[X] Let Harrowmont go aheal with his ritual just as you make your way into the tunnels, hopefully stretch Sandra's attention to the breaking point
-[X] Leave several of your party members behind
--[X] Harry, a proper wizard used to this kind of magic
--[X] Tiffany for her understanding of old powers
--[X] Mutt and Adkins, for further guarding and occult insights respectivly
Okay, I want Harry there to supply personal power and skill that Harrowmont might be lacking. I hope he'll enjoy working with a famous Wizard.
He's also a heavy hitter in case the ritual gets attacked.
Everyone else, particularly Tiffany and Adkins, are barely useful in the tunnels as they are non-combatants, so I prefer them there.
Don't get me wrong, Lash is useful with her lore and flesh-shaping and she can somewhat defend herself in her Apocalyptic Form, but she has barely any skill at direct fighting. Only a Flashbang from the the Lore of Light and natural toughness from her Marble Skin.
Harry says that, but his standards might be skewed.
In Grave Peril he turned what was basically an obscure biography of a major fey lord into a summoning ritual. Then he held the Erlking in place on his own with not even a full day of prep work. If he hadn't been interrupted hours into the struggle he would have won and forced an incarnae level spirit to sit on its hands.
Magic muscle helps, but if Harry was actually mediocre at it he would've exploded.
Harry says that, but his standards might be skewed.
In Grave Peril he turned what was basically an obscure biography of a major fey lord into a summoning ritual. Then he held the Erlking in place on his own with not even a full day of prep work. If he hadn't been interrupted hours into the struggle he would have won and forced an incarnae level spirit to sit on its hands.
Magic muscle helps, but if Harry was actually mediocre at it he would've exploded.
That is more raw power than anything which would be represented by his high Arette. Well that ad having the occult stills to adapt his magic into new rotes fast. Spheres are specific personal resonance to a type of magic.
[X] Let Harrowmont go aheal with his ritual just as you make your way into the tunnels, hopefully stretch Sandra's attention to the breaking point
-[X] Only with the goblins
It would mean water was flowing through the storm drains, so while her allies assault the external defences and act as a distraction Molly can bypass them with RDV and jump right next to Sandra.
Even if the water is only ankle deep it should be enough.
Kattrin was an ancient monster as mentioned though, and Molly was weaker back then.
Setting up an escape is of limited use when Molly can read the scene ho know where someone went and get there very quickly.
Ultimatly this is the scry-and-die problem. You can't really fix it in-universe, only avoid doing it in polite agreement with the QM.
Kattrin was a thousand year old plus demigoddess. Sandra is, as far as we can tell, mortal. But she is an Outsider cultist working for Old Ones, and accounted one of their best just by dint of the jobs they give her. Which suggests that her mission budget was potentially very, very deep.
Its the difference between being a wealthy woman in your own right (Kattrin) and being a middle-class suburbanite with an unrestricted company credit card and access to the resources of a megacorp(Sandra).
As long as she has the favor of her patrons, Sandra is actually scarier than Kattrin ever was. Especially with preptime.
===
The notion of pursuing a fleeing enemy only lasts until you run into an ambush of Outsiders.
Or into a house/apartment with the natural gas rigged to turn it into an improvised FAE and a bound spirit to activate the trigger.
Like I said, the woman had a ton of time to work with here and no real scruples.
COMMENTARY
Loling at notGiles almost getting sliced and diced by a random mob of wyldfae.
Not that he'll learn.
Welp.
RIP Frankie, would-be mass-murderer. Missing, presumed eaten by the locals.
Im guessing noone's ever gonna find your body; just another missing persons case in Vegas.
The fact that he was still here and working suggests that this site was important to what ritual she was planning to do; any nerve gas that was going to be used in attacks would have been made days ago at a minimum.
Sandra undoubtedly has backups, but this was a useful blow.
Punk goblins. Thats new.
I was expecting the supernatural denizens to have a reaction to all this tomfoolery.
Glad to see I was right.
I dont currently have a strong opinion here, though I lean towards the rain ritual, both for style and to debuff Sandra's ritual.
If we want to personally spike the chaos spell before going underground, then our entire war party should get involved.
If we want Harrowmont to do it, leave him alone with the goblins and just use him as a distraction
Just dont split the party in this situation.
That said, a ritual invoking Persephone might have some resonance with Charon over at the Luxor.
Just saying.
Yeah. Forces 3 for an ex-Hellfire user seems reasonable.
But his Spirit is low for someone who fucks with the Fae as much as he does.
He has at least Spirit 3, Mind 1.
===
The White Council gives at least rudimentary lessons on mental defence to every wizard.
Gulp. Mental magic is a dark, dark, dark grey area of the art. Every wizard who makes it to the White Council has received training in how to defend against mental assaults, but that was perfunctory at best.After all, the Council made it a special point to wipe out wizards who violated the sanctuary of another's mind. It's one of the Laws of Magic, and if the Wardens caught someone doing it, they killed them, end of story. There was no such thing as an expert at that kind of magic on the White Council, and as a result the defense training was devised by relative amateurs.
Corpsetaker's will continued to erode my defenses. I had to get away from her, or she'd open up my brains like a tin of sardines-and then Xian would eat them.
The three-pointed shuriken still in my calf, I forced myself to my feet through the screaming pain. I seized my staff, hobbling in earnest this time, and struggled toward the end of the alley. My only chance was to make it to the street, to flag down a cab, somehow beg a ride from a passing car, or maybe get some help. I knew there wasn't much hope of any of those things happening, but it was all I had. I almost got to the end of the alley, the pain in my leg growing steadily worse-and then I abruptly lost track of what was going on.
One moment I'd been busy, I knew. I was doing something important. The next I was just standing there, sort of floundering. Whatever I'd been doing, it was right on the tip of my tongue. I knew that if I could just focus for a second, I'd be able to remember it and get back on track. My leg hurt. I knew that. And my head felt jumbled, the thoughts there, but in disarray, as if I'd gone through a drawer of folded laundry, pulled out something from the bottom, and then slapped the drawer shut again without straightening anything up.
I heard a snarl behind me, and realized that whatever I'd been doing, it was too late to get back on track now. I tried to turn around, but for some reason I couldn't remember how. "I have it," panted a woman's voice behind me. "Numbers. It's only… He only has numbers."
"My lord," snarled a thick, deformed voice. "What is your command?"
"He doesn't know where the Word is. He is useless to me. The book is in the right pocket of his coat. Take it, Xian. Then kill him."
He shared the interior of his head with a shadow of a Fallen Angel for several years while resisting her blandishments and occasionally locking her away. In Dead Beat he also managed to keep Corpsetaker, who was an experienced mindfucker, out of his head for almost long enough to escape their confrontation, and she had to fight to get information out of his head.
Plus, there's also his persistent ability to work through pain.
Taken together, that counts for at least Mind 1.
He's probably Mind 2 by canon Turn Coat, but thats several years in the future.
===
Dresden summoned and bound the 65 million year old zombie T-Rex Sue.
Before that, he successfully summoned and bound the Erlking temporarily, before Cowl bashed him over the head.
He's also read the complete Word of Kemmler. And understands it well enough to weaponize it against Blampires.
And he can open Ways temporary rifts into the NeverNever Spirit World.
Pierce Gauntlet: The mage can create a temporary rift within the Gauntlet.
Step Sideways: The mage can step through smaller rifts within the Gauntlet and enter the Spirit World.
Rouse And Lull Spirit: The mage can influence spirits, either rousing them to action or lulling them to sleep. It is also possible to harm Spirits with this level.
Not sure if those defenses count as a full Mind point, especially as they are called out as functionary. In any case he does not have any Mind Rotes so it's kind of moot.
Not sure if those defenses count as a full Mind point, especially as they are called out as functionary. In any case he does not have any Mind Rotes so it's kind of moot.
Binding Lash inside his head probably counts as mind Rotes.
Plus there was his defense against Corpsetaker.
The hideous vacuum wasn't meant for my body. It was targeting my thoughts.
"That's right," Alicia said.
Holy crap. She'd heard me thinking.
"Of course, young man. Give me what I want now and I may leave you enough of your mind to feed yourself."
I gritted my teeth, marshaling my thoughts, my defenses.
"It's too late for that, boy." Like hell it was. My thoughts coalesced into a unified whole, an absolute image of a wall of smooth, grey granite. I built the image of the wall in my mind and then filled it with the power I'd been holding at the ready. I felt a nauseating confusion for a second, and then the mental gale ceased as abruptly as it had begun.
Alicia's head jerked as if she'd been slapped across the cheek.
I glared at her, teeth gritted, and asked, "Is that all you got?"
Corpsetaker snarled out a spiteful curse, lifted her left arm, and twisted her fingers into a raking claw.
There was a hideous pressure against the image of the granite wall in my mind. It wasn't a single, resounding blow, as I had expected from my training, a kind of psychic battering ram. Instead it was an enormous, steady weight, as if a sudden tide had flooded in to wash the wall away completely.
I thought that pressure would ease in a moment, but it only became more and more difficult to bear. I struggled to hold the image of the wall in place, but despite everything I could do, dark and empty cracks began to appear and spread through it. My defenses were crumbling. "Delicious," Corpsetaker said, and her voice didn't sound strained at all. "After a century, they're still teaching the young ones the same tripe."
I saw movement beyond Corpsetaker, and Li Xian appeared in the shattered plywood doorway. Half of his face was lumpy and purpled with bruising, and one shoulder had been smashed grossly out of shape. He was bleeding a thin, greenish-brown fluid, and moved as if in great pain, but he came in on his own power, and his eyes were alert.
"My lord," Xian said. "Are you well?"
"Perfectly," Corpsetaker purred. "Once I have his mind, the rest is yours."
His misshapen face twisted into a smile that spread too wide for human features. "Thank you, lord."
Holy crap. It was time to leave.
But my feet wouldn't move.
"You needn't bother, young wizard," Corpsetaker said. "If you take the attention you would need to free your feet, your wall will fail. Just open to me, boy. You will feel less pain."
I ignored the necromancer and tried to think of other options. My mental defenses were indeed crumbling, but any strength of will I spent to move my legs would collapse the defenses entirely. I had to get the pressure off of me for a moment-only time enough to distract Corpsetaker, to give me time to get the hell away. But given that I could barely move at all, my options were severely limited. Part of the wall began to crumble. I felt Corpsetaker's will begin pouring in, the first trickle from a dark sea.
If I wanted to live, I had little choice.
I reached my thoughts down into the smoldering Hellfire burning in the runes of my staff, and sent it flooding into my mind, into the failing wall that protected me. The cracks in the cold grey granite filled with crimson flame, and where the dark sea of Corpsetaker's will pressed against it there was a screaming hiss of freezing water boiling into a cloud of steam.
Corpsetaker let out a sudden, hollow gasp, and the pressure on my thoughts vanished.
I spun, wobbled, got my balance, and then ran for the back door.
But fair enough to point out that his use of Mind is limited, and almost purely defensive.
QUESTION
Latest update says:
[] Screw this, there has to be a way to give Harrowmont the insight he needs to put out the fires until nightfall when you can deal with the arsonist herself.
Can we get some clarification on this part?
If we dont help Harrowmont, do we move to attack immediately, or are we waiting until nightfall when we can move more freely?
Can we get some clarification on this part?
If we dont help Harrowmont, do we move to attack immediately, or are we waiting until nightfall when we can move more freely?
The attack is at the moment set to nightfall (unless you guys want to change it) since the vote before last was to recruit the very sunlight adverse Red Court. For them to get into those tunnels and not burn on the way they need the sun to go down.
What you are saying there is nothing but a false dichotomy, there is a world of difference between shadowrunning and YOLOing.
You are the one constantly inventing new abilities that our ennemies supposedly have that means we should not attack them, and I have yet to see any of those predictions come true.
The thousand year old demigoddess folded like a house of cards, Iku-Torso did too, twice, the Akuma didn't do much.
The reason that Las Vegas has a large network of very high capacity storm drains is because it is possible. The fact that it's a desert doesn't mean that when a rainstorm comes water that falls on the concreted over city vanishes.
The attack is at the moment set to nightfall (unless you guys want to change it) since the vote before last was to recruit the very sunlight adverse Red Court. For them to get into those tunnels and not burn on the way they need the sun to go down.
He needs life and death aspected god, correct? @DragonParadox as far as Molly knows, would invoking her name / title work? Flex that primordial divinity as it was.
He needs life and death aspected god, correct? @DragonParadox as far as Molly knows, would invoking her name / title work? Flex that primordial divinity as it was.
He already has a name, Persephone/Kore, it is part of the ritual. It will, hopefully, do something with just a bunch of Wyldfae. The question is just how much do you want to buff that.
I definitely prefer to split the party here, because it means that Sandra has to simultaneously deal with a magical attack on her Working and a physical one through the tunnels.
Putting the pressure on her is vital.
In the meantime, I really don't like the idea of taking Tiffany into the tunnels, she's just too physically vulnerable to stand where Rampires and cyborgs and exalted fight hand-to-hand.
She has a regular mortal healthpool, moderate stamina and only one defensive effect from her Apocalyptic Shape, which leaves her vulnerable. Meanwhile on the offensive, she has nothing but a Lore of Light effect for some bashing damage. No combt-abilities at all otherwise.
Let her use her lore and smarts here, rather than throwing her into the meatgrinder.
@DragonParadox, are there any sorcerers or relevant spirits we could bring in from the FFC to assist with the weather ritual? Particularly if we helped modify it?
[X] Let Harrowmont go aheal with his ritual just as you make your way into the tunnels, hopefully stretch Sandra's attention to the breaking point
-[X] Leave several of your party members behind
--[X] Harry, a proper wizard used to this kind of magic
--[X] Tiffany for her understanding of old powers
--[X] Mutt and Adkins, for further guarding and occult insights respectivly
[X] Let Harrowmont go aheal with his ritual just as you make your way into the tunnels, hopefully stretch Sandra's attention to the breaking point
-[X] Leave several of your party members behind
--[X] Harry, a proper wizard used to this kind of magic
--[X] Tiffany for her understanding of old powers
--[X] Mutt and Adkins, for further guarding and occult insights respectivly
@DragonParadox, are there any sorcerers or relevant spirits we could bring in from the FFC to assist with the weather ritual? Particularly if we helped modify it?
If you have a few weeks to spare you could try to work out how to incorporate beings from what is basically an alien world into an Earthly magical ritual, but as is it would probably add more risk than in power.
[X] Let Harrowmont go aheal with his ritual just as you make your way into the tunnels, hopefully stretch Sandra's attention to the breaking point
-[X] Leave several of your party members behind
--[X] Harry, a proper wizard used to this kind of magic
--[X] Tiffany for her understanding of old powers
--[X] Mutt and Adkins, for further guarding and occult insights respectivly
[X] Let Harrowmont go aheal with his ritual just as you make your way into the tunnels, hopefully stretch Sandra's attention to the breaking point
-[X] Leave several of your party members behind
--[X] Harry, a proper wizard used to this kind of magic
--[X] Tiffany for her understanding of old powers
--[X] Mutt and Adkins, for further guarding and occult insights respectivly
So Molly should be at full essence for the attack.
[X] Let Harrowmont go aheal with his ritual just as you make your way into the tunnels, hopefully stretch Sandra's attention to the breaking point
-[X] Leave several of your party members behind
--[X] Harry, a proper wizard used to this kind of magic
--[X] Tiffany for her understanding of old powers
--[X] Mutt and Adkins, for further guarding and occult insights respectivly
VOTE
[X]Plan Cloudburst
-[X] Screw this, there has to be a way to give Harrowmont the insight he needs to put out the fires until nightfall when you can deal with the arsonist herself.
-[X]Call the party and have them meet you, bringing some supplies with them
-[X]Crown question: Focus this scene: Optimizing the ritual for Las Vegas's current situation: 1m
-[X]Tool-Transcending Constructs + Occult Excellency for the actual ritual: 2m
EXPENSES
-3m
RATIONALE
Essentially, we're not assaulting into the tunnels until nightfall because we're bringing Reds with us.
And the Reds cant assemble in daytime. So we can use the time productively.
Sandra's chaos ritual was primarily enacted as a buff spell/mana manipulation ritual to prime the city with appropriate mojo, so whatever her magic plans are easier to enact, and to make the response of other people worse.
So taking it down will debuff whatever she's doing, and will make it easier for us to lead a force into the tunnels.
Also, directing a sudden, heavy cloudburst of rain on Las Vegas will dump floodwater into the tunnels.
Running water like this will thoroughly fuck most magic ritual preparations in those tunnels, and erode or damage magical defenses and alarms that the floodwaters can reach.
It will also provide enough water and justification for Molly to have BSM active when we go into them.
When we're done w, Molly can chill in some bleach water to regenerate Essence before nightfall.
Two hours will regenerate 8m.
@DragonParadox
QUESTION
Does finding out what happened in the boiler room, both the confirmation that there was an Outsider-aligned lab site in that location, and the fact that everyone there has been killed by wyldfae goblins, both Frankie and his guards, count as a supernatural secret?
In the meantime, I really don't like the idea of taking Tiffany into the tunnels, she's just too physically vulnerable to stand where Rampires and cyborgs and exalted fight hand-to-hand.
She has a regular mortal healthpool, moderate stamina and only one defensive effect from her Apocalyptic Shape, which leaves her vulnerable. Meanwhile on the offensive, she has nothing but a Lore of Light effect for some bashing damage. No combt-abilities at all otherwise.
Let her use her lore and smarts here, rather than throwing her into the meatgrinder.
Disagree. We need Lash on site, for the same reason you bring combat engineers and medics into firefights.
Lash is the only person here who can handle exotic poisons like the VX that Sandra just tried to murder a club with, and we're heading into tunnels which are not famous for their ventilation. She also has the best Perception + Awareness dicepool here that doesnt require activating the Sight, and the longest range on it, and can increase her Perception score.
Plus, she is the only other person here besides Molly with Occult 5.
With Apocalyptic Form active, she has Soak 7, which is as almost as good as Dresden wearing his trenchcoat, and she can borrow a flakvest or similar from Molly's guys for +1 Armor, taking her to Soak 8.
And she will be rocking Dexterity 7 to boot. BEFORE she uses Flesh 2 to buff her Dexterity even more, putting her dodge at around peak mortal.
She's at least as tough as Dresden is, and her base attack is better than Lydia's.
No Im not kidding.
Tiffany's offensive dicepool is Stamina 3 + Science 4, dicepool of 7 before stunts.
For reference, without burning Excellencies, Lydia's offensive dicepool is Dexterity 3 + Brawl 3 for a total of 6 before stunts.
And yes, most of the same reasons we need Lash on site apply to Harry as well.
Not that I can see how you expect to convince both of them to stay behind while the fucking teenagers go into the teeth of danger. Thats like ramming directly into both their Intimacies.
