My apologies for any annoyance caused.
But I disagree.
We voted to interact with interesting people, and fish for information.
The point of this entire thing was for us to pick the target we wanted to interact with. We could mouth meaningless pufferies and move on from Vito; Leinth was specifically pointed out as a different target.
But coming the heavy without provocation, after an apparently courteous greeting would actively make it harder for us to interact with other Whamps who are already spooked by the archdevil in human skin that just showed up with a scion of Death in tow.
This is a social event; noone is compelled to talk to us.
Thats my two cents.
COMMENTARY
Interesting note about how his agent promptly dumped his phone once he realized Molly was involved, and a warning to us about spreading around how easily we can use HMP.
We probably want to establish alternate routes to Undertown that dont pass through his warehouse.
A little surprised he didnt consider the possible influence of both Dresden and Michael on our decisionmaking.
The very Catholic Knight of the Cross, and the wizard who has held opposition to Marcone's business as essentially an article of faith since they first met.
I dont think he wants to draw the sort of aggro we are looking to attract.
The FBI hexenwulfen almost arranged to have him killed by the loup garou in Fool Moon. The Denarians almost killed him just as a side effect of laying a trap for the Archive in Small Favor.
Doubt we can.
Dude used to be a Marine before he deliberately came here.
Whatever is driving him, its not simple or easy.
And frankly, there are the realities of his crime business, where there's always a bunch of people pushing for advantage
In Storm Front, Victor Sells was looking to take over and kill him, and one of his bodyguards sold him out.
In Fool Moon, the FBI wolves were trying to murder him, and the motorcycle gang came in from out of town to pose a challenge when he was still growing his power.
In Even Hand, he executed two of three men sent from Boston by another organized crime outfit to set up an operation in his city in a direct challenge.In Small Favor, Torelli, one of his sub-bosses promptly tried to stage a palace coup as soon as the Denarians grabbed him.
In Aftermath, one of his in-house enforcers was gathering evidence prior to murdering a housing superintendent who was breaking the rules about drug trafficking and cheating Marcone.
Running a large organized crime operation involves constantly walking a tightrope, and there's a need, a willingness to kill or maim as necessary, and to be seen to do so, because lessons only last so long, and there's always a new batch of bozos looking to see if you've lost your edge.
Thats the reality of a lot of organized crime; the credible threat of force is always just under the surface.
Point of correction:
Some of our guys were guilty of being cannibals; the older ones at least.
Especially when they were still working for the Red Court, and bodies needed disposal.
As a group of autonomous ghouls in Undertown, long pork isnt quite so easy to come by.
There genuinely isnt that much meat in a 70 kilogram human carcass.
Subtract 10% for blood, 15% for bone, and you're already down to ~53kg, and we havent even gotten rid of the digestive tract and its contents. And we're talking a human subspecies that can allegedly scarf down up to fifty pounds of meat in a sitting.
Unnecessary when we're investing in a Hell and can literally toss people in jail.
Cant get rid of violent crime anyway; can only restrict its scope, within reason.
No we cant. Not easily, and not well.
Marcone is a heroic mortal who clawed his way from foot soldier to head of Chicago's organized crime. He's the sort of person who took Denarian confinement and torture for three days running during the events of Small Favor and didnt break.
They dont grow on trees nor are they easy to change.
Furthermore, we dont have any interest in giving our enemies a new attack surface to exploit.
Running an organized crime outfit would close a bunch of doors for us with regards to law enforcement and a fair fraction of the world. And it would give our enemies an easy, cheap way to fuck with us, just by funnelling information to law enforcement.
Marcone spent years dodging the Feds.
Not to mention that Molly sure as fuck does not have the stomach to execute people or smash their kneecaps or threaten their loved ones for infractions.
Also this.
Mafia bosses dont take holidays or sabbaticals; they are on the job 24/7/365.
Molly aint got time for that.
^^^
1)He didnt burst our intimidation bubble; we chose to engage.
We could have gone around and ignored him to the same effect; we could have literally flown over his head if we wanted to make an ostentatious point of ignoring him.
2) We chose to engage to gather information.
Intimidating someone into backing off doesnt actually do very much in the way of making them spill information.
Especially when they are free to walk away, and supernatural etiquette means we have to let him.
3)He's Malvora Heir, and son of Lady Cesarina Malvor, House Malvora Ruler.
He's already a political power here, at least in his generation. A single lost social exchange might be embarassing, but it does nothing to actually affect his power.
Especially since he is gathering information for his various allegiances, in the one place where he might be able to do so safely.
And walking away IS an option for Whites in social combat.
Madrigal Raith did it in his first encounter with Dresden. Lord Skavis did it in White Night when his heir didnt show up to back up his claims. Even Lara has backed down in the face of Shagnasty and Ebenezar McCoy.
Force majeure is a defense.
No we cant.
Crime is a social phenomenon. It doesnt just go away because you attacked a couple gangs; others rise in their place.
And its not just career criminals who have to crime to make a living, there are also posers, and thrillseekers, and people who enjoy holding power over others.
Because crime is usually the first way that a lot of expansionist supernatural powers gain a foothold in a region.
Before Dresden immolated Bianca St Claire's seethe at the climax of Grave Peril, the Red Court ran a good chunk of the sex trade in Chicago; a point of enmity between her and Thomas was that she wanted Justine for the Velvet Room, but Thomas got to her first. After Dresden killed them off, Marcone took over, and in doing so, has kept others out.
The Red Court notoriously has its fingers in the cartels south of the US border, and in a chunk of crime activities in the US reaching up into Las Vegas.
And thats just the Reds.
When the Black Council first made a move on Chicago in Storm Front, they used Victor Sells, a warlock who started by muscling in on the drug trade. When they tried again in Fool Moon, they used renegade FBI agents. When the Shroud of Turin was stolen in Death Masks, it was by professional thieves.
When the Kemmlerites were after the Word of Kemmler in Dead Beat, they used a professional criminal and smuggler.
When Ariana Ortega was looking to distract Dresden in Changes, she hired professional hitmen.
When the Fomor started their campaign of kidnappings and murders between Ghost Story and Peace Talks, they used a lot of criminals. And some corrupt cops. When Nicky wanted to go rob Hades in Skin Games, he needed to hire a professional thief.
We dont want to run the crime world. Its actively harmful to our interests to do so.
But we are obliged to keep an eye on things at that end, before something grows its strength in the crime world, crawls out of the deep waters and bites us.
General Addiction Statistics According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics (NCDAS), nearly half of all people 12 and older in the United States have used an illicit substance at least once. Below are some facts and statistics about just how prevalent substance abuse and addiction...
www.addictionhelp.com
Lemme explain the scope of the problem.
Molly produces Essence*100 weeklong meals per use of the Maggot charm. At E3, that's 300 per use.
37
million Americans of the population that's 12 and older used illicit drugs in 2020. 13.5% of Americans 12 or older used illicit drugs in the last 30 days. Thats one in eight or nine people thats of teenage years or older in the US, roughly.
Chicago is roughly 3 million people, of which roughly 18% are below 14; that translates to roughly 330,000 people who have used illicit drugs in a month.
Drugs are massively profitable because so many people use them; in the US alone, its worth 150 billion dollars a year, and Chicago is the third biggest city in the US, and a major transport hub. Then there's illicit gambling, loan sharking, prostitution, burglary, car theft, bank robbery, credit card theft, construction fraud, smuggling and so on.
All the various varieties of crime in a smorgasbord of flavors.
Not true. It never has.
Man has always sought mind-altering substances. Even countries with the death penalty for drug possession still have a drug trade. You can literally cook meth in the back of your car with cough medicine, which is why bulk purchase of cough medicine is currently illegal and requires an ID.
At best you'll drive the demand to another substance.
Its a demented game of whack a mole.
