ADV E R S A R I E S O F T H E R I G H T E O U S
Isabet Maken
the Master of Cauldron Valley
Background: Born to a life of muck and toil among nomadic horse breeders,
Isabet left a trail of human misery on her path to the Guild’s highest
echelons. She apprenticed with some of the greatest merchant princes
of the age: Alhomzira, the Indigo Queen; Lindyana Calaho, master of the
qat trade; Nine Stars in Song, whose smuggling fleet they say outsails the
Realm’s own biremes.
Despite her prestigious education, Isabet found herself stonewalled
as a lesser Guild factor, disdainful of and unsuited to the empty
pleasantries of politics. Only discovering Cauldron Valley, a lush
jungle-demesne on the fringe of the River Province, and her own
thaumaturgic talents saved her from a life of mediocrity.
Nearing 60, Isabet has reforged herself into a master
geomancer, using the Valley’s powers to produce
unique slaves. Instead of earning a place on the
Directorate, Isabet helped found a secret cabal
(see The Gouged Eye Society, Conspiracy of
Savants) to further her mastery of geomantic lore.
Beyond this, her only concern is for her sons, Imri and
Sabet; she would move the Imperial Mountain itself to
secure their futures.
Image: Isabet is a handsome woman, broad and
strongly built. Her graying hair is neatly managed;
her coats are luxurious ermine, with room at the
arms to swing an axe; her boots are elegant, but
sturdy. She is vain, but never lets vanity overwhelm
practicality.
Intimacies: Defining: My Sons (Love), The Gouged Eye Society
(Stewardship); Major: Cauldron Valley (Ownership), Guild
Directorate (Bitterness), “A good price is worth more than a
bruised ego.”; Minor: “I cannot abide intrigue or flattery.”, “I don’t
renege on my bargains.”
Secrets: Isabet — and her demesne — attract attention from power
brokers to whom word of her geomantic trump card leaks, including
fellow merchant princes, a raksha songstress, and an outcaste
interested in studying the Valley as a sacred site from apocrypha and
legend.
Equipment: Isabet wears quilted padding beneath her clothes.
While rarely armed, she carries a variety of strange geomantic tools,
a purse of silver dinars, and her personal Guild signet.
Roleplaying Hints: Isabet is single-minded, ruthless, and
even cruel, but neither sadistic nor irrational. At heart, she
I s a b e t M a k e n
is a businesswoman, always looking to come out ahead
in any interaction. She endures taunting and even open
insults, if the price is right — but with a stony face and a
long memory. While she is a Guild slaver, she has no love
for the Guild’s Directorate, and characters may convince
her to act against them for the right offer. She prioritizes
securing good marriages for her sons, and entertains almost
any promising offer.
Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4; Charisma
4, Manipulation 2, Appearance 4; Perception
4, Intelligence 5, Wits 2
Essence: 1
Willpower: 8
Join Battle: 5 dice
Health Levels: −0x1/−1x2/−2x2/−4x1/Incap.
Abilities: Archery 2, Awareness 3, Bureaucracy 4,
Integrity 5, Investigation 2, Larceny (Smuggling) 2,
Linguistics 2, Lore 3, Melee 3, Occult (Geomancy)
4, Presence (Bargaining) 3, Resistance 2, Ride 3, Socialize
(Spotting Trouble) 3, Survival 3
Merits: Backing (Guild) 3, Contacts (Smugglers and
Slavers) 2, Demesne (Cauldron Valley) 4, Followers
2, Languages (Native: Riverspeak; Foresttongue,
Guild Cant, Skytongue) 3, Resources 4, Thaumaturgist
Attack (Axe): 8 dice (Damage 11L); Tags: Lethal,
Melee, Thrown (Short), Chopping
Attack (Unarmed): 7 dice (Damage 9B); Tags:
Bashing, Brawl, Grappling, Natural
Attack (Grapple): 6 dice (5 to control)
Combat: Soak 7, Hardness 0 (quilted armor: +3);
Parry 4 (Melee); Evasion 2; Rush 3 dice; Disengage
3 dice
Social: Guile 3, Resolve 4
Cauldron Valley
It normally takes weeks of exposure to Cauldron Valley’s
mutagenic Essence to suffer permanent mutation: a
thick layer of slimy mucus coating the skin, granting +1
Evasion but −1 Parry, and a need to soak in water regularly
to avoid desiccation and illness. The demesne’s
raw energy pools in vibrant wellsprings that dot the
landscape, though, and anyone who falls into one without
ritual preparation takes one level of bashing damage
and emerges with random, often freakish and nonsensical
amphibian features of the Storyteller’s choice. These
mutations are gruesome but incomplete, fading at the
end of the story.
New Thaumaturgic Ritual:
Quicken the Cauldron (••)
Isabet uses an array of silver rods to direct the Valley’s geomantic
flows, forcing its energies to overflow. After eight
hours of work, she may pay one Willpower and make a
difficulty 2 (Perception + Occult) roll to complete the rite.
Anyone partially or fully submerged in a metamorphic pool
at the ritual’s culmination gains a number of dots’ worth
of permanent amphibian mutations (Storyteller’s choice)
equal to successes on this roll, and may reassign up to four
of their Physical Attribute dots in any combination as long
as no Attribute falls below 1 or exceeds the character’s natural
maximum. A botch inflicts a Major Derangement and
two levels of aggravated damage on the subject instead.
The ritual’s difficulty increases cumulatively by one for
each additional time it is invoked in a season, and a given
character can only ever gain mutations this way once.
Similar rituals exist to quicken other unstable demesnes.
Imri and Sabet, the Brothers Maken
Isabet’s sons are spoiled dandies in their late 20s, apathetic
— or oblivious — to their mother’s ruthlessness;
charming and gallant, but depthless and unmotivated.
Both are handsome, trained in dueling, music, and manners
by fine tutors. The pair often serve their mother as
her envoys and honor guard.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 6 dice
Health Levels: −0x1/−1x2/−2x2/−4x1/Incap.
Actions: Carousing: 10 dice; Feats of Strength: 5
dice; Musical Performance: 7 dice; Senses: 4 dice;
Social Influence: 5 dice
Appearance 5, Guile 1, Resolve 3
Combat
Attack (Dueling saber): 9 dice (Damage 12);
Tags: Lethal, Melee, Balanced
Attack (Flame piece): 9 dice at close range
(Damage 13); Tags: Lethal, Archery (Short), Flame,
Mounted, One-Handed, Slow
Attack (Unarmed): 7 dice (Damage 10)
Attack (Grapple): 7 dice (6 to control)
Combat Movement: 6 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 4 (5 when defending family)
Soak/Hardness: 3/0
Paddagons
Hulking, rubbery creatures with rainbow-mottled skin
and amphibian features, the paddagons are Isabet’s
ADV E R S A R I E S O F T H E R I G H T E O U S
prize creations — strong, healthy, and uncommonly submissive.
The mutation process binds together groups of
paddagons in a codependent collective. They are popular
with slaver caravans, and accompany Isabet as valets
and bodyguards.
Battle groups of paddagons have Might 1.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 3; Join Battle: 4 dice
Health Levels: −0x1/−1x4/−2x4/−4x1/Incap.
Actions: Feats of Strength: 8 dice; Hard Labor: 9
dice; Leaping: 5 dice; Resist Disease/Poison: 11 dice;
Senses: 3 dice; Swimming: 8 dice
Appearance 1, Resolve 1, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Unarmed): 6 dice (Damage 15)
Attack (Grapple): 6 dice (8 to control)
Combat Movement: 5 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness: 7/0
MERITS
Amphibious: Paddagons breathe water and air
equally well, and suffer no penalties underwater.
Eager to Obey: Paddagon battle groups have elite
Drill for purposes of command rolls (but not Defense).

*****

H U N D R E D D E V I L S N I G H T PARADE
Flickerfeather
A common sight in Eastern rivers and lakes, a flickerfeather
isn’t an animal as many think, but a water elemental.
It resembles an overlarge cuttlefish, with a
mantle over a meter long limned with small, waterproof
feathers that change color rapidly as it swims — hence
the name. While clumsy and sluggish on land, able to
do little more than drag itself along, a flickerfeather can
respire air. It must do so to use its peculiar talent for
mimicking voices, which it uses to lure humans to play
with. Its tentacles appear proportionate to its body, but
can deform radically, extending out to several meters to
snatch people up.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 8 dice
Personal Motes: 60
Health Levels: −0x1/−1x2/−2x2/−4x1/Incap.
Intimacies: Defining: “I love to play!”; Major: “My
curiosity about the unknown knows no bounds.”
Actions: Deception/Disguise: 6 dice; Leaping: 5
dice; Read Intentions: 4 dice; Senses: 6 dice; Stealth:
8 dice; Swim: 8 dice
Appearance 3, Resolve 1, Guile 1
COMBAT
Attack (Bite): 4 dice (Damage 6)
Attack (Tentacle): 6 dice (Damage 4)
Attack (Grapple): 7 dice (9 to control)
Combat Movement: 7 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 2
Soak/Hardness: 5/0
F l i c k e r f e at h e r
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Perfect Mimicry: Flickerfeathers can mimic any
individual sound and are intelligent enough to form
short sentences from words they have learned by
mimicking others. A (Wits + Awareness) roll, difficulty
3, is required to realize a flickerfeather’s mimicry isn’t
the real thing.
MERITS
Deceptive Reach: The flickerfeather’s tentacle and
grapple attacks can reach to short range; it immediately
drags enemies grappled at short range to close
range.
DEFENSIVE CHARMS
Ink Clone (5m; Simple; Three rounds; Eclipse;
Essence 1): The flickerfeather vents a cloud of ink that,
even in the air, coalesces into the shape of another,
identical flickerfeather, changing color in a slow cycle.
Onlookers must succeed at a difficulty 3 (Perception
+ (Awareness or Survival)) roll to distinguish the clone
from the original. The false flickerfeather is not alive,
nor can it act other than to take reflexive move actions
on the real flickerfeather’s turn. It moves realistically,
but it’s simply a decoy, and dissolves when the Charm
ends or when an attack deals any damage to it.
Strobe (4m; Reflexive; Instant; Essence 1): The flickerfeather
rapidly cycles its feathers through every
possible hue, hard to focus on. It gains +2 Evasion
against a single attack, but it can’t use this Charm
while Chromatoflage (see below) is active.
MOBILITY CHARMS
Fluid Is Fluid (10m; Simple; One scene; Withering-
only; Essence 1): Exuding watery Essence, the
flickerfeather saturates the air around it as it moves.
It can swim through the air as though it were underwater.
Opponents within close range treat the area
as difficult terrain, unless they could normally move
freely underwater. The flickerfeather doubles its soak
against withering ranged attacks.
MISCELLANEOUS CHARMS
Chromatoflage (7m, 1wp; Simple; Indefinite;
Eclipse, Perilous; Essence 1): The flickerfeather
changes its colors to fool onlookers into thinking it’s
some false feature of the environment no bigger than
itself, such as a stepping stone or an underwater
treasure. This functions as normal concealment, but
doesn’t require adequate coverage. Observers can
make a (Perception + Awareness) roll, opposed by
the flickerfeather’s Stealth (or an Eclipse’s (Appearance
+ Stealth)), to pierce the deception. If the flickerfeather
moves, takes any action, or takes damage,
this Charm immediately ends.
Storyteller Tactics
Flickerfeathers are simple spirits that do what more
powerful elementals tell them when pressed, but otherwise
exist to amuse themselves and play pranks on unsuspecting
passersby. They normally only attack to harm
if threatened, but they like to engage in combat just to
play keep-away, lead someone on a merry chase, or grab
new playmates so they don’t leave and end the game.
Flickerfeathers don’t understand the idea that some
creatures can’t survive without air, so they have an unfortunate
tendency to drag people underwater and hold
them captive there. When a flickerfeather’s unwilling
playmate inevitably drowns, it gets upset and takes it out
on the next person it sees.
About as clever as a toddler, flickerfeathers take direction
well. Sorcerers and other savants who live by the
water keep flickerfeathers as guardians, and their talent
for mimicry makes them ideal spies — stalking a target,
learning what it says, and coming home to repeat it is
barely work for them. They grow bored easily, however,
and the wise provide them with means to entertain
themselves, such as elaborate puzzles or opportunities
to trick others, lest the elementals decide to make their
own fun.

*****

H U N D R E D D E V I L S N I G H T PARADE
Grelidaka
the Thousand Hungry Wings
Every flock of birds sighted in the far West brings a moment
of dread: “Is this the day I die?” Usually, it’s only a
flock of starlings. But one time in a thousand, the flock
only gets louder, larger, and angrier as it approaches.
When it descends to attack, it’s already too late to run.
The grelidaka is an ever-growing mass of Wyld-crazed
mutant birds, each one jet-black, that exists only to strip
the flesh from anything that lives. It can wipe entire villages
off the map in moments. The grelidaka is a truehive being: Individuals removed from it sicken and die
in days, no matter how they’re cared for. They tear themselves
apart to reproduce, one bird birthing two or more
others. Sometimes they do this of their own accord;
other times, it happens as someone frantically defends
himself, not knowing that for every bird slain, two more
squirm out of the corpse to take its place.
A grelidaka is a battle group by default. The traits below
already include calculations for battle group traits where
appropriate; for instance, values given for Evasion and
Parry already include the group’s Drill and Might bonuses.
Components of a grelidaka never act alone.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 8 dice
Magnitude: 5 + Size
Actions: Feats of Destruction: (5 + Size) dice (may
attempt Strength 3 feats, or 5 at Size 5); Flight: 8 dice;
Resist Disease/Poison: 6 dice; Senses: 6 dice
Resolve 4, Guile 1
G r e l i da k a , t h e T h o u s a n d Hungry W i ngs
COMBAT
Attack (Claw): (7 + Size) dice (Damage 11 + Size)
Attack (Peck): (7 + Size) dice (Damage 7 + Size);
Tags: Piercing
Combat Movement: (7 + Size) dice
Evasion 6, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness: (2 + Size)/0
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Blot Out the Sun: Terrain within short range of a
grelidaka is considered difficult, and characters within
it suffer an Evasion penalty equal to the grelidaka’s
(Size/2), rounded up. At Size 5, the area of effect increases
to medium range. Characters who otherwise
ignore difficult terrain still suffer the Evasion penalty.
From One, Many: A grelidaka comes into being
as a Size 1 battle group with elite Drill and Might 1.
When its Magnitude track fills with damage, it gains a
level of Size instead of losing it. For every Magnitude
box marked with damage, add +1 to the grelidaka’s
dice pools; these bonuses vanish whenever Magnitude
refreshes. If the group grows to Size 5, the next
time its Magnitude track fills with damage, it splits into
two Size 3 grelidaka. Once the two flocks finish off
their current prey, they go their separate ways.
MERITS
Legion Swarm Tactics: The grelidaka adds Size
to its pools for feats of destruction and combat movement
in addition to the usual traits.
Mindless: Grelidaka treat all social influence as unacceptable
and have perfect morale.
Storyteller Tactics
A grelidaka is not especially smart. It cares only about
killing, attacking the most obvious target rather than
swarming weaker prey. It cannot open doors, though it
smashes through obstacles when it can; only sturdy cover
and silence keep a grelidaka out. Once it scours the
area clean, it moves on. It’s not vindictive and doesn’t
hunt down stragglers if it doesn’t immediately perceive
them. It doesn’t recognize individuals as separate from
groups, so if one piece of the whole vanishes during the
fight, it doesn’t realize that “piece” still exists in any
meaningful way afterward.
The specific means of destroying a grelidaka are subject
to Storyteller discretion and player ingenuity. As a rule
of thumb, allow a solution to reduce Size by one if it can
destroy birds wholesale and en masse rather than merely
injuring or killing them piecemeal, but give the flock the
usual defense the threat allows to avoid it. Options include
large explosions and other massive applications of
fire; aerial environmental hazards, such as poison mists;
attacks and spells that affect a large area, such as Death
of Obsidian Butterflies (Exalted, p. 472) or the Dragon-
Blooded Charm Arrow Rain Tempest; creative gambits
with high difficulties that use the environment; and the
like. Characters can also find non-violent solutions, such
as putting the flock to sleep, luring it away from vulnerable
mortals, or sealing it away.
A grelidaka doesn’t flee combat unless a raksha warlord
or Exalted master commands it to.