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Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

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So, comments:
1) Surprisingly many young people, and surprisingly many female ones. The youth is logical - the life expectancy is not high. The lack of males is interesting. Is the Order a female-exclusive organization? Or are we being introduced to females first? If they trace at least parts of their traditions to Salem, they might be female-only. This is probably the first thing that'll need to go.

2) Olivia... were they free, and this a more high-power quest, I'd guess "nascent sidereal". As it is... Fascination or, funnily enough, Saturnal Anima from Paths to Power. All modified to divert attention from her, and not wholly under her control. But I swear, if the girl is actually operating under sidereal rules... Well, we could always use a third circle mate, I guess.

Also, while Bane has Stealth 4, it could always use a boost to 5+, and probably a dice modifier to how hard it is to notice it.

And, in principle, we could introduce Olivia to the ghouls at some point, they are our stealth specialists. Maybe. Possibly a bad idea.

3) Weather control is potentially big. As in "push the red button" big. It's an easy setup. Weather Control + Exalted power = Storm of the Millenium stuff, then use the storm to power some major working, putting even more essence on top.

4) No "on screen" enchanters or alchemists. Interesting. Probably because those are likely the most "academic" of all paths, requiring knowledge and resources, and we were introduced only to the kids and teenagers.

Concerning the wedding: yes, obviously show him the magic. Relationships built on lies do not work. Also, I insist we at least make the cake, if not the dress. Please, please let us make the cake (and the dress). If Lydia is allowed to help, then so should we, and we can throw 10+ successes at the problem easily. Possibly 15+. Literally inhumanly well made stuff.
 
Yog said:
So, comments:
1) Surprisingly many young people, and surprisingly many female ones. The youth is logical - the life expectancy is not high. The lack of males is interesting. Is the Order a female-exclusive organization? Or are we being introduced to females first? If they trace at least parts of their traditions to Salem, they might be female-only. This is probably the first thing that'll need to go.

2) Olivia... were they free, and this a more high-power quest, I'd guess "nascent sidereal". As it is... Fascination or, funnily enough, Saturnal Anima from Paths to Power. All modified to divert attention from her, and not wholly under her control. But I swear, if the girl is actually operating under sidereal rules... Well, we could always use a third circle mate, I guess.

Also, while Bane has Stealth 4, it could always use a boost to 5+, and probably a dice modifier to how hard it is to notice it.

And, in principle, we could introduce Olivia to the ghouls at some point, they are our stealth specialists. Maybe. Possibly a bad idea.

3) Weather control is potentially big. As in "push the red button" big. It's an easy setup. Weather Control + Exalted power = Storm of the Millenium stuff, then use the storm to power some major working, putting even more essence on top.

4) No "on screen" enchanters or alchemists. Interesting. Probably because those are likely the most "academic" of all paths, requiring knowledge and resources, and we were introduced only to the kids and teenagers.

Concerning the wedding: yes, obviously show him the magic. Relationships built on lies do not work. Also, I insist we at least make the cake, if not the dress. Please, please let us make the cake (and the dress). If Lydia is allowed to help, then so should we, and we can throw 10+ successes at the problem easily. Possibly 15+. Literally inhumanly well made stuff.
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The Order of the Cauldron started off as exclusively female, though it has broadened out recently with relatives and friends of present members.
 
[X] Show her fiance her magic
-[X] Too many secrets do erode trust. Yes, he might take it badly, but better to find out before any vows are sworn than after.
 
[X] Show her fiance her magic
-[X] Too many secrets do erode trust. Yes, he might take it badly, but better to find out before any vows are sworn than after.
-[X] If children become a thing, they are might inherit magic.
-[X] If she wants a smaller-scale demonstration, you can provide some obvious magic
-[X] Offer to make her the bridal dress, and the cake. You have all the tools.
 
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I think we should try to get someone else to do the demo if we can. We've been a bit free with information lately, and it'd be nice to avoid giving more people direct exposure to how our charms work.
 
[X] Show her fiance her magic
-[X] Too many secrets do erode trust. Yes, he might take it badly, but better to find out before any vows are sworn than after.
 
Happy new year y'all.
DragonParadox said:
Shades and Spirits
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QUESTION
Is this info supposed to be exhaustive?
I want to know if the classification out of Ghost Story is to be ignored.

Modus_Tollens said:
We are in a weird balance where I want to include her in pretty much everything, I want her to be a player of her own and not just an asset, but she has so much crap on her plate already that I'm afraid its unfair to give her more. I'm afraid that she won't know when to ease off things, which is admittedly hypocritical coming from Molly, but I also want to treat her like an adult and trust her ability to set her own boundaries.
...
And then we became our mother.
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But she isnt an adult though. She's fifteen. Sixteen in a month or so.
Mature minor sure, but she isnt going to be old enough to vote for at least two years.
Molls is a kid, but compared to Didi she's an old woman in life experience.

Anyway, she and Molly do need to meet Mortimer Lindquist.
There's a synergy there to be exploited.
And if there's anyone who actually has a finger on the pulse of the local Netherworld, its Morty.

fictionfan said:
Uh oh. Charity is going to blow a gasket when she finds out we joined the Ordo Lebetis. It presses her buttons more perfectly then anything else we have done so far and I don't think that we can defend the Ordo Lebetis from her. They have no idea what they have gotten themselves into.
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You are misreading Charity very badly. Go look at how she pigeonholed Old Man Mathews on behalf of Cindy.

Nothing here to press her buttons. This isnt the cult of her youth with vulnerable teenagers and young adults dominated by a charismatic, manipulative leader. This is an organization of mostly adult women with families, careers and lives associating for self-protection. What younger people there are here have plenty of older people doing monitoring and guidance and oversight.

Decisionmaking is collective.
Leadership is elected and can be removed by membership vote. Members can also be ejected by popular vote.
Essentially everything she was urging for the Jade Dogs.

Then there are the named people.

Abby is a school teacher. Anna is an antiquarian with a city institution; university degree(s), good career path. Pauline Moskowitz is only 2 years younger than Charity, and she is a married mother with two kids and a job. Maria is a successful small business owner, Olivia is a dancer less than a year older than Molly.

The only named person she'd have issue with is Beckitt.
And, not to be hypocritical, she'd have to balance that with Molly having had a juvenile arrest record for drug possession.
I mean, we're(as in, Molly and Lydia) the legally shadiest people here.

She might (read: probably will) ask to meet some of them, but if she came around with the ghouls, she is going to have no trouble with preventing people getting eaten.
The most you are going to see is her being conflicted.

If anything, if Charity has the free time, we might guilt her into giving self-defense classes to the older women.
Her or Brother Divshimar.
It would probably be good for her to see how the rank and file of the magic community live.

Her life experience with magic has only previously brought her into contact with the very high end people like Dragons, Knights, White Council wizards, black magic sorcerers, demigods and high end spirits.
Woman has been to Arctis Tor and shanked fae in the face. Hasnt met a hedge witch.

DragonParadox said:
Between the Worlds
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COMMENTARY
Hmm.
I wonder or Brother Divshimar would be averse to giving self defense classes(not shih arts, just basic self defense) to all these women. Him or Charity. Small things might improve their chances of survival.

Olivia suggests that she has imperfect control of her Psychic Invisibility. Better training would probably help.
Or a Mentat Stone.

Maria should have had the magic talk before things got as far as wedding prep. Preferably with her gammy as backup.
Ah well. The best time to have done something was twenty years ago. The second best time is today.
Better than having to discuss this in ten or fifteen years if/when a kid spontaneously develops magic.

DragonParadox said:
Rolls
Spotting the ward in time (if you had failed this one it would have been rather awkward)
*Excellencies activate*
Molly talks to Olivia
Lyda talks to Olivia
Molly talks to Maria
Lydia talks to Maria
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Nothing extraordinary here, looks like.

DragonParadox said:
Well they might, but it is not actually likely in this world, even full wizards are not really likely to have magical children and they have the best chance.
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Quite likely actually, iirc what Butcher said about Charity.

Magic being maternally inherited, a magic mother will have some kids with active magic. Especially if she remains a practitioner around the time of her pregnancy. Doesnt guarantee a major talent, or a very strong one, or that it wont need work to develop, or wont wither with disuse. Just magic.

Its possible that magic might skip a generation, but there would be no family traditions if magic wasnt pretty reliably inherited.

Look at all the female magic talents we know of in-universe with children, and they all have at least one magic kid.
Charity Carpenter. Susan Rodriguez. Maggie LeFay. The female parent in AAA Wizardry.
Each of them popped at least one kid with some level of magic talent.
 
Note that fathers can also pass on magic if they use frequently use it around their unborn child.

Also, one of the reasons the Skavis were killing off women with minor talents specifically was to kill off the next generation of wizards before they were born. Minor talents may tend to have more talented children if they make heavy use of their talent or are exposed to significant magic while pregnant or shortly before.
 
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uju32 said:
Its possible that magic might skip a generation, but there would be no family traditions if magic wasnt pretty reliably inherited.
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Dragonblood Exaltations are not reliably inherited either, but just one Dragonblooded in each, or each other, generation is a sufficiently big deal to keep the memory of their bloodline alive in the minds of the non-Exalted familymembers.
 
Artemis1992 said:
Dragonblood Exaltations are not reliably inherited either, but just one Dragonblooded in each, or each other, generation is a sufficiently big deal to keep the memory of their bloodline alive in the minds of the non-Exalted familymembers.
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Dragon blood exalts are significantly more powerful and better capable of generating lasting institutions than minor talents though.
 
Form what we know of the 'inheritance' mechanism of magic, it doesn't really make sense for it to skip generations either, unless the expectant mother is around a magic using grandparent or aunt or uncle.
 
Yog said:
So, comments:
1) Surprisingly many young people, and surprisingly many female ones. The youth is logical - the life expectancy is not high. The lack of males is interesting. Is the Order a female-exclusive organization? Or are we being introduced to females first? If they trace at least parts of their traditions to Salem, they might be female-only. This is probably the first thing that'll need to go.

2) Olivia... were they free, and this a more high-power quest, I'd guess "nascent sidereal". As it is... Fascination or, funnily enough, Saturnal Anima from Paths to Power. All modified to divert attention from her, and not wholly under her control. But I swear, if the girl is actually operating under sidereal rules... Well, we could always use a third circle mate, I guess.
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1)Life expectancy is normal for most magically talented.

The many younger people has a straightforward explanation: Older (modern)magic-users select themselves by commitment.
Some people dont happen to use their magic much, if at all, as they get older and other concerns compete for their attention.
Some suppress it. See Charity.

Even some of the Alphas allegedly stopped shapeshifting much after graduating; at least one became superreligious.


2)Nah, its Psychic Invisibility. A Psychic Numina in Paths of Power.
Olivia turning out to be a Sidereal would be hilarious.
Nice catch.
DragonParadox said:
Ghost story's clasifications are more in depth and also filtered through Harry's PoV. Nothing in there is non-canon for the quest.
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Oh. Okay.
So we really should prioritize meeting Mortimer soon.
Dude is containing a mob of Lecters that Lydia and Molly could probably help with laying to rest.

Artemis1992 said:
Dragonblood Exaltations are not reliably inherited either, but just one Dragonblooded in each, or each other, generation is a sufficiently big deal to keep the memory of their bloodline alive in the minds of the non-Exalted familymembers.
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ExWoD DBs live at least twice modern human lifespan IIRC.
A female DB(or male DB) would easily see and teach at least four generations of her descendants. And has the power to either magic up records or contract with spirits to ensure other information is preserved.

Minor talents have mostly normal lifespans, and limited bargaining power with spirits, and so if magic skips more than a generation, the new kid is learning from scratch.

Family and folk traditions only survive if you can reliably transmit that knowledge from generation to generation to people who have the senses to see and understand what you are doing.
If they exist in this AU, inheritance of magic should be pretty reliable as a necessary prereq.
 
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VOTE
[X] Show her fiance her magic

If this is gonna cause problems, better to find out now than in a decade's time.
 
I find it kinda funny that the minor talent asks the Exalted to show someone minor magic because hers is too much for a first impression.

It's sensible here, but in general it's quite unusual.
 
Alratan said:
Form what we know of the 'inheritance' mechanism of magic, it doesn't really make sense for it to skip generations either, unless the expectant mother is around a magic using grandparent or aunt or uncle.
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It could be one of those things where it does manifest, but is so weak that it isn't really useful for anything to the 'skipped' person.

Direct power exposure isn't the only factor in strength of the child, or we'd see at least some expectant talented mothers doing things like sleeping in the equivalent of magical tanning beds, so depending on how the other factors line up their kids could inherit strength they themselves lacked in the talents of their family tree.

This could lead some interesting places for Rosie and her daughter. She did awaken to magic while early in the pregnancy, and she is involved with some powerful supernatural people.

It wouldn't be totally surprising if her kid ended up with a wizard's talent. Possibly a really significant one if early exposure to beneficial essence effects has an impact on this sort of thing.
 
Another funny thing, Weather Manipulation is the one thing we can not easily be better at than a mortal can be.

We can't use Excellencies because the roll in question is Manipulation+Willpower.

And it costs a shitload of WP to affect great changes, which we can spend on many useful things, while a Sorcerer can focus her efforts on her craft alone.

Edit: Admittedly, we can still spend Essence instead of Mana to ensure more successes, but that's a minor difference in comparison to our advantage to other paths.
 
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As an aside, do we need expression dots for fashion stuff?

Super crafting is one thing, but if Molly has no idea what she's aiming for it might be a problem.
Artemis1992 said:
I find it kinda funny that the minor talent asks the Exalted to show someone minor magic because hers is too much for a first impression.

It's sensible here, but in general it's quite unusual.
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Also really dangerous.

I mean exalts are basically the drama kids of the celestial bureaucracy; the only thing worse than one getting offended and making a point is one getting excited and putting on a show. :V
 
I think there has to be at least some randomness in how magic manifests because well... Thomas 'can barely cast a tracking spell' Raith and Harry 'Starborn' Dresden are brothers who share a mother.
 
Artemis1992 said:
Another funny thing, Weather Manipulation is the one thing we can not easily be better at than a mortal can be.

We can't use Excellencies because the roll in question is Manipulation+Willpower.
And it costs a shitload of WP to affect great changes, which we can spend on many useful things, while a Sorcerer can focus her efforts on her craft alone.

Edit: Admittedly, we can still spend Essence instead of Mana to ensure more successes, but that's a minor difference in comparison to our advantage to other paths.
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Not quite. BSM comes into play.
We're also a lot better at taking control of existing weather as an attack at a particular target; Manipulation + Occult roll at DC either DC6 or DC7.
DragonParadox said:
I think there has to be at least some randomness in how magic manifests because well... Thomas 'can barely cast a tracking spell' Raith and Harry 'Starborn' Dresden are brothers who share a mother.
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There is probably some randomness. However.
Thomas is a White Court vampire. His Hunger is presumably fucking with or diverting most of his magic to other uses.
And unlike Harry, he hardly got any magic training because his father murders threats, while Harry has been training since he was 10.

It says something that LeFay's two kids, born ten years apart, can both use magic.
The Trailman twins, from Camp Kaboom, were also botn mages before they got killed.
Small sample size though, and if the White Council is studying it, it certainly isnt public knowledge.
 
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