BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
How would you have used it?
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
To be fair though Dresden also showed up to a meeting of the White Council in a bathrobe which even his internal monologue agrees once there was not his smartest move. He is not what one would call good with formal etiquette. Not so say that deliberately dressing down does not send a message or cannot be worthwhile, but Harry Dresden is probably not who you want to emulate on this subject in general.
Here's the difference:
When Dresden causes a violation of etiquette, or a faux pas intentional or not, like the aforementioned showing up to a White Council meeting in a bathrobe, or when he went to Bianca's ball as a cheesy movie vampire?
You can see the reaction from the rest of the setting showing that he's violating some etiquette or social rules.
That doesnt happen when he shows up in normal street clothes to a meeting with the Fae.
Which suggests its not a faux pas.
And like I've previously pointed out in other conversation, the same rules appear to hold on the Fae side.
Fix shows up in jeans in Proven Guilty, while Lily wears a sundress and Maeve wears a collar and booty shorts. At his first appearance in Maeve's Court in Summer Knight, Lloyd Slate shows up is in a leather jacket, white tee shirt and jeans.
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Usually because he's beat to shit and in the middle of a case. He also doesn't really represent other people most of the time, and does things like snark to his hosts as a matter of course.
The fey to an extent are expecting Molly to dress to her ambition. Being normal isn't it.
This is the part that is frustrating me here; you're acting like you're picking some safe default that doesn't do this when we got warned the fey read into everything here.
You even argued to take the street clothes approach specifically to enhance the impression of spontaneity here. That is playing the same game as any other messaging for the same purposes.
It's not like you can tell them not to read into it because you didn't play their game.
The whole point of defensive infrastructure is to give the occupants an outsized advantage.
The Archive isn't the only one with ages of knowledge and experience to draw on. Summer would make for a crap major power if they could stroll into their governmental offices like that.
[X] As Molly Carpenter, jeans and a T-shirt, you are above all else human
Or he can't read them as well... alternatively they do not expect any better of the man who did show up to a vampire's ball as a vampire stereotype.
- Location
- Germany
Not sure.
Probably given a copy to the Library and/or FBI if we could get any contact in there.
Their country being subverted by a supernatural conspiracy should rank rather highly on the priorities and mundane methods like freezing accounts, arresting agents and such can definitely harm the White Court, not in the most personal sense, but in their power and luxury.
Alternatively doing what the woman we got it from wanted, getting it published at the right time to really hurt all the politicians and other public figures ensnared by the WC. Would have caused Chaos, but of the usual kind, just a big scandal.
Edit: In the latter case of course framed as mundane manipulation, engagement in human trafficking and forced prostitution and such, not revealing Vampires to the world.
Both of those can be combined with actively hunting and killing Elders to split their attention and make sure they can't paper over the whole issue. Humans, even the Library, likely don't have the firepower to take down the heads of the Houses and such, but Molly has.
She has more than proven that later, when she took down the head of House Skavis, surrounded by his bodyguards and empowered by a lesser Walker.
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I have provided multiple instances where thats not true. And thats for all six Queens on both sides.
His first meeting with Aurora in Summer Knight, his various meetings with Maeve and Lily. His first visit to the Mothers.
All his meetings with Mab.
Is he usually in the middle of a case? Sure; he doesnt socialize with the Fae in the normal course of affairs.
Beat up? Nope.
The Fae are often entirely too perilous for you to show up to visit them with visible weakness.
For one example? At Dresden's first meeting with Maeve's Court, the human band were the only people in formal wear.
All the Sidhe there were dressed in a spectrum of 1940s fashions, Jenny Greenteeth showed up naked from the pool before getting dressed in green silk, Maeve herself was wearing leather pants and a tank top, while Lloyd Slate showed up in jeans, a t-shirt and leather jacket.
Dresden and Billy the werewolf both showed up in street gear. Nothing was made of it.
Ah, I see your point.
I can see how some people would read it that way.
I dont, but I can see how it might be interpreted that way.
The Archive isnt just anybody.
If she can hide from around 10x or so Coinbound Fallen and their hosts at whats essentially arms-length in a bounded field that they set up with the help of Lucifer himself, I give her good odds of avoiding the notice of any Fae that isnt a Queen.
At least, thats my personal impression. Take it for what its worth.
Maybe. But I dont really think so.
Dresden cultivates the reputation of a thug in many quarters, but he made his living as a private investigator prior to being conscripted as a Warden. He is actually rather perceptive outside of particular blindspots, which is part of why Mab first hired him to investigate a combination murder mystery and missing mcguffin case.
Not to mention that Bob used to be Winter, and the godmother he spent half a decade dodging is Fae.
He does do his homework about this sort of thing.
Being deliberately transgressive I buy. Very IC.
However, I dont buy him not actually knowing when he's being socially transgressive, not this far into his career. Or indeed one of the Sidhe passing up the opportunity to let him know as a social posturing thing.
I doubt he'd have survived this long being blind to Fae social nuance.
EDIT
Dresden's a man with a Winter godmother, ex-Winter spirit of knowledge, faerie housekeepers, and a crew of Little Folk retainers. He's killed a Summer Lady, is friends with the current Summer Lady, invaded Arctis Tor, and worked for Mab multiple times.
He's too entwined with them not to know, much as he might protest otherwise.
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- Location
- Germany
Totally unrelated to the current discussion, is the Mastery-Background something either Tiffany or any Fallen could theoretically access?
Here the relevant quotes:
This is the power that allows Demon Lores to move from the personal to strategic scale.
A Demon with the Lore of Flames 2 can set some fires in your house. A Demon with Lore of Flames 2 and Mastery 4 can set your city on fire.
A Demon with Lore of Longing 2 can make one person follow her suggestions without question, a Demon with Lore of Longing 2 and Mastery 4 could do the same to 10.000 people.
Here the relevant quotes:
MASTERY
The Earthbound are perhaps the greatest mastersof lore that Creation has ever seen — even thoughtheir lore is a twisted and corrupt thing than can onlydestroy. While the evocations of other demons areoften limited in power and range, the evocations of theEarthbound — powered by staggering expenditures of Faith — can reach across a continent, strike downdozens of victims or set a city afire. The MasteryBackground measures how much extra Faith the character can spend on enhancing its evocations. For fulldetails of how the Earthbound enhance their evocations, see "That Hideous Strength" (p. 79).
X Your character has not mastered his lore, sohe cannot spend any Faith on enhancingevocations.
• You can spend one point of extra Faith toenhance an aspect of an evocation.
•• You can spend two points of extra Faith to enhance an aspect of an evocation.
••• You can spend three points of extra Faith toenhance an aspect of an evocation.
•••• You can spend four points of extra Faith toenhance an aspect of an evocation.••••• You can spend five points of extra Faith toenhance an aspect of an evocation.
The Earthbound are perhaps the greatest mastersof lore that Creation has ever seen — even thoughtheir lore is a twisted and corrupt thing than can onlydestroy. While the evocations of other demons areoften limited in power and range, the evocations of theEarthbound — powered by staggering expenditures of Faith — can reach across a continent, strike downdozens of victims or set a city afire. The MasteryBackground measures how much extra Faith the character can spend on enhancing its evocations. For fulldetails of how the Earthbound enhance their evocations, see "That Hideous Strength" (p. 79).
X Your character has not mastered his lore, sohe cannot spend any Faith on enhancingevocations.
• You can spend one point of extra Faith toenhance an aspect of an evocation.
•• You can spend two points of extra Faith to enhance an aspect of an evocation.
••• You can spend three points of extra Faith toenhance an aspect of an evocation.
•••• You can spend four points of extra Faith toenhance an aspect of an evocation.••••• You can spend five points of extra Faith toenhance an aspect of an evocation.
LORE MASTERY
The Earthbound are the twisted masters of lore.Denied physical bodies, the Dread Kings compensatedby learning new and more powerful ways to directlycontrol Creation through their evocations. They havelearned to evoke effects of incredible intensity andpower, but doing so can cost massive amounts of Faith.As well as performing evocations as normal, youcan choose to enhance an evocation after successfullyrolling for its effect. Only characters with at least onedot in the Mastery Background can enhance evocations in this fashion.To enhance an evocation, increasing its range,area of affect, number of targets or other such variables, the player spends Faith after making a successfulevocation roll. Each point of Faith spent increases aspecific aspect of the evocation tenfold: 10 times therange, affecting up to 10 targets instead of one, etc.Spending two points increases the aspect 100 times,spending three points increases it 1,000 times and soon. If multiple aspects of the evocation could beenhanced, each must be enhanced with Faith pointsseparately. Only those aspects that affect the parameters of the evocation can be affected; aspects relatingto the power of the evocation cannot be improved.Therefore, you could affect the range of a combatrelated evocation by spending Faith, but not thedamage it inflicts. The amount of Faith you mayspend on an aspect is determined by the MasteryBackground. You can spend Faith equal to the ratingin the Background in each aspect of the evocation. Sowith a Mastery rating of 2, you could spend two pointsof Faith to increase the duration and two more pointsto increase the range, but you could not spend threeor more points on either aspect. The duration ofevocations that last for an entire scene may not beincreased in this fashion.
Example: Belial possesses the Lore of Storms andMastery 4, and he wishes to lash Los Angeles with ahurricane. Performing Invoke the Storm, the Earthbound receives nine successes, so Belial can direct winds that have a Strength pool of nine dice, and lightning bolts thatinflict 10 dice of lethal damage pepper the area of effect.The storm has a radius in yards equal to Belial's Faith, andit lasts for a number of turns equal to the Faith rating aswell. With a Faith of 8, this means the storm has a radiusof eight yards and lasts eight turns. Each point of FaithBelial spends increases the radius or the duration tenfold.By spending four points of Faith, Belial increases theradius to 80,000 yards, for a storm about 91 miles wide;with another 4 Faith, the storm lasts 80,000 turns, orapproximately two and three quarter days. Belial cannotspend Faith to increase the Strength of the wind or thedamage of the lightning bolts — just the duration and area of the storm.
The Earthbound are the twisted masters of lore.Denied physical bodies, the Dread Kings compensatedby learning new and more powerful ways to directlycontrol Creation through their evocations. They havelearned to evoke effects of incredible intensity andpower, but doing so can cost massive amounts of Faith.As well as performing evocations as normal, youcan choose to enhance an evocation after successfullyrolling for its effect. Only characters with at least onedot in the Mastery Background can enhance evocations in this fashion.To enhance an evocation, increasing its range,area of affect, number of targets or other such variables, the player spends Faith after making a successfulevocation roll. Each point of Faith spent increases aspecific aspect of the evocation tenfold: 10 times therange, affecting up to 10 targets instead of one, etc.Spending two points increases the aspect 100 times,spending three points increases it 1,000 times and soon. If multiple aspects of the evocation could beenhanced, each must be enhanced with Faith pointsseparately. Only those aspects that affect the parameters of the evocation can be affected; aspects relatingto the power of the evocation cannot be improved.Therefore, you could affect the range of a combatrelated evocation by spending Faith, but not thedamage it inflicts. The amount of Faith you mayspend on an aspect is determined by the MasteryBackground. You can spend Faith equal to the ratingin the Background in each aspect of the evocation. Sowith a Mastery rating of 2, you could spend two pointsof Faith to increase the duration and two more pointsto increase the range, but you could not spend threeor more points on either aspect. The duration ofevocations that last for an entire scene may not beincreased in this fashion.
Example: Belial possesses the Lore of Storms andMastery 4, and he wishes to lash Los Angeles with ahurricane. Performing Invoke the Storm, the Earthbound receives nine successes, so Belial can direct winds that have a Strength pool of nine dice, and lightning bolts thatinflict 10 dice of lethal damage pepper the area of effect.The storm has a radius in yards equal to Belial's Faith, andit lasts for a number of turns equal to the Faith rating aswell. With a Faith of 8, this means the storm has a radiusof eight yards and lasts eight turns. Each point of FaithBelial spends increases the radius or the duration tenfold.By spending four points of Faith, Belial increases theradius to 80,000 yards, for a storm about 91 miles wide;with another 4 Faith, the storm lasts 80,000 turns, orapproximately two and three quarter days. Belial cannotspend Faith to increase the Strength of the wind or thedamage of the lightning bolts — just the duration and area of the storm.
This is the power that allows Demon Lores to move from the personal to strategic scale.
A Demon with the Lore of Flames 2 can set some fires in your house. A Demon with Lore of Flames 2 and Mastery 4 can set your city on fire.
A Demon with Lore of Longing 2 can make one person follow her suggestions without question, a Demon with Lore of Longing 2 and Mastery 4 could do the same to 10.000 people.
Theoretically yes, it would have very deep implications if any of them manage it.
I miscounted, the vote is a tie.
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If you account for my vote change, it's a tie.
Just caught up with this quest a few days ago. Love the story!
[X] As Molly Carpenter, jeans and a T-shirt, you are above all else human
Voting for this because if you're going to do diplomacy, you should be intentional about it, rather tacking it on as a second thought to a visit made for other motives.
[X] As Molly Carpenter, jeans and a T-shirt, you are above all else human
Voting for this because if you're going to do diplomacy, you should be intentional about it, rather tacking it on as a second thought to a visit made for other motives.
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OK, vote closed, I'm going to try to get this out today.
Interesting.
I have the Earthbound book as well, but it didnt occur to me that some of those mechanics and backgrounds might apply.
Potentially as important is the Hoard Background, which actually represents the Earthbound's store of extra Faith, and would give a Fallen a larger pool of reserve Faith.
HOARD
Mortals bodies can hold only so much divine (or infernal) power, and they can channel only a small amount of spiritual energy. Inanimate objects have thecapacity to hold much more Faith in reserve, giving even minor Earthbound a vast wellspring of Faith to draw upon for evocations and black miracles.
The character's Hoard Background measures how much temporary Faith its reliquary can hold at any onetime. The higher the reliquary's quality is, the more attuned it is to the Earthbound's spirit, and the larger the reliquary is, the more Faith it can contain. Small reliquaries of highly valuable or appropriate materials can hold a great deal of Faith, as can large reliquaries,
and those few vessels that are both large and of high quality can hold enormous amounts. Due to their spiritually unattuned nature, improvised reliquaries are poor vessels for Faith. Characters who are bound to improvised reliquaries cannot have more than three dots in Hoard.
X Your reliquary is small and particularly shoddy, and you have not honed its spiritual properties. You can hold a maximum of 10 points of temporary Faith.
• Your reliquary is small, and formed of simple materials, such as iron, stone, glass or plastic. You can hold a maximum of 15 points of temporary Faith.
•• Your reliquary is larger, perhaps the size of a chest or casket. It is made from fine but not exceptional materials with only minor affinities to your nature — perhaps crude crystals, steel, marble and obsidian. You can hold a maximum of 20 points of temporary Faith.
••• Your reliquary is either quite large, made of particularly fine materials or composed of material well attuned to your nature — perhaps rubies and volcanic stone to align with your mastery of fire. You can hold a maximum of 25 points of temporary Faith. This is the maximum Hoard rating possible for Earthbound in improvised reliquaries.
•••• Your reliquary is both large and valuable, a finely crafted object of precious and appropriate materials nearly the size of a man. You can hold a maximum of 30 points of temporary Faith.
••••• Enormous and jaw-droppingly valuable,a king's ransom of precious materials have gone into making your reliquary, an object larger than a man that is worth a fortune in its own right. You can hold a maximum of 35 points of temporary Faith.
Mortals bodies can hold only so much divine (or infernal) power, and they can channel only a small amount of spiritual energy. Inanimate objects have thecapacity to hold much more Faith in reserve, giving even minor Earthbound a vast wellspring of Faith to draw upon for evocations and black miracles.
The character's Hoard Background measures how much temporary Faith its reliquary can hold at any onetime. The higher the reliquary's quality is, the more attuned it is to the Earthbound's spirit, and the larger the reliquary is, the more Faith it can contain. Small reliquaries of highly valuable or appropriate materials can hold a great deal of Faith, as can large reliquaries,
and those few vessels that are both large and of high quality can hold enormous amounts. Due to their spiritually unattuned nature, improvised reliquaries are poor vessels for Faith. Characters who are bound to improvised reliquaries cannot have more than three dots in Hoard.
X Your reliquary is small and particularly shoddy, and you have not honed its spiritual properties. You can hold a maximum of 10 points of temporary Faith.
• Your reliquary is small, and formed of simple materials, such as iron, stone, glass or plastic. You can hold a maximum of 15 points of temporary Faith.
•• Your reliquary is larger, perhaps the size of a chest or casket. It is made from fine but not exceptional materials with only minor affinities to your nature — perhaps crude crystals, steel, marble and obsidian. You can hold a maximum of 20 points of temporary Faith.
••• Your reliquary is either quite large, made of particularly fine materials or composed of material well attuned to your nature — perhaps rubies and volcanic stone to align with your mastery of fire. You can hold a maximum of 25 points of temporary Faith. This is the maximum Hoard rating possible for Earthbound in improvised reliquaries.
•••• Your reliquary is both large and valuable, a finely crafted object of precious and appropriate materials nearly the size of a man. You can hold a maximum of 30 points of temporary Faith.
••••• Enormous and jaw-droppingly valuable,a king's ransom of precious materials have gone into making your reliquary, an object larger than a man that is worth a fortune in its own right. You can hold a maximum of 35 points of temporary Faith.
EDIT
See also the Urge Background, which is essentially bonus Attribute dots to either Mental, Social or Physical Attributes, depending on your particular Urges.
Give me a moment.
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I mean:
This is saying what you're trying there wont work, at all.
Have to admit, it is extremely annoying to see how much we have fight at any votes where we could, only to lose them constantly, with it being on false premises regularly at that.
Man, you really are honest, in the same situation I would have changed my vote without regret to close up the vote splitting.
Urges.
Earthbound page 78-79,
All Earthbound feel the pull of the physical world deep inside their shattered souls. Their bodiless existence, chained to an inanimate object, is profoundly unnatural, which is part of the reason that the Earth-bound become tormented and twisted monsters. The Earthbound yearn to be free from their prisons, to walk the blood-soaked earth and soar through smoke-filled skies. They long to taste the flesh of their enemies and hear the adoring prayers of their worshipping armies.
This desire to wear a physical form — and to control and dominate the physical world — manifests in the Earthbound as three Urges. Each Urge is a trait with a range of one to five dots, measuring the character's desire and need for a particular kind of gratification and stimulus.
The Urges of the Earthbound are more than simple desires; they are sources of power. When the Earthbound does assume a physical form — either through possessing a mortal host or directly manifesting its apocalyptic body — its Urges become sources of strength, motivating the creature and pushing it beyond the bounds of mortal possibility. In a mortal body, the Urges of the Earthbound elevate the Attributes of the host, even to superhuman levels.
Whenever your character takes a physical form — temporarily possessing a mortal body or assuming apocalyptic form — you can divide the dots of each Urge among the Attributes of the appropriate type. Each Urge dot increases a specific Attribute by one dot, and you can push the body's Attributes to 6 dots or even higher. When in a mortal host, the bonus dots from Urges are applied to the mortal's Attributes. When manifesting your character's apocalyptic body directly, without possessing a mortal first, the bonus dots are applied to your character's Attributes.
The bonus Attribute dots supplied by the Urges can be applied any way you like, and they don't have to be applied the same way twice. You might just enhance the Strength of your current host, then improve the Dexterity and Stamina of the next one instead. The Attribute increase is applied as long as you stay in that form, but it is set at the time you take on that form. You can't enhance the Wits of your host for the first hour of possession, then shift the bonus dots to Perception afterward.
FLESH
The Urge of Flesh is an overwhelming desire for physical sensation, and to perform physical acts. A character with a high Urge wants to run, to eat and to feel pain. Such a character also wants to inflict pain on others, smell their fear and taste their blood. When possessing mortal forms, Earthbound with a high Urge rating can become rampaging monsters, gluttons, sexual predators or frenzied whirlwinds of physical action.
The bonus dots from the Urge of Flesh are applied to the Physical Attributes: Strength, Dexterity and Stamina.
• Ascetic
•• Hungry
••• Lusty
•••• Addicted
••••• Frenzied
THOUGHT
The Urge of Thought is a craving for intellectual stimulation, taken to fetishistic extremes. Earthbound think, of course, but in alien ways that hold no satisfaction. They long to experience linear time, to interpret beauty and horror through a physical brain and to ferret out the answers that elude them in their inanimate cages. Earthbound with a strong Urge of Thought exhibit overwhelming curiosity about things, asking questions and demanding immediate answers. They might be found watching seven televisions at once or vivisecting a living subject to study her anatomy and listen to her screams.
The bonus dots from the Urge of Thought apply to the Mental Attributes: Perception, Intelligence and Wits.
• Disinterested
•• Curious
••• Intrigued
•••• Compelled
••••• Obsessed
EMOTION
While the Earthbound feel emotions of a sort —dark feelings like rage, hatred and a lust for destruction— these emotions are cold and hollow things, more like political positions than true feelings. A character with a high Urge of Emotion wants to really experience these feelings and to manipulate the feelings and passions of others, playing with their emotions like toys. In a mortal body, Earthbound with a strong Urge can become heartbreakers, thundering demagogues,whispering betrayers or sadistic torturers.
The bonus dots from the Urge of Emotion apply to the Social Attributes: Appearance, Manipulation and Charisma.
• Distant
•• Desirous
••• Passionate
•••• Enflamed
••••• Consumed
Essentially bonus Attribute dots that can take your base stats >5, with their effects being roleplayed.
Earthbound page 78-79,
URGES
All Earthbound feel the pull of the physical world deep inside their shattered souls. Their bodiless existence, chained to an inanimate object, is profoundly unnatural, which is part of the reason that the Earth-bound become tormented and twisted monsters. The Earthbound yearn to be free from their prisons, to walk the blood-soaked earth and soar through smoke-filled skies. They long to taste the flesh of their enemies and hear the adoring prayers of their worshipping armies.
This desire to wear a physical form — and to control and dominate the physical world — manifests in the Earthbound as three Urges. Each Urge is a trait with a range of one to five dots, measuring the character's desire and need for a particular kind of gratification and stimulus.
The Urges of the Earthbound are more than simple desires; they are sources of power. When the Earthbound does assume a physical form — either through possessing a mortal host or directly manifesting its apocalyptic body — its Urges become sources of strength, motivating the creature and pushing it beyond the bounds of mortal possibility. In a mortal body, the Urges of the Earthbound elevate the Attributes of the host, even to superhuman levels.
Whenever your character takes a physical form — temporarily possessing a mortal body or assuming apocalyptic form — you can divide the dots of each Urge among the Attributes of the appropriate type. Each Urge dot increases a specific Attribute by one dot, and you can push the body's Attributes to 6 dots or even higher. When in a mortal host, the bonus dots from Urges are applied to the mortal's Attributes. When manifesting your character's apocalyptic body directly, without possessing a mortal first, the bonus dots are applied to your character's Attributes.
The bonus Attribute dots supplied by the Urges can be applied any way you like, and they don't have to be applied the same way twice. You might just enhance the Strength of your current host, then improve the Dexterity and Stamina of the next one instead. The Attribute increase is applied as long as you stay in that form, but it is set at the time you take on that form. You can't enhance the Wits of your host for the first hour of possession, then shift the bonus dots to Perception afterward.
FLESH
The Urge of Flesh is an overwhelming desire for physical sensation, and to perform physical acts. A character with a high Urge wants to run, to eat and to feel pain. Such a character also wants to inflict pain on others, smell their fear and taste their blood. When possessing mortal forms, Earthbound with a high Urge rating can become rampaging monsters, gluttons, sexual predators or frenzied whirlwinds of physical action.
The bonus dots from the Urge of Flesh are applied to the Physical Attributes: Strength, Dexterity and Stamina.
• Ascetic
•• Hungry
••• Lusty
•••• Addicted
••••• Frenzied
THOUGHT
The Urge of Thought is a craving for intellectual stimulation, taken to fetishistic extremes. Earthbound think, of course, but in alien ways that hold no satisfaction. They long to experience linear time, to interpret beauty and horror through a physical brain and to ferret out the answers that elude them in their inanimate cages. Earthbound with a strong Urge of Thought exhibit overwhelming curiosity about things, asking questions and demanding immediate answers. They might be found watching seven televisions at once or vivisecting a living subject to study her anatomy and listen to her screams.
The bonus dots from the Urge of Thought apply to the Mental Attributes: Perception, Intelligence and Wits.
• Disinterested
•• Curious
••• Intrigued
•••• Compelled
••••• Obsessed
EMOTION
While the Earthbound feel emotions of a sort —dark feelings like rage, hatred and a lust for destruction— these emotions are cold and hollow things, more like political positions than true feelings. A character with a high Urge of Emotion wants to really experience these feelings and to manipulate the feelings and passions of others, playing with their emotions like toys. In a mortal body, Earthbound with a strong Urge can become heartbreakers, thundering demagogues,whispering betrayers or sadistic torturers.
The bonus dots from the Urge of Emotion apply to the Social Attributes: Appearance, Manipulation and Charisma.
• Distant
•• Desirous
••• Passionate
•••• Enflamed
••••• Consumed
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Winning Vote
Arc 11 Post 16: Through Mirrored Waters
Through Mirrored Waters
5th of January 2007 A.D.
Well I don't want to be under-dressed, without meaning to you start to giggle, stopping in the middle of the road.
"What?" the little girl looks up frowning, perhaps wondering if she has to cure you of some mysterious miasma and to be fair, around these parts. The deeper the three of you walked into the theater' the more the walls are covered, the stone now out of sight, at first with curtains of green velvet and polished wooden screens, faux bushes and paper mache flowers. Quietly seamlessly the curtains turn to hanging moss, the screens grow into trunks of oak, ash and elm, each stately as a lord holding court among hazel, myrtle and juniper, goosefoot reaching playfully onto what had become a beaten path.
"It's nothing I just remember being invited to a sleepover at Rosie's place when we'd only just met and I obsessed over what to dress to sleep in. I was afraid I'd come off as too boring or like I wasn't taking it seriously enough and it's just so similar even though it really shouldn't be...."
"Humor is born of incongruity," she nods, a faraway look in her eyes as you kick yourself for bringing it up.
Instead of showing likely to be unwelcome pity you smile and tsk. "That must make stand up comedy a drag right?"
She sniffs. "And movies, they have scripts, plays too and books of course. You'd be surprised at how much even supposed spontaneous humor isn't. People cheat all the time. Though all that means I find the absurdities of chance all the funnier. There's a bit of a farce to anything isn't there, no matter how bloody and grim."
Kincaid gives an small nod, like a veteran ranger approving basic woodlore. But speaking of woods...
"I mean look at this." you motion at the woods, an echo of a time before the great forests that stretched from the Atlantic to the steppes had known the bite of iron. "Look at us..." Yourself, jeans and a T-shirt you had thrown on because it was clean and you don't feel the cold, the Archive in her dark green coat raspberry-red dress and knee socks and mary janes. "We look like kids lost in the woods on one of those Made for TV kids movies, you know the ones that get solved by overly complicated, potentially lethal booby traps that somehow only knock the villains out."
She pauses, tips her head and looks thoughtfully up at her bodyguard. "You could stand in for one of the villains if you were a little more goofy. What do you say Kincaid would you cut down the rain forest, or old growth deciduous forest as the case may be?"
"Only if someone put a hit on it," he answers deadpan and that tears it. The Archive, repository of all mankind's writings, giggles with a fist over her mouth for just that moment looking entirely her age.
Likely drawn by the moment of levity a handful of sprites race close, wisps of light without form in colors bright as bee-eaters and rollers, goldfinches and redstarts. One daring red bright green start even pulls at a lock of hair, the mirth given voice permission to play, not that she seems to mind.
As for you that settles that. One day you will stride into the halls of Avalon garbed in power and majesty, the queen of five great cities, patron of a world entire, but that day is not this one. A simple Christmas gift had started this and you'd been plain old Molly Carpenter when you had walked into that store, you might as well be her again this day, or as close as the company will allow. If any should doubt your seriousness, or challenge your presence beyond even such company as the Archive you'll just have to deal with them.
"I'm fine like this," you say and start again on the path, though it does not stay a path much longer, coming unmoored in knotted branches greener than green that snake though the air needing neither trunk nor root. Green is the light that flows from all around, the air humming with promise of strange and secret things such that when the end of your particular 'branch' reveals itself to be a serpentine wearing a hood of moss you do not react past a nod of acknowledgement for a job well done, not thanks, never thanks, you know the rules that bind the faerie folk more tightly than gravity binds mortal man. Upside-down mushrooms grow like pale umbrellas overhead as swift soft rains rumble good-naturally along.
Things far off seem suddenly close and and those that had looked close reveal themselves as far away but massive. Together you walk on silver carpets of mist and swing along on living vines, hands stained purple from the grapes you grasped only for one of the helpful clouds to wash them off.
This would be absolutely terrifying if I had found my way here this before I exalted, you realize suddenly. Where Winter is guarded by foreboding mountains and battlements of ice summer is guarded by twists and turns of nature that pile on each other into an alien landscape that only knowledge can chart the way though and only utter confidence can scale. At last you come onto a pond, still and silent save for the song of larks in the distance and the slow drip of tardy raindrops from the branches above.
When the Archive steps onto it and the water supports her weight you are not even surprised. "Give me your hand, things would be a little awkward otherwise."
Seeing no reason to refuse you do so as she speaks two words you can't quite catch... because they come out as a gurgle, the three of you and your reflections suddenly reversing places. The water's only there a moment before... best as you can you can put it, it remembers it should be somewhere else. There is a flash of heat over your skin and the lingering droplets that would have been turned to ice stay liquid.
Recovered 2 Essence from your journey though the Spirit World -> Now at 9/15
"Thanks," you whisper to the girl as you withdraw your hand, looking around. The three of you are still standing on a lake, but one far larger, you can't see the edge on the horizon, but it's too calm by far to be called a sea. In the midst of this lake an island rises covered in the green a fruit trees and upon it a castle unlike any that could ever be in the lands under the sun. It's iron age fort and Norman motte-and-bailey, it's Frederiksborg and Versailles, it's Kylemore Abbey and Schönbrunn Palace and dozens upon dozens more for which you do not know the name. It is every dream of a castle as a place of power and place of beauty made manifest.
Somewhere high high above you trumpets ring, tones of silver climbing a latter of golden symmetry, a discrete smile plays on the archive's lips, a humble-brag that needs no words as a lillypad path opens up to the shore. There waiting and abuzz a crowd of bright figures int garb as varied in style as the castle, though there is a marked preference for soft green and bright gold and then for warm colors over cold. One would have to be blind to miss the Queen among her court.
Objectively you guess one could say she looks like Mab, though rare is the eye in which any such thing can dwell as they look upon the Queen of Summer. Bright she is, vivid and terrible, a vision of life and beauty given form, a dream so strong it conquers the morning's light and in her eyes an ancient fire. Her voice when it rings out is poetry and and looming thunderstorm all at once. "What do you bring to my halls Heir of Kassándra?"
Though the command does not fall upon you you feel its weight all at once, no crude compulsion this but a manifestation of royal power which eclipses lesser luminaries without even needing to try. One might find their tongue sticking in their mouth or words spoken without meaning, elegant gestures rendered clumsy by comparison, arguments that had seemed solid crumbling to dust.
Voice of Power Detected: Reduces all Social Dice-pools by 3 unless resisted.
How do you resist?
[] By will alone, you will not be cowed (Spend a Willpower; Reduce the Effect by 1/3rd of your permanent willpower. Due to your high willpower this is countering it for the duration of the scene)
[] By the power and authority vested in you (Use Impervious Primacy Mantle to utterly shrug it off)
-[] Using Willpower
-[] Using Essence
OOC: The cost is the same, or it can be, but resisting the effect with charms is almost guaranteed to look different to any fey who are watching closely, probably including Titania herself.
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That is saying it's a choice of attire not a disguise.
Rolls
Heart of Heart with Ivy
Int+Survival... identified the defenses
Archive to find a way that is favorable to you: Past Lives -> Wits+Politics: You get BSM active from the start
Archive calling down Titania
Noticing that she would make you tongue tied to talk to... yep
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[X] By the power and authority vested in you (Use Impervious Primacy Mantle to utterly shrug it off)
-[X] Using Willpower
There's a limit to where an affectation becomes a disguise, and we are not trying to disguise who we are. If nothing else, this is a part of our proof to who we are and what we can do - something that convinced Mab even.
-[X] Using Willpower
There's a limit to where an affectation becomes a disguise, and we are not trying to disguise who we are. If nothing else, this is a part of our proof to who we are and what we can do - something that convinced Mab even.
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Also for anyone who may be wondering, yes Mab finds the aesthetic of that castle enormously offensive and that is part of the reason it looks like that 
Agreed.
VOTE
[X] By the power and authority vested in you (Use Impervious Primacy Mantle to utterly shrug it off)
-[X] Using Willpower
Commentary later.