Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

Interesting piece of lore about Demonreach:


Cite

However scary you thought Rashid was double it, cause that's nuts.

Remember this is the power level we're talking about here:



It's all been mentioned before, but it's worth restating that a half dozen Naagoloshi are nothing to this guy or the more than 6,000 other things on ice when considering how absurd it is that Rashid left it with a permanent limp.
Point of correction:
2009 Independence signing:
Can you tell us more about the runes on the cottage and the lighthouse?
They were not put there by Demonreach; they have been there a very long time. They are pre-Council. They're a prehistoric script, actually. Harry could have figured out the script if he'd had the comic book. NOTE: I think this has something to do with runes on a wall in Under City seen in Welcome to the Jungle

Also, people have a few things wrong about the Gatekeeper and the island. The Gatekeeper did not hurt Demonreach. Gatekeeper has been on the island a couple of times, and it's never gone well, but he didn't cause Demonreach's limp. That's the work of the glacier that carved out Lake Michigan.
So no, Rashid didnt cause his limp.

However, Butcher mentions once that in a previous encounter, Rashid "focused the tank."
2012 Reddit AMA said:
2012 Reddit AMA
Sarks: What did the Gatekeeper do to Demonreach to make it hold a grudge?
Jim: 2) He focused the tank.
Oh, wait, no, it's a little more complicated than just a positive-negative situation, and while I don't go into the specifics, yet, you get all the pieces you need in Cold Days.
Implying that there was a clash where Rashid pulled Demonreach's aggro and held it so that the other members of the party could do whatever they came to do, and survived the experience.
 
Yog's seems more proactive.
Adhoc vote count started by BoredMan on Jul 11, 2024 at 6:50 PM, finished with 40 posts and 7 votes.

  • [X] Plan localities
    -[X] Tell the whole truth, complex and ocasionally terrifying as it may be
    --[X]Use Empathy Excellency + All Things Betray
    -[X] Ask your local contacts what they know of the Nameless Place, starting with its location
    --[X] Porter - he has been here long enough to probably know something at least
    --[X] Tiffany - a local magical jail is information she would be equipped with, if only to prevent Harry from tripping into it
    --[X] Lydia - Arawn probably knows something, and might have left notes on it
    ---[X] Use Akashic Root Methodology on her her library
    -[X] If we are able to obtain the location of the Nameless Place, have Clippy obtain a photo of it (aerial or satellite survey photos should be available)
    --[X] Use the photo as a focus for the crown question: "what are the rules this place operates on, in regards to acquisition, incarceration, and release of its prisoners?"
    [X] Tell the whole truth, complex and ocasionally terrifying as it may be
    -[X]Use Excellency + All Things Betray
    [X] Tell the whole truth, complex and ocasionally terrifying as it may be
    -[X] Use Excellency
 
Thats why I voted to ask the Crown questions I did.
The QM has apparently chosen to alter things, as is their prerogative, but that isnt how it worked in canon

Knowing about the island's purpose and knowing how it works are two different things. Yes they knew enough to warn Harry against tapping the ley-line, but that is because they know ley-lines are dangerous.

Also people, especially wizards do not write their deepest darkest secrets down into journals.
 
Canon is that it uses a SEP field instead of invisibility. It's in clear view but mortals ignore its existence to the point that it's not on any maps and people unconsciously sail around it without noticing the differences in travel time.
I am reasonably sure it doesnt show up.
Even the maps were destroyed.
This is why I specified aerial photos and satellite imagery. Maps are likely affected, as they are man made, a perception filter / compulsion combo would make the cartographers ignore the island. But the images should still be there, and satellite imagery is new enough that, unless Merlin visited modern times, would be an unforseen danger to the island's stealth. It's worth a try at least.
 
So when we go set this up are we going to just send Harry to make friends or shout at Demonreach from the lake? An infernal exalt is the last person to be showing up on that island, at least until they're elder essence and packing a suite of McGuffins to counter its powers.
 
Arc 13 Post 33: Answers Given, Answers Sought
Answers Given, Answers Sought

8th of February 2007 A.D.

Recovered All Essence -> Now at 18/18

You decide to meet with Father Forthil in his office again the heavy desk and carefully sorted shelves giving the whole thing the air near familiarity that's ruined as soon as you lay eyes on the priest. He looks like he's aged ten years inside the five weeks since last you saw him, stooped and blue the eyes behind those spectacles are shadowed with exhaustion. Maybe he doesn't need this right now...

"Molly, come in, come in, I meant what I said about my door being open to you," he says looking up from his work.

"I don't want to interrupt," you start, still hesitating in the doorway.

"You are not," the priest answers firmly. "God gives everyone their work at the time it is needed. It's just human nature that we'd all rather start on it three days before."

Maybe your nature Father, you might be a bit too generous with most of mankind, Lash might be rubbing off on you, but you greet him and make some small talk, ask how things have been going and what he's been involved with since the new year. 'Not well' about summarizes it, there's been a blood shortage among a lot of the charities linked to the Catholic Church throughout the Midwest made worse by a series of just-this-side-of-defamatory articles implying that the blood had been tainted. The AIDS Epidemic may be something you know mostly from stories of your parents and half understood news pieces when you were a kid, but people have a long memory especially when fear and supposed scandal are mixed in.

Lost 2 Essence -> Now at 16/18 (Subterfuge and Empathy Excellencies)
Lost 1 Willpower -> Now at 8/9 (ATB)


"There's no way to tell if it's just poor reporting compounding itself or something worse," he concludes sadly.

In response you look over the papers in front of him. Who is behind the campaign against Church sponsored blood drives?

Reliable as ever the answer comes: The Lords of Outer Night move their hand and their pawns dance

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 15/18 (Question)
Restored 2 Essence -> Now at 17/18 (Urge of the Forbidden)


"It's probably the Red Court," you spin half a lie to dress up the truth almost as fast. "Some of Duchess Arianna's underlings, the ones I caught heard about the order coming down from on high to do something about the pressure the Church was putting on them and another one mentioned a media campaign, I figured it would be in South America, but if they are going to act this indirectly starting it up somewhere else makes sense. Afterwards they can 'discover' connections to the places they really want swept."

"A few of my colegues were leaning that way but..." he sighs, closing his eyes as though to banish a migraine. "This is going to be messy. I'm sorry I didn't even ask what you wanted to talk to me about."

That's not all that troubles him, but he is obviously not inclined, maybe even not allowed to share the rest.

Still having thus made yourself useful you explain what you had found in the Spirit World, a spirit of fire, long lingering in a domain just under the skin of west Chicago, called at the behest of one of the Denarians who had come to a fiery end, though he'd shared his doom with far too many innocents. A prison to the east on the lake that contains a portion of his innermost self that you would recover if you could, but you are going to need more information than you have on the fire, the incursion by the Fallen on Halloween 1871 and if possible a Father Murphy who had spared the city worse devastation even in death.

Father Forthill waits until you'd laid out the whole thing before asking the obvious question. "How confident are you that this entity won't cause more harm if you recover the piece he has lost?"

[] As confident as you have to be, this is the right thing to do. Embermane did not deserve to be mutilated in the plots of the Fallen

[] More confident than not, and if it turns out you are wrong you can deal with him by force

[] Write in


OOC: Seen in this chapter, the Crown continues to be terrifying and a reminder that the War is still raging.
 
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Also, while we're still collecting information IC OOC we know more of the rules. I'm concerned that coming to the place with the intent of releasing someone might taint Harry's application to be Warden since it seems like the spirit of the island was actually inspecting him during that ritual. He didn't win that job by beating it, he got it by being strong enough to be useful and presumably not raising any red flags by virtue of not knowing anything that would trip them.

Not that we know for certain it would check stuff like that, but Intellectus is no joke* and I can't help but think that if I was designing a super prison that relied on a mortal Warden to respond to changing situations I'd make sure the hiring office did some background checks before handing over the keys. Especially if the Warden's position is difficult to revoke and they can freely abuse that authority once they have it, which is what the situation with Kemmler implies.

You can't stop someone from changing their mind, but if the spirit of the prison will let the Warden let evil gods out of supermax I'd at least make sure to have it reject anyone who planned to do that from the start.



* Also Dresden summoned the thing and performed the magical equivalent of two dogs sniffing each other's butts. I'd be very skeptical of the claim that Demonreach didn't get a good look at his potential new hire.

You decide to meet with Father Forthil in his office again the heavy desk and carefully sorted shelves giving the whole thing the air near familiarity that's ruined as soon as you lay eyes on the priest. He looks like he's aged ten years inside the five weeks since last you saw him, stooped and blue the eyes behind those spectacles are shadowed with exhaustion. Maybe he doesn't need this right now
Does the Catholic Church accept magic potions as a form of tithe payment? Cause if we're going to stress Forthill this much I think we owe him some Malcoffee. Vegas alone probably took some years off his life.

That or learning a youth potion at some point; it's the ultimate bribe/apology gift. "Sorry for nearly giving you a heart attack with that whole Vegas thing. In lieu of apology cookies I've included a decade of bottles youth with this letter to replace the one I scared off you". :V
a reminder that the War is still raging
We need to do something about this, even if we end up being unable to free up the AP for more personal intervention.

How does everyone feel about more arms smuggling and mercenary drones? Sutra are pretty safe because spirit killers are incredibly rare in the DF and the best tech spirit guy around has an infected gut wound to deal with.

Use our digitizing charm to bring over shipments of export grade weaponry and hundreds of volunteer stealth drones with ground strike capabilities to pair with warden task forces. Maybe some ground drones based on the partial design I posted earlier:
I don't know how they'd be handled, but Arcana seem like a decent quick and dirty way to represent something like this unless we just want to take hitmark stats.


3 dots, because going to the high end might be asking too much for what we're doing.

Advanced robot frame.


Fluff:
The War Weaver is an old and highly recognizable combat frame, somewhat akin to how the pump action shotgun is on parts of earth, making its mark in a number of wars leading up to unification.

Durable, precise, and surprisingly perceptive, a war spinner is rarely without recourse regardless of the battlefield.

The classic image is of a sleek tocatiloid cast in bright brass and dull silver, a sword in one set of arms and an electro laser in the other. Typically deployed in clusters of 5, coordinating in utter silence via their encrypted telepathic network.

Though they can only wield a pair of weapons at a time, most sutra using this platform prefer to carry a pair of ranged weapons to switch between depending on the expected encounter while keeping their melee weapon in hand in all but the most extreme conditions.

There are better merits to take, but I'm trying to keep it reasonable for something produced in a factory.

But the general idea is to design a sort of good quality combat system for sutra acting as infantry. They're tough, fast, can coordinate without giving anything away in advance, and engage with multiple targets at multiple ranges in the same turn.

They're not overwhelmingly powerful at any one thing, but are almost always able to do something when the unexpected happens. Which is very valuable as for infantry operations of most kinds.

When specialists enter the equation they can run support very efficiently by switching to covering weak points, or at least attempt a counter by shifting to target them in hostile ones.

Units of 5 spider-terminators with near perfect coordination, inhuman stats, and a some very unpleasant weapon tricks could make a real mess of vampire chaff and give more notable ones a run for their money even without other support.

Primarily by using the feature synergy around their limbs to always have an appropriate weapon for the current situation and to take an additional attack when needed each turn. So if you fight a squad you could feasibly eat 10 attacks in the same round.
 
[X] As confident as you have to be, this is the right thing to do. Embermane did not deserve to be mutilated in the plots of the Fallen
 
Also, while we're still collecting information IC OOC we know more of the rules. I'm concerned that coming to the place with the intent of releasing someone might taint Harry's application to be Warden since it seems like the spirit of the island was actually inspecting him during that ritual. He didn't win that job by beating it, he got it by being strong enough to be useful and presumably not raising any red flags by virtue of not knowing anything that would trip them.
True, but arguable. The Cup Grace presents a danger due to the Raksha itself not being imprisoned, and, on the other hand, the reason for imprisonment was a setup by a third party. Demonreach doesn't imprison all monsters who visit, so it might count this as "wrongful imprisonment" and Harry correcting the issue might actually help him get the job.

[X] As confident as you have to be, this is the right thing to do. Embermane did not deserve to be mutilated in the plots of the Fallen
-[X] If it turns malicious and deaf to reason, you are relatively confident in being able to drive it off Earth or put it down.

We need to do something about this, even if we end up being unable to free up the AP for more personal intervention.
Well, let's consider what we have for the next month:
Convention with Rosie - should be doable via a clone
Sponsoring and participating in a Labyrinth dive - has to be done via Molly-prime
Securing the Exaltation - no, I won't budge on this. I am not talking about releasing it, I am talking about securing it.
Dealing with White Council traitors - already overdue.
Forging splendors for the debts we owe - it's exalted craft, so Molly prime
Probably a continuation of NeverNever exploration of Porter's neighbors or possibly a start of the manse project or possibly a start of prep for Lash's plan

This leaves one more AP free, so, unless I am forgetting something, we might be able to fit it in.
 
[X] As confident as you have to be, this is the right thing to do. Embermane did not deserve to be mutilated in the plots of the Fallen
-[X] If it turns malicious and deaf to reason, you are relatively confident in being able to drive it off Earth or put it down.
 
[X] As confident as you have to be, this is the right thing to do. Embermane did not deserve to be mutilated in the plots of the Fallen
-[X] If it turns malicious and deaf to reason, you are relatively confident in being able to drive it off Earth or put it down.
 
How does everyone feel about more arms smuggling and mercenary drones
If you want my personal opinion, I wouldn't give them anything too substantial until the traitor issue is fully dealt with. The White Council has Red Court aligned people in it along with Outsider interference of unknown proportions. They should be much more effective at combating the Reds if those issues are sorted without major casualties.
This leaves one more AP free, so, unless I am forgetting something, we might be able to fit it in.
Hopefully we can look into the Labyrinth and the rebel faction during a Five Courts Arc sometime this year. It's been hinted that important stuff is lying in there but next month probably isn't the time.
 
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[X] As confident as you have to be, this is the right thing to do. Embermane did not deserve to be mutilated in the plots of the Fallen
-[X] If it turns malicious and deaf to reason, you are relatively confident in being able to drive it off Earth or put it down.
 
True, but arguable. The Cup Grace presents a danger due to the Raksha itself not being imprisoned, and, on the other hand, the reason for imprisonment was a setup by a third party. Demonreach doesn't imprison all monsters who visit, so it might count this as "wrongful imprisonment" and Harry correcting the issue might actually help him get the job.

It might, though one thing to note is that the easiest way to get something into a magical prison is to choose a entity that belongs in magical prison. It's not like the prison works on the basis of some kind of modern legal code where a set up would be inherently enough to release a prisoner.
 
[X] As confident as you have to be, this is the right thing to do. Embermane did not deserve to be mutilated in the plots of the Fallen
-[X] If it turns malicious and deaf to reason, you are relatively confident in being able to drive it off Earth or put it down.


If something can be argued into self-sacrifice while being mutilated, it can likely be reasoned with even better, when it's whole.
 
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It might, though one thing to note is that the easiest way to get something into a magical prison is to choose a entity that belongs in magical prison. It's not like the prison works on the basis of some kind of modern legal code where a set up would be inherently enough to release a prisoner.
The question is "are raksha meant to be imprisoned on sight, no other considerations given?". We know that some beings, like naagloshii, can be imprisoned, but aren't automatically so. Mab and other fae are distant relatives of raksha, and aren't on "automatically imprison" list. Basically, we need more information.
 
[X] As confident as you have to be, this is the right thing to do. Embermane did not deserve to be mutilated in the plots of the Fallen
-[X] If it turns malicious and deaf to reason, you are relatively confident in being able to drive it off Earth or put it down.
 
[x] More confident than not, and if it turns out you are wrong you can deal with him by force
-[x] It's impossible to predict how a spirit who is missing a large part of themselves will act when reunited. All I am sure of is I will be there and can beat it in a fight.
 
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