger storm is so much more wide and the amount of rainfall is so much greater.  And the eye could also have more windspeed too.  Hurricane Irma, was the most powerful hurricane in terms of windspeed and in terms sheer size, it is a monster.  As climate change increases, you can expect to see more Hurricanes, Cyclones and Typhoons, but they will be larger and more intense too, dropping more rain than ever before.   

Take a stand

Lots of stuff in the news over the past fortnight, and no time to write about any of it.  It has been mostly about the racism in America and the over reaction and under reaction by various people and there has been some play over the President's comments.  And there has been more fallout by those people who are the type to make issue of things— you know the people who counter Black Lives Matter with All Lives Matter.  To be clear, all lives do matter, but the people who say it really only care about themselves and feel Black Lives do not matter.  

There was a protest in The USA about the decision to remove a statue of General Lee by a group of ultra Right wing politicals, including the KKK, and Neo-Nazis.  During that protest there was a counter protest by Black Lives Matter and an Antifa group; more on that later.  During this Counter-Rally, one of the former group, the right wing radicals, drove through the protest killing one protester and injuring several others.  Very very bad and clearly a terrorist action, an action meant to inspire terror, but an unorganized attack.  

Later many government officials extended their condolences and outrage towards the attackers and their condemnation of the Neo-Fascists and the KKK, while the president blamed most sides and actually took the side of the fascists, appeared to.  He and many people like him and the extreme right winged, seemed to think that the Antifa started it.  

Who are these radicals with the name Antifa, stress the 'ti' syllable.  Simply put Antifa are an unorganized group that arose to oppose Fascism in all its forms.  They argue that if they had been present in Europe in the early part of the last century, they may have prevented the rise of the Fascist powers of Gmany and Italy.  Those powers plunged Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, into a six year war that caused millions of deaths.  So, they are opposing anything Fascist and they appear where ever they see it; I mean they are regular citizens who are walking around and they see that the Neo Nazis are a real thing and they get upset and they protest, because they had relatives that fought in the War, or they read their histories, or they just finished learning about the Death Camps; it does not matter, they object to fascism and they protest it.  They are all Antifa.  

People talk about Black Bloc as Antifa, they are not.  Black Bloc are anarchists who don face masks to commit vandalism and violence, but they do it because they are against order.  They go to organized demonstrations and do violence and vandalism, but they are not part of the main group, but use it as cover.  Just as the KKK uses their white garb to prevent their identities from being uncovered.  

So, the President of the United States posted his statement as a tweet that both sides were at fault.  The first side were 1500 Nazis and Kkk, they were protesting the removal of a statue of a confederate war leader, Robert Lee.  And the second groups was much larger and confronted the smaller group and dispersed it.  The first group was shouting slogans calling for Jews and Israel to be destroyed.  They shouted slogans against Muslims, Jews and black people.  They carried torches similar to the ones that lynch mobs carried to the beating and hanging of Black People in the Deep South and to the burning of witches in the ancient past.  The second group was composed of members of Black Lives Matter and several Antifa groups, there were all sorts.  They were unorganized with protest signs and later armed with whatever was around.  The right wing protesters from their own accounts were prepared and using military precision, armed with torches, shields and many of them fire arms.

It does not matter who started what, but what is clear is that the Nazis and the KKK came expecting violence, even if they were not willing to use their full arsenal.  At the end of the day of riots and confrontations, the right Wing people were in retreat, but that did not stop one of them from driving his car into the assembled protesters and killing one.

To which people point and say, "Both sides are responsible for the violence."  Because both sides came to the protest armed, both side were prepared for violence and both sides shed blood.  And both sides killed people.  Which is not true of course.  If one side had not shown up, then there would not have been violence, meaning if the Nazis and the KKK, were permitted free reign, there would not be violence.  History tells a different story, a story where fascists were emboldened by successes and upstaged themselves by destroying synagogues and later starting a war, killing millions in Death Camps.  The KKK were never so successful, but they were marching without their head coverings, soon if they were not pushed back on as strongly as they were, could there be public lynchings again and Strange Fruit hanging from the trees?

They were strongly protested against and pictures of the marchers were taken and they were posted on social media and they were ousted publicly, named and families disowned them.  Some people were fired from jobs.  And the statues are coming down.

The statues.  Town squares across America are littered with statues of Civil War generals that never fought battles or visited them.  The statues were all raised in the 20s and 30s as statue sellers were drumming up business by getting towns to compete with each other for patriotism but instead enriching these Statue makers.  The statues are relics of times that were less inclusive and today are used as rallying points for a minority of people who fear other people.  In years past, icons that the far right have rallied around have been taken down in the South.  The Confederate Flag was removed when a white man walked into a church filled with black people and praised the Confederate South and then started killing people.  Now the statues are going.  

But still, people say that both sides were at fault in Charlottesville.  People shouted out that Blue Lives Matter, when people tired of watching police forces shoot Black men dead because they were just there.  BLM was launched to protest that the police forces in the States had a policy of shoot black people first and ask questions later.  People shouted, White Lives Matter too, and they do, but they were not threatened with death by standing still.  They are not charged in crimes because they are White.  

People who shout Blue Lives Matter are the people who are the problem.  It is the thinking that they are not anymore privileged than anyone else and everyone has the same opportunities as them; they don't.  Not in Canada and especially not in the States.  Both sides are at fault.  Both sides were involved in street violence, but one side killed people.  Both sides were protesting, but one side has a history of intolerance and mass murder.  As one person wrote in a tweet prior to the counter protest, "Do you want to tell your children and grandchildren what you were doing when the intolerant Right gained political power, or do you want to tell them that you stood in their way and prevented them from gaining a foothold?"

Session unfolds

Revelations were abound in Creation for the Player Characters, Nameless Wolf, The Practitioner, Messenger and the rest.  The tasks before them seemed great, organizing the defense of a hostile city, getting the inhabitants to accept their help and, lastly figuring out how to destroy the many shadowlands outside the city, depriving the undead armies easy access to the city and then to destroy the minions of the Neverborn.  Strangely, the last task was the simplest to start with and the rest were dependent on timing.  

The Practitioner took a couple of hours to figure out how to move the words of Creation to alter the flow of essence that penetrated the fabric of reality.  Considering the depth and power of the changes he was making, a small mistake could result in an unplanned effect, as little as a wrong inflection on one sound might result the lands becoming as barren as the deepest desert just for starters and a more drastic error might erase everything around him for countless leagues.    His choice of a body guard, the traitorous Abyssal and one time friend, the Messenger was important.  It was one more act to show that he was still trusted and an opportunity for him to betray the group, but he remained true to his word, this day.  An attack from the Shadowland, that he skirted to cast his great spell, could end the spell and his existence.  The attack did not occur.

As soon as the casting began, its casting would take four days, the Nameless Wolf, landed and approached the City of Amber River.  The last few hours before the predawn light touched the horizon, two great forces of the Cult of Illuminated troops touched down less than an hour's march of the walls, not as an invasion force but as its protector.  The forces arrayed outside the city were caught by surprise as the Nameless arrived by Stormwind Rider, the retreated inside their walls and the patrols outside were left outside when the gate walls were barred from within.  The three exalts moved toward the walls, along the bridge covering the Amber River, the Propagandist, the Sidereal Martial Art expert Lupo and, the Nameless.  Nameless reordered the troops and gave them a message that he wished to meet with the Statrap about the defense of the city against the armies of the dead that are gathering outside.  He then turned and left the gate retiring to the far side of the bridge.  

After a couple hours, the maingates opened and a force progressed across the bridge, they stopped halfway.  A lone figure broke away from that force and crossed the rest of the way.  Negotiations ensued to begin negotiations.  The Herald moved between the two groups until the Dragon Blooded, the Dynasts were comfortable enough to treat directly with their enemy.  It was not until the nameless threatened to take the negotiations directly to the bedchamber of the Satrap that they relented.  Negotiations did not start until the Practitioner was half way through the spell, purple lightning flickering across the sky.  

Negotiations were put on delay for the reason that for all of his words, the Nameless' words were only that and there was no real reason to trust them.  Every interaction to date had ended with many deaths and the destruction of much property and he claimed that the attackers that worked with undead were from a different faction and were trying to destroy the world.  To their ears this was an unbelievable possibility; the childhood stories they grew up with matched this story and the idea that it was not so, could not be believed.  The Nameless, understanding this, invited them to check out the local Shadowlands upon the completion of the spell.  He then adjourned until then.

The spell completed and a great storm formed over the area and a heavy warm golden rain covered the region and continued for most of the day.  When the rain lifted the medium sized and smaller shadowlands had closed up, the land was free of blight, right up to the edge of the Fell, bloated and unchanged, but the lesser shadowlands closed in less than a week, a major accomplishment.

Negotiations resumed and they seemed to be heading in a direction that pleased the Solar Exalted and the Cult of the Illuminated, when there was a rush of wind and a crash of sound as the people outside the tent clamoured in fear; outside a gateway to Yu-Shan had appeared and six men and women advanced from the Gate to the negotiation tent.  Guards that jumped to defend the tent were swatted aside by the glance of the old man in robes' glance of disdain.  He swept the tent flaps aside and crossed the room to stand directly before one of the Cult's Advisors, Venerable Silk, who he promptly backhanded and shouted at him about endangering Creation with his little stunt.  He claimed that altering the Loom of Fate could have disaterous repocautions for the entire world and he had acted with so little concern that he should….  He stopped as if first noticing that the room was full of Dynasts and Immaculate Monks.  He motioned to one of his fellows and spoke to her, "Iron Siaka, Clear the room of the rabble.". This included the Solar Exalted, until the Nameless objected, making it clear this was his meeting, not his.  The eldest Exalt turned to him and motioned that the Solars may stay, saying that they are part of this too.  And so the characters met Chejop Kejak, the leader of the Bronze Faction and the Architech of the Usurpation.  

He claimed that the Loom of Fate had been altered so that the identity of exalted had been obscured in the North.  It was only when Adamant Circle Sorcery had been cast and they could not pick out the identity of the caster from the flotsam that they detected the ruse.  That and the group of ten Solar exalted they had been tracking coming from the North-East had suddenly become Terrestrials after they crossed an unknown barrier.  He then told Silk that they had removed his changes.  

Discussions continued from where they were going with the Dragon Blooded, except clearly these Exalted, could except that the Solars might be telling the truth that they were not completely evil.  Chejop conceded that there might be a diffence between Solar Essences and this new threat, but he remained unconvinced.  The Practitioner and the Nameless shared a look with Deepwater and the sorceror asked to send for the proof of what he said, to which Kejak assented.  A messenger spell was sent to the Messenger and he began to journey to them.  Chejop then began to talk about the things that he knew.  All the Sidereals present were part of a committee in Heaven known as the Convention on Shadowlands, that researched their cause and formation as well as methods to close them.  He then announced that the Sidereals he traveled with were also part of another secret committee, the Convention on Deathlords and the other Sidereals present would now be included in this committee.  He told them that he had first become aware of these Deathlords a few centuries ago when a powerful ghost was seen travelling though Creation during the day and was tracked down to the Shadowland where the city gods of Great Forks had defeated it.  They tracked it down but lost track of it as it entered the North.  They had been doing a lot of scouting into the Underworld in the years since and had managed to uncover a few other Deathlords, but they did not know the significance of these creatures until one attacked Thorns a few months ago.  

It was then that The Messenger entered the tent.  Practitioner asked him to show Chejop his anima, his caste mark.  It appeared like a standard gold Night Caste ring, until he dropped his disguise.  His Golden Disc mark fades to black and a drop of blood dripped from its edge.  Chejop peppered The Messenger with multiple questions about how this occurred, he responded where he could and Chejop scoffed at his gullibility and naïveté.  Those that had known Chejop  in the millennia before would have recognized a slight softening in the way he treated Messenger, although he was harsh in his statements afterwards it was more like those of an understanding and disappointed father…

The Nameless brought the attention back to the present asking what Chejop was going to do to help them in the defense of Amber River.  The most powerful human in Creation turned to look at the Nameless Wolf and pointed his words at him as sure as the Solar's arrows, "We don't trust you yet.  Too many of the attacks against have been accompanied by the forces of The Underworld to allow you to defend this land."  He forestalled his objections that they were not Solars with a hand gesture, "We know now that they may have been something else, but the people will not except such a quick switching of tactics by your kind.  You are still the demons that are going to end the World, however you believe that you are here to save them.  Go to the North and stop the reinforcements from getting here.  I will send observers to help you.". He left it unsaid that they would be evaluating their actions and the opposing group as well.  Two of his fellows step forward, a woman wearing only robes and clothing that is green and a woman with a gore-maul named Iron Siaka.  They will evaluate the actions of the Solars.  

The group takes to the field.  They arrive in the early dawn, just before the undead army reaches the Shadowland they are heading towards and so their arrival is unseen.  The new day arrives and while the army prepares to wait out the day, the Solars carefully probe the army.  They discover that the Abyssal enemy are unused to working together and that they are from the North East, from the Lover.  They also learn that they are seeking someone called the Thrice Dread Achiban, the leader of the Fell.  They seek to buy his support with his own personal Abyssal Exalt and with that, the Fell.  It is clear that the Deathlords seem to not know what they know, that the Fell is controlled by the Black Sun another Deathlord.  While tempting to inform them, the discovery of a Celestial Monstrance, with a corrupted Solar soul is too much of a prize to not destroy the army and take it.  The Night caste and Day caste, Nameless Wolf and Messenger, decide to remove that Abyssal scouts and begin the attack.  The goals are to wipe out the army, capture a Abyssal Exalt and take the Celestial Monstrance. 

The battle goes smoothly, the scouts are removed with minimal effort and in the initial seconds of the battle, the abyssal generals are removed in their sleep.  The battle was more of an after thought, the routed forces flee into Creation where they are put down.  

In the cleanup, the Messenger receives a chilling telepathic message from the Black Sun, "While you spend your energies uselessly on battlefields that matter not, real battles occur.  You, traitor, will fall; the true battle is for Whitewall and the Holy Road, which are now mine!  Your ineptitude is easily guided and you fight unimportant battles and will lose the War.  Yo-Ping, Luranume and Uvanavu, the Syndics, have fallen before me.  You lose." 

The Practitioner quickly dispatched a sorcerous message to Leaf asking for word of Whitewall…

Don't give GRRM ideas how to tell his story…

Lots of suggestions on how to make the Battle for Amber River more Epic!, because obviously I can't.  But I discovered how I will do it.  

Amber River forces will be lead by the Underworld's acknowledged leader of Marama's Fell, the Thrice Damned Achiban.  With nemesary support and skeleton chains et al. As a chance force from the Lover is seeking out the said leader to offer an alliance.  The Lover's forces include many Abyssals who to the Sidereals appear as just Exalted on the loom due to Gold Faction tampering.  The Bronze Faction has figured this out and will confront.  

This is all a diversion.  The real attack is on Wallport and Whitewall and the Holy Road.  It was never going to be Amber River.  Amber River will fall eventually and the slaves will one day become a apart of his Shadowlands but uniting the West and the East is much more critical.  The holy road divides his nation into two, both in Creation and in the Underworld.  The destruction of the holy road would be a signal in the underworld louder than the disappearance of the Empress in Creation!

The scene begins with Chejop and four others storming into the planning session for the Battle of Amber River.  He is angry with Venerable Silk for having Tampered with the Loom of Fate.  He then states that he has removed the changes he made.  The Bronze Faction can now see where the Solar Exalted are in the North.

He then accuses The Wolf and his sorcerer of planning a duplicitous attack on the forces in Amber River and it won't work.  Also it was a clever ploy trying to divide The Realms forces by declaring a peace and then attacking from behind.  Eventually he calms down and allows less heated discussion to occur.  He tells them that there is a force of Fifteen Solars heading into the area from the North East with a large force of walking dead.  A legion.  There numbers are being supplemented along the way as the erase towns and villages, but they are unrelentingly heading to Amber River.  

Eventually he agrees to allowing the group to form their plans to attack the new group and allows a couple of his advisors to join the expedition, Iron Siaka and the Lady Who Wears Green.  Chejop refuses assistance in Amber River though.

Not one to gloat but one to let his traitorous minion a chance to know that his side will lose he sends him a telepathic message via his tattoo telling him while he enjoys his 'Victory' he will be feasting on the essence of Yo-Ping, Luranume and Uvanavu!  The Messenger might not know who these people are but someone will.  

The result of Iron Siaka being part of the battle quickly become apparent she will attest to the veracity of the Solar's claim and say that the foes they faced were similar to Solar Exalted but their anima displays were wrong and their Charms disbased.  

The Lady Who Wears Green, will say that she heard rumour of these exalts before but she identifies that these are not locals and may be allied with the Solars.  She says that they bear the markings of a ghost from the North East, the Lady in a Ramaint of Tears.  

The effect will be noticeable at once.  First, the North will be cut off fro the rest of Creation.  The Holy Road carried the bulk of Northern trade.  Gethamane will have to start living off the dole almost entirely.  The haslanti airships will have to come South to trade and then sweep to the East to avoid the Fell.  

Second, Whitewall will be slowly torn to pieces and the walls cast asunder and swallowed into the Fell.  

Third, the west and the east fell will be joined together and the leader of the Fell will announce their ascent, Marama, former Dragon Blooded, and her consort The Thriced Damned Achiban.  

The destruction of Whitewall will take some time, and the player characters can save the bulk of the inhabitants, if they work quickly.  Half a million is all they can save.  If they can only find a destination for the extremely well educated citizens of one of the most prosperous people like Denandsor … hmm.