Sneak Peek: Exalted Antagonists
3 months ago
– Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 07:54:45 AM
Hello Super Storytellers,
Yesterday we received the first half of Chapter 3, which contains guidelines for antagonists and many, many examples of interesting mortals and strange beasts.
But we wanna see some Exalted opponents, am I right?
Well, let's get a sneak peek at next week's draft manuscript download. As a reminder, backers will be able to read the entire draft manuscript before the end of the campaign - before any pledges are processed or payments collected. So jump on it if you haven't!
Yesterday we received the first half of Chapter 3, which contains guidelines for antagonists and many, many examples of interesting mortals and strange beasts.
But we wanna see some Exalted opponents, am I right?
Well, let's get a sneak peek at next week's draft manuscript download. As a reminder, backers will be able to read the entire draft manuscript before the end of the campaign - before any pledges are processed or payments collected. So jump on it if you haven't!
The Exalted
Often the greatest foes and strongest allies of the Exalted are others amongst their number.
Black Ice Shadow
Black Ice Shadow is as cultivated as a winter blossom. The ghost-blooded Sidereal is the result of decades of subtle interference and intensive training under the Bureau of Endings. Black Ice Shadow’s birth was thrice marked by endings: an elder Sidereal’s suicide, the birth-caul of a child of the dead, and sightings of Saturn throughout Creation. Deathly focused gods, enlightened shades, and Sidereal clandestinely infiltrated local temples teaching the child mysteries of the Underworld. His exaltation severed what few threads bound Black Ice Shadow to mortal life, and he spent years cultivated his deathly heritage in bleak Manses and Shadowlands.
Time spent among the living has softened the Sidereal’s severe demeanor but done nothing to assure those in the Five-Score Fellowship who question the loyalty of a Sidereal who’s nature is so tied to Heaven’s enemies. Black Ice Shadow spies on Shadowlands and Underworld cities in a myriad of guises. His most elaborate ruse is as an amnesiac Abyssal entitled Taste of Ashes Lingering Beyond Extinction. The Sidereal recently connected rumors circulating of an unaccountable power locked within a First Age tomb, to records of an ancient ghost entombed with sorcery, and he’s moving to interdict Scavenger Lords or Exalts before someone looses the dreadful entity.
Virtues: Discipline/ Wonder
Primary Pool (10): Martial Arts and Infiltration
Secondary Pool (7): Posing as the Dead; Underworld Secrets
Tertiary Pool (4)
Essence: 3
Motes: 10
Health Levels: 7
Resolve: 3
Defense: 4
Hardness: 4
Soak: 4
Attacks and Qualities
- Excellency: Spend one mote to add five dice to a primary pools action or four dice to a secondary pool action.
- Heroic: Black Ice Shadow will flee and take on a new cover identity at zero Health levels, but will take a dramatic injury to continue fighting in order to stop a Creature of Darkness.
- Sidereal Chosen of Endings: Black Ice Shadow possesses all advantages and anima powers of a Sidereal Chosen of Endings.
- Initiate: Black Ice Shadow knows First Circle Necromancy.
- Murderous Blow: Against the demon, fae, undead, Getimians, Abyssals, and Infernals, gain 3 additional damage.
- Higher Up the Chain: In an emergency he’ll call on his mentor, Wayang, the God of Silence, an Essence 5 Celestial God (Exalted: Essence p.344).
- Solemn Psychopomp Duty: The Exalts spends 1 mote to consecrate a death, the soul cannot be trapped or become a ghost. Black Ice Shadow learns their Intimacies, and gains a new secondary ability for the rest of the Story. They may summon the fallen’s ghost as a secondary Ally for one scene.
- Violet Bier of Sorrows Style: Black Ice Shadow commits 2 motes targets struck may not use reflexive movement until the end of their next turn, and attacks do aggravated damage. Spend 1 mote on Step 2 to add one to Defense, if successful, add two extra dice on the next withering attack and double 9s.
- Masque of the Uncanny: The Exalt commits 2 motes, perfectly assuming the guise of an Abyssal or ghost, this changes even Charm use and Anima. This requires a Stealth roll opposed by the Exalt’s Secondary Pool to overcome the illusion.
- Necromancy Spells: For 4 Will, Black Ice Shadow may open a doorway to the Underworld for the rest of the scene or 3 rounds in combat.
- Weapons: Liberator’s Hands, Soulsteel Light Daiklaves(+2 Accuracy, Defense +2, Damage+2, Overwhelming 2, Melee, Chopping, Balanced, Paired, Piercing)
Tactics and Advice
Black Ice Shadow is a superlative imposter of the dead, rarely breaking cover, and retreating if conditions are disadvantageous, as a last resort fleeing into the Underworld. His preferred method is to set terrain with necromantic curses that inflict the hindered penalty or increase bleeding for living foes as an environmental hazard he’s immune to. The Exalt tries to disable and disarm rather than kill, unless the enemy’s discovered his identity. He frequently summons ghosts as backup. The Sidereal will work with any who provide him with firsthand accounts of deathknights or the deathlords’ agendas.
Merel Of-the-Gourd (Dragon-Blooded, Wood Aspect)
Merel wanders the Threshold, offering salvation in the form of preventative sickness. He carries gardens of alchemical spores in lacquered gourds, releasing tuned plagues that burn through a community, culling the weak while granting the survivors immunity—and a dependence on his ongoing treatments. To him, this is mercy. He speaks gently as fevers rise, assuring the afflicted that pain is proof of worthiness. Villages he “heals” survive future outbreaks, but only so long as they submit to the next round of plague-fire.
Virtues: Compassion (Better To Die Under The Care of a Physician Than Live in Agony)/ Ambition
Primary Pool (10): Medicine, Poisons, Disease Cultivation
Secondary Pool (8): Solving Puzzles, Soothing Fears, Self-Defense
Tertiary Pool (6)
Essence: 2
Motes: 7
Health Levels: 8
Resolve: 4
Defense: 4
Hardness: 4
Soak: 3
Attacks and Qualities
- Controlled Epidemic: Two infection sites bloom in the village. Commit 2 motes per site. The Dragon-Blood may see and hear through anyone within them. Each site spreads a supernatural disease: characters damaged by or present in the area during combat must succeed at a Fortitude + Physique roll during their turn or lose 2 Power. The area is difficult terrain. Those who succeed gain +2 dice vs. disease for the session but become treatment-dependent. Investigators may spend 1 mote per question (location, creator, source). Each failed attempt advances an infection clock; at 3 advances, dependence becomes a Major Principle. Ends after Essence + Finesse days or when both sites are destroyed.
- Excellency: Spend 1 mote. Add a four-dice bonus to a roll using his primary pool, or three dice to his secondary pools.
- Toxin-and-Venom Exorcism: When treating poisoned or diseased patients, success cures them and grants immunity to that specific affliction for the session.
- Wood Aspect Dragon-Blooded: Possesses all advantages and anima powers of Wood Aspect Dragon-Blooded.
- Weapons: Poisoned darts (+1 Accuracy, +1 Damage, +1 Defense. Tags: Concealable, Piercing, Thrown)
Tactics and Advice
His lair is a greenhouse laboratory at the village edge, with villager-dug tunnels giving him multiple escape routes. About eighty people remain; thirty have died, and thirty are “cured”—immune but dependent on quarterly treatments. These devotees defend him as a Size 2, Drill 1 battle group with +1 die on social actions for Merel. Investigation reveals he emerges when infection sites are disturbed.
Merel uses Controlled Epidemic's sensory network to monitor the party's movements and conversations through infected villagers, coordinating devotee ambushes and repositioning himself via the tunnels. When the party approaches an infection site, he observes through nearby infected individuals to determine their intentions. If they destroy a true site, devotees emerge from houses and alleys to attack from cover while Merel fires poisoned darts from tunnel entrances or rooftops, then retreats before direct engagement.
If the party destroys a false site, Merel watches through his network to confirm they've moved on, then emerges at night to poison a replacement location, either personally or by using a devoted villager he's already instructed. Observant parties may notice infected villagers moving purposefully toward specific locations after dark, or Merel himself slipping between buildings with his gourds. Once all true infection sites are eliminated and his sensory advantage is lost, he makes his final stand at the greenhouse, fighting desperately with devotees as his last line of defense.
Of the four possible sites, choose two currently infectious. All detection rolls are difficulty 3, and failures can produce inconclusive or misleading results.
Possible Infection Sites
- The well (water-borne). Detect: A faint, putrid smell and off-putting color (Sagacity or Navigate). Cleanse: Purify (Sagacity) or destroy/cover the pump).
- The granary (food-borne). Detect: The grain subtly expands and contracts (Awareness). Cleanse: Fire (Physique or Survival to control the burn) or recall a safe spore-neutralizing method (Sagacity).
- The limpid pool (blood-borne). Detect: See the mosquito larvae in the water (Awareness or Navigate). Cleanse: Disrupt mosquito larvae (Navigate) or use an appropriate poison to kill the swarm (Sagacity).
- he rotting hay pile (fungal). Detect: See visible mold and unnatural decay (Awareness, Navigate, or Sagacity). Cleanse: Burn it safely (Physique or Navigate) to control the blaze and suppress spore release.
Merel prefers to hide in his lair, in the tunnels, or in the houses of his devotees rather than fight. His devotees attack whenever a true infection site is destroyed, striking from cover. If the heroes destroy the wrong site, he avoids direct conflict and quietly poisons another location to replace it, either directly or with one of the conscripted villagers acting secretly (Soldier template, Exalted Essence p. 331). He only abandons subterfuge and fights openly — and to the death — once all genuine infection sites have been eliminated.
Tomorrow, we start our FINAL WEEK COUNTDOWN. Can you believe we're gonna have one week left? I'll share some important reminders and info to review before the end and outline our final week schedule. On Friday, we'll get another sneak peek from our draft manuscript section coming the following Tuesday. We're gonna see some demons and elementals!
So, let's rally up and finish week 3 and then rush headfirst into the big final week and see if we can't unlock some baddies from the Threshold in our stretch goal supplement!
