Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

Yog · Jun 19, 2023

[X] Interrogate the vampire's ghost
-[X] Full use of excellencies, ATB with willpower to read ghost's reactions
-[X] Lydia uses Manipulation excellency
-[X] Murphy assists
-[X] Questions:
--[X] Why did you attack your would-be victim? What was the plan?
--[X] Who else did you and your co-conspirators plan to attack?
--[X] Who else did you and your co-conspirators already attack as a part of this plan?
--[X] Are you related to the witch hunting letters? Are those real?
--[X] Who else is involved?
--[X] Do you want us to relay anything to anyone?

Artemis1992 · Jun 19, 2023

Wouldn't cold iron be easier to get though?

Exmorri · Jun 19, 2023

DragonParadox said:
Because it has been made conceptually more real, more solid by human hands. It is unnaturally solid and that is poison to ghosts. This is a canon weakness in this universe by the way. I always thought it was a cool element.

It is also metaphorically dead.

Artemis1992 said:
Wouldn't cold iron be easier to get though?

Iron is only about 8x as dense as water, depleted uranium 20x.

DragonParadox · Jun 19, 2023

Artemis1992 said:
Wouldn't cold iron be easier to get though?

It is, but not as potent in this case.

the DragonBard · Jun 19, 2023

[X] Yog

Goldfish · Jun 19, 2023

Yog said:
[X] Interrogate the vampire's ghost
-[X] Full use of excellencies, ATB with willpower to read ghost's reactions
-[X] Lydia uses Manipulation excellency
-[X] Murphy assists
-[X] Questions:
--[X] Why did you attack your would-be victim? What was the plan?
--[X] Who else did you and your co-conspirators plan to attack?
--[X] Are you related to the witch hunting letters? Are those real?
--[X] Who else is involved?
--[X] Do you want us to relay anything to anyone?

Maybe also ask who they've already attacked?

[X] Yog

Aeondrac · Jun 19, 2023

[X] Let Murphy take the lead

Modus_Tollens · Jun 19, 2023

firefrog600 said:
Lydia is a treat also almost low key autistic it's adorable.

One of my main concerns is that we are extremely demanding of her and don't allow her the personal latitude she needs and deserves as a person. She is constantly being dragged into our shit and, while she is glad to, it still has to wear on somebody to do so at every goddamn turn. That, in my mind, doesn't mean we don't use her: Just that we need to make it so that some of the things she is doing are things she is the lead in rather than the follower... or a piece of equipment.

That is a danger with Exalted, I know. Entire armies can literally be treated as pieces of equipment.

DragonParadox · Jun 19, 2023

Modus_Tollens said:
One of my main concerns is that we are extremely demanding of her and don't allow her the personal latitude she needs and deserves as a person. She is constantly being dragged into our shit and, while she is glad to, it still has to wear on somebody to do so at every goddamn turn. That, in my mind, doesn't mean we don't use her: Just that we need to make it so that some of the things she is doing are things she is the lead in rather than the follower... or a piece of equipment.

That is a danger with Exalted, I know. Entire armies can literally be treated as pieces of equipment.

You could certainly have a talk with her about that, if you guys wanted to.

Yog · Jun 19, 2023

Goldfish said:
Maybe also ask who they've already attacked?

Good idea, added.

DragonParadox said:
You could certainly have a talk with her about that, if you guys wanted to.

We probably should. After we deal with naagloshii we should have breathing room, and we should just hang out, and talk to her and be friends.

Modus_Tollens · Jun 19, 2023

DragonParadox said:
You could certainly have a talk with her about that, if you guys wanted to.

Its definitely something we need to put at the top of our list, immediately underneath anything where actual lives are on the line. This isn't something we want to put off any longer than we have to.

BronzeTongue · Jun 19, 2023

Yog said:
We probably should. After we deal with naagloshii we should have breathing room, and we should just hang out, and talk to her and be friends.

That and a 15+ success thank you motorcycle would be good. She's helped us a lot recently, and I'm not sure what else we've got that Lydia would want.

Edit: not sure what happened to my post there. Fixed

Yog · Jun 19, 2023

BronzeTongue said:
That and a 15+ success thank you motorcycle would be good. She's helped us a lot recently, and I'm not sure what else we've got that Lydia would want.

Edit: not sure what happened to my post there. Fixed

She doesn't know how to drive. She could probably bind a ghost to it or we could stick a cyberdevil into it. And, I guess, we could try to give her lessons.

uju32 · Jun 19, 2023

BronzeTongue said:
I don't contest that she's important; that's why it'd make sense to make at minimum a pro forma effort to conceal exactly who our source was.

She she actually was the only way we had to get information like this obscuring how good her ability to get dead men to tell tales was would be somewhat important. It'd also be an expectation among allies not to put people in a position where their secrets get implicitly revealed.

In this case our actual ability to obscure things would be limited, but every bit of uncertainty would help - especially when they're free.

Lydia might not care at the moment, but if the goal is to deceive Lara of all people then I think a better bet is to paint a familiar image. We want her expectations to do most of the job of selling the lie for us, because we are newcomers to the realm of bullshit and she was basically born there.

To be clear, I don't think your vote will explode on us or something. It's just not as convincing as it could be for the same effort in my view.

That was never in our control?
I quote:

You open your mouth, the answer upon the tip of your tongue, then close it. You had felt that power before, if only in the distant and impersonal gaze of the Crown, the Naagloshii. It had been tying off loose ends, but if a curse from afar would not work...

"We need to get him under wards now!"

Lara however isn't looking at you, she is looking at Lydia. "Or we kill him on our terms and she collects his soul."

Lydia looks downright disgusted at the thought, but she does not refuse outright, no doubt considering just as you are the time it would take to get under any decent wards. Does the bloody skinwalker care about exposure? On the one hand it had sent an invisible spy, on the other hand that same spy had been cursed to gruesomely tear themselves apart if captured.

What do you do?

[] Follow Lara's suggestion, once the spy is dead he is under Lydia's domain more than that of his master in life

Lara already knew.

Yog said:
Indeed. A kind reminder: Lydia is Kemmler's greatest achievement, the culmination of his research into the power of death. She is a demigod heir of an afterlife realm, connected to and empowered by the concept of death itself, not from one mythology, but on the universal scale. At least parts of this are known to actors in-story.

And out of story, she is an exalt between terrrestrial and celestial tiers, and likely has a lot more in her background left unearthed.

Lydia is a big deal. A Lady to our Queen at least.

Rather beyond Kemmler, I suspect.
He gave Arawn theoretical knowledge but I suspect the actual metaphysical grunt work was far beyond him.

Cavalar · Jun 19, 2023

Modus_Tollens said:
Its definitely something we need to put at the top of our list, immediately underneath anything where actual lives are on the line. This isn't something we want to put off any longer than we have to.

Well, we certainly can help her by handling her and her father's problems with Winter, but I'm afraid that this plan will not be popular.

BronzeTongue · Jun 19, 2023

Yog said:
She doesn't know how to drive. She could probably bind a ghost to it or we could stick a cyberdevil into it. And, I guess, we could try to give her lessons.

Too bad Daniel doesn't either; if we could arrange for him to teach her it would be an endless source of teasing material.

uju32 said:
That was never in our control?
I quote:

Data points are data points. Policy should be to avoid confirming or demonstrating anything you don't have to.

Cavalar said:
Well, we certainly can help her by handling her and her father's problems with Winter, but I'm afraid that this plan will not be popular.

Seems suboptimal. The situation is already basically handled, opening the issue again isn't really helpful to them.

Sure we could use a favor for it, but who knows what the board will look like by the time Arawn recovers? It could be entirely immaterial or otherwise easily resolved by that point.

Better to pick something more immediate.

uju32 · Jun 19, 2023

DragonParadox said:
Uncanny Witnesses

COMMENTARY
Occurs to me we've never been to Lydia's house.
A driver in the early morning suggests she has a live-in staff. Which suggests she was drawing on old familial loyalties for staff.

Lol Murphy
Dresden goes out of his way to soften the impact of new things for her. It doesn't even occur to the two teenagers here most of the time to do so

-QUESTIONS: Who, what, where, when, why and how
Who: Are you? Who are your bosses and confederate and getaway driver? Who else is involved in this?
What: were you trying to accomplish in kidnapping her? What were your goals and those of your confederates?
Where: Have you done this before? Which cities? How many people?
When: Did this entire plot start?
Why: were you doing this? Why Now?

And asking if theres someone he wants a message passed along to is probably a useful concession.

DragonParadox said:
Rolls
Lydia not to blurt out Anna's name
Perception+Awareness with FHE
Moly to understand the incoherent ghost
Lydia to get the ghost to cooperate

Its late night in mid-November. In Chicago.
That's definitely cold enough to trigger Without Honor.

Molly's roll to understand the ghost should have been Perception 3 + Empathy 5 + Stunt 2 + Without Honor 2.
12 dice, not 10.

DragonParadox said:
Hmm... in that case yeah it does not apply, that drops two of your successes, but Molly still gets it well enough since it is a Key ability so 1s don't subtract.

*checks*
Depends on the type of ghost.
Most wraiths are not CoDs; some are, but most aren't.
All spectres are.

I would suspect that the ghost of a Whampire would be a Cod, just like it was itself in life; the Hunger may be gone, but youd expect it left a mark.

DragonParadox · Jun 19, 2023

Molly did not get a stunt for that one because it is kind of hard to stunt perception and in this case it was not worth the effort/focus.

fictionfan · Jun 19, 2023

[X] Let Murphy take the lead

Because we don't actually need more information from this ghost just plausible deniability about how we got our current information and I expect Murphy will appreciate it. Also saves us some essanse.

Artemis1992 · Jun 19, 2023

[X] Let Murphy take the lead

Agreeing with Fictionfan.
We know which vamps must die, this is theatre to better sell it to Lara.

Yzarc · Jun 19, 2023

[X] Let Murphy take the lead

uju32 · Jun 19, 2023

DragonParadox said:
Molly did not get a stunt for that one because it is kind of hard to stunt perception and in this case it was not worth the effort/focus.

Fair enough.

Yog said:
[X] Interrogate the vampire's ghost
-[X] Full use of excellencies, ATB with willpower to read ghost's reactions
-[X] Lydia uses Manipulation excellency
-[X] Murphy assists
-[X] Questions:
--[X] Why did you attack your would-be victim? What was the plan?
--[X] Who else did you and your co-conspirators plan to attack?
--[X] Who else did you and your co-conspirators already attack as a part of this plan?
--[X] Are you related to the witch hunting letters? Are those real?
--[X] Who else is involved?
--[X] Do you want us to relay anything to anyone?

Three suggestions:
1)Ask his name
2)Ask if they have been doing this in other cities
3)Ask if he's aware of any competing group/groups trying to do the same thing or take credit for it

Artemis1992 said:
[X] Let Murphy take the lead

Agreeing with Fictionfan.
We know which vamps must die, this is theatre to better sell it to Lara.

We know some of the vamps that need to die.
Notably, there's a big question mark over Vito Malvora.

And we don't have IC confirmation about who and how many have already been killed outside Chicago in previous test runs.
Murphy will ask better police questions, but she might miss the supernatural and international politics aspects.

====
[X]Yog

It's not how I'd write it, but it'll do.

恐Drake · Jun 19, 2023

[X]Yog

Artemis1992 · Jun 19, 2023

uju32 said:
We know some of the vamps that need to die.
Notably, there's a big question mark over Vito Malvora.

And we don't have IC confirmation about who and how many have already been killed outside Chicago in previous test runs.
Murphy will ask better police questions, but she might miss the supernatural and international politics aspects.

We can cover those with the corpses of one of the names we already have.
Let Murphy do her cop thing.

KonradC · Jun 19, 2023

[X] Let Murphy take the lead

Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination

SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE

SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE

Please sir, may I have some Meows?

The Spark of Madness