Doesn't that go against your point? It wasn't dangerous in their hands but rather than say burn it in their ignorance they tried to sell it. Possibly to someone dangerous.
The dude in question was a Chicago-based criminal, and recovered a cache of WW2 stuff he was selling on as regular antiquity stuff. He was murdered but the book remained hidden until Harry found it. And it was only dangerous in the hands of the Heirs of Kemmler, who were seriousface necromancers with the strength to use it.
Also, we know a Denarian was responsible for Father Murphy's abduction and murder.
I find it implausible that if they were interested in any of this stuff, they wouldnt have looted it back then, or come back to look for it in the hundred and fifty years since the Fire.
Its not impossible, which is why Im voting to make copies and check, instead of ignoring it
But at the moment, I dont think its that important.
Certainly not to the point of committing felonies in front of police officers.
For what it's worth the spells do not seem like the kind of thing you could cast without both being able to decode them and having a decent talent. Say Billy from the Alphas (a middling minor talent) might be able to do it if he happened to resonate with one but otherwise we are talking full on sorcerer. The problem is more... you just poked this thing so they might take it to someone else and then it will be out there in the wild, someone might notice and react to the fact that this journal is out in public.
Anyway good night guys, it's getting close to midnight for me. Will talk more about this in the morning.
Meh. Sam Murphy isnt beating an Exalt with SUTRA supercomputer support to decoding this.
And if he took it to someone else, we'd be able to rob them with a clear conscience.
At worst, we can convince them that this is the kind of stuff that cultists might find interesting and thus to keep it quiet.
"One person, trained by White Council's black ops assassin, last in the line of Merlin's apprentices, is passably competent about informational security in the event of his death" does not translate to "all magic users, path sorcerers and full wizards alike are competent about information security".
I disagree about standing. I personally would not think it strange if a PhD student of history asked to get the historical document I have for a couple of days to scan with specialized equipment. I would want some insurance it'll get returned, but the situation itself would not be strange.
1) Father Murphy was a Catholic priest.
They are literally trained to keep secrets and get people to share their secrets with them. Information security is something of a tradition for them. As an intelligence service, the Catholic Church predates most nationstates.
2)As the update points out, the man was actively settling his affairs for two years before his death.
Molly sees the signs in his letters in 1869, the Great Chicago Fire was 1871.
He knew death was coming. He would have made preparations.
Noone's perfect, but if he left no notes for the disposition of these papers and just let them end up with muggle family?
Odds are there's nothing overtly dangerous.
3)Your prerogative.
I would not hand over a family heirloom to someone who I literally just met, claimed PhD student or nah, on their say so, any more than I would hand over my car keys.
And a multi-generational police family in the US has way more investigative resources than you are willing to acknowledge.
I most certainly would not commit felonies in front of law enforcement officers to get my hands on this shit.
Or put other people on the hook.
Also, we know a Denarian was responsible for Father Murphy's abduction and murder.
I find it implausible that if they were interested in any of this stuff, they wouldnt have looted it back then, or come back to look for it in the hundred and fifty years since the Fire.
I was under the impression that only a single Denarian was responsible for this. The one that was killed by Embermane. It's not a rule that they always work in groups they legitimately can choose to work alone for their ambitions.
1) Father Murphy was a Catholic priest.
They are literally trained to keep secrets and get people to share their secrets with them. Information security is something of a tradition for them. As an intelligence service, the Catholic Church predates most nationstates.
2)As the update points out, the man was actively settling his affairs for two years before his death.
Molly sees the signs in his letters in 1869, the Great Chicago Fire was 1871.
He knew death was coming. He would have made preparations.
Noone's perfect, but if he left no notes for the disposition of these papers and just let them end up with muggle family?
Odds are there's nothing overtly dangerous.
I have one counter-example. Bob the skull. Do you really think Kemmler intended Bob to be passed to DuMorne, DuMorne intended for Bob to pass to Dresden, or Dresden intended for it to be passed to Butters? Bob is the single most dangerous collection of knowledge Dresden has. And there are no serious contingencies of what's to happen to him in case of Dresden's death.
3)Your prerogative.
I would not hand over a family heirloom to someone who I literally just met, claimed PhD student or nah, on their say so, any more than I would hand over my car keys.
And a multi-generational police family in the US has way more investigative resources than you are willing to acknowledge.
I most certainly would not commit felonies in front of law enforcement officers to get my hands on this shit.
Or put other people on the hook.
On their own, probably no. But she's with a family member. Said family member has either checked her out, or will go with her. That would be acceptable.
I was under the impression that only a single Denarian was responsible for this. The one that was killed by Embermane. It's not a rule that they always work in groups they legitimately can choose to work alone for their ambitions.
1) One guy did this project AFAIK.
That doesnt mean that the then host didnt have collaborators, or didnt talk to other Denarians. Or that his Fallen Eschtamidel didnt. I dont think anything that happened here was a secret to the Order of the Blackened Denarius.
2) The perpetrator could have looted his shit when he kidnapped him. He didnt care to.
Also worth noting that the Denarian in question had the knowledge and power to summon a notRaksha from the deep NeverNever. He was not a scrub.
3) Eschtamidel will have had new hosts before the beginning of the 20th century; Coins dont appear to stay out of circulation for more than a decade or two at the outside, with some being back in less than five years(Lasciel, Thorned Namshiel).
That none of his subsequent hosts came back to check suggests that, they dont care or its just not very valuable.
I have one counter-example. Bob the skull. Do you really think Kemmler intended Bob to be passed to DuMorne, DuMorne intended for Bob to pass to Dresden, or Dresden intended for it to be passed to Butters? Bob is the single most dangerous collection of knowledge Dresden has. And there are no serious contingencies of what's to happen to him in case of Dresden's death.
Yes? Kemmler might not have wanted to die, but WANTED to share his knowledge; he literally self-published and distributed multiple books on his thinking across Europe. The Word of Kemmler was only the fourth and last book in the series; before that was The Mind of Kemmler, The Blood of Kemmler and The Heart of Kemmler.
Dude was an evangelist. The Wardens spent decades trying to track all copies of his writing down and destroy them.
DuMorne didnt expect to die. And we honestly dont know what preparations he made in the event of his death.
Dresden explicitly made preparations for his death even before Changes; Murphy was the executor of his estate, but he didnt tell her until Changes. Bob going to Butters was a deliberate decision on her part, as was Murphy keeping Amoracchius and Fidelacchius. Note that it didnt go to Molly, his apprentice. That was deliberate.
Father Murphy, OTOH, explicitly DID expect to die, if we believe Molly.
Putting his affairs in order, and ensuring that nothing he leaves behind would hurt his loved ones or any civilians is simple due dilligence for a conscientious magic user.
On their own, probably no. But she's with a family member. Said family member has either checked her out, or will go with her. That would be acceptable.
Family member also ONLY just met this person. At least, according to them.
So no, same metric.
Furthermore, Lieutenant Karrin Murphy is literally head of a Chicago PD section. She has responsibilities.
She cant afford to go gallivanting off with anyone, and claiming to do so would be a blatant lie.
Especially since its 9 months since she was almost demoted for vanishing to Arctis Tor for several days.
Remember, Dresden gave the only surviving copy of The Word of Kemmler(that isnt in his/Lash's head) to the vampire wizard Mavra. He doesnt exactly appear to expect her to become Kemmler 2.0.
All three major necromancers we see during Dead Beat are on the elder wizard/borderline archmage level. Corpsetaker was a peer by age of Langtry and McCoy, and was a Council member back before the French and Indian War of 1754-1763. Grevane was an active wizard before Donald Morgan was born; we first see him in A Fistful of Warlocks, which was in 1883.
And Cowl is Cowl, with the skill to hex an entire city, and to break out inmates of Hades.
For a different example:
Note that Harry was the first Winter Knight in centuries with the skill to manifest a War Banner during Battle Grounds.
All of his predecessors had access to the same power; they couldnt use it.
Power is important, but it does not appear to be enough.
DP did say that it's contents don't appear particularly dangerous at first glance, unless decoded, and it's moreso an issue of it being put out to the public. If we call Murphy to retrieve it if deeming it necessary at a later time we shouldn't need to spend AP on it.. at least as long as it doesn't get stolen. In which case we may have to and I'd rather not have to use the AP later on for this if we could've had the book from the start.
Better to just get it over with now. The fact that the Denarian(s) didn't snatch this specific thing really isn't enough for me and not everything in it is immediately legible as it is coded(though wizards probably do this a lot). They simply might not have thought it worth the hassle for magic that they have no interest or skill in.
Remember, Dresden gave the only surviving copy of The Word of Kemmler(that isnt in his/Lash's head) to the vampire wizard Mavra. He doesnt exactly appear to expect her to become Kemmler 2.0.
I remember what your talking about here. I thought it was bullshit then still think it is now. That plotline was supposed to highlight a vulnerability of Harry's along with his changing mindest but something like that could only ever come back to bite you or more likely other people. The fact that he just gave it to her and then considered the matter over and done with no follow up and only a threat just seemed OOC to me borderline character assassination even.
I didn't take that to mean that Harry seriously thought the necromancer couldn't have been much more dangerous with the book than without. She wanted it for a reason.
For a different example:
Note that Harry was the first Winter Knight in centuries with the skill to manifest a War Banner during Battle Grounds.
All of his predecessors had access to the same power; they couldnt use it.
Power is important, but it does not appear to be enough.
[X] Snap pictures of every page so you can study it later, leave the book here
Voting this for now, because the need to promise to give the book back negates most of the advantages of trying to get it. Even if it is dangerous, we would still have to return it, as the vote is now. Unless we can counterfeit it.
The existence of any invisible text is theoretically possible, but unlikely, because then why even draw attention to the fact this isn't a normal journal by using visible code in the first place?
DP did say that it's contents don't appear particularly dangerous at first glance, unless decoded, and it's moreso an issue of it being put out to the public. If we call Murphy to retrieve it if deeming it necessary at a later time we shouldn't need to spend AP on it.. at least as long as it doesn't get stolen. In which case we may have to and I'd rather not have to use the AP later on for this if we could've had the book from the start.
Better to just get it over with now. The fact that the Denarian(s) didn't snatch this specific thing really isn't enough for me and not everything in it is immediately legible as it is coded(though wizards probably do this a lot). They simply might not have thought it worth the hassle for magic that they have no interest or skill in.
Like I said, Die Lied der Erlking, which summoned the Erlking, is a published book in the Dresdenverse. So is Elementary Magic by Ebenezar McCoy, and half a dozen other books of magic that you can buy in Chicago today. Whatsisface in Vegas had an entire library full of magical texts that he bought on a university academic's salary.
Unless this is some treatise to summon or contact an Elder God or Outsiders, both of which seem unlikely in the journal of an observant Catholic priest sacrificed by a Denarian, I genuinely dont see the risk.
Even if somehow it got published, so? Whats the hazard? How many people would recognize it for what it was, or find it useful?
Worst case, we vanish the copies like the video of Harry duelling a loup-garou.
Or like we vanished Agent Greene's computer backups of blackmail material.
===
I dont agree. As I have previously stated, there are both ethical and practical issues involved in trying to bamboozle a cop family while there is a literal Catholic priest with us. And you are assuming that Murphy will just go along with this, despite Molly having given no notice or heads up.
If we had shown our own face, it would be plausible to get it.
Trying to do so as is invites an investigation of our assumed identity that will get us, and potentially both Murphy and Father Forthill into a sticky situation.
Friends dont create family or legal drama for their friends.
I'll ask you the question that I asked Yog: What do you do when Mama Murphy or Agent Rick or Sam asks the name of our PhD program and program supervisor in St Louis, and calls the office to confirm our identity? Or asks a law enforcement colleague to drop by and do so, and the university has never heard of us?
How do you intend for us to do any of this without making Murphy and Father Forthill accessories to a federal felony?
Everything thats been suggested thus far takes a small problem and makes it a bigger one.
I remember what your talking about here. I thought it was bullshit then still think it is now. That plotline was supposed to highlight a vulnerability of Harry's along with his changing mindest but something like that could only ever come back to bite you or more likely other people. The fact that he just gave it to her and then considered the matter over and done with no follow up and only a threat just seemed OOC to me borderline character assassination even.
I didn't take that to mean that Harry seriously thought the necromancer couldn't have been much more dangerous with the book than without. She wanted it for a reason.
Thats easy:
Wizards who have read it know how to wield necromancy against the Black Court of vampires.
Dresden said so as a threat; its apparently non-obvious.
Mavra turned to leave.
I said, "Wait."
She paused.
"This never happens again," I said quietly. "You try to get to me through other mortals again and I'll kill you."
Mavra's rotted lips turned up at one corner. "No, you won't," she said in her dusty voice. "You don't have that kind of power."
"I can get it," I said.
"But you won't," she responded, mockery in her tone. "It wouldn't be right." I stared at her for a full ten seconds before I said, in a very quiet voice, "I've got a fallen angel tripping all over herself to give me more power. Queen Mab has asked me to take the mantle of Winter Knight twice now. I've read Kemmler's book. I know how the Darkhallow works. And I know how to turn necromancy against the Black Court."
Mavra's filmed eyes flashed with anger.
I continued to speak quietly, never raising my voice. "So once again, let me be perfectly clear. If anything happens to Murphy and I even think you had a hand in it, fuck right and wrong. If you touch her, I'm declaring war on you. Personally. I'm picking up every weapon I can get. And I'm using them to kill you. Horribly."
If she's the only Black Court Elder who has read it among her peers, it would make her more capable against Black Court rivals, and denies them the opportunity to read it. And it prevents more wizards and necromancers learning how to do the same thing, which reduces the personal risks to herself.
If she wants it for any other reason, its not been explored.
I generally cant think of any other reason she wants it though; Black Court vampires already grow more powerful by killing and eating people, so she doesnt need the Darkhallow for power.
Assuming the Darkhallow would even work for a Black Court vampire.
The Mantle is easier to use; its essentially plug and play.
Dresden didnt have to learn how enhance his physical performance, or to aspect his combat spells to wield ice; it just came to him. So using the Mantle is the easier option. Yet noone mastered it.
Books have to be read, understood, and the skills practiced and mastered.
And thats assuming you can use it in the first place.
Its the more difficult option.
[X] Try to get them to give you the book, that is not safe just laying around here
-[X] You would like to get these into a proper lab. Do some testing of ink and paper, show it to your colleagues who are better at cyphers.
-[X] You'll make high-resoultion scans using specialized equipment in the lab - you just don't have equipment on site.
-[X] You'll get them the book back in several weeks.
The lottery, the satalites more recently lunar exaltation despite the first two being pretty much go to gas station or sit at home and then watch the benefits flow in still not done. I myself had to specifically ask people to spend not on screen AP to get potions that we specifically paid experience for. If there are enough things that are either pressing or just generally more interesting nothing of actual infrastructural value will get done if we add this book to that AP list it will never actually get picked up. We can also make a forgery that has the same symbols but is actually gibberish in less than an hour. We don't actually have to return the book to them. We could translate all the parts that aren't magic and give them the translated version as well as the gibberish book and then leave it at that.
[X] Try to get them to give you the book, that is not safe just laying around here -[X] You would like to get these into a proper lab. Do some testing of ink and paper, show it to your colleagues who are better at cyphers. -[X] You'll make high-resoultion scans using specialized equipment in the lab - you just don't have equipment on site. -[X] You'll get them the book back in several weeks.
1)There were no pics of Molly in Vegas. The explosion yes, Molly no.
The federal agents we dealt with in Vegas were Library, not Daedalus.
Similarly, the Library sent that letter to the Catholic Church, not Daedalus.
We have largely avoided any professional contact with the Ds
Honesty, how unusual. "It was a soul, specifically it was a soul so engorged with inner fire that it manifested as light, given what the recordings show, it was a reflexive reaction to the attack, like shielding your face with your arm, though considerably more effective."
Yes the Library is the one we did all that stuff with, but I don't think they're likely to completely stonewall all information requests relevant to Molly. I doubt they're sending everything they have, but it would be ridiculous on multiple levels for them to not make some basic disclosures. From the context of that conversation it seems like Molly's use of AtP is what prompted Daedalus to ask to deploy their veil disrupter.
3) Our access to their communications timed out six months ago, but even then we had a good overview of their field agent roster. Thats how we can be reasonably sure that Agent Rick has nothing to do with Daedalus.
Which is why I was startled when you said that he advocated it.
Pre-Changes Dresden would do no such thing; he did his best to pretend politics didnt exist, and socialized with other wizards as little as possible. He's the senior Warden regional commander who didnt recognize the Senior Warden discussion room
I don't have digital copies of the books so actually pulling up the cite is a pain, but this is something of an active political discussion among the council and the paranet is a political football within it. Harry isn't out picketing the senior council, but his public actions and networking as a warden commander had an impact.
We? We have no control over this.
Internal wizard policing is internal wizard policing, and the White Council will vigorously defend their perceived turf against interlopers. We dont get a say about how they choose to implement anything we introduce.
I'd go into this more but my eyes are glazing over, and I need to get some rest
We have control over our actions and what we try to propose. Dictating policy is one thing, launching an effort on our own and inviting them to make it a joint operation is another.
It's a problem we both want to deal with and each bring different resources to solving, they might enforce their laws but they don't claim exclusive authority over dealing with warlocks as can be seen by everyone else in the setting dealing with it as needed.
If we were principally focused on wizards that might be different, but they're basically safe for this purpose. The important part is getting Hogwarts letters to people with no idea what they're doing.
Yes, I expect that to get out, at least as far as the Library.
This is something Murphy will probably share, but the Library are almost certainly aware of the Shih, and dont share all that much with the rest of the US Govt anyway.
And I am reasonably sure the wizards already know about anyway from Morgan's fieldtrip.
So nothing groundbreaking.
Which is also one reason why I didnt want to talk about Awakening The P'o.
Which is itself ground-breaking.
The lottery, the satalites more recently lunar exaltation despite the first two being pretty much go to gas station or sit at home and then watch the benefits flow in still not done. I myself had to specifically ask people to spend not on screen AP to get potions that we specifically paid experience for. If there are enough things that are either pressing or just generally more interesting nothing of actual infrastructural value will get done if we add this book to that AP list it will never actually get picked up. We can also make a forgery that has the same symbols but is actually gibberish in less than an hour. We don't actually have to return the book to them. We could translate all the parts that aren't magic and give them the translated version as well as the gibberish book and then leave it at that.
1) The lottery is specifically waiting for the March turn, when the jackpot is $390 million before taxes.
That way Molly can be sure of taking home at least $100 million after taxes.
We only get to use the Crown on a lottery once, so we wait till we can make it count.
2) The satellites are both not an immediate priority, and involves figuring out whether doing so steps on the Library's toes.
Or trips anyone's wards.
And it would be nice to know if we can recall them; these are Molly's people, and she'll feel a responsibility towards them.
3) We dont know if there's a Lunar Exaltation.
There's what sounds like Balor's Eye somewhere in the North Atlantic, and there's the thing up near the Norway-Russia border that Sanya stumbled into. There's similarities, but it isnt enough to go "Lunar!"
4) This is part of the Last Station AP action, not a new AP action.
5) Like I told Yog earlier, the nursery rhyme goes:
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly said:
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly,
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a bird;
How absurd to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a cat;
Well, fancy that, she swallowed a cat!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!
There was an old lady that swallowed a dog;
What a hog to swallow a dog!
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a goat;
Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat!
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a cow;
I don't know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse...
She's dead, of course![9]
We've gone from what was supposed to be a little lie to avoid embarassment to proposals of grand larceny, federal identity theft, forgery and fraud in front of, and to, federal and city law enforcement officers.
Putting at reputational and legal risk two of our local muggle allies. Without even asking them.
This should be about where you step back and re-assess your course of action.
[X] Snap pictures of every page so you can study it later, leave the book here
Not every old sorcerer's journal is a secret super weapon, and we've already tripped flags here. DP outlined the risk here as being that they might follow up and expose its contents to public scrutiny, and if they're inclined to do that then I'd be surprised if they didn't look into whoever they handed it off to. If only out of curiosity of this obscure piece of their family history. At which point we have a problem.
We should do our due diligence on if it's dangerous, but since this guy was divinely inspired to be here and it wasn't stolen by the Denarians or cleaned up by Uriel I think the risk is probably low. Not that we can rely on Heaven for everything, but if they pulled this guy here then they wouldn't let the equivalent of a spare box of land mines wander off any more than they'd leave Iku's victims in the wind.
Like I said, Die Lied der Erlking, which summoned the Erlking, is a published book in the Dresdenverse. So is Elementary Magic by Ebenezar McCoy, and half a dozen other books of magic that you can buy in Chicago today. Whatsisface in Vegas had an entire library full of magical texts that he bought on a university academic's salary.
Even if somehow it got published, so? Whats the hazard? How many people would recognize it for what it was, or find it useful?
Worst case, we vanish the copies like the video of Harry duelling a loup-garou.
Or like we vanished Agent Greene's computer backups of blackmail material.
That made the most sense yes. Drakul probably wouldn't find much value in it's contents either. I still think that giving a book on how to use necromancy to elevate a mortal to a dark god and grant some power over Blampires to her with only a threat as deterant (it was a good threat admittedly) was very OOC on his part. I really didn't expect a character with his history to close it out by just handing it over at the end. Not that he logically had much of a choice.
[X] Try to get them to give you the book, that is not safe just laying around here
-[X] You would like to get these into a proper lab. Do some testing of ink and paper, show it to your colleagues who are better at cyphers.
-[X] You'll make high-resoultion scans using specialized equipment in the lab - you just don't have equipment on site.
-[X] You'll get them the book back in several weeks.
[X] Try to get them to give you the book, that is not safe just laying around here -[X] You would like to get these into a proper lab. Do some testing of ink and paper, show it to your colleagues who are better at cyphers. -[X] You'll make high-resoultion scans using specialized equipment in the lab - you just don't have equipment on site. -[X] You'll get them the book back in several weeks.
And if they've made any notes (which they would have, in the course of trying to decode it), then the differences become obvious, suspicious, and meaningful.
[X] Snap pictures of every page so you can study it later, leave the book here
And if they've made any notes (which they would have, in the course of trying to decode it), then the differences become obvious, suspicious, and meaningful.
It's just an option and to be honest it is just a book I would prefer to take it but it's really just a book. If they have notes and they've made no progress the symbols being slightly different but within margin of error of human memory and writing isn't really going to tip them off but it doesn't particularly matter either way.
[X] Try to get them to give you the book, that is not safe just laying around here
-[X] You would like to get these into a proper lab. Do some testing of ink and paper, show it to your colleagues who are better at cyphers.
-[X] You'll make high-resoultion scans using specialized equipment in the lab - you just don't have equipment on site.
-[X] You'll get them the book back in several weeks.
Voting this for now, because the need to promise to give the book back negates most of the advantages of trying to get it. Even if it is dangerous, we would still have to return it, as the vote is now. Unless we can counterfeit it.
The existence of any invisible text is theoretically possible, but unlikely, because then why even draw attention to the fact this isn't a normal journal by using visible code in the first place?
In regards to returning the book:
1) Being Margret Smith helps us here. If the book turns out to be too dangerous, we can just disappear
2) If we do return the book, we could forge a copy that doesn't have the same dangers
On invisible ink and other methods of hiding, like, for example, encoding meaning in punctures in the paper - those are doable via mundane means. Other, more magical means, like alchemical ink, might also be present.
3) We dont know if there's a Lunar Exaltation.
There's what sounds like Balor's Eye somewhere in the North Atlantic, and there's the thing up near the Norway-Russia border that Sanya stumbled into. There's similarities, but it isnt enough to go "Lunar!"
The thing in the sea is very clearly a lunar exaltation, to the point where your reading is just bizarre. It was all but outright stated to be a lunar exaltation.
[X] Try to get them to give you the book, that is not safe just laying around here
-[X] You would like to get these into a proper lab. Do some testing of ink and paper, show it to your colleagues who are better at cyphers.
-[X] You'll make high-resoultion scans using specialized equipment in the lab - you just don't have equipment on site.
-[X] You'll get them the book back in several weeks
All else aside, we really shouldn't do this. Murphy invested a certain amount of trust in us here, and betraying it would harm her relationship with her family.
The thing in the sea is very clearly a lunar exaltation, to the point where your reading is just bizarre. It was all but outright stated to be a lunar exaltation
I agree that it's probably a lunar, but this whole discussion has made me curious if there's anything else that plausibly could fit the bill if DP was trying to pull a fast one on us here. I don't recall an alternative beyond holes uncertainties about some of the lunar imagery from the original discussion, but I could just be forgetting something. If we accept for the sake of argument that it definitely isn't a lunar, what else could it be?
A weird exigent doesn't quite seem right. The reaction to a god copying Luna's homework like that back in the day would probably have been energetic to say the least, and someone pulling it off in a later age seems like it should have left more of a mark in addition to being off theme.
Did Garou originally form like the white court did? Some sort of deal that put mortal souls and spirit beings in highly effective symbiosis?
It's still probably a lunar, but if I had to pick something else a being like that would probably be my runner up.
