Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

You know what? I'll go ahead and change my crown question to a more relevant one. @DragonParadox is the new version clear enough? The intent is that if it's a contract of some kind, we see how it came to be (a flashback of negotiation or something like that, maybe with a face of the other party being seen, but that's not the primary focus). If it's not a contract, but Seeker's own initiative, we see why he decided to act.

We can later use something of naagloshii's to get the full list of those who hired him.

[X] Plan Call and reinforcements
-[X] The call
--[X] Ask more questions about his deal, try to see how sincere he is
--[X] Empathy excellency, ATB with willpower
--[X] Crown Question: [Focus: Call] What circumstances brought Broken Seeker here?
--[X] Binding agreements can be a bitch, you can sympathize with that. Would it help if you murdered all his employers, their families, allies, and cute little pets? You and a lot of others (allude to but don't mention Denarians and Winter) need Dresden alive, and intact without interruptions to those states.
--[X] How long does he have until he really needs Dresden dead?
--[X] Reiterate that the moment real harm comes to your friends, all deals are off and you'll be finding and killing Broken Seeker. Unhealthy habits for an immortal monstrosity of a bygone age or not, these are your mortals, and you put work into them.
-[X] Reinforcements
--[X] Indicate to Harry (by writing on a piece of paper) to call Alphas for help in evacuating Izzy and Alec
--[X] Have Harry call Murphy about the developing situation. Warn her about probable surveillance.

@Yog your vote seems to be broken.

Yzarc said:

@Yog your vote seems to be broken.

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I don't see how?

Yog said:

I don't see how?

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It is counting as a separate vote.

Yzarc said:

It is counting as a separate vote.

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Hmm, interesting. I'll go back and edit my initial plan vote. I think the issue is that @Aria the Mage and @Cavalar voted by copy-pasting the whole plan, including the name, and this might be glitching the system.

Can we just kill him and get donde with It???

Ed: Im my opinión we are waisting a lot of essence when we are gonna enter a combat situation in a few seconds.

ImBuda said:

Can we just kill him and get donde with It???

Ed: Im my opinión we are waisting a lot of essence when we are gonna enter a combat situation in a few seconds.

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The issue is not killing him exactly, we could probably manage that (though it's going to be our toughest fight yet), it's rescuing our friends without permanent damage being done to them. Right now the voters don't seem prepared to write them off as a loss.

On uju's insistence of Broken Seeker telling us that an angel lied to us to corroborate his hypothesis that BS is lying:

Have you considered the very simple possibility that BS simply doesn't know an Angel told us outright that our exaltation had no costs?

Because it really is that simple, Uriel has no reason to tell anyone he told us that, and we didn't tell it to anyone that wasn't our parents, hence, Bs simply doesn't know this information and is basing his reasoning on false premises.

A little like you, in fact.

Yog said:

Should I adjust the crown question? My vote focuses on who hired naagloshii. The information plan question focuses on circumstances of naagloshii being hired. The latter is probably more useful for the immediate situation.

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I also think your entire sympathy speech is a bit much. Reinforcements also seem a bit early too; we want to know more right now, we benefit from baby stepping this.

Yog said:

The issue is not killing him exactly, we could probably manage that (though it's going to be our toughest fight yet), it's rescuing our friends without permanent damage being done to them. Right now the voters don't seem prepared to write them off as a loss.

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We can alpha strike him at the speed of sound, he is not surviving 50 aggravated damage.

Earth-Destroyer said:

We can alpha strike him at the speed of sound, he is not surviving 50 aggravated damage.

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I'm not completely opposed to that option, but we need to accept that doing it will guarantee Alex and Izzy die messily. The shockwave and shrapnel created by such an attack will turn them into chunky salsa.

Just have the engine brick itself.

[X] Plan Information

Earth-Destroyer said:

We can alpha strike him at the speed of sound, he is not surviving 50 aggravated damage.

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Assuming we can (not a guarantee), how do we:
1) Prevent Izzy and Alec from dying to splash damage?
2) Prevent his followers from killing Izzy and Alec?
3) Prevent whatever magical and other contingencies (like a deadman's switch wired to a bomb planted on them) from killing them in the event of BS's death?
4) Deal with and shield others from BS's death curse?

Yog said:

Assuming we can (not a guarantee), how do we:
1) Prevent Izzy and Alec from dying to splash damage?
2) Prevent his followers from killing Izzy and Alec?
3) Prevent whatever magical and other contingencies (like a deadman's switch wired to a bomb planted on them) from killing them in the event of BS's death?
4) Deal with and shield others from BS's death curse?

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For 1:

We mostly use a sword, what splash damages?

For 2:

Kill them fast.

For 4:

Kill him fast enough he doesn't have time for one.

The biggest actual problem is 3, but we haven't seen any signs of that in our visions of them, so....

Step 1 brick the van with a cyber devil, turn up the cold, while stalling the engine.
Step 2 they leave the van, and come down at the speed of sound.
step 3 if needed hard buy counter magic, to save the hostages.

BronzeTongue said:

I've been shooting at plans all day because I've been busy, but let me try putting something up there.

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BronzeTongue said:

[X] Plan Information
-[X] Crown Question: [Focus: Call] What is the nature of the arrangements keeping Broken Seeker here?
-[X] ATB via willpower, intimidation
—[X] [Stunt]: Taking a breath, Molly prepares to open her proper eye for a look at the situation. " An interesting premise Broken Seeker, but Fixer you haven't been in a long time." A sharper tone entering her voice Molly continues " You've clearly put significant effort into keeping me out of risk; you're going to need to make a better offer than paying me in my own coin to solve your problems if you're seriously thinking this is going anywhere"

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1) Wrong question. What you should be asking is "The identities of everyone involved in this plot".
It will tell us the identity of the naagloshii's employer/who he's doing a favor for, and critically, if there's an additional set of people or hitmen we arent seeing, it will reveal their presence.

2) Empathy is our social sensory Ability, not Intimidation.
You are spending Essence on the wrong Excellency.

Yog said:

[X] Plan Call and reinforcements
-[X] The call
--[X] Ask more questions about his deal, try to see how sincere he is
--[X] Empathy excellency, ATB with willpower
--[X] Crown Question: [Focus: Call] What circumstances brought Broken Seeker here?
--[X] Binding agreements can be a bitch, you can sympathize with that. Would it help if you murdered all his employers, their families, allies, and cute little pets? You and a lot of others (allude to but don't mention Denarians and Winter) need Dresden alive, and intact without interruptions to those states.
--[X] How long does he have until he really needs Dresden dead?
--[X] Reiterate that the moment real harm comes to your friends, all deals are off and you'll be finding and killing Broken Seeker. Unhealthy habits for an immortal monstrosity of a bygone age or not, these are your mortals, and you put work into them.
-[X] Reinforcements
--[X] Indicate to Harry (by writing on a piece of paper) to call Alphas for help in evacuating Izzy and Alec
--[X] Have Harry call Murphy about the developing situation

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1) See my point to BronzeTongue about the Crown question.


2) Murphy is a longtime associate of Dresden, and was involved in the Kakuri sanction. If he has any idea of what happened with the greater akuma, he'll be aware of her. And assume he's taken steps to keep an eye on her.
Assume Murphy is under some sort of surveillance.

Dont call her until afterwards.


3) Never make threats you arent willing to carry out.
Not to mention that someone who is willing to death curse people he trained for decades to avoid them being taken prisoner is hardly going to care about people's allies and pets.

uju32 said:

1) Wrong question. What you should be asking is "The identities of everyone involved in this plot".
It will tell us the identity of the naagloshii's employer/who he's doing a favor for, and critically, if there's an additional set of people or hitmen we arent seeing, it will reveal their presence.

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That was my idea at first too, but on the second thought, circumstances are more important. We need to know if there's a magically compelling contract, or a debt, or if there's anything else like that. Identities are important, but they are a) a gamble (if naagloshii is lying, and is here on his own recognizance, the question gets wasted) b) not as relevant as the exact circumstances under which naagloshii came here.

We'll get identities later, using one of naagloshii's minions, or some of his clothing, or the van, or anything else.

uju32 said:

2) Murphy is a longtime associate of Dresden, and was involved in the Kakuri sanction. If he has any idea of what happened with the greater akuma, he'll be aware of her. And assume he's taken steps to keep an eye on her.
Assume Murphy is under some sort of surveillance.

Dont call her until afterwards.

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Harry and Murphy should be smart enough to handle this, but ok, updated to include mentions of probable surveillance.

Not to mention that this would be breaking our promise, in letter and in spirit.

uju32 said:

3) Never make threats you arent willing to carry out.
Not to mention that someone who is willing to death curse people he trained for decades to avoid them being taken prisoner is hardly going to care about people's allies and pets.

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Who said I am not willing to kill them, their allies and cute little pets?

uju32 said:

1) Wrong question. What you should be asking is "The identities of everyone involved in this plot".
It will tell us the identity of the naagloshii's employer/who he's doing a favor for, and critically, if there's an additional set of people or hitmen we arent seeing, it will reveal their presence.

2) Empathy is our social sensory Ability, not Intimidation.
You are spending Essence on the wrong Excellency.

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1) That should be partially covered under my question already. Understanding the construct should include some details of who's paying.

Unless you're suggesting we solve this by directly murdering whatever (ideally red court adjacent) entity ordered this hit in the first place, in which case a name would be useful but I don't know how we'd convince BS to wait on us.

In the aftermath we should definitely leak all of this we can to Ebenezer so he can smite people for it though. Killing everyone ourselves would be nice, but pissed wizard interrupt works too*.

2) I'm not trying to sense anything, we already paid for intimidation this scene so I'm using it again to prod Broken Seeker without additional essence expense.

What he says in reply will be informative, and the manner of the point I'm making will implicitly undercut the value of his bargaining chips to an extent, but what we really need is the higher level information and to hold onto every mote we can until we have to jump.

* Sorry about the scattered nature of this, it occurred to me while writing the rest of this post, but actually could we do that right now? Not like BS knows our timeline.

We get Ebenezer on the phone with a name and imply BS' contact is in the process of eating a strategic ritual, which he shortly will be, and all of a sudden he's been paid but has no actual reporting obligations.

He could still go for gold, but now he's only playing for himself and would be trading a free lunch already in hand for a risky meal he clearly was reluctant to take a bite from a minute ago.

Ebenezer is murder!Grandpa, he's probably the true target of this and he's certainly a guy with a rep not to fuck with. We don't know the familial tie, but Molly does know he cares to help Dresden and is a big wig on the council. His involvement, and by name specific understanding of Broken Seeker's role is another threat all its own.

Modifying my question specifically to facilitate that could make sense.

[] Free Lunch?
-[] [Crown Question: Phone Call] Who hold the other end of this contract?
-[] ATB via willpower, Empathy
-[] Signal clippy to text Burny/Dresden the details of the question. Update Ebenezer ASAP
—[] Attempt to get them on board with killing the boss over the hireling
-[][Stunt] Taking a sharp breath a fire igniting in her voice. " As much as I appreciate the generosity of being paid in my own coin to make your job easier Broken Seeker, I have a counter proposal"
—[] "I make some calls, maybe see how Ebenezer feels about helping his apprentice out of a jam. We have a discussion with your contractor, and if you're very nice I leave your name out of it."
—[] A flicker of amusement briefly makes its way into her voice "You're very well prepared for me, for Dresden, and I'm sure for a number of other circumstances, but do you really want that one hunting you too?"
—[] " You've already been paid haven't you? Not your problem if the other guy's enemies catch up before the job is done. Why not go home with a nice free lunch instead of gambling for seconds?"

I was once again missing the obvious; we've been treating Broken Seeker's name like marginally useful trivia since we can't summon by it, but it's still identifiable.

The first thing the guy did was avoid using a calling name he might be known by: Broken Seeker is concerned about the consequences of personal association with this.

Again probably because of Ebenezer.

That's our leverage, we present an increased risk profile and give BS the opportunity to go home with free money he's already got from someone else instead of gambling his health on the attentions of a senior council wizard infamous for killing things and whatever Molly is supposed to be.

We just need the crown question first to make sure the holder is a duke instead of the red king personally. My sample vote is just to outline the idea.

BronzeTongue said:

-[] [Crown Question: Phone Call] Who hold the other end of this contract?

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This is a bad idea because it presupposes that there is a contract. The "what led Naagloshii to come here" or "under what circumstances did it decides to hunt Dresden" are better, because it covers both the possiblity of truth and the possiblity of Broken Seeker lying.

Yog said:

You know what? I'll go ahead and change my crown question to a more relevant one. @DragonParadox is the new version clear enough? The intent is that if it's a contract of some kind, we see how it came to be (a flashback of negotiation or something like that, maybe with a face of the other party being seen, but that's not the primary focus). If it's not a contract, but Seeker's own initiative, we see why he decided to act.

We can later use something of naagloshii's to get the full list of those who hired him.

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Yes, that works for what you intend it to be here. BTW I have reached my destination and while I would not say I am fresh I think I am good for an update today.

[X] Free Lunch?

Might as well try.
I wonder why people trying to kill Harry aren't more worried about his mentor, but I suspect he keeps his powerful surrogate-father to himself, wouldn't fit his image to threaten people with him.