How does the Wild Hunt ever Corner Lunars?

[Eldagusto]

Plus, while turning into an animal can make it harder to attack, Dragon Blooded can still shoot down birds. It's conceivable, depending on how fast or wounded the Lunar is when they take that step.



I don't think the Burrower Merit is going to let them Scrooge McDuckit.

I already covered the bird situation, you either kill every bird and be distracted or you let them get away. And even if you shoot every bird it’s only a fighting chance you shoot them down, they can make a turn into the trees, flying down a cliff, hide in a tree, or swim in a river


And unless you flood the ground why wouldn’t a Lunar turn into a groundhog/gopher and enter the already existing network of tunnels in their lair.

If a Lunar isn’t glowing you essentially need the best Exalted trackers around.

[Flare]

It's almost like Wyld Hunts are incredible drains on resources and aren't designed to actually be cost effective but instead about maintaining and concentrating power, and were mostly supported by the Empress, and they basically stopped as soon as the houses became more interested in sniping at each other then worrying about the barbarians outside their doors.

[Eldagusto]

I see inducing plagues and Wyld Hunts as the most solid method of draining the realms coffers.

[Flare]

If you can constantly trigger Wyld Hunts then get away without dying then yes, you are winning the long war, because you are one person pulling an army and a bunch of highly trained people away from their jobs for no benefit to them.

This is providing they don't find out who you are, what culture you came from, and who your parents are and respond by burning your village down to the ground to attempt to draw you out or something

[Lioness]

At this point it seems we're talking about a single Lunar doing nothing of consequence in the middle of nowhere. What's to be gained from sending them to their next incarnation?

[glamourweaver]

Well that is why I said unless it’s an ambush. But even in an ambush a murder of crows flies off and they are going to murder each crow?

But if not in an ambush all they have to do is fly away from the Wyld Hunt, like that simple.

If a Lunar is old and powerful enough to turn into a murder of crows, the Wyld Hunt already fucked up a while ago. There’s a reason they prioritize the newly Exalted over hunting down the Old Guard of the Pact.

[DrLoveMonkey]

If a Lunar is old and powerful enough to turn into a murder of crows, the Wyld Hunt already fucked up a while ago. There’s a reason they prioritize the newly Exalted over hunting down the Old Guard of the Pact.

Yeah, nobody is sending a Hunt after Leviathan. Well, maybe if you wanted to get rid of some political enemies and could somehow force them to go.

There's ways to chase down birds though, DBs can fly, shoot area of effect attacks, dragon vortex, that kind of thing. They can swim fast too, tear up the earth Toph style. Or just keep a Lunar pinned with Unbreakable Facination Kata or Hungry Earth Stike or something.

[Mizu]

Nah, they totally still send them after elders. The preview on Ma-Ha-Suchi's domain mentions that he has had multiple Wyld Hunts sent after him despite being a powerful and well entrenched first age elder (some of them even manage to actually make it to his doorstep and required him to personally dispatch them). No true Prince of the Earth is going to cower in the face of a vile Anathema just because previous generations screwed the pooch and didn't kill it before it could reach its full potential in blasphemous power.

[Janissary87]

This seems pretty academic. How do they corner a Lunar they aren't actively engaging? They goad it into battle by threatening something the lunar refuses to abandon.

How do they keep attacking once battle has started? They give chase, and succeed on rush actions. Being a bird or fish or super-badger doesn't obviate the need to make the dice rolls to disengage, and ut's pretty difficult to actually escape from battle once joined.

It does mean that if you're out to kill a Lunar ut's imperative you confront them on your terms; but that's par for the course with any Anathema.

[Elfive]

Although Ma Ha Suchi's lair's writeup does mention hunts getting to his front door.

And then dying horribly, presumably.

EDIT: Aaaaand that got mentioned while I was typing.

[Isator Levi]

I already covered the bird situation, you either kill every bird and be distracted or you let them get away. And even if you shoot every bird it’s only a fighting chance you shoot them down, they can make a turn into the trees, flying down a cliff, hide in a tree, or swim in a river

You are saying this in response to my point about how turning into a bird won't do a damn thing about your anima, without in any way addressing it

Don't shoot all of the birds, shoot the one that is glowing.

And unless you flood the ground why wouldn’t a Lunar turn into a groundhog/gopher and enter the already existing network of tunnels in their lair.

You're shifting the goalposts away from a statement of a utility for escape in every possible situation.

If a Lunar isn’t glowing

Then they probably left before the fight got very serious.

Your parameters for what constitutes an ambush seem sufficiently broad that I don't understand why you have a problem with them.

Otherwise, you're describing capabilities that are just the basic framework for why the setting is the way it is.

[Mizu]

Not him but can't you fix the glowing problem by using charms that eat up your anima? Pretty sure they even have a charm that would let them stick a different bird with their anima banner in the process.

Edit: Well, looked it up and that charm has some pretty steep setup needed to pawn it off on something else. Its also essence 3 (and manipulation 5) and so a custom charm making it easier to give it to someone else would probably be essence 4 or 5 and significant stat investment in being a trickster.

[Slarn!]

Seriously how does the Wild Hunt ever Corner a Lunar they can’t Ambush? Unless the Lunar specifically wants to make a Last stand they have the option of turning into a Bird and Flying away, or turning into a fish and swimming away, or turning into a badgermole and digging deep deep down. So how do they corner Lunars the same way they Corner Solars? Will we get something like Sidereal Magic’s to explain this? Should I have just put this in the ask devs?

Just remember, Dynasts have been training to deal with problems like this since they've been children, and some have the experience of centuries behind them.

Lunars aren't impossible to detect. They have tells and animas (& they keep injuries/amputations when shapeshifting), and most of them aren't sitting around in a cave hiding all the time. They have essence fever like any other exalt. They're driven to do heroic and stupid stuff, and not all of them are as cautious about keeping a low profile as they could be. So, almost all Lunars, especially young and inexperienced ones, are leaving some trail of evidence.
Dragon-bloods can track Lunars using transhuman abilities in investigation, awareness. survival and stealth. Survival in particular can be used to detect unusual behaviour of animals. They use teams of hunting animals, some of them supernatural. They use the help of spiritual allies, who can dematerialize and use Measure the Wind to scan the nature of wads of creatures at once. They can disguise themselves as regular mortals not from the Realm, live in an area for months, gain the locals' trust, meet the local Lunar, have a festive round of drinks at the local tavern, and slit his throat in his sleep.

A dragon-blood with decent stats & an athletics excellency can outrun a cheetah, outdig a badger, and leap and catch a hummingbird flying above his head, so animal forms aren't a perfect getaway. And if a dragon-blood did get in close range, it's unlikely any of those creatures could disengage; it's hard to turn your back on someone who's about to shove a sword in it!. And if they can't disengage immediately, those dragonbloods are going to attempt to grapple (Dragonbloods can grapple at range with their charms like a water bender, btw), and then you can't even disengage. And Lunars are at a disadvantage, since they can't shapeshift into an animal form reflexively without the right charm; they have to disengage at a flurry penalty if they want to fly away. And Lunars can't use those animal's abilities to their full extent unless they have decent physical stats (Many Lunars will have them, but not all of them). Furthermore, they can't fly or dig if they're cornered in an enclosed space like a building. They can't fly away easily if a sorcerer has used Beckoning that which stirs the sky to create a hurricane, and they can't dig if one uses Raising the Earth's Bones to disrupt their tunnelling network.

Flight? A dragon-blood can fly with an athletics charm at Essence 3, or they can chase flying Lunars with trained flying mounts, spells like storm windrider, flying summoned minions like Azata, flying spiritual allies like storm serpents, a squadron of hackmen mercenaries, artifact wings, etc. Hunting Lunars is one of the top priorities of a multi-continent spanning empire of unimaginable wealth; they have the resources for exotic stuff like this. They can also ground flying foes with the use of bolas, lassoes, barbed javelins tied to a rope, that aforementioned waterbender charm, etc.

Burrowing? How safe is it to burrow near an Earth Aspect's bonfire anima? You can try to follow vibrations/sound with an awareness excellency, and there's charms that let Dragon-bloods do that perfectly. Anything in a tunnel can be mashed to a bloody pulp if a feat of strength or a smashing attack with a goremaul hits the ground above and collapses the tunnel system. I bet Shikari just love when Lunars do something like this. Otherwise, allied or summoned earth elementals or the right demons can potentially phase through earth, and trained hunting animals (Immaculate stoat squad!) of the right size can follow through small tunnels.

Water Aspects can move in water without penalty. They don't even need to be fit to outswim slower fish.

And also, sorcery and artifacts. Lots of 'em. Whole libraries of spells and panoplies of artifacts which have been developed to solve these very problems for well over a millennia, even since the Usurpation.

And you can imagine that this is all the more deadly when you add Sidereals, astrology, and their heavenly allies into the mix.

[Slarn!]

Not him but can't you fix the glowing problem by using charms that eat up your anima? Pretty sure they even have a charm that would let them stick a different bird with their anima banner in the process.

That's an essence 4 manipulation charm that has 9 prerequisites, I believe.

So, yeah, the one or two Lunars extant who actually know that charm, likely a century or two old, will be damn hard bastards to find and kill.

We're talking "Wyld Hunt vs. Lunars", not the "Wyld Hunt vs. the sneakiest damn Lunars it is possible to construct using the best charms", because obviously plenty of Lunars do live and grow old despite the best efforts of the realm.

[Mizu]

Yeah, had forgotten how much of an investment getting it was when I made that suggestion. Honestly, anyone that devoted to being a trickster probably isn't going to get ambushed in the first place unless its part of some convoluted scheme to fake their death or something. And I guess if they get 'ambushed' on purpose it no longer counts as an ambush anyway.