OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Black Council/Circle/Nemesis plot?
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I suppose it's possible that they have a complexity addiction.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Do we want anything from Agent Greene at this point? Besides her safety on general principles? She doesn't seem to know anything we don't and we already have her blackmail.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Interesting thing is, it supposedly being Thomas that attacked Greene means that the White Court is the one suspect who couldn't have done it. After all, we know that Thomas didn't do it, and internal politics means that nobody from the White Court would dare impersonate the son of the White King as part of a frame job like this. And being a friend of Harry who is a friend of Thomas means that we can totally know that without giving anything away.
Just an observation that someone else can use for stunt fodder, if anyone's interested.
Just an observation that someone else can use for stunt fodder, if anyone's interested.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Yes, she needs to know there's worse than vampires after her
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Phone Thomas "Hey sorry to ask you this out of the blue. Did you happen to beat up Green before he died to send a message? Yes this line is encrypted. Cool."
I was going to try to get another update up today, but then I realized there had been 5 votes total
Getting a bit ahead of myself
Getting a bit ahead of myself
Commentary in a bit.
I need to check some dates.
The one we see onscreen in Turn Coat took on both Dresden and Anastasia Luccio, in addition to the upper echelons of the Raith household, and won without breaking a sweat.
Morgan had to lure the one that was pursuing him into a nuke, and Morgan is like current number two of the Wardens.
We have had no reason to draw its attention. And this thing started acting here barely after the Splattercon murders, when Molly had barely gotten back from Arctis Tor.
Furthermore, it gets power from wizards, not just generic magic users.
Molly isnt a wizard. And is pretty dangerous in her own right, AND lives behind angelic wards.
This is a deep cut; QM started building towards this at the very beginning of the quest.
Very nice background work there btw @DragonParadox
I see what you did.
If you read the update again, you'll see why.
EDIT
Combat veil user + shapeshifter with speed boosts.
We need to be able to identify, and then run down our enemy.
I need to check some dates.
At its base its a regenerating shapeshifter with the magical skill of a Senior Council magic user.
The one we see onscreen in Turn Coat took on both Dresden and Anastasia Luccio, in addition to the upper echelons of the Raith household, and won without breaking a sweat.
Morgan had to lure the one that was pursuing him into a nuke, and Morgan is like current number two of the Wardens.
No, its about Dresden.
We have had no reason to draw its attention. And this thing started acting here barely after the Splattercon murders, when Molly had barely gotten back from Arctis Tor.
Furthermore, it gets power from wizards, not just generic magic users.
Molly isnt a wizard. And is pretty dangerous in her own right, AND lives behind angelic wards.
This is a deep cut; QM started building towards this at the very beginning of the quest.
Very nice background work there btw @DragonParadox
I see what you did.
There's a Whampire involved. Or a group of whampires.
If you read the update again, you'll see why.
EDIT
Nope. Hellscry Chakra. Maybe the Sight as well. Then Windborn Stride.
Combat veil user + shapeshifter with speed boosts.
We need to be able to identify, and then run down our enemy.
Last edited:
- Location
- Germany
Might be as bad as that one, might not be.
That one seems to have been bested or at least matched in a transformation-battle with a single Senior Council member. So doable, though hard.
The wiki is a bit unclear if Naagaloshii only applies to the original ones or to any mortal who learns skinwalking and dark magic from their kind.
So... To expand on "this is about Molly" theory. The chain of events started on July 6th, with someone impersonating Thomas (we can be reasonably sure he wasn't the one to beat Greene). That's one day after our exaltation. We can be reasonably sure that naagloshii was not in league with Holt and others - it'd be more likely to hunt them, after all, and if it was an ally, it would likely have been present for the Black Feast... Now that I think of it, the Black Feast sounds kinda like what naagloshii does naturally, doesn't it? So, there might have been a connection. But I doubt it. I think this is a maneuver to get to Molly through Harry.
[X] Yes, she needs to know there's worse than vampires after her
[X] Yes, she needs to know there's worse than vampires after her
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
What's the cover story for the Crown of Eyes use?
- Location
- Germany
Low-end divination.
Magic leaves traces that a practicioner with the right skills can read.
And the presence of the Skinwalker is very noticable bad news whenever a Wizard sees or smells it.
A direct look is outright harmful.
Greene can't know that we don't have access to this kind of postcognition or magesight or whatever.
Yes, and this is exactly why I think it's about Molly. The whole chain of events started one day after our exaltation. It wasn't about Thule Society.
If I was to guess, Anduriel was listening through Arctic Tor shadows, and acted with haste to start getting at the exalt.
"it's magic, I ain't going to explain sh*t; and you are a muggle and won't understand even if I tried".
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
[X] Yes, she needs to know there's worse than vampires after her
In case we don't have enough votes.
In case we don't have enough votes.
Last edited:
[X] Yes, she needs to know there's worse than vampires after her
As above, so below.
As above, so below.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I don't think it's about Molly, not unless this Skinwalker's sadism-focused Intellectus has undergone serious mutation, and even that would be edging into improbability. The timing is just too tight.
There is no way it could get to Chicago and have the local knowledge to pull off those opening moves in that timeframe. There is just too much it would have needed to know.
COMMENTARY
-Greene appears to have been clean. Poor bastard.
And it turns out that Madrigal Raith lied to Leinth about Sarah Greene's motivations, and so he unwittingly gave us bad information
This is a lesson about the value of hearsay.
-Greene got lured out and beaten up on July 6. Molly Exalted July 5. This suggests this has nothing to do with Molly directly.
The perp had to know that the dude whose identity he stole was going to Alaska ahead of time in order to use that ID to lure him out somewhere he'd be alone. That rules out Murphy, and Thomas, who were both in Arctis Tor with us.
-Gorfels passed through the courthouse near Mathew's place on July 7.
This is significant.
-Remember Frenchman's Mountain, Nevada? Thats where the Way that Gorfel took to Old Man Mathews home came from. Its near Nellis AFB, in what used to be Native American territory.
So the three of you leave with Mouse in the vanguard this time rather than watching the rear. As soon as you are safely out of earshot of the house you ask: "Is there any reason why we can't just drive by the jailhouse nice and slow so I can ask a question about where the other side of the Way Gorfel took on the seventh is."
"That will only get you the first stop," Harry points out. "See the way the Ways work is that conceptual distance doesn't match up with phisical distance so if you know your way around the Nevernever you can go from Chicago to Tokyo in half an hour, but you still might find yourself walking down to Rio de Janeiro and across town in Anchorage Alaska along the way."
You think about that for a moment, and you do not think about it alone. "I'm... pretty sure I can ask about the journey at this end, now that we have both a date and a time at least and it will give me the ultimate destination on the material side so we wouldn't have to traipse down whatever ways are welcoming to the likes of Gorfel."
"Traipse?" his lips twitch into a smile as he gets in the car.
"Blame mom for like seventy percent of my odd word choices, the other thirty percent is either Tolkien on Jane Austin."
It's a short drive to the jailhouse but along the way you still have time to ask idly. "Do you think Tolkien knew something about real magic? I've been thinking of the Ways how they are not really different roads, but one big web of interconnected realms and symbols. It sounds kind of like... 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.'"
"Maybe, but probably not the way you're thinking," Harry replies briefly just as pensive. "Painters, poets, artists, the good ones at least they see with a sharper eye and remember with a clearer mind, it's what draws the audience to them."
The county jailhouse looks... like you would expect an abandoned jailhouse dating back more than a hundred years to look, which is to say grunge creepy, between the grey walls, the patched up roof and the crooked storm-drain. If that place isn't haunted you I'm a Taylor Swift fan.
"From where came the wizard Gorfel who passed this way on the seventh of the month?"
You do not get anything like the long conversation you got on the matter of soulgazes, just a flash of a dark grey peak above scrub-land that stretches beside a glittering city, a glimpse and a name. "Clippy search Frenchman's Mountain, Nevada please."
The answer is as instantaneous as it is through: "The peak lies on a north to north-northeast trending ridge about 2000 feet above the nearby valleys. Sunrise Mountain lies 3.6 miles (5.8 km) to the northeast adjacent to Nellis Air Force Base. The north end of the McCullough Range about 12 miles (19 km) to the south has a parallel trend. The River Mountains lie to the southeast..."
"That will only get you the first stop," Harry points out. "See the way the Ways work is that conceptual distance doesn't match up with phisical distance so if you know your way around the Nevernever you can go from Chicago to Tokyo in half an hour, but you still might find yourself walking down to Rio de Janeiro and across town in Anchorage Alaska along the way."
You think about that for a moment, and you do not think about it alone. "I'm... pretty sure I can ask about the journey at this end, now that we have both a date and a time at least and it will give me the ultimate destination on the material side so we wouldn't have to traipse down whatever ways are welcoming to the likes of Gorfel."
"Traipse?" his lips twitch into a smile as he gets in the car.
"Blame mom for like seventy percent of my odd word choices, the other thirty percent is either Tolkien on Jane Austin."
It's a short drive to the jailhouse but along the way you still have time to ask idly. "Do you think Tolkien knew something about real magic? I've been thinking of the Ways how they are not really different roads, but one big web of interconnected realms and symbols. It sounds kind of like... 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.'"
"Maybe, but probably not the way you're thinking," Harry replies briefly just as pensive. "Painters, poets, artists, the good ones at least they see with a sharper eye and remember with a clearer mind, it's what draws the audience to them."
The county jailhouse looks... like you would expect an abandoned jailhouse dating back more than a hundred years to look, which is to say grunge creepy, between the grey walls, the patched up roof and the crooked storm-drain. If that place isn't haunted you I'm a Taylor Swift fan.
"From where came the wizard Gorfel who passed this way on the seventh of the month?"
You do not get anything like the long conversation you got on the matter of soulgazes, just a flash of a dark grey peak above scrub-land that stretches beside a glittering city, a glimpse and a name. "Clippy search Frenchman's Mountain, Nevada please."
The answer is as instantaneous as it is through: "The peak lies on a north to north-northeast trending ridge about 2000 feet above the nearby valleys. Sunrise Mountain lies 3.6 miles (5.8 km) to the northeast adjacent to Nellis Air Force Base. The north end of the McCullough Range about 12 miles (19 km) to the south has a parallel trend. The River Mountains lie to the southeast..."
Naagloshii are Native American boogeymen and are found in the same area.
The skinwalker that was hunting Morgan in the 1960s was lured onto a nuclear testing ground. In Nevada.
This all ties back to Gorfels, and through him to Kattrin, the Red Room Murders and the Thule Society. And the mysterious Lictor.
This entire scheme was likely Plan B for taking Dresden off the board for Kattrin's ritual.
The sniper being Plan A.
Then both Mab and Molly happened.
-Additional wrinkle:
The Daedalus Group files we have access to are pretty detailed about Native American entities/stuff in the south west.
And Agent Cole identified the entity involved in Greene's murder as a Class Four.
Lawmakers is the NSB's name for the White Council you guess, probably because of all it does it is the enforcement of the Laws which is the most likely to filter down to minor practitioners.
"Agent Wright is making a call to Agent Cole, likely superior," flashes across the screen, just long enough for you to read it, interrupting your reading "Intercept Y/N"
You tap Y of course and put the phone to your ear.
"Dresden is safely in custody, he didn't resist just like we had hoped, he's a wiseguy and thinks he's a lot funnier than he is, the sort of guy who went for being a Private Investigator because he saw one too much Magnum PI at an impressionable age."
"Are you sure it's not an act?" comes the question from the other end of the line "I've met espers who could sell you a bridge in Death Valley never mind Brooklyn. Man who just got accused of murder has ever interest to look harmless."
"Oh, he didn't look harmless sir, if I'd left him to the CPD in the car with no cameras he might have had a busted lip before he even came into the station. Dresden does not know when to shut up for his own good . I'll let the locals have a go at him in the interrogation room and when it finally sinks in how deep the shit he's in, I'll come in with the offer of a wipe if he'll work with us"
"Make damn sure he doesn't report us to the Lawmakers, they probably don't take well to snitches, especially from pariahs."
"Understood," Wright replies. "Any leads on what actually killed Greene."
"Class Four Wright, we're still working on containment nevermind investigation. I'll keep you posted."
"Agent Wright is making a call to Agent Cole, likely superior," flashes across the screen, just long enough for you to read it, interrupting your reading "Intercept Y/N"
You tap Y of course and put the phone to your ear.
"Dresden is safely in custody, he didn't resist just like we had hoped, he's a wiseguy and thinks he's a lot funnier than he is, the sort of guy who went for being a Private Investigator because he saw one too much Magnum PI at an impressionable age."
"Are you sure it's not an act?" comes the question from the other end of the line "I've met espers who could sell you a bridge in Death Valley never mind Brooklyn. Man who just got accused of murder has ever interest to look harmless."
"Oh, he didn't look harmless sir, if I'd left him to the CPD in the car with no cameras he might have had a busted lip before he even came into the station. Dresden does not know when to shut up for his own good . I'll let the locals have a go at him in the interrogation room and when it finally sinks in how deep the shit he's in, I'll come in with the offer of a wipe if he'll work with us"
"Make damn sure he doesn't report us to the Lawmakers, they probably don't take well to snitches, especially from pariahs."
"Understood," Wright replies. "Any leads on what actually killed Greene."
"Class Four Wright, we're still working on containment nevermind investigation. I'll keep you posted."
Their info is well out of date.
-Sarah Greene's status as being in the know about the supernatural or a White Court agent in the FBI is pretty secret. So this:
Means that someone knew she was a Whampire agent and was deliberately leaking information to her to get a reaction.
Someone with high level White Court internal information is involved.
Which has to be either a Whampire, or someone very deep inside the White Court.
The fact that the person whose name was used to lure Greene out showed some of the signs of being fed on by a vampire strenghtens the likelihood of a Whampire being the culprit, not a human lackey.
Since we think she was recruited and run by Madrigal Raith, fingers point at him.
-We know OOC that Madrigal Raith was involved in Splattercon, and has come up here as well.
OOC, he has a grudge against both Thomas and Dresden for the events around Splattercon. He tried to sell Dresden on Ebay to the Red Court(the cyberdevils should find the listing when we investigate), and Thomas blew either his feet or his knees off with a shotgun(he regenerated.)
And in canon, his sister was somehow involved with the people who sent the naagloshii in Turn Coat.
Im guessing that he wasnt happy about Dresden getting off, and has been trying to use the wife as a weapon to push things.
Only vastly underestimating the amount of insurance that Sarah Greene had in reserve.
So when she threatened to blow everything, he panicked. But still doesnt want to be found out by Lara.
So he leaned on Uncle Leinth, and told him a cover story that was only partly true.
Leinth is unhappy about being coerced by a baby vamp like him to clean up his fuckup, and promptly sells him out to the apparent Jade Court heavyweight.
-Current working theory:
There's a link between Madrigal Raith > Gorfels > Kattrin > Thule Society.
He could be a dupe. Probably is. Just like he was a pawn in canon. Still, somewhere to start digging. I think we get to fly into someone's living room tonight.
-We dont know how long the naagloshii has been operating here.
He could have been here for months, he could have been commuting. But it/she/he's still here.
Leinth himted at this:
The girl just looks confused, though not quite bold enough to speak up.
"Be weary for small demons might the greater draw, there have been worrying rumors of late...." the elder peers at you expectantly, as though anticipating that you know something of these rumors.
Darn it, was that why he wasn't surprised to see a 'bodhisattva' in Chicago?
What do you do?
"Be weary for small demons might the greater draw, there have been worrying rumors of late...." the elder peers at you expectantly, as though anticipating that you know something of these rumors.
Darn it, was that why he wasn't surprised to see a 'bodhisattva' in Chicago?
What do you do?
Anyway?
This suggests that the naagloshii is still active in Chicago as of the second week of September. And overt enough there have been rumors. So its a present threat to everyone named in this case: Dresden, Thomas, Greene, Leinth, Isabella, Madrigal.
Whether its presence has any links to Daedalus' ongoing investigation of the Red Room Murders remains to be seen.
Batten down the hatches.
We rolled high enough that we can be sure she isnt lying to us.
Legendaries on getting her to talk and understanding her motivations.
Last edited:
Anything from low end divination to spirits to psychomancy.
Or a mix.
Generally though, people dont expect you to explain the deets of your power.
The person who called Greene and fingered Dresden had to know about one of Greene's associates going out of contact to Alaska in order to steal his identity. That was premeditated days in advance, not something thrown together in the 24 hours between Molly Exalting and returning to Chicago.
Furthermore, the naagloshii has been active here since the first week of July when it impersonated Thomas.
This is the second week of September.
Something aimed at Molly would have already gone off.
Thomas impersonation was on July sixth. We exalted on Jule 5th.
The same can be said about Dresden, though. He's less of a fighter, and is out in the open more often. If this was a straightforward assassination attempt, it would have gone off already.
I think the term skinwalkers may be used for human disciples/acolytes who learn some of the tricks from the OGs.
Naagloshii seems to be used only for the real deal.
At least, in the Dresdenverse.
Citations:
Skinwalker on Demonreach said:
So, in terms of investigation, we still have Greene's grave to see who was responsible for his murder, and the sniper-related questions. This should clear a lot of things up. We could probably also use Greene's badge (that should be a strong link) to locate his killer. Ambush favors us. Drop in with shintai already active, and I think we have a fair chance of winning. Especially if we get Dresden, Lydia and Mouse as a backup
1)Like I said, first week of July.
2)Dresden is a Wizard. Capital W.
Naagloshii have so much metaphysical mass they cant sneak up on them without pinging every sense of major Badness afoot.
He lives behind wards and a threshold guarded by a Temple Dog. He is by no means an easy target.
And Molly's emergence in the local area, as well as her semi-regular presence in the area of his apartment has likely prompted some threat reassessment.