That is an acceptable cost.

"Ok. Let's go to one with a gleeman. Follow me.
We can start character creation tonight if you like. I'll need to explain a bit about the setting and introduce you to some of the basic mechanics. But beyond that I'll need to write down note on how things work.

Anyway that is for later Let's go and Dance for a while."

I'll lead her to one of the inns with a gleeman.

You go to the inn and there are about a dozen people resting around the hearth, chatting or resting from a tiring day. When the gleeman enters the room with the signature patchwork cloak that announces their presence as much as their presence and instinctual oration.

The gleeman takes a seat near the fire, and begins a tale to a melody. He's playing on a harp and is good, but no where near as good as what you've heard from Thom Merillin.

You and Susan take to the dance floor, and she is all smiles. Only three couples join you on the floor, most apparently are there simply to listen.

At the end of each song there is a round of applause, most is targetted to the gleemen, but some is also towards the dancers.

Susan tells you she'll follow your lead on anything referring to the game, as you know better than her how you should approach it. She definitely seems interested, but somewhat confused on how to start with it.

I'll dance with Susan until she is ready to eat then I'll buy dinner for us.

I'll Head to her room with the supplies I bought.

"Well Normally I would have you read the book for the RPG we are going to play. But I don't have it. I have to recreate rules, setting and everything from memory."

I'll hand her one of the loose sheets of paper and a quill and set the inkwell on the table.

"Unfortunately even I can't remember all of it. Put I do remember most of is and i can fill in the blanks in my memory.

How to start...History as the character would know it.

A long long time ago The Holy Dragonblooded rose up and overthrew the Vile Solar and Lunar Anathema. They cast the most of the Solar Anathema into a pit that they shall never return from. For a thousand years They ruled in a Glorious Dragonblooded Shogunate. We're everyone knew their place. From the lowly mortals that grew the food for the world to the Mighty Dragon-blooded that guild them to spiritual enlightenment. So that they may have a chance to reincarnate into The near spiritual perfection that is the Exalted of the Dragons. And Eventually join the Elemental Dragons in enlightenment.

But the Twin Troubles hit and brought most of it down. The Great Contagion killed 9 out of every 10 things in creation. The The Fair folk invaded from the edges of the world. Dissolving the world into the Chaos of the Wyld as they drew closer to Mount Maru, The Elemental Pole of Earth and the keystone of stability that all of creation is built on.

But a Hero appeared and saved the World. A young Dragonblooded officer braved the Manse containing the controls to the Sword of Creation. Dodging though countless traps designed by the fiendish intellect of the Solar Anathema and took control of the super weapon and rained torrents of geomantic essence onto the Fair Folk and killed them where they stood.

She declared herself the Scarlet Empress and Ruled from the Scarlet Throne. Creating the Realm and ruled most of Creation for the last 700 years.

Well. That is what a passing Immaculate Monk taught as the history of Creation."

I pause for a moment to think.

"We should go ahead and build your character, To determine what she knows."

I'll lead her though a fairly standard character creation for Exalted.
I'll start her as a Solar Half Caste. Basically the offspring of a Solar Exalted and a Mortal. It's mostly going to be Exalted 3rd Edition. But I'm going to have to fill in the parts I don't remember...like most of the charms. Actually they don't have Half-Caste charms. so I would have to make them up any way. I could go into the rules I would use if you think that would be important.

I have a few suggestions on how to build her character. Pro's and cons and so on. Since she is playing the best archer, I would suggest a 5 Dexterity with a 5 Archery and a specialization in bows. That would represent the best possible mortal archer. then I'm giving her a charm(Read Magic power) that allows her to spend Motes(magic) to make her hit better with the bow.

... I'm probably going into too much detail.

OOC: Sorry that took so long. It was a long post.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:58, Thu 22 Sept 2016.

OOC) Sorry for the delay, everything has been really crazy. Getting down to crunch time with wedding planning.

She listens intently as you talk, and is obviously trying to absorb as much information all at once. It's a different concept to her, and she's struggling a little but never gets completely bogged down.

Before you get to character creation, she has a suggestion:
"If I can suggest something, we may want to alter the lore... anything that referencing the Dragon, in any way, is likely to raise a lot of questions. It would be difficult explaining this concept to a skeptical sister to begin with, but we have no chance if a book references the Dragon..."

You don't need to detail out the rules, I think it's fair to assume you can assemble a decent ruleset and improvise from there. You walk her through character creation to have an extremely talented mortal archer with solar ancestry. She decides to name her character Morina, she thinks of naming her character Bergitta originally but doesn't due to the same line of thought as not using the word Dragon.

OOC: No problem man. Congratulations if you are the one getting Married. Good luck with the planning. As Eric always says Real Life Takes Precedent.

"I always though of settings as separate things so I didn't think of that. It's a cultural difference. Where I'm from Dragons are just fictional beings. not a male channeler... You are right though...It's going to take a bit of effort on my part to not refer to them as Dragonblooded... Another name for them is the Terrestrial Exalted. In a lot of cases I can refer to them as that. Put all have to change the common parlance for them... I got it. Ryuujin. That is what they are refereed to in another setting linked to Exalted. It's a word in another language from my homeworld. Is there something that sounds Similar here?"

I'll let her answer that. I don't expect there to be anything. The Old Tongue is structured in a way that I can't make heads or tails of. So there shouldn't be anything related to Japanese in it.

"The other Dragons in the setting I'll refer to as Ryuu. Legged Serpent Spirits of great power. That doesn't sound like your Dragon at all, Correct?"

I'll let her answer that.

"I though of another possible problem. The Magic of this setting isn't liked to the One Source. It's fundamentally different. Everything is made of Essence and essence flows through Everything. Those that can use Essence;  Like the Exalted, gods and Your Character. The gather excess essence into themselves and store it for later use.  Therefor there are male characters that can use magic... How should we explain that? I could make a lot of them villains to deflect some of the sisters. I might be able to get by with not describing exactly what they are doing, Just the visual effects. Such as 'The Lunar muscles bulge and it strikes out with inhuman strength and speed.'... But then that would generally result in them starting to glow with essence. Ah. I'm rambling. What do you think?"

--------------------

I would leave naming the character to her. I'm terrible at coming up with names.

What time is it after character Creation?

OOC) It is, and thank you. A little over two weeks until the big event.

"That works well. It doesn't mean anything as far as I know. Though I don't know all of the old tongue, or even most of it."

"It sounds at least far enough that it wouldn't draw immediate attention. I know there is a symbol of the dragon that sounds somewhat similar to that, I've been trying to research it without drawing attention to myself."

"We may want to avoid calling it magic exactly. Then again, use of the one power isn't called magic. It's considered mildly insulting in nature to the true nature of channeling. Calling it magic should be fine on second thought."

-----------

Character creation takes about an hour and a half, and dancing took a while. It's around 11 PM.

"Well that works out I guess.  We'll call the various essence manipulations 'Magic'.
I would like to know more about the Prophecies about the Dragon. Let me know about the results of your research."
=================
"Well... I have to train at dawn on the Bridge on the west end of town. I'll have to go to sleep soon."

After I pack up my things and say goodnight to Susan. I'll go to bed.

"I haven't been able to research the prophecies, but rather the histories of Lews Therin Telamon. I'm sure you've heard of the prophecies called the prophecies of the dragon, or as male channelers being called false dragons. But the prophecy is really the prophecy of the dragon reborn.

Lews Therin is the Dragon they are talking about being reborn. I haven't managed to figure out the significance of why he was known as the Dragon however. Is there anything you want me to try and research on the topic?"

-----------------------------------

"Good luck tomorrow, I haven't heard of any outings the trainees have done though. What are you all up to?"

You sleep well, with no dreams that you remember what so ever.

What are you bringing with you to the bridge?

"I really don't know anything about Lews Therin Telamon or the Dragon Reborn. Anything you tell me would be appreciated. Please be careful though. I've picked up that The Dragon Reborn isn't something you talk about or research openly."

=======================

"I don't know. Tomas only said to Meet at the West Bridge at Dawn."

I have a feeling that I'll need my sword so I'll take it with me to the bridge.

"Will do Eli. I'll give you the best account I can safely manage next time we have time alone."

-----------------

You meet Tomas and the other trainees at the bridge. The other trainees had a similar thought to you and are wearing their preferred weapons.

Tomas beckons you all to mount up, there is a mount provided for each trainee.

On the way riding out Tomas explains.

"An important part of being a warder is not just survival in combat, but survival in the elements. I will be taking you deep into the woods and leaving for a week. On your honor you are not to use anything other than what you have brought with you to survive. At the end of the week I'll assess both defensible and livable nature of your encampment. Further points of the camp isn't immediately noticeable to someone passing through the woods.

I will be using this to judge where to start your wilderness training."

He takes you deep into a nearby forest and then wishes you well as he rides away, leading the horses.

"Thank you Susan."

-------------

After Tomas leaves.

"Ok. Has anyone done anything related to wilderness survival before? We'll need to leverage what skills we have. On the way to the White Tower I learned a bit survival and making Arrowheads out of stone. I should be able to apply that to making stone knifes and axes so that we don't risk damaging our metal weapons.

Does anyone know about the local plant life? Such as what is eatable and what is poisonous?"

It becomes apparent that most of the trainees have no experience in the wilderness. It occurs to you that most of them are nobility, and while being a competent swordsman brings honor, being a woodsman is associated with lower classes.

After an awkward silence, Gawyn speaks up, "I've read some books regarding herbology in Andor. I should be able to identify the plants by the descriptions... I think."

Galad then contributes "I'm familiar with tracking, I've participated in a couple of hunts over the years, but never led one myself."

The rest don't even have that level of experience, mostly being responsible for duties around the city.

On a positive note however, they all seem willing to listen to what you say in this area. No one is being difficult.

Do I have my folding knife with me? I wiuld usually wear it when I wear an outfit with a belt.

"The first thing we need to find water. A human will die in about three days without water. Once we find water, we'll need to find a spot near it for our camp. Ideally we would want to find a cave near a source of water. We'll stick together for now, because we don't have a camp to return to ic we get separated."

Did we spot any rivers or tributaries on our way here?

While we look for Water, I'm looking for resources we can use for survival. Flint and other stone we can use for tools. Something equivalent to bamboo or river cane can be use to make all sorts of things. Trees with stringy bark can be used to lash things together.

You can have your folding knife on you.

The others nod and follow after you. Everyone is clearly staying vigilant and attentive.

You didn't pass any rivers or tributaries on your way, other than the bridge back at Tar Valon.

It takes you two hours of walking before you find any source of water. You find an area of the forest that appears to have a small spring under it. The grounds are marshy in the area and you do spot some river cane around. You also find some stone that could be worked, though you judge that it's clearly inferior to flint for it's applications.

Ok I can use it then.

I'll note where I saw the stone so I can come back to it after we start working on camp.

"This will work for now. It's not ideal but we can boil the water to make it safe to drink.
Let's look for a nearby spot to set up camp for tonight. We'll want relatively level and dry ground. Then we need to gather Dry wood, twigs and kindling so we can set up a fire."

Have I seen something equivalent to a birch tree? The bark on that kind of tree is thin and paper-like, Perfect for kindling.

"With water bubbling up like that in a spring, there should be caves around here if the main type of rock is limestone. if we find a cave, that would make things a lot easier for us. If we don't find one... We could still construct a shelter from the rain by leaning materials against the tree. We'll also work on making something to sleep on."

Then I'll help them look for a good place to camp.

When you mention boiling the water Rory speaks up "How do we boil the water? I don't think any of us had thought we would be cooking, we have no pots or pans."


------------------------------

You don't find any birch trees, but when you mention what you're looking for with them Gawyn is able to help find a type of tree that doesn't peel off the way the birch does but when cut off in slivers burns very well. It's a relatively softwood tree, and there are several around the marshy area.

You find a cave about a fifteen-minute trek from the marsh. You immediately notice a stench coming from within of rotting meat. It is limestone based walls from what you can tell.

"Did you see that river cane we passed by during our walk here? It turns out that you can boil water in them without it burning up in a fire. If nothing else we can burn out wooden bowls and then put really hot rocks in them to boil the water"

-------------

"That is good Gawyn. We'll gather some of them up for kindling and tinder when we are working on making the fire"

--------------

I'll draw my sword.

"Swords out everyone. This is the lair of a predator. We'll need to figure out a way to lure it out. Or build a fire out here and then make torches. Any suggestions?"

Rory nods, happy that there is a plan.

------

Most have had their swords drawn during the exploration, but the few who didn't draw when you tell them to.

Galad mentions "It really depends on what beast is within. I would guess based on location that we're dealing with a bear, a pack of wolves, or a panther. A panther will be difficult to lure out without food to entice it. Wolves could be scared out with fire easily enough. Meanwhile a bear could be enraged simply by making enough noise, perhaps concerted effort of throwing stones to echo through the cave. The issue there in lies that they are three different options based on information we can't know until we see what lies in there."

---------

"I see. I would guess that throwing stones in there would irritate all of them. Let's throw stones in there and see what we stir up. Be on guard for what comes out."

I'll pick up a stone with my left hand and then chuck it into the cave to try to maximize ricochets
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 03:15, Sun 02 Oct 2016.

You all form up near the mouth of the cave, with some loose rocks you foraged from your surroundings and start trying to create as much noise with them as possible. It's not very loud, but eventually you hear a roar from inside the cave. You suspect that Galad was wrong in it being loud enough but that you got lucky and actually struck the creature inside.

After a few seconds a large brown bear comes charging out and swipes across Lod's leg before he manages to jump backwards out of range. You've currently got a very angry bear largely surrounded.

I'll enter the flame and the void.
I'll enter a defensive stance and the strike at it to get it's attention. I'll shout at it and make myself appear a large and intimidating as possible.

I'm trying to get it to focus on me so that the others can bring it down.
"Aim for it's tendons and hamstrings to cut into it's mobility!"

If it decides to focus on someone else, I'll switch to my aggressive stance and then attack with nearly all my energy to bring it down as quickly as possible by cutting limbs and hamstrings.

You plant your feet and shout a primal challenge at the bear, which is responded in kind. You have it's full attention and it starts lumbering at you.

Everyone's combat training is evident now though, and Galad and Gawyn move in synchronous motion and sever the tendons on the bears rear legs with two quick clean cuts. The bear collapses a few feet from you. It's a combination of snarling and whimpering as it's swiping with it's claws. It's clearly in extraordinary pain and angry, but has no reasonable mobility to it.

I'll circle around a bit and then try to finish it off with a strike to the neck to sever the spinal cord

If it swings at me, I'll position my sword in the way of the swing so that it cuts itself as a direct result of swinging at me.

You circle around and put the bear out of it's misery as your sword strikes true.

Every appears to have managed to avoid the bear after the initial encounter, with Lod being the only one injured. He is still standing, though he is apparently favoring his uninjured leg.

I'll flick the blood off my sword and then sheath it.

"Well this is a good start. We have shelter now and we can get quite a few materials from the bear along with food. Plus we can use the bones from it's previous prey to make tools.

Lod we'll bandage up your injury for now. Then we'll clean it when we can boil water.

We need to clean out the cave so that we don't have to deal with the smell of rotting meat.

We also have to gather wood, kindling and tinder to build a fire. We'll want to build it in the back of the cave to improve air circulation. We'll also want to have a lot of wood on hand both to make things out of and so we don't have to build a fire from scratch again.

I saw some stone before that I think I could make some axes out of. They are not ideal like flint but they should work.

We can also use that river cane we saw before. We can cut them with our swords but we'll want to cut at an angle. Because you'll damage the edge of your sword if you cut horizontally."

There is ten people total including me, correct?

"Ok. Three people will need to work on cleaning the cave... oh. We'll need a fire to see in there...

Five people will work on gathering wood.

Three will gather river cane. Make the poles as long as you can we can cut them down to size here

I and one other person will gather the stone I'll need to make axes.

Once everyone in a group had a load bring it back here and drop it off tjen go back as a group to get another load.

We'll gather things for about two hours.

I would like to work on preparing the bear but we need to get set up first.

Lets drag the bear carcass into the cave to discourage scavengers from eating it before we get to it."