Pop Quiz: How fast can they go?

[Hand-of-Omega]

A Solar, Lunar and Sidereal suddenly need to get from one end of the Scavenger Lands to the other, ASAP. For [reasons], they can't use any teleportation or flight effects, or any other effect to workaround basic foot-travel.

The Lunar shapeshifts into his fastest shape (yes, it can be a Yeddim if you want!), activating his Full Moon anima as he starts to run. The Chosen of Journeys activates her anima power as well, and the Solar uses that charm that lets him share his Athletics charms with a Lunar steed.

How fast can they go, and how much ground can they cover in a single 25-hour day? What other charms can they use to accelerate themselves still faster?

Please show your work.

[TheCountAlucard]

A Sidereal can reach any point at any time as long as he's got an appointment to make.



A Lunar can go as fast as anyone ever, as long as he's chasing that person.



Not an expert on Solar Athletics.

[notthepenguins]

A single Lunar runs an order of magnitude or so faster than the Solar, depending on mote pool, I'll look at mathing it out later. The Sidereal just Yellow Paths across Creation (not a teleport; just finding a secret path).

If we alter it to include two Lunars instead of one, however, they race one another to their end point, reach arbitrarily large speeds over the course of a single tick, and arrive there at the end of that tick.

[Hand-of-Omega]

As described in the scenario, one Lunar, being ridden by both companions; they all must travel as one unit. The situation is an emergency, so they don't have time to prepare by setting up appointments for the Seer.

The Sidereal can, however, use Poetic Sacrifice Insurance...

[TheCountAlucard]

As described in the scenario… they all must travel as one unit.

Doesn't stop the Lunar from throwing [arbitrarily fast critter, Mercury, perhaps?] in front of him and UMI-ing it to go to [destination].

The situation is an emergency, so they don't have time to prepare by setting up appointments for the Seer.

You didn't say the second part - plus, if word can travel to the Sidereal that he needs to be somewhere, word can travel to the Sidereal that he needs to be somewhere sometime (like "in exactly one minute."). If word can't travel to the Sidereal, how does he know he needs to be there?

[Citadel97501]

I have done something similar with my Solar just seeing how fast I could get him going with a Griffon Familiar...
-220 mph was the speed I came up with...

-Bestial Traits Technique
-Single Spirit Method
-A Familiar as a Griffon
-Wind Racing Effusion combines with Wings Mutation to triple speed to 1/3 the speed of sound.

[The Revenge of TV Head]

Can't use my Abyssals flying boat. Drat. Just as well, I'd probably fuck up the math anyway.

[Ellis]

If we alter it to include two Lunars instead of one, however, they race one another to their end point, reach arbitrarily large speeds over the course of a single tick, and arrive there at the end of that tick.

Invented by the First Age Lunar Zeno, the Hare-and-Tortoise Arrow Method soon outstripped even sorcerous travel techniques in popularity. Its impossible potential was part of what convinced his Sidereal tutor, Lantern of Honesty, to support the Usurpation.

[Hand-of-Omega]

Doesn't stop the Lunar from throwing [arbitrarily fast critter, Mercury, perhaps?] in front of him and UMI-ing it to go to [destination].

Let's just assume that the Lunar already has the fastest critter available in his shape library (...Can 3E please come up with a better term??) and can outrun them on his own.

You didn't say the second part - plus, if word can travel to the Sidereal that he needs to be somewhere, word can travel to the Sidereal that he needs to be somewhere sometime (like "in exactly one minute."). If word can't travel to the Sidereal, how does he know he needs to be there?

Who said word had to get to them?

The Exalts have been investigating Mysterious Goings Ons, but are stumped, and so decide to think things over at the local teahouse. One of them, probably the Sidereal, has a Black Dynamite Epiphany (NSFW), and they suddenly realize who's behind things, what the stakes are, where they need to be and the urgency of getting there ASAP!

At that point, it's a simple matter of combining their powers/skills to best effect to get there. But how quickly can they do so?

(Also, at least as of the errata, Sids need to have actual prearranged appointments to keep to make that charm work; just up and saying "Hey, you know, I need to be at Guild HQ by noon!" doesn't cut it.)

[Crumplepunch]

Assuming an Essence 5 Lunar without anyone to chase or follow.

Base Dexterity: 8+3 speciality (5, permanently increased by 1 with Impossible Dexterity Improvement, +3 dexterity speciality in Lightning Speed, +2 from Deadly Beastman Transformation enhanced with Devastating Ogre Enhancement).

Next, Excellencies. Discounting Dexterity Excellencies by 4 motes with Instinctive Dexterity Unity, the Lunar can spam the 3rd excellency for free every tick. Because dash speed is a static value, it increases by Attribute with the Lunar 3rd excellency, effectively raising the Lunar's dexterity for the purposes of running to 19.

Next, mutations. The Lunar combines horse shapes with Hybrid Body Rearrangement to become a Sleipnir-centaur (Cheetah's Pace, Extra Legs x3, extra arms to offset the all-fours requirement of Cheetah's Pace). Cheetah's pace adds 6 to base dexterity for dashing, each set of extra legs adds 5. Technically wings would allow the Lunar to double that, but I would rule that the aforementioned mutations only improve ground speed, so we'll leave them aside.

Base running speed is now 48 yards per tick. Dropping (let's say) 60 motes into Instinct-Driven-Beast Movement, the character multiplies this by 15, plus one for the Full Moon anima. At x16, the Lunar's base ground speed is 768 yards per tick. Assuming that ticks are seconds, the Lunar is moving at about 1565 miles per hour, over twice the speed of sound. The Lunar could run across the scavenger lands in about 2-3 hours.

This is leaving aside artifacts and sorcery that would further boost speed.

Note that this only requires 4 excellency Charms that are highly advisable anyway, three knacks that are invaluable in other ways, plus a single run-fast Charm, Instinct Driven Beast Movement.

[Hand-of-Omega]

Now THIS is what I'm talking about, Crumplepunch! Good show!

Now, does the Journeys anima banner stack with the Full Moon one? And if the Solar use Worthy Mount Technique so the Lunar can use Lightning Speed...

Hm, I don't think the game has rulings on this, but two Exalts riding the same steed CAN both use their Ride charms on it, yes? For that matter, what if an Exalt is driving a horse pulling a carriage, or even a team of horses? Does Solar Santa need to invoke his Ride charms for each of his reindeer, paying full cost for each, or would he need to buy an upgrade to apply the effects to all of the team with only one charm use?

[Crumplepunch]

Now THIS is what I'm talking about, Crumplepunch! Good show!

Now, does the Journeys anima banner stack with the Full Moon one? And if the Solar use Worthy Mount Technique so the Lunar can use Lightning Speed...

Hm, I don't think the game has rulings on this, but two Exalts riding the same steed CAN both use their Ride charms on it, yes? For that matter, what if an Exalt is driving a horse pulling a carriage, or even a team of horses? Does Solar Santa need to invoke his Ride charms for each of his reindeer, paying full cost for each, or would he need to buy an upgrade to apply the effects to all of the team with only one charm use?

The Solar needs to learn the E5 Charm Dragon-Riding Meditation to apply Ride Charms to a sentient mount. Lightning Speed adds 5 (Athletics) to the Lunar's base speed, for an increase of 80 yards per tick. Not bad, but not huge in the context of the numbers already on show. The Solar can also apply Sometimes Horses Fly to his Lunar buddy, allowing that formidable ground speed to be applied to flight (there is no conflict here, because Sometimes Horses Fly allows the Lunar to run in the air).

The Journeys Anima stacks with the current multipliers for a total of x18, increasing the speed total to 954 yards per tick, or 1951 miles per hour. Furthermore, even lacking an appointment to keep, the Sidereal Ride Charm Yellow Path cuts the required travel time by 25% (presumably Mercury sends the joyriding Celestial party a strong headwind because she likes their moxy). The final effective speed is 2439 miles per hour, or about 3.2 times the speed of sound. The group can easily get to anywhere in Creation within a day.

[Omicron]

For added hilarity, the Crystal Chameleon (CMA) Charm Flashing Passage modifies the total distance travelled during a dash action by four after all modifiers. Sadly, Dash actions are bursts of only a few seconds, so this won't meaningfully impact the final result; but for brief moments you will have a Lunar travelling at above 9600 miles per hour.

[RCa]

Someone might want to check my work (and my chicanery):

Solar:
Flying Faith Legion: 3m, scene-long, all Athletics Charms gain the Leader keyword. Hopefully your ST will let this work on your Lunar mount.
Lightning Speed: 3m, scene-long. Increase movement rate by (Athletics). Can spend motes on Athletics Excellency to increase the static rating of (Dexterity + Athletics), but we're not going to because we have....
Racing the Sun: Makes Lightning Speed Stackable, with no limit except mote pool.

Essence 5, Willpower 10, all Virtues 5, 5 purchases of 10m pool expanders: 25 personal, 70+50=120 peripheral, total 145.

145/3=48.3.
One of those is Flying Faith Legion, the other 47 are Lightning Speed.

47*5=235 yards/tick.
Plus 5 yards/tick from Glorious Temple Body. Total +240 yards/tick.

If your ST doesn't allow Flying Faith Legion, you have to substitute Dragon-Riding Meditation+Worthy Mount Technique, which is slightly more expensive: 4m per application of Lightning Speed.
145/4=36.25.
36*5=181 yards/tick.

[Crumplepunch]

Racing the Sun: Makes Lightning Speed Stackable, with no limit except mote pool.

Oooops. I forgot about Racing The Sun. That was silly.

The Leader Keyword forces us to get tangled up in the Mass Combat system, so let's avoid Flying Faith Legion like the plague. Assuming the same arbitrary limit of 15 activations that we used in the calculation of Instinct Driven Beast Movement, the Solar can adds 75 to the Lunar's base speed with Dragon Riding Meditation, rather than the 5 I mentioned above, for a total dash speed of 123 yards per tick.

With 15 activations of Instinct Driven Beast Movement and bolstered by the Full Moon and Journeys animas, this is multiplied by 18, for a total of 2214 yards per tick, almost three times the speed of the Lunar alone.

If the Lunar is using, as Omicron suggests, the Chrystal Chameleon Charm Flashing Passage, this further quadruples to 8856 yards per tick. Finally, the Journeys cuts the travel time of wherever the group are going by a quarter using Yellow Path, for a top speed of 11808 yards per tick. The group moves over six and a half miles per tick of combat time.

Again assuming that ticks are seconds, The group are moving at 24,152.7 miles per hour, or mach 31, over five times the speed of the fastest manned aircraft. They can fly a circuit of the four elemental poles in about an hour.

Someone might want to check my work (and my chicanery):
Essence 5, Willpower 10, all Virtues 5, 5 purchases of 10m pool expanders: 25 personal, 70+50=120 peripheral, total 145.

If you're hard-calculating mote pools for this, keep in mind that the bonus pool from Immortal Horseman's Advantages can go towards the Ride Charm surcharge for Worthy Mount Technique.

Next up I'll try calculating the limits by exact mote pools and equipment.