- Location
- washington
Hey dp what is right above the dragon nest in chicago? I kinda want to really know in case we can actually buy it. Unlikely as that is.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
That was a big part of my point. Well I actually had a whole speech for how exalted are in fact mortals just perfected mortals. But than I realized that most of that only really applied to Solars. Infernals have a different deal.
Edit: That is actually likely a big reason Infernals often feel nerfed compared to Solars. A Solar's exaltation enhances their own perfection in a virtuous self reinforcing cycle. A Infernal also gets a shard of perfection enforcing them, but it isn't based on them or their ideals.
Solar charms don't need to justify themselves they are just a reflection of the Solar's perfection. Infernals have to argue the point every step of the way how their charms and actions actually fit the perfection of the Yozi. Or the other way round.
Solar: "Isn't my horse so cool I am totally awesome when riding a horse"
Infernal: "Well technically I am trying to escape."
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- Location
- Norway
That's not true. Stop repeating that.
Surviving reentry is an immensely complicated technical challenge with stupid amounts of money and time spent to make it work.
The earth just eats rocks with considerably higher mass and durability than anything designed to stay in orbit.
The forces involved are so ridiculous that it only takes shuffling a little over the line to start a death spiral.
Outside of options like the Guyon this seems like a very expensive operation.
Putting most of our money on the stock market and only putting 2-3 million on the first round of real estate seems like a better idea to me.
Though having said that, there's something interesting about the idea of making part of our money being a landlord instead of just doing this for our minions.
Not only could we be really good at it and simply refuse to do asshole landlord things to people, our baseline supernatural awareness would make it possible to create safe places for people who aren't in the know but are still vulnerable. Not all of them, but still slices of the city that are safe.
There's also the political bit if we get good enough and large enough before people start getting into our business over it. Largest landlord in the city is someone the local government has to listen to.
No, he ruled that they wouldn't willingly betray us under any circumstance. They can still be compelled.
EarthDestroyer chronically misinterprets the no harm clause on charms.
They won't explode your face, but they don't universally have perfect insulation from ever doing anything unhelpful as a natural consequence of their function.
An example of this is Molly's flight. We could have chosen flaming wings over floating. They wouldn't set Molly's clothes on fire, but if you have great flaming wings on your back people can see them more easily than an unilluminated human profile.
- Location
- Right Where I Am
Something just occurred to me. The White Court business that we just took care of was what Marcone helped Harry with to get the final endorsement he needed to join the Unseelie Accords. Marcone becoming the Baron of Chicago was what lead to the Denarian assault on him, abduction of the Archive, and Michael getting injured enough to retire as a Knight of the Cross.
We've thrown some butterflies flapping in that personally relevant course of events.
We've thrown some butterflies flapping in that personally relevant course of events.
Yep, Marcone is going to have to find another way to get a seat at the table.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Well, there is that Archdemon on vacation running around so......
1)That might work if you are able to maintain eyes on the satellite and every other orbit it will cross throughout the entirety of its reentry trajectory. And the satellite falling into the ocean guarantees that it will get wrecked by seawater.
Its at least theoretically feasible IMO.
2) You are maneuvering a space vehicle with no perceptible external thrust or emissions at a rate of hundreds or thousands of pounds of thrust a second, which is performance well in excess of anything an orbiting satellite has ever displayed. Even an amateur astronomer tracking objects in Earth's orbit will be able to tell.
And we know the US military tracks everything in Earth orbit bigger than 4 inches.
The question isnt whether it gets attention.
The whether the reaction is "Aliens!" or "Someone is doing a covert weapons test of some military breakthrough" with everything that does to international tensions.
Because, you know, if someone can do that to satellites, they can do it to ICBM warheads, which fundamentally affects MAD and the international balance of power.
===
Surviving reentry intact is an immensely complicated challenge.
Surviving it in several pieces is less difficult.
And reentry over a populated area is
Not really.
The only item there thats out of reasonable budget range is the Rosewood Apartments megaproject, and thats big enough to be a significant project in its own right, not just for the cash, but the likely politics.
We can do it, but that one wouldnt be an entry level project.
===
Data source: 2007 POWERBALL vs. MEGA MILLIONS Drawings (Side-by-side)
Doing the math for the lottery thing, assuming Molly is sole winner:
Powerball 254 million in the last week of January 2007.
Subtract 50% lump sum penalty: approx 127 million left
-40% federal and state taxes: 76.2 million
-30 million family, Harry and Rosie etc: 46.2 million
-5.2 million real estate: 40 million
If voters choose to wait for Mega-Millions and a better payout? Mega Millions 390 million in the first week of March 2007
Subtract 50% lump sum penalty: approx 195 million left
-40% federal and state taxes: 118 million
-30 million family, Harry and Rosie etc: 88 million
-8 million real estate: 80 million
===
For a real life example, see this in Pittsburgh:
View: https://youtu.be/q7qyZGnnlRE
Yeah. Good catch.
Note, thats just a formal seat at the table. Marcone has had business dealings with Odin, Mab and other supernaturals long before formally becoming an Accords signatory with everything that implies.
We should probably get there before him if we can manage it; technically being a less legitimate authority than Marcone in our own city would be annoying.
You're dramatically overestimating how durable any of this stuff is.
If it's tumbling erratically and less sturdy than a 25 meter diameter rock then it's definitely space dust before it hits sea level. It has to be substantially larger than that before the fragments might be a problem.
Laid out like that it seems more acceptable, though I'd still go for more little ones than a smaller number of larger ones.
That said, the more I think about the more I like the idea of going ham on real estate.
It's almost certainly not the most profitable investment we could use any given amount of money for, but it would have other advantages.
At the simplest level we could do a lot of good; America has a chronic issue with housing, particularly low income housing, that we only occasionally pay attention to.
Rather than staying minions and affiliates or taking over politically important projects we could get heavily into this sort of thing all across the city. Just doing clean business, let alone actually acting like someone who still own the majority of their soul, would basically make us a god among big city land lords and net benefit to the community while still making good money.
Then there's the stuff that I mentioned in my previous post; anyone living at or near our places would be inherently safer than they'd otherwise be since we know what to look for even when they don't. Making the Jade Dogs into our handy people/security forces across properties would be a convenient way to support them and drive off simple supernatural concerns to name one example.
Having infrastructure everywhere alone would also be its own advantage; we can add whatever we like to our own buildings, though we should obviously avoid making them targets.
We'd be moving suspiciously fast*, but if we grow quickly enough and are popular enough then we can become so important to local politics that hassling us isn't worth the pain.
Really this seems like a good standard tactic for expanding into new areas in general. Buy some housing and start renting to the locals.
Feels like a very infernal way to set things up too; own and operate property where the muggles just living life fuels your business**. That's basically describing Creation when you get down to it.
* We could also mitigate this by using cutouts. As long as we're certain of our hold we can organize formal ownership under other people. Elanor and Augustus could split it for example.
They both have idle rich backgrounds to lean on, we can make an excuse for them to have the money and they can schmooze with other rich people for us. I'd include Thomas, but we've got him caught in something sketchy right now.
** Also a treat for people newly in the know/after the masquerade falls. "Faeries are real, not all the wizards in the phone book practice the arts of Vegas, and my land lord is a sapient demon planet. Maybe this whole learning the truth thing was a mistake".
Solars are kind of limited by their own themes too though, since for all they are the perfection of the sun, they are also human at their core. Riding a horse is something humans do and therefore which a superhuman could do super well, but what if you do not have a horse and just really need to grow wings?
Vote closed, race though a darkening sky it is.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Yeah, if only that was reflected in the charms. You get complete nonsense like Predict a disaster charm or like make a warstrider from their Anima charm.
Even in Exwod, mechanically speaking, Solars do almost everything Infernals do but better.
Think that last one is a spell actually, so anyone with solar level sorcery could cast it. So just infernals, very powerful specific gods.
And making a war striders is something a human can do. Solars just do it better. Same as a solar cannot fly naturally just jump super good, but they have a number of way to give themselves flight by using super biotech, or building an artifact.
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Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
No, it was one of the few "Cancelled" charms from 2E. Keychain of Creation even made a joke about it.
Winning Vote
Arc 8 Post 39: Of Far Off Yuletime
Of Far Off Yuletime
14th of November 2006 A.D.
If there is one thing the vague knowledge of old legends you paged though as a kid and the secrets Usum whispered in your mind over this last half year agree with it it is that the wise do not snub a god in a good mood, whether they have just showed up at your door for a feast or challenged you to a cheerful race. Without whisper of sound or flash of light you rise into the darkening air. The faint scent of charred wood is noticeable only when it is gone, replaced with the cold clarity of the high airs. Go up in a helicopter or a plane, a rocket to the edge of space and you will not find air this pure, of that you are sure.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 14/15
The material world is a messy place where the elements mingle according to the artifice of mankind and the vagaries of chance, not so in these lands, where the woodpigeons and goldcrests of the hills meet the hawks of the mountains. If the latter eat the former it is not because they are hungry, but because that's the way the dance has always gone, that's the way it always must. So you race after the valkyrie and they race after the raven, forests clearings, streams and lakes set beneath you like a canvas of green and blue, shrouded here and there in mist
Though you're fast and getting faster, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty miles per hour from the way the world moves under you the sisters are faster still carried by winds now conjured a whistle here, a whistle there, slyphs and zephyrs whistling back.
Three can play it that way, you think, sharpening eyes and preparing honeyed words. Among the jostling wind-winged throng you spy a spirit walking sedately among the paths of the sky , upon four hooves, antlered head high, no fey this one but something older. Hunters walking across all the north of the world gave him thanks for years uncounted as they spilled the blood of his children so that they and their kin might live, but now it is he who weeps blood from crimson eyes, the hunters are all but gone, the herds of reindeer less
Lost 2 Essence: Hellscry to see the (CoD) spirits; Etiquette Excellency ->Now at 12/15
Thus you speak ancient courtesies slipping onto the tongue like honey : "Hail true-crowned prince of the North who crossed the wind trails between the stars ere the coming of men, who danced with the spirits of the Great Ice and lived, blood though the heart pumping. Know that I find great joy in passing through your domain, dimmed only in knowing that raven's children swift-to-laughter shall be the first to come to the mountain. Wouldst thou aid me, hurry my passage as the new-bloods do theirs. Else I fear they will make jest of it for many seasons. "
"Stranger thou art, on another day trespasser I'd call thee," the spirit's voice is like the sound of show burdened trees cracking, breaking, giving way to the endless tundra. "But tis a rude jest to summon a stranger onto familiar paths to race and then by their use outmatch them." Cold blue mirth dances in his aura, for the moment pushing back the rage and sorrow so much apart of him and thus he sets his antlers behind you and pushes.
Now you have the wind behind you too racing ahead of Alina and Marzhan who seem at first bewildered then the latter gives a hearty laugh.
As you reach the mountain maybe ten minutes before them, you realize the cave is not dark from here, but filled with the firelight, gold and red dancing on the walls. Even though you are tempted to go on you wait, it is only polite.
They arrive with hearty congratulations, pats on the back from Marzhan and a cup of mead from Alina from somewhere. Maybe it was not the best idea to take a swing just as the valkyrie says: "Damn,you got Rudolf to push you."
Though heroic effort you manage to keep the mead from coming out your nose, but your voice still sounds a little thick as you ask: "W...what?"
"His name isn't actually Rudolph," Alina explains, even as she gives her sister an approving look for the joke. "But we nudge things sometimes, to keep old spirits going."
Gained 2 Essence -> Now 14/15
You turn slowly towards the entrance of the cave, not just your head, your whole body like you are an invisible turntable. "Yep, that's the Workshop... we don't just make toys in there."
"But won't everything made in here melt in the real.... the other world," you catch yourself. It feels a bit silly to think of this world as less real with the cold pine scented air blowing through your hair.
"Plenty of war on their side as well, plenty of hands need swords to fill it," Marzhan says. "Come on you have to meet Her Kabouter, he'll have a boom."
"A blast," her sister corrects.
"What's the difference...?"
It is among the ensuing argument about the nature of modern idioms that the three of you descend through the opening and into the mountain long before the carriage could catch up. The light as it turns out was lanterns, like old time-y oil lamps though the colors dance too bright, too colorfully for that to the the whole of the tale. The walls grow smooth though far from straight, as though they had been carved by the passage of some long vanished river and at the end of it a door of wood red wood, bound in bright bronze with a peephole set about four feet off the ground.
I'm doing this... I'm actually doing this. The jawas are never going to forgive you if you do not get them something, you realize.
The workshop upon which the red door opens is altogether different from your imaginations, a place of dark steel and whirring blades, of sparks flying like the breath of chained dragons, of walkways narrow and twisting upon which walk fey folk of dressed in bright red suits somewhere between samurai armor and hazmat suits. Whether their ears are pointed or their beards are long you would not be able to tell.
"It's a long time to Yule and we have other stuff to make," one of the sisters shouts from behind you over the avalanche of industrial noise.
'Her Kabouter' as it turns out is one of the small folk of the workshop distinguished from the others by the fact that his helm comes to a conical point sharp enough to skewer someone with. "Ach... ye are ze mortal crafter-girl, ach not mortal at all, eyes of the raven are dimming I see, need to be replaced with iron maybe," he proclaims in a heavy German accent, or thereabouts at least. Even though he does not raise his voice you can still hear him, as though the sounds of the workshop time themselves around their master's words.
"No one said she's mortal, just that she works with mortal material," Alina points out, still shouting. "If you want to talk shop I'm sure she will be happy to oblige."
"Ya, ya, oft courze, this vay," he points you away from the main floor of the warkshop into a small meeting and dining room, to judge from the diminutive pot on the hearth in the far corner. As he closes the door the noise level drops about twenty decibels.
Kabouter as it turns out has a keen interest in how you plan to do your work, in fact he is interested in quite a few things about you, from how you conjure your tools and from where to your alchemical potions to any uncommon reagents you might posses. His deffinition of the latter is as expansive as Usum's
Things he would be interested in trading for
[] Demonstration of TTC 2 Points
[] Factory Fog Recipe 3 Points
[] Malcoffee Recipe 5 Points
[] Remains of the Will of Kakuri 7 Points
[] Gossamer 20 points
[] Politely Decline the Deal 0 Points
Things he he willing to sell you:
[] An untraceable supply of rare metals and isotopes at market price (You still have to pay with it out of your Resources, but no one is going to ask what you need that enriched Uranium for etc..) 3 points
[] Assistants trained in alchemy to halve all production times sworn to your service for a century and a day as long as you to not mistreat them or reveal their presence to others (Gain More than Shoe Elves ●●) 6 points
[] A supply of simple magical materials of the sorts useful for mortal enchantments 10 Points
[] He's.. heard a rumor about his lord looking for people like you and he's not in any way obligated to keep those details to himself if you make it worth his while 12 points
OOC: Her Kabouter's accent is not supposed to be anything modern more like Proto-West-Germanic which is why Molly cannot tell where it comes from.
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Ok, so here are the options that cost us nothing
[] Demonstration of TTC 2 Points
[] Factory Fog Recipe 3 Points
[] Malcoffee Recipe 5 Points
In that we can trade these and don't actually lose anything. In that sense I see no reason NOT to just indulge our temporary coworker.
[] Remains of the Will of Kakuri 7 Points
[] Gossamer 20 points
I am not interesting in selling ether of the two physical items he wants to buy. These things are too interesting to just hand off and never see again.
But that does leave us with 10 points of stuff we can buy.
And that's the rub. We really have two options.
[] An untraceable supply of rare metals and isotopes at market price (You still have to pay with it out of your Resources, but no one is going to ask what you need that enriched Uranium for etc..) 3 points
[] Assistants trained in alchemy to halve all production times sworn to your service for a century and a day as long as you to not mistreat them or reveal their presence to others (Gain More than Shoe Elves ●●) 6 points
- OR -
[] A supply of simple magical materials of the sorts useful for mortal enchantments 10 Points
Of these... I like the first pair more. Magical materials is nice, but the More than Shoe Elves sounds like a way to get free actions. Free actions sounds super valuable.
[] He's.. heard a rumor about his lord looking for people like you and he's not in any way obligated to keep those details to himself if you make it worth his while 12 points
Sounds really interesting, but it's impossible to buy without selling something we can't get back. I am not really interested in selling ether the gossamer or weapon parts. If his boss is interested in people like us I'm sure he will get around to making an offer at some point.
Therefore
[] Knowledge for Service
-[] Sell
--[] Demonstration of TTC 2 Points
--[] Factory Fog Recipe 3 Points
--[] Malcoffee Recipe 5 Points
-[] Buy
--[] An untraceable supply of rare metals and isotopes at market price (You still have to pay with it out of your Resources, but no one is going to ask what you need that enriched Uranium for etc..) 3 points
--[] Assistants trained in alchemy to halve all production times sworn to your service for a century and a day as long as you to not mistreat them or reveal their presence to others (Gain More than Shoe Elves ●●) 6 points
--[] And a discount on the first order or so of rare metals and isotopes to cover the extra 1 point. (Write in, feel free to ignore if rejected, or make pure narrative)
[] Demonstration of TTC 2 Points
[] Factory Fog Recipe 3 Points
[] Malcoffee Recipe 5 Points
In that we can trade these and don't actually lose anything. In that sense I see no reason NOT to just indulge our temporary coworker.
[] Remains of the Will of Kakuri 7 Points
[] Gossamer 20 points
I am not interesting in selling ether of the two physical items he wants to buy. These things are too interesting to just hand off and never see again.
But that does leave us with 10 points of stuff we can buy.
And that's the rub. We really have two options.
[] An untraceable supply of rare metals and isotopes at market price (You still have to pay with it out of your Resources, but no one is going to ask what you need that enriched Uranium for etc..) 3 points
[] Assistants trained in alchemy to halve all production times sworn to your service for a century and a day as long as you to not mistreat them or reveal their presence to others (Gain More than Shoe Elves ●●) 6 points
- OR -
[] A supply of simple magical materials of the sorts useful for mortal enchantments 10 Points
Of these... I like the first pair more. Magical materials is nice, but the More than Shoe Elves sounds like a way to get free actions. Free actions sounds super valuable.
[] He's.. heard a rumor about his lord looking for people like you and he's not in any way obligated to keep those details to himself if you make it worth his while 12 points
Sounds really interesting, but it's impossible to buy without selling something we can't get back. I am not really interested in selling ether the gossamer or weapon parts. If his boss is interested in people like us I'm sure he will get around to making an offer at some point.
Therefore
[] Knowledge for Service
-[] Sell
--[] Demonstration of TTC 2 Points
--[] Factory Fog Recipe 3 Points
--[] Malcoffee Recipe 5 Points
-[] Buy
--[] An untraceable supply of rare metals and isotopes at market price (You still have to pay with it out of your Resources, but no one is going to ask what you need that enriched Uranium for etc..) 3 points
--[] Assistants trained in alchemy to halve all production times sworn to your service for a century and a day as long as you to not mistreat them or reveal their presence to others (Gain More than Shoe Elves ●●) 6 points
--[] And a discount on the first order or so of rare metals and isotopes to cover the extra 1 point. (Write in, feel free to ignore if rejected, or make pure narrative)
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Yeah, seems about right. Trade stuff which we won't lose in trade, gain useful stuff.
@DragonParadox would he be allowed to further spread the recipes we give him beyond Odin's men? If, say, a summer court fae comes to the workshop, could he trade them malcoffee recipe? Could we use that 1 additional point to make it so he won't be able to tell the recipes to others for, say, ten years and a day, only refer them to us if they want to learn them?
And does he know any alchemical recipes he'd be willing to trade, or supply us with?
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I can't say that I've ever had a cup of meat, but I have to admit the concept does sound intriguing.
You do not have the time to do that now. That said you can do it later.
I can't say that I've ever had a cup of meat, but I have to admit the concept does sound intriguing.
Fixed, thanks.
[X] Knowledge for Service
-[X] Sell
--[X] Demonstration of TTC 2 Points
--[X] Factory Fog Recipe 3 Points
--[X] Malcoffee Recipe 5 Points
-[X] Buy
--[X] An untraceable supply of rare metals and isotopes at market price (You still have to pay with it out of your Resources, but no one is going to ask what you need that enriched Uranium for etc..) 3 points
--[X] Assistants trained in alchemy to halve all production times sworn to your service for a century and a day as long as you to not mistreat them or reveal their presence to others (Gain More than Shoe Elves ●●) 6 points
--[X] And a discount on the first order or so of rare metals and isotopes to cover the extra 1 point. (Write in, feel free to ignore if rejected, or make pure narrative)
-[X] Sell
--[X] Demonstration of TTC 2 Points
--[X] Factory Fog Recipe 3 Points
--[X] Malcoffee Recipe 5 Points
-[X] Buy
--[X] An untraceable supply of rare metals and isotopes at market price (You still have to pay with it out of your Resources, but no one is going to ask what you need that enriched Uranium for etc..) 3 points
--[X] Assistants trained in alchemy to halve all production times sworn to your service for a century and a day as long as you to not mistreat them or reveal their presence to others (Gain More than Shoe Elves ●●) 6 points
--[X] And a discount on the first order or so of rare metals and isotopes to cover the extra 1 point. (Write in, feel free to ignore if rejected, or make pure narrative)
What about him sharing the recipe with others?
- Location
- Earth
Did you mean an ensuing argument?