[X] Yes
-[X]... and ask to learn the Qiao of the Meng starting next month (Locks Action)
-[X]... and ask to learn the Qiao of the Meng starting next month (Locks Action)
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Ok this looks pretty one solid as leads go and I want to get into the habit of writing two updates a day again
Vote closed
Vote closed
That's a fair enough perspective. Though I'd point out that the most important function of willpower is defensive, which penalizes spending it on successes even with an intermediate recharge option.
I'm not familiar enough with how sorcery is run to argue that point, but given the way mana works I suspect that essence would fill that gap pretty well. Point made though.
That said, I still dislike it being done here and now. IC it's explicitly an attempt at managing the nightmares rather than the issues that are causing them.
On a practical mechanical level the advantages you outlined for magic are the most compelling to me, but order of operations bottlenecks are a concern.
We don't have any sorcery paths yet, or any rituals/spells in them that require heavy willpower expenditure. Locking up our Qiao training to this means we won't get anything useful out of it for at least two dots of training and the primary advantages won't actually manifest until after we have multiple dots in other paths.
Look at how long (relatively speaking) it took to get steel skin; we're starting from zero here, and will probably take at least that long just to get to the point where we can train for the thing we actually want.
The best way to pipeline this would be to start the Qiao concurrently with our higher dot sorcery training so that we complete it right before we need it and can pick up useful stuff in the meantime.
Edit: should have refreshed before posting.
- Location
- Germany
That is true, but very rarely.
Most offensive abilties that can be resisted with Willpower, are opposed by Permanent Willpower, not the points you can spend.
But even then, you have to keep in mind that we are effectivly immune to all mind-affecting magic that is not literally soul-deep. All the Presence and Dominate Disciplines, all the Mage-Sphere Mind, can't do anything to us.
For us, Willpower is an offensive ressource to activate Charms (and later Sorcery) and to buy successes first and foremost.
We will never have to spend a point to look Mab in the eye, to avoid staring at Lara Raith in awe or to preserve our sanity in the face or Outsiders.
Arc 5 Post 24: Personal Puzzles
Personal Puzzles
14th of September 2006 A.D.
"Nightmares," you feel your lips twist into a grimace and not just at the memory. He's gonna do the 'responsible adult thing', you are sure of it, tell you to take it easy or that you should take less risks and never mind that you met him while catching bullets the way flypaper catches flies. "Ever since I got this way... it wasn't a good time."
"So it is with the shih, as finest steel is forged in hottest flame my own teacher once said, though over the years I have found that to most likely be be what is called survivorship bias." Brother Devisimar smiles and shakes his head at your no doubt startled expression. "One does not become a warrior against wicked Shen, a keeper of Peace Under Heaven who has not known strife. Some fall, some endure, but that does not mean one road's beginning is less than another. Perhaps if the world were more in balance with itself would be less need of us, but it is what it is and we are what we are so with demons within and without we must contend yes?"
Even though you recognize the rhetorical flourish, it is comforting to hear him use it and to hear the sincerity in those words. "When you recounted the arts you were willing to teach, one among them was the Bridge of Dreams, that grants power over the mind. Would you be willing to teach me that next month."
Brother Devisimar considers you for a moment. "That should be enough time to obtain the herbs and tools which the task requires, but we will also have need of another person to stand in for future patients. Ordinarily that would be another young monk."
"Can't I just use myself?" you ask, unsure of who you could bring in for something like this.
"Would you try to learn how to trim hair by practicing first on yourself?"
"Maybe if I really didn't trust myself with the scissors," you laugh, though grant the point. Maybe Rosie would be willing to help you out. If she's not feeling up for it you know you can rope Daniel into it.
Anyway that is for future Molly to worry about, for now you go home with a reading list, an eclectic list of psychology textbooks, sacred texts and books on herbalism which will provide 'the fundamentals'. At least you have plenty of time to order everything online while your teacher makes his own preparations.
That evening is game night and it's Leech's turn to pick the game. She chooses Scrabble and proceeds to trounce the lot of you. To your credit you at least manage to stay in shouting distance for the first hour. Really what kind of word is cwm? Apparently a half-open hollow on a mountainside. Matthew, who ends up coming third, is a lot more vocal about the whole thing than you, but Leech had cunningly enlisted Hope to 'help her play', thus insulating herself from any attempt to call out her nonsense. All in all you think Amanda has the best of the deal, balanced on dad's knee and calling out advice to everyone while she hogs one of the popcorn bowls
That night at least no nightmares follow you into the shadows.
What do you do next?
[] Ask more questions from the list
-[] Write in which
[] Move on to another action
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: I thought about just moving on with the Thule society questions since they had been the second ranked on a vote of this sort last time we did it, but it just did not fit the tone of the update.
Last edited:
- Location
- Germany
@DragonParadox
It's propably not worth a full scene, but what would Divsimar recommend for hunting a Shen beyond your own power, like the Naagloshii?
As an old Shih he must have been in that situation much more often than the Ascendant Devil Tyrant.
It's propably not worth a full scene, but what would Divsimar recommend for hunting a Shen beyond your own power, like the Naagloshii?
As an old Shih he must have been in that situation much more often than the Ascendant Devil Tyrant.
- It's a shapeshifter so lure it some place that limits its mobility if you can
- Use holy ground or any kind of terrain that disfavors it
- Find allies among the local shen if you can, even weak ones can be distracting at least
- Absent some kind of weapon that is designed specifically against this shen use fire... right that one is covered
- Location
- Germany
Nobody in the family has decent academics, or if any has, they are compensating with it for below-average intelligence.
Lydia would slaughter them all the scrabble-field, luckily she's not that close to the family unless things between her and Daniel advance much further than likely for a teenage-romance.
[X] Ask more questions from the list
--[X] [Thule Society investigation] Question: "What was the full chain of events that led the people who shot these bullets to know where and when to be to shoot them?" Focus: The bullets shot at us during initial meeting with Brother Divsimar.
--[X] [Thule Society investigation] Question: "Who attempted to shoot Gorfiel / us from this place?". Focus: The roof from which the shot was made
--[X] [Thule Society investigation] Question: "what was the chain of command involved in the shooting of this bullet at us/Gorfel outside Harry's apartment". Focus: Bullet souvenir
I think it's either those, or family-related prophecies and textbooks.
--[X] [Thule Society investigation] Question: "What was the full chain of events that led the people who shot these bullets to know where and when to be to shoot them?" Focus: The bullets shot at us during initial meeting with Brother Divsimar.
--[X] [Thule Society investigation] Question: "Who attempted to shoot Gorfiel / us from this place?". Focus: The roof from which the shot was made
--[X] [Thule Society investigation] Question: "what was the chain of command involved in the shooting of this bullet at us/Gorfel outside Harry's apartment". Focus: Bullet souvenir
I think it's either those, or family-related prophecies and textbooks.
[X] Yog
That charm makes Molly immune to mind magic and directly betraying her intimacies, but social combat is fair game. Excellencies make us good at that, but we aren't alone in our ability to stack up huge dice pools.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
About half of these are predicated on somehow luring the skinwalker. Which does seem like a tricky puzzle. Is there anything that it cares about? Prey seems unreliable given that it can always just pick easier prey. We need some kind of bait that forces action.
- It's a shapeshifter so lure it some place that limits its mobility if you can
- Use holy ground or any kind of terrain that disfavors it
- Find allies among the local shen if you can, even weak ones can be distracting at least
- Absent some kind of weapon that is designed specifically against this shen use fire... right that one is covered
Maybe it has children we can kidnap?
- Location
- Germany
1. Well, then we are in an enclosed place with a neigh-indestructible monster, but them's just the risks of the job.
- It's a shapeshifter so lure it some place that limits its mobility if you can
- Use holy ground or any kind of terrain that disfavors it
- Find allies among the local shen if you can, even weak ones can be distracting at least
- Absent some kind of weapon that is designed specifically against this shen use fire... right that one is covered
2. Actual indian spirit-stuff can hurt him far more than it should by relative power, but we are unikely to be able to lure him in an area blessed by a medicine-man of the specific people he is vulnerable to. Just hitting him out of town, where there is no fear to feed on and strenghten him around is much better than fighting with scared people nearby though.
3. Maybe... He is very hard to meaningfully hurt and I'm not sure a distraction is worth the suffering and fear he can cause to lesser shen like ghouls. In this particular case I think Divsimar's advise is not optimal for the specific opponent and any actual attempt to hunt down the Skinwalker should have a "you must be this tall to join the ride" limit.
4. Nuclear hellfire is always the solution.
Do we need a lot of temporary willpower to resist social combat?
One per scene is usually enough.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Not neight-indestructible. Normal Bullets (from a single gun) don't seem to be enough*, but Dresden fire evocations seemed to put a real hurting on it.
The real problem is that ontop of it's fairly good soak it is also maneuverable and invisible. All of those advantages really compound on each other.
*At least not quickly it isn't like the skinwalker ever goes for a Superman impression and let people just shoot out all their ammo at it. But it's hard to tell if that is because bullets can hurt it or if it just tries to practice good habits of not depending on durability.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- We have high enough socials and permanent willpower that we rarely need to spend temporary willpower on ignoring other people's arguments
- Even when we do, we are still spending temporary willpower, and the ability to restore it with Meng is still valuable
- … you, you do know that we roll permanent willpower on basically every roll that says "roll willpower," right? If we're rolling willpower to resist an argument, it doesn't matter how much we've already spent. Except for Lydia because of how her Excellency mechanics work, the only time your temporary willpower pool and the amount left in it has any effect at all is when you spend it.
- Location
- Germany
There are some very few powers that are resisted by current temp. Willpower.
I think one of the special abilities from Gods and Monsters that the Raksha had, as one example.
But again, those are ultra-rare and we can resist them with IPM.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
All things betray means that Molly should at least have a good chance of spotting the Skinwalker. Her aggravated damage hellfire sword should be able to hurt it and her flight should make about as maneuverable so long as there aren't small holes for it to fit though that Molly can't.
So in the end the fight becomes a back and forth beat down between the two of them. Although if we can have Dad and/or Dresden there I think that the odds shift in our favor. If we could get a Molly, Dad, Dresden cage match with the Skinwalker I think we would win.
Unfortunately it's really hard to force a cage match. The enemy is smart and we don't know much about them as a individual or a species.
So in the end the fight becomes a back and forth beat down between the two of them. Although if we can have Dad and/or Dresden there I think that the odds shift in our favor. If we could get a Molly, Dad, Dresden cage match with the Skinwalker I think we would win.
Unfortunately it's really hard to force a cage match. The enemy is smart and we don't know much about them as a individual or a species.
Naagolashii are sadistic monsters, so I doubt it.
Even if it did we'd probably have to sneak into it's territory; a place where it doesn't have to worry about power loss and has had centuries to prepare defenses.
If we slip up we'd be facing it in nearly the worst possible conditions.
We only have 9 points to play with, and when we get into things we tend to get into get into resource heavy situations.
We could easily end up going between multiple combat and social encounters without time for an hour long break.
1. When dealing with scrubs. Wp is ablative armor, harvesting it is something to be careful about.
2. I'm familiar, and don't disagree
3. Yes I'm aware. The crux of my argument isn't even really about this, I just think it's worth noting that wp isn't essence and we shouldn't treat it like a pool of free successes.
Scrubs were never a social or physical threat to us. Someone rolling within 2-4 dice of us is.
Running into a high Sidhe with 3 willpower because we spent it all could be fairly unpleasant.
- Location
- Germany
She still has a very small pool of Perception plus Alertness or Awarness.
Even though her low DC makes those dice almost autosuccesses, a good sneak can still get more succeses on a Dex+Stealth roll, even before supernatural adjustments like invisibility or silence.
I would like to remind people of two things:
1) Boiling Sea Mastery provides perfect immunity to any and all aquatic environments, "from the crushing depths of the deepest trenches to the boiling sea of fat and grease that is the Hell of Boiling Oil."
2) For a cost of 1 essence TLF renders us "completely immune to environmental damage for the rest of the scene."
The place to fight naagloshi is a gas chamber. Or a chemical factory. Or a steel mill, to reenact Terminator. Or a volcano (because sulfuric vapors). We can swim in lava, as long as its liquid.
Really, any sort of pre-made closed environment, where we can flood the area with sarin / acid mist / mixture of both would be perfect. I am fairly sure naagloshii still needs to breath a bit.
@DragonParadox while I understand that it would take a vote and an update to have a discussion with Bob about it, could we get an answer whether astrology is actually a thing in some way?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I mean if we could actually track down the Naagolashii base then I would not propose going inside. I would have Molly craft up a bunch of artillery and blow the place from a distance. Force the Naagolashii to come to us on prepared ground or have it's base destroyed.
Last edited:
In the Exalted sense? No, there is no Loom of Fate, the world has a lot more free will than that one.
No, I meant modern understanding of the word. Horoscopes and such. Is this something that is a thing in Dresdenverse magic at all?