Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
What I am getting at is that by offering her the ability to get her own place to stay that is separate from Harry, she may pick that.
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
Just to make the vote tally more clear.
[X] Plan Identity
[x][Stunt]"And I will of course offer you the same things that I offer everyone who comes to the Last Station. Food, a place to rest, a way to earn money and help with legal paperwork for establishing an identity."
[X] Plan Identity
[x][Stunt]"And I will of course offer you the same things that I offer everyone who comes to the Last Station. Food, a place to rest, a way to earn money and help with legal paperwork for establishing an identity."
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Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
You need to remove the - for the stunt as it is messing up the counter.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
This is what you said at first-
Maybe I'm reading your post wrong but I thought your earlier comment implied we'd be leaving her homeless or something by not mentioning Harry.
I'm still not sure why people feel confident about Last Station being better than Harry's place for protection purposes.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Should be ever
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Better is debatable.
Assuming Lash doesn't want to be under house arrest forever she is going to need to do some things to secure her own protection. Many of those things are easier to do at the Last Station.
After all if we are taking about a prepared major assault it makes more sense just to attack her when she goes outside. Which she has to do more often at Harry's bachelor apartment. Of course we haven't discussed that dimension and a big part of it is just giving her more options.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
People keep saying that but I haven't seen anything from Last Station or its inhabitants that would make me think it could prevent a Denarian assualt. The experienced ones are basicly wizards with a hulk option(unless they brute force control from the host)from what I understand. What in Last station is going to stop that? What is going to deter them? Will it make them think twice moreso than Harry's place which again we know Nico in canon would actually be wary of dealing with?
Like what?
And yet, by your own words, Archive, who is a mortal and empowered via mortal(-ish) magic, kicks their ass. Mab, who is at most one sixth of Fates (and likely much less, as it seems Mothers get to keep disproportionate amount of power) would kick their asses by your own admission. "The enemy is simultaneously strong enough to be an existential threat, and weak enough to be one step away from complete collapse" is a propaganda position, not a honest analysis.
And government (in this specific case Library of Congress, who are clearly Shadow Government and control a lot of mechanisms of power) know about that, and also put thought into this. If it's impossible to stop Nicky from taking a stroll into a military base to launch the nukes, I expect nukes to have been quietly sabotaged long ago and impossible to actually launch / detonate.
Since that time we have put time and effort into improving defenses. It has been your consistent position to severely downplay, underestimate and undervalue Molly's capabilities and possible results of her efforts, but this is getting quite ridiculous. Yes, Mouse is impressive. Porter is too, and we have better, and more lethal defenses overall. Could and should they be improved? Yes. We'll get on that in the next month - we have stirred enough hornets' nests to make it a priority (and I want my manse). It is more than secure enough to provide a temporary short-term shelter at least.
Molly is not a helpless victim, and the products of her efforts are not defenseless either.
Let's check what the defenses are at this moment, shall we?
And since then when installed IRIS into the network. And there's Porter too.
So, an integrated defense network, with a variety of attack vectors from tasers to rail guns that can't be hexed (easily). All coordinated together. Plus a panic room to house the residents. That's at least respectable.
Next we need to give Porter his train body, so he can't be banished (easily), and make further upgrades for passive defenses, such as actual warding / magical effects, but in general I like our chances against a quick response force that can be thrown together in a couple of weeks.
Because remember, no one expected Tiffany to be a thing. No one knows what she's really capable of. No one is in position to go after her specifically, with prepared plans, getaway routes, and holding facilities. Everyone always have stuff they have going - ongoing operations, plans and counter-plans. No one should be free to just drop everything and dedicate a major force for the purpose of catching her. Not without prep. So, a couple of weeks should be more than safe enough, and in that time we should be capable of upgrading the defenses. We need to, anyway, we kicked Red Court and others more than enough to expect retaliation.
Dresden's wards are, according to Warden Regional Commander Carlos Ramirez in White Night, Jesus Christ-worthy:
I took down the wards and opened the steel security door. It didn't take me more than five or six hard pulls to get it to swing all the way open.
"I thought you were going to get that fixed," Ramirez said to me. He peered around the doorway before he eased forward through it, where I knew the presence of all the warding spells would be buzzing against his senses like a locomotive-sized electric razor, even though they were temporarily deactivated. "Jesus Christ, Harry. You beefed them up even more."
"Got to exercise the apprentice's talent somehow."
"I thought you were going to get that fixed," Ramirez said to me. He peered around the doorway before he eased forward through it, where I knew the presence of all the warding spells would be buzzing against his senses like a locomotive-sized electric razor, even though they were temporarily deactivated. "Jesus Christ, Harry. You beefed them up even more."
"Got to exercise the apprentice's talent somehow."
I mean, there's literally nothing I can think of stopping a bunch of Denarians opening a Way from the NeverNever directly into Last Station right now, bypassing external warning. Dresden did it to Bianca's estate home in Grave Peril. Cowl did it to the Raiths at the Raith Deeps, and Thomas did it to them as well in order to bring reinforcements.
Thats why Lea specifically guarded Dresden's home against that even before he got Mouse; its in part why he's lived this long.
There's bones of people who have tried that particular pathway into his home.
What can she do at the Last Station that she cant do on the surface?Or in Dresden's home?
I can certainly think of all sorts of people she cant meet in Undertown.
Attacking her outside requires that you know what her schedule is, and whether she even has any intention of coming outside unescorted for the next month. And its not like you can hang around indefinitely in the same city as an Infernal Exalt, a Knight of the Cross and all the Fae activity without being noticed.
Masquerade requirements that you invented wholecloth, I have to point out. And nothing is stopping them from setting up on the opposite rooftop and using rocket launchers on the building. Or nerve gas.
Mass empower Jade dogs in an emergency situation.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
Thanks for the reminder I legit forgot we added that much so far.
That all makes sense..I still maintian that Harry's place is naturally far more of a deterent here.
Harry's reputation, the fact that he is a Warden the White Council and the political implications of attacking his house(Accords), whatever his Fairy Godmother did to protect his place from NeverNever jumping tactics, Mouse(who the leader of the Denarians is wary of), antiscrywards, above ground limiting options of attack with civies everywhere.
Aside from politics. He is a Warden of the WC. Which may not be enough to stop something so blatant I suppose. The Denarians seemed rather uncaring of that aspect in canon to me...
You guys could check out what is on the Nevernever side of the Last Station if you want, Lydia has a charm for that.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
Wow.
We probably should've done that along time ago. After LS got attacked the first time at least.
We'll also be adding a detachment of power armored troops to the mix in short order. Also, I am not asserting that defenses are complete. At the very least we are due to make Porter a warform train body, which he asked us for, that would prevent him from being banished and would add a lot of combat power to him, and secure local NeverNever. We could probably talk to Lydia about stationing zombies as security measures too - she has never actually used Command the Dead charm we bought her (in general, so far she hasn't been using her charmset much on screen at least). Either using wooden mannequins, or oil slimes, or bodies ethically sourced from volunteers in the Courts (the funerary traditions in the courts should be... exotic at least). Zombies last indefinitely in a Dragon Nest, and they could be told to follow Iris's orders / attack intruders once released from holding. A lot of other stuff too - if we are planning on converting the place into a manse, and I really want to, there's a lot of prep to be done, and a lot of security to be added - the first and only manse in Ages would be a target for pretty much everyone.
But the defenses should hold for at least some time, and reinforcements would be coming.
It depends on who's attacking. And for what reasons. And I am not asserting that Harry's place is bad. My position is that an offer needs to be made, so Lash's choices aren't "left on the street with only clothes on her back" and "room with Harry". It's not fair to either Lash, or Harry to be pressured into this arrangement, temporary as it might be (and for Lash to get her own apartment, a lot of security prep work needs to be done).
Yeah, we definitely should. AP hell is, well, hell.
Molly needs to think about promoting some people into official positions where it's their job to bother other people for the things to be done, with Molly only stamping some approvals. Because there is no way otherwise to keep up with it all.
Right now Molly only has Thomas and that vamp at Last Station if I understand right. And vamp is kinda unofficially official only.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
We have that thing the Winter Maiden told us of in Vegas too along with.. everything else.
We really need to start delgating ASAP or its only going to get worse.
Anyway yeah I can see how its "debatable" now. They both have different advantages and vulnerabilities for sure. The NeverNever thing is giving me anxiety now though.
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Because the Archive's mortal avatar is the mortal interface of an at least five thousand year old spirit entity representing the repository of mortal mundane and magical knowledge. She's essentially a manufactured god designed(by who,we dont know) to fight a war against the Old Ones and coordinate the Oblivion War.
Mab is the defender of reality. She has magical authority here that they lack, enough that Ferrovax, a Dragon from pre-history, only has a 50-50 chance against her alone. That doesnt make them any less fucking scary; at least one Denarian was represented in the army that attacked Arctis Tor, whose corpses we see near the end of Proven Guilty.
1)No, that is not true.
They are not a shadow govt. They are an intelligence agency, they dont set policy, and their explicit goal has been to keep the supernatural thing under wraps. They literally told us so.
2)Thats expectation ignores the reality of nationstate politics.
If the Library is supposed to unilaterally disarm the United States in the face of its human nationstate enemies and rivals, who does it for the UK? France? Russia? China? Israel? India? Pakistan? North Korea?
You think other nationstates will take the word of their rivals?
The supernatural nations predate entire human govts.
If any human agency had that much geopolitical influence over human nationsate politics, nukes would never have been invented in the first place. Let alone deployed in their thousands.
Its almost as if I addressed this.
None of that stuff is going to stop a group of Denarians assaulting Last Station as a search and destroy mission.
None of our defenses have any answer to one of their sorcerers doing this to Last Station:
Her eyes narrowed, her face reddened, and she said, words clipped, "Condescending bastard. Save your pity for yourself."
And then with a cry she sent another lance of Hellfire at me, redoubled in strength.
Again, I caught it with a conjured cyclone infused with soulfire, though the effort was even more tremendous. Again I sent it spiraling up toward the ceiling-but this time I sent it all to one spot.
Even before the last of the Hellfire had smashed into the ceiling, I dropped to one knee, lifted my staff, and extended the strongest shield I could project, putting it between me and Ascher. It was a calculated bit of distraction on my part, giving her something she wasn't psychologically equipped to ignore.
She screamed at me, her eyes furious, gathering more fire in her hands, seeing only a passive target, weakened and fallen to one knee, one she could smash to bits with a third and final strike-but I saw Lasciel's glowing eyes widen in sudden dismay and understanding as the Fallen reached her own comprehension of consequences a few portions of a second too late to do any good.
An instant later, several hundred tons of molten and red-hot rock, chewed from the earth above us by Ascher's own Hellfire-infused strike, came crashing down on top of her.
The noise was terrible. The destruction was appalling. Glowing hot stones bounced from my shield and then began to pile up against it, pushing at me and physically forcing me back across the ground. The pileup shoved me a good twenty feet across the amphitheater floor, with Michael hobbling frantically along a couple of feet ahead of me, crouching to take advantage of the protection of my shield.
After a few seconds, the falling stone became less violent and random, and I dropped my shield with a gasp of effort. I stayed right where I was, down on one knee, and bent forward at the waist, struggling to catch my breath, exhausted from the efforts of the past few moments. The vault was spinning around and around, too. When had it started doing that?
The air had gone thick with dust and heat and the smell of brimstone. Half of the freaking amphitheater had been buried by fallen stone. One of the enormous statues was covered to the thighs.
And Hannah Ascher and Lasciel were gone.
And then with a cry she sent another lance of Hellfire at me, redoubled in strength.
Again, I caught it with a conjured cyclone infused with soulfire, though the effort was even more tremendous. Again I sent it spiraling up toward the ceiling-but this time I sent it all to one spot.
Even before the last of the Hellfire had smashed into the ceiling, I dropped to one knee, lifted my staff, and extended the strongest shield I could project, putting it between me and Ascher. It was a calculated bit of distraction on my part, giving her something she wasn't psychologically equipped to ignore.
She screamed at me, her eyes furious, gathering more fire in her hands, seeing only a passive target, weakened and fallen to one knee, one she could smash to bits with a third and final strike-but I saw Lasciel's glowing eyes widen in sudden dismay and understanding as the Fallen reached her own comprehension of consequences a few portions of a second too late to do any good.
An instant later, several hundred tons of molten and red-hot rock, chewed from the earth above us by Ascher's own Hellfire-infused strike, came crashing down on top of her.
The noise was terrible. The destruction was appalling. Glowing hot stones bounced from my shield and then began to pile up against it, pushing at me and physically forcing me back across the ground. The pileup shoved me a good twenty feet across the amphitheater floor, with Michael hobbling frantically along a couple of feet ahead of me, crouching to take advantage of the protection of my shield.
After a few seconds, the falling stone became less violent and random, and I dropped my shield with a gasp of effort. I stayed right where I was, down on one knee, and bent forward at the waist, struggling to catch my breath, exhausted from the efforts of the past few moments. The vault was spinning around and around, too. When had it started doing that?
The air had gone thick with dust and heat and the smell of brimstone. Half of the freaking amphitheater had been buried by fallen stone. One of the enormous statues was covered to the thighs.
And Hannah Ascher and Lasciel were gone.
Tiffany has been up and about long enough for Heaven and Hell to set policy regarding her.
Hell doesnt know what she can do, but Lores are of angelic origin in the first place in WoD, assuming it carries over here.
They can make a good guess, even without prophecy and oracles.
We know fuckall about Nicky's response time when he thinks stuff is time-sensitive.
That isnt true. They are Accord signatories for a goddamn reason.
Dresden lives underground, in the basement of a two story building.
Rocket launchers cant do shit. Mortars cant do shit.
A fucking howitzer bombardment would have to level the floors above his home before they could even get at his residence
Nerve gas deployment is not a man-portable weapon system, and there's literally no guarantee that it would work anyway
Especially since the standard warnings for gas are stay indoors and keep your door closed.
And gas doesnt do anything to a household with a Demon who has Lore of Flesh anyway; its very first evocation Body Control deals with poisons.
Uh, no she cant afford this. She doesnt have the Faith supply to do so.
And she cant do it enough to matter anyway.
Not against Denarians.
Dresden's home is protected from NeverNever intrusion.
Lea planted an entire carnivorous garden with a monster centipede there to eat any trespassers.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
I mean in reguards to Last Station.
She already has them.
She doesnt worry about the Jade Dogs internal affairs, or the financial minutaie of her business, or the govt of the Brass Courts.
The things we see are generally things only she can do.
Cant do shit about that right now.
I dont know about the QM's plans, but the Dragons Nest's is presumably Rating 1 right now, which represents the degree of defenses we have there and the DC penalty to attackers who dont have ways of dealing with those defenses. I quote:
Whether they intend to let us continue to upgrade its defenses, or if thats the cap for this AU remains to be seen.ExWoD p195 said:
- Location
- Germany
Technically, when making a Pact she doesn't spend her own Faith, she spends points from the target's Faith-potential.
Basically, every human has a Faith-potential from 1-5, that determines how much they can bring in the relationship, which is pretty abstract but means how deep the human's faith can be.
The Demon has to leave at least 1 point unspend, that is the daily Faith-regeneration it gets out of the agreement and it has to spend at least half of the total on granting the Thrall whatever it wished from the Pact (plus more if she just wants to enhance the Thrall). (See page 251 of DtF Core)
People with a Faith Potential of 1 are not eligible for Pacts.
Though I agree that that is not something you do quickly while under assault.
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I'm willing to consolidate with plan brass tacks, I don't think I have any name votes this time so there's nothing stopping me. I'd encourage anyone else voting for my plan to approval vote as well if you aren't already.
The last station isn't helpful for us here, and making an offer for the offer's sake is poor compensation for the issues if she accepts it.
Setting aside the matter of security, Harry is her one contact that really matters. This isn't a done deal in terms of Lash actually being an ally with convergent goals, she needs some time to work things out and good influences to help counterbalance everything she has going against her. Last Station isolates her from that and leaves her around strangers she has no particular respect for.
Little things can make a big difference at this stage, let's not screw it up.
[X] Plan Brass Tacks
-[X] Offer something
--[X] Some money to get herself on her feet
--[X] Some supplies to get her started
--[X] Documents to legalize her identity
-[X] Make a point to socialize with her regularly over the next month at minimum.
[X] STUNT: You catch Harry's eye "She can stay with you right?" At his affirmative nod, you sigh in relief and take over the conversation, turning to his companion. "I cant currently offer you a place to stay yet" you begin apologetically. "Last Station's got better fortifications" you ignore Harry's strangled squawk of protest " But it doesnt have Mouse. And I dont think Last Station's location is secure enough to guarantee your security against your clone-mother's associates" you ignore Charity mouthing clone-mother silently in favor of tossing your car keys at Harry. "Also, there may have been complications if I'd offered Sanctuary as an option" As you pause, Lash - Tiffany- interjects "Complications?". To her question, you waggle a finger at the floor."Rules lawyers". At her look of comprehension, you continue, even as she helps herself to more gingerbread. "There's a couple labelled bags in Rider's trunk; some sets of clothes, personal items, groceries, burner phone, that sort of thing. Some cash in there as well. Rider can drive you both back to Harry's apartment. We'll work on getting you documents after Christmas. Anything you want to talk about tonight?
[X] Plan Clear Her Head
-[X] Some money to get herself on her feet
-[X] Make a point to socialize with her regularly over the next month at minimum.
[X] Let her and Harry go on their way
The example demon it gives us is in the mid game and has 3 total thralls. That says something about what the rules are designed for here. Any plan that involves her taking more than single digit thralls over the the next year should be discarded out of hand.
The last station isn't helpful for us here, and making an offer for the offer's sake is poor compensation for the issues if she accepts it.
Setting aside the matter of security, Harry is her one contact that really matters. This isn't a done deal in terms of Lash actually being an ally with convergent goals, she needs some time to work things out and good influences to help counterbalance everything she has going against her. Last Station isolates her from that and leaves her around strangers she has no particular respect for.
Little things can make a big difference at this stage, let's not screw it up.
[X] Plan Brass Tacks
-[X] Offer something
--[X] Some money to get herself on her feet
--[X] Some supplies to get her started
--[X] Documents to legalize her identity
-[X] Make a point to socialize with her regularly over the next month at minimum.
[X] STUNT: You catch Harry's eye "She can stay with you right?" At his affirmative nod, you sigh in relief and take over the conversation, turning to his companion. "I cant currently offer you a place to stay yet" you begin apologetically. "Last Station's got better fortifications" you ignore Harry's strangled squawk of protest " But it doesnt have Mouse. And I dont think Last Station's location is secure enough to guarantee your security against your clone-mother's associates" you ignore Charity mouthing clone-mother silently in favor of tossing your car keys at Harry. "Also, there may have been complications if I'd offered Sanctuary as an option" As you pause, Lash - Tiffany- interjects "Complications?". To her question, you waggle a finger at the floor."Rules lawyers". At her look of comprehension, you continue, even as she helps herself to more gingerbread. "There's a couple labelled bags in Rider's trunk; some sets of clothes, personal items, groceries, burner phone, that sort of thing. Some cash in there as well. Rider can drive you both back to Harry's apartment. We'll work on getting you documents after Christmas. Anything you want to talk about tonight?
[X] Plan Clear Her Head
-[X] Some money to get herself on her feet
-[X] Make a point to socialize with her regularly over the next month at minimum.
[X] Let her and Harry go on their way
The binding rules do explicitly say that you're not supposed to spam the ability. Each thrall is supposed to be a significant event in the game in it of themselves, making dozens of thralls to game the faith system that it supposed to be difficult to raise breaks the game.
The example demon it gives us is in the mid game and has 3 total thralls. That says something about what the rules are designed for here. Any plan that involves her taking more than single digit thralls over the the next year should be discarded out of hand.