- Location
- Earth
That did not prove what he wanted it to.
Perhaps they wanted to sink the body in the sea?
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
- Location
- Germany
What a weird set of rolls that must have been.
First the vamp fails his mental discipline, then the relativly normal human wins initiative and the she kills him with a single path-magic effect.
First the vamp fails his mental discipline, then the relativly normal human wins initiative and the she kills him with a single path-magic effect.
Sometimes the monster gets unlucky.
Of course if he had not been fighting someone with a very lethal power that she does not use normally he would have been more careful.
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Damn, we'd need a pretty damn thorough trunk cleaning, probably with TTC and excellencies to get rid of the smell afterwards.
Interacting with True Faith fanatics is going to be interesting.
[X] Stick together for now, she no doubt has decent wards, but you are better protection than any ward could ever be.
-[X] Empathy excellency to reassure and calm her down to get her past the stress of nearly losing her life and killing a person
-[X] Warn her that she'll probably need to talk not just to police but to other forces involved. If she's not up to that, you'll drop her off somewhere safe after you talk to lieutenant Murphy. Somewhere with company, she shouldn't stay alone right now.
-[X] Write in how you present your findings so far to Detective Murphy: As an ongoing event that has a strong chance of developing into a political incident on multiple fronts, involving supernatural superpowers.
We have a Knight of the Cross as a mentor. Fairly sure that dealing with ill-informed fanatics is part of his job description. We are also a socially-oriented celestial exalt capable of throwing >15 dice with DC discounts against mortals. We should totally talk to them. We should explain to them the errors of their ways. We should see whose patsies they are (my guess is denarians, possibly), if they exist at all and are not a false flag operation.
Interacting with True Faith fanatics is going to be interesting.
[X] Stick together for now, she no doubt has decent wards, but you are better protection than any ward could ever be.
-[X] Empathy excellency to reassure and calm her down to get her past the stress of nearly losing her life and killing a person
-[X] Warn her that she'll probably need to talk not just to police but to other forces involved. If she's not up to that, you'll drop her off somewhere safe after you talk to lieutenant Murphy. Somewhere with company, she shouldn't stay alone right now.
-[X] Write in how you present your findings so far to Detective Murphy: As an ongoing event that has a strong chance of developing into a political incident on multiple fronts, involving supernatural superpowers.
[X] Stick together for now, she no doubt has decent wards, but you are better protection than any ward could ever be.
-[X] Empathy excellency to reassure and calm her down to get her past the stress of nearly losing her life and killing a person
-[X] Warn her that she'll probably need to talk not just to police but to other forces involved. If she's not up to that, you'll drop her off somewhere safe after you talk to lieutenant Murphy. Somewhere with company, she shouldn't stay alone right now.
-[X] Write in how you present your findings so far to Detective Murphy: As an ongoing event that has a strong chance of developing into a political incident on multiple fronts, involving supernatural superpowers.
-[X] Empathy excellency to reassure and calm her down to get her past the stress of nearly losing her life and killing a person
-[X] Warn her that she'll probably need to talk not just to police but to other forces involved. If she's not up to that, you'll drop her off somewhere safe after you talk to lieutenant Murphy. Somewhere with company, she shouldn't stay alone right now.
-[X] Write in how you present your findings so far to Detective Murphy: As an ongoing event that has a strong chance of developing into a political incident on multiple fronts, involving supernatural superpowers.
That did not prove what he wanted it to.
Perhaps they wanted to sink the body in the sea?
It would be the lake or one of the canals running towards it in the case of Chicago.
I expect there are no Witch Hunters and this was instead the vampires laying a false trail/inventing a threat to make her more susceptible to mental manipulation to see him as someone who can help against the non-existent threat.
But we can check if she kept any of the threatening letters.
I actually dropped something from that post. I think DF foci could use something a bit more home brew.
What they primarily do is make the caster more capable of doing specific things in the field, and to do so with greater efficiency. Harry's blasting rod provides some specific advantages to the focus and control of his favored energy types, while his shield bracelet is the only reason he can raise a force field worth a damn at combat speeds.
So instead of giving them dice pool or difficulty modifiers, model them by giving a specific bonus aspect that doesn't count towards the spell success requirements and/or a free time decrease under the same rules.
Just don't make it generic. If you want fire beams you carry a foci that's built specifically around doing something to that spell. Want more? Design mire custom spell support tools and carry them around.
That basically simulates how DF talents use them, gives them the ability to become pretty effective, and can be moderated to avoid power bloat.
I also think it'd make sense to set the rules for producing them to use occult and craft instead of enchanting.
Everyone makes their own props to at least some extent, and they're usually both lacking in magical abilities themselves and significantly less useful to people other than the designer if they do anything at all.
Modeling them via enchanting would require even the most minor of talents to dip into enchanting that they exclusively use to make items that aren't even really magical just to do something incredibly normal for the setting.
I agree, this seems too targeted, especially since she doesn't use her magic in her day to day life, the letters feels like they know too much to just be someone else.
- Location
- Germany
There are literally Foci in Mage though, that mages need to cast without penalties.
Those can be generic like a staff, or very different for various spells.
I think that already models Dresden's foci well enough.
Once she's had a minute to process anyway. We have some attitudes to adjust, and Usum is the perfect pry bar for bad ideas these days.
We said we'd keep her in the loop, not that we'd narc on people who haven't done anything wrong. Clippy basically has a recording of Jackson's testimony, and this isn't going to see the inside of a courtroom anyway.
There's got to be some give and take here, not just Murphy showing up to throw her badge around in every delicate situation we find ourselves in.
She's not going to be happy about it, but the salient point of our agreement was to keep her apprised of stuff like the fact that the white court has rogue members who are orchestrating a serial killing campaign and getting her involved in stopping that.
If Jackson doesn't want to be known to the authorities then I don't see us as obligated to report her as part of it.
None of the path rules we've been using so far have those built in though. Seems more like introducing a penalty to remove that brings us back to where we are right now.
If the design goal is "make minor talents/sorcerers more dangerous to reflect how they operate in DF as opposed to WoD" then using foci as a boost to introduce the difference without futzing with the core mechanics too much seems like a reasonable way to do it.
I think it's more "doesn't want to talk about this a second time" than "doesn't want to talk to the police". Also, no narcing here. I mean, we have a body in the trunk of our car. The pne on trouble is Molly, of it came to the law enforcement (and I hope very much we don't get stopped for a routine check).
If a cop car even looks like it is heading in your direction at this point it will... serendipitous stop dead as one of your demons takes it over, that is 'spend willpower to make sure' territory given the complications it would cause.
Gonna have to ask the QM.
But these are not fetishes; these are spirits loyal to Molly and bound into tech devices by her power. It seems logical that she should be able to recall them by revoking the same power application, especially since they either go to sleep in her anima or pop up in her He'll.
I happen to agree with @BronzeTongue on this.
It doesn't matter.
Michael and Harry didn't call Murphy in last time the Denarians were in turn, even though most of their forces were humans with weapons and in her jurisdiction.
The rest of the supernatural world considers involving mortal authorities to be an extreme escalation. Nuclear-worthy escalation at that. Doesn't matter what our opinion is; their opinion is what counts, because thats what determines their reaction in turn. And even the smaller forces have the potential to make any such escalation a pyrrhic victory at best.
If we don't want to deal with them escalating in turn, we keep this in mind.
COMMENTARY
-Burner phone.
But HMP gives us dates, text messages and the number it was texting with. And we can figure out when this burner phone was activated, plus it's location history.
-All thy knows of witchcraft. Ropes and weights.
That means they were using a cover of being religious-based nutjobs, which suggests Dr Jackson is a practicing pagan of some sort. I suspect they wanted to interrogate her about the rest of Cauldron, hence the ropes for restraint. The weights would have been to vanish the body in Lake Michigan. If I had to make a guess, that would be the information "Priscellie" would use in canon to target Cauldron members.
-Dunno what the man from Bern refers to.
Calvin?
-There was an accomplice with a getaway car.
We may have been recognized...no, we were recognized. Else the accomplice would not have bailed so fast. No point looking for the car; odds are it was stolen or otherwise procured.
Either way, we're on a timer because the accomplice will report to their boss that shit went bad.
-Dr Jackson says "our backdoor."
That means she doesn't live alone, but has a family; maybe a live-in partner, and/or other family. Which explains why this was tried at work rather than at home. They all need to be moved for the duration; maybe a week.
-Neither Isabella nor Thomas recognized the photo.
So it's neither "Priscellie" Skavis, Vito Malvora or Madrigal Raith. And the dude being in a Columbus, Ohio high school yearbook from 1972 would make him around 52 years old in 2006. He's been working for someone. There's a data trail for the Cyberdevils to find. Might not do it quickly though.
Gonna note that Columbus Ohio isn't all that far from Cleveland, where we dealt with the Pathfinder problem. Something to keep in the back of our mind.
-So we have several applicable foci:
- The body and the items on it
- The burner phone itself
- The accomplice's burner phone number
- Dr Jackson's torn lab coat, ripped at the neck by the victim
- Her backdoor, which was painted in blood
- The cat's corpse
- Several letters of escalating harassment
That's enough to identify everyone involved in this scheme.
That's an assumption. A reasonable one following Occam's razor, but still an assumption. It's quite possible that there were, in fact, religious fanatics involved.
It's also sad, if not surprising, that dr. Jackson didn't think to contact us for help. I guess for most members of the order of Cauldron it didn't sink in yet that they now have a nuclear weapon equivalent they can call upon at little to no consequences, and that any threat below Fae Court Lady level could be swiftly dispatched with either social charms or nuclear hellflame.
No, we cannot return cyberdevils to our anima.
Notice how older wizards only have a staff for fieldwork? How Luccio casts her laser beam fire spells without a blasting rod? The Dresdenverse allegedly considers anything beyond a staff as a crutch for someone who is still growing. Even Wardens only carry those countermagic swords.
Harry carrying a separate blasting rod and defensive bracelet and kinetic rings is supposed to be a sign of his relative newbness. And something he'll outgrow.
And it's not just the wizards.
Like I pointed out earlier, the Alphas don't need equipment or preptime to be ready to rock. Neither does Mortimer Lindquist. Everyone who is serious about their magic doesnt appear to rely on external gear.
Left to me, I'd probably model some of it as a custom Merit available to experienced mortal practitioners. But the optional rules cover most of It.
I don't agree.
Religious nutjobs willing to escalate to murder are not actually controllable, pliable weapons you can wield at your own leisure, nor are they good at keeping a low profile. Especially when the point is to avoid discovery, so you can't use Whampire magic to control them for fear of a wizard noticing.
She might just be an openly practicing pagan, and this sort of harassment might not be new, depending on which part of the US she came from. Certainly not worth disturbing other people over.
And Molly is a teenager with a life, not Cauldron's attack dog. They aren't going to assume she'll drop everything and come running in the event of one too many false alarms. Jackson wasn't going to disturb her over nasty letters. She may mention the blood on the back door at the next meeting, but that apparently just happened last night.
You guys cannot recall HMP demons by any means short of smashing their vessel beyond use. Now you can command then to fry their own vessels, they are unquestioningly loyal, but if you actually want to get them out and leave the machine intact you are going to have to Sapphire Exorcism them at full costs, That is one of the disadvantages of charms over wizard magic, as broad and powerful as they are they cannot be modified on the fly
My current thinking is
It's Thursday evening/night
Arrange a meeting with Murphy in an hour.
Have Lydia meet you there as well.
Have Jackson take an early weekend.
Drive her home, ten minutes to grab stuff and any partner/family/pets, then drive her to another Cauldron members home for the rest of the weekend and lay low. More people = harder target.
Also have her get us the letters she was sent and their envelopes.
While she's doing so, use Crown questions on
-Wallet: Identity of the owner/the Whampire carrying it
-Dr Jackson's torn labcoat: Chain of command/everyone involved in the attempted kidnapping attempt that damaged this coat
-Backdoor and dead cat's grave: ???
What to tell Murphy
Whampire homicide in the process of an attempted kidnapping. Part of a bigger plot.
Breach of truce agreement between you and Lara last month.
Should Dr Jackson meet Murphy?
No.
Give them both plausible deniability.
It's Thursday evening/night
Arrange a meeting with Murphy in an hour.
Have Lydia meet you there as well.
Have Jackson take an early weekend.
Drive her home, ten minutes to grab stuff and any partner/family/pets, then drive her to another Cauldron members home for the rest of the weekend and lay low. More people = harder target.
Also have her get us the letters she was sent and their envelopes.
While she's doing so, use Crown questions on
-Wallet: Identity of the owner/the Whampire carrying it
-Dr Jackson's torn labcoat: Chain of command/everyone involved in the attempted kidnapping attempt that damaged this coat
-Backdoor and dead cat's grave: ???
What to tell Murphy
Whampire homicide in the process of an attempted kidnapping. Part of a bigger plot.
Breach of truce agreement between you and Lara last month.
Should Dr Jackson meet Murphy?
No.
Give them both plausible deniability.
Modus_Tollens
SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE
- Location
- ALSO SCREAMING.
It has narrative weight. While the woman would have died either way, this is reminiscent of the old bullshit test for witches whereupon they were ritually drowned. Those that sink were supposedly innocent of the sin of being a witch, those who float guilty and executed by other means. Its... it would serve precisely no function here but most of the insane asshattery being done is just thematic insane asshattery so its on brand.
I hope this woman's soul is doing alright. She did just kill via magic and, for anyone too human, that tends to leave even more scars than killing through mundane methods. Its why the While Council continually overreacts about this sort of thing when its against humans. It was entirely justified, what she killed left their own humanity on the roadside some time ago, but her own subjective reality at the moment she killed still might have slightly fucked her up.
Looks like we are going to be helping Lara further cement her authority with a purge. Even if this was verifiably a rogue element... it clearly is even IC because this isn't how she would break aa formalized truce... it erodes the value of her word and proves she has no true authority over her own men. That sort of thing is either handled early and brutally or it spells the end for her as a leader.
More importantly, more people equals a better chance of someone's eyes catching the start of shit going down and getting a phonecall off. We can murder pretty much anyone but we can't do much against ambushes.
We really need to figure out a better security arrangement. This sort of thing is going to happen several times a year.
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I meant more in the sense of giving her name and face to Murphy. SI is basically the relevant police department for the average talent.
Being able to kill a vampire, even a trash mob grade white court one, that's within arm's reach of you at the drop of a hat is no joke lucky rolls or not. I can understand how she might not want to end up on an informal list to be poked at.
Which she probably would be. Murphy doesn't have a lot of her own contacts for this stuff at this point in canon*.
A sorcerer league talent with community connections is the exact kind of person who doesn't want to talk to the authorities much but whom Murphy would absolutely show up and badger whenever Harry stiffs her on information.
* Which strikes me as weird in retrospect, she really should have a whole rogue's gallery of minor talents and little league supernaturals that she's interacted with on the job to talk to, but she's woefully dependent on Harry up until his death.
- Location
- Earth
They probably are even less talkative than Harry.
Modus_Tollens
SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE
- Location
- ALSO SCREAMING.
I look at this woman, a successful dentist, and I think to myself that part of future security measures for her and everyone else is to just circle the wagons. If we have a friend that is a dentist we make sure that its the dentist all of our other friends use, the same for every single other profession one of our friends and friendlies happens to be involved with. Its kind of a Mafia/Yakuza move but that sort of closeness is a small defense that overlaps with pretty much everything else we can do that might be at least good policy in the future.
I wonder if ghouls suffer tooth decay...
I wonder if ghouls suffer tooth decay...
We're inviting her to every community gettogether forever so hopefully that is different here.
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