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Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

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uju32 said:
That's incorrect.
They are amphibious. They can fight in water or in the air.
Add actual fortifications and you have the advantage.
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Even if theyare amphibious rather than preferring water environment outright, it still makes it advantageous to fight in water. Red court vampires need to breath. Humans need to breath. Most people need to breath. Fight for two, three minutes tops, and you'll win as the other side runs out of air.
uju32 said:
1)No, he is in the process of backstabbing a geopolitical rival.
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After said rival started doing something unacceptable.
uju32 said:
2)No, that isnt true.

Dresden redeemed Lash, thats all, and Lash hasnt done what any of the vampires here has done. She remembers a ton of what Lasciel has done, but she's done nothing herself. Frankly, between Harry and Lash, Harry has dirtier hands.
And Dresden only worked with anyone clearly terrible post-Skin Game.
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The question of guilt is, to say the least, arguable, when one has clear memories of doing evil stuff integrated into the core of their personality, which is designed from the ground up for evil purposes.

As to not working with anyone terrible - he worked with Kincaid. Kincaid, who was the right hand and assassin of Vlad Dracul.
 
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Winning Vote
Adhoc vote count started by uju32 on Nov 24, 2022 at 2:35 PM, finished with 84 posts and 10 votes.
  • [X]Plan Bullrush
    -[X]Try to ignore the frogmen, the vampires will beat them off you, head towards the destroyed dome to secure an entrance into the base (Charisma+Leadership Roll to inspire the vampires while continuing to parry the swarm)
    --[X]Leadership Excellency: -1 Essence
    --[X]Activate Viridian Legend Exoskeleton: -1 Essence
    --[X]STUNT: This is a distraction, you realize as you fend off the third attacker in as many seconds, the coppery smell of blood in the water around you and -ugh- in your mouth. An effort of will sends the frogmen shying away as script flares to baleful life on your skin and clothes, buying you a respite to look around the battlefield. Contempt twists your mouth for a moment as you see their nominal leader fastened fang first in the thrashing body of a Fomor assassin-beast, command forgotten as his underlings milled around. Seize his weapon, mighty one Usum urges. Then, as the frogmen surge back into contact, you begin to snap out orders over the radio net.
    [X] Try to ignore the frogmen, the vampires will beat them off you, head towards the destroyed dome to secure an entrance into the base (Charisma+Leadership Roll to inspire the vampires while continuing to parry the swarm)
    -[X] Use Leadership Excellency
    -[X]Activate Viridian Legend Exoskeleton: -1 Essence
    -[X] Stunt: "To whoever kills the most, I'll present a goblet carved out of the bones of this beast!" you shout over the radio, moving towards the entrance of the dome.
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Arc 3 Post 24: Weakness of the Flesh
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    • Weakness of the Flesh ​

    25st of July 2006 A.D.

    Sight beyond sight is burned into your brain, the shape of the base, the passages the enemy could yet take. Even as the sword slams into the chin of the frogman, perfectly positioned to slay the next one you know this is not battle, it is a distraction, meat to the grinding. Baleful runes burn as easily in water as in air, the rubble of the broken base drawn forth into an armor of ruin sending the enemy recoiling beyond even the compulsions they had been implanted with....

    There are more monsters than the enemy here, you look to the leader of the vampires, contempt twisting your mouth as you find him too busy feasting upon the flesh of his would be assassin to command the host that is descending without purpose without clear direction upon the base.

    Out of that rage speaks the voice of your servant, your assistant, your darker self "You can give it to them My Princess."

    For just a moment, passing so swiftly even your many eyes can hardly follow it, your soul burns with primeval green flame without shadow, inhuman hearts laid bear before your all-piercing gaze.

    Lost 2 Essence -> now at 5/12

    Eighteen is three sixes and six is two bands of three, bound by fear, by oaths or by love and each of those you mark and make use of. A shouted command sends one of the trios racing the side of the worm with their claws, even as they pour their noxious spit into its wounds, seeming to confuse the beast at least while among the flurry of parries and slashes you bait the frogmen in striking you all across the chest and arms where your armor guards you before....

    It is not even a spoken command this time, just a short sharp whistle you somehow know is a hunting call they'll answer. One of the frogmen gets his throat torn out and he might be the lucky one. Another gets ripped in two like a wishbone and the third is blinded by a claw strike.

    The vampires actually seem to move swifter and strike with greater savagery as they feed, but in the water something whispers,, not against the feasting, that would be as attempting to drive back the tides with a leaking bucket, not even to drive them into a rage again. What use rage when there is all this blood to be had? No this was a subtler and more pernicious sin, gluttony. Feed and grow fat, trouble us no more, the waters spoke with the will of some distant sorcerer.

    Alas for him most of the vampires were still in the thrall of your words. Only two of them stop to... play with their food and drink while the rest, including a now recovered Don Phillipe are prepared when something far more foul than any frogman rises from the ruined sphere.

    At first glance the thing might almost be confused with a jellyfish, if one the size of a horse, but looking closer one sees that the tendrils now upholding themselves behind the thing are made of human vertebra tipped with shards of blackened bone. Alas the 'head' isn't an empty cartilaginous ball of mesoglea. As the liquid momentarily clears gray, human-sized fetus suspended within, lacking a nose or mouth peers out at the world with eyes black as the deepest ocean trench.

    "TrAitOrs! TRAitorS and UsuRPeRS!"

    The words are a scream, not in any human language yet understood by all. One of the tendrils lashes out to strike a distracted vampires, seemingly wracking it with unspeakable pain... but whatever the thing is planning it isn't happening fast enough because it also strikes a pair of the remaining fomori slaves.

    You really wish you still did not know what it was planning. Even as you and the vampires who sill have their wits close on the thing its hapless victims bloom into masses of tumorous flesh, gaping mouths, misshapen limbs and worst of all staring eyes filled with agony before exploding outwards into a shrapnel of human misery.

    "The pieces are also infectious," Usum helpfully informs you. If the vampires had all been clumped together feeding, or if they had all been fighting one another as the initial spell had meant them to the attack would have been devastating, perhaps even fatal. As it is only four vampires are struck, all in possession of their faculties and all able to resist the twisting o their flesh.

    Regain 2 Essence -> Now at 7/12

    Seeing this and bearing witness to the death of the worm-creature a moment later the... Fomori, for you do not think this thing had ever been a human cultist spews out a cloud of squid--like ink in which.. other things are swimming.

    You should not have been able to see them as you do not see their master in the cloud, but when one of the second echelon of the enemy tries to take you by surprise you see it through eyes of fire. It, or he maybe, looks like a perfectly formed male human save for the fact that he has no head, only smooth skin between the shoulders where the neck aught to be and in the center of his stomach a circular maw that can extend outwards like a proboscis made of glistening human guts.

    Easy enough to parry it but your flaming eyes can only catch glimpses of the enemies that attack you and the grey thing is...

    That is when you hear the sound of tearing flesh and ripping bone, the vampires apparently have a lot less trouble navigating in the murk than you do.

    Suddenly your radio comes alive: "We have reached the base!" you hear your dad shouting into the radio. "Do you need back up or should we press on?"

    Tactical situation
    • Worm: dead
    • Frogmen: dead or scattered
    • The Grey One: wounded and engaged with the vampires
    • 5 vampires incapacitated with pain (though none of them exploded into cancerous bombs)
    • 2 vampires distracted feeding
    • Indeterminate number of Gut-Mouths attacking inside the cloud
    • Yellow Submarine: At the base
    What do you do?

    [] Tell dad and Lydia to press on ahead while you clean up here

    [] Ask dad and Lydia to hold their ground inside the base while you finish up

    [] Leave the vampires to deal with the flesh-shaper, you have to secure that base fast

    [] Write in

    OOC: The leadership roll was over 10 successes which is gave a significant bonus to the vampire will saves as well as making their attacks more spread out and efficient instead of just going where the blood was. Not going to post the rest of the rolls because it's combat and there were en enormous number of them even with me doing he vampires in batches.
     
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    • Infectious tumor bombs... :o

    When fireballs just don't have the necessary horror factor.
     
    Wait, why 13 dice for the Leadership roll? Was the stunt only worth one die? Because otherwise it should be 14.

    Not surprised we did well on the roll, though. Slightly surprised that Demonic Primacy of Essence applies to Leadership rolls for organizing in combat, but it makes sense in hindsight. Preview of just how terrifying we'll be once we have the ability to summon our personal honor guard from our realm with a custom charm. Or just summon forth our armies with the summoning path.
     
    bengalqueen said:
    Wait, why 13 dice for the Leadership roll? Was the stunt only worth one die? Because otherwise it should be 14.

    Not surprised we did well on the roll, though. Slightly surprised that Demonic Primacy of Essence applies to Leadership rolls for organizing in combat, but it makes sense in hindsight. Preview of just how terrifying we'll be once we have the ability to summon our personal honor guard from our realm with a custom charm. Or just summon forth our armies with the summoning path.
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    Yeah this one did not have much in the way of environmental engagement, not an indictment on the stunt as written, it's just that you are surrounded by water and giving orders. there isn't really much of a way to engage with the environment.

    Also yes, Leadership is a social roll so your DPE very much applies.
     
    My knee-jerk reaction is to tell them to wait for us, but upon further thought that doesn't seem necessary. Michael is a certified badass with a Sword and Lydia is hardly a slouch in combat. Any delay now could allow the leaders to escape or enact some sort of desperate sacrificial ritual, or worse.

    At the same time, leaving the Vampires to their own devices is just asking for them to live down to our expectations. With all three of us in the base, the Reds might just decide to plant a bunch of explosives and blow the place.

    [X] Tell dad and Lydia to press on ahead while you clean up here
     
    [X] Tell dad and Lydia to press on ahead while you clean up here

    I really hope that this doesn't backfire e.g. them running into something or a number of somethings nastier than what they've got out here.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Yeah this one did not have much in the way of environmental engagement, not an indictment on the stunt as written, it's just that you are surrounded by water and giving orders. there isn't really much of a way to engage with the environment.

    Also yes, Leadership is a social roll so your DPE very much applies.
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    Can we invoke the tactical equivalent of an all out attack? Not in terms of ordering a blind charge, but these Reds are lives we're perfectly willing to spend recklessly. Not to the point of actual betrayal, just ... setting force preservation as a lower priority than offensive speed and power.

    Here's a few ideas for environmental stunts
    • using trails of silt or ink in the water to make adhoc temporary symbols and tactical mapping (think football maps)
    • FLY MY PRETTIES FLY ... (cough) I mean since we're underwater you can use your bat wings my minio- ... temporary allies
    • slash our usum-sword through the water fast enough to make cavitation vacuums that crack and snap people to attention
    • time to grab onto some seaweed or other water-plants for an abrupt change in direction
    • deliberately sculpting the situation to create "a fish startled by the fight against Enemy A, darts right past Enemy B's face and blocks their field of vision for one crucial second"

    Further question: does the ink have poisons in it that would make it count as being submerged in a toxic liquid?
     
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    [X] Tell dad and Lydia to press on ahead while you clean up here
    -[X]Stunt: Your sword shines though the murk like an baneful star acting as an empomto standard that the vampires rally around as you swim though the frogmen leaving bloody remains in your wake. This is no accident. The blood flows through the water currents exactly where you desire and expect which in turns leads the vampires to go exactly where you desire and expect. To an outside observer it might look that you were tearing though your foes with blood thirty abandon, but to you this fight felt more like playing a game of Janga. You just had to keep hitting the right block in the right way. Or maybe chess considering how the bloodlusted vampires where pawns to move as you wished unable to see beyond their own squares.
     
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    mastigos said:
    Can we invoke the tactical equivalent of an all out attack? Not in terms of ordering a blind charge, but these Reds are lives we're perfectly willing to spend recklessly. Not to the point of actual betrayal, just ... setting force preservation as a lower priority than offensive speed and power.

    Here's a few ideas for environmental stunts
    • using trails of silt or ink in the water to make adhoc temporary symbols and tactical mapping (think football maps)
    • FLY MY PRETTIES FLY ... (cough) I mean since we're underwater you can use your bat wings my minio- ... temporary allies
    • slash our usum-sword through the water fast enough to make cavitation vacuums that crack and snap people to attention
    • time to grab onto some seaweed or other water-plants for an abrupt change in direction
    • deliberately sculpting the situation to create "a fish startled by the fight against Enemy A, darts right past Enemy B's face and blocks their field of vision for one crucial second"

    Further question: does the ink have poisons in it that would make it count as being submerged in a toxic liquid?
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    1. There are no plants and animals nearby, but otherwise yes
    2. The Ink is not poisonous, just very dark and impossible to see through. Molly does not know this yet but even the vampires cannot see through it, what they can do is smell the enemy with enough fidelity to fight him blind
     
    Prospalz said:
    M20 has the rules for .30 and .50 machine guns dealing 12 and 16 damage per shot; not traditional infantry guns, but there are ways around that. Rocket launcher is 12-16.

    With crafting magic on top of that baseline chassis, Sandstrike just doesn't really compare. At all. Hence, me speaking about maybe arranging some additional stuff to improve our blasty charms.
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    1)Alchemy/Enchanting Path doesnt seem to work by piling on loads of damage dice.
    The effects seem to be much more conservative.

    2)ExWoD has reservations about the balance of a lot of M20 weapons, and for good reason.
    See the stats for a M20 heavy tank, for example, which is essentially indestructible, and soloed 4x Methuselahs in a white room battle. Or the fact that there are Armor 7 suits in M20.

    3)Specifically, a 30 cal machinegun like the M1919 Browning weighs 31 pounds without ammo.
    A 50 cal machinegun like the M2 Browning weighs at best 62 pounds, and up to 128 pounds depending on generation and configuration. All thats without ammo.

    These are tagged as Military Weapons in M20.
    Almost all of which must be vehicle mounted. If they were generally manportable, Molly would be better served spawning them with a charm so she doesnt run out of ammo.

    4)Note that your standard HITMark V with a chain gun does 8 damage and halves armor.
    Your implanted plasma cannon does 6 or 8 Agg.
    Sandstrike Blast seems to be pretty well situated compared to those.
    Prospalz said:
    The real issue is it depending on Brawl, which cuts dice pools pretty much in half. If not for that, it would be really good. It is still good to kill not super t
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    Mind Hand Manipulation's damage pool is your temporary Willpower, not your permanent Willpower.
    Your base damage pool decreases everytime you spend temporary WP for an automatic success, to activate IPM, to go into shintai, et cetera. So even if you have maximum permanent WP 10, your damage pool decreases every time you spend temp WP.

    So utility power. Not your primary ranged killy option.
    Prospalz said:
    TBH mobility effects scale hard enough to render range irrelevant. Alchemy/Enchanting having speed multipliers effects really helps.
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    Yup. And its not just Alchemy/Enchanting.
    Just stacking Conveyance Path 2 on Wind Born Stride is likely to give Molly personal supersonic travel speed for 11XP.

    Yog said:
    Even if they are amphibious rather than preferring water environment outright, it still makes it advantageous to fight in water. Red court vampires need to breath. Humans need to breath. Most people need to breath. Fight for two, three minutes tops, and you'll win as the other side runs out of air.
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    No it does not. The Reds have diving gear, and the Fomor have no options for disabling that gear without entering melee.

    Even without diving gear, they arent human.
    Supernatural creatures with superhuman resilience arent going to suffocate as quickly as humans would.
    They burn blood for power. They'll EAT the Fomor and burn their blood for supernatural performance.

    Yog said:
    After said rival started doing something unacceptable.
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    Like I pointed out earlier:
    If you believe Le Blanc, the Fomor are messing around with elder deities that want to return and enslave humanity.
    Thats what he was told. What he believes.

    Meanwhile, the Reds are themselves summoning Outsiders that want to destroy reality, not just enslave its inhabitants.
    The hypocrisy, needless to say, reeks.
    Yog said:
    The question of guilt is, to say the least, arguable, when one has clear memories of doing evil stuff integrated into the core of their personality, which is designed from the ground up for evil purposes.
    As to not working with anyone terrible - he worked with Kincaid. Kincaid, who was the right hand and assassin of Vlad Dracul.
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    -Thats not how any of this works.
    You cant give person B person A's memories and now say that person B bears responsibility for A's crimes.

    Fallen angels, from Lucifer to Lash's progenitor Lasciel were created for good by the White God. It was their choice to Fall, to not only rebel but turn to evil; their purpose didnt stop it. Molly is herself heir to an Exalted shard steeped in sin, and attempting to turned it to other ends.

    If any of your assertions were correct, there would be no Fallen, and Molly would be doomed to be a supervillain.
    Heredity is not predestination. Not in this cosmology.

    -And so what did he do? As far as we know, Kincaid was a hitman and troubleshooter for Drakul.
    We have no idea if he was anything out of the ordinary for similar people in his profession. He almost certainly doesnt match Ebenezar McCoy's collateral damage, and McCoy raised Dresden.

    DragonParadox said:
    One point. It still has not passed midnight which means she has the minimum for an Exalt at the start of a scene 1/5.
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    I dont know what her Nature is supposed to be.
    But as a pseudo-Exalt associated with death, it should have proc'd for her either during the battle as Fomor died, or back when she was talking with ghosts.


    QUESTION
    Molly STILL hasnt proc'd Essence regen?
     
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    uju32 said:
    I dont know what her Nature is supposed to be.
    But as a pseudo-Exalt associated with death, it should have proc'd for her either during the battle as Fomor died, or back when she was talking with ghosts.


    QUESTION
    Molly STILL hasnt proc'd Essence regen?
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    1. Lydia: Regain 2 Essence once per scene when bringing a restless dead to final rest, slaying a Necromancer or giving a dying person the last comfort.
    2. Molly: It's kind of marginal since she has not had any time to think about what she has seen... but I did roll occult to see if she realized the explosive cancer was contagious so yeah OK, that should be worth the 2 Essence
     
    DragonParadox said:
    What do you do?
    [] Tell dad and Lydia to press on ahead while you clean up here
    [] Ask dad and Lydia to hold their ground inside the base while you finish up
    [] Leave the vampires to deal with the flesh-shaper, you have to secure that base fast
    [] Write in
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    There are two risks here
    -If we leave the Reds alone and they win, they could very well attempt to collapse the base on us or arrange that attack.
    -If we leave the Reds alone and they lose, we could come under attack by a Fomor force that converts the Reds into their own troops, von Neumann style.

    Letting Michael and Lydia go ahead splits the sorcerer's focus as well, which increases the chances of both sides succeeding.
    Also, ultimately, even full Blind only imposed a -2 DC penalty to our offensive dice pool; our defensive dice pool should be unaffected because of our anima power putting eyes everywhere.

    VOTE
    [X] Tell dad and Lydia to press on ahead while you clean up here
     
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