A question of speed

[JohnDoe244]

What's the fastest a PC Exalt can travel in 3E, canon?

The best I've got is a Lesser Elemental Dragon (Fakharu, Corebook page 521; or One with the Blue Dragon, Mela's Coil, Arms of the Chosen p107) with its Soaring Dragon Flight merit with a Solar rider using the Charm 'Wind-Racing Essence Infusion' (Core p380) for a journey that would usually take a week.

That gets you to a speed of 3500 mph.

If the journey would usually take less than a week, the speed drops to 3000 mph.

If the rider is an Essence 5 Dragon-Blooded (using Seven-League Gallop) then it's 2500 miles in a single hour, or (regardless of Essence score) 1000 mph for longer journies.

I don't think anything else comes close to that. An Agata with Wind-Racing Essence Infusion is 210 mph for a week-long journey (180mph for a shorter journey), or 150 miles in a single hour with Seven-League Gallop for a Deeb at Essence 5 (or 60mph otherwise). Stormwind Rider is 100 mph. Wings of the Raptor (four dot artifact) are capped at 80 mph. Chariot of Aerial Conquest (5 dot FAA) is 30 mph.

Have I missed anything? Anything in the Lunar Charmset?

I will update the table below as folks add their own Fastest Methods of Travel.

Method	Speed	Notes
Travel Without Distance	36,000 mph	First 50 miles in an hour only (i.e. 50mph for journies over 50 miles, and not quite as fast for journies under 50 miles).
Ascendant Nova Phoenix	20,000 miles	Capstone: Reach any point in creation in 1 hour or less (Creation is 20,000 miles long on the diagonal)
Lesser Elemental Dragon	3,600 mph	Solar rider, see above
Ascendant Nova Phoenix	2,500 mph	Warstrider, Essence 5, high-altitude cruising speed only, carries 5
Lesser Elemental Dragon	1,000 mph	Dragon-Blooded rider, 2500 mph over short distances at Essence 5
Lesser Elemental Dragon	500 mph	Base speed (One With The Blue Dragon)
Agata	210 mph	Solar rider, see above
Stormwind Rider	100 mph	Flat speed, available at Essence 1 to sorcerers.

[DrLoveMonkey]

Well, there's Travel Without Distance that lets you go 50 miles in a matter of seconds if you're Essence 5. If it takes 5 seconds to cast that's about 36,000 miles per hour. If you have a circle of sorcerers who know this spell as their control you could chain them?

[JohnDoe244]

Well, there's Travel Without Distance that lets you go 50 miles in a matter of seconds if you're Essence 5. If it takes 5 seconds to cast that's about 36,000 miles per hour. If you have a circle of sorcerers who know this spell as their control you could chain them?

Unfortunately not true: you can't chain it. You can't cast whilst you suffer the fatigue penalty, which lasts at least an hour and applies to passengers as well as the caster.

So it's 50 miles an hour.

[DrLoveMonkey]

Unfortunately not true: you can't chain it. You can't cast whilst you suffer the fatigue penalty, which lasts at least an hour and applies to passengers as well as the caster.

So it's 50 miles an hour.

Ahhh right the passengers get the fatigue and thus can't cast it.

[Isator Levi]

That Royal Warstrider has an evocation to speed to any part of the world in a relatively short time.

[JohnDoe244]

That Royal Warstrider has an evocation to speed to any part of the world in a relatively short time.

Ah Warstriders!

There are a few with high-speed powers... 30 mph on Emerald Chevalier, 100 mph on Godspeed Vanguard, but I think you mean Ascendant Nova Phoenix which is up to 2500 mph (or six range bands in one turn). I don't see a "speed to any part of the world in a relatively short time" power on any of them though... am I just failing to find this?

[Isator Levi]

I don't see a "speed to any part of the world in a relatively short time" power on any of them though... am I just dyslexiaing this?

There's something in the pinnacle evocation, the Essence 5, one right before Karvara.

[Sorcerous Overlord]

It seems tame by comparison but Stormwind Rider is a flat 100mph

[JohnDoe244]

[Edit] Cheerfully withdrawn.

But, yes, I do have severe dyslexia if anyone was wondering. I get my money's worth out of Grammarly.

[Isator Levi]

I took about a minute to strike that part because it seemed inappropriate without knowing one way or the other.

[JohnDoe244]

It seems tame by comparison but Stormwind Rider is a flat 100mph

Eh. Mortals can cast it though (even if it only lasts an hour per cast for them).

Solars can get it as one Charm.
Just as fast for Deebs as for Solars.

I've added to the list, but that's the slowest thing that's making the cut. You must be at least as fast as Stormwind Rider to play.

****

I think Isator Levi has the right of it with Ascendant Nova Phoenix's capstone. I would be surprised if there were anything faster than that.

[Isator Levi]

I think Isator Levi has the right of it with Ascendant Nova Phoenix's capstone. I would be surprised if there were anything faster than that.

I found it a bit odd at first, but came to think of it in terms of rapid response to crisis.

I'm sure it's the fastest thing yet published and might not be exceeded by a written thing, but establishes a standard for powers that might be at least as fast or a bit better, including how they play out and what is necessary for them.

[TheCountAlucard]

One of the Evocations Lady Kratz the Astrologer unlocked from the Emissary's Mask in my Sunday game lets her teleport instantaneously from one person to another along the threads where their destinies meet. It's somewhat limited in that she has to be aware of the relationship between them, and moreover each subject has to have an Intimacy for the other.

But since the thread topic insists on canon, I can't think of anything faster than Ascendant Nova Phoenix's capstone.

[JohnDoe244]

One of the Evocations Lady Kratz the Astrologer unlocked from the Emissary's Mask in my Sunday game lets her teleport instantaneously from one person to another along the threads where their destinies meet. It's somewhat limited in that she has to be aware of the relationship between them, and moreover each subject has to have an Intimacy for the other.

But since the thread topic insists on canon, I can't think of anything faster than Ascendant Nova Phoenix's capstone.

Well, I made this it's own topic specifically so we could go down tangents like this.

Would you be willing to discuss the themes and other Charms of Emissary's Mask? What's it made of? Where did it come from? What powers lead upto this teleportation one?

[TheCountAlucard]

Would you be willing to discuss the themes and other Charms of Emissary's Mask?

Sure.

What's it made of?

The outside is silver. Inside, a special gold glass, created by layering sorcerous orichalcum between lenses of glass surgically removed from two of the floating eyes of Orabilis.

Where did it come from?

Once, in the Celestial City, the goddess Shalrina was visited by the Exalted lord of a distant city. He sought her assistance in creating a unique artifact that he could grant to one of the mortals employed in his bureaucracy: a mask that would empower the wearer to serve the city.

Shalrina agreed to do this thing, and traveled with him to his city, but realized halfway through the endeavor of crafting the mask that she had been deceived; the design of the mask would indeed imbue the wearer with unique power, but also enslave them to the will of the lord.

Enraged by the deception, Shalrina sabotaged the mask in a subtle way; its wearer would appear to be loyal to the Exalted lord, but their ultimate allegiance would be to a group of mortals.

The tyrannical lord was unaware of her careful treason; the day after his Emissary donned the mask, the goddess told some mortals oppressed by his rule how they might command the Emissary.

It was wise that she returned to Yu-Shan in the hours following that, because the battle between Exalt and Emissary was vicious enough to reduce the city to a smoking ruin.

One day, a sorcerer stopped his travels to rest in the ruins of the city and take shelter from the storm. When he awoke the next morning, the rain had washed some of the rubble clear, and he saw a glint of silver…

What powers lead upto this teleportation one?

Each person to wear the mask gets a pseudo-Excellency, and a unique set of Evocations.

In Lady Kratz’s case, for example, she can spend a mote to succeed on her Read Intentions action against a person to know their goal for the scene if she’s read their destiny via her astrology (which is itself mechanically identical to the Reading the Tea Leaves ritual), ignore environmental penalties to track a person by following their thread of fate, create phantom “echoes” to assist in a Case Scene action, and the aforementioned teleportation.

When Brueghel was wearing the mask, he could cast sorcery up to the Celestial level, and gained access to a Burning Name-like attack that did aggravated damage, afflicting the target with gruesome, and painful transformations.

Ephiselle the Midnight Queen can, when wearing the mask, see through the “eyes” of any statue of herself or the Emissary, turn water into agonizing poison, and hear her name or office being spoken anywhere in the city.