So we gain a staging ground that cannot be nuked into the ground, has established infrastructure, and multiple dragon nests. So that we can turn the city of sin into the city of fountains. So We can make things better, for ourselves and others.
We already have a staging ground with infrastructure that isnt associated with a Hellgate, has both land and water access, and is close to all those who we love and care about.
We havent run out of space in Chicago, and we're still going to the Boston area later this year.
Furthermore, given that the unknowns who constructed a magic seal on the Hellgate here are powering it with something, and the Sin-Eater was apparently touching neither leylines nor Dragons Nests before Las Vegas was invented, I have strong doubts about the availability of most of those things to anyone who wants Las Vegas and the Hellgate to continue existing.
All that expanding into Vegas appears to achieve is expanding our threat surface for other people to poke at.
For essentially vanity's sake.
And of course, it presupposes that we, or someone else, kill the Sin-Eater and find a replacement.
Wait I don't recall, when people die they just come back where ever their body happens to be right? @DragonParadox Is that true and if so what happens if there is no body?
Your second point makes sense we don't have infinite inventory either.
To my recollection, you come back at the nearest habitable spot.
So if you fell into lava and died, you dont come back in the same lava, but out of it and ssome distance away.
Wait I don't recall, when people die they just come back where ever their body happens to be right? @DragonParadox Is that true and if so what happens if there is no body?
Your second point makes sense we don't have infinite inventory either.
Nearest habitable spot, unless you happen to be at the edge of the Labyrinth in which case you will always come back in the nearest habitable spot in the Labyrinth. You need to get all the way out before dying or it will pull you back in.
[X]Plan Focus on Sandra let the Police handle this
-[x]You know what is coming and can guess the route quickly call the Library and get an anti terrorist squad to interpret well you go and handle Sandra.
So, I think after this we should probably try establishing some more connections to LoC. We are using them quite extensively in this operation, after all, it's only polite to pay them a bit in something.
So, I think after this we should probably try establishing some more connections to LoC. We are using them quite extensively in this operation, after all, it's only polite to pay them a bit in something.
One of the ways you can do this is to use the actual diplomat corps you have. The City of Journeys is actually filled with traders and diplomats at the highest level. Mind that would be pushing the LoC into a first contact scenario, but I thought it would be worth a mention because I know AP is the bottleneck.
One of the ways you can do this is to use the actual diplomat corps you have. The City of Journeys is actually filled with traders and diplomats at the highest level. Mind that would be pushing the LoC into a first contact scenario, but I thought it would be worth a mention because I know AP is the bottleneck.
Oh, I am all for that. It would be a good move, I feel. We need to start acting as a queen. I.e. "I have people for that" should be an option we use. LoC should be a good first target for contact before we send our guys into courts of Summer and Winter to do actual politics in, and into other corners of the world.
Oh, I am all for that. It would be a good move, I feel. We need to start acting as a queen. I.e. "I have people for that" should be an option we use. LoC should be a good first target for contact before we send our guys into courts of Summer and Winter to do actual politics in, and into other corners of the world.
There's a bunch of stuff bottlenecked by March and the $390 million lottery($117.76 million after taxes and legal deductions) we're aiming at, which gives us cover to operate in the real world and to launder additional shit when needed from our Hell.
Also, the clone charm which allows Molly to essentially put a regent in Sanctuary.
Or to send a personal representative when she cant personally be present somewhere.
And the Inner Devils Unchained charm for those who want it.
[X]Plan Focus on Sandra let the Police handle this
-[x]You know what is coming and can guess the route quickly call the Library and get an anti terrorist squad to interpret well you go and handle Sandra.
There's a bunch of stuff bottlenecked by March and the $390 million lottery($117.76 million after taxes and legal deductions) we're aiming at, which gives us cover to operate in the real world and to launder additional shit when needed from our Hell.
Also, the clone charm which allows Molly to essentially put a regent in Sanctuary.
Or to send a personal representative when she cant personally be present somewhere.
And the Inner Devils Unchained charm for those who want it.
Honestly, I am not sure if the lottery is really worth an AP. Securing a multi-billion trade deal with USA government seems like a better idea, as it also comes with political benefits.
"... yeah we are on campus, overlooking the Bill 'Wildcat' Morris Rebel Park. We are in a heavily warded room. I think the most reasonable direction for the attack to come would be to just shoot in. I am not certain what degree of cognitive function the thralls have, but given the actual nature of their controller I think it is all but certain they will go off if impeded. I'm betting grenades rigged to blow."
"And the spell?" You'll give Von Trier this this, the woman has nerves of steel. You cannot even imagine what liasoning with regular federal authorities is right now and trying to explain the concept of entropy magic: Whatever can go wrong probably will.
"Dampened until sunset, we were going to move then before she tipped her hand this way."
"Why?" the words do not really sound like an accusation, but they feel like one nonetheless.
"Local assets required to breach the position.. We do not know all the parameters under which she is operating, if escape and relocation can still play into her plans so we addempted to stack the deck."
"So you do know the hour Ms Carpenter?" A sigh comes in from the other side, a wave of static quickly cut off. "I'll make some calls, sweep these armed puppets aside."
"Midnight, midnight tonight," you offer, though if you, Harry, Tiffany and Lydia fail you are not sure what the Library's agents can do. Unless... a flash of the sun's fire brought to earth, millions dead in an instant. Do they have the influence for that? There are as it turns out some questions do you not want to ask.
You look up at the others, including a very confused Harrowmont and nod. It turns out he did not know the federal government had people to deal with literal spooks, that kind of thing does not really filter down the grapevine from the Council and you would guess most of the minor talents who have reason to encounter them either either get recruited or intimidated into silence.
"Tiffany, Harry, I don't suppose either of you know any secrets I could recharge off of?" you ask, drawing a somewhat wheezing laugh from the elderly priest, possibly at Harrowmont's expression. OK so I'm not doing a very good job easing him into this, sue me.
Oliver Adkin thinks for a moment then recounts in a clear lecturer's voice: "The Black Pyramid, the folly of Amenemhat the Mighty and Perfect did not fall because the priests of the Khem, the heirs of Imhotep erred in placing the foundation or in carving the chambers, it is because the Pharaoh counted upon sorcery from unwholesome sources to hold up his tomb, servants of the World Eater. When they were destroyed, or banished, the writings were unclear their power failed and all that was left was a monument to hubris, slowly crumbling among the sands." Truth once hidden not to your eyes revealed, like a drink of ice water on a hot day.
You regain 2 Essence -> Now at 9/15
Seven minutes later you get a call back, there had been a shootout at an LVPD roadblock, two officers dead, though given the arsenal found in the back of the van everyone agrees that it could have been much worse.
"Alright I think we've broken her rythm with that one-two punch. Screw the vampires we are going in."
"Sadly I would not be much use to anyone in that kind of contest," Harrowmont offers. "I have some skill as a duelist but merely mortal arms with which to hold the sword..." he glances at Tiffany. "Unless of course the Lady would see fit to change that?"
"Perhaps on the morrow good sir, for now I shall need all my strength."
"I'm going," Mutt gives a weary shrug, as though he barely cares about peril, though to be fair he had been trailing all of you through all this madness.
***
The transition fron the Vegas of the Strip, the roaring crowds and betwildered crowds stumbling in the rain and the passages into the tunnels is slow and meandering dotted with seedy bars and pawnshops now all sporting heavy locks on their doors against the chaos, half empty parking lots looking even more forlorn in the pouring rain. It is not hard to pick out through the windows the people who have nowhere else to go, homeless, but still living out of their cars. But you are heading deeper, following the streams of water whispering over the cracked concrete. Once you are out of sight you step inward to Sanctuary where reinforcemnts are waiting.
What do you do?
[] Head to where 'your' vampires said their fellows had gathered, Orpheus' former abode
[] Spend your last focus and a mote of essence to find out where Sandra is right now
[] Write in
OOC: Alright we are in, the penultimate vote said to move out if she was not sending anyone so I took that to mean if the people she did send were stopped by the cops go in. I did not want to relitigate things.
In his early years, sure. Or in comparison to Molly.
Not as of Peace Talks/Battle Grounds, where he's veiling himself and Butters so well that people shooting at them cant hit them.
If Winter Knight Harry says its not something he can do, that should give you pause.
And frankly, there is currently no evidence that mass-produced Sanctuary tech is better at this than high-tier White Council wizards like Dresden. Our Hell's magic is modelled as Path Sorcery in wide deployment.
They have True Magick.
Our advantage is industrial, not cutting edge capability.
For cutting edge, you need stuff made by Molly's own hands.
Again, this is post-9/11 over a major US city thats seeing a sudden explosion of violence.
Nuff said.
No offense.
But you do understand that when you are underground, you are cut off from communications, right?
GPS does not work underground. Targeting does not work underground.
And you sure as fuck do not want to be in an enclosed space with an explosive warhead detonating nearby
Correction: JDAMs were in use in Desert Storm.
There were no seeker bombs in Desert Storm. Nothing that can follow a moving target.
Im pretty sure there were none in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The SDB-II is still in development, and only gets its first test flight in 2009.
Our tech is optimized for our Hell.
A lot of it dont just translate 1 to 1 to modern Earth. That was a deliberate choice we made when we chose to pick a Hell that was as alien as our Hell is from an Earth baseline. There's a reason we ask about this.
Stealth in the Brass Courts has a different definition from stealth on Earth.
Different sensors to hide from.
Letting Rampires go because you made a promise =/= Killing civilians yourself.
And even people who might have no problem capping 1-2 people in a fight balk when the numbers increase.
Las Vegas city tunnel, from a news report on the homeless
You really arent grokking some of the scales involved here.
The deep tunnels get deep.
Not to debate much but we have at least a handful of individuals at cutting edge levels to some degree due to being practiced for like 3000+ years right? Not a lot but like some individuals with beyond 5 dot skills and such. Some well way less applicable I'm sure some screen writers have like 6 dots in whatever applicable skill that takes which is great for some bitchin plays and stuff not so much for combat.
Yeah, well, your prerogative. You're just wrong though.
Man didnt earn the fear respect of the older White Council members by being bad at magic.
The list of people who have lined up to try to recruit him in canon, from Mab to Nicodemus to He Who Walks Before, seem to think he's not bad at this magic shit either.
=
No, Im not saying radar is one big weakness to magic. Im saying that veils will usually stop visible light, and thats it. Wont stop sound, or smell, or air pressure. It wont stop invisible radiation either; you cant hide yourself from radar or protect yourself from radiation by trying to bend non-visible parts of the spectrum around you, like you can do with visible light.
According to Dresden, who should know, the only person we've heard of who can maybe bend radiation at that end of the spectrum was Winter Lady Molly, and only when she became Winter Lady. We saw her prior to that when she was a mortal, and her veils are very good, but not that good.
=
You generally block things you can perceive or visualize.
It doesnt matter what Forces 3 can theoretically do; humans can neither see nor sense radar naturally, so how do you expect a wizard thats essentially a Traditions mage to know how to bend it?
There's theoretically supernaturals out there who can perceive other senses from radar to cosmic background radiation, and hide themselves from them. I would not be surprised if Seeker and his kind could; angels certainly can.
But I doubt a wizard could.
=
We paid points for future tech. We got it.
And yet our soldiers are not all running around in late model Alanson hardsuit equivalents. The Empress calls for aid and her special forces teams dont have power armor.
So clearly there's limits to be expected in a game thats supposed to be a game, not a stomp.
We have had transient radar contacts since the early 40s. That isnt new.
Those that are in sensitive areas get followed up on. You know, like an unknown radar contact over a major US city, close to an international airport and less than 10 miles from a major AF base.
No, I am reasonably sure that is factually incorrect.
Back in Gulf War 1, they used GPS- and laser-guidance.
Self-guidance was not available for bombs that Im aware of. Missiles, sure, like the Maverick, but not bombs.
And the capabilities are not the same; if the lasing aircraft loses track for whatever reason, thats all she wrote.
*crosschecks again to be sure*
The Gulf War Air Power Summary says that the US aircraft used up around 4500x GBU-12s, which were laser-guided 500 pound bombs. These were apparently the bulk of guided bombs.
The unguided bombs they used were:
=77,000 unguided 500-pound bombs,
=19,000x unguided 1000 pound bombs,
=12,000x unguided 2000 pound bombs
=90,000x other unguided bombs of various sizes
And thats not counting the 3,000x Hellfires and 5,000x Mavericks.
Or those that got murdered on the ground by Allied tanks.
This is not to say that precision weapons didnt prove themselves in the Gulf War.
Pound for pound, inordinately effective.
Just that you are overstating their role in breaking Iraqi tank forces.
This is like being shown a coherent radiation emitter and calling it basic because Einstein established the theoretical basis for lasers and masers in 1917.
Or like calling an electric car basic because the first one was invented back in 1827.
Furthermore, we know that Sanctuary tech is optimized for Sanctuary conditions.
It was explicitly stated that some of what we use works nothing like Earth tech, like the strategic mag-skimmers that fly with the magnetic flux of Sanctuary in order to launch strategic balefire elementals:
Over the next day Warden Morgan dedicates himself to what at first seems a very narrow and technical investigation of the armed forces of the Five Cities, from the crises teams on call to backup detectives in over their heads to the Aug-infantry brigades in full exo-suits sheathed in Sub dermal Impact-Enhanced Gel to the point where they seem almost a species apart to the Stonebreaker artillery designed to shatter field bunkers and deliver fragmentation munitions into the middle of enemy formations. That morning you are looking over Glory class mag-skimmers, long range high payload bombers which were never even designed to come within sight of the enemy not to launch strategic missiles high enough in the atmosphere that they could ride the magnetic winds until they are near their target then with minimal fuel usage turn and unleash their payload. What is saved for on fuel is more than made up for with the balefire elemental that provides much of the destructive power and the rudimentary intelligence behind the blast.
Yet for all the dreadful power of these machines that is not really what the senior warden seeks, the questions that sharpen his gaze the most have to do with rules of engagement, past conflicts and expectations of future ones. For a while there you wonder how he would eve bring himself to trust the testimony, but then as you ponder the nosphere searches you realize he does not, at least not on their own. instead he has chosen to cast a wide a sphere as possible reasoning, correctly, that no conspiracy on your part could perfectly encompass an entire world at least not without limiting his access to information sources.
You're making assumptions about how things work with Sanctuarytech that I dont think are warranted.
Maybe you're not understanding what you're proposing. Look back over this conversation.
You have proposed putting armed drones with multi-ton bomb capacity (for reference, the MQ-7 Predator can carry ~100kg of weapons, and the MQ-9 Reaper maxes out at 1.7 tons of ordnance, so you're talking something bigger) over a civilian First World city and metro area of more than 2 million people.
Less than 10 miles from a major AF base, with at least two major ground-based radar systems scanning the sky and I dont know how many air systems in the sky from Nellis AFB next door.
You have further suggested using these weapons in this city, in the middle of civilian infrastructure, like power, water and gas lines. In order to hit an underground target of unknown location.
And you say I'm moving the goal posts?
Thats the GBU-28, and I thought they only built them for Gulf War 1 using the barrels of old 200mm howitzers.
Didnt realize it was still in service after that.
So yeah, you're right that this is still in service in 2007.
But tell me that you arent proposing using a 5000 pound bomb-equivalent, twice the size of a standard bunkerbuster, in the middle of Las Vegas. In the middle of underground gas and power lines, with hundreds if not thousands of homes and offices in the local area around the impact point.
Not that your wrong but I do think there's probably some level of radar adjacent since exploration is a decent part of 5 fold courts culture into the wastes. So being able to tell when things are coming is probably something developed in the past century or two. No idea how reliable it'd be and it could work on principles nonexistent on earth though.
Oliver Adkin thinks for a moment then recounts in a clear lecturer's voice: "The Black Pyramid, the folly of Amenemhat the Mighty and Perfect did not fall because the priests of the Khem, the heirs of Imhotep erred in placing the foundation or in carving the chambers, it is because the Pharaoh counted upon sorcery from unwholesome sources to hold up his tomb, servants of the World Eater. When they were destroyed, or banished, the writings were unclear their power failed and all that was left was a monument to hubris, slowly crumbling among the sands." Truth once hidden not to your eyes revealed, like a drink of ice water on a hot day.
Interesting. Pretty nice Pyramidion that is still partially intact today.
It seems to contain all the proper references to the gods, so any questionable dedications would have had to be in other places.
OOC: Alright we are in, the penultimate vote said to move out if she was not sending anyone so I took that to mean if the people she did send were stopped by the cops go in. I did not want to relitigate things.
Having to redo a vote to decide a thing that had already been in contest twice, when we have the best opportunity we'll ever have, would have been a nightmare.
[X] Head to where 'your' vampires said their fellows had gathered, Orpheus' former abode
Worst case Sandra has moved on, but I hope that the location is important or that she can't move the Dragon's body easily, so breaking into her current hideout is still worth it.
And it will be another focus we can use to track her, if she escapes.
The meeting started with introductions, Molly introduced her friends and Viserys did the same. It was a strange introduction for everyone involved and they all had to adapt quickly on the spot.
But to everyone's surprise they were more similar than anyone had expected. Both parties had a Knight, of course the nature and temperament of each knight was like knight and day but at their core both are warriors that fight for what they believe.
Both parties had a Unusually powerful wizard, one was a man with the stubbornness of a mule and the heart of a hero while the other was a woman of startling insight and intellect. But they both loved magic with a passion and eyed each other with wariness and respect.
The pair of precocious teens with phenomenal power and a hatred for the heartless god-beings that hurt their family was unremarked because no one wanted to piss off Dany.
Finally, there were the leaders of the troupes. Both were young beings with immense power, sovereigns of their own realms and powerful enough to fight gods. It was the meeting of an immovable object and an unstoppable force.
It is strange of Viserys to meet someone that can play the game of etiquette with him. Someone whose words were as honey sweet as his own and whose actions rang with competence. It was invigorating for him to meet his match after out arguing devils and out swindling djinns.
"So that's how we pranked Sir Richard here, you should have seen the look on his recruits' faces when he came in with pink armor." Dany says as the last of the food is cleared and dessert is brought in. Sir Richard gave an exasperated yet fond smile towards Dany.
"That was a funny story Dany, but now that dinner is over let's get to the reason for this dinner. I believe Ms Molly had some concerns regarding our enterprise and she wanted to ask some questions." Viserys says and the mood in the room turns from jovial to a bit more somber.
"Of course, First I would like to thank you for accepting this meeting. Usually mysterious billionaires are a pain in the ass to get a hold off. But as a Free-Holding Lady of Chicago, I had some concerns, not major concerns but things came up during a regular intelligence sweep of Chicago and I wanted to ask you some questions regarding these revelations." Molly says with the perfect mixture of respect and authority to assure that her words won't cause offense yet couldn't be rebuffed easily. Viserys especially like that part where she subtly threatened him with the casual mentions of the Accords that bound this world's wizards and monsters, implying she had legal standing to demand these answers from him. He also didn't miss the implication that she had an fairly capable intelligence arm to her operations and what she may have found out during her investigations to make him nervous about lying.
"Of course, We would be happy to answer any questions you have. It is a pleasure to make the acquaintance of a free-holding lady. We have been doing some research as well. We actually wanted to expand into Chicago, the Ley Line Nexus will be very useful for our expansion. But we wouldn't want to cause any conflict, it would be harmful to the local socio-political structures." He replies and his couter stroke isn't subtle but it gets the point across.
She gives him a considerate look for a second and then starts asking the question.
"Our concern was with your cell phones, they appear to be sympathetic receivers and casting foci to channel some sort of ritual. I was worried that it wouldn't harm the people of Chicago or in general." She queries and Lya responds adroitly.
"Oh I see where your concern would come from. If you have the correct ritual array you could use the phones, receivers and repeaters for a specifically designed ritual." She mumbles for a second and notes something down, probably planning on theorizing just such a ritual. Viserys loved Lya with all his heart but she was often distracted with magic.
But she continued as if she hadn't doodled a spell diagram.
"No it's not a ritual link, when we were designing our casting tool for our mage wrights. We realized that digital mediums are so much more versatile that a page of spell knowledge or a grimoire or a spellbook. So I spent 6 months creating Universal Digital Spell modules that can replicate most spells up to the third circle, anything above that and the circuitry of the devices can't handle the energy throughput. It lets the Magewright cast spells they don't know and even innovate some new spells. Viserys told me about this business concept that you guys have here called open innovation and I got to say it's very good." She says with the air of a professional emitting too many details.
"Hold on, that can't be right. Normal people don't have the reserves to cast any spells so no matter how fancy your tech it can't cast spells." Harry Dresden interrupts and Viserys can hear his fascination and yet disgust with the concept of mass produced magic.
"Yes we encountered the same issue, we anticipated it. I was getting to that before I got interrupted." Lya says as harr withers from the comment "We found a few potential solutions to the problem such as tapping into environmental magic, directly converting electricity into magic and even sympathetic magic like what you suspect. But ultimately they were discarded for various reasons of cost and practicality and scalability. We instead created a biotech module essentially a nutrition tank filled with a custom made electro-vore bacterium. The bacteria converts electricity into magical energy that is harvested when the bacteria die in about a day. A crystal capacitor holds the magic till needed. It became too big for a phone so it was made into a separate module. The spell link you are concerned about is the connection point for the module to power the Spells."
Everyone from the other party is giving them incredulous looks and Molly's eyes go wide as she considers the technical brilliance of Lya's solution. She immediately pulls up pictures on her phone and his draconic senses lets Viserys see that it is the inside of his phones.
"We discovered that the mobile phone with the spell link, if protected with a password, slowly draws in the ambient magic from their user's Aura and grows better as it adapts to the user and becomes more secure and intuitive. Metaphysically speaking, and it makes the people that use the phone more sensitive to the arcane." Viserys explains the other question he anticipated.
"That's insane. Stark Raving Madness. Why would you want to do that? It's a breach of the masquerade. You can't do that." Harry says and Viserys can feel the room become more agitated and Harry starts to gather his magic.
"Calm down, Harry. Mr Viserys has been forthcoming with us today and has been nothing but honest with us. I am sure he has valid reasons that we can talk about." Molly says and her words have the calming effect and everyone relaxes or at least appears to, Viserys knows that Sir Richard was this close to beheading the hot headed wizard.
"Indubitably, Miss carpenter. My reasons are fairly simple. Harry is right. I, we, do wish to break this masquerade." He gestures to his side of the table " SImply because I believe it is the right thing to do. I have spent a lot of time in this world researching the hidden magical side and what I have found appalls me. Entire countries are held under the thrall of vampires, this one included, supernatural phages and predators prey upon humanity with impunity, Supernatural beings dictate the fate of the world from the shadows. I can't abide by that state of the world. But don't worry, my plan isn't completely overthrowing the current order. It will be a gradual shift over the years." His words were true yet there was an uncompromising steel to them that he truly didn't mean, he had to learn to compromise in his life. But it wasn't about speaking the truth and meaning it, it was to gauge the people's reaction to his words.
Molly had a thoughtful look in her eyes and as did the fallen Tiffany. It was in contrast to Micheal and Harry's look, their experience warring with the accuracy of Visery's words. It was a conundrum that would ultimately let him uplift the people of this world, and get back home. I know this omake is very much a overly explainer and its very overly verbose. But i don't know how else to showcase superhumanly competent schemers. Apologies for any mistake. next one is from molly's prespective.
