OK, we had a little preview yesterday of some of the Interesting Mortals in the Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Guide, and today we're going to get a sneak peek preview of three of the Strange Beasts from Chapter 3.
Again, these are just bits from the first half of Chapter 3, which will be coming to backers in a draft manuscript download next Tuesday. All backers will be able to read the entire book before any pledges are processed or payments collected. And if you back this, you'll have something cool to talk about during Onyx Path's Virtual Convention over the weekend.
If you want information on current and possible future Exalted projects, I'd suggest checking out:
What's Up with Onyx Path on Saturday June 6 at Noon EDT
The Exalted Panel on Saturday June 6 at 6:00 PM EDT
Ask Us Anything Panel on Sunday June 7 at 2:00 PM EDT
Somewhere in there, Rich will reveal what the end of the year crowdfunder for Exalted will be. I can't wait - I'm as excited as anyone to find out!
Strange Beasts
Creatures that are neither mortal nor God, but still may prove dangerous to the Exalted all the same.
Ape-bears
The fruit of forgotten hybridization experiments, ape-bears have bodies and heads like those of brown bears, though slightly more elongated, and are recognizable by their long, thick arms terminating in fingered hands. Their knuckle-walk gives them a distinctive gait that towers over humans. They live in colonies of up to twenty individuals in the forest areas of the inner Blessed Isle, mainly Lord’s Crossing, Eseon Forest, and the flanks of the Imperial Mountain. Ape-bears are placid, curious individuals outside mating season, spending much of their time either at rest or observing their surroundings. They sometimes approach rural settlements and, while they lack language, they are intelligent enough to establish reciprocal relationships such as scaring off predators in exchange for food deposited at the village entrance every week. In some remote places of the Isle, the ‘village ape-bear' was still recently a familiar and dependable fixture. Dynasts have been known to tame and train the beasts into powerful battle companions. But after several incidents in which a village’s ape-bear took offense to a Dynast’s actions, peasants are no longer permitted to harbor or feed the beasts, which has caused much tension in places traditionally relying on them for protection and driven now-rejected ape-bears irate; rural envoys petition in vain for House Cathak to allow them their bear-appeasing rites again.
Ape-bears are Monstrous dangerous animals (Exalted: Essence p.324) with the Enormous and Murderous Blow Qualities. On a withering attack that generates 2+ Power, they may reflexively initiate a grapple. This counts towards the action limit.
Ape-bears are valid Secondary Familiars and can be trained to wield simple weapons.
Furnace Rhino
Created at the dawn of history to serve as living refineries of the magical materials, furnace rhinos were left behind when the Great Maker departed Creation. They still dwell in Southern deserts and the hills of Gem, grazing on rocks and scrap metal. Eight feet tall and recognizable by their folded, platelike hide of metal, furnace rhinos concentrate trace amounts of magical materials into their horns, which come to be made of solid jade or more rarely other magical materials. Though a furnace rhino’s horn is of fabulous value, the beasts radiate deadly heat and have a fierce temperament, and most hunts suffer casualties even when successful.
Primary Pool(7): Hard-headed Aggression, Batter Down Obstacles Secondary Pool(6): Find Scrap, Detect Ambush Tertiary Pool (4) Health Levels: 9 Essence: 2 Resolve: 3 Defense: 4 Hardness: 6 Soak: 6
Attacks and Qualities
Enormous Size (Exalted Essence p. 316), Oppressive (Exalted Essence p. 317)
Furnace Body: The furnace rhino radiates unbearable heat. Characters at close range are exposed to a hazard equivalent to a burning building (Exalted: Essence, p.146), and at short range to a hazard equivalent to severe heat.
Iron Like Straw: Attacks against a furnace rhino reduce their overwhelming value by one. This can reduce it to zero, which makes attempts to hunt furnace rhinos with mundane spears or arrows largely futile.
Deadly Treasure: The horns of a furnace rhino contain enough magical material of one type to create an artifact weapon or suit of armor. Every piece of the animal’s body is valuable, but it must be butchered red-hot (severe heat hazard); once cooled down it becomes a solid lump of mingled minerals weighing several tons.
Furnace rhinos are highly territorial. Their poor eyesight causes them to register most things as threats, and they respond to attacks by running down the enemy to gore and trample them. Furnace rhinos can be acquired as Familiars by someone who can resist their heat, in which case they can be taught to grudgingly endure the presence of others; they are sometimes kept as war-mounts by ifrit lords.
Ravenous Ash
When the Wyld swallowed the borders of Creation, many elementals were trapped in chaos. Most died, a few warped in unwholesome ways. But a few garda birds in the South suffered both fates: They died in fiery wrath, but as their immortal Essence sought to rekindle itself, it found that it was trapped in a liminal state of ash and embers that could not become fire. The ravenous ashes still haunt the Far South, no longer elementals but something stranger: living clouds of smoke, ash and embers in the vague outline of birds, desperate for the heat that might rekindle their Essence. They seek it by draining the breath of living beings, but it never suffices. Draining a live fire elemental increases the ravenous ash’s size, power and hunger, but it’s never been enough to release them from their state.
Primary Pool(9): Fly, Extinguish Flame, Fight with Abandon, Seek Heat Secondary Pool(7): Lay Low, Remember Past, Speak Language Tertiary Pool (5) Essence: 3 Motes: 10 Health Levels: 10 Resolve: 3 Defense: 4 Hardness: 5 Soak: 5
Attacks and Qualities
Oppressive (Exalted Essence p. 317), Spiritual Combat (Exalted Essence p. 317), Domain’s Curse (Ash) (Exalted Essence p. 319), Elemental Vortex (Ash) (Exalted Essence p. 320)
Body of Cinder: Ravenous ashes do not take damage from mundane weapons. They reduce damage and Overwhelming by one except from water- and wind-based attacks and area of effect attacks, which instead add +2 damage.
Immortal: Ravenous ashes reconstitute after being destroyed over the course of days unless slain by magic capable of slaying spirits, as ash gathers upon the wind. Gathering their cinder into an urn and throwing it into a body of water prevents this.
Eater of Warmth: Spend 1 mote when initiating a grapple. Withering attacks also inflict one damage, and successful decisive attacks cause the ravenous ash to heal one health, two if attacking with 5+ Power. Against fire-based spirits, ignore Hardness and Soak.
Ravenous ashes are driven by their perpetual hunger for warmth. They understand Old Realm and can speak it but can only communicate for a short time before being overcome by their hunger. They can be diverted with offers of easier or more tempting targets. In combat, they choose one specific target and attempt to incapacitate them with grappling and Eater of Warmth. Once they have incapacitated a victim, they are temporarily sated and usually withdraw. No ravenous ash has ever been rekindled into their garda bird forms, but it might be possible through external assistance, such as Sorcery, a potent Artifact, or a living Exalt’s sacrifice.
Alright! I'll be back on Tuesday with our manuscript download for the first half of Chapter 3.
Between now and then, please check out Onyx Path's Virtual Gaming Convention this weekend, and make sure to check in on the Exalted panel! And then talk about it in the comments here and on Discord!
