[X] Sure, if he's feeling talkative no reason not to take advantage of it, you'll kill him later anyway
-[X] Intimidation excellency
-[X] STUNT: "The one thing you might buy from me, Mr. Cobbler, in exchange for everything you know, is time enough for one last prayer, and swift and painless end" you say, your voice carrying the absolute surety of divine royalty and a touch of the cold and darkness of the tombs he used to rob. "And if you try to deceive me, I'll cut off your limbs, then bury you in the blackest ice, left to wither for millennia to come"
We should be wet, this is a creature of Darkness who is likely not strong enough to shrug off Demonic Primacy of Essence, and we know its name and greatest fear. Intimidate it to hell.
Man I'm tempted to add a question for the crown on how the hell Charon has any level of claim to the land of a random canal in Vegas and why. There are no local Psychopomp who might want this body of water? Also how can you even claim to have this land be his when it's obviously mortal ground. There's a lot of things that I want to ask about what's going on with this situation why is the most famous ferryman of the Dead in a random River in Nevada, how the hell did he young black vampire get any level of favor with the most famous carrier of the Dead, why would you host a prisoner with a touch of another God in place that is identifiably yours? Man I hope we ask about his base because that can at least clear up why and how of Charon's assistance in this matter.
Man I'm tempted to add a question for the crown on how the hell Charon has any level of claim to the land of a random canal in Vegas and why. There are no local Psychopomp who might want this body of water? Also how can you even claim to have this land be his when it's obviously mortal ground. There's a lot of things that I want to ask about what's going on with this situation why is the most famous ferryman of the Dead in a random River in Nevada, how the hell did he young black vampire get any level of favor with the most famous carrier of the Dead, why would you host a prisoner with a touch of another God in place that is identifiably yours? Man I hope we ask about his base because that can at least clear up why and how of Charon's assistance in this matter.
I mean,if this is legit Charon moonlighting, I expect this to be some sort of backup operating for the Sin Eater, and the arrangement with a Black Court vampire to be some sort fo sting operation we blundered into. Because Black Court are horrible abominations against the cycle of life and death created by Neverborn.
I imagine it's not so much the cycle of life and death as the post death existence of any being. The Neverborn are disintegrators that melt and Destroy permanently any being that happens to meet Oblivion. The black Court as facilitators of souls meeting said end are perpetrators of Acts that would scare and horrify any psychopomp.
We should be wet, this is a creature of Darkness who is likely not strong enough to shrug off Demonic Primacy of Essence, and we know its name and greatest fear. Intimidate it to hell.
He will definitely spend willpower if you do this. This is essentially a command to lay down and die. He may have a massive malus to escaping and or fighting us after this really successful intimidation attempt but he can and will definitely spend willpower.
Seriously, how?
They are undead, but on any view not really worse than a Red Court, a soul replaced by monster and a body twisted to fit that.
Certainly not worse than Jades, souls escaped from their eternal destiny to haunt earth again.
On an abstract level something touched by Neverborn influence might be cosmically worse, but in practical terms they are just another predator.
He will definitely spend willpower if you do this. This is essentially a command to lay down and die. He may have a massive malus to escaping and or fighting us after this really successful intimidation attempt but he can and will definitely spend willpower.
Seriously, how?
They are undead, but on any view not really worse than a Red Court, a soul replaced by monster and a body twisted to fit that.
Certainly not worse than Jades, souls escaped from their eternal destiny to haunt earth again.
On an abstract level something touched by Neverborn influence might be cosmically worse, but in practical terms they are just another predator.
Red Courts are probably not undead as in corpse-like, but they are a human body without human soul, instead inhabited by some demonic being with most of the human's memories.
As for the soul, probably not?
I suspect that Black Court vampires have a similar switch to Reds and there's no human soul left, though I couldn't rule out that the soul of the former human gets somehow tainted by Oblivion or some similar power and is still in there.
Worth remembering that DF gets pretty technical about the soul and Fey don't have one either, so it's not saying much.
Red Courts are probably not undead as in corpse-like, but they are a human body without human soul, instead inhabited by some demonic being with most of the human's memories.
I don't think Red Courts have a human body. They wear the human they gestated in and ate at birth's skin, but their actual bat-like body underneath the stolen skin is living but inhuman. The flesh-mask is just camouflage they wear, not part of their real body, and that's all that remains of the human they replaced.
Seriously, how?
They are undead, but on any view not really worse than a Red Court, a soul replaced by monster and a body twisted to fit that.
Certainly not worse than Jades, souls escaped from their eternal destiny to haunt earth again.
On an abstract level something touched by Neverborn influence might be cosmically worse, but in practical terms they are just another predator.
I mean shit like sight can do that in canon its not that weird that plenty of things have the senses to pick that shit up. Not exactly the context mind you but the feel and otherworldliness stuff they very much can pick up on.
I'm pretty sure it's noted in later books that fae not having souls is just wizards being assholes or just not teaching Harry some of the lore. Fae have souls, just not human souls.
I'm pretty sure it's noted in later books that fae not having souls is just wizards being assholes or just not teaching Harry some of the lore. Fae have souls, just not human souls.
uh no thats no. I mean even if they theoretically have souls as molly still seems to have hers for now its definitely not wizards being assholes.
Fae may have souls stored in mantles though not all fae have mantles so thats not saying much. The eldest of every fae species has a mantle and then there are a bunch of other known and unknown fae mantles.
1) You are ascribing a lot of motivations to Margaret that we don't know about, and making judgements about her character that are unsupported. There's at least this one piece of evidence that she wasn't entirely good (Skin game, ch. 51):
We have seen reliable sources like Rashid talk about her, and how he and others used to look out for her. We have seen Luccio talk about her push for change in the White Council. We've seen Morgan mention her in his journal. We even have some Word of Butcher on her.
We've also seen unreliable sources like demons and Nicodemus mention her.
Her inner motivations are unknown, not in detail.
But those who knew her, as opposed to just knew of her, dont speak in terms of her being evil, any more than those who know Dresden well do.
These exact same things have been said about Dresden. The Mad Wizard of Chicago.
Who killed his first master at 16. Who burned down an entire mansion of Red vampires and their human thralls at 27. Who killed the Summer Lady Aurora, and was involved in the death of the Summer Lady Lily. Who held a Coin, wielded Hellfire, and used necromancy on a scale unseen in centuries, only getting off on a technicality.
Who gave Mavra the Black Court Vampire the Word of Kemmler, helped Marcone the ganglord sign onto the Accords, and helped Nicodemus Archleone the Denarian break into Hades' vault. Who genocided the Red Court AND the Fellowship of St Giles in a major act of ritual blood magic.
Who killed the previous Winter Knight in order to take his place and Mantle.
Who died and came back from the dead, then made his apprentice the new Winter Lady by murdering the previous one.
Who was holding 2x Swords back from the battlefield.
From an outside perspective, Dresden looks a lot like a scheming dark lord ascendant.
I mean, A LOT.
And someone like, say, Binder, or a junior Warden, would be justified in describing him that way.
3) We can probably (I am not 100% sure) assume that she wasn't planning to die when selecting Leanansidhe, so, whatever made her choose her probably included the assumption that Margaret would be around too. That didn't work out.
And even if we assume that Leanansidhe chose, on her own completely free will (and not DF broad definition when it comes to magical deals) and with great enthusiasm to become Dresden's godmother, rather than being tricked, coerced, or bargained into taking up this position as part of some deal with Margaret LeFay, it only tells us that:
1) She was terrible in her responsibilities
2) It most likely served the cause of Winter in some way. We don't know which, but my guess would be Dresden's life (at some point, like "when he reaches 100 years old") being promised to Winter in some way.
Planning to die? Almost certainly not.
Making plans in the event of her death? Almost certainly yes. She was on the run from her enemies when she ran into and fell for Malcolm Dresden, a mundane stage magician with no magical skill or money.
No such thing.
Mab made it clear in Summer Knight that there was no such thing.
[EDIT]
Basically, I see two options:
1) Leanansidhe was coerced into taking up the tole / swearing whatever oaths were required, possibly by cashing in previous debts, possibly by some other means
2) Leanansidhe willingly became Dresden's godmother, which, knowing her, means that doing so would benefit Winter. She is very loyal to Winter, I'll give her that. And always seeks to benefit it.
[/EDIT]
You have failed to explain how you are supposed to coerce Mab's handmaiden into becoming your godmother.
And the record of people who try to manipulate the Fae with oaths is abyssmal. When Nicodemus tried it with Mab, it cost him the life of his daughter, the allegiance of his minions, and his reputation in the supernatural community.
There is no evidence that she became Dresden's godmother as some grand Winter stratagem.
In fact, we know for an explicit fact that Lea apparently adviced Dresden against being Winter Knight, and explicitly warned him against letting Mab bring him to the Stone Table:
My throat went dry. It took me two tries to rasp, "Queen Mab?"
The form vanished. A low, feminine laugh drifted through the mist to my right. I turned to face it.
A furious cat squall erupted from the air six inches behind me and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I spun to find nothing there, and the woman's laugh echoed around the top of the misty mound, this time more amused.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you," I said, my heart pounding in my throat. "You told me so, didn't you?"
Whispering voices hissed among the stones around me, none of them intelligible. I saw another flicker of mocking green eyes.
"Th-this is a limited-time offer," I said, trying to make my voice sound steady. "It's been forced by circumstance. If you don't get off your royal ass and jump on it, I'm walking."
"I warned you," said a calm voice behind me. "Never let her bring you here, my godchild."
I carefully kept myself from letting out a shriek. It would have been unwizardly. Instead, I took a deep breath and turned to find the Leanansidhe standing a few feet away, covered in a cloak the color of the last seconds of twilight, the deep blue-purple fabric hiding her completely except for her pale face inside the hood. Her green cat eyes were wide and steady, her expression solemn.
"But I'm here," I said quietly.
She nodded.
A person's loyalties can be nuanced. Even the Fae.
Well, if you deliberately arrange for your child to be born in North Korea and get NK's citizenship (while you yourself is an American citizen), yeah, it would cast some doubt on your character. Also, no. It's more like arranging for your child to be born with a specific mutation that doesn't normally affect their quality of life, but results in a statistical decrease in expected lifespan by decades.
Uh huh.
So when you choose a senior member of the organization whose job it is to defend reality against Outsiders from beyond space-time as your child's godparent, what does that say about you?
You can defend Kemmler, Capiorcorpusm and Cowl with exactly the same words "what part of wizard aren't you getting?". I am saying that this kind of art is very close to necromancy / possession / mucking around with souls. Ie skirting the Laws in a bad way. As Margaret was known to do. Do not pass go, report to Wardens and Senior Council for trial. It's, again, not a good sign of her character.
No, you cant.
Kemmler et al did bad shit to other people. This was just an exhibition of wizardly skill in creating a data dump/last will and testament, across three decades. Nothing in that scene broke any of the Laws, or even skirted them.
It wasnt a possession; the working was not an independent entity that could take people over.
The message/vision/experience was triggered by Dresden initiating a Soulgaze of his own free will. The gift of knowledge and Power was offered and Dresden had to actively accept it.
Both boys in that scene are her kids. There's no evidence that she would knowingly put them at additional risk.
COMMENTARY
Clean getaway.
Well, almost clean, if you dont count the fireball to destroy the sandal we left behind.
Well, you cant say Cobbler doesnt have balls.
Dumb as shit though to show his face after his spy reported back; Im guessing almost two centuries of immortality have somewhat warped his threat perceptions.
The fact that he could summon and use ghosts as spies suggests that he knows more than a little magic.
So not a trivial opponent, but still one that any one in our party could stomp into the dirt.
Vain too, if he's wearing deliberately anachronistic attire like a tophat and white gloves.
Of course, this might not be Cobbler himself; Master Blampires can possess and talk through their progeny.
We see Mavra do it twice.
Dude is almost certainly stalling.
And the only reason I can think of for a Master Vampire stalling is his attempting to call reinforcements.
I am minded to remember that he murdered and staked another Whampire right outside the Venetian Canals, in public . Ambrosio Bianchi might not have been a good person, but Cobbler made a public display of his death and his corpse. And thats in addition to setting fire to an occupied nightclub.
Im not particularly willing to make deals with this one, or give the impression we are obliged to do anything for him.
Of course the White Court vampire adherent of Ishtar wakes up after being smooched by the Incarnate of Longing.
===
Lydia has Manipulation as a Key Attribute, so 1s dont count.
She also has Authority of the Psychopomp, which gives her -2DC to all social rolls against the restless dead. And Regal Bearing gives her -2DC to social rolls when she's trying to make an impression.
The combined DC buffs would have come to -4DC, which would have reduced the total difficulty from DC6 to DC2.
Which would have made her roll 6 successes. Legendary.
Dude's undead testicles should be shrivelling in his scrotum.
=== @DragonParadox
QUESTION
1)Does talking to the walking corpse require implicitly accepting his offer of a trade? Because Im not inclined to give Mayeda back after going to all the trouble of rescuing him.
2)Where is Mutt? Is he with us now on the gondola?
3)What time is it currently in Las Vegas? Im assuming that since the Blampire is walking around, its after dark.
Going to also point out that Lydia has the charm Carriage of the Ankou, so she can summon a marked car/SUV to Las Vegas if we decide we are tired of trekking around the place.
