Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
I've got doubts about the whole thing with telling Lara AND Von Trier because of basically what Bronzetongue was saying but I'm not in a headspace to be thinking of alternatives right now unfortunately.
The Library was around when the White Court arranged the destruction of the Black Court as a geopolitical entity near the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century by facilitating the publishing of Dracula. Lara Raith was specifically involved in aiming Bram Stoker like a guided missile at the topic.
The Library may have even participated in the free for all shanking that occurred.
I dont think they'll be under any misapprehension about the White Court's general opinions about any attempts by the Black to rebuild power. Besides, unless we specifically tell Von Trier that we told Lara Raith about it, I dont really think she'll know that w talked, as opposed to the White Court having an intelligence network.
Anyway, Molly has been collecting disaffected White Court vampires for the last six months; there were Whites among the Jade Dogs we rescued from the Will of Kakuri. Her business manager is the White King's only son.
We went to the Raith Ball to stab Duke Skavis and an Outsider in the face.
That kinda thing is not hidden; Akuma Batman knew to hit Isabella's computer system to send a message to Molly.
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OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[X] Warn Lara Raith, she has government contacts, tech savvy and a reason to make getting to the bottom of this a priority
-[X] Arrange a meeting with von Trier after our upcoming excursion so we can pick up the vampire remains in person.
-[X] Arrange a meeting with von Trier after our upcoming excursion so we can pick up the vampire remains in person.
[X] Arrange a meeting with von Trier after our upcoming excursion so we can pick up the vampire remains in person
OK, looks like we are warning Lara as well.
Fair, but I wouldn't bet on the Library being incompetent or unfamiliar with the white court.
As far as I recall we have crown backed confirmation that the library hasn't been subverted and decent but not crown sourced information that the US government is not wholly owned by any particular supernatural power even if it is heavily influenced in various areas by them.
Coming into this cold the library seems like exactly the sort of thing the whamps would subvert, especially if they could get in early and make the argument that they're mortals with special powers instead of something "other". It had the benefit of being essentially true too, since they're humans with extra parts instead of something fundamentally changed. At which point the court would basically be in charge of the immune system that would typically oppose them.
The fact that they aren't suggests to me that the library has been successfully resisting them with varying levels of effectiveness for its entire history. They clearly have sharp limits on how far that goes, but it still had to happen.
So that's the Black, Red, Jade and White Court, Outsider puppets and Fomor all capable of and actively using technology whether that be to steal State Secrets apparently (White/Black/Red) as Direct methodologies of attack or influence Gathering (Jade) a trap to draw people into they can turn them into weapons or food (Pathfinders/Fomor) or spreading Pro Extinction propaganda (Nemesis).
So possible course of action.
1.) In the sky a thousand eyes.
2.) Technology Excellency
3.) Fuck off powerful supercomputer either ordinary or Invention or Apparatus to plug IRIS into.
in my mind this will allow us to be significantly more proactive or at very least more able to give people who can be legally and distinctly proactive on these fronts more information more quickly because man that's a lot of beings that just eat people actively fucking the infrastructure of the modern world and reaping the benefits in the lives untold amounts of regular people.
So possible course of action.
1.) In the sky a thousand eyes.
2.) Technology Excellency
3.) Fuck off powerful supercomputer either ordinary or Invention or Apparatus to plug IRIS into.
in my mind this will allow us to be significantly more proactive or at very least more able to give people who can be legally and distinctly proactive on these fronts more information more quickly because man that's a lot of beings that just eat people actively fucking the infrastructure of the modern world and reaping the benefits in the lives untold amounts of regular people.
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Arc 13 Post 47: Wizard in the Wind
Wizard in the Wind
14th of February 2007 A.D.
"Thank you for the warning, I shall see to it that this incursion is dealt with appropriate severity." There's something about Lara's voice, her choice of words, it's not that she's less emotive, anger still rings loud and clear, but it all sounds crisper and more purposeful. There's no reflexive warmth to it, that's it. You knew it was bullshit and she knew, you knew it was bullshit, but she still did it the most time you spoke and one could hardly expect otherwise. A vampire of the White Court not trying to get under someone's guard socially would be like a cat not rubbing itself all over the furniture. And there's Lara sounding a lot more tiger than cat. Something for later.
The Library itself is a lot more straightforward. Yes, they will hang on to a piece of the corpse to divine by. No, there hasn't been any indication of people compromised in DC, but it's early days yet and tricky at that since Homeland Security are new and 'unused to how things are done' which is to say testy about their jurisdiction and people. Von Trier does not say any of the words, she doesn't have to.
"And here I thought Homeland Security just had a worryingly broad remit to spy on us..." you sigh.
Dad had taken the news the way he takes all bad news, resolved and ready to help. Harry on the other hand looks like he's about ready to fly to DC, though you can't say his concerns are entirely unwarranted. He doesn't find the idea that some of the Library's agents like Von Trier could be full wizards particularly comforting which...
Also something for later.
***
The six of you make your way back to the blasted plains under the swirling haze of ashen breath, the groans of living mountains no less mournful though thankfully none of them seem inclined to turn their attention to the interlopers... in the same black and silver car that had carried you around Wales freed from having to pretend it is at all concerned with such mundane details as cracks in the ground, soot everywhere and chasms spewing steam and fire.
Lost 3 Essence -> Now at 7/8 (Open the Way and Carriage of the Ankou)
Dad looks like he's fighting the urge to tell Lydia to put her head back in the vehicle so hard you and other-you, almost burst into giggles just looking at each other, but before anyone's power gives out Lydia jumps in her seat and swats at her face between her eyes. "That feels like Tiffany, but deeper, more complex, a stairway descending down and down into the marrow of the world, but I rather suspect it shan't be easy getting there..." she motions to the peak that is Embermane, to the very top. If you're going to put bugs on someone might as well be on their person I guess.
"I'll handle this," your father says quietly getting out of the car on the other side. For a long moment he just stands there, looking up at the mountain incarnate until its sixteen eyes are fixed on him then in a strong clear voice: "I am Michael Amoracchius's bearer and I would have words with you Old One."
"What words?" the voice of the spirit is like the sound of an avalanche roaring down hill.
"True ones," in one smooth motion your father draws the sword, ringing in clear tones of steel and drives into the earth, sanctifying his own words that none mortal nor immortal might doubt them. "I and those of my company have no quarrel with you, only with the ones who harmed you. We would break their works and undo their will. Know that there may yet be eyes in their service upon this domain. We would see those eyes blinded."
There's no nod, no words of acknowledgement, the fiery eyes just close to open on the other side of the mountain.
"Now what?" Sophia asks.
"Now we climb," Dad answers, but Harry says what might be the most worrying words a wizard can say.
"I want to try something..."
Something that might require me to catch you? you want to tease him but don't. It's fun watching Harry do magic.
Swirling his staff through the air above his head he calls in time with the motion: "Ascendere Fieri!"
The first thing you notice is a ripple in the air right above his head then a tugging at his arms and back that grows stronger in time with tighter and tighter circles until, about six seconds after the start his feet leave the ground.
"Oh..." Sophia claps. "It's like a hot air balloon only with an envelope of force instead of string and canvas."
"How are you planning to steer it?" You call up, rising in turn, though not too fast.
For a moment you think that horizontal movement is not a solved problem yet, but then he takes one hand off the staff and waves a second spell into the first: "Vento Servitas."
As mechanisms of flight go it's not sleek or elegant and probably not as safe as many wizards would prefer they be, but for someone as young as Harry you have no doubt it's a coup.... even if it isn't something he can use around Chicago. Thus floating and flying, by will and by magic the six of you end up about three quarters of the way up Embermane's stony flank looking at half a dozen strange black stone buds. Looking more closely you realize those are in truth closed wings closed up tight and what you had taken for stone is in fact... "Silver, spirits of tarnished silver, the Fallen would have an affinity with those given the nature of their vessels. On the one hand they are fast enough to get the news to their mistress I bet, but if that is all they do I'll eat one of those boulders down there."
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 17/18 (Occult Excellency)
"I could heal them of their bonds raise them up," your other self notes.
"That's going to open you up to..." Harry looks to Dad. "Does the Church still have her Coin?"
"The disposition of coins once recovered is not shared with the Knights," he answers and not for the first time you wonder why the people with the literal holy swords are not in charge of managing the whole effort.
How do you deal with the tarnished silver spirits?
[] Sophia tries to perform Break the Bonds on them
[] Discorporate them before they can react
[] Consume them, leave Lasciel nothing to guess at in the aftermath of this plot
[] Write in
OOC: A reminder that Harry is also improving his repertoire and not always in the direction he did in canon since he has new inspiration.
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@DragonParadox to be clear - this is an independent spirit bound by Lasciel to serve as a lookout and messenger, correct? I am inclined to try to subvert them.
On Harry's flight - nice to see him doing groundbreaking research. Is he using this like we discussed?
EDIT: Also, totally forgot Lara is in the process of getting enlightened. Damn, this probably should have figured into my decision-making.
On Harry's flight - nice to see him doing groundbreaking research. Is he using this like we discussed?
EDIT: Also, totally forgot Lara is in the process of getting enlightened. Damn, this probably should have figured into my decision-making.
As of right now he literally built a hot air balloon out of force bubbles, though the above is something he considered as a potential upgrade. He is young enough (and enough of a SF fan to be able to visualize it).
Oh, damn. Huh, we should either pay to get him enrolled in MIT or in one of our Courts' universities. How do physics courses compare in the Courts and on Earth? On one hand, ours should be more broad, because it would incorporate some version of motonic science and understanding of magic into it. On the other, we don't have at least some key technologies, like normal locks, so there's that. Nuclear physics might be more advanced, due to our radioactive dragon population, but astrophysics is surely going to be very different, and certain stuff would not be known.
We should probably sponsor a couple of agents enrolling into leading world universities to study.
Physics courses have built-in sorcery concepts in the Five Courts because that is part of physics so they are quite divergent.
@DragonParadox would Mastery of Alchemy allow for the creation of exotic matter via transmutation? I imagine that if the material isn't actually capable of existing the experiment would fail and render any material you tried to transmute into slag if you're lucky possibly insanely radioactive Goo if you're not. Demon Core element zero edition.
Then again matter to antimatter transmutation despite being a literal one-to-one process would almost guarantee Annihilation unless you were in perfect conditions to perform that ritual.
Then again matter to antimatter transmutation despite being a literal one-to-one process would almost guarantee Annihilation unless you were in perfect conditions to perform that ritual.
A master alchemist can make anything that exists in nature even if it is rare so like ultra-heavy artificial elements? Sure. Anti-matter, only if you can somehow get him to interact magically with one of those very short lived anti-hydrogen atoms. Making elements that flat out cannot exist in nature? That is beyond the scope of mortal magic.
Oh I wasn't suggesting that Alchemy could create something that couldn't exist but rather if The Alchemist had a theory about an exotic material that has X and X features and based on their math and understanding should exist and then tried to transmute it. If they were mistaken they would probably die nearly instantly if they were lucky and over the course of a week and a half if they weren't.
In a successful scenario an exotic matter that is hypothesized to exist successfully being transmuted would be like finding aluminum or some other elements that just hasn't been refined or processed yet rather than creation of something new.
It is insanely cool that a master Alchemist could transmute anything under the sun as long as it actually could exist I'm loving it.
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Im not saying that the Library are incompetent or unaware of the Whites; if they have formal relations with the White Council and know about the Black Court, they do kinda have to know who arranged their fall, pretty much by definition.
I am saying that unless we outright tell them, they have no reasonable way of knowing that the White Court got a heads up from Molly, as opposed to White Court contacts in other parts of the US government or the supernatural.
This government building with a Blampire in the wall wasnt run by the Library after all, and getting to go in requires interfacing with govt agencies the Library does not wield control over, and officials who talk to other people in the government and outside it, like to the press and (what they think are) foreign spy agencies.
And the White Court does have influence in places and parts of the US that the Library does not.
Also, Lara Raith is True Venatori.
That means we can reasonably expect a certain amount of enlightened self-interest with regards to certain threats.
And given that the White Court was responsible for the fall of the Black, its safe to involve them here
COMMENTARY
Hmm. Molly rolls 7 sux on Per + Occult(Occult is Key for Molly), beating Lara's Cha + Subterfuge by 1.
A little surprised Molly doesnt activate All Things Betray when dealing with Lara by default for the Perception buffs; lady is tricky enough to warrant it.
Lydia rolls 5 (legendary) successes on her Preternatural Awareness when she only needed 1.
Not bad.
Didnt realize Lydia's partywagon could drive into the NeverNever as well. Nice to be rich and connected.
Well, we see both Rashid and Ebenezar fly in the series; Ebenezar uses a bigass boulder as a goblin glider, while Rashid has an actual flying carpet near the Outer Gates.
So Harry going for a magic airship isnt unprecedented, as long as there's nobody nearby to interfere with the magics.
Spirits of tarnished silver?
Not demons, so as far as Im aware they do not have any intrinsic sympathies towards the Fallen and their hosts.
Especially if they were bound to this task.
1) Harry didnt finish formal high school.
He has a GED.
2) He doesnt have the time or frankly the inclination to go back to university.
There's been a major war ongoing for the last five years, and he's an officer in the wizard army. Nor is he willing to leave Chicago either.
Part of the reason for the Internet hookup is to give him easier access to information and education.
And what he doesnt have the time to read, Bob does.
3) We have SUTRAs hooked up to the Internet.
It goes without saying that they are hoovering up, among other things, educational curricula and publications by the petabyte for whenever Molly or her clones goes back to Sanctuary.
Thats one of the reasons I made sure all her clones could go back to Sanctuary on their own; everytime they do so, they can take a packet of information with them.
We have antimatter production in thunderstorms.
NASA's Fermi Catches Thunderstorms Hurling Antimatter into Space - NASA
Scientists using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before.
www.nasa.gov
- Location
- Germany
Um, What?
VOTE
[X] Sophia tries to perform Break the Bonds on them
These arent demons, just bound spirits. Like the iron elementals we encountered in Yomi Wan.
Break The Bonds breaks any geases, magical or mental controls that a Denarian might have put on them, freeing them to use their own free will and make their own decisions.
This does help with Molly's reputation in the supernatural, and the willingness of neutral spirits to deal with her.
Also, Michael would hardly approve of pre-emptive murder.
Neither would Harry, for that matter.
=====
She was just passing a test by some Jade Court elder who she was trying to forge alliances in the East.
Im assuming she's done with that, one way or the other.
[X] Sophia tries to perform Break the Bonds on them
These arent demons, just bound spirits. Like the iron elementals we encountered in Yomi Wan.
Break The Bonds breaks any geases, magical or mental controls that a Denarian might have put on them, freeing them to use their own free will and make their own decisions.
This does help with Molly's reputation in the supernatural, and the willingness of neutral spirits to deal with her.
Also, Michael would hardly approve of pre-emptive murder.
Neither would Harry, for that matter.
=====
She isnt being enlightened.
She was just passing a test by some Jade Court elder who she was trying to forge alliances in the East.
Im assuming she's done with that, one way or the other.
Her last interlude she's undergoing paths of Enlightenment with a jade elder and forging alliances. I don't know if anything more is going to come out of those Dharma paths for a white vampire but she is in some respect being enlightened.
Enlightenment doesnt work that way even for kuejin, let alone for Whites.
Its just a test on the part of the Jade Court elder in question.
She's being tested on the Dharma assumably she has to be taught something for the test to be worth anything. Or it might be testing her grasp of a Dharma she's already learned at which point.
Like I said, different species of vampires work differently.
I dont think the Jade Court elder in this setting is under any misapprehension about the purpose of what they are doing; even kuejin require years of tutelage and practice to raise their Dharma.
Whamps and kuejin are fundamentally different types of being, and I dont expect a couple weeks in Tokyo would result in life-changing realizations for a Whampire, or the supernatural changes that happened to kuejin.
Even if it was at all possible in the first place.
Saulot did the whole studying with a kuejin arhat thing in World of Darkness, too.
Didnt result in enlightenment there either; he just learned a kueijin Discipline.
And Kindred are a lot more similar to kueijin than White Court vampires are.