Well, it should be making it harder for us to invoke By Rage Recast and fly with it. Would it count?
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
If that happens yeah it would count.
Actually, would this ritual even work? I mean, we have kakuri as favored hell. As I understand it, in-universe this means that we are thaumaturgically aligned with Kakuri. Actually, with Ebon Dragon whose shadows might be lurking below the foundations of Night Realm, but still. Would a ritual that impedes everyone but servants of Kakuri affect us?
Also, consider the question we asked earlier:
[X] Using your copy of Big Book of Yomi Wan, ask "what do the forces talked about in this book know about the type of object referred to by servants of Emma-O as Black Seed?" Pre-activate Occult Excellency to understand the answer better
[X] Drive by Pink Swan, and use the Crown to ask "does the former DJ of this club, known as J, work with Wan Kuei willingly or under duress?"
[X] Tell Bùshì Tùzǐ about J's survival and what the akuma are likely planning for him
-[X] Empathy excellency and All Things Betray to read her reaction
Also, consider the question we asked earlier:
Now, ask yourself - who is in charge of the ritual? The ones loyal to Emma-O, or the ones who want to escape from Emma-O's grasp?
Good question. And we need to do this before talking to Bùshì Tùzǐ.
[X] Using your copy of Big Book of Yomi Wan, ask "what do the forces talked about in this book know about the type of object referred to by servants of Emma-O as Black Seed?" Pre-activate Occult Excellency to understand the answer better
[X] Drive by Pink Swan, and use the Crown to ask "does the former DJ of this club, known as J, work with Wan Kuei willingly or under duress?"
[X] Tell Bùshì Tùzǐ about J's survival and what the akuma are likely planning for him
-[X] Empathy excellency and All Things Betray to read her reaction
IIRC, a solar exaltation is attracted to a crowning moment of achievement within their specialty. What they are trying would be a great way to exalt as a twilight. An infernal exaltation is attracted to a crowning moment of failure, that would have attracted a solar had it succeeded.
So, their plan couldn't attract the exaltation on account of the success would invalidate itself.
Unless of course the dupe they are using for the focus of the magic would not see their success as his success.
- Location
- florida
His options were work with them or die. And maybe get fantasitical infinite power out of the bargain.
He probably has some very good sounding justifications in his own head.
Not the least of which would be being able to stay with his hellcat forever -w-
I'm on the fence. On one hand betraying humanity. On the other hand. He's alive and everyone else isn't.
Unless of course the dupe they are using for the focus of the magic would not see their success as his success.
That's creating someone with a grudge against you and giving them phenomenal cosmic powers though, not sure it's a good plan.
So, anyway, these guys are planning to enact at least a district-wide magical effect, then go fight us (a relatively unknown, but presumably potent fighter) and a Knight of the Cross (who is our father) to the death. At least some of the forces on the ground seem to expect this to succeed. I will assume that Emma-O isn't stupid. They are also giving us enough time to investigate, and approached us in hostile enough manner to prompt us to be prepared for hostility.
I think this is a probe. Spirit killers seem to be relative OCPs in the setting. I think Emma-O might be expecting us to murderize this war party, and to get information on our capabilities when their souls end up back in hell. Probably use them as arcane links to either track us, or find other exaltations. If so, he'll probably freak out a bit when nothing turns up.
We should check if there are other parties in the city right now, covertly recording everything.
I think this is a probe. Spirit killers seem to be relative OCPs in the setting. I think Emma-O might be expecting us to murderize this war party, and to get information on our capabilities when their souls end up back in hell. Probably use them as arcane links to either track us, or find other exaltations. If so, he'll probably freak out a bit when nothing turns up.
We should check if there are other parties in the city right now, covertly recording everything.
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- Location
- florida
Looks at the Yozi.
Looks away from the Yozi.
Looks back at the Yozi slowly.
But the act of being a worthless dupe would probably also invalidate them, what with not failing at heroics.Unless of course the dupe they are using for the focus of the magic would not see their success as his success.
The guard sacrificed to finish the high priest's ritual isn't a hero, he's a minor story beat.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Okay, but just as a thought: they specifically chose a shaman for this ritual, presumably under the assumption that magical sensitivity on some level was required for the Exaltation. Of course, the Exaltation doesn't care about that, you can be about as magical as the average brick and still be the perfect candidate as long as you had the potential for greatness and were utterly crushed by defeat.
So what's interesting is, if their plan actually works through the "killing us and releasing our Exaltation to find a new Chosen" part, there will be two people who exactly meet that criteria right there: Michael Carpenter, the great Knight who failed to save his daughter, and Brother Divisimar, the old master Shih who couldn't save his student from the very forces he has dedicated his life to fighting. Either of them getting the Exaltation in that moment would be a very bad thing for the akuma.
So basically their attempt is doomed to failure as long as at least one of our allies is there and out-survives us.
So what's interesting is, if their plan actually works through the "killing us and releasing our Exaltation to find a new Chosen" part, there will be two people who exactly meet that criteria right there: Michael Carpenter, the great Knight who failed to save his daughter, and Brother Divisimar, the old master Shih who couldn't save his student from the very forces he has dedicated his life to fighting. Either of them getting the Exaltation in that moment would be a very bad thing for the akuma.
So basically their attempt is doomed to failure as long as at least one of our allies is there and out-survives us.
Favored hell doesn't mean we implicitly get protections against it. I mean another infernal without it favored could but charms from it and use them against us and they'd be no more difficult than the other way around if everything else is equal.
I'm more concerned about the fact that they've got something else set up for killing us first, since this ritual doesn't seem to have the juice to do it alone.
They don't know everything, but they do know a lot more than anyone else about what we're using.
I don't think this is a good idea yet. We should at least learn what's up before deciding to share. If he is willing we'll probably need to kill him ourselves, and we don't really know if Tuzi will side with us here.
Or we haven't seen their last trick yet.
Not trying to fear monger or anything, but if they're going to this much trouble to set up a debuff and net for our exaltation it's possible they've also put some effort into working out a way to even the odds.
Even if it means we leave a few souls uneaten I'm still leaning towards using cyber devils in mini bikes to burn the place down with thermite or something, purely so that we can be miles away when they retaliate.
I wasn't speaking about us having any inherent protections from Kakuri due to having it as favored hell. I was saying "this ritual obviously doesn't target inhabitants of Kakuri. It makes it harder to use non-kakuri powers". We have Kakuri as favored. It stands to reason that at the very least Kakuri charms won't be affected by the ritual. Possibly all Molly's powers, if she reads to the ritual as also being of Kakuri.
Overestimating the enemy is as bad as underestimating them. It's concerning that they are expecting to win a fight against us, Lydia and a Knight of the Cross. We should check what they have up their sleeves (if nothing else, we should have photos of their hotel available online).
Which is why I am voting to use a crown and learn everything they (and all other Yomi Wan factions) know about exaltations.
Which is why we first ask a crown question using J's old place of work as a focus, and then talk to her. We have 16+ dice for this. She's going to feel betrayed - akuma are her natural enemies, and this is definitely a betrayal. We need to talk to her before any possible confrontation. She deserves to know, if nothing else.
Kakuri in the political sense isn't the same as powers inspired by it. They know enough about our specific exaltation that it's unlikely they'd make that sort of mistake.
We do have the option to do that, so we should probably take it before doing a bunch of tangential stuff.
Their knowledge of exaltations isn't the same as their actual plan to take an exalt on. Seems like that should be higher on the priority list right now.
You're voting to go straight from learning to telling her. Depending on the results of the question we might not want to share anything. Knowing she's had a bad reaction doesn't stop it from having already occurred, and we'll have to deal with the fallout.
Molly with ATB on and legendary rolls is fully sure that she thinks her shaman is dead. Akuma are her enemies. We'll be telling her with Empathy excellency and ATB to help us tell her in a right way, and see and manage her reaction. Telling her is the option that minimizes the chances of betrayal. Not telling her lets J and akuma manipulate her, if needed.
Ok.
[X] Plan gathering intelligence before a confrontation
-[X] Using your copy of Big Book of Yomi Wan, ask "what do the forces talked about in this book know about the type of object referred to by servants of Emma-O as Black Seed?" Pre-activate Occult Excellency to understand the answer better
-[X} Using the online page of Jaslin Hotel as the focus, ask "what are the plans the akuma staying in this hotel have for winning a confrontation with Molly and her allies?"
-[X] Drive by Pink Swan, and use the Crown to ask "does the former DJ of this club, known as J, work with Wan Kuei willingly or under duress?"
-[X] Recover essence by spending time in a bottle of bleach which your father will carry while moving between locations.
-[X] Tell Bùshì Tùzǐ about J's survival and what the akuma are likely planning for him
--[X] Empathy excellency and All Things Betray to manage and read her reaction
Of all the SAs, I like that one the least.
Obsidian Shards weaponizes the Wall/Shroud/Gauntlet. It makes her a better killer, but it doesnt really do anything else for her, unlike most of the other SAs. The first three charms of Kaleidoscopic Logic alone....
As for TMA, she doesnt need to collect them all.
IMO its a nice bit of narrative symmetry to have Molly doing shih from a mortal monk while Lydia goes Sid from a nonmortal teacher, and it serves as some differentiation.
Its also explicitly mechanically allowed for all Exalts to learn at least up to 3 dots of SA as long as they have a teacher.
Molly has a lot more charms to explore than Lydia does.
Depends.
They appear to be mostly self-correcting in the Dresdenverse. When the Reds tried to use the leyline nexus at Chitchen Itza to power a bloodline curse and had Dresden use it to wipe them out, no repair work was necessary there either.
COMMENTARY
Still October 2, which is a Monday. Damn we're moving fast. Im guessing Molly called out of school today.
The mention of the Museum does suggest it might have a role to play here.
Im thinking that a map of the leylines in Chicago and the Great Lakes area might make for a neat piece of art for the Last Station.
Kinda like how metro train stations have a map of the relevant raillines.
==
J being alive means they pre-scouted who they could most easily threaten or seduce into this, and then grabbed him while murdering the rest. Thats gonna be awkward if we can recover him alive and uneaten.
They picked a shaman for this, or at least someone with the potential for it.
This supports my theory that Emma-O and his minions know fuckall about the Exaltation; its choice criteria have nothing to do with your magical heritage, and in Choosing a person it breaks all magic and mental bonds on them.
And while its not impossible to bind an active Exaltation?
Im reasonably sure its well beyond the capabilities of any single Yama King in this crossover, let alone an akuma. Just look at the effort it took to capture and contain the Archive in Small Favor, and that literally needed Lucy to take a hand.
==
To quote Eddie Izzard: Cake or death? Arrangements made under threat of death arent exactly indicative of the person's enthusiasm about the proposal in question. Not saying J is a great guy, but its hard to say no with a gun to your head. And vanilla Wan Kuei have mind control/persuasion magic anyway, let alone akuma.
That said, dollars to doughnuts we're not seeing all their preparations.
Bu unless Tuzi is a great actress, she's unaware of all of this though.
Poor Michael must find it a surreal experience to have his 17 year old daughter discussing her potential assassination with such equanimity. Good that Molly is self aware enough to self-censor.
==
Finding J should be straightforward.
Dresden specializes in finding people. We go by J's home, get hair from his comb or bedroom, and if he's on Earth we can probably find him, unless he's under very powerful wards. Or we could use his flat or belongings, his workplace, photograph, a keepsake or even Tuzi as a focus for the Crown to find his current whereabouts and ignore any wards.
Thing is, he might not be in Chicago.
Literally every type of vampire in the Dresdenverse can open a portal into the NeverNever, let alone an elder Akuma of Emma-O; stashing him under guard in the NeverNever with a stack of granola bars for a week isnt going to be that hard.
And Cold Days demonstrated that a mortal could live in the NeverNever for most of a year without harm.
Lydia definitely needs more Occult.
The arrangement almost certainly started under duress (unless for a magical reason they had to get his free non-forced agreement), but he might be genuinely helping them now, in hopes of gaining vast cosmic powers. It's worth checking at least.
Red ritual used Leyline power - that's pretty much a straightforward plan. Jades are planning to affect leylines themselves, to poison the flow of environmental chi in the area. We should at least check if it'll be self-correcting, instead of assuming so.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I think that when the trap goes off we should first try to escape rather than trying to kill them. Mostly because we want to be sure that CCC activates.
Also we should look into buying/making some military drones to HMP.
Also we should look into buying/making some military drones to HMP.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Wouldn't it be funny if we actually succeeded in the attempt? Perhaps not here, now, but against someone or something else?